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.
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Braugher, who died Dec. 11, trained at Julliard and performed in many Shakespeare productions. He won Emmy Awards for Homicide: Life on the Street and Thief. Originally broadcast in 1995 and 2006.
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Critic David Bianculli acknowledges that his year-end list of TV favorites is hardly all-inclusive. Nevertheless, here's what he enjoyed watching, including Beckham, The Bear and Black Mirror.
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Lear, who died Dec. 5, used humor to address racism and politics. Terry Gross spoke with Lear in 2014; Good Times actor Esther Rolle in 1983; and All in the Family director John Rich in 2006.
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Tony Shalhoub slips back into his Adrian Monk character after nearly 15 years with assurance and precision, nailing the comedy while still making room for somber themes of loss and depression. -
Season 5 of the FX series kicks off with a brawl at a junior high school board meeting. When an unimposing Minnesota housewife is arrested, a string of special thrills and unexpected alliances follow.
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Emma Stone and show co-creators Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder star in a satire about a team of would-be TV producers as they try to make a TV series about the "off the grid" homes they're building.
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Reiner and Brooks have been friends since high school — and their intimacy shows in Albert Brooks: Defending My Life. The only flaw of this terrific documentary is that it's not twice as long.
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Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Netflix's four-part miniseries tells the story of two young people — one French, one German — in the years before and during the Nazi occupation of France. -
Kelsey Grammer returns in the title role in this Paramount+ series. Despite a less than impressive premiere, Frasier manages to firmly establish its characters, settings and relationships.
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Netflix's anthology series presents four of Dahl's short stories — all of them written for the screen and directed by Anderson, and all of them featuring Dahl's dazzling, fairy-tale-book visuals.
