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

 
 
2015
May
17
 
 
When I first learned of a Stanford University project to draw a literary “map of emotions” of 1890s Victorian London, at first I wanted to learn more. And then I thought of Penny Dreadful, and how it has affected and moved me...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
17
 
 
I’ve been writing for years about Isabella Rossellini’s bizarrely entertaining, delightfully informative short films about animal behavior, which she presents under the provocative but somewhat misleading title of Green Porno. Yes, she talks mostly about sexual matters, with a combination of straight talk and scientific accuracy and nomenclature that makes her a kind of nature-world Dr. Ruth. But only if you imagine Dr. Ruth dressing up in costumes -- as spiders, ducks, giant sea lio
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
17
 
 
Here’s a decadent double feature: Two movies about enticing cabaret singers in Germany, in different eras but with similarly destructive tendencies. First up, at 8 p.m. ET, is Bob Fosse’s superb 1972 movie musical starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, about a Berlin nightclub and the slow but steady and unnerving encroachment of the Nazi Party. Then, at 10:15 p.m. ET, it’s The Blue Angel, from 1930, starring Marlene Dietrich – in her star-making role – as a singer w
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
17
 
 
The nooses are tightening, and so are the plot threads. More and more, major characters that we’ve followed separately for years are embarking on paths that will result in a collision course. Family members reunited, sometimes unexpectedly and even unwillingly, as with last week’s sad reunion of siblings – one surrounded by the murderers of her father, the other a broken shell of his former self. And this week, the battle lines continue to be drawn, and redrawn, as the various
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
17
 
 
SERIES FINALE: It’s all come down to this. Will this final episode of Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men provide a finite conclusion to the story of Don Draper, or will it just stop, as did The Sopranos (on which Weiner was a writer and producer), and as does life? If I had to guess – and some of my close friends keep trying to get me to do just that – I expect that Don, after a steep fall and scary descent, will emerge on his feet, sitting comfortably in some new situation. Becaus
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
17
 
 
In Season 2 of this series, the newest set of supernatural adversaries, the witches, already have proven more powerful – and more creepy and captivating – than the ones in American Horror Story: Coven. And a few episodes in, their battle with our Penny Dreadful band of demon-fighting Scoobys is just getting started. For a full review, see new TVWW contributor Alex Strachan’s TV That Matters.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
16
 
 
This TV project has been in the works for a long time – so long that the late Horton Foote earned a story credit for the screenplay of this biography of blues singer Bessie Smith...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
16
 
 
This series has gotten extremely tense this season – except for the comic relief about the local election seat...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
16
 
 
If the NBA playoffs have given you a slight case of pro basketball fever, here’s a documentary that might help...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2015
May
16
 
 
This week’s show features an especially Brit-heavy couch – but that’s not a complaint, because I’ve learned about some talented people early here...