THURSDAY
OCTOBER 4
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS All Access, 3:00 a.m. ET

SHORT SUBJECT PREMIERE: First CBS launched the latest iteration of the 50-year-old Star Trek franchise, a year ago, by presenting its premiere episode of Star Trek: Discovery on the broadcast network before relegating all remaining episodes of the series on its pay-to-watch streaming site, CBS All Access. Now it’s doubling down on that “you get what you pay for” approach, offering even more new Star Trek adventures solely to its streaming site subscribers. Star Trek: Short Treks is a quartet of stand-alone episodes, to be unrolled monthly, each focusing on a different supporting or guest character from the Discovery universe, told in what CBS All Access is calling a “short story” format. The short story series opener, today’s “Runaway,” features Mary Wiseman as Tilly (pictured), a crew member previously (and briefly) showcased when she impersonated her evil counterpart in the Star Trek “mirror universe.”

 
  
 
 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

For this new, end-of-the-line season of The Big Bang Theory, my favorite plot thread so far is the blossoming flirtation between comic-store owner Stuart (Kevin Sussman) and his enamored, equally geeky employee Denise (Lauren Lapkus). The male-female interactions on this series have always been its sweet spot, and this new variation on the very familiar theme is proving to be no exception.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:30 p.m. ET

Last week’s Season 3 premiere was a clever, charming hour of comedy, and one that allowed star Ted Danson to play five roles – including (Cheers!) a bartender – while once again hitting reset on this show’s premise, plots and characters. This sitcom is so wildly unpredictable, and so novel in its approach, that it’s evolved into one of the best comedies on broadcast TV right now. Wait, that’s not enough praise. Make that: one of the best shows on broadcast TV right now. Wait, even that’s not enough. Change that to: The Good Place is one of the best shows on TV right now. Period.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Last year, this long-dormant sitcom returned to TV along with another long-dormant former hit sitcom, ABC’s Roseanne. That series is returning this season, but under a new name and without its former star, whose tweets and other behavior led to her dismissal from her own show. The stars of Will & Grace engaged in no such extracurricular controversies – and, thus, return for Season 2 tonight without incident, and with a new roster of guest stars lined up for year two of this reboot. That starts, with tonight’s season premiere, with the first of a recurring series of guest appearances by former Friends star David Schwimmer.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 9:30 p.m. ET

Last week’s Season 11 premiere, rebooting the series after a 20-year resting period, established that Candice Bergen’s Murphy Brown had come out of retirement to accept a new job as host of a cable news morning show. This week, Murphy dives back into the fray of covering the current White House administration by attending a White House press briefing – and getting there, in part, by wearing a disguise. And by confronting, through use of carefully edited news clips, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The episode’s title? “I (Don’t) Heart Huckabee.”

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.