Game Change is a riveting political thriller
Saturday Mediocre made-for-tv biopics are a dime a dozen these days, but very few– and Game Change (HBO Canada, 9 p.m.) is one of the very few – reach for greatness.
Game Change – loosely adapted from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s deeply textured book about the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign – is riveting, ferocious, fast-paced, smart, and as thrilling as any TV thriller. There are no gun battles or car chases, no fist fights or terrorist bombings – just the toand-fro of adults settling adult differences in what they believe is an adult way.
It isn’t just the acting, which is of an almost astonishing standard across the board, not just from Ed Harris as John Mccain and Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin. Every role has been cast with an exquisite eye for detail.
Game Change has already caused a stir, for what some say is a slanted view of recent American history, and for the almost casual way it shows a big-money, sophisticated media campaign spin slowly and inexorably out of control.
All that is true. Game Change does provide a blinkered, narrow view of history. Its real achievement, though, is the way it takes a media caricature – Sarah Palin as a backcountry nitwit – and portrays her as something more complicated and believable: a determined, defiant mother of five and canny state politician who was elevated by Washington insiders to an almost deity-like status, and then, when she failed to live up to their expectations, was thrown to the wolves by those very same backroom boys.
Set your phasers on stun. George Takei leads his indefatigable Celebrity Apprentice (Global, 8 p.m.) team members into a window-dressing challenge, but there are snags.
From Superbad to Moneyball, recent best-supporting-oscar nominee Jonah Hill hosts Saturday Night Live (Global, NBC, 11:30 p.m.). The Shins are the musical guest.
If you missed the debut of Canada’s Got Talent (Citytv, 10 p.m.), here’s your chance to see it again. Sunday
It’s what happens in the third period that counts. The first two hours of The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II (CBC, 8 p.m.) meandered and skated. There were too many sweetheart plays.
That changes tonight, with the second and final instalment of the four-hour miniseries. Jonathan Walton, playing Ron Maclean, appears in the first scene.
Tonight’s second act focuses almost exclusively on Cherry and the Hockey Night in Canada years, and there’s a lot there to work with. Cherry is the star, of course, but the real revelation is Walton, who bears only passing resemblance to MacLean, but he has the voice down so cold, it’s almost uncanny.
Once Upon a Time (CTV, 7 p.m.; ABC, 8 p.m.) tackles the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) hires Ruby (guest star Meghan Ory) as her new assistant and informal life coach.
Steve Carell accuses Ricky Ger- vais of stealing his idea for a sitcom about bored office workers, in tonight’s dry, tongue-in-cheek episode of Life’s Too Short (HBO Canada, 10:30 p.m.).
The Walking Dead (AMC, 9 p.m.) picks up immediately after last week’s shocker ending, with the survivors mourning the death of one of their own. There’s an elegiac funeral, revenge killings – if shooting “walkers” can technically be described as killing – and much agitation over an escaped prisoner.