MIDSEASON FINALE: The previous two episodes have focused exclusively on the Governor (David Morrissey), leading him, ultimately, to the gates of the prison. This week, in the last episode before The Walking Dead walks away for a midseason hiatus, the Governor and Rick’s crew clash again. And, as always with this show, virtually no character is safe.

2013

Dec

TREME By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: “Thirty-eight months after.” To start the new season, the first piece of music we hear – played by our favorite Treme deejay, Steve Zahn’s Davis – is “Every Man a King,” corrupt vintage Louisiana politician Huey Long. A title card identifies the time as “thirty-eight months after,” with the “after” referring, of course, to Hurricane Katrina. That time span makes it Election Day in New Orleans, where Barack Obama a

2013

Dec

HOMELAND By David Bianculli

One thing you can’t accuse this series of, this season, is doing the expected. It’s managed to keep its three primary characters separated, one way or another, for most of this first half of the season. And no sooner does Damian Lewis’ Brody get returned to the United States than Saul and Carrie (Mandy Patinkin, Claire Danes) pack him off on a very dangerous mission to Iran. How dangerous? Most of this episode has him ensnared in the mission’s first phase: crossing the Ir

2013

Dec

THE MENTALIST By David Bianculli

Last week, The Mentalist finally put its Red John story to rest. And now, we follow Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) as he readjusts to life without his ongoing obsession with revenge – and life, it appears, takes him far from sunny California, to other, even sunnier climes. And it’s quite a distance, in more than miles: The action picks up two long years later.

2013

Dec

WOODY ALLEN FILM FESTIVAL By David Bianculli

All this month, sporadically but impressively, MGM’s High-Definition movie channel presents what it’s billing as the most complete retrospective of Woody Allen films ever televised. On this first day of December, this tribute kicks off at 10 p.m. ET with one of Allen’s all-time best, 1979’s Manhattan – followed by one of the first of his movies to confound many critics and fans at the time of its release, only to be reappraised and more warmly received later: 1980&r

2013

Nov

DUMB AND DUMBER By David Bianculli

Next year, the Farrelly Brothers will be releasing a 20-years-after sequel to this bizarre buddy comedy. Like this 1994 original, it will star Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as Harry and Lloyd. And just after Daniels won an Emmy as the smart and smarter news anchor on HBO’s Newsroom, the contrast ought to be especially entertaining. One element of the new Dumb and Dumber To movie that isn’t in the one shown tonight: co-star Jennifer Lawrence. When the first Dumb and Dumber hit the

2013

Nov

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES By David Bianculli

This 2013 movie, a stab at appealing to the Twilight crowd with another adaptation of a Young Adult series of novels, is noted because a) it’s a slow Thanksgiving weekend, and b) it has some participants worth watching, if only to contrast with other current roles. Emmy Rossum (pictured), who plays Ridley, for example, is playing a completely different role here than her rebellious yet responsible Fiona Gallagher in Showtime’s Shameless. Then there’s Emma Thompson, currently st

2013

Nov

THE SEARCHERS By David Bianculli

I consider this 1956 John Ford Western one of the very best John Wayne movies ever made. His Ethan Edwards is a complicated character, and not an especially flattering one. He embarks on a long, obsessive quest in search of his young niece, who was abducted by Comanches during a raid in which they slaughtered her family. Co-stars include Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles and Natalie Wood – and the plot, like the scenery, is singular and unforgettable.

2013

Nov

ATLANTIS By David Bianculli

If you watch this on a holiday weekend, it’s only because you’ve got pre-teens around. BBC America used all its Doctor Who golden-anniversary promotional muscle to promote this new series import, which premiered last week. It turned out, however, to be a decidedly juvenile affair, with a tone, and a script, that made it seem like a TV sibling of Young Hercules. Oh, and Hercules is in this new series, but not as a teenager – though there is a young Jason. And a young Pythagoras.

2013

Nov

STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE By David Bianculli

If you watched the mini-Star Wars marathon begun yesterday on Spike, today you can see the movie that launched the entire franchise: George Lucas’s 1977 space epic, originally called, simply, Star Wars. But that was before Lucas produced a trio of prequels – which can be seen today as well, beginning at noon ET.

Posts 181-190 of 2272

18 19 20 21 22

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