Just one more thing: In this week’s Autopilot installment I revisit the glorious first episode of Columbo. Directed by some guy named Spielberg.

Vognar to readers: Watch Drop Dead City, a good doc about the story behind the headline.

John Edgar Wideman’s essays read like poetry and flow like great jazz. And nobody writes better about basketball. I reviewed his new collection, Languages of Home: Essays on Writing, Hoop, and American Lives.

Documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud was the first American journalist killed in the war in Ukraine. Armed Only with a Camera, now streaming on HBO Max, spotlights his compassionate tenacity.

A few months ago my editor suggested we might send our readers into a frenzy by ranking the ten best Ken Burns projects. Our readers really like Ken Burns. And I am not one to pass up a healthy frenzy.

This week in my Autopilot series, I try to conjure what it was like to first watch Twin Peaks. A damn fine pilot episode.

You say you want a Revolution: Ken Burns’ 12-hour deep dive into the American Revolution should be savored, not binged. It’s a reminder of how rich, unwieldy, and brutally violent the country’s founding was.

Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys, in an acting league of their own in the new Netflix thriller The Beast in Me.

Spoke with Rakim as Berklee College of Music prepares to induct him into its hip-hop Hall of Fame. A singular presence on the mic, he helped make hip-hop a modern art form. “I was trying to make my name in the game, but I had no idea it would resonate with people the way it did,” he told me.

My Autopilot series returns with an appreciation of Arrested Development. One of those moments when you immediately knew you were looking at something special.

In Pluribus, one woman’s rebellion against an alien positivity virus. It’s got promise, and deserves time to grow.

We got your Bad Santa. We got your Star Wars Holiday Special. And of course George Bailey. I regret never getting a drink at Nick’s Bar. In any case, here’s my holiday streaming guide.

Netflix’s Death by Lightning is about a great man (President James Garfield) killed by a delusional man obsessed with greatness (Charles Guiteau), and by some incompetent doctors. Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfayden are both excellent. It tells a good story in only four episodes. How bout that.

Not a big fan of Adam McKay’s “Vice.” But I love the scene where Christian Bale’s Cheney jujitsus Sam Rockwell’s Bush into the imperial vice presidency.

I put together a very brief, by no means complete French New Wave watch list for those looking to go deeper after Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague.” Vive le cinema.

Introducing HBO’s I Love LA, the TV comedy for the influencer age. It’s quite funny and self-aware. And it makes fine use of the Randy Newman song.

It’s Halloween, which means Linus is still waiting for JFK Jr., I mean the Great Pumpkin.

Emma Thompson gives the second best performance in Down Cemetery Road. Which should tell you something about how good Ruth Wilson is. Apple TV has the latest from Mick Herron, the writer behind Slow Horses.

Every now and then I will embark on a fool’s errand. Like ranking the top 10 network sitcoms of all time. And forgetting MASH. Man. Lotta MASH fans out there.

We live in a golden age of sports documentary. I wrote about two new ones, Netflix’s Who Killed the Montreal Expos? (answer: it was a group effort); and Prime Video’s Allen Iv3rson (bad title, pretty good series). Practice?

H.P. Lovecraft was a pretty screwed up individual. He’s also the most influential horror writer of the 20th century. For Halloween I wrote about his streamable TV presence, with special emphasis on Night Gallery and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, plus Lovecraft Country.

You know it’s NBA season because Draymond Green is about to make a cameo as an anonymous patient on St. Denis Medical. His character was struck by lightning. Some NBA fans are probably good with that. Also I get to riff on The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island. Go Warriors.

I wrote about Bugonia and defended my favorite misanthrope, Yorgos Lanthimos.

Really enjoyed Jeff Pearlman’s new Tupac book, Only God Can Judge Me, which actually adds new information (thanks to a lot of reporting) and insight to the conversation. It’s sympathetic but unsparing about a guy who did a lot of bad things — and made some immortal contributions to hip-hop.

In which I consider the fate of the humble, increasingly out of place network sitcom, and write a bit about a decent new one, CBS’ DMV (featuring an almost Zen-like performance from Tim Meadows).

Spent the afternoon rekindling my love for Harvard Film Archive, one of my favorite spots in these parts. On the menu: Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, one of my all-time favorites; and Kiarostami’s Where is the Friend’s House?, also now a favorite. Part of the series New Dog, New Tricks: Youth in Cinema.

In this week’s Autoplilot — my column on great first episodes in TV history — I try to explain my first reaction to the uncanny Severance.

“Mr. Scorsese” is a life portrait of a filmmaker who has seemingly lived a thousand lives. That means it’s also a portrait of a thousand deaths. Essential viewing on an essential artist.

The “Mr. Scorsese” documentary series is pretty terrific, a cradle-to-thankfully-not-yet-grave sprint through the great filmmaker. But it’s actually not the best Martin Scorsese documentary you can stream right now. I wrote about A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.

I’m excited for Death by Lightning, the new Netflix drama about the insanity surrounding the assassination of James Garfield. Based on one of the great nonfiction books of recent years, Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic. Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen star.

Wrote about how Ryan Murphy’s new Monster installment on Ed Gein becomes a horror hall of mirrors. Hitchcock, Tobe Hooper, Norman Bates, Leatherface: ain’t nothin but a Psycho party.

Caught Blue Moon at IFFBoston (Linklater’s new film starring Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart). Overcomes the limits of a single setting with a great script and a hell of a performance by Hawke. Also lowkey a really smart story about what alcoholism can do to creativity, and especially collaboration.

This week in my Autopilot series: Homeland, no security, and the greatness of Claire Danes. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/10/a...

I Think You Should Watch: Tim Robinson’s The Chair Company is a conspiracy thriller parody — think Three Days of the Schmuck — that plays like a mix of Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office, crossed with Kafka and a touch of David Lynch. My Boston Globe review:

This week’s TV GPS: The Paper premieres (The Office at a newspaper), the NFL kicks off, Highest 2 Lowest streams, and more viewing recommendations.

Dispatch from the Venice Film Festival. I look at a couple of big upcoming releases: Bugonia, in which Emma Stone’s big pharma CEO is kidnapped by two conspiracy-mad cousins who think she’s an alien; and Jay Kelly, in which George Clooney’s aging movie star searches for his soul.

This week in my Autopilot series: I look at the first episode of Mad Men. To me it’s the ideal pilot, standing on its own as a masterpiece and setting the table for the entire series.

Wrote about why we expect so much from TV series finales — and why it’s not a one-size-fits-all deal. Have an onion ring.

Started a new series, Autopilot, looking at the best first episodes in TV history. First up: The Rockford Files (1974).

Netflix’s animated marvel Long Story Short feels like a series that we need right now: effortlessly intelligent, open-hearted, empathetic, and without a trace of saccharine.

Adult Swim’s Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is a sexy, over-the-top stop-motion melodrama inspired by Pedro Almodóvar, about a bitter cloak-and-dagger battle over giant guinea pigs. I dug it immensely. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/20/a...

My Bergman series continues this Sunday at River Oaks Theatre with Persona. Looking forward to blowing some minds. As that hack Chris Vognar writes, “Cinema’s ultimate experiment in identity is also Bergman’s most formally daring film.” www.theriveroakstheatre.com/movie/RiverO...

I wrote about hate watching Netflix’s new Jerry Jones/Cowboys doc series (which is quite good).

RIP to the great Terence Stamp, who will always be The Limey to me.

My Bergman series continues Sunday at River Oaks Theatre with The Magician. As some guy named Chris Vognar wrote, “It’s Bergman’s great statement on art and illusion, with a pull-back-the-curtain sequence that ranks among the great scenes in international cinema.”

Wrote a little about Alien: Earth’s knack for the perfect needle drop. The Mob still Rules.

I wrote about the current South Park moment, in which the 27th season of the show (!!) is teeing off on all things Trump — and on its corporate parent.

Grateful I got to write about the new James Baldwin bio for The Boston Globe. Nicholas Boggs wisely frames Baldwin within the quality that was most important to him: love. As I write, “Boggs comes about as close as anyone has to wrapping his arms around Baldwin, embracing him in his entirety.”

Wrote a little about the irony of Trump selecting disco queen and LGBTQ icon Gloria Gaynor as a Kennedy Center honoree.

Excited for the final installment of Brazos Bookstore’s Summer of Hitchcock series Wednesday night at River Oaks Theatre. We’ll be showing Psycho, and discussing Robert Bloch’s novel, which is a damn fine piece of pulp horror (with some major differences from the movie).