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DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

Bianculli's Blog

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

The Cold Light Reader

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Dateline Donovan
Contributors

DAVID HINCKLEY

All Along the Watchtower

ED BARK

Uncle Barky's Bytes

ALEX STRACHAN

TV That Matters

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Open Mike

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Ed Martin's TV Mix

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Aerial View

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MNtv

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TV Feeds My Family

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Raised On MTM

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TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2020
Dec
31
FROM 'MY OCTOPUS TEACHER' TO 'THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT,' THIS WAS THE YEAR OF THE STREAMERS By Alex Strachan
 
 
And the prize for the best documentary of 2020 goes to – wait for it – The Crown. Go ahead, laugh...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
14
PBS' 'FRONTLINE' POSES TROUBLING QUESTIONS ABOUT TRUTH-TELLING AND RESPONSIBILITY IN 'RETURN FROM ISIS' By Alex Strachan
 
 
In trying times, empathy can be in short supply...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Dec
12
BEYOND 'THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT: HOW THE YEAR'S FINEST TV DRAMA IS HOLDING UP A MIRROR TO LIFE By Alex Strachan
 
 
There are so many exquisite moments in The Queen's Gambit, Scott Frank's haunting, evocative miniseries adaptation of Walter Tevis's 1983 novel about a female chess prodigy, that it's hard to know where to begin...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
24
AMAZING 'AMAZING RACE' NEARS FINISH LINE, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE By Alex Strachan
 
 
There have been both better seasons and worse seasons of The Amazing Race...but watching this season...has been an odd, strangely disorienting experience...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
21
ENTER MAGGIE THATCHER AND PRINCESS DIANA: SEASON FOUR OF 'THE CROWN' MARKS THE SERIES' FINEST HOUR By Alex Strachan
 
 
There are two performances that jump out instantly in the new season of The Crown (on Netflix), and they're not the performances you might expect...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
13
POIGNANT, STOIC, AND TERRIFYING BY TURNS, HULU'S 'I AM GRETA' IS NOT THE DOCUMENTARY YOU MIGHT EXPECT By Alex Strachan
 
 
It's that gentle, exquisitely personal side of a 17-year-old still learning to navigate her way through an uncertain future that jumps out over and over again in I Am Greta, the evocative, surprisingly moving feature-length documentary...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Nov
1
NATGEO'S 'VIRUS HUNTERS' IS A SHORT, SNAPPY LOOK AT A LONG, ENDURING CRISIS OF OUR TIMES By Alex Strachan
 
 
The horse has bolted the barn where COVID-19 is concerned but, even so, National Geographic Channel's Virus Hunters... is an eye-opening look at the day-to-day travails of virus researchers...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
28
RISING FROM THE ASHES: PBS' 'NATURE' LOOKS AT ANIMAL RESCUES FROM THE AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRES By Alex Strachan
 
 
Wildfires claim hundreds of thousands of animals — deer, foxes, coyotes, and other wild animals — while a handful of human volunteers do their best to provide respite for desperate, panicked animals...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
16
"DO WE CARE?" NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER JOEL SARTORE EXPLAINS HIS LIFE'S WORK IN NATGEO WILD'S 'PHOTO ARK' By Alex Strachan
 
 
At its heart, the Photo Ark is one man's 25-year mission to save the world's wildlife, one photo at a time...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2020
Oct
15
ODE TO 'HARTSFIELD'S LANDING' — 'WEST WING' EPISODE TO BE REENACTED THURSDAY ON HBO MAX By Alex Strachan
 
 
First off, don't call it a reunion episode. Surviving cast members of The West Wing reunite Thursday for a theatrical stage reenactment of the 2002 West Wing episode Hartsfield's Landing...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'
By Ed Bark
 
 
 
 
Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver
By Christy Slewinski
 
 
 
 
'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy
By Noel Holston
 
 
 
 

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action
By David Hinckley
 
 
 
 
How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James
By Mike Hughes
 
 
 
 
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth
By Alex Strachan
 
 
 
 
In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self
By Monique Nazareth
 
 
 
 
Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption
By David Hinckley