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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

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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
 
 
2013
May
20
'THE GOODWIN GAMES' HAS NO CHANCE OF WINNING By Ed Bark
 
 
The Goodwin Games — from the creative team behind How I Met Your Mother — isn’t an Olympian comedy but it’s by no means an out-and-out clunker either...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
19
THE SIMPSONS By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: When The Simpsons returns in the fall, it will be with the start of Season 25 – an amazing accomplishment indeed. For now, The Simpsons ends Season 24 with a two-part finale – the second part of which features guest voice Seth MacFarlane, who plays Ben, a would-be suitor whom Marge mistakenly contacts on an online swingers site. And MacFarlane, thanks to this show and his own Sunday night Fox animation programs, manages to provide voices on every show presented tonight
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
19
THE BIG LIVE COMEDY SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Best Bets has never pointed specifically to a YouTube offering before, but this one is different, and deserves it. It’s a two-hour live variety show, and it’s streamed beginning tonight at 9 ET on YouTube’s Comedy Week channel. Sarah Silverman, Vince Vaughn, Seth Rogen, The Lonely Island, Ed Helms, Tim and Eric, Key & Peele, Michael Cera, and Jack McBrayer are among the scheduled performers. It’s a long way, and a long time, from the Sunday night variety shows of Ed S
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
19
GAME OF THRONES By David Bianculli
 
 
There aren’t many episodes left this season, and things are getting tense. Battles are coming, and so are weddings – and it’s impossible to say, at this point, which of those events will generate more bloodshed.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
19
MAD MEN By David Bianculli
 
 
I guessed right, last week, that last Sunday’s episode would include the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. What I didn’t guess was that it would be included at the very end, almost as an afterthought. But that means tonight’s episode gets to deal with the aftermath – as well as the continuing story line of Don (Jon Hamm) losing control of just about every woman in his life, and his life itself.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
19
FAMILY TREE By David Bianculli
 
 
If last week’s series premiere didn’t quite win you over, or make it clear what sort of tone and direction Christopher Guest’s TV series was intending to provide, watch tonight’s episode two. By the time it’s over, all will be made clear. And the jokes about The Mikado, and the monkey puppet, are well worth the investment.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
19
ANTHONY BOURDAIN AND 'THE TASTE OF FREEDOM' By Eric Gould
 
 
Sunday DVR programming has always been a problem of triage, and that gets even more difficult tonight thanks to Anthony Bourdain, who makes an intrepid jaunt to Libya...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
18
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1935 sequel has as many memorable set pieces as the original – and Elsa Lanchester, as the title character, is as visually iconic as her hulking intended mate, played by Boris Karloff. James Whale’s direction is as evocative as it was in the 1931 original, and Lanchester’s skittish, birdlike bride is a great piece of genre acting.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
18
DOCTOR WHO By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Last week I mistakenly said it was the Doctor Who season finale. This is the season finale, in which a lot of things are addressed, including a missing piece of the River Song puzzle, a peek at the Doctor’s ancestral home, and even his never-uttered real name. So sorry about writing about it a week early – but it should be worth the wait. Besides: Isn’t time relative? Especially on this show?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
May
18
ORPHAN BLACK By David Bianculli
 
 
This series began as Tatiana Maslani, as the show’s star, discovers a lookalike – then another, and another, and eventually a sinister plot in which she is a pawn in a scheme involving clones, and more.  In last week’s show, someone close to her – close to one of her, at least – began to discover the same puzzling plot.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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