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
Jul
5
 
 
The cliffhanger ending to last week’s episode had the team reunited under a familiar leader, squaring off against another galactic enemy – except though the leader looks familiar, and is played by the same actor (Clark Gregg), he’s a different, darker guy altogether. But he’s proven his worthiness to lead them into battle, so here we go…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
5
 
 
Last episode included a flashback to Jett’s time in a women’s prison, when she defended a newbie prisoner against a vicious group of predatory inmates. This series has jumped backward in time so many times, in fact, that I’m pretty sure we’re now watching Jett (Carla Gugino) live through a flashback within a flashback within yet another flashback. Not even the Austin Powers movies did that much leapfrogging flashbacking…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
4
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Now that HBO’s Game of Thrones is gone, Netflix’s Stranger Things probably holds the crown right now as the TV offering most anticipated, and most rabidly consumed, by today’s genre enthusiasts, especially of the younger generation. Season 3 is unveiled today, in a full-season burst of episodes that the show’s most fervent fans might well consume in toto before the arrival of tonight’s fireworks. And anyone else sampling the firs
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
4
 
 
Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents a triple feature of patently patriotic movies – all of them glorifying, in various degrees, the flag, the country, and small-town America. First up is James Cagney’s portrayal of showman George M. Cohan in this 1942 musical biography, where Cagney steamrolls through every scene with a crackling overdose of energy. The 1972 musical 1776, starring William Daniels as John Adams (pictured) in a tuneful exploration of the writing of our country&rsqu
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
4
 
 
Singer/Songwriter Colbie Caillat seems to have this pop star thing backward...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
3
 
 
Yesterday, the U.S. women’s team bested England, 2-1 in regulation, to advance to the World Cup finals as defending champions. The opponent in that final will be the victor of today’s game, which is a semifinal Dutch treat: Sweden vs. the Netherlands. Sweden is a familiar opponent, especially to the U.S. women’s squad, at the World Cup, but this is only the second time the Dutch team, the Netherlands, has qualified for World Cup play – so to be this close to a final is, f
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
3
 
 
I was having an editorial meeting with a member of the TVWW staff recently (okay, it was a phone call, with Linda), and I insisted that, no matter whether I owned a DVD of a film or had seen it dozens of times, whenever I recommended a film in Bianculli’s Best Bets, I was likely to watch it again that night on TV. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 masterpiece of whimsical mystery, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, is repeated tonight at 8 p.m. ET on TCM – and even though
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
2
 
 
This first semifinal game of the 2019 FIFA women’s World Cup pits the U.S.A. against the England team, which means three of this tournament’s four top scorers will take the field at the same time: forward Ellen White for the England team, and Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe for the U.S. squad. Each of these women has scored five goals thus far in the tournament – and it’s likely at least one, in today’s highly anticipated game, will add to her personal total.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
2
 
 
July 4 is just around the corner, which means so is the annual competitive food-bingeing competition, Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest. This new 30 for 30 documentary widens the definition of sports by following the rivalry, a dozen years ago, of Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, two of competitive eating’s most memorable masticators.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jul
2
 
 
Tonight TCM presents a double feature combining two silent movie masterpieces, each of which is a dizzyingly inventive and pioneering work of science fiction. First is George Melies’ 1902 short film A Trip to the Moon, basically the first sci-fi film ever made. Then, at 8:30 p.m. ET, comes Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterwork Metropolis, with one of cinema’s all-time most famous robots: the Maschinenmensch, played by Brigitte Helm in both human and mechani