CBS’s new crime suspense drama Ransom won’t make anybody forget Law & Order, but it probably deserves better than the Saturday night slot to which it has been sentenced...

2017

Jan

THE TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON By David Bianculli

The first day of 2017 presents 24 more hours of Syfy’s Twilight Zone marathon, making it a Happy New Year indeed. In prime time, beginning at 8 p.m ET, the network is inaugurating a new wrinkle in its schedule: a three-hour block in which classic episodes vow for supremacy, and the right to be screened in this arena-type bracket format, via Twitter voting. Rather watch The Eye of the Beholder than To Serve Man at 8:30 ET? Better get that #TZEyeofBeholder hashtag out there. Personally, I sa

2017

Jan

LAVERNE & SHIRLEY By David Bianculli

A couple of TV offerings are starting the New Year in a last-minute scheduling shift to honor the passing of Carrie Fisher. One is here on MeTV, when the regularly scheduled repeat of Laverne & Shirley is substituted by a special episode featuring Carrie Fisher as special guest star. First televised in 1982, a handful of years after the first Star Wars movie, it features Fisher and series star Penny Marshall as wannabe Playboy bunnies who interact with Hugh Hefner, who plays himself. The epi

2017

Jan

THE MICK By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. This new Fox series comes from the folks at FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and stars one of that proudly crass sitcom’s central players, Kaitlin Olson (as Dee). She plays an ultra-loose cannon reprobate who, through a series of well-timed crises, finds herself temporarily in charge of her sister’s three kids. Think of it as Auntie Buck, then don’t give it a second thought. The opening sequence alone

2017

Jan

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL By David Bianculli

The last week of the regular NFL season is filled with meaningless games, because many teams already are eliminated from playoff contention. But other games still matter, including tonight’s prime-time game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions. Both teams are 9-6 heading into tonight’s game, and facing all sorts of possible fates. The Packers, who have surged towards the postseason with five consecutive victories, can clinch the NFC North division title with a win against

2017

Jan

SHERLOCK ON MASTERPIECE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: It’s been seven years since Sherlock arrived on PBS, bowling over critics and viewers instantly with its fresh take on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries, and making a star of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. (Martin Freeman, as his Dr. Watson, already was a beloved British figure, thanks to his co-starring role on the original BBC incarnation of The Office.) And not counting the most recent, stand-alone Christmas special, Sherlock hasn’t given us a new ins

2017

Jan

WISHFUL DRINKING By David Bianculli

HBO has added its 2010 special, Wishful Drinking, to tonight’s schedule, as a timely reaction to the deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds. Both are represented in this televised version of Fisher’s autobiographical one-woman stage show. Fisher discusses her parents, actress Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, at length, and her mother is interviewed in film segments during the program. With Carrie Fisher talking frankly about everything from Star Wars to ex-husband P

2017

Jan

'PLANET EARTH II’ WILL BRING A SECOND, EPIC VIEW OF THE WORLD By Alex Strachan

In the beginning there were the heavens and the earth. Planet Earth II has come and gone on BBC TV in the UK, and word is, it was good. Not just good, in fact, but special...

2016

Dec

THE TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON By David Bianculli

It’s one of TV’s more inexplicable yet wonderful annual traditions: a New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day marathon showing of The Twilight Zone on the Syfy network, selecting different episodes each year from the amazing canon of half-hours and hours from the Rod Serling canon. Because of this annual exposure, this program, more than any other Golden Age TV classic, retains familiarity among members of the new generation – at least if my students at Rowan University a

2016

Dec

DICK CLARK’S NEW YEAR’S ROCKIN’ EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST 2017 By David Bianculli

Now that American Idol is over, this annual ball-dropping bash may well become the brightest jewel in Ryan Seacrest’s crown – the thing that cements him as his generation’s Dick Clark, which, given Seacrest’s proclivity with TV production, clearly is a goal. ABC turns over a lot of time to this host, and this special, including three hours of prime time, and, after the local news, the countdown clincher beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET. Jenny McCarthy continues in her role as l

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