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

 
 
2017
Jun
13
 
 
Part 2. More Vladimir Putin in conversation with Oliver Stone. I wasn’t particularly enthused about this prospect before watching Part 1 – and I’m even less enthused now that I’ve seen the firs installment. David Frost’s famous 1970s TV interviews with Richard Nixon got better as they went along – but I suspect that’s not the gold standard to be employed here. But even this type of interview situation can elicit insights, especially about character. Watc
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
13
 
 
Frontline and ProPublica, in an intensely timely documentary, examine the rise of, and reaction to, what’s being called Islamic terrorism in Europe. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
Sometimes, while watching a truly inspired hour of television, one is moved on an intensely personal, hard-to-explain level that defies easy categorization...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
Audrey Hepburn month on TCM continues, filling every Monday in June with her memorable motion pictures. The evening starts tonight with one of her most famous of all: 1961’s light take on Truman Capote’s story about the lighthearted Holly Golightly (Capote referred to her loose lifestyle as that of an “American geisha”). Watch for Hepburn’s effortless on air-charm, and Mickey Rooney’s horrendous portrayal of a Japanese businessman, and listen for the introduct
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
The Cleveland Cavaliers, with its record-setting dominant bursts in Game 4, fended off elimination at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, and forced tonight’s Game 5. The Warriors still are ahead 3-1 in the series, and have home-court advantage for tonight’s game – but the Warriors had a 3-1 advantage in the series last year, and the Cavs managed to take the championship anyway. Expect the Warriors to start tonight’s game with as much determination and ferocity as the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Tonight through Thursday, Showtime presents four one-hour excerpts from filmmaker Oliver Stone’s self-described non-confrontational interviews with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The interviews were filmed in Russia between July 2015 and February 2017, so Megyn Kelly’s recent interview with Putin for NBC was more timely. And while Stone’s approach to talking to Putin may indeed lead to some small character revelations, it’s not a series of interviews
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: Based on a special that apparently pleased the Fox executives, this new series is a competition series with a difference: Each challenge is a specifically designed task, concocted to both showcase and challenge the peculiar and unusual skill sets of a given contestant. Imagine a toothpick-counting contest with Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man, and you have the general idea… Kal Penn hosts.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
Last week’s episode ended with Mike Ehrmentraut shaking hands with Gus Fring – forging a key link that will, in time (and in Breaking Bad), lead to their unlikely and sometimes uneasy partnership in the drug trade. Last week’s episode also showed Jimmy McGill painting himself out of a financial corner by becoming “slippin’ Jimmy,” another famous step in his evolution, or devolution, to the amoral Saul Goodman. Like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul is one of the
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
Here’s another Audrey Hepburn classic film portrayal tonight. It’s 1964’s My Fair Lady, with Hepburn as the cockney Eliza Doolittle, selected by snobby phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) as the “before” he can mold into a high-society “after.” And in this Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, he succeeds. George Cukor’s direction helps a lot, as do the costumes by Cecil Beaton.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Jun
12
 
 
SEASON FINALE: For tonight’s Season 3 finale of this freewheeling, very funny TBS police sitcom, series star Rashida Jones makes room for yet another celebrity guest star. This time it’s Peggy Lipton, formerly a TV policewoman of her own, on ABC’s iconic Mod Squad, as well as one of the stars reprising her Twin Peaks role in the current Showtime reboot, Twin Peaks: The Return. Tonight, on Angie Tribeca, she visits the coroner’s office – and, by visiting Angie Tribec