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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
 
 
2016
May
3
PERSON OF INTEREST By David Bianculli
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Back for one final wrap-up season, Person of Interest picks up where it left off, with its team trying to regroup, and save the source code of its all-powerful, intensely threatened Machine. For his take on the series, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
3
THE NIGHT MANAGER By David Bianculli
 
 
Part 3. This series gets better every week – a impressive feat, since it started so well to begin with. And it’s done so while, to this point, parceling out scenes featuring both of its leading stars in very small doses. There’s Tom Hiddleston as the revenge-fueled hotel manager who, in last week’s episode, thwarted a kidnap attempt on the son of a ruthless arms tycoon (Hugh Laurie), nearly dying in the attempt – even though the kidnapping was staged so he could sto
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
3
RAGING AGAINST THE MACHINE: THE FINAL SEASON OF ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ By David Hinckley
 
 
You can envision the team at CBS’s Person Of Interest pushing their chairs back from the table and saying, “Okay, our work is done here.”...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
CRAY-CRAY: WHERE ART IMITATES LIFE ON ‘VEEP’ By Alex Strachan
 
 
Two episodes into Veep’s fifth term, one thing is clear: Life is unlikely to imitate Veep’s art in at least one important respect...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
JACK IRISH By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: The British aren’t the only one generating interesting mystery miniseries these days and exporting them to the States. This latest offering from Acorn, which begins streaming today, is from Australia, and stars Guy Pearce as Peter Temple’s roguish gumshoe. It’s a six-episode mystery that starts in Australian but soon expands to the Philippines.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
THE VOICE By David Bianculli
 
 
We’re down to the Top 10 – and after those singers perform tonight, on this latest live edition, tomorrow’s results edition will narrow the field even more.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
GOTHAM By David Bianculli
 
 
Hugo Strange, a different sort of Dr. Strange than the one in the rival Marvel universe, has been playing with reviving the dead and near-dead of late: First the future Mr. Freeze, and tonight the former villain Galavan (played by James Frain), the Gotham power broker whom the bad doctor is about to revive as a new type of villain: the costumed, superpowered Azrael. That may mean something to long-time DC Comics fans – but when I was young, I Made Mine Marvel.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
HOUDINI & DOYLE By David Bianculli
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. Even with Stephen Mangan from Extras as a co-star (he plays the credulous Arthur Conan Doyle to Michael Weston’s skeptical Harry Houdini), this period variation of The X-Files is worth skipping, not watching. The acting, except for Mangan, is shrill, and the writing is depressingly limp, anachronistic, and needlessly inaccurate. For a full review, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes, and see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
BATES MOTEL By David Bianculli
 
 
Freddie Highmore, who stars as Norman (and sometimes his mother Norma) in this effectively creepy series, finds himself split yet another way, as Norman returns home from the asylum. Tonight, Highmore also is the scriptwriter – so whatever Norman does in this episode, the actor playing him was behind it from the start.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
May
2
CASABLANCA By David Bianculli
 
 
Any time you can watch this 1942 classic uninterrupted by commercials, you should. I will. And it’s on tonight, courtesy of TCM. Here’s looking at you, Casablanca.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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