THURSDAY
JULY 9
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ESPN, 8:00 a.m. ET

This has been a great year for Wimbledon tennis, with dramatic matches and much-anticipated face-offs occurring virtually every day. Today, that tradition continues with one match in particular in the women’s semifinals: top-seeded Serena Williams vs. No. 4 seed Maria Sharapova. These ladies had a very close match at the Australian Open earlier this year, but Sharapova hasn’t beaten Williams since 2004 – the year when a young Sharapova came out of nowhere to upset Williams in the Wimbledon finals. For today’s match, most experts are picking Williams, but one thing’s for sure: on court, there will be more screaming than in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and more grunting than in Beavis & Butt-head.


 

 
  
 
 

CW, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Dates really surprised me. From the title, and the network, I expected a reality show full of beautiful young twentysomethings. Instead, this series turns out to be much more mature, challenging, and original. In fact, it’s not a CW original at all, but a British import – of an anthology drama series from 2013. Two episodes are shown each Thursday this summer on CW, beginning with the first date between David and Mia (Will Mellor and, from Game of Thrones, Oona Chaplin). Each episode is like a two-character, one-act play – think of HBO’s In Treatment, which Dates most closely resembles.  Dates is created and written by Bryan Elsley, co-creator of the original British Skins, and Dates has that credible sense of rawness. In the opener, Mellor is tender and vulnerable, and Chaplin (pictured) – granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and great-granddaughter of Eugene O’Neill – is captivating. You want to see more of her Mia than just this half-hour dose. And you will, because some of the daters in Dates return, over the course of the series. Just not necessarily with the same companions. For a full review, see Ed Bark's see Uncle Barky's Bytes.

 
  
 
 

CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s installment is called Crimes and Cults – and if you think it’s just an excuse to revisit Charles Manson and his murderous cult from the early Seventies, the decade actually was a hotbed for serial killers and homicidal cultists. Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, the Zodiac Killer, Jim Jones (whose stunning mass suicide staging at Jonestown is pictured here), “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz, the Hillside Strangler – in this scary episode about disenfranchisement and dismemberment, the gang’s all here…

 
  
 
 

IFC, 9:00 p.m. ET

Parts 3 and 4. In tonight’s episodes, watch for a short but very attention-getting appearance by Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live, playing a train wreck of a jazz groupie. She commits to her scenes, and her characters, in a way that’s funny on its own – adding spark to this goofball spoof just when it needs a lift. Michael K. Williams stars.

 
  
 
 

Sundance, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: The new season of Rectify begins with a plot twist that throws the entire series in a different direction. And as with all directions this brooding, fascinating, Peabody-winning series has taken thus far, it’s unexpected, and quietly riveting. For a full preview, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes. Aden Young stars as the long-imprisoned, recently released former Death Row inmate.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.