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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
 
 
2018
Apr
15
BARRY By David Bianculli
 
 
Bill Hader is impressing me here not only as an actor, but as a director. He packs his frame full of information and bits of business, sometimes hiding the funniest elements in the background for you to notice. And he’s very generous with his fellow actors, too, giving each of them nice quiet moments to shine, whether they’re playing insecure young actors or cocky foreign hit men.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
15
LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER By David Bianculli
 
 
The more frantic a week gets in terms of breaking news, the more I look forward to John Oliver’s summary and reactions. Yes, last night’s opening Saturday Night Live sketch with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller as Robert Mueller and Michael Cohen (pictured) was great – but the last word on each week’s news still, to me, falls to John Oliver.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
15
LES CRUSTACEANS By Eric Gould
 
 

SNL returned to musical satire last night (Saturday, April 15), with this operetta based on a man (Pete Davidson) who dares to order the lobster at a diner. You know, ‘cause it’s a diner. And no one ever orders orders the seafood. The lobster (Kenan Thompson) shellfishly laments his fate in the style of Les Miserables.

 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
14
HBO'S 'ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER' HAS THE ADDED POIGNANCY OF TOM PETTY'S PERSPECTIVES By Ed Bark
 
 
It can be disconcerting to those of us who have reached a certain age. In truth, though, there’s no denying that the life and times of Elvis Presley have become ancient history to a majority of Americans...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
14
LOLITA By David Bianculli
 
 
The premise of this 1962 Stanley Kubrick movie, based on the controversial novel by Vladimir Nabokov, was incendiary at the time. Then Lolita, thanks in no small to a wicked performance by Peter Sellers, became accepted by the mainstream as another of director Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic masterpieces, and the story – about a middle-aged professor (James Mason) becoming inappropriately infatuated by a 14-year-old girl (Sue Lyon) – stopped raising eyebrows. But in this newly awar
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
14
ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: This two-part documentary (part two is televised tonight immediately after part one, so Elvis won’t leave the building) tackles a tough challenge: After all these years and all these nonfiction documentaries and fact-based dramas, what else is left to say, or to learn, about Elvis Presley? I asked that question of the writer of an Elvis docudrama about 20 years ago, and I’ll never forget his answer: Elvis had a terrible time remembering names, so he called every
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
14
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s guest host for this new edition is former SNL writer John Mulaney, who used to write, among other things, the Stefon skits with Bill Hader. Musical guest: Jack White.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
14
'ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER' IS A REFRESHER COURSE ON HIS LEGACY By David Hinckley
 
 
There was a time not so long ago when a three-hour film that asked “Who is Elvis Presley?” would have seemed unnecessary because almost everyone who might have cared already knew...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
13
NETFLIX FINDS A WAY TO RELAUNCH 'LOST IN SPACE' By Ed Bark
 
 
The Season of the Reboot now has a reboot that itself was rebuilt from the very start. (Try saying that fast ten times.)...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
13
'RELLIK' IS A TRIPPY POLICE PROCEDURAL By David Hinckley
 
 
Better be wide-awake if you want to follow Cinemax’s new six-part serial killer series Rellik...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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