David Bianculli
David Bianculli is a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A contributor to the show since its inception, he has been a TV critic since 1975.
From 1993 to 2007, Bianculli was a TV critic for the New York Daily News.
Bianculli has written four books: The Platinum Age Of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific (2016); Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2009); Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously (1992); and Dictionary of Teleliteracy (1996).
A professor of TV and film at Rowan University, Bianculli is also the founder and editor of the website, TVWorthWatching.com.
-
HBO's miniseries centers on a group of creatives working on a remake of the 1916 serial The Vampires. Part comedy, part satire of the film industry, Irma Vep is a winning combination.
-
Adam McKay's new HBO series about the Los Angeles Lakers goes out of its way to be out of the ordinary. But its showboating is in keeping with the style of the basketball team it chronicles.
-
During her career and after her death, Monroe was objectified and scrutinized — mostly by male writers, biographers and historians. CNN's new docuseries tells her story from a fresh perspective.
-
Picking up where The Mandalorian left off, this new fantasy series on Disney+ features well-defined characters, exciting action and special effects that are as good as in any Star Wars movie.
-
The new three-part Disney+ docuseries Get Back is a true treasure. It offers an inside look at The Beatles' creative process, as well as amazing footage from their legendary rooftop concert.
-
A new, 10-part miniseries follows the exploits of the Russian empress who rose to power in a coup against her own husband. The Great is shrewdly entertaining — if not exactly historically accurate.
-
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Groban and Meryl Streep are just a few of the artists featured in Take Me to the World, a tribute to the iconic Broadway composer and lyricist.
-
Set in 2033, Amazon's new sci-fi series follows a dead character who has been brought back to "life" as a lookalike avatar in a virtual world. Upload is smart, funny — and imaginatively complicated.
-
The burly actor, who died April 15, played the leading role in Death of a Salesman, in both the Broadway production as well as the 2000 TV movie. Dennehy spoke to David Bianculli in 1999.
-
Critic David Bianculli says both shows have uncanny parallels to today's world. Homeland's final season has been truly unnerving, while Penny Dreadful's new season centers on a supernatural villain.