This documentary on The Eagles - the musical ones, not the national-emblem ones - originally was televised in two parts, both of which surprised me by how thorough, interesting and entertaining they were. Now Showtime is showing both parts in one big three-hour gulp - and it's quite a feast. It's worth it just to see vintage footage of some future Eagles backing Linda Ronstadt on a small club tour.

2013

Mar

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

I’ve paid little attention to this series this season – but tonight’s the night to check in, in the first of three live editions this week. The first two are performance shows – 10 contestants tonight, 10 more tomorrow – and Thursday’s installment is an elimination show, where half of them are booted off the Idol island. And all three shows, this week, are the first live editions for Idol 2013, which makes them the first time to see both Mariah Carey and Nicki

2013

Mar

SMASH By David Bianculli

So Bombshell is back on – but tonight, rather than combining as a dedicated unit, the creative team begins to engage in some self-doubts, and especially doubts about some of the people around them.

2013

Mar

JUSTIFIED By David Bianculli

I feel like now’s a good time to offer a salute: to Gerald McRaney, who’s been burning up his few but substantial scenes as a guest on Justified, just as he did when he last appeared opposite Timothy Olyphant, on Deadwood. McRaney has been great the past few weeks – just like this series, in which the sudden violence and unexpected twists rival the biggest shockers in The Walking Dead.

2013

Mar

WHITE COLLAR By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: Treat Williams, as the father of Matt Bomer’s Neal, returns for another episode, in which Matt and company try to secure evidence that would exonerate his dad of murder. But the plot, to me, is less enticing this week than the setting, because White Collar got permission to film at the Empire State Building.

2013

Mar

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS By David Bianculli

This is the 2004 movie that led to the 2006 NBC series, and a few things are significantly different. The small Texas town is Odessa, not Dillon. The football team is called the Permian Panthers, and their head coach is named Gary Gaines, and played by Billy Bob Thornton. But there are some strong similarities, too — the movie's director is Peter Berg, who helped adapt Friday Night Lights as a weekly series. And the coach's wife, though a very small role in the film, is played by Conn

2013

Mar

GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS By David Bianculli

Robert Donat plays an extraordinarily caring teacher, a schoolmaster who loves the classics and the students in his charge, in this 1939 movie that is itself, by now, one of the classics. But there’s another reason to watch these days: When Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan sold his series, it was by describing the dramatic arc of his leading character, who goes from science teacher to meth dealer and murderer, as “Mr. Chips becomes Scarface.” Tune in, then, to see Walter Whi

2013

Mar

THE STAIRCASE By David Bianculli

Part 9. This is the mini-sequel fans of this series have been waiting to see. It’s one of two new installments, presenting new evidence in the case of convicted murderer Michael Peterson. If you harbored any reasonable doubts about his guilt before – or about his innocence – prepare to be challenged all over again.

2013

Mar

INSIDE COMEDY By David Bianculli

Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin are David Steinberg’s guests on tonight’s edition of his smart, rewarding talk show about comedy. And Martin and Steinberg, in particular, go way, way back. Steinberg was a guest on the third and final season of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, reprising a controversial “comic sermonette” bit that helped get the Smothers Brothers thrown off the air. Among the young writers on the show that season? Steve Martin, with his first regular job in

2013

Mar

BREAKING BAD By David Bianculli

SERIES REPEAT: The concluding half-season of Breaking Bad doesn’t show up until this summer. Meanwhile, though, Sundance has gotten rights to repeat the series from its first episode, two episodes every Monday night – beginning tonight with the brilliant episode that started it all. It starts with Bryan Cranston in his tighty whities, gun in hand – and never slows down from there.

Posts 1871-1880 of 2272

187 188 189 190 191

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption