Two months ago, while on the Television Critics Association press tour, I wrote about the then-upcoming documentary series Prohibition, co-directed for PBS by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick...However, I saved a fuller review of the show, and excerpts from a private chat with Burns and Novick before their TCA press conference, until now...

2011

Sep

SHOWTIME'S 'HOMELAND' ONE OF YEAR'S BEST -- AND MOST UNSETTLING -- NEW DRAMAS By David Bianculli

Showtime's Homeland, a new drama series about a returning POW and the CIA agent who suspects him of having gone over to the enemy, is based on an Israeli series, but producers have made this Americanized version all their own. And, thanks to a superb cast and a brilliantly fresh approach to storytelling, they've also made it a better TV series than anything the broadcast networks have turned out this fall...

2011

Sep

2011 FALL TV DOLDRUMS ALMOST OVER -- AFTER A FEW MORE NOT-SO-GREAT DAYS AHEAD By David Bianculli

Be patient a little longer. TV is about to improve greatly with a sudden crop of exciting new offerings -- starting Sunday with a sudden glut of quality TV. The newest Ken Burns documentary epic on PBS, Prohibition, begins Sunday, as do Showtime's new Homeland series and the same network's Season 6 premiere of Dexter. But between now and then, we've got four new less than superb prime-time premieres with which to contend...

2011

Sep

FIFTY YEARS AGO SUNDAY, NBC UNVEILED TWO 'WONDERFUL' SHOWS -- ONE WITH A MOUSE, ONE WITH A MOOSE By David Bianculli

The TV fall season is an annual tradition that, anemic though it seems today, has endured for half a century -- but 50 years ago, broadcast TV gave us a lot more about which to be enthusiastic. In 1961, by this point, CBS already had introduced the brilliant courtroom drama The Defenders, and had Carl Reiner's superb The Dick Van Dyke Show waiting in the wings for an early October debut...

2011

Sep

ON TV, MEET THE NEW BOSS -- DIFFERENT THAN THE OLD BOSS By David Bianculli

In addition to all the other new series and fresh changes in the 2011 fall TV lineup, there were two very noteworthy -- and very impressive -- changes of the guard on network TV. Ted Danson stepped in as the new head of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS, and James Spader became the new CEO running things at NBC's The Office...

2011

Sep

FOUR NEW SERIES PREMIERE TONIGHT, BUT THE RETURNEES ARE BETTER By David Bianculli

Four new series are added to the 2011 Fall TV lineup Thursday night: Person of Interest on CBS, Whitney and Prime Suspect on NBC, and, last but least, Charlie's Angels on ABC. You won't find any of them in Thursday's Best Bets, though -- and here, briefly, is why not...

2011

Sep

BOTH KUTCHER AND SHEEN SHOW UP ON TV MONDAY, BUT GET UPSTAGED BY STAR CAMEOS... AND A STILL PHOTO By David Bianculli

Ashton Kutcher inherited the co-starring mantle from Charlie Sheen on CBS's Two and a Half Men Monday night -- the same night, and only a hour before, Sheen himself was shown sitting through a Roast of Charlie Sheen on Comedy Central. And yet, after all that high-intensity media hype smoke cleared, I was left thinking about other things: Dharma, Greg, and the meaning of that vanity card photo...

2011

Sep

EMMY TELECAST BEGINS AND ENDS AS 'MODERN FAMILY' AWARDS SHOW By David Bianculli

AMC's Mad Men won again, deservedly, at the end of Sunday's 63d PrimeTime Emmy Awards on Fox. So did ABC's Modern Family, which won the final award of the night. Modern Family also won the first award of the night. And the second. And the third. And the fourth...

2011

Sep

JUST AS NEW SHOWS ARRIVE, OLD ONES CONCLUDE THEIR SEASONS -- AND QUITE NICELY, TOO By David Bianculli

The new fall season is looming, but some of my favorite shows of the summer have just ended, either until next year, or forever. And all of them -- including True Blood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Damages, even Entourage -- concluded their seasons very, very nicely...

2011

Sep

FOR A REAL CHALLENGE, CW'S 'H8R' SHOULD SEND ITSELF TO TV CRITICS By David Bianculli

Even with ABC's abysmal Charlie's Angels remake and other insipid new shows, CW's H8R, premiering Wednesday night at 8 ET, is an early lock as the worst new show of the 2011 fall TV season. Its premise is to identify someone who has posted snarky, nasty things about a particular celebrity, then dispatch that celebrity to ambush the "hater" and, by charming them and revealing their true selves...

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