David Bianculli
David Bianculli is a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A contributor to the show since its inception, he has been a TV critic since 1975.
From 1993 to 2007, Bianculli was a TV critic for the New York Daily News.
Bianculli has written four books: The Platinum Age Of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific (2016); Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2009); Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously (1992); and Dictionary of Teleliteracy (1996). He is at work on a fifth.
Bianculli is professor of Television Studies at Rowan University in New Jersey.
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A 10-part HBO Max spin-off to The Big Bang Theory expands on that long-running sitcom by following a quartet of its characters. Every episode offers a new multiverse — and surprising cameos. -
Based on Marissa Stapley's 2021 crime novel, Lucky is an aggressively entertaining series about a con woman who absconds with millions of dollars — then must evade the mob and the law. -
Critic David Bianculli says The Bear concludes its run with a beautiful final episode. And we listen back to a 2025 interview with Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays an abrasive and ornery cook/maître d'.
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Netflix's new Little House series features the same characters and setting as the original, but its reliance on hand-held cameras, in extreme close-up, calls too much attention to itself. -
The Scottish-born comic became a U.S. citizen in 2008. He showcases his goofy sense of humor, and his appetite for the unpredictable, in a new five-part documentary series for CNN. -
Javier Bardem is riveting in this 10-part Apple TV miniseries about a man who, recently released from prison, goes on to terrorize his former attorney. -
David Attenborough's acclaimed nature series Life on Earth began production 50 years ago. Now, a PBS documentary captures the host looking back on that series as it's projected in a screening room.
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In the course of his delightful Netflix series, Galifianakis learns how to graft apple trees, make richer compost and generally self-sustain. "The future is agrarian," he says in every episode. -
A TV adaptation of William Golding's 1954 novel follows schoolboys who survive a plane crash and must fend for themselves on a deserted island. It was co-written by Adolescence creator Jack Thorne. -
This TV adaptation of Rufi Thorpe's 2024 novel is a wild ride from start to finish. Its all-star cast includes Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman and Nicole Kidman.
