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
Aug
11
 
 
Ten Marlon Brando movies are shown today and tonight, as TCM devotes the day to one of the most influential actors in cinema history. Watch him explode, and change all the rules, as Stanley Kowalski in this 1951 film version of his stunning Broadway debut. Then stay tuned, and strap in, because Brando isn’t through yet. At 10:15 p.m. ET, he stars in 1953’s The Wild One, playing the rebel in a biker gang movie that provided one of the inspirations for the name of The Beatles. Then, at
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
11
 
 
Shark Week continues on Discovery with two more prime-time premieres with bite. At 10 p.m. ET, the network presents Monster Hammerhead, which brings to mind that soothing old folk tune (“If I had a hammerhead…”). And before that, at 9 p.m. ET, Discovery presents Jaws Strikes Back, a new documentary showcasing the technology of and images from a new robotic underwater vehicle called, of course, the SharkCam. For those who remember David Letterman’s MonkeyCam, this hardly
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
11
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Fans of any show want to catch a season finale, but there’s extra incentive for watching this one. This Steven Bochco series has spent the entire season on a single story line and murder case – and tonight, the story concludes, and the verdict will be rendered. By viewers, at least.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
11
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: I’ve subscribed to New York magazine for decades, and its back-page feature of late, “The Approval Matrix,” is a weekly, witty attempt to pin all things pop cultural on a mathematical-type graph – on a range from “highbrow” to “lowbrow” on one line, and “brilliant” to “despicable” on the other. It’s a different way to steer the talk, and select subjects, during a talk show – and though making thi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
10
 
 
Since 1987, Discovery Channel has been mounting Shark Week, and it’s become one of the most tenured institutions in cable television. Spoofs and spinoffs litter the TV landscape, and even Discovery presents specials this week that are as tongue in cheek as they are sharp of teeth. The week of shark-related specials begins at 8 p.m. ET with Air Jaws: Fin of Fury, described as “the search for a missing mega shark” (think Loch Ness Monster Week), and includes, later this week, Pau
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
10
 
 
Lots of damsels are in distress in this episode, which gets us even closer to the show’s impending series finale. Some of the damsels are re-born again (Anna Camp’s vampire-hater Sarah Newland), others are undead but suddenly facing the “true death” (Deborah Ann Woll’s Jessica, pictured), and still others are in danger of being bled to death for their intoxicating blood (a subset that would include both Andy’s surviving faerie daughter and the leading characte
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
10
 
 
Eph’s scientist partner may have found events here too bloody and gruesome and deadly, and fled the hunt, but Eph and experienced monster hunter Setrakian carry on. Tonight, the trail they’re following leads to a very dark and slimy place – and I’m not speaking just metaphorically.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
10
 
 
This 1977 Woody Allen movie is one of the funniest, most inventive, most influential comedy films ever made. Several of its comic set pieces, from the argument-settling ambush appearance by Marshall McLuhan to the subtitled and split-screen dual perspectives, are by now iconic, and many of even the smallest roles pop with brilliance: Jeff Goldblum’s “I forgot my mantra,” for example, and Christopher Walken’s crazy silent stare (pictured). But give much of the credit to Di
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
10
 
 
On tonight’s episode, Frank continues to push for his theory of implosion as the preferred method of triggering a nuclear “gadget,” despite dismissive responses from those above him. Meanwhile, around him, other antagonistic forces are gathering – including the base’s MPs.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Aug
9
 
 
This 1970 movie is a comedy romp very much of its time – a prototypical “blaxploitation” movie that isn’t really exploitive at all – just taking conventions of both buddy cop movies and comedy romps, handing them to an almost entirely African-American cast, and setting the whole thing in Harlem at the very end of the Sixties. The on-location photography alone, capturing a world and a time not often documented by mainstream cinema, makes this film, directed and co-wr