WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 27
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Episode 9. Tonight’s installment is titled “A Disrespectful Loyalty,” and is loaded with drama, unexpected reveals, and emotional gut punches. That may sound like I’m issuing a warning, but quite the contrary. This episode covers  from May 1970 to March 1973, and includes both POWs finally returning from Vietnam after years of brutal captivity – and, at home, the presidential cancer known as Watergate. For a full review of tonight’s episode, see Alex Strachan’s TV That Matters. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

CYCLE PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. This is the 35th different contest for Survivor, and the desperation to find new ways to repackage the same old product no longer is wearing thin. It’s worn straight through. The competition for this new 2017 edition is set in Fiji, and the three teams starting out pitted against one another are, as the title suggests, heroes, healers and hustlers. If this alliterative approach to Survivor continues, I’ll tune back in for Vixens vs. Virgins vs. Vegans. But until then, you can pretty much count me out.
 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This is Season 4 for Empire. If you remember what happened in the cliffhanger last season, you’re in better shape than Lucious (Terrence Howard), who’s still suffering from amnesia. And Cookie (Taraji P. Henson sees his condition as she sees just about everything else: as an opportunity.

 
  
 
 

AT&T Audience Network, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight, Brady (Harry Treadaway) gets even more wound up, angry and determined. Considering that, in the past, he’s killed people by driving his car into a crowd of helpless victims, that’s a dangerous escalation indeed.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: The photography for this new CBS series pilot is way above average – but it’s not uncommon for a production company to invest lots of money in a pilot to sell it, then pull back both financially and artistically once the series begins. What’s most trustworthy about this series, for now, is the presence of David Boreanaz as the star. This guy has lived on TV, with one successful series after another, since co-starring in the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997.  During and after Buffy, he starred in his own spinoff, Angel, which lasted from 1999 to 2004. The next season, he was back with Bones, which ran until the end of last season – 12 years of another successful series. And now, after a few months to recharge, he’s back with SEAL Team. Expect his fourth hit in a row – especially since CBS can promote this show heavily, and has, in such proudly militant series as NCIS. For full reviews, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower and Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.
 
  
 
 

Sundance, 10:00 p.m. ET

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This six-part British miniseries import stars Joanna Froggatt, who engendered such love and sympathy as lady’s maid Anna Bates on PBS’s Downton Abbey. Here, she plays a schoolteacher who accepts a date with a handsome doctor, played by Ioan Gruffudd, then awakens convinced that she was raped. Liar begins as a he-said, she-said drama, but eventually shifts to something more mysterious.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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4197 Comments
 
 
This farewell page feels unusually personal for a recommendations site. What I appreciate most is the attention to habit: returning to shows, voices, and small details over time. That same kind of close listening matters in music practice too, where separating a full mix into parts can make hidden details easier to notice.
Jul 13, 2026   |  Reply
 
 
This closing note has a nice sense of memory and gratitude. I especially liked the way it treats television criticism as something personal rather than just a list of recommendations. It made me think about how much of media work is really about listening closely, saving small details, and returning to them later. I often do that with music practice as well, using simple tools like https://tunestems.com/ to separate parts and hear what is happening underneath the full mix.
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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.