Amy Berg wrote and directed this portrait of 1960s singing star Janis Joplin, and tells her story in a captivating way. Watching it, I realized I was aware of her career high points – blowing them away at Monterey in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969, chatting honestly on The Dick Cavett Show, and releasing Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” as a posthumous hit – but little else. This documentary takes us back to her small Texas town, her high school days, and even,

2016

May

MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. By David Bianculli

The season finale of this episode is two weeks away, but already the tensions and stakes are high, as Grant Ward, now transmogrified into a mind-controlling alien known as The Hive, has converted some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to his side – including Daisy, one of the team’s most central and powerful operatives.

2016

May

PERSON OF INTEREST By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Back for one final wrap-up season, Person of Interest picks up where it left off, with its team trying to regroup, and save the source code of its all-powerful, intensely threatened Machine. For his take on the series, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

2016

May

THE NIGHT MANAGER By David Bianculli

Part 3. This series gets better every week – a impressive feat, since it started so well to begin with. And it’s done so while, to this point, parceling out scenes featuring both of its leading stars in very small doses. There’s Tom Hiddleston as the revenge-fueled hotel manager who, in last week’s episode, thwarted a kidnap attempt on the son of a ruthless arms tycoon (Hugh Laurie), nearly dying in the attempt – even though the kidnapping was staged so he could sto

2016

May

RAGING AGAINST THE MACHINE: THE FINAL SEASON OF ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ By David Hinckley

You can envision the team at CBS’s Person Of Interest pushing their chairs back from the table and saying, “Okay, our work is done here.”...

2016

May

CRAY-CRAY: WHERE ART IMITATES LIFE ON ‘VEEP’ By Alex Strachan

Two episodes into Veep’s fifth term, one thing is clear: Life is unlikely to imitate Veep’s art in at least one important respect...

2016

May

JACK IRISH By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: The British aren’t the only one generating interesting mystery miniseries these days and exporting them to the States. This latest offering from Acorn, which begins streaming today, is from Australia, and stars Guy Pearce as Peter Temple’s roguish gumshoe. It’s a six-episode mystery that starts in Australian but soon expands to the Philippines.

2016

May

THE VOICE By David Bianculli

We’re down to the Top 10 – and after those singers perform tonight, on this latest live edition, tomorrow’s results edition will narrow the field even more.

2016

May

GOTHAM By David Bianculli

Hugo Strange, a different sort of Dr. Strange than the one in the rival Marvel universe, has been playing with reviving the dead and near-dead of late: First the future Mr. Freeze, and tonight the former villain Galavan (played by James Frain), the Gotham power broker whom the bad doctor is about to revive as a new type of villain: the costumed, superpowered Azrael. That may mean something to long-time DC Comics fans – but when I was young, I Made Mine Marvel.

2016

May

HOUDINI & DOYLE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. Even with Stephen Mangan from Extras as a co-star (he plays the credulous Arthur Conan Doyle to Michael Weston’s skeptical Harry Houdini), this period variation of The X-Files is worth skipping, not watching. The acting, except for Mangan, is shrill, and the writing is depressingly limp, anachronistic, and needlessly inaccurate. For a full review, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes, and see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

Posts 1021-1030 of 1879

102 103 104 105 106

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption