Watch AMC's "Rubicon" -- And Watch It CLOSELY!
Since AMC got into the one-hour drama series business, it's made one masterpiece after another. One was "Mad Men," the other was "Breaking Bad," and both are still on the air. Starting Sunday night at 8 ET, they're joined by a third new series, a modern-day spy thriller called "Rubicon." Is it another TV triumph? Too early to tell. A TV show that should be watched? Most definitely... and very, very closely. (more)
Saturday, July 31, 2010
PERSONS UNKNOWN NBC, 8 p.m. ET Joe (Jason Wiles) had a tough time of it last week, being interrogated by his fellow townspeople to determine his role in the mysterious mass-abduction conspiracy. Tonight, he has an even tougher time of it. In a plot that sounds closer than ever to the classic 1968 miniseries The Prisoner, Joe is picked up by the village officials, pumped with hallucinatory drugs and interrogated, with hopes of altering his memories, behavior and personality. |
TCM, 8 p.m. ET In this 1955 John Sturges movie, Spencer Tracy plays a guy so tough, and so feared, he can take on his adversaries one-handed. And has to, because he happens to be one-armed. But, as he proves the first time he shoots someone, one-armed is better than unarmed. Ernest Borgnine co-stars. |
BEING HUMAN BBC America, 9 p.m. ET Tonight’s second episode of the new season has Annie falling in love with a human. Her relationship doesn’t have a ghost of a chance: She is, after all, a ghost herself. And the guy? He may turn out to be, like so many new suitors, less than human himself. |
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Showtime, 9 p.m. ET Mike Judge wrote and directed this 2009 dark comedy, in which a meek guy named Joel (Jason Bateman) has an unfulfilling job (running a small factory), a seemingly unfaithful wife (Kristin Wiig), and an attractive employee (Mila Kunis) whom he’d like to know better. His bartender (Ben Affleck) proposes a novel solution: hire a gigolo to seduce his wife, after which Joel can embark on his own affair relatively guilt-free. The plan doesn’t work, of course – but this movie does. Others in the cast include a pair of Simmons: J.K., from Oz and The Closer, and Gene, from, uh, KISS. |
SURROGATES Starz, 9 p.m. ET This 2009 movie plays with the same inhabit-an-alternate-body-and-world premise of Avatar, but much less successfully – though, for sake of comparison on a slow Saturday, it’s not without its own little pleasures. Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent investigating a murder in a machine-generated fantasy world where, in theory, no deaths should be “permanent.” The twist: In the world he’s investigating, the agent, and Rahda Mitchell as a fellow investigator, look as plastically attractive as they do in the accompanying picture. In “real life,” not so much. |
Sundance, 10 p.m. ET This 2006 movie was the little-seen follow-up film by director Steven Shainberg and screenplay adaptation author Erin Cressida Wilson, who teamed in similar capacities for 2002’s impressively quirky Secretary, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader in an unusually charged love story. This film takes “quirky” to a whole new level, as warned by its subtitle. Nicole Kidman stars as Diane Arbus, in a somewhat surrealistic drama that recounts her initial attraction to, and adoption of, photography as a career. Co-stars include Ty Burrell (of ABC’s Modern Family) as Allan Arbus, and Robert Downey, Jr., who – pre-Iron Man – plays Lionel Sweeney, a man with a wolfman-like hair condition. (Which means, for his condition, he needs lots of conditioner.) |
GOOD SPORTS: Saturday '30 for 30' marathon on ESPN Classic
DVD UPDATE: Out of nowhere, 'The Mothers-in-Law'
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NEW and RECOMMENDED
Can't find your favorites on DVD in stores? Turn to the internet. Online is where you'll find not-in-stores DVD releases of classics like the pioneering '40s sitcom The Goldbergs and 1983's prescient hostage-coverage TV movie "news report" Special Bulletin. Recent series, too -- Rufus Sewell's Eleventh Hour and Dylan McDermott's Dark Blue. You'll find subsequent seasons of shows discontinued in stores, along with vintage TV movies and miniseries you thought you'd never see again . . . CLASSICS TO CONSIDER Unauthorized TV DVD releases are a bad thing. They're often low quality. The sellers can be dodgy. They violate the legal rights of those who own the show. And they discourage official releases by diverting revenue into the hands of pirates. Now here's why I'm making an exception for The Nostalgia Merchant's two-set release of Amos 'n' Andy. The transfers from the sitcom's vintage film prints aren't bad. This particular video distributor has a 30-year track record. And it's that rare case where the show's ownership simply can't release an authorized version. There's just too much lingering controversy over this 1950s hit -- TV's first major network series with a black cast -- for rights-owning corporation CBS to go there . . . |













BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK 
EXTRACT
FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS
FOR BETTER OR WERTS
Though I'm a huge sports fan, there are still athletes and events I don't know anything about -- until I see films about them in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series. The Birth of Big Air just premiered in conjunction with the current X Games, and now I'm fascinated by high-flying BMX innovator Mat Hoffman, who reached astonishing heights in his Oklahoma backyard, but at astonishing cost. Intimate gems like this are ESPN's gift to us for its 30th anniversary, distinctive documentaries from smart directors with a passion for subjects both small and epic, and this weekend offers a great chance to catch up. A five-hour 30 for 30 marathon Saturday on ESPN Classic showcases the range and idiosyncrasy of these films, which often tell us as much about other aspects of life as they do about the games people play . . . 
Cable is pulling out some big guns this year to run head to head with the networks' traditional fall premieres. Established faves like Dexter and Sons of Anarchy return, joined by promising newcomers like Boardwalk Empire and Terriers. Cable even has a late-night talk show featuring some Irish comic named Conan. Here's a look at just a few of the cable arrivals announced for fall (and a couple coming early) . . . 







