MONDAY
AUGUST 7
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have completed their latest mega-documentary. This one, The Vietnam War, arrives on PBS next month: ten parts, eighteen hours, ten years in the making. Tonight, PBS provides a repeat look at an advance taste. And speaking of taste, look closely at the accompanying photo illustration, which is the central image chosen by Burns and Novick to embody, and promote, their documentary. Brilliant. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

In this second outing of this new summer series experiment from CBS News, Adriana Diaz provides a report on gun violence in Chicago. She spent a week there, mostly at street level, talking to members of gangs and crews there to understand the motivations for gun violence there, and the ways in which weapons enter the city and the underground marketplace.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

This new documentary, written and directed by Lisanne Skyler, is an unexpectedly personal take on the art world – specifically, Andy Warhol’s 1963-64 “sculptures” he made with assistant Gerard Malanga at the beginning of his wildly unorthodox career in the arts. They’re more like 3-D paintings, with silk-screened images recreating the image of a box of Brillo pads – and the history of one particular box has it being bought originally for $1,000 in 1969, and resold several times, including, earlier this decade, an auction haul of some $3 million. Yet the original owners used Warhol’s Brillo box as a coffee table, and, on at least one occasion, as a baby perch (see photo). That picture was taken in 1969, the year a young couple bought the box for $1,000. The baby in the photo? Lisanne Skyler, who grew up to make a Brillo Box of her own – this one, for HBO.

 
  
 
 

TNT, 11:00 p.m. ET

In this week’s episode, more of William Shakespeare’s (wholly imagined) private life and creative method is explored, as Will continues to collaborate with Alice, while Will’s wife, Anne, has joined him in London. With little else new on TV right now, Will continues to be a well-timed, smartly scheduled summer diversion – a midsummer night’s option, if not quite a dream.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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3697 Comments
 
 
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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.