With one or two different breaks, Edd Byrnes could have become a movie star. With the breaks he did get, he became Kookie. Byrnes, who died Wednesday at his Santa Monica home at the age of 87, never quite seemed to work out how he felt about that...

2020

Jan

A SURPRISE IS JUST ONE REASON FOR TUNING IN THE FINAL FOUR EPISODES OF 'THE GOOD PLACE' By David Hinckley

In case you still needed any further encouragement to watch the last four Good Place episodes, the first one has a great guest star...

2020

Jan

'ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST' HITS A FEW GOOD NOTES BUT MOST ARE CLUNKERS By David Hinckley

The delights, charms and strengths of popular song are almost infinite. They do not extend to making popular songs a reliable main character in television dramas...

2020

Jan

'AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: MCCARTHY' RECOUNTS A TIME OF FEAR AND CONCERN By David Hinckley

A new documentary on the late Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy references no events after May 1957. That's left up to the viewer.

2020

Jan

EXPLORING STEAMPUNK AND MURDER WITH 'THE BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES' By David Hinckley

The Brokenwood Mysteries, a New Zealand crime detective series, opens its sixth season with a surprisingly educational exploration of Steampunk...

2020

Jan

THE BEST OF 2019 By David Hinckley

Before we plunge too deeply into 2020, when we can expect the television weeds will continue to grow taller and thicker, it seems fitting to take one quick glance back at the ten best shows from 2019...

2020

Jan

'MESSIAH' EXPLORES WHAT JESUS WOULD FACE IF HE APPEARED IN THE MIDDLE EAST TODAY By David Hinckley

Messiah’s ambitions are as bold as its title. Messiah, a dramatic thriller whose 10-episode first season premiered New Year’s Day on Netflix, envisions a charismatic Jesus-like character appearing in the modern-day Middle East...

2020

Jan

'DEPUTY' IS AS MUCH OF A WESTERN AS YOU'LL SEE TODAY By David Hinckley

A whole generation of baby-boomer American boys grew up watching Western sheriffs, cowboys, and freelancers save the day by the simple one-two trick of shooting straight and always doing what’s right...

2019

Dec

‘DARE ME’ IS A BIT DARKER THAN YOU’D EXPECT FROM A TEEN DRAMA By David Hinckley

Cheerleaders often serve as incidental characters in TV and film dramas. They’re the girlfriends or the mean girls or, in the slasher film world, convenient prey for deranged serial killers...

2019

Dec

FOR A LITTLE EASILY DIGESTIBLE TV MORSEL, TRY ‘MURDOCH MYSTERIES’ By David Hinckley

Television on Christmas Day doesn’t tend to be the focal point it can become on Thanksgiving when there are parades and dog shows and football games...

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David Hinckley

David Hinckley first grasped the power of television when, at the age of 8, he bullied his parents into buying a basset hound like Cleo on The People’s Choice. He named her Cleo. Somewhat more recently, he worked for 35 years at The New York Daily News, the last seven covering television.

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