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

 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 1of The Circus was subtitled Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth. For Season 2, the subtitle is slightly different, for the focus is on governance, not campaigning. But the behind-the-scenes political insights and coverage by reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and co-creator Mark McKinnon are just as valuable – and these Circus animals are now attempting to offer same-week coverage of the President Donald Trump administration, with a news cycle that,
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
There was, indeed, a sudden death on The Walking Dead last week, after a relative though short-lived lull. What was less surprising than who died was the manner of death, and the person doing the killing – but that all sets up tonight’s escalation of tensions, when the Saviors pay a surprise visit to the Hilltop.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
This is episode 5, and things are getting more and more roiled up, like the seaside surf this miniseries keeps returning to as a mood-setter. And nothing in Big Little Lies is more frothy or intense than the troubled marriage between Celeste and Perry, played by Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgard.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
Last week’s Homeland ended with gunplay, and with one character dead and another very nearly killed. And that only adds to the paranoia of the surviving characters, who seem poised in this episode to reunite and to band together – but against whom?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
American Crime continues with the second episode of its third season, once again telling an extended, separate story, and once again allowing many of its recurring players, including the very talented Felicity Huffman (pictured), to take on different looks, roles, and attitudes. This season, she’s a blonde – but I’m not expecting that to mean that, as the vintage hair-color TV ad used to claim, she’s about to have more fun.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon are terrific as, respectively, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in tonight’s Episode 3 of Feud: Bette and Joan, which delves in deeply into the on-set battles between the two actresses during the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? And what happens tonight is that those fights become physical as well as psychological. For a great feature on this miniseries' opening graphics title sequence, see Eric Gould's current Video Worth Watching.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
For a political fix, and perspective, tonight, start on Showtime with The Circus, and end on HBO with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Both shows are likely to teach you something – and both shows, I suspect, are well aware of both the importance and unpredictability of their current subjects.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
19
 
 
In this 1988 psychological vampire black comedy, Nicolas Cage gives a bravely larger-than-life, larger-than-death performance as a man who comes to believe he’s been stalked, and eventually turned, by a seductive female vampire. Like Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, which rewarded fans with deep knowledge of the horror films he was spoofing, Vampire’s Kiss alludes, visually and comically, to many previous films in the genre, starting with the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu. This
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
18
 
 
TCM, quite appropriately, has cleared its slate this weekend to present two days of programming honoring Robert Osborne, who served as the network’s most famous public face from its inception until his recent death. For decades, watching TCM (as I did, regularly and almost religiously), all you had to do to appreciate Osborne was listen to him introduce, and comment upon, the movies he presented – or, on occasion, interview some of his favorite actors and filmmakers. His knowledge an
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Mar
18
 
 
Of all the hours devoted to original and longtime TCM host Robert Osborne this weekend, two programs should be considered all but mandatory. One is the Private Screenings with Alec Baldwin, in which Osborne himself is the subject – it’s repeated in prime time, and again tomorrow, as is this one, a 2015 special honoring Osborne’s then 20 years at TCM. Both specials are informative, inspirational (Osborne’s life is, indeed, a Hollywood dream come true), and wonderfully hear