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

 
 
2013
Sep
22
 
 
The body count has risen already this season on Boardwalk Empire – and so has the bawdy count, in both the bedroom and on stage in Chalky’s new nightclub (Margo Bingham begins a recurring role tonight as an Onyx jazz singer named Daughter). The politics are heating up, too, and so is the gang activity, all of which makes this a fast-starting season for this HBO series.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
22
 
 
SERIES FINALE: One way or another, this is the end of the line for Dexter (Michael C. Hall) – and though I’m curious to see how this show ends and its characters meet their respective fates, I’m no longer emotionally invested in Dexter the way I was back when the Trinity Killer was around. What’s been happening this season seems so disconnected, so abrupt, so inconsistent and sometimes so puzzlingly random, it’s hard to buy either the logic or the conflict. But beca
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
22
 
 
SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode provided an unexpected and revealing twist, as Ray (Liev Schreiber) faced up to a long-buried secret, that his brother was not the only Donovan sibling who was abused as a child by the same priest – the priest that paid for his sins with a circular mark on his forehead that had nothing to do with Ash Wednesday. And tonight, the Feds are circling – for Ray as well as his father, Mickey, who’s done some hot-tempered close-range shooting of
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
22
 
 

Very little about the premise of NBC’s Blacklist, which has a canny career criminal ominously advising a young female profiler, is original – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Because it is…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
21
 
 
In 2012, HBO mounted its own HBO Films presentation The Girl, in which Alfred Hitchcock was played by Toby Jones, and Tippi Hedren, Hitch’s star in The Birds, was played by Sienna Miller. Imelda Staunton played Alma, the director’s wife. Tonight, HBO presents this rival film, a similarly themed 2012 drama starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Helen Mirren as his wife, Alma, and Scarlett Johansson as Psycho star Janet Leigh. Also appearing here: Jessica Biel as actress Vera Miles and Jam
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
21
 
 
Less than a decade after the cinema went from silence to sound, director Frank Capra presented this perfect little gem of a romantic comedy that was as heavy on the dialogue as it was on the laughs. Clark Cable and Claudette Colbert star, with Gable playing a reporter and Colbert a runaway heiress. This 1934 classic was the first film to sweep the major Oscars, winning awards not only for Best Picture, but for actor, actress and direction as well.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
21
 
 
These awards were handed out in a pre-Emmy Awards ceremony last Sunday – but you can watch this delayed broadcast anyway, courtesy of the new network FXX. And it’s worth finding, in this case, if only to see Bob Newhart, at age 84, winning and holding his first Emmy ever, getting a standing ovation, and misting up.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
21
 
 
In this new episode, both Margaret and Mary get married – and there’s also that little issue about a royal pardon to consider…
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
21
 
 
Next week, Saturday Night Live returns with its season premiere, and with quite a changeover among its repertory cast. Tonight, NBC repeats last season’s SNL finale, which turned out to be the swan song for several long-time late-night players – including the talented Bill Hader, who, as the outrageous Stefon, gets a regal sendoff during “Weekend Update.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Sep
21
 
 
Trotting out TV's  latest antihero, Showtimes's Ray Donovan has been a dark and often riotous look at brawn and brains in LA...