FRIDAY
MAY 17
2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Between Season 1 of this series, which premiered in 2016, and Season 2, which Amazon presents in a six-pack of superb TV today, a lot has happened. For one thing, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and star of both this television series and the play on which it is based, has become an internationally acclaimed success, thanks to her more recent TV creation, BBC America’s brilliant Killing Eve. This one-two punch of flawless, adventurous TV writing may well be the most audacious and impressive debut since Aaron Sorkin burst on the scene, in short order, with both ABC’s Sports Night and NBC’s The West Wing. But Sorkin never starred in those shows, while Waller-Bridge does indeed take on the central role in Fleabag. And here, too, she’s ridiculously accomplished. She plays a single woman with a complicated family life and an unstructured private life, and a particularly multilayered and believable relationship with her sister Claire, played with equal fire and depth by Sian Clifford. Season 2 of Fleabag zeroes in even more on relationships – between the sisters and their widower father, the father and his new girlfriend (the sisters’ godmother), and, this season, the family priest. Everybody’s a delight: Andrew Scott as the conflicted priest, Olivia Coleman as the abrasive godmother, and Bill Paterson as the father. (Paterson played the psychiatrist in the miniseries The Singing Detective, so he’s a personal treat to revisit here.)  And this season, the guest stars include Kristin Scott Thomas as a successful businesswoman and Fiona Shaw, one  of the supporting stars of Killing Eve (she plays spy boss Carolyn), as a therapist. If you’re new to Fleabag, binge on the six episodes of Season 1 before diving into Season 2. It’ll be TV time very, very well spent. Oh, and one last thing: Throughout Fleabag, Waller-Bridge, as an actor, does the best and most conspiratorial occasional side looks to the camera – breaking the fourth wall – in the history of television. Perfectly staged. Perfectly timed. Perfectly delivered.

 
  
 
 

Hulu, 3:00 a.m. ET

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new six-part adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller WWII novel, one of my favorite books as an impressionable teen reader, takes full advantage of the miniseries form to get deeper into the book – making it darker and more meaningful as it goes on, with the missions required to fly and the body count slowly but steadily rising. The young soldiers are mostly relatively fresh faces, including Christopher Abbott as Yossarian, but watch for certain officers who are played by scene-stealing consummate stars, such as George Clooney and Kyle Chandler. This Catch-22 shows fidelity not only to Heller’s absurdly comic dialogue, but to the increasing dread of wartime service. For my full review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, listen today on your local public radio station, or visit the Fresh Air website later this afternoon. And for reviews here on TVWW, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
  
 
 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s Season 6 premiere returned two actors whose characters’ fates were less than optimistic – Coulson had gone off to die, and Fitz was stranded in suspended animation in a far-flung corner of the universe. But though the actors returned, they were barely recognizable: Clark Gregg was playing not the affable Coulson, but a ruthless, murderous lookalike – and Fitz, played by Iain de Caesteker, concluded the episode by returning as Fitz, but he, too, was a much fiercer version of himself.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Among this week’s scheduled guests: returning (and always quotable) visitor Fran Lebowitz.

 
  
 
 

Sundance, 10:00 p.m. ET

MINISERIES CONCLUSION: I’ve adored this 10-part mini-miniseries (each episode is only 10 minutes long), and can’t wait for tonight’s conclusion. Last night’s installment, which had Tom (Chris O’Dowd) and Louise (Rosamund Pike) actually enjoying each other’s company after spending a particularly affable evening together, laid the groundwork for what just might be a hopeful ending. Or not. Either way, it’s been an unforgettably entertaining TV voyage. Kudos all around to the actors, to director Stephen Frears, and to writer Nick Hornby, all of whom contribute mightily.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.