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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
 
 
2013
Oct
3
PARENTHOOD By David Bianculli
 
 
Don’t let NBC’s almost total lack of support and promotion for this family drama series prevent you from watching it. Last season, it provided some of the most wrenching dramatic scenes on broadcast TV – and this year, with a slightly lighter tone, it’s providing some of the best smiles. And I’m including the network sitcoms in that assessment, by the way.  
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
3
'THE MILLERS' ARRIVES AMID PRIME CBS REAL ESTATE By Ed Bark
 
 
Aging, cantankerous and/or befuddled parents are the fall season’s new sitcom normal...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
TALKING WITH NEIL FLYNN, ABC'S 'MIDDLE' MAN By Donna J. Plesh
 
 
“I would say we are under the radar,” says Neil Flynn, who plays the Heck patriarch on the ABC Wednesday sitcom The Middle. But, he adds, "I don’t mind... because we have sneakily finished 100 episodes..."
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
GILLIGAN AND 'BREAKING BAD' AREN'T THROUGH YET - AT LEAST NOT ON 'COLBERT' By David Bianculli
 
 
First Vince Gilligan won an Outstanding Drama Series for Breaking Bad. Then he ended his series, brilliantly. And to complete his terrific trifecta, he made a wild appearance on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report....
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
LYDIA, OH LYDIA, DID WALT TAINT YOUR STEVIA? By Eric Gould
 
 
One of the many achievements of Breaking Bad was its art direction, in particular, its score... Case in point during Sunday night's finale, was the soundtrack of this Groucho Marx rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" from the Marx Brothers 1939 film At The Circus...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
THE MIDDLE By David Bianculli
 
 
On the first day at his new school, Brick (Atticus Shaffer) avoids the bathroom – afraid of the torments from fellow students that may await there. Reminds me, for some reason, of a joke Bob Dylan told on his satellite Theme Time Radio Hour show, about a kid who was told, on the first day of class, that if he needed to go to the bathroom he should raise his hand. The kid replies: “How will that help?”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
MODERN FAMILY By David Bianculli
 
 
When Cam (Eric Stonestreet) is involved, reality often is a few steps behind. And tonight, he holds a costume party for a festive funeral, honoring Larry the Cat’s wife – a figment of daughter Lily’s imagination.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
TOP CHEF By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: For this Season 11 version, Padma Lakshmi takes her culinary cronies, including Tom Colicchio, to New Orleans, where everyone is expected to kick it up a notch. Among the initial challenges is to cook alligator – which I’ve done, by the way. If ever there was a use for the phrase “Tastes like chicken,” alligator is it. One time, I grilled a batch of alligator, put the leftovers in the refrigerator, and my son Mark, visiting from college and arriving late
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
SOUTH PARK By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s new episode is titled “Informative Murder Porn.” And I’ve seen only a brief, confusing promo, but apparently, the boys rely on Minecraft as a distraction to keep their arguing parents from hurting each other. How that leads to naked parents, and what happens next, I’m not at all certain.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Oct
2
THE BRIDGE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: We know now that this series will be back next year, so this is a season finale, not a final ending. Still, expect some closure, because – unlike in The Killing – this is one case that won’t take more than one season to solve. Demian Bichir stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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