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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
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
May
27
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s episode, Nadja and Lazslo venture into a dangerous new environment: open mic night at a local nightclub. And the two vampire lovers have an old musical number they’re dusting off for the occasion… "You're So Vein," perhaps?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
27
1994: 'THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW' LEAVES LATE NIGHT By TV WW
 
 
This day in 1994 marked the last telecast of the syndicated late-night talker, The Arsenio Hall Show...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
1969: DICK CAVETT DEBUTS IN PRIMETIME By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1969, talk show host Dick Cavett made the leap to primetime...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
'VIRAL: ANTI-SEMITISM IN FOUR MUTATIONS' EXAMINES A GROWING GLOBAL INFECTION By Mike Hughes
 
 
Standing face-to-face with a racist, filmmaker Andrew Goldberg found something surprising: He sort of liked him. “He’s a very likable guy...We had an interesting friendship.”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
THE COMPLETE BBC TELEVISION SHAKESPEARE COLLECTION By David Bianculli
 
 
From 1978 to 1985, the BBC spent seven years producing new TV productions of every play William Shakespeare ever wrote. I reviewed them, as a TV critic, as all 37 were released stateside by PBS – and expected to see them repeated on TV from then on. Instead, they all but vanished. Until now, when Britbox is making all of them available for streaming beginning today. Helen Mirren is in two of my very favorites from this BBC run: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
GRANT By David Bianculli
 
 
Episode 2. Granted, the reenactments in this new History documentary about Ulysses S. Grant often are problematic. But the history being retold here is captivating, and inarguably valid and valuable.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
VAMPIRE'S KISS By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1989 movie is a super-stylized horror film – as much a character study of delusional aberrant behavior as of being in thrall of an alleged vampire. And it’s the acting that makes it work so well, led by Jennifer Beals as the potentially undead femme fatale, and Nicolas Cage as the man whose cinematic and gothic influences go all the way back to Nosferatu.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
26
PERRY MASON By David Bianculli
 
 
HBO will be coming out with a brand-new version of Perry Mason next month, starring Matthew Rhys from The Americans as a younger, pre-courtroom Perry Mason. But tonight, MeTV presents the 1962 episode of the original CBS Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr, in the only episode in which Mason lost a case.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
25
WAR MOVIE MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
Throughout this Memorial Day weekend, TCM has filled its schedule, day and night, with war movies. On this final day of its tribute to soldiers, veterans and the fallen, TCM presents quite a variety, from entertaining action films (1963’s The Great Escape at 11:15 a.m. ET, 1967’s The Dirty Dozen at 2:15 p.m. ET) to somber films following returning wounded veterans as they try to readjust to civilian life (1946’s The Best Years of Our Lives, picture
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
25
MONDAYS WITH MICHELLE OBAMA By David Bianculli
 
 
This weekly series of national read-alongs has been extended, and for this Memorial Day edition, host Michelle Obama makes room for two more children’s books to be read aloud, with illustrations shown, for young viewers. Both of today’s selections come with punctuation attached: Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss is one selection, and Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings, which will be read by a “very special guest,” is the other. Mondays with
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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