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

 
 
2020
Jul
27
 
 
Now here’s an identity crisis for a TV character: Even the actress who plays you is different...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
26
 
 
This is Episode 6 out of 8 in this miniseries prequel to the Perry Mason canon – and it’s taken this long for Perry (played so well, and so noir-ishly, by Matthew Rhys) to finally enter what will become his home environment: the courtroom. But after arriving with all deliberate speed, Perry is at the point of defending an accused murderer, a woman suspected of complicity in the kidnapping and death of her own baby. To this point, Perry Mason has been engrossi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
26
 
 
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new documentary series goes over a lot of familiar ground – but also goes deeper in some spots, providing home movies and photos of the people drawn into Charles Manson’s gravity field, and sampling some from Manson himself. It also uses enough of his studio and home recordings to establish his level of talent as a singer and composer, which was one of his driving ambitions. Most interesting in this study, though, is how it punctures popular myth
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
26
 
 
At the end of last week’s installment, Michelle McNamara, the woman struggling to meet a deadline on her first book while solving the murder and rape cases at its center, died suddenly. At the time, her book wasn’t finished – and neither is this documentary miniseries, which continues to tell her story posthumously, and no less rivetingly.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
26
 
 
So Jacksonville is out as the relocated site for the Republican National Convention, and President Donald Trump is now encouraging the use of masks during the pandemic, and paramilitary forces similar to the ones occupying Portland are being dispatched to other cities, and there’s a vital American debate about whether to open schools in the fall. Anything you want to say about any of this, John? Please?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
26
 
 
On this day in 1999, MTV introduced its soapy anthology, Undressed...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
25
 
 
This day in 1999 marked the final telecast of the sitcom, The Parent 'Hood, on The WB...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
25
 
 
This weekend’s TV marathon from Decades is the rarest one yet: It’s a two-day binge of one of television’s earliest Western series, noteworthy for being devoted to color – in both photography and subject. The series is the syndicated TV version of The Cisco Kid, which launched on the small screen in 1950. That’s only one year after The Lone Ranger began hiho-ing Silver on ABC, and a full five years before Matt Dillon began marshaling his forces o
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
25
 
 
This 1992 Spike Lee movie stars Denzel Washington, who gives a terrific performance, in the title role, based on the book and original Playboy interview with Malcolm X by Alex Haley, author of Roots. Lee plays a character named Shorty in the film, whose heavyweight co-stars include Angela Bassett, Theresa Randle (later to star in Lee’s 1996 drama Girl 6), and Delroy Lindo (a co-star, 28 years later, of Lee’s latest film, Da 5 Bloods).
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
25
 
 
ESPN has been televising major league baseball in the few days since play began for the new, reduced season. But today, Fox gets into the act, and dives in, as enthusiastically as it can, with a triple-header. (After all, what good is Fox Sports without… sports?) At 1 p.m. ET, it’s the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs, live from Wrigley Field in Chicago. At 4 p.m. ET, it’s the San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, live from Dodger Stadium. And at 7 p.m. ET, it’