Making art about art, and making it entertaining, is always a struggle. Whether it is a movie about a writer (watch him THINK) or a chef (see the food that you can’t taste!) or a painter (well… I guess that painting is good?), the audience has to be engaged enough in not only the art …
While other modern reality shows have had people looking for husbands and wives, or “surviving” on tropical islands while trying to win peanut butter sandwiches, PBS has taken their own spin on the genre. There has been a series of popular shows where modern folks forego the internet and cell phones to experience how people …
The beginning of NOVA: Sinkholes: Buried Alive is like a horror movie. A family is interviewed about one fateful night in their suburban house, where one of the adults of the extended family went down the hallway to his bedroom to go to bed. A short time later, they heard a strange noise, followed by …
When the cruise ship Costa Concordia so spectacularly ran aground and capsized off the coast of Italy in January 2012, it seemed baffling and tragic that 32 people died when the ship was within eyesight of a popular tourist beach. But as you learn more about the scope and size of this massive disaster, it is …
Many moons before binge-watching series on Netflix became a common practice, and before many series became readily available to rent on DVD, I sat down and watched the entire 14 hours of The Jewel in the Crown in two days in my parents’ basement after boomeranging back home in my 20s. My parents had taped …
PBS’s Pioneers of Television series covers the history and cultural significance of several related shows in each installment, and Season 4 is every bit as delightful as the ones that precede it. It includes four episodes, including “Standup to Sitcom”, “Doctors and Nurses”, “Acting Funny”, and “Breaking Barriers”. “Standup to Sitcom” covers the phenomenon of standup …
PBS has released their Masterpiece: Classic English Literature Collection, Volume 2 ($39.99 list price) DVD box set for fans of the classic and longstanding PBS television series. Having not seen the first volume, I have to admit that I got a kick out of opening the packaging and poking around the pockets of this box …
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Orson Welles will forever be remembered as the director of arguably the best film ever made, Citizen Kane (though, honestly, my first association with him was shilling Paul Masson wine, “We will sell no wine before its time.”). But when he was a 23-year-old wunderkind stage director, a certain radio performance launched him into fame. …
It is probably not an understatement to say that some of the revelations in this epic series, Latino Americans, are a surprise. Each episode highlights a few fascinating people from history, profiling their stories and the impacts they made. Much of U.S. history (as taught in schools at least) is focused on European immigrant history, …
I don’t know how it is that I made it to this point in my life without ever reading or seeing any version of Great Expectations. Like, at all. I had no idea what the plot was. I was picturing some historical romp, kind of along the lines of Pride and Prejudice or something (I …