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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
 
 
2018
Jan
16
BLACK LIGHTNING By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Black Lightning, based on a DC Comics superhero from the 1970s, is the fifth CW prime-time drama based on characters from the DC universe, after Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. (Shouldn’t The CW just give in at this point, and rename itself The DC?) Cress Williams stars, and Black Lightning is a superhero who’s markedly different. For one thing, he’s not a coming-of-age teen just learning to marshal his powers: In his civilian l
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
16
THIS IS US By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s episode is called “Clooney,” and has Kate shopping for a wedding dress. Infer from that what you will...  
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
16
THE MAN WHO KEPT 'THE SECRET OF TUXEDO PARK' By David Hinckley
 
 
If it takes a village to raise a child, it also took a village to win World War II, and it’s kind of cool how, seven decades later, more villagers keep surfacing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
16
THE ELECTRICITY OF 'BLACK LIGHTNING' ON THE CW By David Hinckley
 
 
The fiercest competition in the superhero game these days may be which one is the most reluctant to play, and Black Lightning’s return catapults him right to the head of that hand-wringing class...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
15
MORE FROM TCA'S WINTER PRESS TOUR By Roger Catlin
 
 
The E! Network occasionally stumbles on the zenith of the cultural zeitgeist with a new show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
15
JAMES BALDWIN AND THE STORY OF RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA WITH 'I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO' By David Hinckley
 
 
James Baldwin died before he could finish what he had to say to America. I Am Not Your Negro, starting with its title, picks up where he left off...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
15
THE STRENGTH OF OUR TROOPS WITH 'CHAIN OF COMMAND' By David Hinckley
 
 
National Geographic takes a dramatic gamble, and it pays off in Chain of Command, a new eight-part series based on America’s military and intelligence flow chart for combatting worldwide insurgency...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
15
BLUE PLANET MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
This Saturday, BBC America will present the latest of its peerless nature documentary miniseries: Blue Planet II, a more than worthy sequel to its 2002 masterpiece of filmmaking about our oceans and other waters, 2002’s Blue Planet. This week, as a buildup to that new entry, BBC America offers daily mini-marathons of other of its nature documentary miniseries – starting with Blue Planet itself. The episodes will be run, in order, beginning at 9 a.m. ET, and again at 5 p.m. ET. Any of
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
15
THE GIFTED By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Presenting two episodes to fill tonight’s prime time on Fox, the network wraps up its first season of this involving drama from the Marvel Comics universe. Last week’s episode teamed the renegade mutant fugitives with a different band of mutants – more militant and deadly – and now, somewhat reluctantly, they both square off against the government, which has developed a new way to employ their own captured mutants as weapons. Good news: Whatever happens to
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jan
15
INDEPENDENT LENS: "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO" By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY FILM TV PREMIERE: This documentary film, nominated for an Oscar, takes the title and spirit of an unfinished book by author James Baldwin, and attempts to envision and present it in film form. In it, the author examines the history, impact and meaning of the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the even larger topic of race and racism in general. On today’s national holiday honoring MLK, it’s a contribution by public televisio
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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