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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

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TV That Matters

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Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

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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
Apr
14
SANDY WEXLER By David Bianculli
 
 
TELEMOVIE PREMIERE: Adam Sandler stars in this first original telemovie made under the Netflix banner, under the idea that Netflix, which knows how many streaming viewers watch Sandler’s movie canon on its network, is certain they’ll watch anything of his. If so, this is the perfect test of that theory. Sandy Wexler is based on Sandy Wernick, Adam Sandler’s real-life manager for the past three decades, and set in the mid-1990s, when he discovers Courtney Clarke, a talented sing
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
14
CHELSEA By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The first season of Chelsea Handler’s wide-ranging, planet-hopping talk show on Netflix got much better as it went along, and for Season 2, which begins tonight, there’s even more change in store – and all the changes sound positive. Instead of last year’s thrice-weekly 30-minute format, the new Chelsea, beginning tonight, switches to a once-a-week, 60-minute show. This gives the hostess less work per week, but more time to delve into her topics, and just
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
WAR IS COMING By David Hinckley
 
 
The Vietnam War, the 10-part, 18-hour documentary series from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, has just gotten its deployment orders from PBS...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
THE BIG BANG THEORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) re-enters the work force tonight – but not before long discussions, with her husband and others, about how leaving her baby makes her feel so bad. And/or so good.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
GREY'S ANATOMY By David Bianculli
 
 
Meredith gets back on a commercial airliner tonight, for an episode that takes place almost entirely in the air. Given her history with plane crashes, that doesn’t bode well. Given that her seatmate is Nathan Riggs, on whom she has a current crush, that does bode well, especially since on-air promos show them sharing the same mile-high bathroom. Let’s just hoped she doesn’t get dragged down the aisle and… re-accommodated.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
RIVERDALE By David Bianculli
 
 
It’s Jughead’s birthday, and the gang gathers to celebrate on an episode titled “The Lost Weekend.” It ought to be a real feather in his cap – or whatever the hell that thing is he wears on his head.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
13
SCANDAL By David Bianculli
 
 
This is the 100th anniversary of this Shonda Rhimes series – and to celebrate, Scandal, like another ABC series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is rebooting its characters in an alternate reality. For Scandal, it’s just a stand-alone “what if?” scenario, but asks what if the election hadn’t been rigged? How different might life be for everyone? Funny. In real life, having nothing to do with ABC’s Scandal, I ask myself that all the time…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
12
STELLA MAEVE ON HER ‘THE MAGICIANS’ CHARACTER By David Hinckley
 
 
You don’t have to believe in magic to star in Syfy’s The Magicians, but it’s worked out pretty well for Stella Maeve...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
12
PANIC IN YEAR ZERO By David Bianculli
 
 
This low-budget 1962 movie is called Panic in Year Zero, but might as well have been titled Panic During the Cold War. Imagine it as The Walking Dead without the zombies: Los Angeles has been wiped out by a nuclear attack, and a local family far enough away, on a fishing trip, to survive has to tend with all the unexpected post-nuclear threats: not only fallout and radiation poisoning, but opportunistic thugs roaming the countryside, looting and raping. This frightened little film stars Sixties
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
12
EMPIRE By David Bianculli
 
 
In tonight’s episode, Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) turns 21, and throws himself what he considers a fittingly big bash. It’s worth noting, if only for the fact that, given recent headlines about Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, this may be the only part of the Fox Empire these days that’s in any mood to celebrate.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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