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

 
 
2015
Feb
9
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Part 2 of 2. If you missed last night’s Part 1, and didn’t record it, don’t panic: AMC is repeating Part 1 tonight, with the unusual starting time of 8:45 p.m. ET, so that it can conclude just in time to lead into the premiere of tonight’s Part 2, starting at 10 ET. Don’t miss it: Part 1 ended with a cliffhanger, and tonight’s Part 2 picks up right where the first episode left off, with a tension-filled, and laughter-filled, episode that prove
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
For this year’s Grammys, Katy Perry is performing, fresh from the Super Bowl. Sia is performing, fresh from Saturday Night Live. But as always with these annual Grammy shows from executive producer Ken Ehrlich, the most anticipated music acts are the pairings. This year, they’re scheduled to include Hozier and Annie Lennox; Rihanna, Paul McCartney and Kanye West; Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani; and Tom Jones and Jessie J.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This documentary miniseries, which will run for six weeks in one-hour chunks on HBO, is Andrew Jarecki’s nonfiction examination of Robert Durst, the wealthy New York real-estate heir accused of one murder and suspected of several. Jarecki made a fictional feature film inspired by one Durst case, 2010’s All Good Things, but this is a nonfiction treatment. And it’s an amazing one, because Durst, after seeing the fictional film, contacted Jarecki, and eventual
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
The police investigation is getting closer to home – and home, in this case, means Downton Abbey itself. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
SERIES RETURN: As this series was leaving for its midseason hiatus, it dispatched one of its most beloved characters, and also took away the hope that there was a zombie-plague cure to be found if only our survivors could make it to Washington, D.C. So now, as the second half of this season’s shows begins, there is, to quote Bob Dylan, “no direction home.” What’s going to happen now? Where will they go, and what will they do? That’s why we’re so eager to watch
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould take their Breaking Bad character of smarmy, fast-taking lawyer Saul Goodman, and give him a backstory, in this prequel series about a struggling Albuquerque lawyer named Jimmy McGill. It’s a fabulous series, as least based on the opening three episodes – more Frasier to Cheers than Beverly Hills Buntz to Hill Street Blues. For my full review, and a link to my report on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, see Bianculli’s Blog.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Welcome back, Mr. Oliver. In his first season with his own show on HBO, Oliver carved out a different territory for himself in the satirical current-events comedy landscape – burrowing deeply into one topic instead of just peppering shots in every direction. And his HBO on-air promos for Season 2 have been so smart and so knowingly self-mocking, that it bodes well for this second-season batch, as well.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
8
 
 
This video gives new meaning to the term “crib notes.” It’s a just-dropped music video introducing Baby Smalls, the newest, or at least youngest, West Coast rapper...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
7
 
 
This 2014 Tom Cruise sci-fi film, co-starring Emily Blunt, is the action-movie equivalent of Groundhog Day: The characters have to relive a certain point in time until and unless they learn their lesson – in this case, how to defeat a deadly alien enemy. If you want to enhance the feeling, record this movie before watching it, then stop halfway through and go back to the beginning. Rinse and repeat.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Feb
7
 
 
As cinematic romantic triangles go, they don’t get much better than this. In this 1940 romantic comedy, directed by George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn is the fiancé caught between two men – and Cary Grant and James Stewart play the men. Oh, and neither of those men is her husband-to-be (played by John Howard), so technically, this is a comedy about a romantic rectangle.