Friday TV: Going Back to ‘Portlandia,’ Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’
One of the funniest and best-observed comedies on TV, “Portlandia” (IFC, 10 p.m.) returns for a second season at the top of its game. Fred Armisen is consistently more creative…
Thursday TV: Congressman Cao
With the new year already marred by another ugly partisan showdown, the timely “Mr. Cao Goes to Washington” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings) shines a light on a man…
Wednesday TV: ‘The Hour’ Finale, Multi ‘Mobbed’
The second season of “The Hour” (BBC America, 9 p.m.) gets extra credit for keeping us entertained with well-paced, gripping, beautifully looking period drama at a time when most TV…
New Year’s Day TV: The Jewish Influence on Broadway Musicals
What sounds at first like an exceedingly semetic way of looking at the Great White Way, a new examination on “Great Performances” (PBS, 9:30 p.m., check local listings) titled “Broadway…
New Year’s Eve TV: Dick Clark Lives
Dick Clark is among those who died this year, but he's very much alive on the last day of the year in two of the biggest shows celebrating the changing…
Sunday TV: No Holiday for the Midwife
Holidays are a big thing in the UK -- not just a time for reruns, as they seem to be around here. So long after the finale of the first…
Saturday TV: A Glimpse Into the Cave
The cave of Chauvet-Pontd’Arc in Southern France, where 30,000 year old cave drawings were found by archeologists in 1994, is the subject of Werner Herzog’s acclaimed documentary, “Cave of Forgotten…
Friday TV: Behind the Joffrey Ballet
Robert Joffrey began his dance troupe with the idea of reviving the work decades earlier of Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. He did so by creating a distinctly modern ballet…
Thursday TV: Those ’50s Girls
Retro series, from “Mad Men” to “The Hour,” can be inspiring for generations who never got to live the era. Take Dollie: Except for the tattoos, the 24 year old…
Confiscating Gun Shows
Deaths in Newtown, Conn., have brought some TV programmers to their senses. For example, a new show, “Best Funeral Ever,” a kind of "My Super Sweet 16" about excessive farewell…