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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
 
 
2013
Apr
4
SPRINGTIME FOR LENO: NEXT YEAR'S WILL BE HIS LAST By Ed Bark
 
 
Jay Leno officially and unwillingly walked the plank Wednesday, ceding The Tonight Show to Jimmy Fallon on a yet to be announced date in spring 2014...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
DIRECTV'S FIRST ORIGINAL SCRIPTED SERIES LANDS WITH A THUD By Ed Bark
 
 
Dreary in tone and storyline — and mostly dimly lit as well — Rogue is a decidedly uninviting vehicle for DirecTV’s first original scripted series...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
NATURE: "WHAT PLANTS TALK ABOUT" By David Bianculli
 
 
This installment, an unofficial sequel to David Attenborough’s The Private Life of Plants, uses time-lapse photography and other high-tech tricks to let us see plants in a new way: as beings with preferences, motivations, even emotions. According to this, some plants emit a chemical smell – part warning to neighboring plants, part cry of anguish – when they’re hurt. So that smell of freshly mown grass? It’s the olfactory equivalent of a silent scream of pain. It&rsq
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
HENRY V By David Bianculli
 
 
TCM has a prime-time lineup tonight that invites you to belly up to the Bard. Two Shakespeare movies starring Laurence Olivier are televised tonight, beginning with this 1944 screen version of one of the Bard’s most famous historical plays. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, comes 1948’s Hamlet, co-starring Jean Simmons as Ophelia. If you like Shakespeare, Ophelia should be watching this double bill.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
MODERN FAMILY By David Bianculli
 
 
In this new episode, Claire’s stay in the hospital brings her and Phil face to face with their future equivalents: older versions of themselves, and their grown kids, as they visit dad in the next hospital bed. Phil (Ty Burrell) is thrilled by the seeming resemblance to their own lives and relationships; Claire (Julie Bowen), not so much.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
SPIES OF WARSAW By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Former Doctor Who star David Tennant has the leading role in this spy series set in the years before WWII. Based on the novels by Alan Furst, Spies presents Tennant as a French secret agent who is certain Hitler plans to incite and lead a war, and aims to prove it and try to stop it. His costar, and romantic leading lady, is Janet Montgomery, used to much better effect here than when she starred, with a very different accent, on the CBS series Made in Jersey.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
THE AMERICANS By David Bianculli
 
 
For once, Philip and Elizabeth (Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell) go on the same mission at the same time – but teamwork doesn’t necessarily mean things go more smoothly. In fact, this time, it turns out quite the opposite.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
NBC'S 'HANNIBAL' EXHIBITS QUICK DECLINE By Ed Bark
 
 
There’s a lot to digest in NBC’s Hannibal, much of it distasteful and, worse yet from a storytelling standpoint, increasingly impossible to swallow...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
3
GERALD MCRANEY AND 'SOUTHLAND' STILL RIDING HIGH By Eric Gould
 
 
Major Dad Gerald McRaney, has had a renaissance of sorts in 2013, with a guest appearance on FX's Justified and a recent turn on Southland...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Apr
2
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
Why am I still watching, and supporting, this musical competition series, when American Idol and The X Factor have left me completely cold this season? I figured it out when watching last night's two-hour audition round: Unlike the others, this show, at its heart, is inherently kind and genuinely supportive. And the new judges, Usher and Shakira, have established their places already, fitting in nicely — while Blake Shelton remains the sneaky stealth bomber of The Voice, saving his am
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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