THURSDAY
JULY 5
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET

Give this new ABC series some points for honesty, at least where its title is concerned. One of the creators and one of the executive producers of ABC’s Castle (respectively, Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller) have teamed to create this new series, which has an eager civilian paired with, and shadowing, a veteran cop who’s less than thrilled by the arrangement. With Castle, it was a male novelist paired with a woman detective. In Take Two, it’s a Hollywood actress paired with a male detective, but otherwise it’s the same playfully antagonistic, simmeringly romantic dynamic. Eddie Cibrian plays the cop, and Rachel Bilson the actress looking to rejuvenate her career. How tired is this premise? This is the third episode, and the first time I’ve noted it – and I’m doing that only because, on the day after the July 4 holiday, it’s such a dreadfully slow TV night.

 
  
 
 

CNN, 11:00 p.m. ET

For the next few days in this space, Bianculli’s Best Bets is going to be unabashedly self-serving – and recommend one TV documentary a night that features, well, Bianculli. My association with the CNN documentaries examining specific decades began with The Sixties, and has continued for every 10-year period of television covered in the opening installments since then. This Sunday, the newest entry, the opening-day TV episode of The 2000s, premieres – and as a buildup, on this slow summer TV post-holiday stretch, CNN is presenting nightly reruns of most of the other offerings in this series: The Nineties on Saturday, The Eighties tomorrow, and, tonight, The Seventies. Each entire series is excellent – I say that not because I’m in the openers, but in spite of that fact – but, selfishly, I’m noting only the repeats of the opening, TV-themed episode. (For other installments each evening, just keep watching.) Tonight’s episode, “TV Gets Real,” covers everything from All in the Family and M*A*S*H to the miniseries phenomenon of Roots (pictured).

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.