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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
4
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON By David Bianculli
 
 
This month, TCM is highlighting, among other things, a run of “Creature Feature” movies. Tonight’s lineup, for example, includes 1933’s classic King Kong at 11:15 p.m. ET, and 1962’s campier Mothra at 1:15 p.m. ET. The prime-time evening salute begins, at 8 p.m. ET, with a showing of 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon. Perhaps it’s time, after all these years, to imagine alternative climaxes for these films – newly imaginative ways to conquer th
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
4
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
This new episode airs on a special day for the core members of this geeky sitcom. It’s May 4. May the 4th. Known, in some cinematic sci-fi circles, as Star Wars day… as in, “May the 4th be with you.” Sigh… And The Big Bang Theory made that very joke, on air, a few years ago, in case you think I’m stretching things.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
4
RIVERDALE By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the penultimate episode of this first season of Riverdale, so whatever mysteries are going to be solved, they should start being solved about…now…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
4
THE AMAZING RACE By David Bianculli
 
 
I’m not recommending this entire series – not this many iterations into its run, where even is repetitions have become repetitive. But tonight’s episode is set in Venice, and any chance to get to see Venice up close is worth it. Even with a bunch of grumbling and fumbling reality-show competitors blocking much of the scenery.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
4
SOUNDTRACKS By David Bianculli
 
 
This reflective new documentary series trains its sights tonight on the shooting of students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard in 1970. The date was May 4 – a day far more worth remembering than “Star Wars day.” And musically, expect at least one unavoidable, unforgettable focal point: “Ohio,” the searing instant-response song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
3
THE GOLDBERGS By David Bianculli
 
 
Pop Quiz of the Day: Tonight’s episode of The Goldbergs is about the characters seeing, and reacting to, a frightening, Cold War-inspired ABC made-for-TV movie from 1983, called The Day After (pictured). It imagined a Soviet nuclear strike on the Midwestern U.S., and its aftermath. The pop quiz question is this: What other TV series, also set in the Eighties, presented the same basic plot last year, with its characters watching The Day After and reacting to it? (Hint: It wasn’t The R
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
3
NATURE: "DOLPHINS: SPY IN THE POD" By David Bianculli
 
 
Part 1 of 2. Nature established an instant hit, earlier this season, by following scientists who designed intricate robotic approximations of animals and set them loose in the wild, to watch how actual animals interacted with them. Tonight and next week, Nature provides a reprise, and an underwater one at that, by photographing the fish and mammals who encounter the scientists’ ingeniously designed and operated mechanical dolphins. Sometimes, the dolphin footage they capture is completely
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
3
FARGO By David Bianculli
 
 
This new season of Fargo started with an extended segment enacted entirely in German, set in East Berlin in the late Eighties. Tonight, in episode three, part of the show flashes back again – this time to the Seventies (pictured), the heyday of the sci-fi writer who, under another name, was just murdered because of a case of mistaken identity. Or, at least, mistaken address…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
3
BROCKMIRE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s episode is called “Road Trip,” and it sends Brockmire and his new minor-league employer, played by Amanda Peet (pictured), out to meet and greet their fans – and others. Based on their histories and personalities, not a great idea…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
May
3
FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE: NOT THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the first time since Saturday night’s live Samantha Bee special, Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that TBS has found a place and time to repeat that show in its entirety. It’s definitely worth watching – and among its many pleasant surprises was how adept a character actress Bee was in her “period” standup routines, when she appeared in costume to play various female comics through the ages. But other elements of the show were even more bril
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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