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

 
 
2013
Dec
29
 
 
This prime-time game has major postseason implications: The Philadelphia Eagles (9-6) and Dallas Cowboys (8-7) are battling for the NFC East crown in a win-or-walk game, with the season on the line. Both teams are starting backup quarterbacks, but with a decided edge to Philly. On the Dallas side, Tony Romo is missing the game and undergoing back surgery, giving backup QB Kyle Orton his first NFL start since the 2011 season finale. Meanwhile, on the Eagles’ side, backup QB Nick Foles has n
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
29
 
 
Tonight, TCM honors the late Peter O’Toole by presenting an evening of some of his best work. The night begins at 8 p.m. ET with his classic 1962 David Lean epic, Lawrence of Arabia. A midnight (ET) special, Peter O’Toole: Live from the TCM Film Festival, produced last year, follows, and the evening ends with a wonderful double feature: 1969’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips at 1 a.m. ET, paired with 1982’s delightful My Favorite Year at 3:45 a.m. ET.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
29
 
 
Always one of the best and most inspiring TV specials of the year, the 2013 edition of the Kennedy Center Honors honors one actor (Shirley MacLaine), one opera singer (Martina Arroyo), and three popular musicians (Billy Joel, Carlos Santana and Herbie Hancock). Vintage performance clips and new tributes put their lives and works in context, and each year’s show leaves me feeling better about what TV can do when it really, really tries to aim high.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
29
 
 
Tonight, Season 3 of Downton Abbey concludes, setting up next Sunday’s Season 4 premiere. If you’re watching tonight’s season finale repeat for the first time, don’t leave early. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
29
 
 
SERIES FINALE: The end of the fourth season of David Simon’s latest multilayered TV series also is the end of the series itself. This examination of life in post-Katrina New Orleans ends, fittingly, on a note of celebration, with both Mardi Gras and the music – always one of the key ingredients – taking center stage.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
28
 
 
All the way back in 1949, Walt Disney released this full-length animated movie about the well-known fairy tale, making an instant classic that has informed the imaginations of youngsters ever since. You’d think today’s youngest eyes would look upon a film this old and see something hopelessly dated and static. But no – the animation is fluid, the story magical, and even if the underlying message is anything but feminist, it’s all but impossible to resist its charms.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
28
 
 
One of the Coen Brothers’ earliest, wildest films, this 1987 comedy is as much fun to look at as it is to laugh at. And some of the actors in this early Coen Brothers romp were rewarded with equally rich roles in subsequent Coen films – just for starters, think of Holly Hunter in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and John Goodman in so many others, including the current Inside Llewyn Davis.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
28
 
 
This 1999 movie is the final film directed by Stanley Kubrick – and while it wasn’t as well-received, critically or commercially, as some of his earlier works, its visuals, and its dreamlike mood, remain resonant and impressive from start to finish.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
28
 
 
George Cukor, so impressive as a director of women, directed this 1944 psychological thriller, about a man scheming to drive his wife insane. Ingrid Bergman stars as the wife, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten co-star, and watch also for Angela Lansbury, who makes her cinematic debut.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
28
 
 
Some of the guests on tonight’s show are for hard-core Anglophiles only, but a couple are quite familiar to U.S. viewers: movie star Julie Walters, and Dancing with the Stars judge Len Goodman.