2021
 
 
 
 
 
 
2020
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2019
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2018
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2017
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2014
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2009
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2007
 
 
 
 
 
 
2001
 
 
 
 
2000
 
 
 
 
1998
 
 
 
 
1990
 
 
 
 
1989
 
 
 
 
1987
 
 
 
 
1985
 
 
 
 
1982
 
 
 
 
1980
 
 
 

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
27
1994: 'THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW' LEAVES LATE NIGHT By TV WW
 
 
This day in 1994 marked the last telecast of the syndicated late-night talker, The Arsenio Hall Show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
27
HBO MAX LAUNCH By David Bianculli
 
 
STREAMING SERVICE LAUNCH: It’s neither HBO Go nor HBO Now – though, if you have either of those, they should, theoretically, shift or allow free access to HBO Max, the new streaming service rolled out today. Its biggest draw is its large backlog of series and movies, both from HBO and elsewhere. (From this point on, for a while, HBO Max is the only streaming site on which you can see all of Friends.) There also are HBO Max originals being unveiled today, from children&rsquo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
27
MRS. AMERICA By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES FINALE: Today brings Episode 9 of Mrs. America, which is the final installment in this story of the initial attempts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. As with the opening episode, Cate Blanchett takes center stage as anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly – but the episode it titled “Reagan,” evoking the era if not the man himself.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
27
GRANT By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES FINALE: Lee lost. Grant won. That was in yesterday’s Part 2. Tonight, it’s the post-war story, and what happens to Ulysses S. Grant as he prepares his memoirs… which Mark Twain wants to publish. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
27
MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This final season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. propels the team back to Earth, but shifts time as well as space: It’s the Earth of the 1930s, when Agent Coulson, Daisy and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. stalwarts must defeat an extraterrestrial enemy, avoid a disastrous time paradox – and, given the time period, perhaps encounter a teenage, pre-bulked Steve Rogers, before he enlists to fight the Nazis and is transformed into the original Captain America
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
27
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s episode, Nadja and Lazslo venture into a dangerous new environment: open mic night at a local nightclub. And the two vampire lovers have an old musical number they’re dusting off for the occasion… "You're So Vein," perhaps?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
'VIRAL: ANTI-SEMITISM IN FOUR MUTATIONS' EXAMINES A GROWING GLOBAL INFECTION By Mike Hughes
 
 
Standing face-to-face with a racist, filmmaker Andrew Goldberg found something surprising: He sort of liked him. “He’s a very likable guy...We had an interesting friendship.”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
THE COMPLETE BBC TELEVISION SHAKESPEARE COLLECTION By David Bianculli
 
 
From 1978 to 1985, the BBC spent seven years producing new TV productions of every play William Shakespeare ever wrote. I reviewed them, as a TV critic, as all 37 were released stateside by PBS – and expected to see them repeated on TV from then on. Instead, they all but vanished. Until now, when Britbox is making all of them available for streaming beginning today. Helen Mirren is in two of my very favorites from this BBC run: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
GRANT By David Bianculli
 
 
Episode 2. Granted, the reenactments in this new History documentary about Ulysses S. Grant often are problematic. But the history being retold here is captivating, and inarguably valid and valuable.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
VAMPIRE'S KISS By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1989 movie is a super-stylized horror film – as much a character study of delusional aberrant behavior as of being in thrall of an alleged vampire. And it’s the acting that makes it work so well, led by Jennifer Beals as the potentially undead femme fatale, and Nicolas Cage as the man whose cinematic and gothic influences go all the way back to Nosferatu.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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