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
Jan
16
 
 

PASADENA, CA – Chuck Lorre is about to lose one sitcom on CBS, with the imminent departure of Two and a Half Men. But that still leaves him with three – and Thursday, the prolific comedy creator was honored with an all-star, all-shows salute…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
16
 
 
Only a couple of artists can claim a PEGOT – Peabody, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
16
 
 
NEW SEASON PREMIERE: Like Downton Abbey, this series crosses the Atlantic after being seen in the United Kingdom, but with a fan base on both sides of the ocean eager for more episodes, whenever they’re delivered. Netflix, which added Season 1 of The Fall to its roster not too long ago, beginning today provides the entirety of the just-completed Season 2. Gillian Anderson continues her role as Stella, the investigator heading the hunt for serial killer Paul (Jamie Dornan), whose identity s
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
16
 
 
Neil Simon, saluted on Fridays this month, is represented tonight by another roster of film comedies – beginning with this 1977 movie, which, unlike many Simon films to that date, was not based on one of his hit Broadway plays, but was an original comedy written specifically for the screen. Simon’s wife at the time, Marsha Mason, stars, opposite Richard Dreyfuss, who won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a struggling young actor.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
16
 
 
New York Metropolitan music director James Levine conducts this version of Mozart’s comic opera, staged by Richard Eyre and reset to take place in 1930s Spain. There is some continuity to this Met production: Ildar Abdrazakov has starred in the title role before, to much acclaim,. And Eyre previously staged a Carmen in 2009, which, like this new production, is showcased on PBS. Co-stars include Marlis Petersen as Susanna and Peter Mattei as Count Almaviva. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
16
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new Syfy series, while revisiting the world of Terry Gilliam’s dizzyingly complex 1995 time-travel drama, is neither a sequel nor a prequel. Twenty years after the original film hit theaters, this TV version is a reboot of sorts, but with the same general premise: a time-traveler is sent back from the future with a mission to contain an apocalyptic virus. This time, the traveler – played by Bruce Willis in Gilliam’s film – is portrayed by Aaron Stanf
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
16
 
 
Tonight’s guests include actor-columnist Josh Gad and film director Kathryn Bigelow – but this week, as in most weeks, the headlines, and the reactions to them by Bill Maher and guests, are the real draw here.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
15
 
 
PILOT PREVIEW: Today’s the day Amazon unveils its newest batch of pilots, letting website visitors watch them, react to them and therefore have some sort of say, however marginal, in which shows are picked up for series. Here’s the best new drama of this 2015 crop, and a show well worth supporting. It’s from Frank Spotnitz, one of the veteran X-Files writer-producers, and is an excitingly intriguing adaptation of the novel by Philip K. Dick, whose other stories inspired, among
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
15
 
 
Among the comedy pilots on view today from Amazon, in its first batch of proposed new series for 2015, the one most worthy of getting a series order is this one, which stars Leslie Bibb as a former supermodel emerging, with bad attitude and behaviors intact, after 15 years in rehab. Rachel Dratch plays her former assistant, and the two make an instantly hilarious female odd couple. To see the show, visit Amazon’s Pilot Season web page. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
15
 
 
The first movie made with this title was in 1903, from the Edison company, directed by Edwin S. Porter, with its famous final shot of a bad guy pointing his gun directly at the audience. (My Rowan University film students know it well – at least after taking my Introduction to Film course.) But this particular movie is a comedy thriller, made 75 years later, and written and directed by Michael Crichton, whose prolific and fertile imagination has given us Westworld, Jurassic Park, The Andro