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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

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TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

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TV Eye

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Must-Click TV

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Raised On MTM

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Crossing Jordan

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
May
17
2000: 'BEVERLY HILLS, 90210' ENDS By David Bianculli
 
 
Beverly Hills, 90210 ended its ten-year run on this day in 2000...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
1992: SHOWTIME INTRODUCES 'RED SHOE DIARIES' By TV WW
 
 
On this day in 1992, Showtime debuted Red Shoe Diaries, the full-length Zalman King film starring David Duchovny that launched the cabler's erotic anthology series...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
'THE GREAT' MIGHT NOT BE HISTORICALLY ACCURATE, BUT IT'S DEFINITELY FUN TO WATCH By David Hinckley
 
 
Just a year after Helen Mirren portrayed Russia’s iconic ruler Catherine the Great, Catherine is back on TV with a startlingly different look...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
GRADUATE TOGETHER: AMERICA HONORS THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2020 By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL: This commencement TV special is simulcast by all the major commercial networks, and by the CW, too, as well as a bunch of streaming sites. So it’ll be easy to find. But why should you watch? One reason: If you’ve got an impending graduate under your roof right now, whether from high school or college, this may be all the pomp they’ll get, under the circumstances. (See what I did there? Pomp and circumstance?) Another reason: This is LeBron James’ idea, so he&rsqu
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
TRUE GRIT By David Bianculli
 
 
Passion projects, in the hands of talented artists, can be wonderful things. Noah Hawley, for example, so admired the cinematic work of the Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, in their 1996 movie Fargo that he set out to make an homage of a TV series, using the same title and tone, but different plots and characters. FX’s Fargo, eventually to begin its fourth season, has been one of television’s tastiest treats in years. And in 2010, the Coen Brothers themselves exerci
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
JOKER By David Bianculli
 
 
Joaquin Phoenix was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar several times over the years, but it was  his performance in this 2019 Batman spinoff prequel, presenting the origin story of one of Gotham City’s most infamous and colorful villains, that finally earned Phoenix an Academy Award. Joker premieres on HBO tonight, as one of the best films, along with Wonder Woman, to come from the DC Comics side of the comic-book movie universe. Co-stars include Franc
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
THE GENERAL By David Bianculli
 
 
This recommendation, like the one immediately following, is for every TVWW reader – but, in particular, should be of special interest to any readers who also happen to have signed up to be students in my Fall 2020 Film Appreciation I class at Rowan University. That’s because one of the people we’ll be studying in that class is comic actor and filmmaker Buster Keaton, and TCM is saluting Keaton tonight in prime time by showing his comic masterpiece The General, followed by
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
COULD 'GENERAL HOSPITAL' SAVE THE DAY AGAIN? By Ed Martin
 
 
Forty years ago, the nation was enthralled by two summertime TV cliffhangers: Can "Luke and Laura Outrun the Mob?" on General Hospital and "Who Shot J.R.?" on Dallas....
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
16
THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION By David Bianculli
 
 
The Great Buster is a very recent, as in 2018, documentary celebrating the artistic achievements of Buster Keaton, whose cinematic masterpiece, The General, precedes the showing of this documentary. And this documentary, by the way, not only salutes one gifted filmmaker, but is itself made by another. The Great Buster is directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who was a cinema historian before he started making such classics himself as The Last Picture Show.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
May
15
THE GREAT By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Tony McNamara, who co-wrote The Favourite, created and co-wrote this new 10-part Hulu miniseries, which drops all at once today – and which, I hope, gets an order for additional episodes, and thus becomes an official series. It’s that good, and that much fun. Elle Fanning plays the eventual Catherine the Great in this comedy about 18th-century Russian court intrigue, and Nicholas Hoult plays her boorish regal husband, the not-so-great Peter. The jockeyi
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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