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

 
 
2013
Mar
13
 
 
This week begins the competition by the Top 10 finalists – so if you’ve wearied of Idol and stayed away thus far, this is the night to check back in and see whether this new season, and its new judges, is worth going along for the ride. So far as the talent goes, we’ll see. As for the judges – the one flat note comes from Mariah Carey, who seems to have studied sentence structure and brevity from Sarah Palin.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
13
 
 
It takes something special for me to recommend Whitney, and tonight’s episode has something special: a guest appearance by Dean Norris of Breaking Bad, who shows up to play Alex’s father, who inadvertently barges in on Alex and Whitney’s honeymoon.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
13
 
 
This 2011 movie gave juicy roles to Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, but also provided standout parts for many of this film’s supporting actresses. Allison Janney as the mother of Stone’s Skeeter, for example, and Bryce Dallas Howard as the unlikable Hilly. But pay special attention, this time around, to Jessica Chastain (pictured) as the curvy Celia – quite a departure from Chastain's determined federal investigator in Zero Dark Thirty.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
13
 
 
Last week, Elizabeth and Phillip (Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys) were abducted by their own agency and tortured for information – which they refused to reveal, thus passing the paranoid loyalty test. A furious Elizabeth ended up pummeling, and almost drowning, her handler (guest star Margo Martindale), and this week they meet again, with Elizabeth offering an apology – of sorts. “I’m sorry,” she says, “I didn’t kill you.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
13
 
 
This isn’t the NBC version of the workplace mockumentary series. It’s the original British version, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant...Whether or not you’re a fan of the Americanized version, you should love this one. It’s got more laughs, better performances...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
12
 
 
This 1998 version of the Charles Dickens tale works best if you come to it with less than great expectations – but if so, there are two performances that make it quite worthwhile, and both of them are of the women who have the most effect upon Ethan Hawkes’ poor “Finnegan Bell.” Yes, the names are changed to protect the non-innocent (ain’t that a Pip?). The vengeful, man-hating reclusive Miss Havisham is now called “Ms. Dinsmoor,” and played by Anne Banc
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
12
 
 
This isn’t one of the “spaghetti Western” entries of Clint Eastwood’s career – though it’s of the same vintage, and the same genre. Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper have small roles in this 1968 movie, which is a more standard Western – though what makes it stand out most is a fairly unusual leading lady: Inger Stevens, the Swedish-born actress who was one of my deep TV crushes in the 1960s. Sigh.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
12
 
 
Looking for tension and drama wherever it can find it, Smash has gone from settling last season's question of which actress will star in the Marilyn Monroe musical bound for Broadway to asking other questions. Will the show get to Broadway at all? And if it does, who will produce it? Tonight, there’s yet another question added to the mix: Will the show’s leading lady, Karen (Katharine McPhee), keep the job, or abdicate because of a conflict with another career opportunity?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
12
 
 
This season’s plot has been all about the mystery of Drew Thompson, a mysterious figure long thought dead – but apparently very alive and well and living in Harlan County or thereabouts. Last week, we finally learned the real identity of  Drew, the man sought so persistently by U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and Sheriff Shelby (Jim Beaver). Watching these two old Deadwood hands share some scenes together again has been a real treat – and clearly, as more cha
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Mar
12
 
 
On tonight’s new show, in search of one of the deadlier reptiles on the planet, host and adventurer Dominic Monaghan tells you five things you need to know about the Guatemalan beaded lizard. I’ll tell you one: The closest I want to get to one is on the other side of a high-def TV screen.