French Stewart guest stars in this week’s episode, which is about a sudden obsession with “Celebrity Impressions.” Everyone seems to want to get into the act – and that makes for a lot of bad acting. But only from the TV characters, not the actors playing them.

2012

Mar

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

After last night’s Billy Joel competition, one of the contestants is being ousted after the latest audience voting round. And if, as Billy Joel has written, “Only the good die young,” even the best of them is at risk of elimination this evening. But remember – there’s one “judges’ save” that can come into play, making the ill-fated contestant a possible recipient of the American Idol equivalent of a reprieve from the governor.

2012

Mar

TOUCH By David Bianculli

SERIES RETURN: Long after the series pilot was sneak previewed, this Fox drama returns. Kiefer Sutherland, as Martin, by now knows his mission: To follow the unspoken bidding of his non-speaking son, which this week takes him to the owner of a pawn shop. And this week, the mysteriously connecting plot threads revolve around that pawnbroker, a baseball, an urn of ashes, and a flight attendant. Follow the trail – and see if you like what you find.

2012

Mar

AWAKE By David Bianculli

This is an interesting entry in this new series, one that suggests yet another variation on the storytelling techniques employed in its alternate-world scenarios. Tonight, Michael (Jason Isaacs) is investigating a murder at a party, when one of the party guests turns out to be a young woman named Kate (Brianna Brown), who used to babysit Max when he was younger. Later, Michael encounters Kate in his other reality, too – but there, she’s almost unrecognizable, a wasted shadow of her &

2012

Mar

MR. ROGERS & ME By David Bianculli

Public TV (Check local listings), iTunes and DVD -- This new documentary, by MTV senior VP Benjamin Wagner and his brother Christofer, is a love letter to Fred Rogers – an exploration of the very personal ways the late public TV children’s host and educator influenced and affected those who watched and met him. I have my own stories about this (they’re in my 1992 book Teleliteracy, in which I interviewed, among others, Rogers himself) – and so do all the people in this fi

2012

Mar

GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 By David Bianculli

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer is the Guest Programmer for TCM tonight – and as you might guess from a mind this dark, even the comedies he selects to start his evening are a bit twisted, pointed and sarcastic. That’s certainly true of his leadoff entry, this 1933 musical that confronts the then-ongoing Depression by singing about it. That starts with the opening song, in which Ginger Rogers, dressed in a giant coin and not much else, sings “We’re in the Money.” And that&

2012

Mar

WIN WIN By David Bianculli

Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan play a married couple in this character 2011 study, which has him coaching a high school wrestling team and finding a diamond in the rough with one new wrestler in particular. Alex Shaffer, who plays the new recruit, was a real-life high-school wrestler who had never acted in a film before. Giamatti should get partial credit for coaching him there, too: Their scenes together are quite good. And, at times, quite surprising.

2012

Mar

JUSTIFIED By David Bianculli

“Man Walks Into a Bar” is the name of tonight’s hyper-charged episode – and the man is Quarles (Neal McDonough), who is seeing his dreams of a southern empire implode, and is on the prowl for people to blame, and hurt. By the time he walks into that bar and gets to Raylan (Timothy Olyphant), the camera circles them as they get in each other’s faces – a terrific directorial choice. They’re still as can be, the camera is swirling, an effect which makes the

2012

Mar

MY MAN GODFREY By David Bianculli

Here’s the second movie selected by Jules Feiffer to show tonight – a 1936 screwball comedy classic staring William Powell and Carole Lombard. He plays in the parlance of the time, a bum, hired by a socialite to serve as her butler and mix with high society, which he wastes no time in ridiculing, often to their faces. It’s a financial class warfare movie that was way, way ahead of its time. Think of the diners at the table as the “1 percenters,” and this movie seems

2012

Mar

I LOVE AMC'S 'MAD MEN,' BUT CAN'T TELL YOU WHY By David Bianculli

It takes 22 months to give birth to an elephant -- so by that measure, the 17-month wait for a new season of AMC's Mad Men is no big deal. And yes, this Sunday's two-hour Season 5 premiere is worth the wait. Though there are so many secrets begging to be held here, I can't really tell you why...

Posts 61-70 of 199

6 7 8 9 10

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