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

 
 
2016
Dec
12
 
 
MIDSEASON FINALE: Tonight’s time-traveling episode takes the crew back to a revolutionary period – where they interact with Benedict Arnold, played by Curtis Caravaggio.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
12
 
 
Saturday Night Live didn’t do anything of substance with this week’s revelations about the extent of the Russians’ alleged involvement in the American presidential election, leaking only the Democratic side of hacked emails in order to help Donald Trump win. Bill Maher and John Oliver are both on hiatus, so we heard nothing from them in response. Samantha Bee, then, has the chance to step up and grab the satirical current-events spotlight for her own – something she&rsquo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
12
 
 
In 1996, back in the day when November sweeps was a thing, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was resurrected as a two-night miniseries on CBS...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
Tonight, for the first time in half a century, CBS is presenting, in prime time, two episodes of the classic 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, created by Carl Reiner. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, for the first time, these episodes are colorized. As someone who’s just fine with the original, authentic black-and-white, I regret this computer-generated paint-by-numbers historical revision approach. But I also realize that if it gets a few million people to tune in, who
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
This 2013 animated Disney movie really hit a nerve, especially with teenage and tween girls, and even pre-tweens. (If there isn’t such a word as pre-tweens, there is now.) Idina Menzel, who starred on Broadway as one misunderstood sorceress in Wicked, does it again here by providing the voice of Queen Elsa, a.k.a. the Snow Queen, made famous by Hans Christian Andersen – and, in modern times, equally famous by the folks at Disney. Kristen Bell co-stars as Elsa’s sister, Anna, Jo
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
Tonight and for the next two Sundays, PBS and Great Performances will continue the Shakespearean saga begun in The Hollow Crown with Richard II, Henry IV Parts I and II, and Henry V. Now we get the two parts of Henry VI (beginning tonight, concluding next week), followed by Richard III. In tonight’s Henry VI, Part I, Henry V is dead. Long live the King: And Henry VI should live long, because when he’s crowned king, he’s only an infant. Jump cut 17 years, and Henry VI is a young
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
MIDSEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode put most of the key players in place for a multi-pronged retaliatory attack: Carl joining the captive Daryl at Negan’s home base, Michonne capturing a Savior and demanding to be driven to Negan’s secret camp, Rosita arming herself with a single home-made bullet, and so on. With this being the midseason finale, it’s not out of line, or out of this show’s character, to expect a violent altercation, and even a death, tonight. Thoug
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This series, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church as divorcing couple Frances and Robert, has picked up steam as it’s gone along, specifically in the mediation meetings featuring Frances and Robert and their respective attorneys. His is played by Dean Winters, who’s aggressive, sarcastic, and a bit slimy. Hers is played by Jeffrey DeMunn, who’s charming, confident, but mentally slipping. Their shared scenes, as when Frances explains the “to
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
This new ABC special actually is pulled from the Blu-Ray DVD of Frozen – one of the many extras, in which cast members host a behind-the-scenes look at the origins and development of the original Snow Queen story and its animated Disney adaptation. Since Disney owns ABC, this entire night of TV has a sheen of product placement or corporate synergy to it. But hey, as I said before: let it go.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Dec
11
 
 
Okay, okay, we’re sold. We believe it. Game of Thrones has nothing on Shakespeare...