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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
 
 
2020
May
17
HOW HAVE THE SOCIAL DISTANCING VERSIONS OF 'AMERICAN IDOL' AND 'THE VOICE' FARED? By Mike Hughes
 
 
As the music competitions end their seasons...some things are clear: Yes, both shows are flawed...But the music-from-home part has worked well...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
'HIGHTOWN' MURDER TALE HAS LIVELY PROVINCETOWN AS BACKDROP By David Hinckley
 
 

Jackie Quinones spends her evenings walking through the streets of Provincetown snorting cocaine, drinking whatever someone puts in front of her... During the daytime she works in law enforcement... 

 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
CLASS WARFARE IN CLOSE QUARTERS – ON TV – WITH 'SNOWPIERCER' By David Hinckley
 
 
The title character of the new TNT drama, Snowpiercer, is a train that has been circling the Earth for almost seven years...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
CNN'S 'SCANDALOUS' UNCOVERS THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER By Mike Hughes
 
 

When Elvis Presley died in 1977, the differences in news coverage were cavernous... By the time newscasts started, “there were six Enquirer reporters in the air for Memphis with $50,000 in cash"...

 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
ORPHAN BLACK REUNION & TABLE READING By David Bianculli
 
 
When Orphan Black was still in production, and presented on BBC America, the cast occasionally would show up at fan conventions and do table reads, reciting their respective lines from scripts and having a good time. Now they’re doing a similar thing for charity, online and separated in their own homes, reading from two old scripts from Season 1. Tatiana Maslany, who just co-starred on Broadway opposite Bryan Cranston in Network, and her co-stars will reunite today at 3
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
AFV@HOME By David Bianculli
 
 
This is not a recommendation: America’s Funniest Home Videos, hosted by Bob Saget, premiered on ABC back in 1989. It’s been around most of the time since then, with host and title tweaks, except for taking little more than a year off at the start of the new century. But even counting from 2001, this ABC series is one of TV’s most tenured shows – older, at this point, than any continuing prime-series except for 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Simpsons, Dateline NBC,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This is not a recommendation, either. This is the expanded finale for this first pandemically affected season of American Idol. How will it end, without an audience there to offer support and encouragement? Who will win? And if the winner sings in a forest and no one hears them, have they ever sung at all? For a full review of the home versions of American Idol and The Voice, see Mike Hughes' Open Mike. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
WORLD ON FIRE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This is the last episode of the year for this PBS import – but since the network is referring to it as a season finale, not a finale, and since the war it’s dramatizing is far from over, there may be more episodes of World on Fire to come, in time. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
KILLING EVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s installment of Killing Eve was 100 percent Villanelle, following Jodie Comer’s twisted assassin as she returned to her childhood home and roots, tracked down her birth mother… after which, let’s just say, things led to an emotional mother-daughter confrontation and climax that was beautifully acted, tangibly intense, and quite fiery. This week, we get back to Sandra Oh’s Eve, who was last seen witnessing the sudden, brutal slaying of her estra
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
17
THE LAST DANCE By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES CONCLUSION: For a month now, ESPN has been offering double-dose helpings of this new documentary about Michael Jordan’s 1997-98 final championship run with the Chicago Bulls. Mostly, The Last Dance, so far, has been an entertaining and informative look at the long, arduous path to that final celebrated season – but tonight, the big payoff finally arrives. As does the big playoff.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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