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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

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2017
May
9
ABC GOES BACK TO BASICS TO REVIVE ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ By Alex Strachan
 
 
Hindsight is 20/20 — pun intended in this case since we’re talking about ABC. The Alphabet network’s decision to revive American Idol is both timely and, in this correspondent’s opinion, shrewd...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
9
SATURDAY NIGHT DIVE By Eric Gould
 
 
In the wake of the President firing FBI director James Comey today (5/9/17) it’s natural to look back to the last time a Commander-in-Chief shook Washington and got rid of an official who may not be too favorable to his current legal plight. Richard Nixon fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox on Saturday, October 20, 1973, after he refused to let Nixon out of providing secret audio tapes made of White House meetings...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
8
PREPPING FOR 'TWIN PEAKS': WHY WE WATCHED, WHY WE CARED AND WHICH EPISODE, IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME FOR ONE, TO WATCH AGAIN By Alex Strachan
 
 
Twin Peaks was the original 13-episode drama...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
8
KEVIN CAN WAIT By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Part 2 of 2. The guest shot by Kevin James’ former The King of Queens co-star, Leah Remini, continues, as Kevin Can Wait concludes its freshman season. And James and Remini continue to be paired on an undercover mission, a plot bringing back the woman who played the wife of a TV character to the next show starring her former TV “husband.” The most famous time that happened on TV, Suzanne Pleshette slipped in as a surprise, unbilled guest star on the finale of New
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
8
GOTHAM By David Bianculli
 
 
Gotham is giving power to its villains – and identities, too, to some of them – as this series gets deeper into its current season. Though they don’t all yet have the names they’ll eventually adopt as bad guys, the Riddler has risen to power and aligned himself with Gotham’s power-grabbing ladies (including Gordon’s psychotic ex), and the Penguin has been betrayed by his underlings but embraced by Poison Ivy. And with Batman yet to emerge in this superhero pre
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
8
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight, the Top 10 contestants perform live. And so does judge Blake Shelton, as, once again, the folks in the red swivel chairs get more of a career boost than the singers they’re judging.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
8
BETTER CALL SAUL By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s episode ended with Jimmy and Kim (Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn) exiting their showdown with Jimmy’s brother, Chuck (Michael McKean), as though they’d just won a major victory. Which, because of the info Kim slyly pried from Chuck, they just may have secured the piece of the puzzle that will allow them to win the battle. Yet, looking at the long game of Jimmy a.k.a. Saul, we already know there’s no way he’s winning the war…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
8
ANGIE TRIBECA By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s special guest star is Natalie Portman – who, other than hosting Saturday Night Live, has made only one previous post-stardom appearance on a weekly TV show. That was on The Simpsons, where she was heard but not seen. So this is something special indeed.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
7
‘THE LAST 100 DAYS OF DIANA’ IS A WORTHY EFFORT IN REMEMBERING THE PRINCESS, BUT A BIT OVERDONE By David Hinckley
 
 
Twenty years later, there may be no way to avoid getting melodramatic over the death of Princess Diana...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
7
NORM MACDONALD: HITLER'S DOG, GOSSIP & TRICKERY By David Bianculli
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Netflix continues its bumper crop of standup comedy specials by presenting the very dry, very clever Norm Macdonald in a new standup special. The promo for it consists of the former anchor for “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live musing about how weird it is that the accepted abbreviation for “identification” is “ID.” As abbreviations go, he points out, the D is doing all the work. If that strikes you as funny (as it does me), then this sp
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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