Kamau Bell returns to late night tonight, Wednesday, September 4. Here are his thoughts about the show and his new venue at FXX, as told to TVWW's Eric Gould last July...

2013

Sep

AL JAZEERA AMERICA: THE REAL-LIFE ‘NEWSROOM’? By Monique Nazareth

Fans of HBO’s The Newsroom may remember a discussion about what a proper newscast could be – one that might be a mission statement for America’s newest news network…

2013

Sep

INTOLERANCE By David Bianculli

I woke up in the middle of the night this morning to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, one of the overnight silent-movie treats on Turner Classic Movies. I switched channels before the racist second half of the movie, which I show in film class, but that’s plenty, thanks. Tonight in prime time, TCM presents another early Griffith cinematic epic that’s a lot more palatable: a movie that actually decries bigotry rather than champions it. L

2013

Sep

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA By David Bianculli

This evocative, instructive documentary series from Ken Burns and company (in this case, the primary voice being that of writer-producer Dayton Duncan, who even appears on camera) is repeated tonight through Friday on PBS. And it arrives at a time when Yosemite National Park is in the headlines because firefighters are battling major blazes there – so this series is as timely as it is timeless. Check local listings.

2013

Sep

LUTHER By David Bianculli

MINISERIES RETURN: Tonight through Friday, this BBC detective series, starring Idris Elba as the emotionally stressed investigator, presents its third – and final – season. Sienna Guillory plays Mary, his new girlfriend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Luther is mellowing. Or that the deadly, unhinged Alice (Ruth Wilson, pictured) isn’t still lurking in the shadows.

2013

Sep

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART By David Bianculli

John Oliver did a first-rate, really impressive job sitting in for Jon Stewart this summer, so kudos to him. But a hearty welcome back to Jon Stewart, who takes over the reins again beginning tonight.

2013

Sep

WEB THERAPY By David Bianculli

Once again, tonight’s new episode of Web Therapy makes room for some new clients. And tonight, Fiona (Lisa Kudrow) meets one you won’t want to miss: Nick, a potential online gambling addict played by former Friends co-star Matt Le Blanc, who’s already done such great post-NBC cable work on Showtime’s Episodes. As expected, he and Kudrow are effortlessly successful, and funny, here as well.

2013

Sep

THE FOUR COMPLETE ED SULLIVAN SHOWS STARRING THE BEATLES By David Bianculli

In fewer than six months – specifically, on Feb. 9, 2014 – it will be 50 years since The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. That appearance was the most-watched TV event up to that time, with 86 percent of all American TVs in use and tuned to CBS...

2013

Sep

BURDEN OF DREAMS By David Bianculli

This 1982 documentary by Les Blank follows director Werner Herzog as he attempts to make a movie, the same year’s Fitzcarraldo, about an indefatigable visionary who had a dream, against all odds, to drag a steamship across a strip of mountainous dry land in Peru to reach an otherwise inaccessible Amazon tributary. In making the film, Herzog tries the same thing, rather than relying on special effects – and Blank’s movie is almost as amazing as Herzog’s, which originally s

2013

Sep

AN EDISON ALBUM (1893-1912) By David Bianculli

A prime-time look at the origins of cinema begins with this TCM compilation, which spends 90 minutes showing some of the earliest films to emerge from the Edison Studios under the auspices of inventor Thomas Edison. My film students will be covering this next week, so they can get a head start here. But everyone should watch this, because I’m sure it will include one of my favorite Edison productions, a film that makes a clear link between the earliest film shorts made for public consumpti

Posts 181-190 of 200

16 17 18 19 20

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