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

 
 
2012
Aug
10
 
 
Tanglewood, the beautiful and pastoral setting for a music festival nestled in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, gets a well-deserved salute tonight, and not only by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which calls Tanglewood its summer home. Also along for this concert are artists who have appeared often, and played some truly beautiful music, at Tanglewood. Among them: Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor. For more on this program, see Tom Brinkmoeller's Raised on MTM column. Check local listin
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
10
 
 
This series hasn’t captured me yet, not even close – but tonight’s episode offers some very enticing bait. That bait is guest star “Weird Al” Yankovic, who shows up – Hawaiian shirt, accordion and all – to make music with Reggie Watts and Jack Black.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
10
 
 
The funniest comedians always are the smartest. Ergo, W. Kamau Bell is a very funny fellow...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
10
 
 
"Real heroes. Real bullets. Real danger," proclaims Stars Earn Stripes co-host General Wesley Clark, as celebrities engage in "missions reminiscent of counter-insurgencies"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
10
 
 
NBC's Animal Practice — yes, the one with the monkey — is being sneak-previewed after the Olympic closing ceremonies. And guess who steals the show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
9
 
 
At 2:15 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network presents live coverage of the gold medal match in women’s soccer, with the resilient USA team facing, in this year’s Olympic final, the efficient and impressive squad from Japan. The match that got the USA here, a thriller of a game against Canada, was perhaps the most exciting soccer game I’ve ever seen – with the US scoring the winning goal in the final minute of extra overtime, and emerging as victors, 4-3, without lining up for a sh
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
9
 
 
For the first time this season, Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) and Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) are working together, side by side, on a mission. But this week, it’s not the only mission – and they’re not the only operatives.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
9
 
 
This seems to be an annual tradition now, and a very welcome one: a collection of brief, disparate film shorts, presented under the P.O.V. banner. Tonight’s selection includes one Oscar-nominated short (The Barber of Birmingham, about an influential Alabama man who cut hair, and raised civil-rights consciousness, for more than 50 years), and, among other treats, a new collection of animated versions of the public radio StoryCorps project (pictured). Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
9
 
 
I love this guy. Who else but Louis C.K. is taking self-effacing self-examination to such painfully hilarious levels these days? Part of tonight’s episode has the comic watching a retrospective TV special presenting clips from his standup routine when he just started out: clean-shaven, thin, with a full head of red hair and a lot of green jokes. And what pains Louie the most while reliving this, apparently, are the jokes.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
9
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Chris Rock is damned smart, and damned funny, about popular culture and race, and he’s the executive producer of this new FX standup comedy series featuring W. Kamau Bell, who is damned smart, and damned funny, on those same topics as well. Like the same network’s BrandX with Russell Brand, this series is performed and taped at the last minute to increase topicality – but grading on a Bell curve, expect a lot more substance, as well as genuine laughs, here. Tak