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

 
 
2019
May
6
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. This five-part miniseries, an account of the tragic Soviet nuclear disaster in 1986, comes from an unusual source. And I don’t just mean the British network Sky, which co-produces with HBO. I’m referring to series creator and writer Craig Mazin, whose previous writing credits include the third and fourth editions of Scary Movie and the two sequels to The Hangover. So yes, he’s written disaster movies before… but not in a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
6
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is an almost startlingly original experiment by Sundance. It’s a 10-part drama series presented in daily installments over two weeks – but each installment is a mere 10 minutes long. Monday through Friday this week and next, you can watch the story of a husband and wife, played by Chris O’Dowd and Rosamund Pike, who meet at a pub before entering their regularly scheduled marital therapy sessions. It’s all dialogue, and unfolds deliberately, and i
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
6
 
 
Somber to a fault, but never to its determent, HBO’s Chernobyl dares to collude with the misery, deprivation and dogged survival instincts of Russian people large and small...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
6
 
 
State of the Union, an experimental series from Sundance, adopts a new-media technique in a good way...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
6
 
 
Thirty years after the implosion of the Soviet Union, we still embrace the Cold War image of Russians as cold, calculating, soulless automatons. Chernobyl tracks the devastating accident at the nuclear power plant in 1986,and does nothing to rehabilitate the image of Soviet bureaucrats...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
5
 
 
There’s been a murder a week in this season of Killing Eve, and last week’s murder had Villanelle (Jodie Comer) injecting some sparkle and originality into what she considered a boring assignment: the murder of a philandering husband. So she killed him as requested, but in a sex-display window in Amsterdam, with her victim bound and hung upside down like a side of beef, where she slashed him vertically so his guys spilled out on his own personal killing floor. While Villanelle was dr
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
5
 
 
The mega-battle episode of Game of Thrones last week drew more viewers overall than any episode of the series to date – a record 17.8 million – even though it was so dark, cinematically as well as thematically, that most of it was heard but not seen. This week, we get the aftermath of the victory over the Night King, and the survivors turn their attention to their major remaining foe – Cersei, whose battle scenes, at least, are likely to be fought in daylight.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
5
 
 
Tonight’s episode is called “Fight Night,” and there are plenty of fights to pick, so to speak, when diving the show’s inspiration. One major fight is between Taylor and her former mentor Axe – a fight that has escalated to include Axe’s confidante, and another of Taylor’s former mentors, Wendy.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
5
 
 
Last week’s episode was wild… as wild as the young woman, perfectly described as “feral,” who was Barry’s agile adversary throughout most of the program. That episode ended with another cliffhanger, this time with Barry offered a ride out of another tight situation. Whatever direction he takes, though, is likely to involve more drama, and another dead body or moving target.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
May
5
 
 
The results of “Super Tuesday” are about to come in – and even though Selina may have just lost her ex-husband (murdered by the Chinese in a boating explosion, following what may have been interpreted as Selina’s wishes), she may soon gain the edge in the race to the nomination.