DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2012
Jan
24
 
 
The newest installment of the PBS Nova series is the best mystery thriller I've seen on TV this year. It's got forensic scientists trying to identify partial fingerprints and examine photographic evidence, investigators traveling the globe to track down promising leads, experts adamantly offering conflicting testimony -- and enough twists and turns to satisfying the most fervent mystery fan. The hour, premiering Wednesday night at 9 ET on PBS (check local listings), is called Mystery of a M
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
22
 
 
Impressively -- and amazingly -- the PBS American Masters series has been examining popular art and profiling gifted artists for a quarter of a century. And now, to start Season 26, it turns it attention to yet another worthy, inspirational figure: talented, tragic folksinger Phil Ochs... Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune, a 2010 documentary written and directed and co-produced by Kenneth Bowser, premiering Monday at 10 p.m. ET (check local listings) will please and inform those who are fans o
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
20
 
 
You've seen similar scenes dozens of times on CBS's Survivor, even on the same South Pacific islands of Vanuatu: people stranded and working frantically to build a makeshift shelter as the rain pelts them mercilessly...except, this time, one of the people marooned is Karl Pilkington, the reluctant world traveller sent around the globe by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for the new season of the Science Channel TV series An Idiot Abroad...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
18
 
 
They laughed at me when I brought doughnuts into the Fresh Air with Terry Gross office in Philadelphia last Friday. Not because I brought doughnuts -- I always do that when I guest host...They laughed because last week, I brought in special Dunkin' Donuts, offered in celebration of the 60th anniversary of NBC's Today show -- But while they're laughing, I'm dreaming...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
17
 
 
How does FX's Justified follow a season where it served up one of the best season finales in TV history? By doubling down -- and tossing out weekly explosions, in the form of delightful and unexpected guest stars, while slowly setting the table for a season-long feast of continuing story lines and confrontations. What a start. What a show... Season 3 of Justified, which premieres Tuesday night at 10 ET on FX, begins a few weeks after last year's phenomenal season finale ended. And I guess, b
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
16
 
 
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an official holiday. It's also the return travel day for critics and reporters who have been out in Pasadena for the Television Critics Association press tour. And at Rowan University, where I teach, it's the last day of winter break before the spring term begins Tuesday.mSo the TV WORTH WATCHING staff should be enjoying a day of rest. Instead, we're all over the place -- literally, figuratively, and, on the web, virtually...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
12
 
 
Bill Moyers is back -- twice! This weekend, he'll make you think, as he launches the inaugural edition of public TV's Moyers & Company. But already this week, he's made you laugh -- as Stephen Colbert's guest on Tuesday's installment of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Not many people can parse the differences between tax breaks and tax dodges on one show, and screech owls and hoot owls on another. But Moyers can, and does...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
11
 
 
If you're wondering why this week's BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS provide no mention of either the new NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? or the new CBS sitcom Rob, let me be clear. It's not an oversight. It's a judgment. Both shows are terrible -- but Chelsea Handler's program is the more disappointing, because she's been so clever and successful at hosting talk shows and writing memoirs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
9
 
 
By watching its premiere telecast, you can tell much more about a news program's immediate weaknesses than its potential strengths. Chemistry and reputation take time to build, but groan-inducing mistakes, missteps and poor editorial judgments are there from the start...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
 
 
Sunday, in addition to the NFL playoff games, there are a ridiculous number of fresh TV offerings -- way too many to mention in BEST BETS alone. But on my most recent radio report for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I tried. Read on for details about not only Showtime's House of Lies and PBS's Season 2 of Downton Abbey, but NBC's new The Firm, BBC America's Absolutely Fabulous special, and more...