Grease is the word, or at least the 1978 movie, that has charmed more than one generation of audiences. It was adapted for film from the slightly more raunchy Broadway musical, and hit casting nirvana by pairing future film icon John Travolta with Australian pop star Olivia Newton-John. Encore is showing the oft-televised Grease tonight, but is following it with the much lesser-seen sequel, 1982's Grease 2, starting at 9:53 p.m. ET. Taking over the male heartthrob role is Maxwell Caulfield, but

2018

Jan

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: "INTO THE AMAZON" By David Bianculli

This is an adventure story, of early exploration deep into the Amazon, that just happens to be true. And captivating, because it features a U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, as one of its brave protagonists. It’s a voyage down the unexplored Amazon in 1914, a trip so treacherous that Roosevelt begged to be left behind to die. For full reviews, see Alex Strachan's TV That Matters and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. Check local listings.

2018

Jan

THIS IS US By David Bianculli

MIDSEASON PREMIERE: NBC’s most popular dramatic series is back, with new episodes, for 2018. The broadcast networks are calling this kind of thing a “midseason premiere,” presumably because it takes less time and space to say than “returning, finally, with fresh episodes after a long holiday, pre-holiday and post-holiday string of reruns.”

2018

Jan

WHY IS 'THE GOOD DOCTOR' SUCH A RATINGS HIT? By David Hinckley

It’s tricky to find an easy explanation why ABC’s The Good Doctor became this season’s biggest prime-time broadcast network drama...

2018

Jan

DAVID BOWIE: THE LAST FIVE YEARS By David Bianculli

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Well, it’s the U.S. premiere, anyway: The Last Five Years, a follow-up by filmmaker Francis Whately’s other Bowie documentary, Live Years, premiered in the U.K. a year ago. But here it is, and for Bowie fans, undoubtedly it will be worth the wait. Whereas Five Years was about five key, non-consecutive years in the singer-songwriter-actor’s career, The Last Five Years is a sequential study of the five years before his 2016 death. And it’s a prolific f

2018

Jan

IN COLD BLOOD By David Bianculli

This 1967 movie, based on the “New Journalism” book and approach by Truman Capote, is starkly photographed in black and white, and stark in every other respect as well. Richard Brooks directs, and co-wrote the adaptation himself, which explains all the inventive but never jarring cross-cuts and imagery. It’s the story of the 1953 murders of a Kansas farm family in 1953 – a murder which, in attracting news media and stunning the nation with its meaningless brutality, was t

2018

Jan

DOG DAY AFTERNOON By David Bianculli

Another true-crime story shown tonight on TCM, this one is shown late enough that it requires either a time-shifting recording device or insomnia. Either way, it’s worth catching. This 1975 movie is directed by Sidney Lumet, right before he did Network, and has the same sort of crackling urgency and unchecked irrationality as that other great film. Al Pacino stars as a man who attempts a bank robbery in Brooklyn in order to fund his lover’s sex-change operation. John Cazale, in one o

2018

Jan

NEW HBO BOWIE DOC FOCUSES ON LAST FIVE YEARS OF CREATIVITY By David Hinckley

HBO’s new documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years spotlights his impressive artistic output from 2011 until he died on Jan. 10, 2016...

2018

Jan

TCA'S WINTER PRESS TOUR – DAY 3: CBS, CW, SHOWTIME By Roger Catlin

CBS had an extremely small footprint at the TV Critics Association winter press tour, with panels this weekend for just two new series...

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