The perfect family movie, shown when many families are gathered, and, by now, maybe looking for something to help avoid arguments. And The Wizard of Oz will work, so long as you don’t think of President Trump as the Wizard, the Munchkins as Congress, and the Wicked Witch of the West as Hillary Clinton.

2017

Dec

A CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli

This 1984 version of A Christmas Carol is one of my favorites, and stars George C. Scott in a made-for-TV version that is completely faithful to the original Charles Dickens story, yet seems modern enough, though faithful to its period as well, to be accepted easily by younger viewers.

2017

Dec

THE DWINDLING BRITISH EMPIRE IS THE SUBJECT OF 'THE LAST POST' By David Hinckley

When most people think of Britain in 1965, they think of rock ‘n’ roll bands, trendy clothes, and Swinging London...

2017

Dec

'ERIC IDLE'S THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE' COMES TO PBS By David Hinckley

If you’re feeling holiday overload and were just thinking you could use an hour of pure silly fun about astrophysics, PBS grants your wish with Eric Idle’s The Entire Universe...

2017

Dec

BRIGHT By David Bianculli

MOVIE PREMIERE: This big-budget Netflix movie is set in a world where magic is real, and elves and fairies and other mystical creatures co-exist in a largely dystopian, otherwise familiar modern world. TV has explored this area before, most notably by HBO’s Witch Hunt in 1994, starring Dennis Hopper. In this version, Will Smith plays the human cop with a troll-like “Orc” partner (Joel Edgerton), with a human-alien dynamic recalling another TV sci-fi series, Fox’s Alien Na

2017

Dec

I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL By David Bianculli

SPECIAL: For four years now, CBS has shown a pair of colorized episodes of I Love Lucy: one of them always the aptly named “The Christmas Episode,” from the classic sitcom’s final season in 1956, and the other a newly computer-colorized episode from the Lucy canon. Tonight, the new color-enhanced oldie is “The Fashion Show,” from 1955. It’s the one in which Lucy, linking with several other show-biz wives, puts on a fashion show – despite having a painful

2017

Dec

MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. By David Bianculli

This season, while we’ve been following most of the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in their future-time or alternate-universe post-Earth space prison, Fitz has been somewhere else, in captivity, trying for months to figure out where his colleagues went, and whether they’re still alive. On tonight’s episode, we see things from his perspective, which may lead to some much-desired clarity.

2017

Dec

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW – NOW IN LIVING COLOR! By David Bianculli

SPECIAL: The Dick Van Dyke Show, too, is a CBS classic given the colorized treatment of late. And while I’m of two minds about this phenomenon – I’m fine with the original black-and-white versions, yet these full-color versions are tinted with taste and care – anything that preserves the legacy of The Dick Van Dyke Show, the smartest and funniest sitcom of the 1960s, is fine with me. Tonight’s special offers two newly colorized classic episodes. In “October Ev

2017

Dec

ERIC IDLE'S THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE By David Bianculli

SPECIAL: This one-hour PBS special isn’t easy to describe. Well, it’s an hour – that’s the easy part. And it’s by Eric Idle of Monty Python’s Flying Circus fame, who returns to the realm of absurdist, eccentric and intelligent TV, to explain the universe, through musical numbers, with help from presenter Brian Cox and a small group of singing co-conspirators. These include Warwick Davis, of Life’s Too Short and the Harry Potter movies, as the Big Bang. F

2017

Dec

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS By David Bianculli

This 1965 cartoon Christmas classic is another brilliant team effort. The original stories and characters by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, of course, are the most valuable element of all. But had producer Lee Mendelson and director Bill Melendez not brought Schulz’s comic strip to life with simple animation and actual children’s voices, A Charlie Brown Christmas might not have charmed. And without the jazzy musical score by Vince Guaraldi, it might not have become iconic, unforg

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