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

 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
Last week, Twin Peaks: The Return finally made room for one of the original series’ central figures: Audrey Horne, played by Sherilyn Fenn. We waited until Episode 12 of the new series to see her, and see where and with whom Audrey ended up with after all these years. And now it’s Episode 13, and there’s truly no telling who might be showing up this week. Spare moments of Twin Peaks: The Return have matched the appealing oddness of the original, but we still are in search of a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
Syfy’s Sharknado franchise is the Pet Rocks of modern TV. There’s no explaining how an idea this basic, and this stupid, ever got this popular. Yet here it is, with a rabid social media following that keeps these tongue-in-cheek, teeth-in-mouth shark movies coming, each more intentionally absurd than the last. Ian Ziering and Tara Reid continue to star, and a bewildering array of guest stars make cameo appearances, usually as some type of instantly devoured shark victim. One thing ab
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
This week’s installment is called Terrorism Hits Home – yet it also focuses on terrorism abroad, and how it finds its way to U.S. targets and operations. One terrorist introduced in this decade, and covered in The Nineties, is Osama bin Laden. More on him in future decades…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
The episode shown tonight was pirated and leaked online a few days ago. But I didn’t see it, so whatever otherwise top-secret intrigues occur in tonight’s episode, they’re still secret to me. But I have a feeling, just from the promotional photos that were released officially in advance, that Daenerys Targaryen probably won’t be having a terrific time.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 5 of this strong Showtime series promises to start very dramatically, with a death in (or around) the family. But it also begins by introducing this year’s season-long guest player: Susan Sarandon, playing a movie executive whose needs, and enemies, pull Liev Schreiber’s problem-fixer Ray Donovan back into the Hollywood world where we first met him. For Sarandon, it’s another dazzling TV role, right on the heels of playing Bette Davis on FX’s Feud:
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
So John Oliver does a segment on a lawsuit-happy coal executive, Bob Murray, after which Murray obliges by suing Oliver. Now the ACLU has filed an amicus curiae brief with the court, on Oliver’s behalf. Oliver may not be able to discuss this at any length on tonight’s show – it is, after all, a case in active litigation – but hey, perhaps he’ll raise someone else’s hackles with tonight’s show. At any rate, he gets to talk about a lot… including a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
5
 
 
PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger has fought this battle before, and come out of it in one piece. That doesn’t mean the fight for public broadcasting will end the same way this time, though, she warned...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
5
 
 
This is the last edition of Saturday night’s The Essentials series on TCM in which Alec Baldwin’s co-host is former 30 Rock co-star Tina Fey. Next week, William Friedkin takes over. But for now, Fey and Baldwin end their summer run by presenting a perfect movie musical: 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain, a joyous depiction of Hollywood during the transition from silent movies to the sound era. Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and a young ingénue named Debbie Reynolds st
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
5
 
 
We’re so close to the end of Orphan Black, and the stakes are so high for all the remaining characters, that you can almost count on at least one death per week from now on. Last week’s episode delivered on that promise, or that threat – and it wouldn’t surprise me if tonight’s does as well.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
5
 
 
From the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., George Lopez presents his fourth standup comedy special for HBO. But this one is political, and it’s live – which, the way news is breaking these days, is the only way to deal with political humor these days. Current events, that’s one thing – but current events don’t begin to describe today’s pace of the daily news flow. It isn’t a current. It’s a tidal wave.