Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is vast. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, June 13 – 19. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
DEADLY FRIEND (1986) 6:15 p.m. on TCM. Two years after ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, filmmaker Wes Craven released this artificial intelligence fable about a young computer wiz (Michael Sharrett) who implants a microchip in the brain of his injured teenage neighbor (Kristy Swanson). The chip is meant to save her life – and it does, but it puts the lives of others at risk. (The story is based on a Diana Henstell novel.) In her 1986 review for DailyExpertNews, Caryn James praised the film’s “unpredictable goofiness.” She called it “a witty horror story, a grandson of ‘Frankenstein’ who plays the conventions of recent teen horror films and pays homage to the classic starring Boris Karloff.”
AMERICAN MASTERS: BRIAN WILSON—LONG PROMISED WAY 9pm on PBS (check local listings). Reflecting the deep influence of Beach Boys singer-songwriter Brian Wilson, this documentary features interviews with musical figures as diverse as Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins (who died in March) and classical music director Gustavo Dudamel. Those interviews and many others, including those with Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Don Was and Al Jardine, accompany an extended conversation between Rolling Stone magazine editor Jason Fine and Wilson, who drive together through Los Angeles and explore Wilson’s life and discuss career. †
EIGHTH CLASS (2018) and LADY BIRD (2017) 5:45 PM and 7:25 PM on Showtime. Here’s a double feature with enough coming-of-age awkwardness to fill a few college-ruled composition books. “Eightth Grade”, from the comic book and filmmaker Bo Burnham, follows a highly online adolescent (played by Elsie Fisher) who navigates her last week of high school in a suburb; “Lady Bird”, by actress and filmmaker Greta Gerwig, follows a high school senior (Saoirse Ronan) who balances school drama (in multiple senses) and a complicated relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf) in the suburbs of Sacramento, California. holds. early 2000s.
Thursday
THE OLD MAN 10pm on FX. Jeff Bridges, a longtime old soul (see “True Grit”, “The Big Lebowski” and “Crazy Heart”), fits the title role of this new series perfectly – although he is not often so imposing. He plays Dan Chase, a former CIA agent who left the agency a long time ago. When we meet him, he is gray and living off the net. But his past catches up with him, as pasts usually do, and he is hunted down by an FBI director (John Lithgow). Amy Brenneman and Alia Shawkat also star alongside Bridges, in his first regular role in a series.
Friday
GREAT PERFORMANCE AT THE MET: RIGOLETTO 9pm on PBS (check local listings). Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher moves Verdi’s “Rigoletto” from Renaissance Italy to Weimar Berlin in this version of that dark opera in three acts. The production, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera early this year, stars baritone Quinn Kelsey and soprano Rosa Feola starring the jester Rigoletto and his beloved daughter Gilda, conducted by Daniele Rustioni. Anthony Tommasini’s review for The Times was positive, with some caveats. “If it wasn’t entirely convincing to shift the setting of the opera from Renaissance Italy to 1920s Berlin, this was a detailed, dramatic staging, full of insights into the characters,” wrote Tommasini. Rustioni, he added, “led a sleek, transparent performance that balanced urgency and lyricism.”
WATERGATE: HIGH CRIME IN THE WHITE HOUSE 9 p.m. on CBS. It was through the mouth of CBS reporters, including Walter Cronkite, Lesley Stahl, and Dan Liever that many Americans learned of the developments in the Watergate scandal—and of the infamous break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, which took place 50 years ago. week. This new feature-length documentary about the events uses the many images in the CBS archives. It also features new interviews with Stahl, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, FBI investigator Angelo Lano, and others, including Hugh W. Sloan Jr., a treasurer of President Nixon’s reelection commission who was a key source of information for Woodward. and Bernstein.
Saturday
ABOUT THE UNIVERSE (2007) 8 p.m. on HBO Signature. Paul McCartney turns 80 on Saturday. Consider tipping your hat (or your mop hair) to him by revisiting this weird jukebox musical by Julie Taymor, which chronicles the visually lavish love story between a Liverpudlian dude (Jim Sturgess) in search of his father. and a young American activist (Evan Rachel Wood) is laced with Beatles songs. It’s a “phantasmagoria,” Stephen Holden wrote in his review for The Times. “Somewhere around its midpoint, ‘Across the Universe’ captured my heart,” Holden wrote, “and I realized that falling in love with a movie is like falling in love with another person. Imperfections, however noticeable, become endearing quirks when you once you fell.”
Sunday
JUNE: A GLOBAL CELEBRATION FOR FREEDOM at 8 p.m. on DailyExpertNews. Sunday is Juneteenth, and many networks have established programs to recognize the holiday. One of the highlights is this blowout concert, which is planned with the Roots; Earth wind and fire; Mickey Guyton; Robert Glasper; Yolanda Adams; Billy Porter; and many more artists. Questlove and producer, songwriter and instrumentalist Adam Blackstone are the music directors of the evening. Other Juneteenth related programming throughout the day includes: BET SPECIAL: THE RECIPE: JUNITIENTH at 1PM on BET; a Juneteenth episode of the family show YOUNG DYLAN at 7pm on Nick; and the 30TH ANNUAL TRUMPET AWARDS, honoring black artists and other figures (this year include actor Courtney B. Vance and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock), at 7 p.m. on Bounce TV.