As a lead-up to tonight’s showing of director James Whale’s classic 1935 Bride of Frankenstein film on TCM’s The Essentials series, the network has televised the original theatrical trailer promoting this sequel to Frankenstein. What amazed me about it is that nowhere in that promo short is Elsa Lanchester, in the title role, either shown or identified. It was a big reveal at the time: What will “the bride” of Boris Karloff’s visually spooky Frankenstein&rsquo

2017

Jul

POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING By David Bianculli

More than a decade ago, in 2005, the trio of comic collaborators known collectively as Lonely Island – Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone – were hired by Saturday Night Live as writers (and Samberg as a featured player). Almost instantly, they presented the digital short “Lazy Sunday,” which, when replayed on YouTube, became one of the first videos to “go viral.” The trio’s output continued on SNL for several years, including the infamous &l

2017

Jul

THE EIGHTIES MARATHON By David Bianculli

Tomorrow night, CNN premieres The Nineties, its latest entry in its series of miniseries documentaries exploring specific decades. Tonight, yet another repeat of The Eighties, in a marathon that includes its two-hour history of TV of the decade, such as the hugely popular finale of M*A*S*H – history which, in turn, includes me, as a TV critic. And in the real Eighties, I was a TV critic too, for, in order, The Fort Lauderdale News, The Akron Beacon-Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The N

2017

Jul

ORPHAN BLACK By David Bianculli

We’re getting so close to the end for this series – and tonight, we finally get the answer to one question that’s been bubbling beneath the surface since Orphan Black began: What are the origins, and extents, of the powers of Sarah’s daughter, Kira?

2017

Jul

TOUR DE PHARMACY By David Bianculli

It’s a big Andy Samberg night on HBO. After the premiere of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping earlier in the night, the network presents the premiere of Tour de Pharmacy, a sports mockumentary starring Samberg, in the vein of 2015’s 7 Days in Hell. This time, though, it’s about pro cycling, not pro tennis. But Samberg as the star, and Murray Miller as the writer, and Jake Szymanski as the director, are reprising their Hell approach: concocting an imaginary sporting event from

2017

Jul

CASTLEVANIA By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: In 1987, Nintendo released the video game Castlevania in America. It was a dinky little 8-bit Nintendo cartridge game, with incessantly repeating music and a basic plot that had the game player maneuvering a whip-wielding hero as he worked his way through levels of a castle inhabited by vampires and other monsters. That was 30 years ago – and I played it with my kids, along with an even more addictive game based on Jaws. Anyway, this new animated series – four episod

2017

Jul

50 YEARS OF HITCHCOCK By David Bianculli

Wednesdays and Fridays this month, TCM is working its way through “50 Years of Hitchcock,” and I’ve already lost one night of sleep watching Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest works as showcased gloriously on TCM. (That scene in the 1929 silent film The Manxman, when the woman attempts suicide by jumping into a canal, and Hitchcock cuts from the bubbles on the water’s surface as she sinks to a close-up of the tip of her lover’s pen as he dips it in an inkwell? Come o

2017

Jul

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW By David Bianculli

Tonight’s episode is called “Pastry,” and demands that the competing bakers serve up three types of pastry, including the familiar Danish and, as the technical challenge, examples of the classic British tart. Personally, when I hear the term “classic British tart,” the first thing that comes to mind is the image of vintage Joan Collins, as the sultry Siren in the classic Batman series. But that’s my mind… Check local listings.

2017

Jul

UNDER THE INFLUENCE By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. It’s a clarification, because the title of this new nonfiction series, and the fact that it’s coming from Reelz, may understandably lead viewers to believe that Under the Influence is a new series in which show business folks talk about the art and artists inspiring them in their own creative careers. Instead, Under the Influence is a biographical tell-all series that hones in on the missteps – sex, drugs, and otherwise – tha

2017

Jul

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND By David Bianculli

After writing Being John Malkovich and the screenplays for Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Charlie Kaufman wrote the screenplay, and co-wrote the original story, for this bizarre yet moving 2004 romantic fantasy drama. It stars Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, playing a couple best described as ill-fated. She goes to a company to have her memories of him permanently erased – and when he finds out, he starts to react in retribution, then has what might be called second thoughts.

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