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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

MIKE HUGHES

Open Mike

ED MARTIN

Ed Martin's TV Mix

KIM AKASS

Aerial View

MONIQUE NAZARETH

MNtv

BILL BRIOUX

TV Feeds My Family

ROGER CATLIN

TV Eye

GARY EDGERTON

Must-Click TV

TOM BRINKMOELLER

Raised On MTM

GERALD JORDAN

Crossing Jordan

NOEL HOLSTON

The Grassy Noel

TVWW ARCHIVE

Contributors Archive
 
 
2014
Dec
17
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW By David Bianculli
 
 
How creepy is this? One of the guest stars in tonight’s show is Lily Rabe, reprising her possessed Sister Mary Eunice role from American Horror Story: Asylum. Same role, different story entirely. Which means these two TV worlds exist as one… which suggests that the other seasons of stories might interconnect also.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
17
THE COLBERT REPORT By David Bianculli
 
 
Phil Klay, author of Redeployment, the 2014 National Book Award winner for fiction, is the scheduled guest on Stephen Colbert’s penultimate show. You can bet that’s because Colbert feels the book, and the guest, is important – so you ought to tune in on those merits alone.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
17
THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON By David Bianculli
 
 
Craig Ferguson has two more CBS shows after tonight – and tonight, he makes room for Betty White, whom he “rediscovered” long before much of the rest of the mass media, and Thomas Lennon.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
17
THE END OF A HOLIDAY ERA By Linda Donovan
 
 
We here at TVWW, like many of you, have clips of shows we like to watch over and over…primarily those that make us laugh so hard we can barely breathe. But when the holiday season puts me in a musical mood, I pull up two favorites...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
16
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS By David Bianculli
 
 
The former and still champion: the best TV Christmas special ever made. And I don’t, for a second, think it would be made by any commercial network today with the same fidelity to animator Charles Schulz’s spirit, and spiritual message. Gather the kids.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
16
NICK NEWS WITH LINDA ELLERBEE: “OLD SCHOOL/NEW SCHOOL” By David Bianculli
 
 
I have a soft spot for this particular subject. Tonight on a new edition of Nick News, Linda Ellerbee looks at nontraditional schools, and their various methods of teaching – some turning every learning activity into games, others giving students unusual amounts of freedom and responsibility. I attended Nova High School in Florida, a place that was  boldly experimental then – and which gave me my first, indelibly important exposures to newspapers, television and theater. In this
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
16
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON FINALE: The winner is announced for this final cycle of 2014 – but on this show, the contestants tend to take a back seat to the judges. That’s especially true tonight, when the coaches are among the acts performing tonight, as part of the effort to turn a 10-second announcement into a two-hour finale. But as for this cycle’s final entrants, Matt McAndrew, daring to sing his original song “Wasted Love,” deserves the win for an unexpectedly strong display of b
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
16
ASCENSION By David Bianculli
 
 
Part 2 of 3. This new Syfy miniseries imagines a 100-year space voyage from Earth to some unpopulated but hospitable planet, and picks up the drama at the halfway point, 51 years in. By coincidence, tonight’s episode, the second of three parts, marks the halfway point as well – and if you watched last night, I’m betting you’re sticking around for the rest of the trip. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
16
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART By David Bianculli
 
 
Pay attention, fellow Beatlemaniacs: Tonight’s guest is Sir Paul McCartney.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
Dec
16
THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON By David Bianculli
 
 
Craig Ferguson, over the years, has done a devastating impersonation of Larry King – yet that hasn’t kept them from developing an ongoing and mutually appreciative friendship. Tonight, King shows up to schmooze on one of Ferguson’s very last shows – as does another Ferguson favorite, Angela Kinsey.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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