MONDAY
FEBRUARY 4
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Every year, the impending arrival of the Academy Awards telecasts leads to the “Month of Oscars” tradition on TCM, where award-winning movies, in various categories, are crammed into the prime-time schedule (and beyond) all month long. Tonight, the festivities begin with one of the Sixties movies that helped changed the direction of cinema. Warren Beatty’s 1967 movie upped the ante for stylized violence, and anti-hero dramas, and idiosyncratic filmmaking, all in one stylish burst. Beatty and Faye Dunaway star, Gene Hackman made his mark, and the music, photography, editing and story line, in this period story about Depression-era bank robbers, all screamed modern.
 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Alex Gibney’s documentary literally gives voice to the deaf, retracing and recounting the story of deaf boys who were sexually abused while in the care of and supervision of a Catholic priest – and following their story to the highest levels of the Vatican. The tone of Mea Maxima Culpa is ominous, but never slips into melodrama – and the reporting appears to be thorough, fair and careful throughout.
 
  
 
 

TNT, 9:00 p.m. ET

Remember, as Ed Bark recently reminded us, this is one of the episodes in which Larry Hagman records his final scenes as J.R. Ewing. It’s a legacy, and TV character icon, that stretches back 35 years. Attention should be paid.
 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET

What we have here is failure… of nothing. Everything in this 1967 movie is just right, from Strother Martin’s classic “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate” line to Paul Newman’s complicated, yet thoroughly charming, performance as a rebellious convict.
 
  
 
 

TNT, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: David E. Kelley and co-executive producer Bill D’Elia have been making TV a long time, and most of it has been terrific: Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal, Harry’s Law. They even worked together on Kelley’s Chicago Hope, a medical series that premiered the same week as ER – and here they are again, almost 20 years later, with a new medical series, this one based on a novel by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The standout in the series pilot is Alfred Molina, as the no-nonsense chief of surgery, but this one, at least initially, feels a lot more stiff, and a lot less imaginative, than most Kelley series to date. So give it a look, and decide its prognosis for yourself. For a full review, see Eric Gould's Cold Light Reader.
 
  
 
 

CBS, 11:35 p.m. ET

Two words: Chris Christie. How will Letterman greet, and treat, New Jersey's controversial yet very popular governor? Tune in and see.
 
  
 
 
 
 
Read and add comments HERE for today's Best Bets!
 
 
 
 
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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.