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

 
 
2017
Nov
2
 
 
WRITER’S NOTE: There are events of far larger import in New York City, but life goes on in network TV. To that end, a review of the newest offering from CBS…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
2
 
 
CBS’s revived S.W.A.T. may be trying to swat too many issues with one show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
2
 
 
The title of tonight’s episode is “The Proton Regeneration” – which is great news, because that promises another appearance by Bob Newhart as Sheldon’s childhood hero, TV science host Professor Proton. Newhart won an Emmy – his first! – for portraying the character, in what has become a sporadic but welcome recurring guest role. And it’s recurring even though the character has died, because the good professor now exists as a figment of Sheldon&rsqu
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
2
 
 
Michael Cerveris made his first appearance last week as a new villain in this Gotham universe: Professor Pyg, who butchers victims while hiding beneath a severed pig’s head. The killer continues his Pyg-headed rampage tonight… and Cerveris, even with his face obscured by his porcine mask, manages to ham it up.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
2
 
 
SERIES RETURN: CBS presented the premiere episode of this sitcom spinoff of The Big Bang Theory in September, then held off presenting a second episode until tonight – nearly two months later. But it’s a good fit – not only with Big Bang as its lead-in, but with a sitcom mentality, and quirky sentimentality, that fits well as an “origin story” of the very familiar, and odd, adult Sheldon.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
2
 
 
The good place, which actually is a bad place, is becoming a dangerous place, as Janet, the heavenly humanoid that helps create and maintain the place’s illusions, continues to self-destruct. Which, in turn, leads to some destruction all around her. And this week, Janet is on an emotional rebound after a “breakup,” which leads to lots of things breaking up – or threatening to. And that includes, apparently, the entire good place/bad place.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
1
 
 
It almost feels too easy to say that George is not departing gently...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
1
 
 
Fifteen years ago, Henry Winkler decided that dramatizing some of the rough stories from his own childhood could make other childhoods better...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
1
 
 
Last night, the Houston Astros could have won the 2017 World Series by taking last night’s game, and, behind some great pitching, was headed that way, with a 1-0 lead through five innings. But then came the sixth, and a comeback by the Los Angeles Dodgers that resulted in an exciting 3-1 Dodgers victory, and a tie in this year’s series at three games apiece. That leads us to tonight’s winner-take-all Game 7, when all players are potentially in play, everything is on the line, a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
1
 
 
Nova uses the recent deadly hurricanes as an excuse to put the history of killer storms in perspective. I can appreciate that, having lived in south Florida through the major, devastating hurricanes of the 1960s – and once having the eye pass directly over our home. But Nova takes an even longer look back, and focuses, in part, on the deadliest hurricane on record, a storm that killed more than 20,000 people in the Caribbean, in 1780. You should see the video footage! But, of course, you c