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

 
 
2019
Dec
30
 
 
At first, the music world wasn’t sure what to do with Linda Ronstadt. Was she folk? Or country? Or rock? Then people realized she was all of that and more...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
29
 
 
Cheerleaders often serve as incidental characters in TV and film dramas. They’re the girlfriends or the mean girls or, in the slasher film world, convenient prey for deranged serial killers...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
29
 
 
Sundays on TV never will be as quiet as this one: Television critics call it “dead week” for a reason. Most weekly shows between Christmas and New Year’s Day are in repeats or on hiatus. Ray Donovan is one of the few shows stubbornly plowing on with an original episode: and tonight, here it is.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
29
 
 
The NBC West title, and some major playoff implications, hang in the balance, as the 11-3 San Francisco 49ers face the 11-4 Seattle Seahawks. There are other games played today, but the Seahawks and the 49ers – tonight, in a game that ought to be a good one, they’re the Ready for Prime Time Players.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
29
 
 
Lee Mendelson, who died Wednesday, Dec. 25 at 86, produced a multitude of pretty good television and 30 minutes of perfection. That half-hour leaves him forever in the warmest part of our memories...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
28
 
 
It’s not unusual for, me to recommend Saturday Night Live as a Saturday Best Bet – but that’s normally when it’s a new late-night episode. This is an old episode, and it’s not in late night: It’s a cut-down, 60-minute version of a program from six years ago, presented in prime time. But this is the episode from Dec. 21, 2013, with Jimmy Fallon as guest host and Justin Timberlake as musical guest. You get a holiday installment of “Bring It on Do
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
27
 
 
NONFICTION MINISERIES PREMIERE: The title of this latest Netflix offering might lead you to believe that it’s another raucous Kevin Hart standup comedy special.  Instead, Kevin Hart: Don’t F*** This Up (asterisks mine, not Netflix’s) is a six-part documentary, profiling and following the comedian as he addresses his many controversies while traversing the rocky trail through stardom and pop-culture moguldom.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
27
 
 
First there was The Godfather, Francis Coppola’s super-smart cinematic adaptation of the pulpy Mario Puzo novel. Then came The Godfather Part II, one of the few (and first) sequels to live up to the original entry. Marlon Brando, who portrayed Vito Corneone brilliantly in the 1972 film, makes way for Robert De Niro, who portrays the young Vito in extended flashbacks in this 1974 follow-up. Al Pacino co-stars in both, as Don Corleone’s son Michael. It’s the l
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
27
 
 
Tonight’s guests include current Star Wars franchise star Daisy Ridley. Enough reason, right there, to watch, because Graham Norton has a gift for asking the unexpected… and getting results no less surprising.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
26
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 1 of this series, which stars Penn Badgley as a bookstore manager and serial stalker – and, like the title character of Dexter, an occasional murderer with an ongoing interior monologue – was shown on Lifetime. You and Badgley return for Season 2, but on Netflix instead.