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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2017
Aug
20
RAY DONOVAN By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s episode provided an extended flashback, showing us Ray and Abby’s 21st anniversary – an unexpected voyage that included not only a trip to a brothel, but other scenes that showed us Ray and Abby connecting as never before. It showed, more than at any other point on Ray Donovan, why these two were so connected to each other. We felt for them, and especially for her, at a whole new level – and then the show, right after it giveth, taketh away, in a sad, deeply e
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
20
EPISODES By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This is the return, for the final season, of one of TV’s most undervalued current series. Episodes has, over its run, provided a detailed spoof of Hollywood, with a selfish and vain character at its center, that at time has rivaled Curb Your Enthusiasm. Instead of Larry David playing a comically confrontational version of himself, Episodes has Matt LeBlanc playing a selfish, vain, and usually uncaring version of himself. He was the actor brought in by an all-talk, no-talen
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
20
DICE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Last season, Andrew Dice clay joined the ranks of comics playing comically exaggerated versions of themselves. One of the twists here, though, is that the TV Dice shows a nicer side of himself than the Dice of his familiar comic persona.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
20
LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER By David Bianculli
 
 
President Trump is still on vacation. Yet things keep happening, and John Oliver isn’t.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
20
THERE GOES THE SUN By Eric Gould
 
 
The solar eclipse across America tomorrow, August 21, is the first to occur in 38 years, and another won’t appear again until 2024. So review all the cosmological geometry here provided by National Geographic and get your ISO 12312-2 compliant solar shade...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
20
LEWIS & GRIFFIN By Eric Gould
 
 
Comedian Jerry Lewis passed away today, Sunday, August 20, at his home in Las Vegas. He was 91. Lewis’ influence was far and wide, including in this 2010 Family Guy tribute to his Count Basie “Blues in Hoss' Flat” bit from his 1961 comedy, The Errand Boy...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
19
BEST NOT TO STARE AT THE SUN DURING AN ECLIPSE — THAT'S WHAT THE TV'S THERE FOR By Alex Strachan
 
 
No one is suggesting the world will end, of course, though the late, great Isaac Asimov and fellow science-fiction writer Robert Silverberg foretold exactly that in their classic 1941 novella Nightfall...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
19
PLANET EARTH II By David Bianculli
 
 
This spectacular nature series gets an encore telecast today, in what it calls an “enhanced” version. That usually means a few extra facts super-imposed or added as interstitial informational spots – but no matter what is or isn’t added, the program itself is unbeatable. The action begins at 1 p.m. ET, with installments repeated all afternoon.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
19
EPISODES MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
Season 5 of this underrated Showtime comedy series begins tomorrow – and to set the table, Showtime tonight presents an “Episodes eve” marathon showing of Season 4. Matt LeBlanc stars as an exaggerated version of himself, taking paychecks to star in one bad TV series after another – just as, in his post-Friends career, in real life. He’s excellent and very funny here, though – as are his co-stars, Tamsin Greig (pictured here with LeBlanc) and Stephen Mangan, a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
19
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS By David Bianculli
 
 
Fashion designer, and movie writer-director Tom Ford, has made only two films to date, but they’ve both been visually arresting, and nominated for Oscars. His first was 2009’s A Single Man, and his follow-up, shown tonight on HBO, was last year’s Nocturnal Animals, a moody and mysterious piece starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley