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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
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All Along the Watchtower

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Ed Martin's TV Mix

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2019
May
24
MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. By David Bianculli
 
 
This week, this series goes to a new planet, called Kitson, in hopes of rescuing the recently located Fitz. One problem: Kitson is a giant gambling mecca, Rescue kind of like a planetary Las Vegas, but with fewer restrictions. Another problem: the high-stakes gambling include betting for slaves, and Fitz is betting he’ll win his freedom. But he’s betting himself…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
24
LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER: “STARS IN CONCERT: MEGAN HILTY” By David Bianculli
 
 
This new Live from Lincoln Center intimate concert features Megan Hilty, whom Broadway fans may remember from her turns in Wicked and other shows. TV viewers, though, are just as likely to know her from NBNC’s Smash, where she played the actress who starred as Marilyn Monroe in the fictional musical biography called “Bombshell.” Hilty will sing a song from “Bombshell” here, which may bring her, and us, one step closer to seeing a full-blown production or concert ver
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
23
RED NOSE DAY By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: There are different Red Nose Day efforts and events. There’s the original, which was started in the U.K. by Comic Relief there, aimed at raising money and awareness for children suffering from hunger and poverty. The U.S. followed suit in 2015, and the whole “red nose” idea is to keep things as light and funny as possible while tackling a very somber issue. On NBC tonight, there’s a two-hour live telethon, heavy on NBC celebrity performers: Blake Shelton and Kell
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
23
THIS IS FARRAH FAWCETT By David Bianculli
 
 
DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL:  This new biography, 10 years after the death of the famous actress, utilizes audio diaries she had recorded in the final years of her life. It also, however, will leave ample room to show photos and clips from her TV and movie career – which goes all the way back to 1975, pre-Charlie’s Angels, when she played her David Janssen’s beach neighbor on his short-lived detective series, Harry O (pictured). But this ABC special, I’m guessing, will be he
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
23
IZOMBIE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s new episode is called “Dot Zom,” and has Liv (Rose McIver) and company investigating the death of an app developer. If this gives her the excuse to eat some brains of the victim and become temporarily super-savvy when it comes to computer programming and technology, maybe Liv can crash the zombie website that’s causing so many problems this season. And if not, maybe she could fix my outgoing email server…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
23
THE NAME OF THE ROSE By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This Sundance miniseries isn’t evil, but it’s positively medieval. Based on the bestselling Umberto Eco novel, it’s a new, longer treatment of the same story that starred Sean Connery as a Franciscan friar in a 1986 film version. John Turturro plays the role once portrayed by Connery, and this miniseries version presents two episodes per week every Thursday for three weeks, beginning tonight. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
23
JOHN TURTURRO SHINES IN 'THE NAME OF THE ROSE,' A DARK TALE OF RELIGION IN MEDIEVAL TIMES By David Hinckley
 
 

Almost four decades after the publication of Umberto Eco’s revered and dark novel The Name of the Rose, someone finally took a deep breath and adapted it for a television miniseries. It’s bold and ambitious, and it mostly works, thanks in no small measure to the brilliant move of casting John Turturro...

 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
22
LIVE IN FRONT OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE: NORMAN LEAR’S “ALL IN THE FAMILY” AND “THE JEFFERSONS” By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: For a TV history professor, this is the mother lode: An ABC experiment in which episodes of two of Norman Lear’s groundbreaking 1970s comedies, All in the Family and its spinoff The Jeffersons, are performed and broadcast live. I like the casting – Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker and Jamie Foxx as George Jefferson – because both have solid experience in sitcoms. And you couldn’t find a better sitcom director than James Burrows, period. Norman Lear and J
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
22
ALL ABOUT “ALL IN THE FAMILY” AND “THE JEFFERSONS" By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: After ABC’s 90-minute live special, in which scripts from vintage 1970s sitcoms are performed again with a new cast for a new generation, this special provides context and history regarding former hit CBS sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons. You can get similar information and enlightenment in my TV History & Appreciation of the ‘60s and ‘70s classes at Rowan University – but ABC doesn’t require you to pay tuition. Not yet, anyway.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
22
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s episode is about the staging of the Biannual Vampire Orgy. I’m just guessing here, but I’m expecting something a lot less sexy than True Blood.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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