In 1956, Playhouse 90 presented the live drama premiere of Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight, starring Jack Palance as a past-his-prime boxer betrayed by his own manager (Keenan Wynn). Ed Wynn, Keenan’s father, co-starred as the boxer’s aging corner man, and all three were terrific. Six years later, the TV drama was remade as this Hollywood movie, starring Anthony Quinn as the boxer, Jackie Gleason as the manager and Mickey Rooney as the corner man. They’re all very

2015

Mar

THE BLACKLIST By David Bianculli

This series is staying put, for the moment, in its new Thursday time slot, but the shows on either side of it are changing. The Slap, which used to lead off the evening at 8 p.m. ET, now is televised at 10 – while the opening hour of prime time, from tonight on, is devoted to a relocated Dateline NBC. Even so, this is the hour that’s the most rewarding, so stay tuned – and stay put.

2015

Mar

AMERICAN CRIME By David Bianculli

Last week’s premiere established the crime at the heart of this season, and introduced most of the characters. But not all of them, and a few more, including one played by Regina King, are introduced tonight. Also tonight, the show’s texture and plot get even more layered – so please watch, because it’s a rewarding viewing experience.

2015

Mar

PORTLANDIA By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Tonight is the last Portlandia for a while – and it ends with a clash of cultures, leading to a courtroom scene in which a defense attorney, played by Paul Reubens, defends some of the town’s familiar (to viewers, at least) nonconformists.

2015

Mar

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode identifies the Top 12 finalists for this season – and also brings, to a more central stage, Scott Borchetta as the new mentor for the 2015 contestants. As a record executive, his name may not be familiar – but since he’s the guy who signed Taylor Swift a decade ago, his ear (and eye) for talent cannot be denied. Singers gotta sing (sing sing sing sing), and signers gotta sign (sign sign sign sign)...

2015

Mar

EMPIRE By David Bianculli

Associated Press TV reporter David Bauder just noted that this Fox series has done something that may be unprecedented in the last 20 years, at least: Ever since its premiere, this prime-time drama series has increased its weekly audience. That’s an unbroken eight-week streak of increased success, swelling the Empire audience to more than 14 million weekly viewers – second, in today’s TV landscape, only to AMC’s The Walking Dead. And the show’s first season isn&rsqu

2015

Mar

BROADCHURCH By David Bianculli

In this second season, Broadchurch is exploring the same ground that, in a different country and in a less rural setting, ABC’s American Crime has just begun to traverse. It’s a drama not only about the solving of a crime, but about its ramifications to many people involved: families of the victim and the accused, investigators working the case, and others caught in the tide of a crime.

2015

Mar

THE AMERICANS By David Bianculli

The tension has ratcheted up to piercing proportions in tonight’s episode, and it’s quite a family affair. Mom is sent out to accomplish a deadly assignment, Dad has to handle his increasingly demanding “other wife,” and Daughter calls out her parents on what she deems shifty and inexplicable behavior. And she’s right…

2015

Mar

MAN SEEKING WOMAN By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode shifts focus, from the post-breakup travails of Josh (Jay Baruchel) to those of his sister Liz (Britt Lower), who finds herself having to re-enter the dating pool herself. Josh insists she has an incredible gender advantage – and tonight’s reverse-perspective episode, borne out even in the show’s promos, tests that hypothesis.

2015

Mar

ANOTHER NEW PROGRAM PROVIDER JOINS THE TV GAME: THIS TIME IT'S PLAYSTATION By David Bianculli

A generation or two ago, it was superstation TBS, then premium cable provider HBO, bending the rules about what and how viewers could watch TV. Today (Tuesday, Mar. 10), another streaming video player joins the fray. It’s PlayStation...

Posts 101-110 of 171

10 11 12 13 14

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption