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
Jan
1
 
 
Happy New Year!!! Beginning exactly at midnight ET – Holy Happy New Year, Batman! – IFC presents a marathon of the entire first season of ABC’s mod, mad, improbably entertaining Batman series, starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as his sidekick Robin, the boy wonder.  The action begins with “Hi Diddle Riddle” and “Smack in the Middle,” the episodes introducing Frank Gorshin as the Riddler – with Jill St. John as, if my memor
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jan
1
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: For the third and final season of this charming adaptation of Daniel Handler’s series of Lemony Snicket books, this Netflix series adapts the final books in the canon: The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, and the two perfectly titled adventures, The Penultimate Peril and The End. Patrick Warburton continues as the author’s alter ego, playing Lemony Snicket as a sort of kid-lit Rod Serling (see above). And Neil Patrick Harris, as the recurring and chameleonic villain
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jan
1
 
 
MIDSEASON PREMIERE: Back for the second half of its second season, The Gifted begins with some members of the Mutant Underground in custody, and others seeking to survive by forming new alliances. Meanwhile, the Strucker’s teenage daughter Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lynd) is getting noticably more powerful, unpredictable – and out of control. Did I mention she was a teenager?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2019
Jan
1
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: This is the first between-seasons special starring Jodie Whittaker , as the Doctor, and it promises to be a time-travel romp through Earth’s history, with a very persistent foe on his, or her, trail.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
31
 
 
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Netflix started by generating original series – for adults and for children. Then it added TV movies and miniseries, and also has elbowed its way, quite forcefully, into the area of television specials. Standup comedy specials and music concert specials, long part of the territory claimed by HBO and Showtime, are now being mounted, quite forcefully, by Netflix as well. This morning, Netflix dropped this new filmed-for-posterity version of Taylor Swift’s recently com
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
31
 
 
This is the prime-time appetizer for the main course, which occurs at 11:30 p.m. ET on ABC. But if your party starts early, this is something to consider having on TV in the background. Or, if your party is a markedly low-key affair, perhaps even the foreground. Jenny McCarthy co-hosts.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
31
 
 
Last year, Anderson Cooper presided over the New Year’s celebration with a new co-host, Andy Cohen – replacing the suddenly controversial Kathy Griffin. Tonight, Cooper and Cohen are paired again, which means CNN can now claim it as a new annual tradition.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
31
 
 
This year’s Twilight Zone marathon continues all day and night, and goes into tomorrow – so any time you like, you can into the Zone merely by tuning to Syfy. But this year, today, I highlight in particular the 8 p.m. ET showing of “The Invaders,” the episode of The Twilight Zone I singled out for praise, and interpretation, as my contribution to Mark Dawidziak’s Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone – the perfect companion book, by the way,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
31
 
 
If you don’t yet have plans for a wildly entertaining New Year’s Eve, TCM provides one tonight – and it’s one that keeps going long after other New Year’s Eve festivities have concluded. Starting at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents a quintet of full-length movie compilations of highlights from other movies. First up is 1974’s That’s Entertainment!, a breathless but proud romp through the golden era of MGM musicals. That’s followed at 10:30 p.m. ET by 1976&r
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Dec
31
 
 
The orchestra’s new music director, Jaap van Zweden, presents a program broad enough to include Broadway songs and Viennese waltzes, as well as classic selections of classical music. Check local listings.