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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2017
Jan
14
HBO HAS THE DAMNDEST THING IN 'THE YOUNG POPE' By Ed Bark
 
 
Holy smokes, what will American audiences make of The Young Pope, which already has been underway in Italy since late October?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
MARGO MARTINDALE’S NEWEST DEVOTED BUT SHIFTY MOM IN ‘SNEAKY PETE’ By David Hinckley
 
 
The general rule with Margo Martindale’s characters in recent years is to become wary when she seems to get all nice...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Forget about the Jim Carrey movie from a dozen years ago. This new Netflix version, overseen by Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler and Barry Sonnenfeld (one of the show’s gifted directors), is delightful from start to finish. Well, start to the end of episode eight, which is all Netflix is providing during this first go-round. Each book in the original Series of Unfortunate Events series, telling of the continuing misadventures of a trio of orphaned siblings whose family
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
SNEAKY PETE By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Originally made for CBS, then picked up by Amazon, this series has a mouth-watering pedigree. It’s a drama series created by Bryan Cranston, star of Breaking Bad, and David Shore, co-creator of House – who worked with the creator of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, on Battle Creek for CBS. This one also has, as another executive producer, Graham Yost of Justified and The Americans. Giovanni Ribisi stars as a ex-con con man who adopts the identity of a former cellmate, a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s episode has Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) attending a family bar mitzvah. And expect some music, because Patti LuPone guest stars as the rabbi.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
CLEOPATRA FILM FESTIVAL By David Bianculli
 
 
How’d you like to spend a night with Cleopatra? (Sorry to frame the question that way, but I had to asp.) Tonight, TCM shows a small bouquet of movies featuring the queen of the Nile, starting at 8 p.m. ET with Cecil B. DeMille’s 1934 Cleopatra, starring Claudette Colbert (pictured). Then, at 10 p.m. ET, is the most famous Cleopatra film of all: the 1963 epic, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Those are followed by 1964’s British co
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
EMERALD CITY By David Bianculli
 
 
In this episode, keep your eye on the character of Tip (Jordan Loughran), whose gender-bending persona, harking all the way back to author L. Frank Baum’s original Ozma of Oz, is almost shockingly topical. I’d say more, but I don’t want to Tip my hand…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
13
TAKING QUESTIONS NO PROBLEM FOR FOX EXECS AT TCA17 By Bill Brioux
 
 
Not all network executives are ‘fraidy cats....
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
12
THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF 'THE REAL MAD MEN OF ADVERTISING' By David Hinckley
 
 
The executives who shaped the modern advertising industry in the 1950s and 1960s may not have been as fascinating as Don Draper, but their impact was even more dramatic. At times, in fact, almost a little creepy...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jan
12
COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE By David Bianculli
 
 
Episode two of Season 9 presents Jerry Seinfeld driving around in a car he uses as an everyday form of transportation: His powder-blue 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster. “This is my car,” he explains matter-of-factly. “I use it to go places, run errands, drive people around.” And his traveling companion in this vintage, reliable auto is a vintage, reliable comic: Norm Macdonald, whose conversational topics of choice include… Bill Cosby.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley