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
Dec
19
 
 
Literature's most awakened central character finds himself amid a darkly "woke" re-imagining of his misdeeds in TV's latest adaptation of A Christmas Carol...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
19
 
 
FX's new production of A Christmas Carol mines all the darkness with which author Charles Dickens infused the original and then adds more of its own...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
19
 
 
The day after the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump, some of the Democratic hopefuls in the 2020 presidential race take the stage for the latest televised debate. But not all of them, because the rules for inclusion, mandated by the Democratic National Committee, have changed for this latest event, televised live by both PBS and CNN. Only seven candidates have qualified to appear on tonight’s debate, which is less than half of the remaining field.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
19
 
 
MOVIE PREMIERE: There are plenty of noteworthy TV adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, from the straightforward telemovie version starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge to the animated musical Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. (And there’s also what may be the most imaginative take of all: Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, in which Scrooge starts out generous and friendly, but is so annoyed by his ghostly visitations that he wakes
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
18
 
 
This arrives early, but it’s worth it: TCM presents this 1968 rock documentary chronicling the birth and explosive presentation of rock music’s big bang. Not the moment of its creation, but the weekend in 1967, two years before Woodstock, in which many of the best minds and musicians of the Summer of Love got together and made beautiful music together. Jimi Hendrix was there, and Janis Joplin, and the Mamas and the Papas, and The Who, and Otis Redding, and Simon & Garfunkel, and
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
17
 
 
SEASON FINALE: My theory about reality TV competition shows is based on my own practice, and experience, with them. The ones I like, and watch, are ones where the talent is showcased cleverly and vividly – but after a few seasons, the repetition of the format eventually leads me to move on. This didn’t happen to me with The Voice until last season, when the spotlight-grabbing impulses of that year’s batch of celebrity judges finally wore me down, and wore me out. But
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
17
 
 
Every year after the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, my cousin Dianne and I review the results. We like it more when big old shaggy dogs win, like Josh the Newfoundland...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
17
 
 
When Empire arrived six years ago, it brought waves of optimism. The show would be the best of both worlds: The music would be vibrant – R-&-B, rap, pop, more – and the stories would have a Shakespearean influence...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
16
 
 
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nominations have been announced — think The Marvelous Mrs. MaiselFleabag, don't think Succession — and once again media attention is on the movie nominees, as with the Golden Globes, and not so much the TV nods...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Dec
16
 
 
Playwright Aaron Sorkin’s inaugural Broadway effort was the basis of this 1992 movie, whose screenplay he also wrote. Rob Reiner directed, and the two of them led the way, dramatically, in so many ways. The drama stars Tom Cruise and Demi Moore as attorneys defending a Marine accused of murder on a military base, and undergoing a military trial. It’s a drama that arrived years before the TV series JAG, and also years before the military base at Guantanamo Bay made major hea