DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2019
Oct
21
 
 
It's disconcerting and almost painful to say that a lavish historical miniseries starring Helen Mirren is a bit disappointing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
21
 
 
I’m a diehard Miami Dolphins fan, and the dying has been especially hard this season. I’m a diehard fan because, in 1972, the Dolphins went undefeated and untied for an entire season – something that was accomplished before that only twice, by the 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears, and has been accomplished since the Dolphins’ feat only once, by the 2007 New England Patriots. This season, the Dolphins are one of the two NFL teams that haven’t won a single game – but
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
21
 
 
This is the penultimate episode of this season of The Deuce – which, if I’ve counted correctly, will be the final season as well. So as this story comes to an end, both Candy and Lori are scrambling to reinvent themselves – and turn to each other for help.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
21
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. Helen Mirren stars as the Russian empress – and while I’ve loved Mirren as an actress ever since O Lucky Man! and Excalibur, and think her Prime Suspect miniseries are TV at its best, this new HBO miniseries doesn’t do her, or its subject, justice. Mirren is very good, but the script, and most of her costars, are not up to the same standard.For my full review on NPR’s Fresh Air
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
21
 
 
Getting an A+ for audacity doesn’t necessarily move one to the head of the class...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
20
 
 
As part of today’s program, Lee Cowan interviews three collaborators of Martin Scorsese’s upcoming The Irishman, providing the first joint interview with three giants of crime cinema: director Scorsese and actors Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. I haven’t seen this in advance, but here’s what I’m hoping for most of all: After Cowan asks a question of this talented trio, De Niro looks straight at the interviewer and asks, “You talkin’ to me?&r
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
20
 
 
What a week. And, hopefully, what a recap…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
20
 
 
Last week, in an episode that didn’t have a frame showing any of the core cast members of this long-running series, just Samantha Morton’s Alpha and company, we learned (in flashback) the origins of Alpha and Beta, and also were introduced to the walking-with-walkers tribe’s newly anointed power player: young Gamma. What’s in store on tonight’s episode? Perhaps a visit to Delta House… but don’t count on it. But at least we get back to basics, and more f
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
20
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Damon Lindelof has taken Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark comic series and basically pulled a Fargo. But not quite: He’s continuing and expanding the original story, but by dealing with different eras and characters. What we’re left with, at the start of this new series, is enticingly smart and visually evocative, with echoes of our own troubled times, and exciting performances by such unexpected players as Don Johnson, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Oct
20
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Krystal has fallen on very hard times of late, reduced to being an errand woman for the pampered top-tier ladies of FAM – but in this final episode of the season, she finds an ally, and takes a stand.