Mom, could you sign this permission slip so James Franco can sleep with danger?
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, June 17, and Saturday, June 18. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? (Lifetime, 8 p.m., Saturday): James Franco’s career plan of treating his celebrity as an art school performance piece continues as he reaches back to remake the most infamously Lifetime Lifetime TV movie ever. And while original “danger” Ivan Sergei and original “mother may I?” Tori Spelling have—somehow—been lured back to their old stalking grounds, they’re not the dewy-eyed stars this time. Spelling’s the mother who presumably (and futilely) denies the daughter permission to sleep with danger. No word on Sergei’s less-dangerous role. Nope, with Franco writing this sort-of remake, there’s the added wrinkle of lesbian vampires (the danger), Smashing Pumpkin James Iha composing the original musical score, and Franco himself, lurking around in some perhaps-dangerous capacity. Lifetime, meanwhile, as it did with the Will Ferrell/Kristen Wiig ultra-deadpan spoof A Deadly Adoption, grins bravely and pretends to have a sense of humor about famous people goofing about in its well-appointed TV movie living room. Our own Katie Rife is on reviewer duties, and says that the Franco-stein monster that emerges from this unholy union is something like “a new genre.” Read her review to find out if that’s a good thing or not.
The Convenient Groom (Hallmark, 9 p.m., Saturday): After a bride’s rich fiancé dumps her at the altar, her lifelong best friend steps in. Safe to say, in the Hallmark-Lifetime TV movie arms race, Hallmark is conceding this weekend’s hill. Step your game up, Hallmark. Maybe see what Shia LaBeouf’s up to.
30 For 30: O.J.: Made In America (ESPN, 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday): Parts 4 and 5 conclude this stunningly crafted documentary series about a subject we all thought was completely exhausted by now. In his pre-air review of the whole documentary miniseries, Noel Murray said:
This 30 For 30 is its own animal: a five-part, eight-hour stunner, of which less than half is about the Hall Of Fame running back’s murder trial. The rest is spent on who O.J. Simpson really is.