DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

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MIKE HUGHES

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MONIQUE NAZARETH

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GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2015
May
7
 
 
Jon Stewart, Like David Letterman, is on his exit lap, and pretty much can do, and is doing, whatever he wants. So tonight, his guests are one of his favored musical acts: Mumford & Sons.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
7
 
 
David Letterman, like Jon Stewart, is on his exit lap, and pretty much can do, and is doing, whatever he wants. So tonight, his guests include one of his favorite comic writers and actresses: Tina Fey.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
6
 
 
Here’s an early rarity from an extraordinary film career: A film noir heist movie, made in 1956, featuring all the taut writing, bitter betrayals and memorably shadowy characters you expect from this genre. But co-written and directed, in this case, by a young moviemaker named Stanley Kubrick – who, even this early, put his stamp on the visuals, the pacing, the performances, and the overall impact. Sterling Hayden, later to co-star in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, stars as the man
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
6
 
 
Back in 1981, the slogan for a brand-new music channel was “I Want My MTV!” Well, in this episode, The Goldbergs essentially pays homage to that explosion of interest in the music video, with Adam (Sean Giambrone) and his mom (Wendi McLendon-Covey) teaming up to co-direct a video submission for Erica (Hayley Orrantia), who has her sights set, perhaps a bit too high, on Juilliard. And what could impress Juilliard more than a home-made music video audition, Eighties style?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
6
 
 
Alex (Ariel Winter) is given the Valedictorian award in this week’s new episode. The bad news is that she has to share it – and the worst news is the person she has to share it with: her arch-enemy academic rival. There’s still a way to claim victory, though, and it’s a race to the finish – literally.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
6
 
 
In this episode, dreams to mount an independent movie are revived, thanks to the unexpected return of Cuba Gooding, Jr. The episode title, in another nod to the moviemaking meta-approach of this series, is itself also a movie title: “What Dreams May Come.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
6
 
 
The countdown continues, as David Letterman approaches his last weeks of shows. Tonight’s scheduled guests – and this sounds like a great roster – are Martin Short and Norah Jones. And for my appreciation of Letterman’s lengthy TV career, read and hear my report on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross website.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
6
 
 

CBS’s The Good Wife is a TV rarity: a drama series that seems to get even better as it gets older. The Season 6 finale arrives Sunday – and today, I interview the show’s creators, Robert and Michelle King, on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
5
 
 
LIVE TELECAST: Employing the same gimmick used a couple of times by 30 Rock, this NBC sitcom presents a live episode – one for each coast, performed three hours apart. And it’s an expanded episode, too, a full one hour long. I note this because it’s unusual, not because it’s recommended. Because live or no, Undateable remains pretty much Unwatchable.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
5
 
 
As we near the season finale, the characters on this show are splitting more and more into separate camps – and Skye, once safely ensconced with the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D., is getting closer each week to identifying with the Inhumans – whose members include a teleporting guy with no eyes and a woman who brings new meaning to the fashion statement of spiked hair.