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
5
 
 
One of tonight’s stories on this new edition: A celebration of the 40th anniversary of the stunningly authoritative Triple Crown win of Secretariat. (Look at that photo! Take that, Eadweard Muybridge!) Another story: The dangerously aggressive redesign of the catamaran selected by the U.S. team to represent America’s Cup. Instead of  a main sail, there’s a giant carbon-fiber wing, and last month the Swedish crew, practicing with a similar craft, suffered a fatality after t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
5
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: To begin Season 4, Morgan Freeman and company are changing focus, going away from the galactic questions to ask some other, equally puzzling ones. No, not “Why is there air?,” though Bill Cosby’s answer to that still makes me laugh. But big questions nonetheless, starting with tonight’s controversial little query: “When does life begin?”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
4
 
 
Joss Whedon cut right to the chase when delivering the 2013 Wesleyan University commencement address: "You are all going to die," he told graduates...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
4
 
 
This is elimination night for the Top 6, who performed yesterday – and the official NBC lead-in to yet another competition reality series, America’s Got Talent, which begins its new season with two new judges, Heidi Klum and former Spice Girl Mel B. I can’t imagine ratings for that show not going down this year – just as it’s easy to imagine The Voice getting stronger, at least for a while, even though it also uses its rotating thrones as a game of musical chairs. J
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
4
 
 
This 1998 vampire film, directed (but not written) by John Carpenter, is 15 years old now, but retains enough edge to make it a watchable, unpredictable, sometimes unsettling film in the vampire genre. Some of that comes from James Woods’ successful attempt to play a hero in the later Kurt Russell mode, but a lot comes from the supporting performance by Sheryl Lee of Twin Peaks, who here ends up undead, but not wrapped in plastic.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
4
 
 
If you’ve worked your way through the new episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix, you’ve seen Ron Howard’s imagined Imagine office, with its full-size lunar module. Here is the 1995 movie from which that came: Howard’s taut, smart, inspiring dramatization of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission of 1970. Tom Hanks stars, but there are star turns almost everywhere you look, including those by Gary Sinise (pictured) and Ed Harris. And speaking of Arrested Development:
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
4
 
 
In this week's new installment, among other cases followed from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, is the continuation of one begun in last week’s series premiere: the art theft investigation, which this week gets to the point of installing high-tech equipment in hopes of capturing the thieves red-handed. Or, at least, a nice shade of crimson.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
4
 
 
Tonight’s scheduled guest is NBC news anchor Brian Williams, who generally gets more respect from Stewart here than he does from his own network, where NBC has all but abandoned the newsmagazine with Williams’ name on it. Don’t be surprised if Stewart brings that up – and if Williams, as usual on this show, has a very funny response.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
3
 
 
The Top 6 contenders perform for the right to continue. Meanwhile, now that American Idol is over for the year, its unsurprising announcements of which judges will not be returning makes this show’s lineup a model of consistency – even with, and maybe especially with, the announced revolving-door returns of Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera, followed by the returns of their temporary replacements, Usher and Shakira. Meanwhile, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine hold firm – as do t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Jun
3
 
 
SERIES FINALE: 7th Heaven creator Brenda Hampton, who also created this ABC Family series, says thank you and goodbye with this finale episode – titled, fittingly, “Thank You and Goodbye.” Tonight’s episode, the last in a series that began in 2008, is most notable not for wrapping up the plot line, but for freeing up its star, the talented Shailene Woodley, who broke out opposite George Clooney in 2011’s The Descendants. And she won’t be hurting for work, or f