Dexter meets the woman who made him a killer In episode two of its nail-biting, final season, our psychopathic hero (Michael C. Hall) in “Dexter” makes a troubling discovery about his past (Sunday, 8 p.m., Showtime). A renowned expert on psychopaths, Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), reveals that she’s the
Read More →“Anna Nicole” shows surprising compassion for scandalous model Anna Nicole Smith The TV movie “Anna Nicole” (Saturday, 7 p.m., Lifetime) imputes a soul to the late Anna Nicole Smith, the model and gold digger who flaunted her self-destruction in the media. Anyone who remembers the barely sentient Smith will have
Read More →“Under the Dome” seals off a town from the world CBS’s new series “Under the Dome” (Monday, 9 p.m.) is premised on a beautifully simple “what if” scenario: What if an invisible dome descended on a small town, cutting it off from the outside world? In this Stephen King adaptation,
Read More →All hell breaks loose in the sixth season of ‘True Blood’ “True Blood,” the modern-day vampire series, begins its sixth season in ghastly fashion (Sunday, 8 p.m., HBO). Bill (Stephen Moyer) dies, then returns to life as something bloody and horrible. He emerges from a burning building and shoots into
Read More →‘In the Flesh’ extends sympathy toward the undead The British miniseries “In the Flesh” (Thursday-Saturday, 9 p.m., BBC America) takes its place with the greatest zombie movies of all time. Like 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead,” the granddaddy of the genre, it’s both a gross-out horror story and a
Read More →‘The Fosters’ offers an alternative vision of a TV family Social conservatives will not be happy with ABC Family’s new series “The Fosters” (Monday, 8 p.m.), which lays down a challenge to the “Ozzie and Harriet” paradigm. The rest of us will appreciate it as a reflection of modern-day reality,
Read More →In “Behind the Candelabra” (Sunday, 8 p.m.), HBO assembles high-quality artists to tell the story of a low-quality one: the glitzy piano player Liberace. Steven Soderbergh directs, Michael Douglas camps it up as the inexplicably popular musician, and Matt Damon throws himself into the role of Scott, Liberace’s boy toy
Read More →‘The Goodwin Games’ pits family members against each other In Fox’s promising sitcom “The Goodwin Games” (Monday, 7:30 p.m.), three estranged siblings reunite after their father (Beau Bridges) dies only to learn that he has set up a series of competitions to determine which one of them will win his
Read More →Christopher Guest brings his patented style to HBO’s ‘Family Tree’ Christopher Guest earned a place in my pantheon by pioneering the mockumentary with his script for 1984’s “This Is Spinal Tap.” Since then, as a writer-director, he’s perfected the style in one big-screen gem after another: “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best
Read More →A teenager films himself in ‘Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous’ Viral-video star Bo Burnham is well cast as a would-be viral-video star in “Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous” (Thursday, 9:30 p.m., MTV). He plays Zach Stone, a motormouth high school dork obsessed with his post-graduation plan: making a
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