Jim Gaffigan is everywhere
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, July 13. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape (Friday; iTunes, Amazon, Google, Playstation, and on demand via the Comedy Dynamics Network): As you may have read in these very pages, Jim Gaffigan didn’t opt to release his new stand-up special on just any platform. Instead, he’s putting it out on many platforms: Today, you should be able to rent or own Noble Ape from most of the internet’s reputable merchants of digital video, as well as via your cable or satellite provider. It’s a big tent for Gaffigan’s most personal material, dealing with his wife’s brain tumor (Jeannie Gaffigan’s well now—she co-wrote and directed Noble Ape), touring with his kids in tow while she recovered, and opening for a papal address in Philadelphia. “If a husband and father of five kids is suddenly faced with the potential death of his life partner and is able to incorporate cancer, brain surgery, difficult rehabilitation, and unthinkable terror into a reliably funny set of observational comedy, there’s an artistic triumph in that,” Dennis Perkins writes in his review.
Regular coverage
The Great British Baking Show (PBS, check local listings)
DuckTales (Saturday, Disney, 9:30 a.m.)
Wild card
The Epic Tales Of Captain Underpants (Friday, Netflix): Nat Faxon adopts the red cape and tighty whities of Dav Pilkey’s potty-humor superhero in DreamWorks Animation’s latest film-to-Netflix adaptation. Tra-la-laaaaaaa!