The media hysteria over 11 footballs last week overshadowed coverage of a presidential address, the hunt for international terrorists, and now an asteroid about to make a near miss as it passes by Earth...

2015

Jan

GALAVANT By David Bianculli

SERIES FINALE: ABC hasn’t announced a renewal for this four-week, eight-episode limited series – and based on the ratings, isn’t likely to. But this series has had its moments, and its clever musical numbers (for example, “Weird Al” Yankovic and a group of hooded clerics singing “Hey, hey, we’re the Monks”) – and if tonight’s episode is indeed the last round for Galavant, at least it’ll go down singing…

2015

Jan

2015 SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS By David Bianculli

This year’s SAG Awards include a tribute to Debbie Reynolds, introduced by her daughter, Carrie Fisher. Also, there’s a lot of emphasis on the top acting awards, because, much of the time, the winners serve as predictors of who’s most likely to succeed come Oscar night. Simulcast on TNT.

2015

Jan

MASTERPIECE CLASSIC: "DOWNTON ABBEY" By David Bianculli

In tonight’s episode, Richard E. Grant (pictured) continues to project the sort of smarmy friendliness that makes Hugh Bonneville’s Earl of Grantham steam in his stuffed shirt. Grant is playing a guy who has eyes not only for the art collected by Elizabeth McGovern’s Countess of Grantham – but for the Countess herself. Check local listings.

2015

Jan

SONS OF LIBERTY By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: Part 1 of 3. This isn’t very good, and certainly isn’t to be believed as any sort of accurate historical account – but this channel, these days, has a very liberal definition of what counts as, and belongs on, History. In any event, this three-part, six-hour drama about the birth of the American Revolution, though modernized, actionized and with its heroes buffed up and lionized, at least gets certain facts right, and pays attention to an often underlooked

2015

Jan

THE GRADUATE By David Bianculli

This 1967 Mike Nichols movie, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, is an absolutely wonderful movie. But here’s something to ponder: In two years, it will be 50 years old.

2015

Jan

PHILOMENA By David Bianculli

Steven Coogan, more known in the U.K. for straight comedy roles and sketch characters, co-wrote the screenplay for this 2013 character drama, and co-stars, in a story of a journalist (Coogan) who takes on the challenge of finding what happened to the infant son of an Irish woman who, many decades earlier, was taken away from her while she was in the care of nuns at a convent. Judi Dench plays the woman, and Sophie Kennedy Clark portrays her younger counterpart in flashbacks.

2015

Jan

COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER By David Bianculli

Sissy Spacek plays country singer Loretta Lynn in this 1980 biography – and, at the time, impressed critics by singing the songs herself, rather than lip-synching to Lynn’s recordings. Academy Award voters were impressed, too – and awarded Spacek the Best Actress Oscar. Costars include Tommy Lee Jones and, stepping out from behind his drum kit in The Band, Levon Helm.

2015

Jan

THE TERMINATOR By David Bianculli

One of several vintage movies shown tonight, this one, from 1984, began a franchise that’s just about to be rebooted, with its original star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a key part of the mix again.

2015

Jan

FUNNY GIRL By David Bianculli

Very young TV viewers may recognize this as the musical in which Lea Michele’s Rachel, on Glee, was starring in a Broadway revival. But no, this is the 1968 movie version of the musical which, like this film, showcased Barbra Streisand as Ziegfeld comedy star Fanny Brice. Co-stars include Omar Sharif, Anne Francis and, as Mrs. Strakosh, Mae Questel. I note that because, though her name may not be familiar, her voice certainly is: in vintage cartoons, she provided the voices of two fe

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