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

 
 
2017
Apr
21
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Titus Welliver returns as LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch for Season 3, which takes place 18 months after the events ending Season 2. Conceivably, that gives the emotionally battered detective time to heal, at least emotionally – but apparently, that’s not the direction the show is taking. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
21
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This new Netflix original series stars Bill Nye, formerly the host of the Disney Channel science series Bill Nye the Science Guy. In TV history terms, there’s a straight line from Don Herbert’s Mr. Wizard to Nye’s more modern counterpart – and last week in one of my TV history classes at Rowan University, after showing a series of old Watch Mr. Wizard clips, I mentioned that Bill Nye was returning with a new series on Netflix, and my college students went
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
21
 
 
This is not a recommendation. SERIES PREMIERE: This new series, starring Britt Robertson, is very loosely based on the memoir of the same name by Sophia Amoruso, and is created by Pitch Perfect screenwriter Kay Cannon. So the snark is sharp here – and set a decade ago, this comedy series presents its central character as an abrasive person you’re supposed to like despite all the faults and frostinesss. We’ve seen it already, and better, in You’re the Worst, and already, a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
21
 
 
MOVIE PREMIERE: This 2016 film stars Callum Turner and Grace Van Patten as two young people drawn into a mysterious, though not very probable, world of valise exchanges, mysterious meetings and threatening repercussions, all in an around New York City, filmed in what looks to be a lot of guerrilla style, non-permit location shots. The filmmaking is interesting, the acting is good – but the plot, which aims for modern Hitchcock, doesn’t come close.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
21
 
 
This 2017 documentary is one of several documentaries this week looking at the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, or protests (depending upon whom was doing the describing), reacting to the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney King police brutality case.  
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
21
 
 
After a week off, Bill Maher returns, with a show devoid of celebrity guests – but filled, instead, with journalists, activists, authors and politicians. Usually, these turn out to be the liveliest, and most informative, shows of all.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
20
 
 
Hisham Tawfiq admits he didn’t originally want his bodyguard character Dembe Zuma on The Blacklist to be the strong, silent type...

 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
20
 
 
It’s been 20 years since Howard Stern starred, quite effectively, as a younger version of himself in this 1997 biographical film comedy, based on his bestseller. Betty Thomas directs the movie, and Mary McCormack stars as his wife Alison, whose loving relationship with shock-jock radio personality Stern forms the core of the film. In real life, they divorced in 2001. In Private Parts, the scene-stealer, in addition to Stern himself, is Paul Giamatti, in an early breakout role as WNBC radio
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
20
 
 
SERIES RETURN: After a hiatus, and a time-slot grab by inferior spinoff Blacklist: The Redemption, the original article, starring James Spader, returns – with a doubleheader. For a feature story, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
20
 
 
DOCUMENTARY SERIES PREMIERE: This new series aims to trace and point out some of the connections between music and real life – singling out some of the songs that reflected or propelled the events of the time. The topic for this opening hour is Martin Luther King, Jr., from the rise of the civil rights movement to King’s assassination and beyond. In that context, Soundtracks makes room for everything from James Brown’s “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)&rd