You don't have to love opera to revel in Laurent Pelly's production of "La Fille du Régiment," which was simulcast in theaters in April and is airing on PBS' "Great Performances at the Met" at 8 tonight. Being a fan of '30s screwball comedies or '40s musicals will do.

The good news is that PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery!" is back for the summer, with new cases and a new face: The marvelously arch Alan Cumming is now the series' host.

The bad news is that the series' return marks the swan songs of two of its stalwarts — Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen), who's [...]

After deconstructing "The Incredible Hulk" in a previous blog, I am pleased to report that the new "Hulk" lived up to my expectations. (I was half-inclined to like it, though, since I'm such an Edward Norton fan.)

Norton does his usual excellent job of inhabiting a character. But what particularly impressed me is the way he [...]

With the passing of Tim Russert, a few thoughts occur to me.

The first is that he was preparing to leave this world and didn't even know it. Much like Princess Diana divesting herself of her gowns at a public auction before she died, Russert was engaged in saying goodbye — having his staff on "Meet [...]

This has been a week of electrifying artistry for me. On Sunday, I saw retiring New York City Ballet principal Damian Woetzel — the best dancer of my experience — give one of his last performances in George Balanchine's haunting "Prodigal Son." Anyone can be naked on a stage. But to be emotionally naked in [...]

What's the biggest movie of the summer that no one seems to be talking about?

That would have to be "The Incredible Hulk," which Yours Truly will be front and center for when it opens next Friday.

To be sure, there's a little of what we entertainment experts — yeah, right — like to call "buzz". The [...]

After watching Sen. Barack Obama give the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in 2004, I told my friends, colleagues and just about anyone who would listen to me for five seconds that Obama would succeed President George W. Bush after his second term. Some scoffed. Others laughed.

I'm both proud and pleased to say [...]

As "The Tudors" (9 p.m. Sundays, Showtime) nears the finish of its second season, it's getting better — more urgent dramatically as it is more accurate historically.  What a surprise.

Notice how no one cares about the arts until they suddenly need them? A recent NBC report on children traumatized by the Chinese earthquake showed them painting their thoughts and feelings or listening as a story was read to them.

In tragedy, the arts offer solace, distraction, inspiration, self-expression and transcendence. Would that the media would [...]

CBS may have pulled the plug on "Moonlight" for its fall sked, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to enjoy the reruns. For TiVo and tape buffs, tonight's episode (9 p.m.) is probably the best, with Mick (Alex O'Loughlin) and Beth (Sophia Myles) at the height of their sensual chemistry and Josef at his [...]

Truth is stranger than fiction — except, of course, when fiction is stranger than truth.

The recent season finale of NBC's "Law & Order" offered viewers a terrific riff on the Eliot Spitzer scandal. A fictitious New York governor — younger and better-looking than Spitzer, for this is TV, people — found himself involved in a [...]

"Life was his sentence," defense attorney Contance Griffiths (Brooke Langton) says of exonerated client Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) on NBC's "Life." "And life was what he got back."

But fans of the drama — which returns this fall in the 10 p.m. Friday time slot, where it has the potential to become the Peacock Network's "House" [...]

Well, this just bites it, doesn't it? CBS has decided to put a stake through the hearts of scores of "Moonlight" fans by axing the romantic vampire detective series from its fall offerings. This after the show was beginning to garner that all-important four-letter quality — buzz — turning up regularly in magazines like  TV [...]

The body may take a vacation, but the mind can't, not when the tube is 24/7.

I happened to have a week off during a busy news cycle — the Rev. Jeremiah Wright tirade, the Miley Cyrus/Vanity Fair flap, the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, the return of Mick as a sexy vamp [...]

Finally! The dramas are beginning to trickle back. Tomorrow, we get a new episode of CBS' "Moonlight," which is good since I can't remember if hunky vampire/private eye Mick St. John (Alex O'Laughlin) is still human or turning back into a vamp. How quickly we forget.

Monday, "House" returns with first-run episodes. No need to [...]

NBC's "Law and Order" takes pride in its departures and arrivals — which, let's face it, have a higher success rate than the airlines.

Tonight at 10 on Channel 4 locally, Jesse L. Martin's ever-cool Det. Ed Green takes his leave after nine years of booking 'em — a shame since I was really enjoying his [...]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the (mostly knowledgeable) coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to America this past week. I know that this pontiff is not supposed to be as glamorous as his late, adored predecessor. But I felt a kinship with someone who likes books, classical music and ravioli (though I'll pass on the love [...]

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and PBS is framing the occasion with an imaginative new "Great Performances" and the return of an acclaimed series.

Tonight at 10 on WNET-Channel 13 locally, it's "Dance in America: Wolf Trap's Face of America," an unusual, enervating pairing of dance and nature that actually evokes the origins of the art form.

[...]

Last Sunday's PBS adaptation of "A Room With A View" reversed the typical movie treatment of a literary work.

Usually, films romanticize novels, as in the superb 2006 version of "A Painted Veil," which is far more forgiving than W. Somerset Maugham's equally haunting novel.

But Andrew Davies — just call him "Mr. Adaptation" — gave E.M. [...]

This Sunday is host to an embarrassment of riches on the tube.

At 8 p.m., the History Channel presents "King" with Tom Brokaw, in honor of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and remembrance of his assassination 40 years ago today in Memphis.

At 9 p.m. on PBS' "Masterpiece," it's the conclusion of Andrew Davies' [...]