TV Watch

'Tis a Fearful Thing To Love What Death Can Touch

Judah Halevi-- first name also spelled Yehuda and second named sometimes spelled ha-Levi-- was an 12th Century Jewish philosopher and poet living in Spain. Among those who keep track of such things, he's considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets. There's even a statue of "him," in Toledo, although I suspect that was put up relatively recently. That's the statue next to the poem 'Tis A Fearful Thing.

"Gilmore Girls" is/are back!

All four parts of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the ten-years-later sequel to the legendary WB series, began streaming today.by KenOkay, I'm not all the way through all four 90-minute episodes of the brand-new Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, but heck, it only started streaming on Netflix today -- and I don't even have Netflix, and yet I'm three quarters of the way through it, which is to say "Winter," "Spring," and "Summer," with (you guessed it) "Fall" still to come.While it's not important what I had to go through to accomplish this, away from home as I am (let's just say that eve

AMC's supposed "first look" at Season 3 of "Better Call Saul" doesn't give us much to go on, but it's reassuring to know it's coming

Better Call Saul exec producers Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould watch Bob Odenkirk being made up as Jimmy McGill during filming for Season 3.by KenBearing in mind how historically tight-fisted Breaking Bad mastermind Vince Gilligan has always been about over-revealing what's to come, it's not entirely surprising that AMC's heralded first sneak peek at Season 3 of Better Call Saul ("F

TV Watch: To my surprise I'm liking "The Good Place," but I'm taking a pass (with surprising regret) on "Kevin Can Wait"

Ted Danson and Kristen Bell talk about their surprisingly appealing new NBC comedy, The Good Place.by KenWith the new NBC comedy The Good Place set to advance to Episode 3 tomorrow night in its regular Thursday 8:30pm ET/PT time slot, I thought I might throw out a note of encouragement. I finally looked at the double-episode premiere (the pilot plus "Flying"), which NBC has give multiple airings, and much to my surprise I liked it. Of course you'll still want to watch those first episodes, via the usual sources, like On Demand or online.

TV Watch: Working our way extremely circuitously toward "Inspector George Gently"

DILBERT'S WALLY SORTS OUT THEOPTIMISTS AND THE PESSIMISTS[Click to enlarge.]by KenSo here we are again in the Northeast having another Storm Watch Weekend, this time all mooshed together with Labor Day Weekend -- and never mind that today we've enjoyed an utterly lovely day as poor Hermine, the still steadily approaching storm, keeps dropping down on the charts, from hurricane to tropical storm to "post-tr

Garry Shandling (1949-2016)

Conan explains, at the start of his Thursday-evening taping, that he's spent the several hours since hearing about Garry trying to process the news. Then he offers this lovely personal reminiscence.by KenThursday, massive heart attack, 66.If you want more facts, here's the NYT obit of this "Star of Groundbreaking Sitcoms," as he was headlined. I confess I haven't actually read the obit, but I have watched the above clip sent out by Conan O'Brien's team.

TV Watch: "Tio" Salamanca talks! Or, how much are we loving Season 2 of "Better Call Saul"?

Look who's back! In case you were wondering, no, in the future, which is to say in Breaking Bad times, Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and "Tio" (Mark Margolis) never did meet -- or never do meet? (It's hard to get the verb tenses right.)by KenOkay, I'm reminded in the interview we're going to get to with that great character actor Mark Margolis that in Breaking Bad we actually did see Hector "Tio" Salamanca, the onetime cartel-kingpin uncle of the terrifying Tuco Salamanca, talk: in flashback.

Fall TV Watch: Tonight the new season can be said to be truly underway

I haven't watched this official season preview of Season 5 of Homeland, which launches tonight, for fear of of spoilers. I started watching one of the series of preview clips CBS has posted in advance of tonight's Season 7 premiere of The Good Wife, and within about three seconds star Julianna Margulies had revealed more than I wanted to know before watching the show.by KenHowever bleak the new TV season becomes, it doesn't seem to crap up Sunday night.