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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
 
 
2019
Sep
20
DISENCHANTMENT By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 2 of this wild animated Netflix series from Matt Groening and company extends its vision far past the mythical kingdom of the first season, and travels to many other lands. In fact, before this new season is over, Disenchantment, like its heroine, goes to hell and back…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
20
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli
 
 
Maher’s scheduled guests tonight include New York writer Andrew Sullivan, who’s been one of this show’s most reliably interesting and often contrarian guests.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
20
GOOD TALK WITH ANTHONY JESELNIK By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s guest is someone who rivals the host on the Comic Snark scale: David Spade.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
19
RETURN TO DOWNTON ABBEY: A GRAND EVENT By David Bianculli
 
 
With the Downton Abbey movie only a day away from appearing in theaters, NBC takes this opportunity to present a prime-time special celebrating the series and its imminent large-screen return. Why NBC and not PBS? If you’re asking that question, well, frankly, so am I. Regardless, we get to revisit such beloved characters and actors as Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol), Daisy (Sophie McShera), Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), and Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan). For a full review (of the movie...)
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
19
TCM SPECIAL THEME: JAMES BOND By David Bianculli
 
 
The third week of TCM’s Thursday night salute to the James Bond movies is the weakest, beginning at 8 p.m . ET with begins at 8 p.m. ET with 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me and ending at 5:15 a.m. ET with 1985’s A View to a Kill. That’s a total of five films starring Roger Moore as 007, and not one of them is memorable. Not even the Bond girls, who include, at 3 a.m. ET, the likes of Maud Adams (pictured) in the title role of 1983’s Octopussy.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
19
THE LAST DAYS OF PHIL HARTMAN By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: Many network prime-time news specials these days, including several on ABC, present retrospective amounts of murder cases, in which they’re usually presented as mystery whodunnits. In tonight’s special, about the killing of former Saturday Night Live and Newsradio and The Simpsons beloved cast member Phil Hartman, the whodunnit is a foregone conclusion, his wife, Brynn Hartman, did it. But in this two-hour special, ABC examines how, and why.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
19
THE PALEY CENTER SALUTES "THE GOOD PLACE" By David Bianculli
 
 
So do I – but since the new, final season of NBC’s The Good Place begins a week from tonight, this seems a well-timed opportunity for the Paley Center to do so. It is, and remains, one of broadcast network TV’s very best current series. For more on The Good Place, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
19
'DOWNTON ABBEY,' THE MOVIE, IS WONDERFUL – WHETHER YOU'VE SEEN THE SERIES OR NOT By David Hinckley
 
 
Downton Abbey, the television series, is a tough act to follow. Downton Abbey, the movie, does a jolly good job... 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
19
SOME FAST, FUN, STREAMING HORS D'OEUVRES BEFORE THE RETURN OF 'THE GOOD PLACE' By David Hinckley
 
 
Since you’re doubtless psyched to watch the final season of The Good Place – if you’re not, you’d better have a good explanation – NBC has a cool little teaser to whet your appetite further...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
18
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT By David Bianculli
 
 
I don’t usually recommend movies playing in the middle of the day – but this is 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, and these are The Beatles – and the music includes “I Should Have Known Better,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “And I Love Her,” “If I Fell,” the title song, and a lot more. So tell me why I wouldn’t mention it. Oh, yeah: “Tell Me Why” is in here, too…
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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