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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
 
 
2014
Sep
11
THE HONORABLE WOMAN By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the penultimate episode of the series – so as things get more intense and complicated for Nessa (Maggie Gyllenhaal), they get more intense and complicated for viewers as well. This is one limited series that has made good use of every hour, evolving its story deliberately, but very, very surely.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
11
HAVEN By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 5 of Haven begins with what amounts to a reboot of the series, with town heroine Audrey (Emily Rose) taken over by her evil ancestor Mara, who spends the opening hour terrorizing everyone in town and trying to harness the power of the Troubles she once created. It gives Rose the chance to bloom, in a bad-girl role quite at odds with the character she’s played thus far.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
10
NINOTCHKA By David Bianculli
 
 
In 1939, a grand year for the cinema, Ernst Lubitsch directed this witty comedy of global misunderstanding and eventual understanding, featuring Greta Garbo as a stern Russian government representative who is sent to Paris on official business, and eventually succumbs to the charms of the city, and in particular to one initially repugnant individual (played by Melvyn Douglas).
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
10
NOVA: "VACCINE: CALLING THE SHOTS" By David Bianculli
 
 
Arriving in the lackluster period just before the start of a new fall TV season, tonight’s new Nova is a real shot in the arm. It’s a show devoted to vaccines – and uses a sensible, scientific approach to dispel some myths about the purported dangers of certain vaccinations. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
10
EXTANT By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the penultimate episode for Season 1 of Extant – and it’s the episode in which astronaut Molly (Halle Berry) comes face to face with her extraterrestrial offspring.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
10
THE BRIDGE By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week, it was Sonya whose dogged investigatory style got her in a situation where she might not survive. Tonight, it’s Marco’s turn – and it’s also about time that they started working, and trying to survive, in tandem.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
10
THE COLBERT REPORT By David Bianculli
 
 
How good is this interview segment going to be? Tonight, Stephen Colbert’s guest is Henry Kissinger, who’s been on this show before, very, very memorably.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
10
PBS ‘ROOSEVELTS’ BIOGRAPHY IS KEN BURNS’ BEST By David Bianculli
 
 

Ken Burns and his team have made some astoundingly instructive and entertaining nonfiction series for PBS. Their new epic, on the Roosevelts, is their best yet…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
9
ENEMY OF THE REICH: THE NOOR INAYAT KHAN STORY By David Bianculli
 
 
This new program has taken an unusual path to get to public television: It started with a Kickstarter campaign, and, in telling its story of a WWII spy, relies heavily on docudrama elements, with actors playing the central characters. Regardless, it’s an intriguing story being told here: Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of an Indian Muslim father and American mother, and served as a British spy in Paris in the early 1940s. She became a wireless operator for the French Underground, and def
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
9
THE STRANGER By David Bianculli
 
 
Orson Welles directed this intense, brooding thriller, and also stars, along with Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young, in a story about a war crimes investigator seeking out a fugitive Nazi thought to have bolted to Connecticut and blended in after the war. One of the amazing things about this film is that it was released in 1946, only a year after WWII ended, making its inclusion of footage shot at Nazi concentration camps incredibly timely – and, in a film history sense, incredibly earl
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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