FRIDAY
JUNE 21
2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

As science geeks turned heroic S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Fitz and Jemma (Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge) have fallen in love, sworn to be together forever, then barely been together at all since, as their respective fates have thrown them into alternate universes and timelines. At the climax of last week’s show, they finally were about to be reunited – but as prisoners of aliens aboard a hostile spaceship. This week, the long-separated duo finally gets to share the screen – but it’s in a series of flashbacks, captivity sequences and alternate reality scenarios that really puts the characters, and the actors, through their paces.

 
  
 
 

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s series premiere of Jett had Carla Gugino, as former master thief Daisy “Jett” Kowalski, pulled back into a life of crime by a criminal mastermind – played by Giancarlo Esposito, who’s already proven his criminal-mastermind chops by starring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul as Gus Fring. In Jett, he dispatches Jett to steal a diamond ring in the safe of another crime boss – which she accomplishes, with help from an accomplice. But at the very end of the premiere episode, before she can return safely, Jett is apprehended by her robbery “victim,” tied up, and forced to watch helplessly as he murders Jett’s accomplice before her eyes, then threatens the life of her young daughter if Jett doesn’t shift allegiance to him. Then he takes the diamond ring she and her late partner had stolen from him, and inserts it in her mouth to seal the deal. Meet the new boss: same as the old boss. And tonight, the Jett story resumes, having just shifted unexpectedly into a higher, more dangerous gear.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Bill Maher headlined his first show for HBO 30 years ago, in 1989. Then came his 1993 Comedy Central series Politically Incorrect, which moved to ABC late-night four years later. Until 2001, that is, when Maher made a post-9/11 remark that ABC considered so politically incorrect, the network fired him the following year. But the year after that, Maher was hired by HBO, where Real Time has been presented ever since. And tonight, he and his guests get to opine, comically and otherwise, on the non-testimony by Hope Hicks, the almost-attack on Iran ordered then reversed by President Trump, and whatever else happens in the news between the time you read this and Maher hosts his live show. After all these years, it’s still called Real Time for a reason.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 11:00 p.m. ET

James Corden just finished a strong week of shows broadcast from his former home town of London, where one of his show’s regular features, put on prime display, was his practice of bringing out each night’s celebrity guests at the same time, seated on the same couch and forced to both interact and listen. Tonight, you can watch the long-running U.K. talk show from which Corden cribbed the idea: The Graham Norton Show. Corden was a guest on that show in 2014, sitting on the same couch as Katy Perry and Sir Paul McCartney, and clearly relished and remembered the special chemistry he and McCartney quickly developed. (Years later, Corden would drive McCartney around Penny Lane for last year’s Late Late Show with James Corden programs from England.) But Corden owes Norton for this concept – and here’s the latest example of the original article, with guests including Sir Ian McKellen (who was a guest on Corden’s show this week as well) and Madonna – whose chemistry, or lack of it, with McKellen is in itself quite entertaining.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.