FRIDAY
AUGUST 31
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: In the movies, Tom Clancy’s character of Jack Ryan has been played, over the decades, by Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Chris Pine. That listing is alphabetical, not chronological or qualitative – and today, thanks to Amazon, Jack Ryan becomes a TV character, too, played by former The Office co-star John Krasinski. Series co-creator Carlton Cuse, whose post-Lost credits include Bates Motel, is adept at deepening, and finding new approaches to explore, familiar material – but the spy genre is tricky, so we’ll see. For full reviews, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: If you’ve just watched “Season 5” of this long-running, very popular baking competition series on PBS, you might be confused by the fact that a “Collection 5” pops up, just weeks later, on Netflix. But it’s two entirely different seasons – and, in some ways, different shows. The Season 5 just completing its U.S. run on public TV was a vintage season, never before televised in the States, featuring fan favorite judge Mary Berry, who was with The Great British Bake Off (its original U.K. title) from 2010 to 2016. But this new “Collection 5,” imported by Netflix, is a season of the show’s post-Berry incarnation, with Paul Hollywood as the major returning familiar face. Viewers in the U.K. have complained that the show has lost much of its charm without Berry – but U.S. Netflix viewers, beginning today, can decide for themselves.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This Netflix series, starring Jason Bateman, is back for Season 2. I liked Bateman’s performance last season, and the show’s setting, but not its plotting. It seems like Bateman’s character was envisioned as a Saul Goodman-type “talk his way out of anything” guy – but in too many situations, the only way for him to end the scene credibly was as a corpse. Maybe this Season 2 run will correct that problem, but maybe not.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.