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

 
 
2019
Apr
17
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: I’d be more enthused about this PBS program if James Burke hadn’t done it before, and so, so much better, in another series presented by PBS back in the 1970s. That series was called Connections, and I still treasure it, watch it – and, occasionally, teach it to my TV students. But some of the ideas here didn’t even exist then, so here comes Breakthrough. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. Check local listings. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
17
 
 
Oooh, scary TV show, boys and girls! Tonight on What We Do in the Shadows, the Staten Island vampires venture onto another island. Specifically, Manhattan, where they dare to enter a downtown nightclub.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
17
 
 
At the end of last week’s episode, Hank Azaria’s Jim Brockmire suffered a mild attack during a live play-by-play baseball broadcast. It wasn’t a heart attack or a stroke, though. It was a sudden inability to find the right words to complete a thought, which he described, in panicked tones, as a case of “the yips.” And this week, he has to deal with that, which ought to be very funny indeed. Yip, yip, hooray!
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
17
 
 
You still may not want to know how the sausage is made, but the way the telescope was created turns out to be pretty cool...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
16
 
 
If you find yourself laughing at the British series There She Goes, it will often be to keep from crying...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
16
 
 
“Goin’ Up the Country” by Canned Heat is a great choice to play a prominent musical and thematic role in the new ABC sitcom Bless This Mess...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
16
 
 
Galaxy Quest is 20 years old now, which means this genre comedy has a built-in nostalgia factor all its own. Yet that only adds to this giddy mix of nostalgia, sci-fi and TV fandom, a cleverly written movie that both pokes fun at Star Trek and embraces it. The basic premise: the cast of a TV series called “Galaxy Quest,” still appearing at fan conventions 18 years after their space opera show was cancelled, is enlisted by aliens who think the actors’ TV exploits were real, and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
16
 
 
Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 silent comedy is shown tonight in prime time by TCM – and while I show this film every time I teach early film history at Rowan University, seeing it on TV, uncut, is kind of an impressive event. And young or old, if you haven’t seen it, here’s a wonderful, and very easy, opportunity. Come for the silent-film novelty. Stay for the roll dance…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
16
 
 
Of the episodes I’ve seen so far of this miniseries (which is most of them), tonight’s installment is the most effective and artistically satisfying. It flashes back, extensively, to the time choreographer Bob Fosse (played by Sam Rockwell) met dancer and actress Gwen Verdon (played by Michelle Williams). Their meeting, with her auditioning for a role he’s choreographing, is played as a verbal and nonverbal duet: They circle one another, probe for weaknesses, lob jokes, and sni
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Apr
15
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Melissa Joan Hart, who played a sitcom kid on ABC’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, is now a sitcom parent, paired with fellow former child actor Sean Astin in this new Netflix sitcom. It stars Siena Agudong as Nick, the title character, who plays a young grifter taken in by the aforementioned couple. I didn’t preview it, so I don’t know yet whether No Good Nick is no good.