FX sent out the first three episodes of this fifth season for preview – and they’re really, really good. Tonight’s episode explores more of the central couple’s new cover identities as an airline pilot and hostess, getting into some amazingly relevant discussions about Russian and American ideals. It also unveils what I suspect will be the year’s dominant story arc, and also greets a few familiar returning faces, while elevating the dramatic ante in personal stories

2017

Mar

ADAM CAROLLA AND FRIENDS BUILD STUFF LIVE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: On my book tour a few months ago, one of my stops in Los Angeles was Adam Carolla’s podcast. I wasn’t surprised by how much fun I had there, but I was surprised by two things. One, how many people I told afterward were fans of Carolla’s podcast, from the waiter at Rao’s to my own son. And two, how Carolla’s home-base headquarters looked as much like a carpentry warehouse as anything else. Now I know why. And Carolla is so comfortable and honest when

2017

Mar

TRIAL & ERROR By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. I love John Lithgow, and the premise for this show, sight unseen, sounds like a home run: In this faux crime documentary, Lithgow plays a Robert Durst-type accused murderer, surrounded by a somewhat incompetent legal team. But that’s sight unseen. Once you’ve seen it, as I have, it’s no longer promising. It breaks that promise, by being way too obvious, and nowhere near funny enough. I blame the writing and direction much more than

2017

Mar

LOST HIGHWAY By David Bianculli

As we ramp up to the return of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks this summer, I recommend soaking up many of his other, later efforts – including this haunting but baffling 1997 film, in which Patricia Arquette plays two roles – a femme fatale blonde, and, in another sort of reality, a femme fatale brunette. And Robert Blake plays… well, I don’t know who or what the hell he plays, but he sure does commit to it…

2017

Mar

MARTIN CLUNES' ISLANDS OF AUSTRALIA By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new series, imported and streamed beginning today on Acorn TV, features Martin Clunes, the British star of the long-time Doc Martin series, who embarks on a three-part documentary series, exploring some of the islands surrounding Australia. He visits 16 of them over this three-part series, having close encounters with such exotic animals as a devil on Tasmania’s Maria Island, a penguin on Phillip Island, lots of joeys (baby kangaroos, pictured) everywhere, and eve

2017

Mar

THE VOICE By David Bianculli

I’m really enjoying this season of the voice – and last week, when judge Alicia Keys sang to a female contestant, Lilli Passero, serenading her in hopes of persuading Lilli to join her team, The Voice presented its latest emotional surprise and high point. The ploy worked, by the way. And in tonight’s episode, Blake Shelton, the judge with the most successful record on The Voice, is supposed to pull out all the stops in a win-that-contestant trick of his own.

2017

Mar

24: LEGACY By David Bianculli

Tonight’s hour of 24: Legacy brings back, for the first time in this series, a very familiar face from the glory days of the original 24 series: Tony Almeida, played by Carlos Bernard. He’s called in, from what has become a very solitary existence, to assist in a particularly sensitive and tricky interrogation – one of Tony’s many established specialties.

2017

Mar

BATES MOTEL By David Bianculli

This show is getting so good as it heads towards its finale, with each week’s show delivered a long-simmering new twist. Tonight, the long-repressed Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) gets more intimate with an unhappily married young blonde named Madeleine (played by Isabelle McNally, pictured), who, last week, confessed her attraction to Norman. Madeleine dresses and looks a lot like Norman’s mother Norma (Vera Farmiga), who, though dead, is still very much a presence in the Bates hou

2017

Mar

HUMANS By David Bianculli

Tonight, HUMANS presents a double-header, as the conflicts between humans and synths become more agitated – and, even when argued in seemingly civilized settings, have very dangerous implications and repercussions, for all of mankind. And, at the same time, all of synthkind.

2017

Mar

CRIES FROM SYRIA By David Bianculli

Documentary filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky already has trained his attention, and his cameras, on one third-rail global hot spot, with his Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. Now he focuses on another such spot, where civil uprisings and brutal regimes clash in a battle for, or against, basic freedoms. Afineevsky takes care to offer a wide perspective, explaining the origins and tensions of the conflicts he covers – but then zooms in tightly to make you learn, and care, one per

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