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

 
 
2019
Nov
14
 
 
Must-See TV was a phrase created, long ago, specifically to refer to NBC’s powerhouse NBC Thursday night lineup – exemplified by one mid-Eighties TV season, when NBC’s schedule that night began with The Cosby Show and Family Ties, continued with Cheers and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, and concluded with L.A Law. All these years later, NBC still offers Must-See TV, but it’s limited to one brilliant show: Michael Schur
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
14
 
 
Parts 3 and 4. This documentary miniseries continues, revisiting the 1986 murder of Jennifer Levin by “Preppy Murder” strangler and murderer Robert Chambers. Some of the recreated images are a bit heavy-handed, but the new interviews, and the increased scrutiny on the media as well as the defense attorney strategy, make this a worthwhile nonfiction examination. For a full review, see Mike Hughes' Open Mike. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
14
 
 
During an exorcism, a woman confesses to murder. The question is, and it’s one the team has to answer, is she lying? A killer? Or possessed? Or some combination of all three?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
14
 
 
Eight years ago, I wheedled and finagled to land a phone interview with Dick Cavett, one that produced two TV Worth Watching stories...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
13
 
 
These hearings, which begin today and are covered by various networks, are the fourth presidential impeachment hearings in history – and the third which I’ve made a point of watching devotedly on television. The most recent one before this, in 1998, was about Bill Clinton, who remained in office. Before that, it was the 1973 Watergate hearings, which led to the pre-impeachment resignation by Richard Nixon. And I wasn’t a TV critic then: I was watching purely as a civilian. Each
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
13
 
 
Yes, there’s a real reason to watch tonight’s episode of The Masked Singer. This season already has upped its watchability quotient by unmasking, as one of its contestants, Paul Shaffer (a.k.a. the Skeleton, pictured). And tonight, its guest judge is another entertaining old dog: specifically, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Robert Smigel, who voices and operates the caustic canine hand puppet, is likely to make Simon Cowell of American Idol, by comparison, seem lik
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
13
 
 
Now that TCM has begun televising imaginatively paired double features (The Dirty Dozen and Kelly’s Heroes), I keep daydreaming about other possibilities. Tonight, for example, TCM leads off prime time with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s gorgeous 1948 movie, The Red Shoes. Moira Shearer stars as an ambitious ballerina swept by dueling desires and supernatural forces – and what a great opening act it would make for a double feature, followed by
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
13
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: The title of this five-part miniseries sounds like a tacky Lifetime movie drama, but it’s not. Instead, this nonfiction study, simulcast on both AMC and Sundance, is a documentary about the 1986 murder of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin, strangled by “The Preppy Killer,” Robert Chambers. The story becomes as much about the media and the courts as the case itself – and directors Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern reexamine it all. Continues tomorrow; concludes
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
13
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This delightfully unpredictable and varied sample of animation and short film pieces concludes with what I consider a very successful initial, experimental season. Not since USA Network’s original Night Flight in the 1970s, and Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken in the 2000s, has a late-night TV show served up such entertaining potpourri. For a coincidental but appropriately sweet connection between Cake and TV Worth Watching, see yesterday’
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Nov
13
 
 
MINISERIES FINALE: Jenna Coleman has been remarkable in this four-part mystery miniseries – and tonight, as the mystery is solved, she’s even better. And the ending, I promise, will stay with you for a long time. I saw this when it premiered on Sundance’s streaming service, Sundance Now, a year ago, and I’m still haunted by it.