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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
 
 
2012
Sep
15
A DANGEROUS METHOD By David Bianculli
 
 
This 2011 drama is for those who think Jung: Michael Fassbender stars as Carl Jung in this (quite literally) psychological thriller, playing a psychiatrist utilizing the controversial theories of his mentor, Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), to treat an unstable mental patient (Keira Knightly).
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
15
DOCTOR WHO By David Bianculli
 
 
The Doctor (Matt Smith) has sported a Stetson before, purely as a fashion accessory — but tonight, in a trip to the Wild West and some Very Wild Gunslingers, he gets to dress the art of sheriff for real.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
15
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN By David Bianculli
 
 
Two Alfred Hitchcock murder-mystery classics are showcased tonight on TCM. First up is this 1951 thriller, with a screenplay co-written by Raymond Chandler, in which a railway commuter suggests a mutually beneficial, seemingly untraceable perfect crime: he and a complete stranger agree to kill someone the other wants dead. Farley Granger stars. The second? Read on...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
15
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Kristin Wiig, Andy Samberg and Abby Elliott are gone as SNL begins its new season, but there are new featured players added to the mix — and Seth MacFarlane is the guest host for tonight’s Season 38 premiere. Musical guest: Frank Ocean.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
15
DIAL M FOR MURDER By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film is another moody masterpiece, starring the luminous Grace Kelly as a woman who fears her husband (Ray Milland) may be targeting her — and she’s not wrong. Just to show you how cyclical film history, and trends, can be, this movie originally was filmed by Hitchcock in 3-D. (12AM ET, Midnight.)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
14
1969: NBC INTRODUCES 'THE BILL COSBY SHOW' By Christy Slewinski
 
 
On this day in 1969, NBC introduced The Bill Cosby Show, the comedian's first self-titled sitcom...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
14
SHARK TANK By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: We’ve already had Shark Week, thanks to Discovery Channel’s annual escapades — and now it’s time for Shark Tank Week, with Mark Cuban and other high-rolling business types competing to find, and finance, the best ideas brought to them. Including, in tonight’s opener, an enterprising way to identify a bedbug infestation before calling in the exterminators. Creepy, sure — but profitable? Quite possibly.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
14
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND By David Bianculli
 
 
Here’s another “spider-web movie” of mine — a film that I’ll recommend, and watch, almost every time it’s televised. And this Steven Spielberg one, at this point, is 35 years old, which makes both its special effects and its effectively dramatic story and characterizations that much more impressive. Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
14
THE VIRGIN QUEEN By David Bianculli
 
 
Long live the Queen! TCM presents a triple feature of costume epics about Elizabeth I tonight, and two of them star Bette Davis, in movies made decades apart. Davis in 1955’s The Virgin Queen (pictured) leads off the night, and an earlier Davis effort, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex from 1939, is shown at midnight ET. In between: the lovely Jean Simmons in 1953’s Young Bess, televised at 10 p.m. ET.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
14
GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “GOTTERDAMMERUNG” By David Bianculli
 
 
I’ve been watching this recently staged version of the Wagner Ring cycle all week, and now have a renewed appreciation for the quote, attributed to Mark Twain, that “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” But this climactic installment contains most of the fiery drama, as well as the Wagnerian anthems adopted and adapted, with very different results, in Birth of a Nation, Apocalypse Now and other films. In this finale, which translates as Twilight of the Gods, Siegfrie
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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