TUESDAY
APRIL 7
2020

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Part 1 of 2. This two-part, four-hour documentary has Ken Burns as its primary executive producer, and is based on the book by physician and New Yorker writer Siddhartha Mukherjee. The other name that stands out, to me, is that of its top-listed TV writer, Geoffrey C. Ward, who has been a major contributor to most of Burns’ best nonfiction miniseries, The Civil War included. (By the way? Want to feel old? This fall, PBS’s The Civil War turns 30.) Anyway, The Gene is absurdly ambitious as science documentaries go: It aims not only to tell the origin and history of genetic research, and explore the moral and ethical questions posed by the ability to alter the genetic codes of human beings, but also to tell the very personal story of one family – and, in particular, one little girl – whose life could be altered for the better, and for her entire lifetime, by a daring new form of scientific manipulation. And it all works: the family steals your heart, the history fascinates, and the genetic science, through clear writing and elaborate animation, is made shockingly accessible. Now, finally, I know what I was doing, all those decades ago at Nova High School, tracing the genetic variations of fruit flies with vestigial wings. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

Pop TV, Comedy Central, 8:00 p.m. ET

SERIES FINALE: The finale of this engagingly weird comedy is shown tonight not only on Pop TV, which has ended up being its too-obscure TV home base, but also is simulcast on Comedy Central. See it – and then go back and revel in the rest of the series, based on the comic premise that a wealthy family falls on super-hard times, then remembers that one family member once gifted another with the purchase of a small town with an absurd name: Schitt’s Creek. They end up relocating there, like the former Manhattanites of Green Acres, and learning a lot about life, the town, and one anotherStars include Second City TV alumni Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, and Levy’s son Dan Levy, whose character, David, is scheduled to be married tonight, to Noah Reid’s Patrick. Watch and enjoy; no paddle required. For more on Schitt's Creek, see Mike Hughes' Open Mike.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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3697 Comments
 
 
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Mar 29, 2026   |  Reply
 
Dave Bianculli
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Mar 21, 2026   |  Reply
 
Dave Bianculli
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Mar 22, 2026
 
 
 
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Mar 21, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
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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.