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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
 
 
2016
Feb
23
POLITICS: THE STUFF OF DREAMS By Jonathan Storm
 
 
The Simpsons trundles along as history’s longest-running scripted series, 27 years... One of the reasons for the show’s success is that it stays up-to-the-minute...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY: MORE SIGNS OF TV'S CURRENT MURDER-SUICIDE PACT By Alex Strachan
 
 
I have seen the future, and it looks a lot like the TV-network equivalent of a murder-suicide pact. It was Sunday night, the most heavily viewed night of the TV week, and there was too much for the DVR to keep up with...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
ACORN'S 'SUSPECTS' IMPROVISES ON POLICE DRAMA By David Hinckley
 
 
You might think there are only so many ways to tell a police drama, until TV shows like Suspects prove different. Suspects sets itself apart because all its dialogue is improvised...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
11.22.63 By David Bianculli
 
 
Just a reminder: Hulu is streaming 11.22.63, the Stephen King miniseries starring James Franco as a man who travels back in time hoping to prevent the John F. Kennedy assassination, the way the broadcast networks show their series: One episode a week. So tonight is episode two – and if you missed episode one, you can catch up by traveling back in time to last Monday’s premiere. Or, I guess, you can just go to the Hulu website, where last week’s episode, along with tonight&rsquo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
THE X-FILES By David Bianculli
 
 
LIMITED SERIES FINALE: Limited series, miniseries, rebooted series, sequel series – whatever this six-episode X-Files of 2016 is, it ends tonight. And ends the same way it began: With Joel McHale guest starring as a conspiracy theorist with a TV show, and with a story circulating about the government’s secret program of injecting innocent civilians with DNA from aliens.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
BECOMING MIKE NICHOLS By David Bianculli
 
 
We’ve already had a very recent Mike Nichols tribute on American Masters, and this one, like that one, relies largely on an extended interview with Nichols himself. The difference here is that it focuses on his early life, and the very start of his career as a film director after his comedy and stage work. And since that part of his life was as fascinating as the rest of it, why not tune in to compare and contrast?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
BETTER CALL SAUL By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s Season Two premiere was wonderful, and set Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) up at a new place of business, with a new boss (Ed Begley, Jr.), a company car, and other perks that far outshine illegally obtained cucumber water. So why is there this feeling that things aren’t going to go well for Jimmy? Oh – because we know they won’t, or he wouldn’t, in time, become Saul Goodman. Bob Odenkirk stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
22
FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s second episode was much stronger than the premiere, with one segment lengthy and detailed enough to seem almost John Oliver-ish, and with Samantha Bee making strong comedy points about both the Supreme Court vacancy and the actual demographic makeup of Syrian refugees. If her learning curve continues to be as steep, tonight’s third outing will be really strong – and really, really funny.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
21
'DOWNTON ABBEY' RECAP, SEASON 6, EPISODE 8: THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM By David Hinckley
 
 
If you only saw the last five minutes of Downton Abbey Sunday, it would have been a little like showing up for World War I on Armistice Day. You’d look around, see all the relieved happy faces and think, “Well, everything seems fine. Nothing bad happened before this, did it?”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
21
THE NIGHT WHOOPI GAVE ME A WIN By Candace Kelley
 
 
On that night in 1991,  I claimed the big TV in the house. That 30-inch set. All mine. Cue Oscar themed music...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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