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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

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

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
 
 
2020
Jan
10
EDD "KOOKIE" BYRNES 1933 – 2020 By David Hinckley
 
 
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
9
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
9
JEOPARDY!: THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the third night of competition among the three best players ever to compete on Jeopardy! – with the ultimate crown going to the competitor who wins three nights of competition. Ken Jennings barely won Tuesday’s first night (by an overall winning margin of a mere $200), and James Holzhauer dominated easily last night. That means this competition will continue through at least Tuesday of next week, when ABC will present night four. Tonight, night three – and eit
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
9
SUPERNATURAL By David Bianculli
 
 
This series is into its 15th season, and has been plugging along for a very long time, presenting various end-of-existence scenarios (frankly, Armageddon tired of them). But I have to give credit to a clever title when I see one, and tonight’s afterlife episode title is a controversial doozy: “Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
9
THE GOOD PLACE By David Bianculli
 
 
Hooray! The Good Place is back, with the first of its final episodes of this bold, brilliant, and very funny series. For an appreciation of the series, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
9
EVIL By David Bianculli
 
 
Here’s another series returning for the new year – and another broadcast TV series that made my Top 10 for 2019. In this new episode, David is hospitalized, and has to ward off evil spirits from his hospital bed. Watch for the menacing shoelaces… honest.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
9
NBC'S NEWEST DRAMA SERIES COMES FROM A BIANCULLI - BUT DON 'T LOOK AT ME By David Bianculli
 
 
I’m not reviewing what I consider tomorrow’s best TV show, but I have a good excuse. In fact, I have a great excuse. It was co-written, and co-developed and executive produced, by my son, Mark…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
9
IT'S TCA'S WINTER PRESS TOUR TIME AND ABC BROUGHT ALEX TREBEK ALONG By Roger Catlin
 
 
PASADENA, Calif. — One of the best-attended panels in the opening days of the TV Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour was on Wednesday for ABC's Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
8
JEOPARDY!: THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: Last night’s opening round of this all-time all-star Jeopardy! prime-time championship was everything it was billed and hoped to be. The long-running quiz show’s three most successful players – Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer – squared off against one another. In the first round of the first game, every question was answered correctly. At the end of the second climactic round of Final Jeopardy, when the two-game totals were added to anoin
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jan
8
NATURE: "WHALE DETECTIVE" By David Bianculli
 
 
In this new installment of Nature, we meet a man who became obsessed with studying whales after surviving an encounter in which he was in a whale-watching kayak when a whale breached virtually on top of them. Why didn’t he die? And why do whales sometimes do that? Any time a TV nature series gets us this close to a creature this large, the results are worth watching – and marveling at. Expect a whale of a tale. And a whale with a tail. It’s about time someone broached
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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