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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
May
2
THE WRITERS' ROOM By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s new installment focuses on the Netflix hit series House of Cards. Among the show’s representatives: Beau Willimon, who adapted the vintage British miniseries for a new generation, a new country, and, in Kevin Spacey, a new star.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
2
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
This week, Bill Maher has a timely booking that could lead to the show’s most intensely debated conversation of the season. One of his guests is retired basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who earlier this week weighed in on the controversy regarding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was banned for life from the National Basketball Association after a recording of him making racist comments to his now ex-girlfriend were made public. Abdul-Jabbar said in a Time magazine opin
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
2
GALLIPOLI By David Bianculli
 
 
From 1981, here’s another Australian film classic introduced tonight by Australian actress Jacki Weaver. Directed and co-written by Peter Weir, it’s another war film: This one set in Turkey during WWI, about Australians sent to do battle in the Gallipoli campaign. Starring as one of the soldiers: young actor Mel Gibson, two years after breaking out in, and as, Mad Max.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
1
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Bob Newhart makes yet another appearance tonight as former children’s TV host Professor Proton. Given the plot, it may well be his last – but maybe not, since not even what looks like a final departure can keep the Professor from participating, albeit reluctantly, in Sheldon’s “Star Wars Day” celebration.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
1
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK By David Bianculli
 
 
Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as troubled free spirit Tiffany in this 2012 David O. Russell movie, which stars Bradley Cooper as a bipolar Philadelphia man pining for his ex-wife. It’s an outstanding movie, full of smart and sensitive performances – and Lawrence, in the range she shows here, earned all the accolades she’s gotten since.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
1
ELEMENTARY By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s episode broke up this sleuthing dynamic duo, as Watson (Lucy Liu) was kidnapped. Tonight, Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) and his visiting brother Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) team up to retrieve her – while the real Liu spends a lot of time behind the camera, as this episode’s director.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
1
PORTLANDIA By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: For this Season 4 finale, most of the familiar Portlandia faces, including recurring guest stars Jason Sudeikis and  k.d. lang, hit the road and head out of town – to attend a feminist retreat held in neighboring New Beavertown.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
1
MARON By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE PREVIEW: I know, that’s weird. But so is Marc Maron. Tonight, a week before launching Season 2 of his very personalized comedy series, he and IFC present a sneak preview. And, really, why not?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
1
SAY GOODNIGHT TO A LATE LATE ROBOT AND FOUL-MOUTHED PUPPETS By Eric Gould
 
 
NPR's pop culture blog, Monkey See, is running this 13-minute Craig Ferguson "Best Of" tribute now that the late night talk show host has announced he's stepping down from Late Late Show in December. There are many highlights here...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Apr
30
JACKIE BROWN By David Bianculli
 
 
This 1997 action film, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, is a double homage. Its title role is a star vehicle for Pam Grier, who shone in such Seventies blaxploitation films (and Tarantino guilty pleasures) as Foxy Brown. And it’s based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, whose oddball characters and playful dialogue clearly have inspired Tarantino’s films. The supporting cast for Jackie Brown is another reason to watch: It includes Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, M
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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