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
Jun
10
 
 
Beginning today, and continuing until September, this series is swapping one Jon for another. While host Jon Stewart takes the summer off to direct his first movie, “senior British correspondent” John Oliver takes over as guest host. I expect he’ll do fine: Oliver is the funniest member of Stewart’s current team. And he starts with a strong guest: Seth Rogen.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
9
 
 
Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is not one to shy away from torturing his characters, but his fans?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
9
 
 
Not since Bob Hope hosted the Oscars a total of 18 times has any performer owned, and been associated with, an awards show the way Neil Patrick Harris has come to be linked with this lively celebration of all things theatrical. This is his fourth time as host here (the third in a row), and this is where the black-tie audience members know, and appreciate, just how hard he works to pull off his opening and closing numbers. And speaking of numbers: Tonight’s festivities promise to present pe
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
9
 
 
Miami hosts the first two games of this series, giving the Heat an emotional edge – but that didn’t help in Game 1, which the San Antonio Spurs won by keeping its turnovers to an impressive minimum (only four in the entire game).  The Spurs won on Thursday, 92-88, but expect LeBron James and teammates to come out much more aggressively, and effectively, for Game 2. They’d better, before the series moves to Texas for Game 3.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
9
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode, “Red Wedding,” delivered so many shockers so quickly that even watching fans watch the episode is entertaining. (For proof, see this Video Worth Watching from our newest TVWW contributor, Al Mannarino.) And tonight's expanded episode is the season finale, with the immediate aftermath of all that bloodshed and betrayal.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
9
 
 
Last week Roger and Don followed the advice to “Go West, young man,” but found out, when they got to Hollywood, they no longer were the young men in town. Attending a Hollywood party, the libation of choice was delivered not in a martini glass, but in a hookah. Just another acknowledgment that this year’s story line is about Don, and his generation, losing power as well as direction and focus. And, on this series, the volatile year of 1968 isn’t over yet…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
9
 
 
It’s such a busy night, this sitcom normally wouldn’t make the cut. Other worthwhile TV events tonight, in addition to the others listed in today’s Bianculli’s Best Bets, include new episodes of AMC’s The Killing and HBO’s Family Tree, an Oprah’s Master Class with Susan Sarandon on OWN, the ambitious if not entirely successful season premiere of TNT’s Falling Skies, and an absurdly impressive trio of 1970s films on Sundance Channel, starting at 6 p
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
8
 
 
The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon team recently transformed the iconic 30 Rockefeller Center into Westeros, George R.R. Martin's fictional land of magic and dragons, for the Game of Thrones parody, "Game of Desks"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
8
 
 
This brilliant, captivating 1972 film is all the more fascinating for being based on a true story – a story so unusual, it likely never would have been concocted by a screenwriter, much less approved by a studio. But here is Al Pacino, playing a guy who stages a bank robbery in Brooklyn in hopes of financing his gay lover’s sex-change operation. But it’s not the motive that’s important here – it’s the tension, and the uncertainty, and the circus-like atmospher
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
8
 
 
Here’s a crucial entry in what was called the New Wave of French cinema. Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, it’s actually a salute to an Old Wave of Hollywood cinema. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a dapper young tough with a motorcycle, a sneer and a smile, and an obsession with many things American, including his own girlfriend (the lovely Jean Seberg) and the movies of Humphrey Bogart.