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

 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
SERIES FINALE: Netflix is spending a lot of money and effort lately on big-budget science fiction movies and TV series, and here comes another one. Based on the novel by Richard K. Morgan, it’s set in a future in which people can transfer and transplant their consciousness to other bodies at will. Therefore, the protagonist of Altered Carbon, a well-trained soldier revived after centuries on ice, is played by two completely different actors: Will Yun Lee in the “past,” and Joel
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
Television shows, in prime time, make a huge deal out of reaching the milestone of 100 episodes, and any multiple of that, getting as high as 200 or 300, is a hugely successful achievement in the competitive world of television. So give Let’s Make a Deal a big tip of the hat: Today it celebrates its 1500th program. And to mark the occasion, Deal model Tiffany Coyne introduces a brand new game, “Winfall,” involving colored die, foam blocks, and gravity. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
Tonight’s episode is called “Past Life,” and features Coulson and his team, including Daisy (known, in the dystopian future in which they’re trapped, as the Destroyer of Worlds), trying to save the world. Twice. In their scary alternate future, and in the past, in order to escape from an endlessly recycling time loop.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
Tonight’s episode of my favorite talk show – another new outing of one of the only TV shows I rely upon to make me laugh out loud, no matter what – features such guests as Liam Neeson and Dame Helen Mirren. Sounds like a somber crew – but with Graham Norton at the helm, expect irreverence. And hilarity. I’m guessing, for one thing, that Norton will be smart enough to point out that Mirren and Neeson co-starred in the movie Excalibur… 37 years ago. He played G
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
The news is still breaking as I write this Friday morning, but whatever happens, Maher and company will be on hand tonight to comment upon it. And Maher’s scheduled guests tonight include Richard Haass, David Frum, Donna Brazile, and a brief blast from the recent White House past, Anthony Scaramucci.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: The podcast stars known as 2 Dope Queens move to a series of HBO specials, and make the most of it, bringing along other funny friends from the standup and comedy world, and, in tonight’s premiere, even an unexpected special guest. The titular queens are Phoebe Robinson from I Love Dick and Jessica Williams from The Daily Show, and they take the stage together to banter and riff, a dual dynamic not seen much on TV since the self-imposed retirement of Key & Peele. The g
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
2
 
 
Putting an orchestral score to hip-hop tracks is the kind of one-shot thing that might be done at the Grammys — staged more for the visual impact than how it all sounded. But...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
1
 
 
A good TV sitcom doesn’t require the breadth and nuance of King Lear. It does require a little more than we get in A.P. Bio...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
1
 
 
I shared an elevator not so long ago with Matt Moneymaker. In a Beverly Hills hotel. He saw my TV Critics Association name badge, looked at me quizzically and said, “Didn’t you write about me?”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Feb
1
 
 
The women take center stage in tonight’s Big Bang Theory, which pivots on two major plots. In one, the reboot of the Professor Proton TV show extends an invitation for a guest appearance – but not by long-time show admirer Sheldon, but by Amy. And in the other plot, Leonard writes a novel with a character who seems a lot like Penny, and that character isn’t exactly to Penny’s liking. Speaking of characters: the women on Big Bang, like the men, have evolved very significan