SEASON FINALE: The choicest cut is saved for last, as the winner of tonight’s competition is given a rare (well, medium rare) opportunity to help run Gordon Ramsay Steak in Las Vegas.

2012

Sep

THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE By David Bianculli

MINISERIES PREMIERE: Put simply, this new Encore miniseries, about a resourceful, vengeful, yet not uncaring prostitute in 1874 London, is more involving, and offers more captivating performances, than any new series on the fall TV schedule. Romola Garai is the prostitute Sugar, Gillian Anderson plays her madam and Chris O’Dowd plays the meek but well-positioned man whom Sugar targets as her way to a better life – and to seek out her revenge against all men in general. Concludes

2012

Sep

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: “WAGNER’S DREAM” By David Bianculli

Tomorrow through Friday, PBS presents a miniseries that is operatic not only in scope, but in category. It’s Wagner’s Ring cycle, filmed at the Met over the past two seasons and presenting the bold staging of Robert Lepage’s production. Tonight’s behind-the-scenes documentary, Wagner’s Dream, serves as a prelude to this multi-night presentation. Like the other Wagner specials this week, it’s hosted by Deborah Voight, who stars as Brunnhilde. Check local listin

2012

Sep

1955: 'GUNSMOKE' STARTS BLAZING ITS LONG TV TRAIL By Christy Slewinski

On this day in 1955, one of television's best-known and longest-running dramas, Gunsmoke, made its debut on CBS...

2012

Sep

ENCORE’S ‘CRIMSON PETAL’ REVIVES GLORY OF THE MINISERIES GENRE By David Bianculli

Encore has decided to bet big on TV’s biggest programming form, showcasing new and classic miniseries, beginning with the new The Crimson Petal and the White – a brilliant beginning...

2012

Sep

JOHN ADAMS By David Bianculli

Every once in a while, they still do make TV miniseries the way they used to, and here’s a grand recent example. Paul Giamatti stars in the title role, and nails it, in this 2008 HBO adaptation of David McCullough’s very human, very enlightening history of our first presidential campaigns...

2012

Sep

2012 U.S. OPEN TENNIS By David Bianculli

The swirling winds and gusting rains at Flushing Meadow have wreaked havoc with the final games in this year’s U.S. Open tennis tournament. The women’s tournament final, which was supposed to be played last night, was postponed until today at 4:30 p.m. ET, when CBS will televise Serena Williams vs. Victoria Azarenka. As for the men’s final, which was scheduled to be played today? Forget it. Only one of the semifinal men’s games was completed yesterday, with Andy Murray de

2012

Sep

60 MINUTES By David Bianculli

The entire hour tonight is devoted to an interview with “Mark Owen,” the pseudonym used by the former Navy SEAL Team 6 member who was among those on the mission that found and killed Osama bin Laden. The contents, and parts of the author’s story — told in his new book, No Easy Day — are controversial, and in some respects disputed. Yet his account, which he tells while disguised by makeup and with his voice altered – is undeniably important. Sco

2012

Sep

BROADWAY OR BUST By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This three-part nonfiction series has PBS trying to catch the Glee wave, but doing it by filming an existing, high-profile competition. It’s a nationwide effort in which the 60 best performance-arts students from around the country are sent to New York to endure an intense boot camp and compete for roles in a one-shot, one-night, on-Broadway variety-show performance. If this kind of thing had existed when I was in high school, at least three of the 60 finalists would have

2012

Sep

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!: “WALLANDER III” By David Bianculli

Kenneth Branagh returns in a third series of mysteries based on the moody Swedish detective. (Or is that redundant?) First up: An Event in Autumn.

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