2021
 
 
 
 
 
 
2020
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2019
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2018
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2017
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2016
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2014
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2009
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2007
 
 
 
 
 
 
2001
 
 
 
 
2000
 
 
 
 
1998
 
 
 
 
1990
 
 
 
 
1989
 
 
 
 
1987
 
 
 
 
1985
 
 
 
 
1982
 
 
 
 
1980
 
 
 

DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2013
Dec
8
MASTERPIECE CLASSIC: "DOWNTON ABBEY" By David Bianculli
 
 
Want to get primed for next month’s Season 4? PBS is making it easy, by starting a repeat run of Season 3 beginning tonight. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
8
BONNIE & CLYDE By David Bianculli
 
 
PREMIERE: This two-night, four-hour telemovie, the latest Hollywood remake of the Bonnie Parker-Clyde Barrow story, is being papered all over sister cable stations tonight and tomorrow, being simulcast by A&E, History and Lifetime. Ratings will be high, but quality is medium. The leads, Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger, generate less heat than William Hurt, as their lawman adversary, and too much of the drama feels like dress-up, make-believe cops-and-robbers. For a full review, see Ed Bar
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
8
TREME By David Bianculli
 
 
Real estate scams. Restaurant openings. Musical explosions in late-night local jazz clubs. It could be anywhere, any time – but since it’s New Orleans, a few years post-Katrina, the highs, the lows, the politics, the food and the music is all very specific, and very memorable.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
8
HOMELAND By David Bianculli
 
 
Last week’s episode was pivotal, and not just in placing Brody (Damian Lewis) in yet another potential assassination plot. It also injected the series with an intensity that’s been missing of late, except in spurts. And with two episodes left, and with Brody on a seemingly suicide mission in Iran, only Carrie (Claire Danes) can manage an extraction plan – but even that’s far from a sure thing.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
8
"NEXT!!" By Eric Gould
 
 
Taran Killam returned this weekend as snarky 19th Century newspaper critic Jebidiah Atkinson who hates everything good. The Atkinson character made his SNL debut three weeks ago and this week set his sights on favorite holiday specials and movies...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
7
BONNIE & CLYDE RIDE AGAIN -- WITH SOME PURDY IMAGES By Ed Bark
 
 
NBC once remade Casablanca into a weekly 1983 series. In that context, reprising the story of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker is barely a hand-slap misdemeanor...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
7
THE INCREDIBLES By David Bianculli
 
 
This Pixar (now Disney) animated film is 10 years old now – I know, time flies! – which, in Disney terms, is more than long enough to introduce it anew to a younger generation. And anyone watching The Incredibles should enjoy it, especially since it predicted and played against the subsequent glut of superhero action movies. The Incredibles predated Marvel’s The Fantastic 4 by two years, but certainly got all the subtext right.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
7
AVATAR By David Bianculli
 
 
This James Cameron movie was released in 2009, launching a new boom in theaters showing 3-D movies. Almost five years later, we can ask whether that enthusiasm was a bit misguided in the long run – but in the short run, Avatar is quite a good-looking, ambitious fantasy film.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
7
THE CHALLENGER DISASTER By David Bianculli
 
 
Just in case you missed this telemovie’s recent premiere: Here’s a worthy repeat of a very smart, quite intriguing docudrama, about the committee formed to investigate the Challenger disaster. William Hurt stars as Richard Feynman, and gives a likably persistent, admirably authentic performance.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Dec
7
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK By David Bianculli
 
 
Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, this 2008 movie is a superb example of just what an original thinker Kaufman is. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a regional theater director from Schenectady, NY who gets a MacArthur Genius grant, and uses it to finance an ambitious rehearsal space in New York City. He begins painstakingly recreating buildings, blocks and the lives of his cast members – and what that has to do with the word “synecdoche,” well, that’s part of the tw
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley