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

 
 
2015
Sep
6
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Presented as a three-part miniseries on PBS, this British import is the latest entry in the Sherlock Holmes canon – but this time, it’s not about the famous master sleuth, but about his literary creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At the latter stage of his career and fame, Doyle, already awarded his “Sir” honorific, actually did a piece of amateur investigating himself: taking on what today we would call a “cold case,” of a Scottish-Indian s
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
6
 
 
Everything is coming to a head on this series – a dead body here, a beaten priest there, a tougher-than-nails female wrestler over there. And on tonight’s show, said female wrestler is scheduled to marry one of the Donovan brothers. My guess? You can dress the brothers, and their loose-cannon father (Jon Voight) in their best clothes – but that doesn’t mean any of them will be on their best behavior.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
5
 
 
Last night, evening coverage of the U.S. Open third-round tennis matches shifted to ESPN2, where the network served up two thrilling matches back-to-back. The first showed Serena Williams, losing her first set against another American, the fiercely competitive Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and coming from behind to win the second before dominating with sheer will through the third. Williams’ quest for a victory at this tournament, sealing a calendar year Grand Slam, remains in reach. The second m
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
5
 
 
Two more indispensable modern Doctor Who episodes are shown tonight, accompanied by behind-the-scenes info. The first is The Day of the Doctor, the show’s golden anniversary special. (Yes, Golden. Doctor Who premiered on the BBC the same week in 1963 as the JFK assassination.) Then, at 10 p.m. ET, comes The Name of the Doctor, a Matt Smith episode featuring the dangerous Whisper Men. The new season of Doctor Who begins in just a few weeks, and these episodes, and extras, serve as tantalizi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
5
 
 
This 2014 movie, based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, stars Reese Witherspoon as a woman who, with little to lose and nowhere to go, decides to embark on a solo hike across about 1,000 miles of Pacific Coast trails. This movie is the very visual, though not intensely satisfying, movie about her trek.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
5
 
 
It has to be an above-average character study for Bill Murray to agree to star – and he does just that in this 2014 movie, playing the seemingly irredeemable next-door neighbor of a young boy whose parents have just separated. Murray’s Vincent is hired to provide daytime supervision and “child care” – which means, in this case, trips to the track and to the bar. Murray’s co-stars include Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd and Terrence Howard, so
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
5
 
 
This 2003 animated movie is a true treat for the entire family – and the leading vocal performances, by Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres, as a fish looking for his missing son and a forgetful fish trying to help, are among the best in the history of animated movies.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
5
 
 
Despite some pretty authoritative advice to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, for many people in the world today, religion is politics. This point of view is abundantly apparent in an upcoming public television documentary, Pope Francis -- The Sinner...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
4
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: The pilot episode of Hand of God has been available for quite a while on Amazon – but today, the streaming site presents the entire first season of what becomes its second originally produced drama series. Ron Perlman stars as a modern-day hanging judge whose entire outlook is altered after a family tragedy: His grown son is in a coma, after being beaten senselessly by the same unidentified perpetrators who raped his son’s wife as his son was forced to watch. Perlman
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
Sep
4
 
 
It’s been 100 years since W.C. Fields started making film shorts in New York. To mark the occasion, TCM is presenting a prime-time salute to the classic comedian, showing four wonderful Fields movies. One of them, 1935’s David Copperfield (12:30 a.m. ET), has him playing it semi-straight as a broad Dickensian character – but the other movies are pure, undiluted Fields of joy. It’s a Gift, from 1934, is shown at 9:30 p.m. ET, and 1939’s You Can’t Cheat an Hones