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

 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
The money quote for Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan comes at the pivotal midpoint of an eventually high voltage Episode 1...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
If John Krasinski thinks some TV fans still need a reason not to see him only as Jim Halpert of The Office, he’s taking a big swing with Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: In the movies, Tom Clancy’s character of Jack Ryan has been played, over the decades, by Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Chris Pine. That listing is alphabetical, not chronological or qualitative – and today, thanks to Amazon, Jack Ryan becomes a TV character, too, played by former The Office co-star John Krasinski. Series co-creator Carlton Cuse, whose post-Lost credits include Bates Motel, is adept at deepening, and finding new approaches to explore,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: If you’ve just watched “Season 5” of this long-running, very popular baking competition series on PBS, you might be confused by the fact that a “Collection 5” pops up, just weeks later, on Netflix. But it’s two entirely different seasons – and, in some ways, different shows. The Season 5 just completing its U.S. run on public TV was a vintage season, never before televised in the States, featuring fan favorite judge Mary Berry, who was w
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: This Netflix series, starring Jason Bateman, is back for Season 2. I liked Bateman’s performance last season, and the show’s setting, but not its plotting. It seems like Bateman’s character was envisioned as a Saul Goodman-type “talk his way out of anything” guy – but in too many situations, the only way for him to end the scene credibly was as a corpse. Maybe this Season 2 run will correct that problem, but maybe not.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
So it sparks some sadness that the sixth season of A Place Called Home, which becomes available Friday on Acorn, will be its last...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
31
 
 
It’s the most wonderful time of year...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
30
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: The newest series to arrive on CBS All Access is called One Dollar and tries to overlay a gimmicky story structure over a very familiar premise. The familiar part is the initially baffling brutal murder in a seemingly sleepy small town – in this case, a blood-soaked crime scene where the blood is traced to more than one missing victim. The gimmick is that there’s a $1 bill floating around town – and as it circulates and recirculates among the citizenry,&nb
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
30
 
 
This is the next-to-last evening (I’m tired of typing “penultimate”) for “Summer Under the Stars,” and the saluted celebrity, today and tonight, is Italian star Marcello Mastroianni. A lot of his best films are not here, but the one leading off prime time, in particular, certainly is: At 8 p.m. ET, it’s 1963’s 8 ½, a wild satire about European filmmaking in which Mastroianni plays a weary, world-famous film director looking for inspiration, and a
 
 
 
  
 
 
2018
Aug
30
 
 
If you think a dollar doesn’t go very far these days, the new CBS All Access drama One Dollar might persuade you to reconsider...