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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2018
Apr
3
FX'S 'LEGION' RETURNS: BETTER, BOLDER AND STRANGER THAN EVER By David Bianculli
 
 

In my entire career as a TV critic, I’ve been stunned by a drama series’ outrageous originality on only three occasions. First was Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective. Next was David Lynch’s original – very original – Twin Peaks. And now, as it launches Season 2, comes Noah Hawley’s Legion on FX…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
1
STEVEN BOCHCO, 1943-2018 By David Bianculli
 
 

Steven Bochco, the pioneering TV writer-producer who changed the content and direction of television with such landmark shows as NBC’s Hill Street Blues and ABC’s NYPD Blue, has died at age 74. He had as great an impact on TV as almost anyone in the history of the medium…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Mar
18
HOMELAND By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s episode showed Carrie (Claire Danes) and her team conducting a thrown-together sting, targeting a woman ensnared in a money trail leading to the chemically induced death, by mysterious chem-warfare agent, of a general in custody for attempted treason. (Let’s set aside, for the moment, just how spookily prescient that chemical killing has proven.) What was so good about that episode was how the mission kept shifting as things kept going wrong — and how, at the end, C
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Mar
3
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Charles Barkley returns as guest host, with musical guest Migos. Not to knock Migos, or add undue pressure, but Barkley has hosted SNL three other times over a 25-year span, and each time, his musical guests have killed it. That was true of Kelly Clarkson in 2012, and of Alicia Keys in 2010 – and it certainly was true, way back in 1993 the first time Barkley the NBA star hosted, when the musical guest was Nirvana.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
19
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN TV HISTORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Today (Monday, February 19), is the golden anniversary of the premiere of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on public television. All manner of tributes are on the way... including a library of shows available on YouTube...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
15
2018 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES By David Bianculli
 
 
There’s stuff going on all day on NBCSN and elsewhere – with all of it live on the NBC Olympics site – but today I’m going to be especially selfish and focused, and point out only the USA curling team coverage. From 2-5 p.m. ET on NBCSN, you can watch (as I will), the USA men’s curling team take the ice against Italy. From 5-8 p.m. ET on CNBC, you can see the USA women’s curling team take on their counterparts from Switzerland. And at 11 p.m. ET back on NBCSN,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
12
WHERE IS MISTER ROGERS WHEN WE NEED HIM IN WASHINGTON AGAIN? By David Bianculli
 
 
Next Monday, Feb. 12, is the golden anniversary of the premiere of the landmark public television children’s series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhoood. But today, a week earlier, President Donald Trump has announced his budget plans to eliminate PBS from the federal budget...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
5
'BREAKING BAD' TURNS 10, BUT HAS A PAST AND A FUTURE: THAT'S 'SAUL,' FOLKS By David Bianculli
 
 
  AMC’s Breaking Bad turns 10 years old this month, which its network is celebrating by repeating the entire series, in sequence, on weekends through the end of January. The celebration is richly deserved, and not only for the way the series advanced the evolution of quality TV in general, and AMC in particular. Breaking Bad also happens to be, in my opinion, the best TV drama series ever presented. It’s got brilliantly written and performed characters, its photography is as
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley