What a great season this series is having. Tonight’s new episode is called “Hide,” and it’s an old-fashioned ghost story, set in a dusty old mansion and featuring ethereal creatures who may – or may not – be old-fashioned ghosts. Matt Smith, as always, is utterly winning as the eleventh Doctor, and it’s not too early in the short reign of Jenna-Louise Coleman, as Clara, to declare her the best Doctor Who companion ever. Period.

2013

Apr

CALL ME CRAZY: A FIVE FILM By David Bianculli

Here’s an interesting film project: In this compilation, five different directors present short films touching upon some aspect of mental illness, with each short film featuring a different cast. Stars include Melissa Leo, Jennifer Hudson, Brittany Snow, Jason Ritter, Sarah Hyland and Octavia Spencer – but it’s the directors who really deserve notice. For this Lifetime project, the directors are Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bonnie Hunt, Ashley Judd and Sharon Maguire.

2013

Apr

FREAKS By David Bianculli

Tod Browning’s 1932 film is a mini-masterpiece – a movie so novel, so unsettling, and so all-out strange, it’s difficult to prepare viewers for it in advance. For a horror film, it has an amazing amount of compassion and heart. It also has some sequences that, once seen, will stay with you the rest of your days. And especially your nights. One of us! One of us!

2013

Apr

ORPHAN BLACK By David Bianculli

Tatiana Maslani, in this series, has the showiest acting role since Toni Collette in The United States of Tara, and – as a woman who discovers she is one of many identical yet different clones – already has portrayed a handful of different personas, with more to come. This series is having fun with this concept, but without slipping into camp. The drama level is high, partly because the acting level is, too. Give it/her/them a chance.

2013

Apr

FIVE DAYS IN APRIL: TV’S CAPTIVATING BOSTON BOMBING DRAMA By David Bianculli

Fifty years ago, 24-hour TV news was introduced when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This week in Boston, the nation witnessed something smaller, yet similar…

2013

Apr

BOSTON TV IMAGES HIT A LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO HOME By Eric Gould

In an interview on Fresh Air, Globalpost.com reporter Charles Sennott said, "Every time this happens, it's someone's hometown." He's right. This time, it happened in mine...

2013

Apr

HEMLOCK GROVE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is more advisory than recommendation. When House of Cards premiered all at once on Netflix two months ago, it was with an instant burst of impressive creativity – a demand, because of the new show’s cast, writing, direction and overall quality, that “attention must be paid.” The opening hour of Hemlock Grove – which, like all other hours in the first season, became available today – is less impressive, less original, and certainly a lot l

2013

Apr

EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY By David Bianculli

This 1989 movie semi-musical, a tossaway cotton-candy comedy confection, may seem like a very odd “spider-web” film – but the performances keep me watching, whenever it pops up. (That, and the knowledge that it was one of my daughter Kristin’s favorite movies growing up.) Geena Davis plays a Valley Girl who is visited by three hairy, Play-Doh-colored space aliens – and when their fur is shaved, they’re all good-looking guys, played by Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey

2013

Apr

GLORY By David Bianculli

Made in 1989, this Civil War drama tells of the first all-black volunteer company of Union soldiers. Matthew Broderick plays the white colonel who leads them, and Broderick is, quote literally, in very good company. His follow actors in this strong character study include Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Andre Braugher.

2013

Apr

HIS GIRL FRIDAY By David Bianculli

This 1940 version of The Front Page takes Ben Hecht’s 1929 play and revises it by making room for a leading lady. In this version, directed by Howard Hawks at breakneck verbal speed, Cary Grant plays newspaper editor Walter Burns, who adopts desperate measures when his ex-wife Hildy Johnson, played by Rosalind Russell, threatens to leave the paper. Ex-wife, he was fine with – but she’s so good a reporter, “ex-employee” is a deal-breaker. No wonder Cher, who co-hosts

Posts 61-70 of 192

6 7 8 9 10

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption