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

 
 
2018
Jul
7
 
 
Good news and bad news, delivered at the same time. Today and tomorrow on Decades, the digital network offering vintage TV shows is rerunning the outstanding and influential 1987-90 CBS series Wiseguy, the undercover detective show that introduced half-season story arcs as an extended way to tell an ongoing narrative. It starred Ken Wahl as the undercover Organized Crime Bureau agent, and future Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star Jonathan Banks as his handler – but the real stars, and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
7
 
 
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan star in this continuation of the fanciful Jumanji franchise. They’re all playing against type, though, because that’s the way this particular role-playing game is played…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
7
 
 
I continue to point out this holiday weekend’s CNN rebroadcasts of the TV episodes of its ongoing decades documentary series, because a) they’re excellent, and b) I’m in them. Tomorrow, the new one, The 2000s, arrives – so consider tonight’s repeat of the two-hour TV episode of The Nineties an immediate prequel. Watch it with friends, because Friends is a big part of it. Hence the installment’s title: “The One about TV.” (Each Friends episode was c
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
7
 
 
In 2018’s Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman starred in the title role. The year before, he starred in another title role – in this 2017 dramatized biography, Marshall, about Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer who became the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court. Just in case the U.S. Supreme Court is of particular interest to you these days, make sure to catch this Showtime premiere of this well-made drama, whose somewhat improbable co-stars include Dan Stevens from Legion, Josh
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
7
 
 
After last week’s show, Bill Maher closed up shop on Real Time with Bill Maher for the summer – but he’s not quite through with HBO yet. Not before hosting one more live show, and this one is a solo comedy act, as the title says, Live from Oklahoma.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: The first season of Anne with an E, a new extended examination of the Anne of Green Gables series of novels, was a delight – in no small part because of the effervescent yet touching quality of its young leading lady, Amybeth McNulty. Amybeth is back for Season 2 – picking up exactly where last season left off.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: A whole new batch of episodes are dropped today by Netflix – but rush right to the final one in this new series, because it’s a tiny little treasure. Host Jerry Seinfeld goes to Las Vegas and visits, drives around and eats breakfast with Jerry Lewis, in that other iconic comedian’s final screen appearance before he died. Lewis is frail, and less than verbose, but it’s sweet as well as somewhat funny to watch Seinfeld try, try and keep trying to pull stori
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: There are two TV shows right now that make me feel really good, and a little calmer and happier, after watching them, and they’re both on TV tonight. One is The Great British Baking Show on PBS, and the other is this travel and food show, hosted by Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal. The opener to this new season of visits to wonderful places and restaurants is “Italy” (pictured), where Rosenthal spends the first half in Venice, and most of the seco
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
It’s quite possible the 2018 World Cup will end up with the reputation as the most exciting and unpredictable in history. Today begins the quarterfinal round, and Fox Sports 1 presents both of today’s games. First up, at 10 a.m. ET: Uruguay vs. France. Both teams are coming off amazing games – France beating Argentina, and Uruguay outlasting Portugal. Then, at 2 p.m. ET, comes Brazil vs. Begium. Brazil showed the flair and strength to beat Mexico in its most recent game, while
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Jul
6
 
 
SERIES FINALE: The final time-traveling trips on this series have been all over the place, thematically and dramatically as well as in time and place. Basically, death scenes on 12 Monkeys now mean about as much as they do on Westworld, and have the same effect of diluting the overall emotional impact. But however the narrative on this series ends, it ends tonight – and unlike in previous installments, there are no instant reboots.