Everyone gets railroaded to some degree in "Hell On Wheels", a truly gritty but not always galvanizing saga of how the west was run over by the Union Pacific. Paired with AMC's resident evil hit The Walking Dead, this is easily the best western series since HBO's Deadwood. Then again, there really hasn't been a weekly western since...

2011

Nov

AN ARTISTIC CHAIN REACTION: MUSIC BY 'OZ'-MOSIS By Noel Holston

Art is a never-ending seduction. One thing leads to another. And another and another. Examples of art begetting art are innumerable, from Chagall's take on A Midsummer Night's Dream to the W.H. Auden poem inspired by Breughel's Fall of Icarus...and there is perhaps no better example of this artistic chain reaction than the immortal 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, which will have its umpteenth annual showings this weekend on TBS...

2011

Nov

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! TV WORTH WATCHING IS FOUR YEARS OLD! By David Bianculli

On Nov. 5, 2007, the same day the TV writers in Hollywood decided to go on strike, the website TV WORTH WATCHING was launched. The strike didn't last, but, so far, TVWW has. It's gone from one writer (me) on Day One to more than 15 writers four years later. And we have big plans, which we hope won't exceed our grasp, for 2012...

2011

Nov

HOLIDAY TV: CHRISTMAS MOVIES ALL WEEKEND -- YES, THIS WEEKEND! By Diane Werts

Christmastime is here. Which is no surprise to anyone who's seen the holiday tree/decor in the studios of TV shopping channels for the past, oh, month now. But it's really, truly arriving on entertainment TV this weekend, with Hallmark Channel's three-day yule marathon and its two TV movie premieres...

2011

Nov

RIPPING YARNS: 'WHITECHAPEL' EXTENDS JACK THE RIPPER'S DRAMATIC KILLING STREAK By Theresa Corigliano

Technically, I may not be a Ripperologist, but I have always been fascinated by the story of the infamous serial killer who haunted London's East End in the 19th century and was never found. Years ago, I worked on the miniseries with Michael Caine, who starred as Inspector Abberline of Scotland Yard...

2011

Nov

'HELL ON WHEELS' GOES FULL STEAM BACK TO THE AMERICAN WEST By Eric Gould

Hollywood's John Wayne westerns gave us a tidy-looking old west with meticulously pressed costumes, freshly shorn hair and brightly lit saloons. With portraits like Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) and HBO's Deadwood (2004), we got a more physical feel for the time and place -- muddy streets, scraggly beards and bad teeth...

2011

Nov

'HELL,' NO! AMC'S 'HELL ON WHEELS' BREAKS ITS SMART SERIES STREAK By David Bianculli

In the past five years, in its current quest to provide original quality TV series, AMC has given us Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Rubicon, The Walking Dead and The Killing. Except for a frustrating non-ending to the first season of The Killing, and a disappointing non-renewal of Rubicon...But with Hell on Wheels, the cable network's new Western series about railroad expansion in the post-Civil War era, AMC's run of impressive, innovative television goes completely off the rails...

2011

Nov

BETWEEN A 'ROCK CENTER' AND A HARD PLACE: NBC NEWSMAGAZINE'S PREMIERE RATINGS By David Bianculli

You know the old line about lies, damned lies, and statistics. Same for TV ratings -- and while many reports about audience levels for the Monday premiere of NBC's newsmagazine Rock Center generally wrote the new show off as a flop, I beg to differ. And have the lies and damned lies to prove it...

2011

Nov

TO SALUTE STEVE JOBS, PBS PRESENTS AN UNUSUALLY TIMELY SPECIAL THAT ILIKE By Tom Brinkmoeller

Less than a month after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, PBS airs an hour-long special program about him Wednesday night that probably could never have been turned around so quickly, cleanly and completely had Jobs not been such an egocentric and ruthlessly competitive genius...

2011

Nov

'ROCK CENTER' IMPRESSES IN FIRST OUTING -- BUT ON NBC, IS QUALITY ENOUGH? By David Bianculli

Monday's inaugural edition of NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams was an unusually polished and impressive first outing for a TV newsmagazine -- good mix of stories, thoughtful and engaging conversation, even a fun surprise guest. But with the most mindless of lead-ins, a two-hour installment of The Sing-Off, did anyone watch?...

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