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
Mar
13
 
 
SERIES RETURN: Empire returns for its final two episodes of Season 5, but the character of Jamal Lyon, played by Jussie Smollett, won’t be seen. He’s been edited and written out, pending a resolution of the actor’s real-life controversy. Tomorrow in Chicago, Smollett is scheduled to be arraigned for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself. If found guilty, Smollett’s career may crumble – but Empire , still one of Fox's most popular scripted shows, may not.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
13
 
 
Last weekend was the golden anniversary of the publication of the original Godfather novel by Mario Puzo. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 movie version was infinitely better than the novel, and his sequel movie, starring Robert De Niro as a young Vito Corleone in flashback scenes while Al Pacino moved forward as youngest son Michael, was even better than the first film. For a while there, every iteration of The Godfather improved impressively upon its predecessors. And then came The Godfather
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
13
 
 
Fred Armisen stars in this week’s new edition, playing an enterprising fan looking for Gary Larson, the cartoonist who created The Far Side, then stopped of his own accord and became reclusive in a J.D. Salinger “don’t mess with me” sense. It’s been close to 25 years since Larson put an end to his own ubiquitous output and career – which seems amazing, since several of his illustrations and captions remain etched indelibly in my laugh-loving brain (cows drivin
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
12
 
 
People in certain circles seem to be scared of The Good Fight, and that’s a good thing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
12
 
 
Some classic episodes of television have utilized the single-set approach to storytelling, spinning out an episode almost entirely in the confines of a single room. All in the Family did it with Archie and Meathead stuck in an elevator. Homicide: Life on the Street did it with “Three Men and Adena,” the episode set mostly in an interrogation room. And tonight, This Is Us does it by confining almost all its action to a hospital waiting room. Justin Hartley and Melanie Liburd star, in
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
12
 
 
This is not a recommendation: The original America’s Funniest Home Videos series, hosted by Bob Saget, premiered on ABC in 1989. That’s 30 years ago – the same year that The Simpsons presented its series-launching full-length Christmas special, and (let this sink in) a full 16 years before the launch of YouTube. Well, all these years later, AFHV is still on the air (let that sink in, too), and tonight, original host Saget returns with a new, more “mature” spinoff &n
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
11
 
 
Fair warning: Martin Clunes isn’t much more cheerful in the new series Manhunt than he is in Doc Martin. But he’s just as good...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
11
 
 
The fifth round of blind auditions for this latest cycle is presented tonight – stretching out this part of The Voice about as long as they can. Maybe even longer… Except that this week, for once, the blind auditions are being restricted to a single night of prime-time coverage on NBC.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
11
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode of The Passage ended with a cliffhanger, showing the program’s heroes huddled on one side of a reinforced steel door, with the angry vampire population poised to attack on the other side. Tonight, the extended two-hour Season 1 finale puts the protagonists in even more mortal danger – but that’s nothing compared to the cliffhanger served up by Fox itself as the season concludes. To this point, the network has yet to renew The Passage for
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Mar
11
 
 
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Michael Epstein, who directed 2010’s LennoNYC for PBS’s American Masters, finds more inspiration in yet another chapter from the former Beatle’s years as a resident artist in New York. This documentary takes a long, detailed look into the content and recording of John Lennon’s Imagine album in 1971, and also into his personal and creative life with Yoko Ono during the same period. For fans of this artist, this couple, this album, and the sentiment of