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
Aug
8
 
 
Part 2. Last week’s opening installment of this scripted Discovery miniseries was so unexpectedly good, it caught many critics by surprise, delighting them in the process. I count myself among them, and urge you to catch up, dive in, and keep going. In this eight-part miniseries, Paul Bettany plays the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and Sam Worthington is the FBI profiler James Fitzgerald, who pursued the Unabomber for years.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
8
 
 
The dramatic recreations in this 1981 biographical film, showing Elvis Presley as portrayed by actors at various ages, are negligible. But when This Is Elvis isn’t wasting time on ersatz Elvii at ages 10, 18, and 42, it’s showing very entertaining, and sometimes rare, performance and screen footage. Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show, sure, but also on Jimmy Dorsey’s Stage Show (pictured), and in his big-screen debut on Love Me Tender. When This Is Elvis shows the Elvis that is Elvi
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
8
 
 
In a sea of disaffected TV teen daughters with 'tudes, The Middle’s Sue Heck is a fount of boundless optimism and pluck...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
8
 
 

Credit Julie Klausner with staying the course. And amazingly enough, it’s working. Klausner’s Difficult People launches its third season Tuesday [Aug. 8] on the streaming service Hulu...

 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
7
 
 
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have completed their latest mega-documentary. This one, The Vietnam War, arrives on PBS next month: ten parts, eighteen hours, ten years in the making. Tonight, PBS provides a repeat look at an advance taste. And speaking of taste, look closely at the accompanying photo illustration, which is the central image chosen by Burns and Novick to embody, and promote, their documentary. Brilliant. Check local listings.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
7
 
 
In this second outing of this new summer series experiment from CBS News, Adriana Diaz provides a report on gun violence in Chicago. She spent a week there, mostly at street level, talking to members of gangs and crews there to understand the motivations for gun violence there, and the ways in which weapons enter the city and the underground marketplace.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
7
 
 
This new documentary, written and directed by Lisanne Skyler, is an unexpectedly personal take on the art world – specifically, Andy Warhol’s 1963-64 “sculptures” he made with assistant Gerard Malanga at the beginning of his wildly unorthodox career in the arts. They’re more like 3-D paintings, with silk-screened images recreating the image of a box of Brillo pads – and the history of one particular box has it being bought originally for $1,000 in 1969, and re
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
7
 
 
In this week’s episode, more of William Shakespeare’s (wholly imagined) private life and creative method is explored, as Will continues to collaborate with Alice, while Will’s wife, Anne, has joined him in London. With little else new on TV right now, Will continues to be a well-timed, smartly scheduled summer diversion – a midsummer night’s option, if not quite a dream.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
The characters in Showtime’s Ray Donovan start their fifth season on a note of high optimism. You know that’s not gonna last...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Aug
6
 
 
Still proudly un-televised, the 33rd annual Television Critics Association awards show made a scene Saturday night from the moment host Kristin Chenoweth strode onstage in a coverup red robe and white hat...