SPECIAL: Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson co-host this year’s annual, meaningless movie awards show. It makes sense to ignore it on its merits, but this annual special usually generates news based on the antics of either the hosts or some of the presenters. So in writing about this, I’m caught between the Rock and a Hart place. This MTV show is simulcast, by the way, on several corporate sister networks, including BET, Comedy Central, TV Land, and VH1.

2016

Apr

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Steven Soderbergh made a film called The Girlfriend Experience in 2009, and now is executive producer of this new series, which borrows the title, the basic subject and mood, and little else. The same sort of trick was attempted, and pulled off spectacularly well, with the TV itieration of Fargo, so there’s a precedent – but expecting that level of success may be unreasonably optimistic. At any rate, Riley Keough, Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, plays Christine

2016

Apr

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Last season, which was Season 1, this series seemed a little adrift as it walked through the earliest zombie outbreak in this prequel to The Walking Dead. This season, they’re adrift again, but this time it’s literal: The central group of survivors we’re following takes to the sea on a boat. Good thinking, because the dreaded Walkers can’t find them there, right? But watch out for Swimmers! For an interview with Kim Dickens (Madison), see David Hinckley's

2016

Apr

HOUSE OF LIES By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 5 begins, and this year the show begins with Marty and Jeannie (Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell) working together again – not only at work, but on parenting.

2016

Apr

DICE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Andrew “Dice” Clay launched a successful career rebirth a few years ago, thanks to a knowing guest arc on HBO’s Entourage and a shockingly sincere and effective acting turn in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. Now he has his own series, a Curb Your Enthusiasm-ish character study in which he plays a comically exaggerated version of himself. Which, given his infamously misogynistic “Dice” alter ego, may sound, and even be, redundant. But here it is.

2016

Apr

'OUTLANDER': A PERIOD ROMANCE THAT'S EASY TO LOVE By David Hinckley

Caitriona Balfe gets to slip into some spectacular embroidered gowns in the new season of Starz’s Outlander. More impressive, that’s not how she steals the show.

2016

Apr

KEN BURNS' JAZZ By David Bianculli

Part 4. This installment, focusing on the years 1929-35, is set during the first years of the Depression – bad times for everyday people, but wonderful times for jazz. Especially jazz recordings, which began to come into their own. Check local listings.

2016

Apr

THE EIGHTIES: "RAISED ON TELEVISION" By David Bianculli

This is a repeat of the two-hour opener of The Eighties, which launched last week with an episode all about television. I’m in it, and advised on it, and last Thursday, when it premiered, I finally saw it. And liked it, despite my own presence it in. So to all my friends and relatives who complain that I never give warning when I’m going to pop up on TV (which, believe me, is a rarity) – here you go. Consider yourself forewarned. And you loyal TVWW readers, since I did mention

2016

Apr

NOTHING LEFT UNSAID: GLORIA VANDERBILT & ANDERSON COOPER By David Bianculli

Usually, when Anderson Cooper is interviewing someone, he’s revealing a lot more about his subject than he is about himself. Not this time. Not when the person he’s interviewing is his mother, and not when his mother was, for a brief time, one of the more famous people of the early 20th century: the “Poor Little Rich Girl” at the heart of a bitter custody fight between her wealthy and high-profile parents. So when he interviews her – or talks to her, really –

2016

Apr

OUTLANDER By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: I see England, I see France. I see that this time-travel romance series is back for another season, and moving to a new and more glamorous setting. See David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower for a full review, and for an interview with the show’s star, Caitriona Balfe.

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