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

 
 
2019
Sep
8
 
 
Tonight’s episode is entitled “Tern Haven,” and don’t expect any haven where this family is collected to be a safe one.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
8
 
 
Maura Tierney, for now, has emerged as the dramatic heart and emotional center of The Affair, trying to deal with all the betrayal and unanswered questions left in the wake of this series’ titular action. But there are new characters coming to the fore, and they’re just as emotionally tormented.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
8
 
 
Kirsten Dunst’s character became much bolder last week – seizing the day by seizing the microphone at a high-profile sales convention, and offering herself as the new publicity director and exercise guru at the local water park amusement center. And in Central Florida, she wants to find even higher mountains to climb – which in Florida, topographically speaking, is not easy.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
7
 
 
Before the new season starts, there's already encouraging news...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
7
 
 
This 2018 period drama is a result of powerful pairings both in front of the camera and in the writers’ room. John Guy, one of the writers here, is the author of Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart, so he knows an awful lot about the Scottish monarch’s attempt to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I, as the ruler of England. The screenplay is by Beau Willimon, who created the Netflix version of House of Cards, so he knows an awful lot about power grabs and p
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
7
 
 
Both Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield received Oscar nominations for their roles in this 1972 film about African-American sharecroppers in the Deep South during the Depression – the first time two people of color were nominated from the same movie. They play a proud couple trying to get by, and advance their prospects, in a highly prejudiced environment. And Kevin Hooks, who plays their young son, was at the start of a still-illustrious career. Before the Seventies were through, he had gone
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
6
 
 
The new Netflix series The Spy takes the novel tack of opening with its own spoiler...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
6
 
 
This week, I’m not even that interested in Bill Maher’s lineup of guests. I just want to watch his monologue, and see how he reacts to Donald Trump, Presidential Weatherman.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
6
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Remember the excellent HBO drama series In Treatment, in which Gabriel Byrne played a therapist counseling a series of patients in intimate, often intense concentrated sessions? Well, this new Showtime series is similar, except that both its therapist and patients are real, working their way through actual conflicts and issues, as cameras and microphones record their progress, or lack thereof. This may sound like a paradoxical position for a TV critic, but my personal
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Sep
6
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new Comedy Central talk show is hosted by Anthony Jeselnik, a young comic with a fine sense of timing, a deadpan demeanor, and an aggressively outrageous comic approach, one that prides on going to unexpected places and punch lines. The question, as always when a comic shifts for the first time into the role of host, whether they will be as adapt at supporting and listening to their guests as to searching for their next opportunity for a one-liner. Those are different skill