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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
 
 
2017
Nov
12
LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER By David Bianculli
 
 
After this week? I can’t wait for John Oliver to hold court on this election, and the most recent scandals.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
11
IN ‘I AM ELIZABETH SMART,’ A KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR SHARES HER PRIVATE GUIDE FOR OVERCOMING A LIFE-CHANGING ORDEAL By Alex Strachan
 
 
There’s a serenity to Elizabeth Smart in person that seems at odds with her experience...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
11
TCM VETERANS' DAY MOVIE SALUTE By David Bianculli
 
 
Today and tomorrow, to honor Veterans’ Day, host Ben Mankiewicz sits down with eight different war veterans to reveal, and show, some of the war-related films that mean the most to them. The salute begins Saturday at 9 a.m. ET with 1955’s Strategic Air Command, and runs through the way with a wide range of films, including comedies (1958’s No Time for Sergeants, pictured, starring Andy Griffith, at 8 p.m. ET), and films devoted to Vietnam (1968’s The Green Berets, at 11:1
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
11
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE By David Bianculli
 
 
These LEGO comedies, especially the first one, took critics and audiences by surprise, because they were so full of attitude, originality, and unexpectedly sly jokes. That continues with this 2017 LEGO Batman Movie, which you don’t need to be, or have, a kid to enjoy. It tells the story of Batman teaming with the young ward who will become Robin, and makes room for lots of bad guys – and, providing the voices, many special guest stars. Will Arnett is Batman, Michael Cera is Robin, Ro
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
11
DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY By David Bianculli
 
 
What’s worse: clown conventions or Renaissance fairs? What if, in some alternate universe, those two worlds collided? Poor Dirk. It’s hard to go, Gently, into that good night…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
11
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s scheduled guests include Dame Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, and Michelle Pfeiffer. They’re there to promote the new Murder on the Orient Express film, but keep your eye on Dame Judi. Even though this is the real one, not the hilariously misbehaving doppelganger played by Tracey Ullman, Judi Dench, on this show, has been on enough times, and had a good enough time, to be unpredictably loose and wild.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
11
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE By David Bianculli
 
 
The guest host is this week is a young star on the rise: Tiffany Haddish, who played Nekeisha on NBC’s recently canceled The Carmichael Show and co-stars as Dina in the current movie Girls Trip. The musical guest, though, is a much more recognizable personality: Taylor Swift.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
10
‘WOLF CREEK’ IS FRIGHTENINGLY GOOD By David Hinckley
 
 
The Wolf Creek horror series has a dirty little secret: Sometimes in life, the bad guys win...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
10
CINEMA PARADISO By David Bianculli
 
 
“Anyone who loves movies,” Roger Ebert wrote in 1990, two years after this movie was released, “is likely to love Cinema Paradiso.”  Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, this Italian film is about a movie projectionist in Sicily just after WWII – and just before the advent of television. We see regular movie patrons watch movie after movie, most of them imports from Hollywood, and we also pay attention to aging projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) as
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Nov
10
GREAT PERFORMANCES: “IN THE HEIGHTS: CHASING BROADWAY DREAMS” By David Bianculli
 
 
In 2008, when this Great Performances special was televised, it was chronicling the efforts of a new young talent to mount his first stage musical, a work that eventually went to Broadway and won four Tony Awards, including for Best Musical and Best Score. The musical was a modern celebration of the culture and character surrounding a bodega in modern-day Washington Heights – and the star of the show, and the author of its music, was a then-unknown young dreamer named Lin-Manuel Miranda. C
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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