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
Jun
23
 
 
I loved The Good Wife, and I love this CBS All Access spinoff as well. But not on CBS, where all I see and hear when I tune in is what’s been edited from this CBS prime-time rebroadcast of the streaming TV drama, for either time constraints or broadcast TV censorial standards. My recommendation: If you didn’t, and don’t plan to, watch The Good Fight on CBS All Access, but are still interested in watching this excellent drama series from Robert and Michelle K
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
23
 
 
There are going to be tons of TV specials as we land on the actual golden anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. But tonight, CNN embarks a little early, getting a head start and presenting a new documentary with what it claims is “newly discovered cinematic footage.” I guess CNN could have called it “newly unearthed,” but that seems technically inaccurate. And “newly unmooned” – well, th
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
23
 
 
Season 1 of Big Little Lies was all about discovering the secret – which, at the literal end of the miniseries, turned out to be who was killed, how the killing took place, and the identity of the killer. When David E. Kelley’s story adaptation proved so popular that it generated an order for a sequel, and the miniseries became a series, this new Season 2 has been all about those big little lies leaking out. And leaking, at first, from the mouths of babes. But now, the secr
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
23
 
 
Last week’s series premiere of City on a Hill spent most of its time showing how such disparate characters as a crooked white FBI agent in Boston and a newly arrived crusading African-American district attorney (played, respectively, by Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge), could team up to solve a politically volatile murder and robbery case. In tonight’s episode, the show, and the characters, get down to business. This opens up City on a Hill to other actors as well, in
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
23
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Tonight through Wednesday, the National Geographic Channel once again is setting aside some time, and setting up some live cameras, to televise the rebirth of spring – okay, so it’s actually the first week of summer – as the natural elements and animals of Yellowstone National Park spring to life. Well, some spring. Others bloom or prowl. Still others erupt. And I know, especially when it comes to Old Faithful erupting, some of you geyser into that… For
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
23
 
 
I said this last week about Last Week Tonight, and it still applies: Neither John Oliver nor his show has let me down yet… which is a lot more than I can say about the current events he summarizes and satirizes.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
23
 
 
National Geographic returns Sunday doing what National Geographic has always done better than almost anyone: capturing the breathtaking beauty of the natural world and the creatures who live in it...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
22
 
 
This 1980 movie is a study in starmaking – and in scene-stealing. Yes, Chevy Chase walks around this golf course, and this comedy movie, like he owns the place. But the former Saturday Night Live player is outshone not only by veteran comic Rodney Dangerfield, but by Chase’s own SNL replacement, Bill Murray. Watch Murray to learn just how a bold and improvisational comedian can run away with a film – if he’s willing to gopher broke.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
22
 
 
Speaking of actors and ad libs, this 1975 movie, based on a true-life bank robbery, features one of the all-time most electric ones. Al Pacino, completely in character as the unpredictable bank robber, feeds off the energy of the onlookers watching the on-location scene outside the Brooklyn bank, and begins and leads a chant of “Attica! Attica!,” referring to the recent prison rebellion. Great stuff. And, by the way, great movie. Sidney Lumet directs, and Pacino’s talented co-s
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jun
22
 
 
CNN is repeating this documentary series tonight – many more hours than the network usually does, so it’s a convenient place to stock up on your 50-year-old memories. My favorite, from the opening episode (which is all about television of that decade), is the segment focusing on the Smothers Brothers. I’m not in that segment, if I recall correctly, but I am in other segments of the TV episode of The Sixties. And after all, isn’t not recalling correctly part of the appeal