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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

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All Along the Watchtower

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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

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2018
Apr
24
RISE By David Bianculli
 
 
As this series about a high school musical performance group nears its Season 1 finale, building towards a performance of Spring Awakening, tonight’s episode is devoted to “tech week,” which is when the backstage crew and designers put their visions in motion. In my own high school performing arts class, that’s where I resided: backstage, as lighting designer and stage manager, making friendships with some of the crew and cast that continue to this day. Will I be watching
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
24
NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN By David Bianculli
 
 
When this two-part Martin Scorsese biography of Bob Dylan premiered on public television in 2005, I called it “an American Masters masterpiece for PBS.” Tonight on AXS, you can see both parts in one delectable, double-scoop helping. And you should, without much more prodding on my part. You don’t need a weatherman to know the way the wind blows…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
24
LEGION By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s episode of Legion was so original, so unpredictable, so inventively visual, I did a special review of it on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. This follow-up episode doesn’t disappoint, or let up on the drama’s mystery-laden momentum. Legion creator Noah Hawley presents an episode tonight that is a full hour of a visual and logical puzzle – a warped cross between Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Groundhog Day, in which David (Dan Stevens) keeps
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
23
AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli
 
 
The two most prominent singing competition series, ABC’s American Idol and NBC’s The Voice, have been competing directly for a while now – but never this intensely, as both series get closer to the final laps of their respective races. Tonight is the night when Idol, for the first time since the former Fox juggernaut was revived by ABC, whittles down its still-standing 14 competitors to its 2018 Top 10. So even if you’ve skipped this relaunch thus far, tonight is a good c
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
23
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
Over on The Voice, meanwhile, the live shows are in their second week now, and tonight have whittled contestants down to the Top 12. And tonight, this two-hour edition of The Voice occupies the same prime time slot as American Idol over on ABC. So every time a performer sings, there’s not one competition going on. There are two.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
23
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE By David Bianculli
 
 
Denzel Washington starred in a movie remake of this thrilling political drama in 2004, but this is the 1962 original. It’s the one that gave Frank Sinatra one of his best film roles ever, and presented a scary story about political assassination and nefarious motivations that resonated with frightening power just a year later, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
23
'GENIUS: PICASSO' SO FAR IS A PORTRAIT WORTH SEEING By Ed Bark
 
 
Vincent Van Gogh got a movie and Kirk Douglas an Oscar nomination for playing him in Lust For Life. The same goes for Jackson Pollock and Ed Harris in Pollock...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
22
HBO'S 'WESTWORLD' RETURNS ON A GRANDER SCALE -- MIND GAMES INCLUDED By Ed Bark
 
 
It’s again easy to get lost in HBO’s Westworld, both from a total absorption standpoint and in trying to deduce what possibly, or impossibly, is going on...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
22
A UNIQUE 'TIMELESS' ABOUT A UNIQUELY TALENTED MAN By David Hinckley
 
 
NBC’s Timeless sends its time-travelers to old San Antonio Sunday. But instead of the obvious moment, which would be the 1836 siege of the Alamo...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Apr
22
THE GOOD FIGHT By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s new episode, the lawyers at Redding, Boseman and Lockhart take on an incendiary case, one in which an African-American undercover cop was shot, and crippled, by another Chicago officer. Representing the other officer is legendary lawyer Solomon Waltzer, played by the real-life legendary Alan Alda.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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