Robert Lloyd

In ‘Still,’ Michael J. Fox reminds us that despite Parkinson’s, he’s here. Thank goodness

May 11, 2023 at 11:16 p.m.

Is there anything less controversial than liking — even loving — Michael J. Fox? He's likable, he's lovable. Even when he's playing someone not especially likable or lovable, one feels,...

Authentically sunny and sweet, ‘Gordita Chronicles’ is the sitcom of the summer

June 25, 2022 at 3:15 p.m.

A conventional situation comedy unconventionally living on the channel HBO Max, “Gordita Chronicles” is as charming as it is often obvious; indeed, one might say its obviousness is part...

How Ron Popeil perfected the art of the infomercial

August 10, 2021 at 1:31 p.m.

"It chops, it dices, it slices/ It never stops/ Lasts a lifetime, it mows your lawn…/ It picks up the kids from school/ It gets rid of unwanted facial hair/...

38 Christmas movies and specials to watch on TV this week

December 22, 2020 at 2:22 p.m.

Because you're a socially responsible person, you're not going anywhere this Christmas, and you're not seeing anyone other than the people you saw yesterday and the day before that, so...

The irreplaceable Alex Trebek made ‘Jeopardy!’ a sane place in a mad world

November 9, 2020 at 2:29 a.m.

Alex Trebek, the host of "Jeopardy!" for more than 35 years, died Sunday at age 80 from pancreatic cancer. That is a contest many of us were following and hoped...

Strangest Emmys ever? Sure, but surprising, intimate and delightful too

September 21, 2020 at 1:27 p.m.

Good or bad, there was no way the 72nd Emmy Awards, which went on Sunday from the Staples Center in Los Angeles and living rooms around the country and beyond,...

Surprised a ‘nice’ talk show like ‘Ellen’ is toxic? TV’s been warning you for years

August 19, 2020 at 12:29 p.m.

This week, Ellen DeGeneres attempted — successfully? who can yet say? — to turn the page on a bad chapter in the book of her career, one that began last...

Before ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ Annie Murphy nearly quit acting. Now she’s an Emmy nominee

July 28, 2020 at 9:44 p.m.

Before she was cast as Alexis Rose in "Schitt's Creek," the little sitcom that could, Annie Murphy, finding little success, was on the verge of giving up."I had a big...

The case for Catherine O’Hara: Why the ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star deserves an Emmy

July 28, 2020 at 3:56 p.m.

Why is this Emmy nominations morning different from all other Emmy nominations mornings? It's the last chance for "Schitt's Creek," which ended its run earlier this year, to get in...

Regis Philbin became TV’s greatest host by being himself. And America approved

July 27, 2020 at 3:12 a.m.

What is a host? A person to welcome you in, to make you comfortable, to show you around and tell you what you need to know. To introduce you to...

Netflix’s ‘Becoming’ won’t change your mind about Michelle Obama

May 8, 2020 at 3:11 a.m.

How you experience "Becoming," a new Netflix documentary about Michelle Obama, will largely depend on how you come to it. Are you for bridges or walls? An inclusive rather than...

The 23 best web videos about life in quarantine (or to get you through it)

April 18, 2020 at 3:26 p.m.

One advantage of the web over what we usually think of as television is that it is quickly responsive to current events and changing tastes. When the world turned sideways...

We already watch too much TV. Coronavirus may push us over the edge

March 22, 2020 at 12:57 p.m.

Congratulations! You've decided to act like a responsible adult and stay home as much as possible in the coming days/weeks/months/years/decades/centuries/millenniums to help "flatten the curve" of the novel coronavirus COVID-19....

28 Christmas movies and specials to watch on TV this week (and two to skip)

December 24, 2019 at 5:48 p.m.

Christmas comes but once this week, and if you haven't noticed, television will help you . Given that the holiday has been unwrapping itself since before Thanksgiving — which is...

The 10 best streaming TV shows you probably aren’t watching

October 15, 2019 at 6:33 p.m.

In Dr. Seuss' seminal work "On Beyond Zebra," we are led beyond the customary 26 letters of the alphabet to discover obscure new characters with particular uses. So it is...

‘Xena’ star Lucy Lawless is more Angela Lansbury than ‘warrior princess’ in ‘My Life Is Murder’

August 5, 2019 at 7:05 p.m.

In "My Life Is Murder," a delightful new detective show premiering Monday on the streaming platform Acorn TV, Lucy Lawless plays Alexa Crowe, a former police investigator half-reluctantly drawn back...

Forget ‘Saturday Night Live.’ In TV’s latest sketch comedies, an old form learns new tricks

July 31, 2019 at 2:10 p.m.

Sketch shows are the stealth bombers of television. Compared to the dramas and sitcoms that dominate the conversation in this Triple-Platinum Age of television, they can seem ephemeral, the well-fortified...

‘Veronica Mars’ proves why Kristen Bell is one of TV’s best actors

July 29, 2019 at 5:32 p.m.

"Veronica Mars" is back, again, courtesy of Hulu's long-coming fourth season of a series born in 2004 on a network — the UPN — that no longer exists.In a sense,...

‘Veronica Mars’ proves why Kristen Bell is one of TV’s best actors

July 25, 2019 at 4:19 p.m.

"Veronica Mars" is back, again, courtesy of Hulu's long-coming fourth season of a series born in 2004 on a network — the UPN — that no longer exists.In a sense,...

Review: Sex, love and aliens in eternal wild child Gregg Araki’s ‘Now Apocalypse’

March 9, 2019 at 11:25 a.m.

“Everything in my life right now is a question mark,” says Ulysses (Avan Jogia), a Hollywood slacker, near the top of Gregg Araki’s new series for Starz, “Now Apocalypse.” When...

Review: ‘Rent,’ nearly live on Fox, still packs the power of a holy text for bohemian life

January 29, 2019 at 1:01 a.m.

The live theater war that NBC and Fox have been waging since 2013, when Carrie Underwood starred in NBC’s "The Sound of Music," saw its latest salvo Sunday with Fox's...

Review: ABC’s ‘Schooled’ and ‘Fam’ on CBS show the network sitcom is still kicking

January 9, 2019 at 8:50 p.m.

As the frontiers of television have been pushed out to new platforms and cutting edges, network situation comedy has become ever more itself, a place where homilies live and hugs...

Why is Netflix’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ so superior to the movie? We ask Barry Sonnenfeld

January 6, 2019 at 6:34 p.m.

Believe me when I tell you that one of the great works of television art — yes, art — over the last two years is the Netflix adaptation of “A...

Why is Netflix’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ so superior to the movie? We ask Barry Sonnenfeld

January 6, 2019 at 8:49 p.m.

Believe me when I tell you that one of the great works of television art — yes, art — over the last two years is the Netflix adaptation of “A...

Penny Marshall broke ground as a director, but on TV she was loved as ‘Laverne’

December 19, 2018 at 3:59 p.m.

In of historical importance, Penny Marshall's career as a film director — her "Big" was the first picture by a woman to gross more than $100 million at the...

Why ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ will have you pulling for Kiernan Shipka’s conflicted teen witch

October 26, 2018 at 6:00 p.m.

“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” which begins streaming Friday on Netflix, continues the television darkening of Archie Comics, already well underway with the CW’s “Riverdale.” Like that series, it is created...

Roseanne Barr apologizes, explains, jokes and so much more on ‘Hannity’

July 27, 2018 at 3:33 a.m.

Roseanne Barr, the comedian, and Sean Hannity, the television host, both of whom have or have had shows named for them, sat down Thursday evening to have a talk. Hannity’s...

What’s ‘Roseanne’ without Roseanne? Why ABC’s risky move with ‘The Conners’ just might work

June 24, 2018 at 2:23 a.m.

Roseanne Barr, the actress and Twitter , and Tom Werner, executive producer of "Roseanne," issued a brief t statement Thursday, regarding the series that lately bore her name. Brought back...

PBS’ ‘Man in an Orange Shirt’ movingly explores challenges, changes of gay life across the decades

June 16, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.

Written especially for the screen by prolific, popular British novelist Patrick Gale and premiering here Sunday as part of the PBS anthology series “Masterpiece,” “Man in an Orange Shirt” is...

In ‘Parts Unknown,’ Anthony Bourdain searched the world for human moments – and for his own place in it

June 9, 2018 at 1:39 a.m.

Television by and large fails to live up to its promise and its responsibilities. That isn't to say that much of what constitutes this failure isn't wonderful or worth talking...

All the royals TV you need before Harry weds Meghan and the best way to watch on the big day

May 14, 2018 at 8:26 p.m.

Though we long ago thrust monarchy from our shores, Americans still grow up on kings and queens, princesses and princes. We are raised on stories of King Arthur and parodies...

‘Paterno’ review: Al Pacino is at his best as the disgraced football coach, but the film loses its way

April 7, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.

In Barry Levinson's "Paterno," premiering Saturday on HBO, Al Pacino plays Joe Paterno, the late Penn State University football head coach whose illustrious career, and life, ended tangled in the...

The killer comedian inside Bill Hader makes ‘Barry’ the new HBO show to watch

March 24, 2018 at 10:35 a.m.

In "Barry," premiering Sunday on HBO, Bill Hader plays Barry Berkman, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan working out of Cleveland as a freelance contract killer.Created by Hader and...

WGN America’s ‘Bellevue’ is a chilly murder mystery that offers both charm and nonsense

January 24, 2018 at 5:51 p.m.

"Bellevue," which begins its single-season run Tuesday on WGN America, is a Canadian-made, small-town mystery set against looming mountains and lowering skies. It has some things to recommend it —...

10 shows on our watch list for winter 2018

January 12, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” FX, Jan. 17Ricky Martin. Penélope Cruz. Another ’90s-era, true crime drama involving celebrity tragedy. There’s no downside here. The FX drama, out...

‘The X-Files’ is back, less as a revival and more on its own feet

January 3, 2018 at 8:06 p.m.

Two years ago, "The X-Files," which ran on television from 1993 to 2002 and jumped to the big screen in 1998 and 2008, returned from narrative limbo for a six-episode...

Emmys bear the Colbert stamp: Genial, pointed, exuberant and a little outrageous

September 18, 2017 at 6:17 a.m.

For its 69th festival of self-benediction, broadcast Sunday on CBS, the Television Academy brought on Stephen Colbert as its master of ceremonies. Already on the CBS payroll, already schooled in...