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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

MIKE HUGHES

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

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2014
Dec
12
MARCO POLO By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: All 10 episodes of the first season of Netflix’s newest drama series, Marco Polo, are available today beginning in the very early morning – but this one may have a tougher time gaining traction, even if it gets a sizable initial sampling. It sets out to be an epic period drama, colorful and fascinatingly unusual in the manner of the classic NBC miniseries Shogun – but that 1980 drama, starring Richard Chamberlain as a seafaring stranger in a very strange land,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
12
CADDYSHACK By David Bianculli
 
 
This is an unintentional changing of the guard movie. Made in 1980, it stars Chevy Chase, the first member of Saturday Night Live to quit the show early to pursue a movie career, and features Bill Murray, his SNL replacement, who basically steals the movie out from under him. Chase indeed became a movie star for a few years, embodying the sardonic, self-satisfied smug humor of a new generation – but Murray, in time, proved the more durable movie star and much better actor. But here they ar
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
12
NAS: TIME IS ILLMATIC By David Bianculli
 
 
Twenty years ago, the hip-hop artist Nas released his Illmatic album, which had a major impact on the industry and on many of the rap artists to follow. This documentary tries to explain why, especially, but not exclusively, to the uninitiated.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
12
TRUST ME By David Bianculli
 
 
What a dream team of talented character actors: Clark Gregg, star of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., plays a down-on-his-luck talent agent who sees a young actress as his ticket to the big time, and the rest of the cast of this Hollywood comedy-drama includes Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy, Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell. Saxon Sharbino plays the talented teenager.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
12
THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON By David Bianculli
 
 
Rashida Jones, a regular on both NBC’s The Office and Parks and Recreation, shows up to say goodbye to Craig Ferguson, in another entry in what’s been a very enjoyable, truly freewheeling couple of final weeks. Jones is another of the plays-well-with-others celebrities whom Ferguson took on one of his overseas travel-week shows, so expect a very warm, and funny, farewell.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
11
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Amy (Mayim Bialik) wants to have a very traditional Christmas celebration – one from a previous century – but Sheldon (Jim Parsons) has an attitude that’s closer to humbug.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
11
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER By David Bianculli
 
 
James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star in this charming 1940 Ernst Lubitsch film, abot quarreling employees at a gift shop who actually are in love with one another – as anonymous pen pals. Remade, much more recently, as You’ve Got Mail.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
11
GRACEPOINT By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES FINALE: This Americianized remake of Broadchurch has steered from the original script in its final episodes, so the verdict of the murder case could be different than in the original. Fox has promised, however, that there will be a verdict tonight, so this indeed is the story’s final chapter.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
11
HOLIDAY AFFAIR By David Bianculli
 
 
Robert Mitchum is known for much darker fare than this, but here he is, doing delightful duty in a romantic holiday comedy, and opposite a very young, very beautiful Janet Leigh.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
11
THE COLBERT REPORT By David Bianculli
 
 
Did you see Stephen Colbert in one of the Hobbit movies? If not, he’s probably going to show you his cameo tonight – as part of his salute to the last of Peter Jackson’s multi-film Hobbit epic movies.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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