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

 
 
2014
May
23
 
 
There are other people on the show tonight, but the one I’m looking most forward to seeing – and, in particular, hearing – is the always outspoken, usually hilarious Sarah Silverman.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
23
 
 
SEASON FINALE: This season of Hannibal began with a flash-forward, going ahead 12 weeks in the plot, showing Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) having what looks like a duel to the death in a kitchen, with knives and refrigerator doors just two of the available weapons. In tonight’s Season 2 finale, we return to that scene – and learn both its context and its outcome. But since the show's coming back next fall, and isn't called Crawford, it's not
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
23
 
 

HBO’s new, reworked version of AIDS activist Larry Kramer’s 1985 play, The Normal Heart, is adapted by Kramer himself, and has a different, less strident tone. It has to…

 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
22
 
 
Tonight’s new episode features many of the costars of TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland – Wendie Malick, Valerie Bertinelli, and Jane Leeves – along with other playful celebrity guests, including Andy Richter. Jane Lynch hosts.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
22
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: The CW has imported this four-hour, two-night miniseries, which shifts in time between medieval and modern France, with hopes of satisfying viewers who are sad now that its period romance series Reign is gone for the summer. It’s hard enough to imagine anyone missing that silly series, and I don’t mean to Reign on CW’s parade, but Labyrinth is as unwatchable as it is impenetrable. Game of Thrones, it’s not. And even though it features John Hurt and Do
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
22
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: The day after the May ratings sweeps end, the networks begin their spring cleaning, and throwing out (and onto TV) stuff from deep within their closets, stuff that wasn’t good enough to risk televising when the stakes were higher. Presto: The first new summer series of this year’s Write-Off Theatre is presented by Fox, in a series about a cop who’s controlled by a local gang leader, but may be having second thoughts and pangs of conscience. It’s an age-ol
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
22
 
 
The excellent new Showtime series Penny Dreadful, set in 1890s England and featuring a mashup of such characters as Dr. Frankenstein and Dorian Gray, owes something, at least in concept, to this 2005 action movie, based on a popular graphic novel. It, too, borrows several characters from classic literature and teams them up for an original tale of good vs. evil. Penny Dreadful is much better, but the comparison makes tonight’s telecast worth watching. There’s even a crossover of char
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
22
 
 
In tonight’s episode, Marc and his young girlfriend Jen try joint therapy in an effort to work out their problems. Yeah, that should go well – because what Marc Maron really lacks is a place in which to reveal his inner thoughts and talk about his private fears, hopes and concerns.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
21
 
 
Premiering on Thursday, May 22 – the day after the end of the so-called “regular season” – Fox’s bloody Gang Related is no summertime breeze. But it does seem to find its legs during the course of the first four episodes...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2014
May
21
 
 
SEASON FINALE: After finalists Caleb Johnson and Jena Irene had sung two songs each during yesterday’s live performance finale round, judge Harry Connick Jr. declared it a tie, and his fellow judges agreed. Then the contestants sang one more song, and the results were left to the viewing audience – that percentage of them that votes, anyway. My guess? It should, and will, be Caleb.