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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
 
 
2020
Apr
17
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Again, I’m not sure if listings and network websites are absolutely trustworthy these days. But if BBC America is on the level, Graham Norton returns for a new season tonight. Like his U.S. counterparts, the U.K. talk show host is practicing TV social distancing: no audience, and with visits via remote video links by such guests as Patrick Stewart, Ricky Gervais and Westworld star Thandie Newton. That may change the dynamics of his program, since Norton encourages guests to appea
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
17
1989: THE LAUNCH OF CNBC By TV WW
 
 
This day in 1989 marked the launch of the Consumer News and Business Channel, better known as CNBC...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
16
1978: NBC PRESENTS THE MINISERIES 'HOLOCAUST' By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1978, NBC presented the first part of its four-day miniseries, Holocaust...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
16
'IN THE DARK' RETURNS FOR SEASON 2 By David Hinckley
 
 
One of several things the CW network does well is to stick with shows that don't have flashy ratings. That describes In The Dark, which returns...its second season. Actually, it's already been renewed for a third season, too...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
16
THE GOOD FIGHT By David Bianculli
 
 
In last week’s Season 4 premiere, Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart had a Wizard of Oz experience of sorts, in which she imagined herself as living in a very, very different world. It was a world in which Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, had ascended to the White House in 2016 – and series creators Robert and Michelle King had great fun playing with, and against, the expectations of that alternate-universe premise. But at the very end of the episode, Diane awoke f
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
16
DEVS By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES CONCLUSION: Devs has been so disturbing, in a good way, that it has specialized in pulling the rug from under the viewer and defying expectations. Characters you thought would be central turn up dead, and stay that way. Plots you think are leading in a certain direction suddenly pivot, and don’t stay that way. In recent episodes, the development team at Devs, working with and against their wealthy and somewhat unhinged project leader, have cracked a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
16
XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS By David Bianculli
 
 
Syfy is one of several cable networks reacting to the pandemic, and its sudden increase in TV viewers isolated at home for lengthy periods, by dusting off a page from the old cable TV playbook. Back in the old days, or the semi-old ones, some cable networks would pad out their 24-hour schedules by running marathons of TV reruns of a chosen series; some still do. And in direct response to current conditions, Syfy has unearthed and scheduled complete-series showings, sprinkled throughout its sched
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
16
TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL SPECIAL HOME EDITION By David Bianculli
 
 
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the in-person part of this year’s scheduled TCM Classic Film Festival has been cancelled. But the show, and the movies, must go on, so strap in for several days of some absolutely fabulous filmmaking and salutes to movies, pulling from both the TCM archives and from telecasts of past Classic Film Festival events. Kicking things off tonight in prime time are two movies embracing all that and more. At 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents 1954’s A Star Is Bo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
15
INNER WORLDS OF ‘TALES FROM THE LOOP’ MIGHT BE THE PRESCRIPTION DURING MEDITATIVE TIMES By Eric Gould
 
 
What Tales From the Loop is not, is standard sci-fi fare with actors in elaborate rubber prosthetics. That does not, however, disqualify it as compelling science fiction...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Apr
15
'MRS. AMERICA,' FILLED WITH STRONG PERFORMANCES, TELLS THE STORY OF THE ERA By David Hinckley
 
 
Watching the ambitious new production, Mrs. America, is like watching a ballgame whose outcome you already know. Your interest will likely be directly proportionate to how you felt about that outcome...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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