SUNDAY
AUGUST 5
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s new installment of The 2000s is called The Financial Crisis, and it’s an episode to watch very, very closely, while remembering George Santayana’s warning that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And that’s not just referring to the inevitable repeat showings of this hour on CNN.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Part 5. Part of this episode includes some unforgettably dramatic sex scenes, with more context and subtext than such scenes usually are given. But another part includes the very odd spectacle of the town’s young women, including Amma, take part in a poetic-license “recreation” of a Confederate-era story (pictured) as creepily sexist and subversive as anything in The Handmaid’s Tale. And the entire festival is held on the grounds of Adora’s plantation-style estate, which only adds to the creepiness.

 
  
 
 

CNN, 10:00 p.m. ET

This new CNN History of Comedy installment is called Gone Too Soon, and talks about the comedians who died young enough to have fans wondering what they might have said and done in the years and decades to come. Surely, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Robin Williams will be part of this hour – as will one late comic, already announced as part of the program, the lesser-known Mitch Hedberg (pictured), whose memorable one-liners included: “Rice is great if you’re really hungry and want to eat 2000 of something.”

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET

In one of the episodes that remain for Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest disguised-correspondent prank exercise, among his targets is Sarah Palin, whom he interviewed in the guise of one of his new show’s alter ego characters, Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D. (pictured). Palin already has complained, charging that Cohen duped her by pretending to be a wounded military veteran. Cohen has countered that his Ruddick character was in a motorized scooter (not, as Palin recounted, a wheelchair), and that, to quote his subsequent blog post about Palin, “I did NOT say I was a war vet. I was in the service – not military, but United Parcel…” I’ll keep watching this show, and eagerly awaiting this interview…

 
  
 
 

HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET

What news do you most hope John Oliver will decide to cover tonight in his weekly recap? For me, it’s LeBron James (pictured)… fingers crossed.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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Dave Bianculli
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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.