“Created Equal,” the idea that “all men are created equal,” didn’t become law until after the Civil War, thanks to the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. In tonight’s show, Peter Sagal crosses the country to find and examine cases where the spirit, and the letter, of that law are being put to the test. Check local listings.

2013

May

THE PETRIFIED FOREST By David Bianculli

Another classic film noir thriller, this one stars Humphrey Bogart – but not as the hero. In this 1936 suspense movie, he plays a convict on the run, who gathers hostages in a desolate café. Co-stars include Bette Davis and Leslie Howard.

2013

May

GRIMM By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode ended with a nice visual image: the zombie-making bad guy locking his entranced victims into a railroad shipping car, only to have the camera pull back and reveal that it’s only one freight car among hundreds. Tonight, this show’s zombies come closer to being set free – and the puffy-and-spiky-faced man shall lead them.

2013

May

PBS’S ‘AMERICAN MASTERS’ CONDUCTS A NEW CONVERSATION WITH MEL BROOKS… AND, ON NPR’S ‘FRESH AIR,’ SO DO I By David Bianculli

Hilarious Hollywood hyphenate Mel Brooks is the subject of a new American Masters profile tonight at 9 ET on PBS — and earlier today, he’s also my guest on Fresh Air…

2013

May

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE By David Bianculli

This disturbing, defiant, utterly brilliant 1971 Stanley Kubrick sci-fi film, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, is the work of art that made me want to become a critic. I was so thrown by this movie when it was released – rated X, initially, in a more conservative cultural climate – that I saw it many, many times in a single week, examining a different aspect of the movie each time. This was back in the pre-home video day when “binge viewing” meant returning, time an

2013

May

OUR MAN FLINT By David Bianculli

TCM is launching an evening of spy-spoof movies, starting with this smartly satiric 1965 comedy – starring James Coburn as super-agent Derek Flint – which heavily inspired Mike Myers’ Austin Powers movies. (Even the sound of the top-secret phone in Myers’ movies comes directly from Flint.) After Our Man Flint, TCM presents two of Dean Martin’s lighter, less enjoyable but still genial 1966 Matt Helm spy spoofs, The Silencers (10 p.m. ET) and Murderers’ Ro

2013

May

AMERICAN MASTERS: "MEL BROOKS: MAKE A NOISE" By David Bianculli

Mel Brooks gets the American Masters treatment, and a good one, in this 90-minute profile that manages, even without narration, to tell an understandable and entertaining tale of the life and works of this very talented filmmaker, TV writer, composer, Broadway record-setter, and satirist. The best tour guide: Brooks himself. For a full review, and a link to my new interview with Brooks for NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, see Bianculli’s Blog. Check local listings.

2013

May

BATES MOTEL By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: This uneven series has done a few things right while spinning its odd sort-of prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror masterpiece. One, it’s explained, and played well with, some of the formative influences of young Norman, including his voyeurism, his fascination with taxidermy, and his Oedipal issues. And two, it’s given Vera Farmiga – as Norma, Norman’s mother – a juicy role with which she’s managed to hit one home run after another.

2013

May

RECTIFY By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: The six-episode Rectify character study ends tonight, but only for the season. What could have been an abrupt finale is now just a pause: Sundance has renewed this haunting character study for next season. Good thing, too, because this is a character just at the start of a unique, challenging transition, from Death Row inmate to out-of-place free man.

2013

May

ABC'S 'MOTIVE': A CRIME DRAMA WITH A TWIST By Ed Bark

As a whodunit with the who already answered, Motive seems to have a clue about what it takes to carry on...

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