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

 
 
2017
Apr
9
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Last week, Homeland escalated tensions on several front, with an inflammatory TV appearance featuring the President-Elect and a sudden spike in the spy-directed infusion of “fake news” on Internet sites. In tonight’s Season 6 finale, new chief executive Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) is targeted not by disinformation and a smear campaign, but by a highly trained hit squad sent to kill her – with only Carrie (Claire Danes) suspecting the mission, and on site to pr
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
9
 
 
In last week’s episode, Bette Davis lost the Best Actress Oscar to Anne Bancroft, while a competitive and gleeful Joan Crawford, who hadn’t even been nominated, accepted on Bancroft’s behalf. (And what a great, unbroken handheld camera shot that episode included!) The feud between Davis and Crawford, played so superbly by Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, is at fever pitch now – but it’s not over just because the Oscars have been awarded. Now, in tonight’s new
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
9
 
 
Last week, the drama and the comedy were equally satisfying, as Adam (Adam Driver) came back to Hannah (Lena Dunham) and argued that they should reunite as a loving couple. This week, in this series’ penultimate episode, the reunions continue, as Hannah contacts her inner circle and requests a “group meeting.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
9
 
 
Paul Giamatti and Maggie Siff, paying the estranged power couple Chuck and Wendy Rhoades, have been excellent on this series, and especially coiled and intense this season, as they circle each other as well as outsiders. But their intensity is, if anything, outshone this year by Damian Lewis as billionaire Bobby Axelrod, who’s fighting hard to retain and expand his power base. With so many billionaires in and around the White House, his performance in Billions has even more resonance &ndas
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
9
 
 
I’ve come to rely on this show to put me to bed for the week, tucking me in and making me feel, if not safe, at least sane, and determined to deal with whatever comes my way the following week. This week’s recap, and perspective, ought to be especially interesting, with or without Bolivian zebras.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
8
 
 
The Son keeps AMC in the business of historic American heartland epics with sweeping moral implications...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
8
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: It’s been only a decade since AMC redefined itself by presenting quality original drama programming, with 2007’s Mad Men and, before that, with the 2006 AMC Western miniseries Broken Trail, starring Robert Duvall. Both Westerns and miniseries were dying genres then, and Westerns still are today – but maybe this new series, based on the novel by Philipp Meyer, will help change that. It’s about tough Texan Eli McCullough, shown alternatively at two pivotal
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
8
 
 
Tonight’s episode is a new compilation of the best moments from the current season. The Graham Norton Show is funny and entertaining enough in regular, full-length installments – so these concentrated doses are sure-fire winners.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
8
 
 
The Showtime revival of Twin Peaks begins in little more than a month (May 21; mark your calendars), and I advise starting to work yourself up in anticipation with plenty of time to spare. Tonight, for example, Showtime presents the original 1990 movie-length pilot of Twin Peaks, which launched with those immortal words, “She’s dead. Wrapped in plastic.” It’s more than a quarter-century since David Lynch and Mark Frost unveiled Twin Peaks to an unsuspecting and fascinated
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
8
 
 
If I were writing a President Trump skit for Saturday Night Live this week, it would focus on the inaudible sound of his microphone as he announced the U.S. retaliatory bombing of Syria – with audio that sounded like it was coming from the worst commuter-train P.A. system in history. I’ll be watching SNL to see what they do, and how they handle Trump’s most successful political week as President – but mostly, I’ll be watching to see guest host Louis C.K., whose prev