David Bianculli

Fresh Air's TV critic David Bianculli discusses the long-term effects of the four-month-long writers' strike, and--more immediately--when we can expect new episodes of our favorite shows to return to the air.

Actor Bryan Cranston — best known as the dad on Fox TV's Malcolm in the Middle talks to Terry Gross about his newest role. He plays a meth-cooking high-school chemistry teacher in Breaking Bad, a new series on AMC.

New mysteries, new jeopardies and only eight episodes to explore them: The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are back, but the ongoing Hollywood writers strike means a shorter season than planned. Fresh Air's TV critic — and him you can trust — previews the season premiere of Lost, airing tonight on ABC.

HBO, once home to The Sopranos, has some experience with conflicted psychoanalysts. The latest one on the lineup: Paul Weston, played by Gabriel Byrne. The central figure of In Treatment, a nightly half-hour serial adapted from an Israeli TV drama, Weston is a calm, collected counselor on the outside — and an emotional mess on the inside. Fresh Air's TV critic offers a diagnosis.

Fresh Air's TV critic previews the new series Breaking Bad, about a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher who decides that cooking crystal meth is the best way to support his family after he's gone. The show premieres on the AMC cable channel on Jan. 20.

New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman talks with David Bianculli about his new book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It's the most recent in Bittman's series of "How to Cook Everything" books.

The writers' strike knocked late-night television shows like the Late Show and The Tonight Show into reruns. Now these pillars of the talk-show genre are back on the air with fresh material.

The fifth and final season of the acclaimed HBO drama The Wire has its season premiere Jan. 6. Fresh Air's TV critic has a preview.

David Bianculli, Fresh Air TV critic, shares his picks for the best television of 2007, and what he'll be watching in 2008 — he's looking forward to the upcoming seasons of ABC's Lost and HBO's The Wire.

Bianculli is the author of Teleliteracy and Television's 500 Biggest Hits, Misses, and Events. He recently launched the Web site TVworthwatching.com.

Marshall Herskovitz and his working partner Edward Zwick created and produced the critically acclaimed shows thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again. Their new collaboration is Quarterlife, a show aired in 8-minute segments on the Web site of the same name. It's about a group of 20-somethings coming of age in the digital world, but it's not just a show: Like most every Web-entertainment venture launched these days, if offers user forums and functions as a social-networking platform.