David Bianculli

The new HBO miniseries Irma Vep is fascinating and unusual, but so is its lineage. It all started with a French silent movie serial called The Vampires, made in 1916. That serial was about an organization of criminals who terrorized Paris and called themselves the Vampires.

Most of Netflix's special features Macdonald running through his set in one unbroken take. The rest is a small group of comics, including David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, talking about their friend.

Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" act ignited an obscenity case in the '70s. We listen back to two archival interviews with the late comedian, and David Bianculli reviews a new HBO documentary about him.