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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
 
 
2019
May
18
SMALLFOOT By David Bianculli
 
 
Some very recognizable and attractive people are heard but not seen in this clever 2018 animated comedy, which is about a hidden community of yeti “discovering” a longmored human – in their parlance, a “smallfoot.” Channing Tatum provides the voice of Migo, Zendaya plays Meechee, Common is the Stonekeeper, and LeBron James is Gwangi. Quite a crew, especially notable given that they’re all being hired, in this case, primarily for their vocal skills. So are Dann
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
18
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Paul Rudd has hosted the season finale of SNL three times – and tonight’s show will make his fourth. Why is he tapped so often for this particular slot? For one thing, he’s usually featured in a major summer movie – as he is, this year, playing Ant-Man in Avengers: Endgame. But it’s also because Rudd can be counted on to hold his own in any sketch, and even carry it – which, at the end of a long season, when the regular Saturday Night Live reper
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
'BATWOMAN' JOINS 'SUPERGIRL' IN THE CW'S FEMALE-POWERED NEW LINEUP By Ed Bark
 
 
The CW is still perceived as a tyke among the Big Four broadcasting networks. But it may have fall’s showiest newcomer in Batwoman, in which the crime-fighting lead character is gay and “still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
THE FILM VERSION OF 'CATCH-22' LOOMS LARGE OVER CLOONEY'S WONDERFUL EFFORT ON HULU By David Hinckley
 
 
The new TV miniseries version of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 – call it the extended remix – may lead casual viewers and even devoted fans to consider the possibility that more is less...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
FLEABAG By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Between Season 1 of this series, which premiered in 2016, and Season 2, which Amazon presents in a six-pack of superb TV today, a lot has happened. For one thing, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and star of both this television series and the play on which it is based, has become an internationally acclaimed success, thanks to her more recent TV creation, BBC America’s brilliant Killing Eve. This one-two punch of flawless, adventurous TV writing may well be the most audac
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
CATCH-22 By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new six-part adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller WWII novel, one of my favorite books as an impressionable teen reader, takes full advantage of the miniseries form to get deeper into the book – making it darker and more meaningful as it goes on, with the missions required to fly and the body count slowly but steadily rising. The young soldiers are mostly relatively fresh faces, including Christopher Abbott as Yossarian, but watch for certain officers who are p
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s Season 6 premiere returned two actors whose characters’ fates were less than optimistic – Coulson had gone off to die, and Fitz was stranded in suspended animation in a far-flung corner of the universe. But though the actors returned, they were barely recognizable: Clark Gregg was playing not the affable Coulson, but a ruthless, murderous lookalike – and Fitz, played by Iain de Caesteker, concluded the episode by returning as Fitz, but he, too, was a much fier
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
Among this week’s scheduled guests: returning (and always quotable) visitor Fran Lebowitz.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
STATE OF THE UNION By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES CONCLUSION: I’ve adored this 10-part mini-miniseries (each episode is only 10 minutes long), and can’t wait for tonight’s conclusion. Last night’s installment, which had Tom (Chris O’Dowd) and Louise (Rosamund Pike) actually enjoying each other’s company after spending a particularly affable evening together, laid the groundwork for what just might be a hopeful ending. Or not. Either way, it’s been an unforgettably entertaining TV voyage. Kudo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
17
'CATCH-22' AGAIN ELUDES CAPTURE, BUT HULU'S SIX-PART MINISERIES MAKES A VERY GAME GO OF IT By Ed Bark
 
 
George Clooney recurrently loves a man in uniform, dating all the way back to Combat High, a super-obscure 1986 TV movie in which he played Maj. Biff Woods...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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