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

 
 
2012
Aug
5
 
 
There are some goofy and unnecessary subplots this season, to be sure, but one of the best is turning out to be one of the most unexpected and unlikely: the growing relationship between Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) and her vampire protégé Tara, (Rutina Wesley). Last week, Pam presented Tara with a gift that showed how much she cared: a Fangtasia patron, a bitchy and haughty woman from Tara’s past, whom Pam “glamoured” into becoming Tara’s adoring, willing
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
5
 
 
Last week, Walt (Bryan Cranston) was struck with an inspired new base of operations for his meth-lab outfit: a roving, portable one, housed inside suburban residences being tented for pest and vermin fumigation control. So Walt buys a local pest-control company, and he’s set: hiding in plain sight, in a temporary base that no one dares enter. Sheer brilliance. But there’s one pest Walt can’t eradicate or stop: his brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris), who’s noticing yet anot
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
5
 
 
Last Sunday’s episode was the strongest yet for this Aaron Sorkin series, which, given its overall quality and inspirational and thoughtful messages, has taken much more heat than it deserves. In tonight’s episode, a presidential TV address is scheduled suddenly, one that TV news executive Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) predicts will have staffers remembering where they were, and what they did, this day. Me, I’ll be watching The Newsroom.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
5
 
 
I've been checking out The Hollywood Show for many years, and it is interesting to see how things shift. Used to be stars from the '50s and '60s were the main attraction. Now it is '70s and '80s...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
5
 
 
...Although, in the manner of its enigmatic subject, film auteur Chris Marker, who passed away July 29, it is...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
5
 
 
The British get a rematch of this year's Wimbledon, at Wimbledon, as their home-kingdom favorite, Andy Murray, squares off once again against Roger Federer, who beat him at this same Centre Court not too long ago. But today at 9 a.m. ET, in a match televised live by NBC, the two players do battle again — this time for country. And also today is one of the most eagerly awaited events of these Olympics: the men's 100-m., in which the world's fastest man will be anointed once again.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
4
 
 
I'm here to say that NBC's ubiquitous Olympics coverage is, to a TV critic of more years than I'd like to admit, shockingly awesome...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
4
 
 
PBS is streaming the 2003 American Masters documentary The Education of Gore Vidal, for a limited time only...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
4
 
 
Weekends bring marquee events that NBC, the parent broadcaster for these games, actually can televise live. The action starts early, of course, and in a very familiar British venue: centre court at Wimbledon, where USA's Serena Williams and Russia's Maria Sharapova fight it out for the gold medal in women's singles tennis. And around 2:30 p.m. ET, Michael Phelps is scheduled to swim his final event of the 2012 Olympic Games — and perhaps his final Olympic swim ever — in the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
4
 
 
We’ve had a lot of fun around here lately, readers included, listing “spider-web” movies – films that ensnare us every time they’re televised, no matter how many times we’ve seen them. This 1973 thriller definitely makes that list for me – and it’s even got a timely Olympics tie-in. (Stumped? The soundtrack includes some music featured briefly in the Opening Ceremony production number: Michael Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells.”)