It’s episode seven of Season 4 – and we’re getting closer to the season finale, which brings with it the return of one familiar American character and the introduction of another. Meanwhile, at least one private romance goes defiantly public – but there may be troubled waters ahead. Check local listings.

2014

Feb

THE WALKING DEAD By David Bianculli

Last week’s midseason premiere split its time between two groups of survivors from last season: Rick and his son Carl (Andrew Lincoln, Chandler Riggs), and Michonne (Dinai Gurira) and her replacement set of armless, led-by-ropes zombie decoys. This week, we follow some of the other survivors – who, like everyone else, is facing steep odds finding their way after barely escaping the prison.

2014

Feb

TRUE DETECTIVE By David Bianculli

Last week’s episode, with its already famous tracking-shot climax, was a great hour of television. Get set, tonight, for another, as the shifting motivations of Martin and Rust (Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey) become a little more clear.

2014

Feb

AS JIMMY FALLON STARTS HIS NEXT LATE-NIGHT JOB, A LOOK BACK AT HOW HE GOT HIS FIRST ONE By David Bianculli

Jimmy Fallon was born Sept. 19, 1974 – 20 years after the premiere of NBC’s Tonight Show, and one year before the premiere of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Fifteen years ago, he joined the cast of SNL. Monday night, he takes over The Tonight Show…

2014

Feb

THE XXII OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES By David Bianculli

There are medal events in alpine skiing tonight in prime time on NBC, early-morning coverage of U.S. vs. Russia in men’s hockey (live on NBCSN), and a lot in between – including the U.S. women’s curling team vs. Sweden on CNBC. One thing to look for on NBC’s pre-prime time Olympics coverage, which begins at 3 p.m. ET: a Tom Brokaw special on the U.S.-Soviet space race, a valid and vivid way to explore the tensions between two countries which, at the moment, are trying to

2014

Feb

GANGSTER SQUAD By David Bianculli

This 2013 full-color film noir drama is set in Los Angeles 1949 – a few years later than usual for this genre – and is about a successful bootlegging operation whose crime boss is targeted by a particularly persistent pair of cops. Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling star, but the scene-stealer here is Emma Stone, who plays a noticeably different type than she displayed in the likes of Zombieland, Easy A and The Amazing Spider-Man. In Gangster Squad, she plays the requisite, but very attentio

2014

Feb

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT By David Bianculli

This is the restored version of director Lewis Milestone’s 1930 anti-war classic – one of the first anti-war movies ever made (only a few years after the advent of sound in motion pictures), and still one of the best. Lew Ayres stars in this emotional indictment of the horrors of WWI – which had concluded only a dozen years before.

2014

Feb

48 HOURS: THE WHOLE GRITTY CITY By David Bianculli

Wynton Marsalis presents this two-hour 48 Hours special, which looks at how youth marching bands in New Orleans, competing for spots in Mardi Gras, provide young people, post-Katrina, with a rare dose of hope. To hear and read my full review, see NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross website.

2014

Feb

THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli

Gary Oldman and Toni Collette are some of the guests on this week’s show – along with some U.K. celebrities less familiar to most U.S. viewers, such as Nick Frost. But on this show, they’re all treated equally – and seated at the same time, which makes The Graham Norton Show a special treat to watch.

2014

Feb

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN By David Bianculli

When I started honoring TV’s best DVD releases in 2012 by giving them a TV Worth Watching Seal of Approval, the very first program so chosen was Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective, a masterpiece of a miniseries, combining drama, comedy and period music in dizzyingly creative and involving ways. Well, here’s another program that fits that same description...

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