SUNDAY
JULY 5
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 5:15 p.m. ET

This 1961 movie musical is one of the best film versions ever made of a Broadway show: the opening scene alone, in which co-directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins establish the New York City setting, and the warring street gangs of Jets and Sharks, through aerial photography and fluid choreography, is vibrant and bold. So is everything else here, especally the music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Natalie Wood stars as Maria, the young Puerto Rican girl whose love for city-born Tony threatens to incite a gang war. Co-stars include Rita Moreno and two young men who, three decade later, would resurface as supporting players on ABC’s Twin Peaks: Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn. And West Wide Story is only the first of three superb movie shown in succession tonight by TCM. The others: At 8 p.m. ET, the Marx Brothers in 1933’s subversively silly Duck Soup, followed at 9:30 p.m. ET by Charlie Chaplin’s brave 1940 satire of Adolf Hitler, The Great Dictator.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 7:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s World Cup Championship women’s final features the USA vs. Japan – the same two teams that have faced each other in the two previous major soccer finals, the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics. Japan won that most recent World Cup on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw in regulation and overtime, and the USA beat Japan 2-1 in the Olympics final a year later. Despite settling for silver at the Olympics, the Japanese squad is the defending champion for today’s match, and the USA’s last World Cup championship win was in 1999, which means the team hasn’t won it all in this century. But the USA played brilliantly against Germany to get to this point, and today’s game, a must-see TV event, ought to do a lot to popularize soccer even more in this country. And the USA really is on a defensive roll, having not allowed a single goal since the first half of this tournament’s opening match.

 
  
 
 

AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET

It hadn’t sunk in to me, until I rewatched Steven Spielberg’s 2001 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence yesterday, that William Hurt essentially played the same role in that movie that he’s playing in this series, 14 years later: an inventor of synthetic humans who cares deeply for his creations. Humans is a smart, captivating addition to the genre, and tonight, Hurt’s character gets a more prominent showcase – as he’s forced to accept an “upgrade” of his beloved early-prototype synthetic caretaker, and deal with a new model that’s more like a battery-powered Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Okay, so if you watched last week’s episode, I hope you realize why I was asking you to stick with this new show through its second episode. Dispatching of a major character that early in the series was a Psycho move – totally unexpected, and completely unsettling. So what happens now? Will the remaining investigators band together, or continue to fight over jurisdiction and direction? And is all what it seems – is that character even dead at all, or was it a cliffhanger intended to misdirect? Where they go next is very important – and that’s true of this Season 2 of True Detective as well. Vince Vaughn stars.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: This has been such a strong season for this show, and tonight’s season finale begins with our heroes trapped inside the lion’s den – or, at least, the witch’s gothic mansion. They’re fighting off demons, madness, spells, prophesies and transformational curses, in various combinations – and leading the charge is Eva Green as Vanessa Ives, whose own witchly powers are at the center of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. This series has an inventively creepy look to it, with the set design, photography and special effects all aiming to give you the creeps. And succeeding. And if you’re coming late to this series, Showtime is repeating all of Season 2, in sequence, beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET

In last week’s episode, one character was grounded after piloting a messed-up, drug-fueled bombing mission over Pakistan, another was waterboarded by Pakistani military insurgents, and a third, apparently, was executed as a political prisoner. Tough day – and here comes another one. I really enjoy this new dark comedy, especially the performances by Tim Robbins, Jack Black, Aasif Mandvi, Maribeth Monroe (as Robbins’ assistant, pictured with him) and, introduced last week, Carla Gugino as the ambitious wife of Robbins’ Secretary of State. And with two episodes under our belt, tonight’s episode three gives us something else to anticipate as well: What great, perfectly appropriate period rock song will be played over the closing credits? In the premiere, it was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.” Last week, it was John Lennon’s “Instant Karma.” Expensive songs to procure for a TV soundtrack – but, in this context, well worth it.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.