Mobsters and Martin Scorsese go together like cake and ice cream, chips and dips, Donald Trump and egomania. So the maestro behind Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Casino, Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire invests HBO’s Vinyl with a strong gangster vibe...

2016

Feb

TWO NEW BOOKS ABOUT TELEVISION, ONE AN INSTANT CLASSIC By Ed Bark

People either keep asking me -- “When are you going to write a book?” -- or telling me, “You need to write a book." Maybe someday. In the here and now, though, two standout TV critic colleagues have put their names to volumes that are well worth owning...

2016

Feb

RICHARD DREYFUSS, BLYTHE DANNER MAKE THE MADOFFS GO 'ROUND IN ABC MINISERIES By Ed Bark

A notably fleshy Richard Dreyfuss, now 68, has let himself grow into the role of the world’s most notorious, pear-shaped Ponzi schemer. Very ably assisted by Blythe Danner as his wife, Ruth, Dreyfuss inhabits Bernie Madoff...

2016

Jan

IT'S O.J. ALL OVER AGAIN: THE NEW AND SPELLBINDING FIRST EDITION OF FX'S 'AMERICAN CRIME STORY' By Ed Bark

What’s a hotter TV commodity than even the presidential candidate debates? That would be true crime, whether scripted or otherwise. Not that it ever really went away...

2016

Jan

'YOU, ME AND THE APOCALYPSE': ON THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION IN NBC'S 'COMEDIC DRAMA' By Ed Bark

It’s nearing the end of the world as we know it in NBC’s 10-episode You, Me and the Apocalypse, including three well-known American TV stars in the far-flung ensemble cast...

2016

Jan

THERE'S A HILLBILLY HAVEN AND A DURNED GOOD DRAMA IN WGN AMERICA'S 'OUTSIDERS' By Ed Bark

'Outsiders' brings the saga of unkempt, contemporary Appalachian mountain men and women who drink hard, seemingly bathe infrequently and have built a psychic wall between themselves and all those varmints down below...

2016

Jan

LIPPY, QUIPPY, VAIN AND URBANE, THE DEVIL GETS A PART-TIME POLICE GIG By Ed Bark

Lucifer's gotten tired of the whole Hades thing after a few centuries and has decided to take a “vacation” in L.A. He's now doing quite nicely as the owner of Lux, a ribald, upscale nightclub...

2016

Jan

'THE X-FILES' RETURNS — AND THIS SHOULD BE THE LAST TIME By Ed Bark

This is looking like a bad idea at best, particularly after a thoroughly ridiculous, serio-comic third episode squanders any carryover suspense let alone a reason to exist anew...

2016

Jan

DESPERATE LIVES PLAYED FOR GRINS IN FX'S FINELY WOVEN 'BASKETS' By Ed Bark

FX’s male-centric misery index remains very much alive and suffering... But all are pre-serpent Gardens of Eden compared to FX’s Baskets, in which Zach Galifianakis plays perhaps the saddest sack in TV series history...

2016

Jan

BONNIE AND CLYDE RIDE AGAIN (BUT YOU KNEW THEY WOULD) ON PBS' 'AMERICAN EXPERIENCE' SERIES By Ed Bark

No matter how many times it’s told, the story just never gets old. PBS’ American Experience series at last gets around to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after four previous big- and small-screen treatments of their murderous crime spree...

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