A brave component of today’s all-day, all-night Greta Garbo tribute on TCM is that the network has decided to schedule, in prime time, two of her silent movies. Both of them were made and released after the 1927 game-changing unveiling of The Jazz Singer, widely credited as the first full-length talking picture (even though many of its scenes were silent, with written screen cards for dialogue). At 9:45 p.m. ET, TCM shows the 1929 film Wild Orchids, in which Garbo plays a married woman dra

2015

Aug

KEY & PEELE By David Bianculli

In tonight’s episode, one of the sketches involves a “tickle game” that gets out of control. Nothing I can write to describe the skit in any more detail would do it justice, or keep me from offending somebody. So just watch, please.

2015

Aug

MR. ROBOT By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode, like the one before that and the one before that, served up an emotional game-changer of the highest level. But last week’s was a doozy: One week after we learned who the title character really was, we learned who he wasn’t. Or, at least, when and where he wasn’t. So what’s left tonight? More bending of reality – and, given this show’s penchant for puzzling cliffhangers, probably a season-ending finale to keep us buzzi

2015

Aug

A FEW GOOD PIE PLACES By David Bianculli

Rick Sebak, a sort of modern-day Charles Kuralt obsessed with all things mildly decadent (ice cream! Hot dogs!), presents two nationally touring PBS specials tonight. The first, eschewing the usual “best” frameworks of on-the-road food shows, more modestly presents, to quote the title, A Few Good Pie Places. Modestly, but no less enthusiastically… For a full review, see Tom Brinkmoeller’s Raised on MTM. Check local listings.

2015

Aug

A FEW GREAT BAKERIES By David Bianculli

Here’s the second of Rick Sebak’s food-tour PBS specials tonight (he’s pictured here, with a happy baker). This one is about bakeries – and since tonight’s other documentary is about pies, you could almost consider this a sequel. Or a sister series. Whatever it is, the two shows, taken together, are one yummy Sebak-to-back treat. For a full review, see Tom Brinkmoeller’s Raised on MTM. Check local listings.

2015

Aug

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE SERIES By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: The first season of this Robert Rodriguez series, based on the giddily playful and gory movie he made with Quentin Tarantino, pretty much followed, and expanded upon, the script of that film. But for Season 2, all bets are off, all stories are new, and the action no longer takes place in that secluded, vampire-filled dive. And watch out: the vampiress has a gun!

2015

Aug

BE COOL By David Bianculli

This 2005 movie, based on an Elmore Leonard novel, is a 10-years-after sequel to 1995’s Get Shorty, which also was based on a Leonard novel. That first film starred John Travolta as mobster turned movie “maker” Chili Palmer. In the sequel, Chili still is chillin’ in Hollywood, in a script that gets to reunite Travolta, 11 years later, with his female co-star from 1994’s Pulp Fiction: Uma Thurman. And yes, they’re dancing again.

2015

Aug

PUBLIC MORALS By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Edward Burns created this new TNT series, wrote it, stars in it, and even directed a couple episodes. He plays a tough New York vice cop in the 1960s, surrounded by other cops, mobsters and even family members who are just as tough as he is. It’s evocative of classic cop movies like Serpico and The French Connection – and it looks great, and starts with a slow-simmering but intriguing murder plot. For my full review, listen today to NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry G

2015

Aug

'PUBLIC MORALS' GIVES TNT A SHARPLY DEFINED PERIOD COP DRAMA By Ed Bark

Everybody cracks wise in Public Morals, a crisp and lively new TNT series that might actually generate a little buzz for the oft-overlooked “We Know Drama” network...

2015

Aug

BADLANDS By David Bianculli

Today TCM salutes the movies of Warren Oates – and while Oates may be considered a relatively minor star in the Hollywood constellation, he’s still turned in some very impressive performances in a wide range of Hollywood films. Among them is this 1973 character study by the enigmatic director Terrence Malick, a gorgeously shot film based on an actual crime spree across the Midwest by a young psychopath and his seemingly willing young female accomplice. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek s

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