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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
 
 
2013
Dec
12
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Sheldon is back home in Texas for the holidays (and that should go well, by the way), so tonight’s new holiday episode has the rest of the gang swapping stories about Sheldon – how they met him, what they think of him, and what their lives would be like had they never met him. It’s not exactly It’s a Wonderful Life, but it’ll do.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
12
CINEMA PARADISO By David Bianculli
 
 
Director Guiseppe Tornatore co-wrote this 1988 movie, which is one of the most lovely love letters to cinema ever put on film. It’s about a filmmaker who looks back on his youth, and how the local cinema – and the people who worked there – inspired him beyond measure.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
12
THE RETURNED By David Bianculli
 
 
Part 7. The difficulty about describing The Returned is that it keeps shape-shifting. Based on the first few episodes, you could think of it as a psychological drama. Then a horror film. Then an environmental polemic. And now, with another discovery and another twist, it becomes almost religiously apocalyptic – or does it? For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
12
PARENTHOOD By David Bianculli
 
 
Here’s another reason to embrace and treasure this quietly impressive NBC drama series. It builds some of its scenes around the utterly ordinary – as in tonight’s episode, in which Uncle Crosby (Dax Shepard), rocking his baby the entire time, tries his best to offer some sage advice to his confused, love-stricken nephew. A quiet scene, and a very, very real one – the type you don’t see on TV that much any more. And seldom did.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
12
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS By David Bianculli
 
 
Written and directed by Preston Sturges, this 1941 movie is such a timeless classic, I get swept up in it every time I watch it, and think of new modern parallels to its farcical yet relatable plot. Several decades before Woody Allen embarked on a period of making “serious” films, Sturges has a Hollywood director named Sullivan (Joel McCrea), a successful purveyor of escapist comedies, having a mid-career crisis of conscience, and deciding to tour the country, getting to know the dow
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
12
'THE RETURNED' NEARS SEASON'S END By Eric Gould
 
 
As more of its mystery comes to light, the French import continues its deep, elegiac tone and stands as one of the smartest and most satisfying shows of 2013...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
11
THE PINK PANTHER By David Bianculli
 
 
This movie is 50 years old. And I’m so old, I can remember watching this 1963 movie with my dad, at a Florida drive-in, and loving it every bit as much as he did – especially the impenetrable accent of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Good memories. Good movie.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
11
SOUTH PARK By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Butters tries to explain what he expects out of his fourth-grade girlfriend’s attitude and body type – basing his ideal on Kim Kardashian. Yikes.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
11
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN By David Bianculli
 
 
The last episode before the winter break has Angela Bassett’s voodoo woman stepping up and seeking revenge of a very personal nature – while, in other plot lines on this week’s episode, the blind can see, and the dead will walk the earth. And maybe even visit for tea.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
11
THE BAND WAGON By David Bianculli
 
 
Fred Astaire month continues Wednesdays, and tonight’s lineup saves two of his best musicals until after prime time, so set those DVRs. At 11:30 p.m. ET, Astaire stars in 1953’s The Band Wagon, playing a past-his-prime movie star who is talked into cashing in on his celebrity by starring on Broadway – Cyd Charisse co-stars as his long-legged, scene-stealing dance partner. Now that’s entertainment (which, by the way, is one of the numbers performed here).
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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