TV amp; Movies Reviews

Bass Reeves has one hell of a story. Born into slavery in Arkansas, he was forced by his owner to fight on the Confederate side of the Civil War. He escaped — legend has it, he beat up his owner over a card game and ran off — and lived …

Women in late-Victorian England are expected to wave gently, smile politely, and follow their husband’s orders. They’re not expected to splash around in neighboring lakes, shotgun glasses of champagne or uncross their legs in elaborate ballgowns, like the five American girls in Apple TV+’s The Buccaneers. Audiences will likely compare …

The sound of chirping cicadas, calling to their mates. The feel of the scales on a freshly caught fish. The way the late afternoon light reflects off a backwoods creek, as a fishing bobber floats idly on the surface. You hear thunder crack in the distance; you can practically smell …

Before there were dramas on television, there were dramas on the radio. With no visuals to present to their audience, radio series had to conjure up entire worlds out of carefully scripted narration, homespun special effects, and the sheer vibrance of their actors’ voices. Done right, whether back then or …

Diana Nyad had been a world-class endurance athlete for years when, after swimming around Manhattan in a little under eight hours in 1975, she became a celebrity and a talk-show staple. At the age of 30, Nyad retired after breaking the open-ocean record by going from the Bahamas to Florida, …

The Gilded Age Season Two begins with hats. Lots and lots and lots of hats. It is Easter Sunday, and all the women of 1880s New York society are putting on their fanciest headgear before heading to church. And by far the most fabulous hat of all is the one …

It’s tricky to put a fresh coat of paint on the old killer-robot movie, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Successful spins on the genre have included time-traveling assassination attempts (The Terminator), a satire of tourism and America’s romanticized frontier (Westworld) and noirish ruminations on exactly how humans …

God bless you, Paul Giamatti. There are actors who are unafraid to look foolish or petty in roles, who lean in to being unlikable onscreen when the mood (and the awards season) strikes, who might slum it by occasionally sporting an unflattering haircut or [shudder] reading glasses. And then there …

In 2007, Matt Bomer would have been a little too young to play Don Draper on Mad Men. (Jon Hamm has six years on him.) In most other ways, though, he would have been perfect. He has the kind of chiseled, leading man features, and the charisma to match, that …

Liza Drake is a single mother, a part-time stripper, and a full-time hustler. She has to be, given that she’s stuck in Florida in the year of our lord 2011, trying to figure out the next step for her and her daughter, Phoebe. On the plus side, Liza has grit, …