DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2016
Jun
14
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Back in 1990, CBS launched a sitcom version of the 1989 John Candy Uncle Buck movie. It was not only astoundingly unfunny, but ended up causing a backlash when the premiere episode featured a little kid saying the line “You suck.” Back then, that was enough to spark a firestorm. These days, regardless of the dialogue, a new Uncle Buck is likely to vanish quickly without incident. Whether or not that’s progress, it’s tough to say. For his take on the show,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
14
 
 
After last weekend's premiere episode of this nonfiction documentary series was shown on ABC, it moves to ESPN for the rest of its run, beginning with tonight’s Part 2 at 9 p.m. ET. And if you missed the opener, ESPN is repeating it at 7. Very highly recommended. No matter how much you’ve seen about O.J. Simpson, this is something different.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
14
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Based on the 2010 Australian film starring Jacki Weaver, this new TNT series gives the role of the crime-family matriarch to Ellen Barkin. Co-stars include Scott Speedman, Finn Cole, Jake Weary, Shawn Hatosy and Ben Robson. For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
14
 
 
This is week three for this summertime variety series experiment from NBC, executive producer Lorne Michaels, and variety-show enthusiasts Martin Short and Maya Rudolph. So far, the most memorable bits have been the filmed pieces, not the ones performed before an audience. And that will have to change, I suspect, before this show will connect significantly with viewers.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
13
 
 

Monday on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I review the new CBS series BrainDead, which I like a lot. But here on TVWW, I offer a special mini-interview with that show’s creators…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
13
 
 
Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a nurse on PBS’s Mercy Street, which unfortunately proves insufficient to resuscitate CBS’s new BrainDead...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
13
 
 
The timing is right but also daunting for CBS’ BrainDead (Monday, June 13 at 10 p.m. ET), a considerable departure from the norm...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
13
 
 
To American music fans of an advancing age, the name Cilla Black may ring a faint bell as a minor player in the 1960s British Invasion...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
13
 
 
David Mamet wrote his own screenplay adaption of his wonderful play for this 1992 film, ensuring that his idiosyncratic rhythms would remain intact. But that also works only when you have the right actors interpreting your lines and cadences, and this movie certainly does. Jack Lemmon stars, and is brilliant, and he’s supported and often equaled by Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and others. Really – what a cast. And here, it’s shown unedited and un
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jun
13
 
 
This 1930 movie brings Greta Garbo to the talking pictures as the titular heroine of Eugene O’Neill’s story about a prostitute.