Amazon’s ‘Picnic’ Remake, Inside the Met Opera House, ‘Quantico’ Moves to Friday

Matt Roush
25 Comments
picnic-at-hanging-rock-Picnic at Hanging Rock 03 - FremantleMedia_rgb
Amazon

A selective critical checklist of notable Friday TV:

Picnic at Hanging Rock (streaming on Amazon Prime Video): If you’ve never seen Peter Weir’s haunting 1975 movie, a benchmark of Down Under and 1970s cinema, this overwrought six-part remake may satisfy you in its eerie depiction of repressed female sexuality at the turn of the last century. The miniseries is based on Joan Lindsay’s unsolved-mystery novel about the search for three schoolgirls and a teacher who vanish in the wilderness during a Valentine’s Day picnic in 1990. “Secrets are like worms: greedy, greedy feeders,” declares the cruel headmistress, Hester Appleyard (Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer) as exotic nature collides with erotic desire, and the longings of these missing young women make for a tantalizing puzzle.

Great Performances: The Opera House (9/8c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): It would be impossible to count the number of great performances issuing from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York’s Lincoln Center over the last half-century. This documentary from Susan Froemke relives the Met’s history with archival footage and new interview, including with famed soprano Leontyne Price, whoh opened the Met’s present home in 1966 in Antony and Cleopatra.

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Quantico (8/7c, ABC): Canceled but not yet forgotten, the spy thriller plays out its remaining episodes of the third and final season on a new night. This week’s mission sends Alex (Priyanka Chopra) and McQuigg (Alan Powell) to protect a prince from assassination.

Inside Friday TV: The CW reprises the moving documentary series My Last Days (8/7c), produced by and featuring Jane the Virgin’s Justin Baldoni, for three weeks of profiles of people who haven’t given up on life despite their terminal illnesses… Gillian Jacobs (Community) heads to beautiful Barcelona for some rom-com fun with pals Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live) and Phoebe Robinson (2 Dope Queens) in the Netflix movie Ibiza… Christiane Amanpour interviews Aimen Dean, a former jihadist who became a spy for British intelligence in MI6, in CNN’s documentary special A Double Life: The Spy Inside al Qaeda (10/9c).

Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018)Quantico



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  1. R

    RedCupcake

    Yeah, not much for me to watch, either. Reruns of MASH on WGN, and Blue Bloods.

    Speaking of WGN, they have a new series starting next week. The 100 Code. Unfortunately, reviews on imdb for this show are pretty unfavorable. Although the show itself (taking place in Sweden) reminds me of PBS' Wallander.

    1. C

      CyanCoathanger

      I find people either really love those moody-broody Swedish dramas or they hate them, and most of the reviews prove that. They're mostly either 8 or 9 out of 10 or 2 out of 10. I wonder if they're going to show it as originally filmed in English and Swedish with subtitles. That might help, but you'd have to do a lot of reading.

      1. R

        RedCupcake

        I may check it out. I did like Wallander. The scenery was almost a separate character in that series.

        1. C

          CyanCoathanger

          I watched that series. I guess I liked it at the time. I barely remember it.

          1. R

            RedCupcake

            Wallander was definitely more of a cerebral show than the standard US type of show, with action / car chases / tough-talking detectives, etc. It was a nice change of pace. And a limited series, which is always more impactful.

    2. C

      CyanCoathanger

      BTW...Blue Bloods is supposed to be a repeat tonight.

      1. R

        RedCupcake

        I know. The season ended on some "big news" a few weeks ago. ;-)

  2. C

    CyanCoathanger

    I don't see anything in the prime time listings that I want to watch. They even moved Graham Norton to 11:00 for no apparent reason.

    1. G

      GoldSubmarine

      For some reason I tried commenting on the TV INSIDER site, but it wouldn't allow it. The screen is light blue and states I need to log in for authenticity. Never saw that before. So I'm just responding on Disqus directly to your comment.
      Not used to seeing you with so little to watch, even during the off season.
      Tonight I have Quantico and of the Trust finale on Sunday.
      Regarding DVR service, you should call Comcast and ask them if they can change your current box for a DVR box. My mom recently upgraded hers for no extra charge. As a matter of fact I think they lowered her bill because she is on some kind of promotion, She even has HBO and Starz and just about every cable channel worth having. She watches more TV than both of us combined.
      She's paying around $200 for DVR service on two TVs and a couple of small boxes for live viewing in other rooms. Also internet and a landline.

      1. C

        CyanCoathanger

        I don't know why you're always the only one that has trouble on this site. I think Disqus had an update of its terms of service recently, but you just check the "accept" boxes and click on through.

        Your mother is paying more than double what I pay. No wonder she gets so much included. I'll stick with my DVR for now. I just can't program it to record certain programs all the time or switch channels.

        1. G

          GoldSubmarine

          Of course when I click accept nothing happens!
          Yeah, my mom pays a lot but she is thoroughly entertained. I She watches just about EVERYTHING on CBS, ABC , NBC and FOX. Nothing much on CW. And of course tons of cable shows on networks we don't even get.

          1. C

            CyanCoathanger

            Maybe your clicker is broken.

            1. G

              GoldSubmarine

              Works well with every other application. Also sometimes when that huge TV GUIDE ad pops up and blocks the entire screen, it doesn't X out. But on other sites I can X out any ad.

      2. C

        CyanFish

        If you are having issues with Disqus, it might be due to privacy changes on their end. You can head to https://blog.disqus.com/update-on-privacy-and-gdpr-compliance for more info.

        1. C

          CyanCoathanger

          Yeah, maybe he just has to log back into Disqus.

        2. C

          CyanCoathanger

          Hey! Are you still there? Will someone take over this column while Matt is on vacation?

          1. G

            GreenToast

            It must have been a long time since Matt went on vacation because I can't remember a stretch of time when this this column wasn't updated. Maybe he works on vacation.

            1. C

              CyanCoathanger

              I was asking the moderator. Matt said he was going away until the middle of June and his columns would resume on his return. (See today's Ask Matt)

              1. G

                GoldSubmarine

                I'll miss Matt's columns especially this one. I really can't remember Matt being away for any significant amount of time. Perhaps a day here and there but not multiple weeks!
                Don, if I have something of value to mention, I'll just respond to one of your comment.
                Have a great holiday weekend!

          2. C

            CyanFish

            Matt will still file his daily column. 😊

            2

            1. C

              CyanCoathanger

              Oh, good! Thanks.

              1. G

                GoldSubmarine

                That's good. I must have misunderstood what Matt stated in his Ask Matt column.

        3. G

          GoldSubmarine

          All good now, thanks!

    2. This comment was removed by its author.

      1. C

        CyanCoathanger

        That title sounds familiar, but I don't remember the show.

        1. This comment was removed by its author.

          1. C

            CyanCoathanger

            Sounds too confusing. I prefer mental games like Jeopardy and Millionaire.