SERIES PREMIERE: I’ve been a major fan of Andrea Martin ever since her earliest SCTV days (“Can you drah-ha me to la loto?”), and was amazed by her onstage energy in Pippin. But here, as the matriarch of a goofy clan that finds itself suddenly without a patriarch, even her comic timing can’t make this sitcom as entertaining as it needs to be. It wants to be Arrested Development, but doesn’t come close to gelling, or of making its comic anarchy pay off. Try it for yo

2014

Jul

NY MED By David Bianculli

It’s another intense hour for NY Med, with cases that demonstrate just how wide is the range of cases some doctors can deal with on a daily basis. One of tonight’s cases, for example, involves a 19-year-old plane crash victim – he was piloting the plane as a student learning to fly, and his instructor was killed on impact. Also: a tough motorcycle cop who has a stroke at a relatively young age, which reveals a heart defect so serious, he must be operated on immediately. For a f

2014

Jul

66TH PRIMETIME EMMY NOMS A MISHMASH OF DELIVERY AND CATEGORIES By Ed Bark

The 66th Primetime Emmy Award nominations, announced Thursday during the early stages of summer's Television Critics Association "press tour," were a bigger mishmash than ever of delivery systems and ill-fitting categories...

2014

Jul

POEHLER OPPOSITES IN NBC'S INVITING 'WELCOME TO SWEDEN' By Ed Bark

Talk Swedish to me, baby. NBC’s new summertime comedy plus, Welcome to Sweden, does so at length in most of its 10 episodes. The network sent all of them for review, and I kept watching until the supply was exhausted...

2014

Jul

2014 WORLD CUP By David Bianculli

How thoroughly did Germany defeat host nation Brazil yesterday in this year’s World Cup semifinal? Let me count the ways – a few of them, anyway. The BBC called the 7-1 loss by Brazil, “humiliating and brutal.” Yahoo Sports called it “a stunning and spectacular destruction.” England’s The Guardian called it “slaughtering,” and the Globe and Mail deemed the game “the most shocking result in World Cup history.” And still you’r

2014

Jul

GREMLINS By David Bianculli

Director Joe Dante’s playful 1984 film, written by Chris Columbus, is 30 years old now. The special effects may seem a little dated and puppetlike, but it’s all part of the charm – an attribute of which this movie, like its furry little creatures, have plenty. So long as you don’t get them wet, or feed them after midnight. Stars include Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman and Zach Galligan – but for fun, watch for Breaking Bad standout Jonathan Banks as Deputy Brent, and li

2014

Jul

EXTANT By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Halle Berry is being billed in many places as coming to TV, but she’s actually returning – two years before she won a Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for Monster’s Ball, she won a Best Actress Emmy for her starring role in HBO’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge miniseries. (And she began in TV, too, on the 1989 sitcom Living Dolls, but I digress.) Anyway, she stars here as Molly Watts, an astronaut who has just returned from more than a year on a solo mission abo

2014

Jul

SECRETS OF THE DEAD: “THE MONA LISA MYSTERY” By David Bianculli

Did Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa have a twin? A twin portrait, that is? Just over a century ago, an art dealer traveling in England came across, and purchased, a painting in Isleworth, which he claimed then featured the same model as the one immortalized in Mona Lisa, only younger. Was it an earlier work by da Vinci? (The two works are shown here, with da Vinci’s classic Mona Lisa at left.) Finally, the latest advancements in science allow that question to be answered with more evid

2014

Jul

THE BRIDGE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: The opening scene of Season 2 of this moody drama series introduces a new character, a new crime scene, and what seems to be a new focus. It shows Lyle Lovett playing a man who comes upon a particularly bloody crime scene – bloody even by Dexter standards. But right after the opening credits roll, we find out what happened to last year’s protagonists, played by Diane Kruger and Demian Bichir, and we’re off and running again.

2014

Jul

2014 WORLD CUP By David Bianculli

This year’s World Cup has been thrilling to watch, partly because of the aggressive style of play utilized by many teams, and partly because, at so many of this year’s games, the Cup runneth over – going not only into extra time, but bonus play and shootouts. Today, the home country’s team, Brazil, fights it out with Germany. In their previous matches, Brazil eliminated the feisty Colombia, while Germany outfought and outlasted France.

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