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

 
 
2014
Sep
27
 
 
This is episode four of this behind-the-scenes moviemaking competition – and the final week of pre-production, in which Shane Dawson and Anna Martemucci (pictured) have to make their final decisions, artistic and otherwise, before the start of the actual filming of their respective projects.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
27
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This is the first installment from Season 40 of Saturday Night Live – and I always feel a special kinship to this show, because a review of the premiere of the inaugural season, back in 1975, is how I talked my way into being an actual, for-a-real-newspaper television critic. It’s sobering to think that, as SNL begins year 40 in television, that I do, too. But here we both are, for now. For this new season, former SNL chameleonic cast member Darrell Hammond replaces
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
26
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Just as the streaming video service Netflix put itself on the map, big time, by presenting the excellent drama House of Cards, Amazon Prime Video pulls the same trick, after a few seasons of original programming development, by unveiling Transparent, a new comedy-drama starring Jeffrey Tambor as a 70-year-old man who has decided to embrace his female side – henceforth her female side. Telling the family, including his ex-wife (Judith Light) is only one of the tricky paths
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
26
 
 
TCM presents a world-class double feature of gangster movies tonight. Howard Hawks’ 1932 Scarface, starring Paul Muni, heads things off at 8 p.m. ET, with ample support from Ann Dvorak, George Raft, Boris Karloff and others. Then, at 9:45 ET, TCM presents an even older entry in this classic film genre: 1931’s Little Caesar, starring Edward G. Robinson as the unhinged, tough-talking, trigger-happy Rico.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
26
 
 
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd: It began on Broadway in 1979, a stunningly aggressive and impressive Stephen Sondheim musical starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. He played a bitter barber in Victorian London who used his razors to often deadly effect, and she played his willing accomplice, who disposed of the bodies by grinding them into filling for competitively stuffed meat pies. Watching it on Broadway, when it was in the final week of previews, was one of the best theater experiences o
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
26
 
 
Police brutality, and the fatality of a young black man at the hands of a white cop, are at the center of tonight’s episode, which sounds like it was ripped from the headlines. Except that this medical drama is set in the year 1900, so those headlines would have been about 115 years old. Sadly, though, some things never seem to change – though, on this show, relationships between several staff members at the Knickerbocker hospital will change, as a result of the violence and unease a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
26
 
 
Tonight’s scheduled guests include Naomi Klein, Gen. Anthony Zinni and a former Real Time contributing reporter, Alexandra Pelosi.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
25
 
 
Golf fans can see the Ryder Cup tee off at 2:30 a.m. EDT Friday. Do it and try to get to work Friday morning. I dare you...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
25
 
 
Two high-profile 1-2 teams do battle on CBS’s new prime-time showcase. The Washington Redskins lost to the Philadelphia Eagles five days ago in a sprawling, brawling loss, while the New York Giants finally notched its first win of the season, beating the Houston Texans 30-17. Whichever team wins tonight will end September at .500.  That’s not great – but it is, by definition, average.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Sep
25
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This season of Scandal picks up two months after the events shown at the conclusion of last season’s cliffhanger, which had Olivia (Kerry Washington) closing her crisis-handling D.C. firm, putting an end to her presidential affair and her status as FRirst Mistress, and flying away with freelance hit man Jake (Scott Foley). Series creator Shonda Rhimes now owns the entire night on ABC, and this series now is positioned as the evening’s centerpiece – after Grey&r