2021
 
 
 
 
 
 
2020
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2019
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2018
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2017
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2014
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2009
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2007
 
 
 
 
 
 
2001
 
 
 
 
2000
 
 
 
 
1998
 
 
 
 
1990
 
 
 
 
1989
 
 
 
 
1987
 
 
 
 
1985
 
 
 
 
1982
 
 
 
 
1980
 
 
 

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
Apr
15
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s installment features Doctor Who himself, Peter Capaldi, who shows up as a special guest, along with Warren Beatty, Jennifer Hudson, and others.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
15
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
Saturday Night Live has been around since 1975, but has never before attempted what it’s trying to do tonight. It’s performing the show twice – once for the East Coast, and again, hours later, for the West Coast. Executive producer Lorne Michaels pulled this off successfully before, but that was with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, when doing a special live episode of NBC’s prime-time sitcom 30 Rock. For tonight’s “double feature” of SNL, Michaels reaches out
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
‘FORTITUDE’ HAS A FAMILIAR, ECCENTRIC RING TO IT By David Hinckley
 
 
It would be presumptuous yet not totally untrue to say Amazon’s Fortitude resembles Fargo without the laughs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
ADRIFT AND OUT OF SORTS: ‘VEEP’ RE-STARTS WITH SELINA IN POLITICAL SIBERIA By Ed Bark
 
 
Entering Season 6, HBO’s Veep has reached a stage where its title is a misnomer in league with CBS’ long-running 48 Hours or the recently deceased Cougar Town...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
FORTITUDE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This series, formerly on the now defunct Pivot network, returns for Season 2 on Amazon Prime Video. Richard Dormer returns as the star of this series, and for the new season, Fortitude adds Dennis Quaid as a new, big-name co-star. It’s essentially a murder mystery set in a remote town in Norway, with a lot of character exploration to boot. And a lot of frozen scenery, just as in Fargo. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: THE RETURN By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This Netflix original series is a fully authorized remake of the 1988 low-budget cult hit, in which Joel Hodgson, then Mike Nelson, played futuristic space travelers forced by evil scientists to watch bad old movies – space travelers who maintained their sanity by heckling those films as they watched, with help from the equally vocal and sarcastic robots constructed for that very purpose: Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy. That often hilarious series, bounced around to several TV
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
SANDY WEXLER By David Bianculli
 
 
TELEMOVIE PREMIERE: Adam Sandler stars in this first original telemovie made under the Netflix banner, under the idea that Netflix, which knows how many streaming viewers watch Sandler’s movie canon on its network, is certain they’ll watch anything of his. If so, this is the perfect test of that theory. Sandy Wexler is based on Sandy Wernick, Adam Sandler’s real-life manager for the past three decades, and set in the mid-1990s, when he discovers Courtney Clarke, a talented sing
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
CHELSEA By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The first season of Chelsea Handler’s wide-ranging, planet-hopping talk show on Netflix got much better as it went along, and for Season 2, which begins tonight, there’s even more change in store – and all the changes sound positive. Instead of last year’s thrice-weekly 30-minute format, the new Chelsea, beginning tonight, switches to a once-a-week, 60-minute show. This gives the hostess less work per week, but more time to delve into her topics, and just
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
WAR IS COMING By David Hinckley
 
 
The Vietnam War, the 10-part, 18-hour documentary series from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, has just gotten its deployment orders from PBS...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) re-enters the work force tonight – but not before long discussions, with her husband and others, about how leaving her baby makes her feel so bad. And/or so good.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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