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

 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
Binge Alert: Shortly after midnight this morning, Netflix made Season 2 of House of Cards available, in its 13-episode entirety. The opener begins right where last season’s finale left off – and I mean exactly where last season left off, with Francis and Claire (Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright) off on their evening jogging run in the park. And there’s reason to be excited about the start of this new cycle, which begins with Francis’ intended ascendancy to the Vice Presidency.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
I’m stubbornly going with curling first. The U.S. team faces Russia today, in a tape-delayed competition presented in its entirety on CNBC, beginning at 5 p.m. ET. With Russia as the home country, the crowd – well, the few rows of people in the bleachers – for Russia has been especially boisterous. And even though it’s an early-round game, it’s an important one if the U.S. men’s team is to advance to the medals round. Do you believe in miracles? Or, maybe, do
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
Neil Jordan of The Crying Game fame is the director of this moody 2012 vampire movie, which stars Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton as mother-daughter bloodsuckers who settle in at a modern vacation resort hotel called Byzantium. The daughter, 17, is at that difficult stage – but she’s been that way for 200 years now.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
This 1955 epic adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel leaves out most of the early part of that novel – but what remains is quite watchable, driven most forcefully by James Dean, in one of only three movie roles in his short, ill-fated career. By comparison, he appeared in about 20 different TV series between 1951 and 1955, though never as a regular.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
Once again this week, the guests that catch my notice are the ones from show business – not because they’re Hollywood celebrities, but because of who they are. One is Bill Nye, the former host of children’s science series Bill Nye the Science Guy. The other is Mayim Bialik, former child star of Blossom. She’s now a regular on The Big Bang Theory, playing Sheldon’s girlfriend, Amy Farrah Fowler. And he has guest starred on Big Bang Theory, playing – himself (pi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
14
 
 
The Netflix hit is due to return this week and in case you need a refresher, or maybe want to skip Season 1, here’s a lightning flash trip through all the main plot points from the premiere season...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
13
 
 
As Olympics days go, this one’s kind of quiet – though anyone competing today would have cause to disagree. For the U.S., the biggest events may be men’s short skate and figure skating. NBC is building tonight’s tape-delayed prime time show around them, beginning at 8 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live beginning at 10 a.m. ET on NBCSN.  And, of course, all events can be seen live on NBCOlympics.com.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
13
 
 
Are the contestants still in the Hollywood round? Yep. And against the Olympics, Fox isn’t so much spending time as killing it.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
13
 
 
Denis O’Hare has been one of my favorite character actors since I saw him play Charles Guiteau, who shot and killed President James A. Garfield, in Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical Assassins. He also played the Vampire King of Louisiana in HBO’s True Blood, and has been featured in different incarnations of FX’s American Horror Story, usually suffering disfiguring tragedies in each. And tonight on Rake, he plays the latest client of Greg Kinnear’s Keegan Deane &n
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Feb
13
 
 
On a slow night, why not watch an enjoyable, well-made big-budget superhero movie? You don’t have to have seen either of the other Iron Man films to get into this one, especially with the irresistibly charming central performance by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man. But watch, too, for Don Cheadle as another metal-suited hero, who matches Stark punch for punch – and also matches Downey quip for quip.