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

 
 
2014
Sep
29
 
 
Finally! A workplace that looks like mine! This documentary, co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, is an unapologetic love letter to The New York Review of Books on the provocative book review and essays publication’s golden anniversary. Robert Silvers, 84, is both the central subject and behind-the-scenes instigator of this new film, which is an inspirational salute to the power of ideas – especially ones that go against the norm or the grain. And in these days of paper
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
29
 
 
Last week’s Season 2 premiere showed Red (James Spader) on the loose – but a newly introduced character, his ex-wife Naomi Hyland, captured by an especially ruthless bad guy. She hadn’t seen her ex in 20 years, but that didn’t stop the villains from grabbing her as leverage. And since she’s played by Mary-Louise Parker, we wish her well, because we want to see her trade lines with Spader. But for now, until Naomi is rescued, she’s sequestered far away from the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
28
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Last week, 60 Minutes returned on CBS for the start of Season 47. That makes it the longest-running prime-time series currently running, but look which show is close on its heels. Two other newsmagazines are right behind 60 Minutes in the tenured department, but The Simpsons, now starting Season 26, is the longest-running scripted series in current TV history. It’s been around a long, long time, which makes it seem only natural that on tonight’s season opener, a fami
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
28
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Well, this sure didn’t take long: For this Disney show’s Season 4 premiere, Elsa from Frozen arrives in Storybrooke tonight, played by Georgina Haig, who played the ill-fated daughter, Etta, in Fox’s Fringe. And to say she sports an icy demeanor upon her arrival would be understating the obvious. Also showing up for this multiple-episode story arc: Elsa’s sister, Anna, played by Hollywood newcomer Elizabeth Lail.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
28
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This counts as the Season 13 opener for Seth MacFarlane’s animated series, but, in this case, 13 is anything but an unlucky number. In a one-hour episode titled “The Simpsons Guy,” Peter and the rest of the Griffin clan arrive in Springfield, where this Fox cartoon crossover makes for the most anticipated episode in Family Guy history. At least by me...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
28
 
 
After last week’s season premiere, Matt Czuchry’s Cary remains in custody – but things at his firm are proceeding quickly without him. Very quickly: Christine Baranski’s Diane is about to be ushered in as a partner, and look who she might be bringing with her: Taye Diggs, reprising his role as cold-but-shrewd attorney Dean. Julianna Margulies stars as Alicia.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
28
 
 
Next week’s episode is the Season 1 finale. But don’t fear that there’s nothing spooky happening in tonight’s episode. Just get ready to experience fear, period.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
27
 
 
This 1944 movie, directed by Otto Preminger, is a superb yet unusually bizarre example of detective film noir: Not only does the detective (Dana Andrews) become obsessed with the sultry and mercurial woman at the center of his murder investigation (Gene Tierney), but she’s center to the case because this woman, Laura, is the case. It’s her murder he’s trying to solve, yet she bewitches him from beyond the grave. Or so it seems. Anyway, this Laura is a much better viewing choice
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
27
 
 
Those who avoided this series on the grounds that it’s silly science fiction really must take another look. Science fiction, yes. Silly, no – and this modern incarnation of Doctor Who, by the same folks who give us Sherlock, has ended up being both wittier and scarier than most TV shows in any genre. Tonight’s new episode introduces the “New Caretaker” – and a creepy new villain as well.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
27
 
 
Oh, what a smart idea this is. Once a week, in prime time on Saturday nights, NBC will present a slightly truncated episode from a selected season of Saturday Night Live, That’s 40 episodes, with one selected episode per week. They’ll be shown out of order, but this new retrospective series is starting things off with a smartly selected episode from the inaugural 1975-76 season of SNL. The episode, the seventh in Season 1, features Richard Pryor as guest host, and Gil Scott-Heron, of