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
Jul
28
 
 
The TV series Disneyland began 60 years ago as a full-length unabashed infomercial for Walt Disney’s brand-new theme park, and the Disney folks haven’t lost any of that marketing savvy or cross-promotional boldness in the generations since. With this 2013 animated film becoming such a huge hit – not only at the worldwide box-office, but with its musical soundtrack sales as well – it was only a matter of time before sisters Elsa and Anna were embodied in three dimensions,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
28
 
 
This new POV begins with the earthquake that devastated parts of China in 2008 – specifically, with the completely crumbled town of Beichuan, which instantly earned the Fallen City name of this documentary’s title. What’s amazing is that, in just two years, a new Beichuan has risen in its place – and what’s surprising is how that affects some of the survivors. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
28
 
 
The season-long murder mystery that is TNT’s Murder in the First doesn’t conclude tonight (there are two more episodes left), but the murder trial supposedly does – and with the defendant insisting to take the stand. If you’ve stayed with this series all along, you know that’s a significant, and risky, change of legal strategy.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
28
 
 
Here's a new Funny or Die video that serves two purposes. One is political, in that it has Kristen Bell, as the magical singing governess personified by Julie Andrews in Disney's Mary Poppins, quitting her job because she refuses to work for the current federal minimum wage...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
27
 
 
MINISERIES RETURN: This is the conclusion of a truly, and literally, Herculean labor. It’s the conclusion of actor David Suchet’s commitment to starring in all 70 Agatha Christie stories centered around the self-satisfied Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It’s a role he began playing a quarter of a century ago, and this final season, number 13, presents the final five stories in the canon, presented as feature-length telemovies. Tonight and next Sunday, PBS presents the first t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
27
 
 
Unlike, say, Dexter, which totally ran out of steam its final season, HBO’s True Blood has really been revitalized for its last lap, and has remembered to have fun while doing it. So the fresh plots, as well as the newly revealed flashbacks, sizzle with energy and wit – and sometimes, as with this scene featuring a captured Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten), the threat of impending sunlight.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
27
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This is WGN America’s second scripted drama series, and it’s even more ambitious than Salem. Manhattan is a period piece about the Manhattan Project, the top-secret development of the atomic bomb, but is unlike Oppenheimer, the superb miniseries from a previous generation. That drama starred Sam Waterston as the brilliant physicist in charge of the project, while Manhattan, at least initially, visits J. Robert Oppenheimer only peripherally, and focuses instead on tho
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
27
 
 
Creepy, creepy, creepy. In tonight’s episode three, the evil invading and infecting New York becomes more tangible, the villain becomes more identifiable – and the rats go crazy, in the lab, and out of it.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
27
 
 
What drives William Masters (William Sheen) towards such a rebellious and controversial field of study? Tonight, we get a little insight into that question, thanks to an examination of his far from idyllic childhood.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Jul
26
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: On the 100th anniversary of the start of what eventually was called World War I, History Channel presents something that’s fairly unusual: an actual nonfiction miniseries about history. Its four hours, presented in one mammoth burst tonight, make the case that WWI introduced modern warfare on several fronts – in this case, literally. And with tanks, zeppelins, submarines and chemical weapons all employed, it makes for a strong argument. Armored Beasts begins the