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
17
 
 
For fans of Broadway musicals, and of opera, this is a must, too. From earlier this year, just before the lights went out on Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera staged a version of a classic jazz opera it called Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, emphasizing its fidelity to the original musical score George and Ira Gershwin first presented in 1935, and to its large-scale vision and staging. Based on the novel by DuBose Heyward, and the play by Dubose and Dorothy Heyward, this Porgy and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
17
 
 
Actually, it’s not a one-time special, because it premiered last night, and here it is again. Last night, though many, many NBC affiliates boycotted the program, the network presented the premiere of a one-shot 30 Rock special, to which the offended affiliates objected because it included several promotional segments about NBC Universal’s new streaming service, Peacock. Broadcast TV stations see streaming as the enemy, just as they used to perceive cable. But the&
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
16
 
 
National Theatre at Home concludes its what-a-gift season of TV recordings of stage plays from its archives with this 2016 revival of the Peter Shaffer play Amadeus. And what a great way to bring down the curtain on a series of wonderful stage performances, because Amadeus, the story of the musical rivalry between Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, began life as a National Theatre production in 1979. Paul Scofield starred as Salieri then, with Simon Callow as Mozart
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
16
 
 
The promos for this one-shot 30 Rock special are hilarious – but whether and where you can see it depends upon your location and ingenuity. Tina Fey and company designed this One-Time Special as a one-hour comedy, parody and promotional vehicle, with a plot built around the no-longer-in-person NBC upfronts (which promote the planned fall season to advertisers), including either actual or tongue-in-cheek promos for NBC Universal shows and its brand new Peacock streaming
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
16
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This five-part British import is a reality show with a pretend deadly twist. Imagine a Survivor-type reality competition show in which, when a contestant is eliminated at the end of each episode, he or she is eliminated in a literal sense. As in murdered. It’s all pretend – but once the game begins, the players are in it to survive as best they can.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
16
 
 
Honestly, it's a little uncomfortable to see dramatizations about women whose need for a baby makes them criminally unbalanced...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
16
 
 
On this day in 2004, Stargate Atlantis made its debut on the Sci-Fi (now Syfy) Channel...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
15
 
 
On this day in 1968, ABC debuted the long-running soap opera, One Life to Live...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
15
 
 
STREAMING SERVICE LAUNCH: Yes, here comes another one. The deal about Peacock – the financial deal, that is – is that it arrives today in three different tiers. One of them is free, and it offers thousands of hours of old TV and movies, as well as a few new ones. You can download the Peacock app, or get access through the new Peacock website. Then there’s the first pay tier, which offers even more TV and movies – but at a $5 monthly fee. And if you double that&n
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Jul
15
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new miniseries is the brightest feather in Peacock’s plumage: A drama about spycraft and modern technology that takes the capabilities of “deep fake” videos and applies them to a hypothetical yet entirely credible story about international espionage and high-stakes politics. Holliday Grainger stars as a British intelligence agency looking into the case of a British soldier (played by Callum Turner), recently exonerated of war crimes and freed from prison,