For the next seven Tuesdays and extending to just six days before Christmas, the National Geographic channel will bear arms with its most ambitious, expensive and heavily promoted venture to date...

2017

Nov

SHOWTIME'S ‘SMILF’ IS COMEDY WITH A HIGH MISERY INDEX By Ed Bark

The old “misery loves company” axiom gets a stern test with Showtime’s SMILF (Sunday, 10 p.m. ET)...

2017

Nov

MARGARET ATWOOD'S 'ALIAS GRACE' GIVES NETFLIX A MURDER MYSTERY WITH A MIND OF ITS OWN By Ed Bark

Abused by her drunken father and then brutalized in a women’s prison, Irish immigrant Grace Marks perhaps has gone mad in the process. Or might she be more or less completely sane -- or driven by a dual personality?...

2017

Nov

'S.W.A.T.' IS BACK ON A NETWORK THAT'S ALREADY PERSUADED VIEWERS TO HAVE SECONDS OF 'HAWAII FIVE-0' AND 'MACGYVER' By Ed Bark

WRITER’S NOTE: There are events of far larger import in New York City, but life goes on in network TV. To that end, a review of the newest offering from CBS…

2017

Oct

'FRONTLINE' POURS ON THE RUSSIAN DRESSING WITH 'PUTIN'S REVENGE' By Ed Bark

Frontline’s A to Z Vladimir Putin primer, affixed with the sexier title of Putin’s Revenge, is dutifully sober and cautionary without being particularly revelatory. That is, unless you’ve been paying no attention at all...

2017

Oct

SCARING UP THE SIMPSONS' 28TH ANNUAL 'TREEHOUSE OF HORROR' By Ed Bark

The horror, the horror . . . The Simpsons’ 28th Treehouse of Horror...

2017

Oct

MEGYN KELLY'S WOES ARE TYPICAL OF HIGH-PRICED NEWS TALENT POACHED FROM RIVAL NETWORKS By Ed Bark

It’s not going as planned for NBC. But for some of us, it’s going pretty much as expected...

2017

Oct

JASON ALEXANDER GETS HIS COSTANZA ON IN 'HIT THE ROAD'S' UNREPENTANT SENDUP OF 'THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY' By Ed Bark

It’s hard to imagine the timing being much worse for a sitcom whose first episode finds two principal characters providing sexual favors in return for anticipated career advancements...

2017

Oct

AUDIENCE NETWORK'S 'LOUDERMILK' IS AS FRESH AS ITS TITLE CHARACTER IS SOUR By Ed Bark

Ron Livingston has made a series of strong impressions -- mostly on HBO -- in Band of Brothers, Sex and the City and Boardwalk Empire. Add the cult movie Office Space, a gift that keeps on giving...

2017

Oct

SHOWTIME'S 'WHITE FAMOUS' OVERPLAYS ITS RACIAL COMPONENT BUT MAY HAVE A STAR PLAYER IN JAY PHAROAH By Ed Bark

It’s an easy sell, and now even more so, to depict Hollywood as one big, soulless, immoral den of iniquity...

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Ed Bark

Since 2006, Ed Bark's local and national TV stories and observations have been showcased on his pioneering website, www.unclebarky.com. For 26 years before that, he was TV critic for the Dallas Morning News. He's a past president of the Television Critics Association, and for seven years served on the national Peabody Awards board.

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