Part 2 of 2. Last week’s episode, the start of a two-parter, had to do with a major power outage plunging the network’s New York newsroom into relative darkness. That story line continues this week, but makes room for another one – in which, in this show’s recent-past timeline, the cable news network gets to host one of the debates for the aspiring Republican presidential candidates. Standing in for the candidates at a test run-through? Some of the show’s producers

2012

Aug

WALL-E By David Bianculli

I adore this 2008 animated film, which takes great narrative risks, and emerges with incomparably rich rewards. Along with such much more serious movies as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and A Clockwork Orange, it deserves to be discussed, in the same breath, as one of the best science-fiction movies ever made. If you don’t believe me, watch it – or watch it again.

2012

Aug

THE TIMEY-WIMEY OF DOCTOR WHO By David Bianculli

BBC America sure isn’t making it easy for me to keep trying to persuade the uninitiated of the intrinsic value of Doctor Who – not with a title for a Who special that’s as fanciful as this one. (It reminds me of trying, all those years ago, to insist to my understandably dubious friends that a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer was truly TV worth watching.) Timey-Wimey is cute Whovian for time travel, and this new special examines all the trips back to the future, and to the

2012

Aug

THE NERDIST By David Bianculli

Chris Hardwick and his fellow nerds spend this new hour of The Nerdist presenting A Tribute to Time Travel. They’ll take their time with it, no doubt – but just as doubtlessly, it’ll all be over in an hour.

2012

Aug

DARK MATTERS By David Bianculli

This installment covers something more than 40 years old, but still unforgettably creepy. I remember when news of this got out when it happened, and perhaps you do, too. At Stanford University in 1971, Phillip Zombardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” randomly assigned some college students as guards, and others as prisoners, then monitored them secretly to see how long it would take either the guards or prisoners to rebel as those in charge were instructed to treat their “

2012

Aug

SEPIA CINDERELLA By David Bianculli

It’s Freddie Bartholomew day on TCM, an all-day salute that includes, in prime time, two favorites: 1937’s Captains Courageous at 8 p.m. ET, and 1938’s Kidnapped at 10:15 p.m. ET. The rarity, though, arrives very late at night, when Bartholomew makes a camera appearance, as himself, in a 1947 musical that’s rarely televised: Sepia Cinderella, a film aimed primarily at black audiences, and including lots of nightclub acts popular at the time.

2012

Aug

HOMELAND – SEASON 2 TRAILER By Eric Gould

Showtime's hit series Homeland returns for its second season Sunday... it offers a provoking look at our nation's post-9/11 society, but the show's real strength is lead actors Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, both of whom have been nominated for lead-acting Emmys...

2012

Aug

BBC AMERICA’S ‘COPPER’ INVENTIVELY EXPLORES THE WILD WILD EAST By David Bianculli

Copper, the newest TV series from Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, feels and looks like a Western – but it’s actually set in New York City, during the Civil War, in a violent neighborhood called Five Points. And regarding Copper, I, too, have five points…

2012

Aug

TEACHERS ROCK By David Bianculli

I’ve partial to this type of TV special, even if it does go for a bit too much surface gloss. It’s a celebration of teachers, with celebrities talking about the teachers who inspired them, while other performers, including Garth Brooks and Carrie Underwood, entertain by singing and playing in salute. What celebrities, you ask? (Well, maybe you ask. Maybe you’re just reading silently, while I’m writing aloud.) Meryl Streep, Jennifer Garner, Adam Levine and others. One of t

2012

Aug

BOSS By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: The Boss is back. And this year, Chicago Mayor Tom Kane (played by Kelsey Grammer) is, simultaneously, even more forceful and more fragile. For a full review, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes.

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