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
11
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Fiona (Emmy Rossum) doesn’t exactly have a history of falling for the right man – but as this season begins, her taste may be improving. Problem is, he’s older. And her boss. And, apparently, not interested in making the interest reciprocal. Meanwhile, father Frank (William H. Macy) comes out of his near-death experience with a new liver, and, temporarily, a new outlook.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
11
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: The Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark, present their first TV series as a writing team. Mark stars, along with Melanie Lynskey, Steve Zissis and Amanda Peet, in an intimate comedy about life, and life changes, among the no-longer-very young. Nice performances, and an impressive sweep of emotions touched upon in each episode. For his full review, read Uncle Barky's Bytes.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
11
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Things between the core characters on this series couldn’t be rockier – either professionally or personally, or both, everything is set to explode. And even in this season opener, there are, indeed, some big detonations. Don Cheadle stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
11
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This underrated Showtime series begins another season with a very strong, very funny episode indeed. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog. And to hear or read my review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
10
 
 
For quite a while, HBO’s Togetherness looks as though it could be exceptional. But halfway through, in an episode subtitled “Kick the Can,” it begins to falter and lose its way...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
10
 
 
The only team from the American Football Conference to win a Super Bowl the past five years is the Baltimore Ravens – which got to that game, two years ago, after upsetting the New England Patriots in that year’s AFC Championship Game. The Patriots have plenty of other postseason appearances worthy of the description “upsetting,” and doubtless will be playing with grim purpose, trying to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time in three years.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
10
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This is a same-week repeat of the introductory two-hour block of the latest entry from the Marvel Studios universe of superheroes and not-so-super ones. Hayley Atwell’s Agent Peggy Carter, battling all sorts of espionage intrigue in post-WWII 1946, falls in the latter category: She is endowed with no special powers, other than keen intuition, impressive close-combat fighting skills, and the ability to look drop-dead gorgeous when choosing to go undercover as a voluptuous b
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
10
 
 
This National Football Conference game today is a contest featuring two of the game’s most talented young quarterbacks: Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks, who in three seasons as an NFL starter already has won one Super Bowl, and Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers, the top pick in the 2011 NFL draft, now taking his team to the postseason for the second consecutive year. Welcome to football’s future, arriving a bit early.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
10
 
 
When I was in Berlin last year, I visited their fantastic film museum and saw, among many other things, the scale-model sets and full-size robot stand-in for Fritz Lang’s 1927 futuristic, impressionistic silent-movie masterpiece. Tonight TCM televises the 2010 restored version of this amazing early film, which stars Brigitte Helm in a dual role as a compassionate champion of workers’ rights and her sexy evil clone. Guess which one is shown here…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Jan
10
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: For this season premiere of Mythbusters, the gang takes on the “reality” of things they’ve seen in Springfield – as in the hometown of Fox’s The Simpsons. For example, do three-eyed fish really exist downstream from nuclear plants? (That’s my example, not theirs – but you get the idea.)