SATURDAY
AUGUST 9
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

MGM HD, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 1970 movie is a comedy romp very much of its time – a prototypical “blaxploitation” movie that isn’t really exploitive at all – just taking conventions of both buddy cop movies and comedy romps, handing them to an almost entirely African-American cast, and setting the whole thing in Harlem at the very end of the Sixties. The on-location photography alone, capturing a world and a time not often documented by mainstream cinema, makes this film, directed and co-written by Ossie Davis, worth seeing. But mostly, watch it for the performances. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques, as the sarcastic cops on the case, are sharply funny, as is Calvin Lockhart as the scheming con-man “Reverend” who’s pushing a “back-to-Africa” travel scam to the trusting, poor Harlem residents. And Judy Pace, in a small but indelible role, subdues a white cop assigned to guard her in a way that I still remember, quite fondly, almost 45 years later. And there’s more: Redd Foxx plays a junk dealer, in a role that predates and prefigures his Sanford & Son role by two years, and Galt MacDermot provides the jaunty music, only three years after doing the same for the seminal Sixties rock musical, Hair.

 
  
 
 

IFC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight, on Starz, is the premiere of Outlander, a period costume drama purporting to provide romance and battle scenes in a Scottish setting. But if you want the real deal, and a better viewing experience, watch this 1995 movie, starring Mel Gibson as 13th-century Scottish warrior William Wallace, who painted himself like an inebriated football fan to oppose the British forces who were oppressing Scotland the way they would later oppress the American colonies.

 
  
 
 

Starz!, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This isn’t a recommendation, just an observation: This new Starz series, based on the series of books by Diana Gabaldon, has gotten more advance press than any TV show since the Breaking Bad finale. Don’t expect it to measure up to that (what can?), but here it is, starring Caitriona Balfe as Claire Randall, the WWII nurse who is propelled back in time to 18th-century Scotland. Even at TVWW, we’ve given Outlander its share of virtual ink: Read Donna Plesh’s interview with Gabaldon in Talking Television, and catch Ed Bark’s review of the new TV series in Uncle Barky’s Bytes.

 

 
  
 
 

Sundance, 9:00 p.m. ET

This 1991 movie caught the national zeitgeist back in 1991, with women moviegoers, especially, reveling at the take-no-prisoners, take-no-nonsense attitude of feisty female fugitives played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. Oh, and one other thing about this movie that caught the zeitgeist: Brad Pitt, in a brief but star-making turn as a sort of road-trip boy toy.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This new Cinemax series already premiered, last night, on Cinemax – but it’s noteworthy that, shortly before the show’s official premiere, big-brother cable network HBO decided The Knick was good enough to showcase to its viewers as well. So if you didn’t watch episode one of The Knick last night on Cinemax, you can catch it again tonight at 10 ET on HBO. Or, if you’re impatient, you can also watch it tonight at 9 ET, on Cinemax. Clive Owen stars. For a full review, see Uncle Barky’s Bytes, and listen to my review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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3695 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.