Tonight (June 1), ABC launches its last new series originally announced in May 2014. It’s The Whispers, a compelling paranormal suspense hour in which the kids aren’t all right while the adults strive to divine what’s driving them...

2015

Jun

HARRY By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Yet another series import receives its American TV premiere on Acorn TV. This time it’s a new crime series from New Zealand, called Harry, a limited series that will be unspooled Mondays on the streaming service, with the first two episodes available today to launch the newest Acorn acquisition. Oscar Kightley, who co-wrote the series, stars in the title role, playing a detective in Auckland’s Major Crime Unit who returns to the job after a month off of bereavement l

2015

Jun

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: For Cycle 12 of this competition dance series, Fox is trying to make enough changes so this show can remain vital, or at least viable, for a few more seasons. The biggest structural changes are in the competition – it’s now stage vs. street, not men vs. women – and in the judges’ table, where Mary Murphy is gone, and a familiar judge from an even older Fox competition series, Paula Abdul from American Idol, signs up for the entire season. And since she st

2015

Jun

MAD MAX By David Bianculli

Compare and contrast: With George Miller’s new, hypercharged Mad Max movie now in theaters, here’s a chance to refresh your memories of his 1979 original. Mel Gibson stars.

2015

Jun

UNREAL By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. What could be more cynical, and even less entertaining, than a dating reality show? How about a scripted series that pretends to be a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a dating reality show, and is every bit as manipulative and abrasive as the genre it lampoons and deconstructs? UnReal wants to be knowingly superior to the Bachelor-type program it “examines,” but somehow creates a universe, and a program, that is even wo

2015

Jun

THE WHISPERS By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This new ABC summer series has two names attached who are giants in the sci-fi genre: executive producer Steven Spielberg and the late author Ray Bradbury, whose short story Zero Hour inspired this limited series – which, like CBS’s Under the Dome, will prove less limited if it catches on. It’s about a mysterious case involving a series of seemingly random children, each of whom shares the same “imaginary” plaything, a malicious spirit named Drill w

2015

Jun

'AMERICAN GENIUS,' A GOOD IDEA LOST IN THE TELLING By Alex Strachan

Ideas don’t always translate well on the small screen. That’s why the ambitious, high-minded National Geographic documentary series American Genius is such an exercise in frustration...

2015

May

FACE THE NATION By David Bianculli

Bob Schieffer, 78, is retiring after today’s edition of Face the Nation, capping a career covering 46 years of distinguished reporting of the best old-school style: a respected newsman who took his job very seriously, himself much less so. In a special edition of Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes, another venerable Texas reporter, our own long-time TVWW correspondent, reprints three of his vintage interview encounters with Schieffer. And to honor the occasion and say a fond farewel

2015

May

THE CRITICS' CHOICE TELEVISION AWARDS By David Bianculli

I’m a member of this organization, so it behooves me to point out that tonight, A&E presents a prime-time telecast of this year’s awards show. Honesty compels me to admit, though, that I prefer the lower-key Television Critics Association Awards – the ones that, for most of that organization’s history, have not been televised, and seem much more intimate as a result.

2015

May

DEEP WEB By David Bianculli

This documentary, written, produced and directed by Alex Winter, examines the case of Silk Road, the illegal drug trafficking site that lurked on the “Deep Web,” until the government shut down the site in 2013 and put its purported entrepreneur, Ross William Ulbricht, on trial. But as this documentary makes clear, nothing about the case, or the motives for the site, or even the identity of the Silk Road-running “Dread Pirate Roberts,” is as simple as it might appear. And

Posts 1411-1420 of 2283

141 142 143 144 145

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption