CBS (Thurs., May 19, 8 p.m. ET)
B
Whoa! Déjà vu! We're back in "a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas." This film—consisting of two posthumously discovered stories by Rod Serling, the late master of the macabre—returns us to the Zone. The only difference is that James Earl ("This is CNN") Jones provides the narration.
In "The Theater" Amy Irving plays a woman who while watching vintage films at an old movie house begins seeing scenes from her own life up on the screen in black and white. Soon she's previewing her immediate future. It's not a pretty sight. For Irving, this puzzle of inexorable fate marks a return to her showbiz roots in horror (remember 1976's Carrie and '78's The Fury?).
"Where the Dead Are" is a gothic dirge that stars Patrick Bergin as a 19th-century doctor still haunted by the carnage of the Civil War. (Watch this and you'll know why they call surgeons sawbones.) A patient with a mysterious injury leads Bergin to a foggy, forbidding island off the coast of Massachusetts and a date with destiny in the person of an amputee apothecary (Jack Palance).
Neither of these stories are sterling Serling, but they remind us of how spellbinding his spooky made-for-TV imagination could be.
HBO (Sat., May 21, 8 p.m. ET)
B
Imagine ruthless advertising executive Miles Drentell from thirtysomething infused with a little of Bobby Knight's personality and you have the character Alan Alda plays so adroitly in this film. Alda is a hard-charging agency head who organizes a rugged rafting trip for his staff and clients. Corporate bonding in the great outdoors, reawakening the warrior spirit—all that tommyrot.
Soon the men are up an angry river without a you-know-what, learning the uglier lessons of survival. Exciting white-water photography and a strong cast (among them, Dakin Matthews, Robert Loggia and Peter Gallagher) keep this otherwise pointless film flowing rapidly—at least until its long, agonized coda.
CBS (Sun., May 22, 9 p.m. ET)
B+
If you only watch one TV movie this year about California's notorious parricidal siblings, let this two-parter be the one.
It's not just the extra length that makes this preferable to Fox's recent two-hour treatise on the subject. This film is far more dramatic, better directed (by Emmy winner Larry Elikann) and more psychologically acute (note, for instance, the way Lyle assumes his father's persona after murdering him. Shades of Norman Bates!). This re-creation is also better acted. (The only exception: as Lyle, I preferred Fox's Billy Warlock to CBS's Damian Chapa.) Edward James Olmos is outstanding as Jose Menendez, the driven, demanding father, who spits at both his sons at one time or another, "You disgust me!"
For all Jose's stultifying domination of his family, there is no sign of sexual abuse suggested until the boys raise it calculatedly as part of their defense at the murder trial. The strong inference in this movie, which concludes on Tuesday, is that Lyle and Erik have thus far got away with murder. Travis Fine plays Erik; Beverly D'Angelo plays Kitty Menendez. The supporting cast includes Michael Woolson, Michelle Johnson, Dwight Schultz and Margaret Whitton.
Essentially, the CBS project puts a good deal more paint on the canvas than did Fox's. The resultant portrait is still of a deranged family. But the additional detail makes this version at once repulsive and fascinating. Olmos's absence from the second night, though, creates a considerable vacuum.
NBC (Man., May 23, 9 p.m. ET)
B +
Despite such recent films as Threesome and Reality Bites, Generation X filmmakers don't have a monopoly on the love triangle plot. Take, for instance, this surprising, beguiling western romance.
With four young kids, a laconic homesteader (Peter Weller) struggling to make a go of it in a sod house on the prairie is overwhelmed when his hardworking wife (Lea Thompson) develops a fatal illness. She scours the countryside to find him a new helpmeet before she goes. But there's a real shortage of good unattached Christian womenfolk in the territory.
You know what they say: When all else fails, lower your expectations. Thompson finally drafts a painted harlot named Pearl (Farrah Fawcett) to step into her clodhoppers.
What we have here is a sort of cross between 1991 's Sarah, Plain and Tall and Overboard, the Goldie Hawn-Kurt Russell comedy of 1987. Considering its unlikely premise, this is a heartening tale, a modest, touching and nicely played little gem.
>THE SHOWS WON'T GO ON
MAY IS THE TIME OF YEAR WHEN A number of long-running series leave the airwaves. As L.A. Law adjourns (Thurs., May 19, 10 p.m. ET) with an episode in which senior partner Leland McKenzie (Richard Dysart) makes a startling announcement, the obvious conclusion is that the series overstayed its welcome by about three seasons. But let us remember the good times in the '80s when this was the freshest and most vibrant show on television.
Star Trek: The Next Generation, on the other hand, has maintained warp speed for seven seasons. The syndicated hit makes its final voyage this week (check local listings) during which Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) comes unstuck in time. That facilitates the return of old shipmates and tormentors and provides a view of Jean-Luc's eventual Cincinnatus-like retirement. The two-hour special delivers some light romance, some heavy physics and a wonderful sense of closure.
>WILD VISIONS FROM THE EAST
THE SCI-FI CHANNEL DEVOTES THE week of May 23-27 to an array of hip Japanese animated features under the rubric Anime '94 (9 p.m. ET all nights). The festival kicks off with "Dominion Tank Police: Parts I and II" (Mon. and Tues.). In a grim, toxic urban future, our last line of defense against crime is a reckless squad that patrols the streets in bristling armored vehicles, tearing up the asphalt and plowing over everything in their path. In the dazzling "Odin Photon Space Sailor Starlight" (Wed.), an Elvisy looking crew of space cadets on a prototype starship in the late 21st century discovers another civilization. In "Project A-Ko" (Thurs.), a redheaded high school girl with fantastic powers is recruited to defend us against aliens. "The Venus Wars" (Fri.) recounts the bitter battles between colonists on the brutal second planet from the sun. If this is what cartoons look like in Japan, I wish I could spend Saturday mornings there.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
