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 gu…
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 ge…
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…
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 eyesig…
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 …
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 i…
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 …
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 …
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…
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 his…
If you are someone you know is frothing at the mouth waiting for the U.S. premiere of the soapy PBS hit Downton Abbey, temporarily distract yourself with these fun gift ideas (heck, I've been known to…
A large chunk of this brief 57-minute overview of urban park visionary Frederick Law Olmstead is unsurprisingly (and deservedly) dedicated to the massive and unprecedented design undertaking that beca…
