SPECIAL PREMIERE: ABC’s inferior but still watchable version of The Great British Bake Off returns, with more holiday recipes and lighthearted competition. Sadly, don’t expect any recipes involving razzleberry dressing…

2019

Dec

DOCTOR WHO: THE MACRA TERROR By David Bianculli

SPECIAL PREMIERE: The new season of Doctor Who begins next year – January 2, so there’s not that long a wait. Meanwhile, there’s this Boxing Day special, a sort of Doctor Who holiday tradition. A stand-alone episode bridging the gap between seasons… and followed, this year, by another of the series’ excavational specials, using animation and new vocal tracks to supplement and complete a “lost episode.”

2019

Dec

THE NEW SEASON OF ‘MURDOCH MYSTERIES’ IS AN ENJOYABLE HOLIDAY TREAT By Mike Hughes

During the holidays, our TV tastes might mellow a tad. We don’t need to probe the darkest recesses of our souls. We might settle for a decent drama about some nice folks...

2019

Dec

CALL THE MIDWIFE HOLIDAY SPECIAL By David Bianculli

SPECIAL PREMIERE: This series, for the past few years, has presented a stand-alone holiday episode every Christmas or thereabouts, and here’s another new one, advancing the show’s narrative while delivering more than its share of laughs, drama, and emotional moments. Considering the annual nature of this TV event, consider it a special delivery – in more ways than one. Check local listings.

2019

Dec

THE WIZARD OF OZ By David Bianculli

Family pushing away from the dinner table, and wondering what to do next? Tune to TNT for this wonderful family movie… 80 years old, and still unsurpassed. Have more imaginations been sparked by any work of art anywhere, or inspired more other works of art in return? The answer, I suspect, lies somewhere over the rainbow.

2019

Dec

FOR A LITTLE EASILY DIGESTIBLE TV MORSEL, TRY ‘MURDOCH MYSTERIES’ By David Hinckley

Television on Christmas Day doesn’t tend to be the focal point it can become on Thanksgiving when there are parades and dog shows and football games...

2019

Dec

JOHN MULANEY AND THE SACK LUNCH BUNCH By David Bianculli

SPECIAL PREMIERE: This new Netflix comedy special, from John Mulaney, is presented as a sort of modern Mickey Mouse Club, with Mulaney himself as the host. But this is no Pee-wee’s Playhouse, where kids and adults can watch together, each enjoying different elements or taking different things from them. This is like more of a David Letterman approach to the children’s TV genre – so twisted and off-center, in so many ways, that I can’t even recommend it

2019

Dec

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE By David Bianculli

For a few years now, the only times to see 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life on TV were on NBC, when the network televised it once early in December, and again on Christmas Eve. That happens again this year, which is why the classic Frank Capra Christmas movie, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, is showing again tonight. But it doesn’t explain why, tomorrow on Christmas Day, sister corporate network E! is being allowed to present an all-day marathon of It’s

2019

Dec

SHERLOCK MARATHON By David Bianculli

Well, when a TV show’s season is only three episodes long, a “marathon” showing of an entire season is less a marathon than a sprint. But BBC America is showing more than one season of Sherlock, the brilliant modern reinterpretation by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman star as Holmes and Watson, and the marathon begins with “A Study in Pink,” which reintroduced the Baker Street sleuth in his newest, and best, TV incarna

2019

Dec

HIS DARK MATERIALS By David Bianculli

SEASON FINALE: This series ends its first season with an episode that, as much as any other this year, pulls the rug out from under the viewer by refining a major character’s background and motivation. James McAvoy’s Lord Asriel is one of the characters to keep an eye on… but surprises, in this Season 1 finale, come from many directions, so grin and bear it. (Bear. See what I did there?)

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