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

 
 
2010
Jun
22
 
 
Tonight ABC presents two high-action, low-brain competition summer series: the returning "Wipeout" and the brand-new "Downfall". Yet elsewhere this week, quality nonfiction offerings shine -- and deserve to be supported, applauded, and, in spirit, imitated...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
22
 
 
You know how it is. The more there is to watch on TV -- the more channels, the more shows -- the harder it gets to find the little that's actually worth watching. But that problem is magnified on DVD. Either you can't find the quality shows worth buying, or those gems have such an "exclusive" (read: small) audience that they don't even get released on disc...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
22
 
 
The eye-popping new restoration of Judy Garland's 1954 Hollywood magnum opus A Star Is Born is all over the place this week, and it's a must-see...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
18
 
 
Two years ago, when I interviewed NBC's "Friday Night Lights" star Kyle Chandler for NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross", Chandler broke the news about the impending deal with DirecTV that would save the series from cancellation for two more seasons. Well, I just recorded an upcoming Fresh Air interview with Lights co-star Connie Britton -- and, once again, emerged with some breaking news...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
17
 
 
The reason updates have been sluggish last week and this: a series of disconnected, disconcerting computer problems, requiring a repair, a replacement, some wholesale data movement and password changes -- and, today, hours on the phone with every third tech-support specialist in Mumbai...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
15
 
 
Now that Breaking Bad has ended another astonishing season, and with Mad Men not back till July 25, fans of AMC dramas can bide their time by downloading a preview of the cabler's newest series -- Rubicon, a conspiracy thriller starring James Badge Dale (24) as an intelligence analyst who gets too inquisitive for his own safety...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
14
 
 
Sports tend to be either ephemeral -- today's game is gone tomorrow -- or idealized, like the Boys of Summer. NFL Films fuses God, country and paralyzing tackles. As for steroidally super-sized home run sluggers, geez, baseball broadcasters never noticed. ESPN can be one of the prime offenders...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
14
 
 
Belated anniversary wishes to two of TV's most memorable developments: First, to Discovery Channel -- If you caught Sunday night's 25 Years of Discovery special, you know cable's original full-time documentary showcase is celebrating its 25th anniversary all this week at 9 p.m. Note that I say "biggest" rather than best or most memorable...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
14
 
 
The opening-weekend box-office figures for the new movie remake of The A-Team were so low -- about half of general Hollywood predictions -- that I pity the fool who's still hoping for a cinematic sequel. Even so, one of our readers, in the contest to predict the opening grosses, came very close without going over, so wins some stuff...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2010
Jun
11
 
 
Robert Klein opens his latest HBO special, "Robert Klein: Unfair & Unbalanced" with a very funny song, backed by a full orchestra. By contrast, he opened our interview with a joke about TV WORTH WATCHING: "It's a small website, I take it..."