DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new WGN America series stars David Morse as the long-haired, big-muscled, wild-eyed head of a mountain clan that lives off the grid in the hills of Appalachia, descending into town only to abscond with whatever supplies they need. The town puts up with it because of the family’s imposing ways, but a coal company is less forgiving, and sets out to evict the long-time squatters. Thus begins the major conflict that fuels this series, which is sort of a cross between Sons
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
'Outsiders' brings the saga of unkempt, contemporary Appalachian mountain men and women who drink hard, seemingly bathe infrequently and have built a psychic wall between themselves and all those varmints down below...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
This week’s show features three very funny men: legendary TV producer Norman Lear, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and Saturday Night Live veteran Bill Hader. Tonight, Henry Louis Gates investigates their lineages – and comes up with one particular discovery that is unexpectedly, dramatically amazing. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
Last week’s season premiere accomplished a lot. Not only did it transplant Agent Peggy Carter to Hollywood and introduce some new characters, but it also introduced a little pulsating glob of black matter, or anti-matter, that may well be the forerunner of the alternate-reality transporter in this show’s sister series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hey: For that matter (or that anti-matter), this “Dark Matter” stuff could be the exact same thing, just uncovered a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
The bloody, often brutal story of the fight to unionize the West Virginia coal mines is told in this new American Experience documentary. Expect the treatment to be fossil, not facile. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
These post-season outings are the most indispensible installments of this sports series, because they combine extensive deconstructions with specially placed cameras and microphones. What were Cam Newton and Peyton Manning saying to their teammates and coaches on the sidelines? Chances are, you’ll find it here, in this show that dissects the league championship games and sets up the Super Bowl.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
26
 
 
It would be convenient to see Outsiders as a lucky case of TV art imitating life, with a small Appalachian clan being forced by the Feds off the rugged mountain on which they have lived for 200 years...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
25
 
 
It’s Hollywood Week on American Idol, and time to cull the herd on the once dominant TV competition’s final season...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
25
 
 
Fox’s live TV production of Grease is less than a week away – so Freeform is repeating this 1978 movie musical at a very well-chosen time. Watch one more time, to compare the performances (and costumes) in this film of Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta and Stockard Channing – as Sandy, Danny and Rizzo, respectively – with the ones coming this Sunday from Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit and Vanessa Hudgens.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Jan
25
 
 
TIME SLOT PREMIERE: Now that the exposition-heavy, reset-obsessed series premiere episode is out of the way, The X-Files can get back to business, and to basics. That begins with tonight’s episode, which is much more satisfying than last night’s return episode. But what’s really satisfying, on balance, is having David Duchovny’s Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Scully back again.