MONDAY
JULY 8
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

For the second Monday in a row, TCM presents Carson on TCM, a series of 12-minute shorts, hosted by Conan O’Brien, presenting vintage Tonight Show interviews conducted by Johnny Carson. The fifth and final of tonight’s interviews, a 1973 visit with Tony Curtis at 8:48 p.m. ET, leads directly into TCM’s 9 p.m. ET telecast of Curtis’ 1959 hit comedy Some Like it Hot, also starring Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe (pictured). But those two aren’t represented in tonight’s earlier Carson chats. Instead, the night leads off at 8 p.m. ET by a 1976 interview with Doris Day, followed by talks with Charlton Heston (also from 1976), Chevy Chase (1986), and a favorite guest of Carson’s, Steve Martin (1979).

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Three years after Josh Fox explained and explored the issue of fracking in his 2010 documentary Gasland, and showed a resident lighting his contaminated tap water on fire, he’s back with a sequel. And this time, he travels across the country – stopping in Texas, Colorado, Arkansas and elsewhere, as well as his native Pennsylvania – to show how natural gas companies are using political influence, public relations, and lots and lots of money to continue and expand their practice of subterranean natural gas extraction. Each new segment of Gasland Part II brings another outrage – and at the end, when the focus becomes global, it also becomes downright scary. An important sequel to a movie about a subject of more interest than ever.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

Stephen King’s new hit TV series really is turning out to be the television equivalent of a summer beach read: It’s not too deep, not too dark, and easy to watch. And there’s a little bit of casting irony, as one of the stars, Dean Norris, already is shown breaking bad – quite fitting, since he costars on AMC’s Breaking Bad.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Jonathan Goodwin stars in this new import, which showcases his fascination with recreating and re-popularizing some of the magic and carnival tricks of old, from Houdini-style escapes to breaking and eating glass. He hangs from the top of a skyscraper, using only the number of fingers represented by a roll of a volunteer’s dice. Actually, it’s just one dice, which is a die – which is what he could do, if he’s not careful.

 
  
 
 

Syfy, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: My head spins, trying to figure out, with Syfy and USA shows, what’s a season finale, a midseason finale, or just another episode. Last week I got it wrong, prematurely identifying that night’s episode as the season ender. It’s actually tonight. I think. And if it’s the episode I think I previewed, it’s got a very clever ending, which puts our heroes on either side of an impenetrable barrier. Sort of like Under the Dome.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This new British import is another example of TV’s current fixation with single-crime limited series and extended stories, a mini-genre that, in essence, also includes Top of the Lake, The Killing and The Bridge. What distinguishes Broadchurch, initially, isn’t its plot or the way it’s unfurled. It’s the photography (one early shot is a very extended, complicated tracking shot, following a character as he walks through much of his small town and interacts with its citizens), and the two leading actors. Former Doctor Who star David Tennant plays a recent arrival in Broadchurch, a reassigned detective – and Olivia Colman plays the local officer whose promotion he has effectively stolen. Watch for them, and decide if you’re intrigued enough to stay.

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

The killer in this series keeps getting away with murder – and in increasingly ghoulish ways, designed to call attention to himself and his stated cause. And so far, it’s working. The media attention is building, as is the pressure for the temporarily teamed investigators – one from the U.S., the other from Mexico – to identify and find the murderer and solve the case.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET

Billy Wilder directed this 1944 film noir classic, and they don’t get much noir-er than this. Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson star as men who get caught in the web, or put in the deadly path, of a femme fatale played by Barbara Stanwyck. What a performance – and what a movie.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.