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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
23
NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN By David Bianculli
 
 
Directed by Martin Scorsese and shown originally on PBS’s American Masters in 2005, this lengthy documentary is an excellent, eye-opening, and musically generous artistic biography of Bob Dylan. He’s a notoriously elusive subject, but No Direction Home pins him down about as much as you can – and even has his cooperation. Sometimes, that weakens a documentary. This time, it strengthens it. He’s invisible now, he’s got no secrets to conceal.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
HOMECOMING By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The first season of this Amazon series, about subliminal subterfuge and a conspiratorial deep state, had a huge box-office draw at its center in Julia Roberts. She’s gone for Season 2, and taking her place at the story’s center is Janelle Monáe. New co-stars include Chris Cooper.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
PALEY FRONT ROW: “HBO’S WESTWORLD: A CONVERSATION WITH STARS AND CREATORS” By David Bianculli
 
 
Available on the Paley Center for Media’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, and its own website, the latest edition of Paley Front Row is streamed beginning at noon ET. It’s all about the third, just-concluded season of HBO’s Westworld, and features a panel discussing led by the show’s co-creators and a big component of that season’s prominent cast. Co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who are married, are there, along with actors Evan Rache
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE! By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: In 2013, NBC jump-started the new generation of live televised theater productions with its revival production of The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood as Maria and Stephen Moyer (from True Blood) as Captain Von Trapp. The Shows Must Go On, until now, have been devoted to the musicals of website backer Andrew Lloyd Webber, but for this new offering – available only through the weekend, starting at noon ET Friday – the menu has expanded. This perha
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
THE LAST WALTZ By David Bianculli
 
 
In 1978, Martin Scorsese directed this energetic and monumental record of the final concert by The Band, with a roster of guest stars that – well, just check out the list. Bob Dylan. Eric Clapton. Joni Mitchell. Van Morrison. Neil Young. Muddy Waters. Ringo Starr. Neil Diamond. Paul Butterfield. Ronnie Wood. Ronnie Hawkins. Emmylou Harris. Dr. John. The Staple Singers. Oh, yeah, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
AKA JANE ROE By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Nick Sweeney produced and directed this new FX documentary, which was in the works the year before the 2017 death of Norma McCorvey, the woman referred to as “Jane Roe” in the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing abortion. Sweeney interviewed McCorvey in depth, and even got what McCorvey called her “deathbed confession” about why she eventually switched sides on the issue of abortion. All the stories are complicated here, including
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s scheduled guests for this new at-home edition, after Maher took a week off, include Michael Moore and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, as well as author and physician Dr. Cate Shanahan.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1993 movie was a sleeper favorite of mine when it was released: a low-budget character study about a young boy who was gifted at chess, and the parents who didn’t know quite what to do with that gift. The screenplay adaptation of Fred Waitzkin’s book was written by Steven Zaillian, who also directed. The young boy is played, very touchingly, by Max Pomeranc, who quit acting shortly thereafter, and his parents are played – even more touchingly – by Joan Allen and Joe
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
In this new at-home edition, Norton’s guests include Will Ferrell and Mark Ruffalo. Two good reasons to watch.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
22
ERASERHEAD By David Bianculli
 
 
David Lynch directed Eraserhead in 1977, when almost no one had heard of him. It’s a film that’s so weird – and so, well, Lynchian – that it would be understandable if no one ever did hear of him. But one of the people who did see Eraserhead back then was Mel Brooks, who was so taken by its originality and tone that he hired Lynch to write and direct his already risky Brooksfilms dramatic movie, 1980’s The Elephant Man.&n
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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