FRIDAY
FEBRUARY 8
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Public Television, Check local listings

This weekend’s show sounds like an especially fascinating one. One of Bill Moyers’ guests is Susan Crawford (pictured), President Obama’s former special assistant for science, technology and innovation – and she explains that if Americans think they have the cheapest and fastest Internet speeds, they should think again. Compared to many other countries, the U.S. both favors and gouges the rich, and disregards and hampers the poor. Then, in a separate interview, journalist Nick Turse discusses the eye-opening facts he uncovered while investigating the Vietnam War for his new book, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. Moyers & Company airs from Friday to Sunday on local public TV stations; to find it in your local area, visit the BillMoyers.com website.
 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: As this Kiefer Sutherland series begins Season 2, the setting changes from the East Coast to the West, and former recurring guest star Maria Bello, playing the mother of another child with special abilities, continues to hang around with Sutherland’s Martin and his son, Jake, played by David Mazouz. This series has gotten more complex, with more subplots and antagonists, but that may not be enough to solidify its direction – or its audience. But if you stayed with this series throughout last season, here it comes again. Reach out and Touch.
 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s final two programs in this thoughtful series which has done a solid job examining some of William Shakespeare’s works, are the best of the bunch. First is former Doctor Who star David Tennant, who himself tackled the title role of Hamlet a few years ago, acting as the guide to Shakespeare’s most famous play of all. Two moments really stand out. One is when Tennant is given a look at the so-called “Bad Quarto,” the first surviving copy of Hamlet, and delights at the differences between that and later versions. (“To be or not to be,” he reads with undisguised excitement, “I there’s the point!”) The other is when Tennant sits down with another ex-Hamlet, Jude Law, and the two swap ideas, approaches and interpretations. Then, at 10 p.m. ET, veteran Shakespeare director Trevor Nunn deconstructs Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, with the passion and insight of a superbly committed professor. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

NEW TIME SLOT: Beginning tonight, Rock Center moves to Fridays – the unofficial graveyard for most series the networks no longer support, though this series may well find a home here. It’s certainly a good enough prime-time newsmagazine to deserve another chance. On NBC, though, being a show of quality seems to count against, not for, your chances for survival. Among tonight’s scheduled reports: Harry Smith visits the Game Show Network to chat with GSN’s Jeff Foxworthy, the host of The American Bible Challenge, and talk about that show’s unlikely success. It’s a good story – one that our own Ed Bark, in Uncle Barky’s Bytes, first reported last August. Holy scoop, Bark-man!
 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s show is as close as Maher gets to an all-star lineup. Julian Assange (pictured) is one of Maher’s guests tonight – and another is Tina Brown. You don’t need more than that to have a very vocal hour, but there’s also Martin Bashir, and more.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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3701 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.