It’s very interesting to watch this show, for both the talent of the contestants and the chemistry among the judges. This cycle, you have Gwen Stefani interacting with her now-boyfriend Blake Shelton, and Adam Levine and Shelton poking fun at each other, as they have since the start, like brothers. But the dynamic to watch, this time, is the one between Stefani and Alicia Keys. They have different ways of trying to appeal to a contestant they want on their team – and when they’

2017

Mar

THIS IS US By David Bianculli

On a plane trip last week, I listened to one traveler tell a stranger, very excitedly, about why she should be watching This Is Us. This was like watching the Internet in three dimensions, and it’s exactly the sort of word-of-mouth enthusiasm that has built up around this show.

2017

Mar

IMPOSTERS By David Bianculli

Shows such as this one depend upon the mercurial abilities of its stars, to embody different characters and looks as they work their way through a series of schemes and scams. This series counts on actress Inbar Lavi – and so far, adopting only a few guises, she’s managed already to make quite a strong impression.

2017

Mar

THE AMERICANS By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: The Americans begins Season 5 with an unexpectedly heightened profile, thanks to Russian espionage becoming headline news of the most important kind these days. The new season begins with a clever jolt, then resets to focus strongly, as it did last season, on the family dynamics of the Russian operatives who were placed as a couple outside Washington, D.C., to have and raise two children and blend in, while completing a series of missions for their Russian handlers. Matthew Rhys

2017

Mar

A BRAND ILLUSION By Eric Gould

Just in case you don’t think advertising pays, here’s an example of E*TRADE’s latest commercial, an ambitious-looking 30-second spot starting out with a flat panel display on a desktop, but as the dolly shot reveals, the setting turns out to be quite something else...

2017

Mar

ROBERT OSBORNE MAY 3, 1932 – MARCH 6, 2017 By David Hinckley

Robert Osborne showed us why television, more than any other medium, turned hosts into stars...

2017

Mar

THE VOICE By David Bianculli

I’m not sure when The Voice fatigue will set in, but it hasn’t happened yet – and probably won’t, so long as this particular competition show manages to stay so positive and so hopeful. These days it’s a relief, as much as a pleasure, to watch how the judges react to the competitors and to each other. For example: Last week, one of the opening-round blind audition contestants was a young man named Quizz Swanigan, who managed to swivel two chairs around and have judg

2017

Mar

THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YO-YO MA & THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE By David Bianculli

The amazing cellist Yo-Yo Ma convened a group of musicians, in the year 2000, to explore what would happen when musicians from different cultures, wielding very different types of instruments, learned to work and play together. In the wake of 9/11, the bridging of differences became an increasingly important focal point – and this documentary, using home movies and performance footage from the time of the inception of The Silk Road Ensemble, charts its growth, its triumphs, and its gloriou

2017

Mar

BATES MOTEL By David Bianculli

Bates Motel is a superb example of a TV series that benefits by knowing the duration, as well as the content, of its end game. This season, pre-announced as the show’s last, allows the writers and producers of Bates Motel to work its way up to the contents of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho film, which inspired this series. But it also allows it to do what the movie didn’t, which is to get inside the mind of Norman Bates. Deeply, deeply inside, where his dead mother, Norma, stil

2017

Mar

HUMANS By David Bianculli

HBO’s Westworld may have gotten most of the attention last season – but AMC’s British import, HUMANS, explored some of the same territory first, with replicants gaining consciousness and seeking independence. And, in many respects, has done it more compellingly. This season, HUMANS has added Matrix co-star Carrie-Anne Moss to the cast, playing a scientist who specializes in replicants. And this week, there are more and more cases of replicants becoming aggressive and unpredicta

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