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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

MIKE HUGHES

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
 
 
2018
Dec
23
CALL THE MIDWIFE HOLIDAY SPECIAL By David Bianculli
 
 
In England, a lot of the beloved TV shows that take off for a few months or more during the winter nonetheless take the time and effort to serve up new annual holiday episodes. Here’s the latest one from Call the Midwife. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
23
RAY DONOVAN By David Bianculli
 
 
Family matters continue to get even more strained, as Mickey tries to enlist yet another of his sons into a questionable scheme. Meanwhile, Ray’s daughter continues to learn more about him, and isn’t very comfortable with what she’s learning.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
23
MARILYN MONROE FOR SALE By David Bianculli
 
 
NONFICTION PREMIERE: This new Smithsonian special dives deeply into what is called the largest auction of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia ever put up for sale. “And it seems to me you lived your life / like a candle in the wind…” For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
23
ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES CONCLUSION: Part 5 was a wonder to behold, with some especially impressive photography. Expect no less from tonight’s concluding Part 6, which provides the literal finishing touches.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
23
A CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli
 
 
Saved for Christmas Eve eve, here’s the classic 1951 movie version of Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas tale, with Alastair Sim as a perfectly miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. Which reminds me of yet another family holiday memory: One year when I was a teenager, and my dad was working until midnight one of the nights before Christmas, he asked me to decorate the house with some outdoor lights around the front bay window. I did – by writing out, in blinking giant letters, the word &ld
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
22
KILLING EVE MARATHON By David Bianculli
 
 
Killing Eve made my Top 10 of 2018 – a list, and conversation, you can catch in my recent chat with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. And if that news leads you to say, “Well, that’s another quality TV show I’ve got to add to my list to watch someday,” why put off until tomorrow what you can watch tonight? Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, BBC America is repeating the miniseries in its entirety, in one fabulous Saturday night lump. Sandra Oh stars as Eve,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
22
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
The first time Paul Simon appeared on Saturday Night Live was very early in its first season, in 1975. The most recent time he appeared was two months ago, and this show, hosted by Seth Meyers, is a repeat of that program. Among the performances, with arrangements and collaborators drawn from Simon’s just-completed (and outstanding) farewell concert tour, are “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and a dazzlingly original version of “Can’t Run But,” with Simon on vocal
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
21
'MARVEL'S RUNAWAYS' COMES INTO ITS OWN WITH SEASON 2 By David Hinckley
 
 
Marvel’s Runaways feels like some odd little independent city-state standing alone in the middle of the Marvel Comic Universe. Kind of like the Vatican in the middle of Italy, only without a Pope...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
21
'VANITY FAIR' IS A BINGE-WORTHY VICTORIAN DELIGHT By David Hinckley
 
 
It wouldn’t be the platinum age of television without a steady flow of British period dramas, the kinds that are visual feasts even when the plots contain a lot of empty calories...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
21
VANITY FAIR By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Olivia Cooke stars in this new miniseries version of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 novel, playing social-climbing Becky Sharp. One of the clever approaches of this particular adaptation is to cast Michael Palin as the author, who tells the story – allowing this new TV version to employ more of Thackeray’s prose stylings more directly. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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