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
Sep
11
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This venerable science series begins Season 41 with a show tied to today’s anniversary of 9/11. It’s about the construction of Ground Zero Supertower – and to review it, we dispatched our own in-house architect, Eric Gould, whose report appears in his latest Cold Light Reader dispatch. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
11
 
 
For specific programming tied to 9/11, the places to go in prime time include the 24-hour news networks, as well as History (which repeats The Man Who Predicted 9/11 and 120 Minutes That Changed America) and National Geographic Channel (which presents George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview, as well as 9/11: Where Were You? and a 9/11-focused installment of Witness). But there’s a coincidental connection to tonight’s new two-hour Discovery Channel documentary as well. The Presidents&rsquo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
11
 
 
The longer the murder of little Danny goes unsolved, the more the town of Broadchurch is exposed to withering attention from national media. And investigators Ellie Miller and Alec Hardy, played by Olivia Colman and David Tennant, aren’t getting along much better with all that pressure.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
11
 
 
And now it’s personal. We know who the killer is, and so do Sonya and Marco (Diane Kruger and Demian Bachir), so that’s no longer the big mystery here. The big mystery has become this: Now that the devious murderer has abducted Marco’s son, can Marco and Sonya find a way to return the boy to safety?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
11
 
 
For the 12th anniversary of 9/11, the PBS series Nova will help nudge the memory of that fateful day in a more positive direction, by going inside the new tower rising there...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
10
 
 
This well-timed biography of Billie Jean King, who made history both on and off the tennis court, arrives just one day after a two-day series of brilliant tennis finals at the U.S. Open. Watching this profile explains, in part, why tennis has become such a popular TV sport – and especially why, when Serena Williams won the other day, she was given as much prize money as the men’s winner, Rafael Nadal. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
10
 
 
Another great night of classic early films is presented tonight on TCM, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the 1924 silent swashbuckler, The Thief of Baghdad. And the evening starts, at 8 p.m. ET, with this influential, classic 1922 documentary – originally a silent film, but with narration recorded and added a generation later, for a new audience. It’s the images, though, that matters, as director Robert Flaherty captures the simple yet proud life of an Eskimo. I remember watching t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
10
 
 
Blame my enthusiasm for this new NFL Network biography on growing up in southern Florida in the Sixties and early Seventies. When I was a teenager, the Miami Dolphins handed me a perfect season, which is why I’ve been loyal to them ever since. And spent way too much time and money, in recent years, watching the Dolphins play every week on satellite TV. Sigh. But here’s a profile of the coach who got them through an entire season, and a Super Bowl, without a loss.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
10
 
 
These overviews of WNET-Ch. 13 in New York aren’t televised nationwide, but should be – because these well-produced local TV history lessons are a true treat to watch. It would be enough, in this compendium of local and national programming produced by WNET, to start and stop with Bill Moyers’ Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, one of the best talking-heads TV series ever made. But the other stuff sampled and saluted here includes David Attenborough’s Life on Earth, t
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
10
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: As this new season begins, Clay (Ron Perlman) has been framed for murder and is behind bars, but Tara (Maggie Siff) may be heading there also, charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Jax (Charlie Hunnam), who’s now running the club with a free hand, has to handle all that, and more. His mission, should he decide to accept is, is to keep Tara out of jail, and keep Clay in. Clay in prison, after all, is the next best thing to a sequel to Oz.