No, you're not imagining things...that's an actual seal giving the "thumbs up" in our new TV Worth Watching® Seal of Approval!! (Inside his very own TVWW lifesaver.) OK, so maybe we're walking on our hands here, but we have tons of recommendations of the best that TV has to offer. And after 35 years of separating the minnows from the big ones, that's an impressive kettle of fish...
2013
Jan
14
THE SOPRANOS By David Bianculli
 
 
Six seasons, 30 DVDs, and one of the most formative TV series of modern times...In style and content, it seems to serve as the perfect bridge, or dividing line, between “old” and “new” television dramas, with the antihero coming to full flower in the persona of James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jan
7
MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD By David Bianculli
 
 
PBS and local member stations no longer provide enough regular time slots for the late Fred Rogers’ brilliantly sincere TV series, so parents have to pick up the slack for themselves...there are still some DVD stand-alone episodes worth collecting on DVD that are a great starting place for introducing a new generation of the soothing, inspirational shows of Fred Rogers...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jan
1
SIX FEET UNDER By David Bianculli
 
 
HBO Video has replaced its lavish gift box with this slimmer set...but all five seasons are here, of a series that captivates, challenges and entertains from beginning to end – especially the end. What a series finale...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Dec
26
MY SO-CALLED LIFE: THE COMPLETE SERIES By David Bianculli
 
 
This ABC series lasted only one season in 1994-95, but what a season it was! Claire Danes portrayed 15-year-old Angela Chase, a teenager trying to cope, in a brilliant family drama that presented life from her point of view...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Nov
4
THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION By David Bianculli
 
 
This Criterion Collection presents the best-possible restored versions of eight classic live televised dramas from TV’s Golden Age...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Oct
26
THE ERNIE KOVACS COLLECTION, VOLUMES 1 & 2 By David Bianculli
 
 
Ernie Kovacs, in the 1950s and until his untimely death in 1962, was a television triple threat: an unusually naturalistic and charming host, an outrageously goofy character comic, and a TV pioneer who pushed the medium in several directions at once...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
10
JOHN ADAMS By David Bianculli
 
 
Every once in a while, they still do make TV miniseries the way they used to, and here’s a grand recent example. Paul Giamatti  stars in the title role, and nails it, in this 2008 HBO adaptation of David McCullough’s very human, very enlightening history of our first presidential campaigns...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Sep
3
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: THE COMPLETE SERIES By David Bianculli
 
 
It's September, and time for football: college, pro and high school...Friday Night Lights was a TVWW favorite from its premiere. It's one of the best family dramas ever made...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
27
MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! By David Bianculli
 
 
Hal Holbrook, who is 87 years old as I write this and still performing (and endlessly rewriting) his one-man Mark Twain show on stage, now has to play “younger,” since the Twain of his stage show is 70 years old...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Aug
22
PEANUTS HOLIDAY COLLECTION By David Bianculli
 
 
This particular DVD compilation has less than what you’d like, and more than what you need...but the two dazzling gems here, A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, are two of the best animated holiday TV specials ever made...