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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2016
May
12
THE EIGHTIES By David Bianculli
 
 
After a few episodes where the order was switched around at the last minute, last week’s scheduled episode of The Eighties was pre-empted entirely by breaking news. (What was breaking, I no longer remember.) So now, I have so little idea of whether or what The Eighties will be presenting, I’m keeping it simple. Tonight at 9 ET, CNN will show something related to the 1980s. Unless it doesn’t.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
12
ORPHAN BLACK By David Bianculli
 
 
Some of the funniest scenes in Orphan Black have Donnie paired with a clone other than his suburban wife Alison, as when he babysits disturbed killer Helena. Tonight, he gets paired with yet another clone, the brainy Cosima, as the two of them try to learn more about the Neolutionist fertility research facility. All of them, of course, are played by Tatiana Maslany, who is ridiculously overdue for some Emmy recognition.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
12
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s scheduled guests include Tom Hiddleston, who’s doing an amazing job right now as the steely protagonist of AMC’s imported The Night Manager, as well as John Malkovich, Samuel L. Jackson, Sara Pascoe, and a musical group called CHVRCHES, of which I’m totally VNAWARE.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
11
OVATION’S ‘RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART’ TRIES TO SOLVE GREAT MYSTERIES OF THE OLD MASTERS By David Hinckley
 
 
Ovation’s Raiders of the Lost Art doesn’t always deliver exactly what it seems to promise. As an intro course to the history of great artists, it delivers even more...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
11
CHELSEA By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: As a TV experiment, this is an intriguing one: Chelsea Handler, adding to the still-outnumbered ranks of female TV talk hosts, brings a variation of the talk-show form to Netflix, three days a week – Wednesdays through Fridays – starting today. Episodes are pretaped, but doled out on a nightly basis, as with a regular broadcast or cable series. Today’s premiere is now available for streaming, where it opens with a “farewell” song from Chris Martin o
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
11
THE JUNGLE BOOK By David Bianculli
 
 
With the new remake a hit, this is a great time to look back at how Hollywood presented this Rudyard Kipling classic long ago, when computer-generated creatures were things of the future. Sabu stars as Mowgli, the little boy raised by jungle animals, in this 1942 live-action adventure story.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
11
EMPIRE By David Bianculli
 
 
As we near the end of the season, Hakeem is getting pressure from all sides – Laura included.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
11
MODERN FAMILY By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s new episode, Shelley Long returns as Jay’s ex-wife, Dede: This time with news that she’s about to get remarried.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
11
THE AMERICANS By David Bianculli
 
 
I fully expected someone to die in last week’s episode – it just wasn’t the person I expected. And now that Elizabeth (Keri Russell) has lashed out after being trapped in a corner, now she and Philip have to deal with those consequences, while still reeling from the aftershocks of their other current spy operation. And tonight, they and their children also watch the 1983 ABC made-for-TV movie The Day After, a Cold War-era nightmare fantasy scenario in which the Soviet Union dro
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
10
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
Most of the performances were so good last night, I can’t imagine the majority of of these contestants being eliminated. But that’s the fate awaiting some of them – though the eliminations better not include, for starters, Laith Al-Saadi, Alisan Porter (pictured), Shaylah Fearing, and Adam Wakefield.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley