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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
 
 
2017
Apr
26
THE HANDMAID'S TALE By David Bianculli
 
 
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new Hulu series, based on the Eighties novel by Margaret Atwood, stars Elisabeth Moss as a woman swept up into a horrifying new world in which men rule completely, and women are relegated to one of several subservient roles: trophy wife, actual servant, guard or overseer, or fertile handmaidens, assigned to procreate with specific men to provide children for their barren wives. What’s most scary about this imagined dystopian and sexist world is that, in this new T
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
26
BOUND FOR GLORY By David Bianculli
 
 
Hal Ashby directed this 1976 biography of Woody Guthrie as part of an amazing and intense  creative burst, right after Harold and Maude and Shampoo and right before Coming Home and Being There. David Carradine stars as Guthrie, and his performance, musically and otherwise, is exceptional. Even more exceptional: the photography, including one of the cinema’s first usages of the Steadicam.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
26
BLACK-ISH By David Bianculli
 
 
Rashida Jones, who’s having such fun on the underrated and criminally underviewed Angie Tribeca police-show spoof on TBS, guest stars tonight, playing the hot-mess reality-TV star sister of Tracee Ellis Ross’ Rainbow. And there are other fun relatives visiting also: Daveed Diggs (from Broadway’s Hamilton) plays her brother, and Anna Deavere Smith of The West Wing and Nurse Jackie returns as their mom.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
26
FARGO By David Bianculli
 
 
Ewan McGregor, in a dual role as brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy, continues to be such fun to watch. But as this season of Fargo unspools, don’t dare take your eyes off the women – especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Carrie Coon. Great roles; superb actresses.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
26
BROCKMIRE By David Bianculli
 
 
Tonight’s episode is called “Breakout Year,” and tries to position Hank Azaria’s Brockmire for a post-meltdown comeback. The internet is what brought him down – and social media, and some unexpected fan bases, may be just the thing to propel him back up.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
26
HULU'S VERSION OF ‘THE HANDMAID'S TALE’ CAN'T HELP BUT BE A CLARION CALL 32 YEARS AFTER ITS FIRST INCARNATION By Ed Bark
 
 
It’s become all too easy, and oftentimes preachy, to filter many a new or prominent returning TV series through the prism of Donald Trump’s divisive presidency...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
25
TACKLING EINSTEIN AND KEEPING HIM WITHIN GRASP IN NATIONAL GEO'S ‘GENIUS’ By Ed Bark
 
 
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to quickly divine both the production values and the heightened characterizations in the National Geographic channel’s humanizing of Albert Einstein...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
25
NBC'S ‘GREAT NEWS’ IS EVEN BETTER NEWS FOR AGELESS ANDREA MARTIN By Ed Bark
 
 
Many of the usual suspects are present and accounted for in this latest sitcom about a dysfunctional TV newsroom...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
25
‘GREAT NEWS’ IS THE SAME JOKE OVER AND OVER AGAIN. MAYBE By David Hinckley
 
 
There are two ways to look at NBC’s new sitcom Great News...The first is that it’s Groundhog Day...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2017
Apr
25
LONG LAUGHS By Eric Gould
 
 
Andrea Martin has a new NBC series, Great News, and it’s no surprise that after starting her comedy career, ahem, 40 years ago on Canada’s SCTV, (Second City Television) her physical comedy has lasting star power... her work on the landmark SCTV sketch comedy series with Martin Short, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara ahem, 40 years ago, still has legs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
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