By the time it had crystallized into its final three-man lineup, Nirvana had absorbed the full spectrum of upstart rock: the Minneapolis sound of the Replacements and Hüsker Dü, the Boston post-punk Pixies' surf pop, Bad Brains' D.C. hardcore and so on.
But the influenced would become the influential: Sometime during the one-term George H.W. Bush presidency, Nirvana's relatively small discography would be refracted into a legacy that continues today. Six years after his death, Rolling Stone named Cobain its Artist of the Decade.
It takes a village: HBO's 'Casual Vacancy' reveals the empty promises behind Britain's social welfare system.
The quietly disturbing drama, based on a novel by "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, shows the telltale signs of its authorship, even with no boy wizards about. Rowling's reliable go-to types are in place: Bumbling do-gooders. Abusive 1-percenters. Formidable old biddies.
Read MoreScientology's theater of the surreal: HBO documentary 'Going Clear' puts the church's practices under a microscope.
Why would these seemingly thoughtful, intelligent people sign a billion-year contract to work for pennies a day? Why would these clear-eyed Americans cut off their families, divorce their spouses and leave their children based on the work of a science fiction novelist?
Read MoreThe delicious Cookie recipe of 'Empire': Mix business savvy, fashion flash and fearlessness to get TV's most delicious heroine.
"Empire" is a glorious, over-the-top mess, a "King Lear" soap opera with silly dialogue, pretty people, backstabbing galore and a soundtrack by Timbaland. It would be a tedious exercise instead of a guilty pleasure without Taraji P. Henson as Cookie, equal parts everywoman and Mama Bear in a mink coat, greeting rivals with a "Hey, Boo Boo Kitty!"
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Cheat wave: Frustration, sorrow and sex simmer in 'The Affair," Showtime's drama about two sides of a summer fling gone wrong.
"The Affair" begs to be compared to Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," that Japanese cinematic classic told from four conflicting viewpoints. But it's more fun to think of Showtime's new drama as a 10-hour rendition of "Summer Lovin' " from "Grease."
Read MoreSoderbergh's surgical strike: Oscar-winning director serves up 'The Knick,' a period drama about surgeons unafraid to play God.
New York's Knickerbocker Hospital offers the most advanced medical care 1900 has to offer.
As soon as the doctor emerges from the opium den, catches a horse-drawn cab and finds the last usable vein in his toe for his cocaine injection, surgery can begin.
"The Knick," a 10-part TV drama from Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, inverts the formula that has served most feel-good medical shows so well. Patients at the Knick, especially those who go under the knife, die as a rule and survive as surprise.
"The Strain": How FX's latest drama gets mired in its own gore.
As its evil creatures take form in the first four episodes, "The Strain" starts to resemble a regrettable late-night trip to Taco Bell. The show has slightly rearranged most of pop culture's vampire, zombie and bio-disaster tropes, sprinkled the creation with pico de gallo and called it something new. Would you like a side order of swarming rats with your Quesarito?
Read MoreBack behind bars: Netflix's 'Orange Is the New Black' digs deeper into its varied array of female prisoners in Season 2.
Sometime during her month in solitary confinement, Piper Chapman crosses over.
In the second season of "Orange Is the New Black," the bisexual blond Brooklynite becomes more like her fellow inmates than the people she left behind.
'True Detective' season finale: We may never know why Rust never sleeps.
The show, set to end its story after eight hourlong segments, has been analyzed at "Breaking Bad" levels of delightful, annoying geekdom, making it the latest frustrating, intricate TV drama turned social experiment.
Sunday nights have a lot of shows like that, because Monday mornings go down easier with a round of "Did you watch? Are you caught up?" My work friends, bless their hearts, maintain a spoiler-free zone - within reason. Don't be saving the "Game of Thrones" finale for four days, that's just rude.
A vote for vice: In its new season, 'House of Cards' and its compelling villain are still powerful, and a bit too smug.
Netflix drops an entire season of its acclaimed political drama on Friday, another 13 hours of "Mr. Macbeth Goes to Washington." Spacey has lost none of his smarmy magnetism as the cartoonish villain of David Fincher's fun house version of present-day Washington, D.C.
Read MoreFifty shades of 'Bridget' replay: 50-something Bridget Jones doesn't have much new to say in her latest diary entries.
Author Helen Fielding's late-'90s everywoman was a London-dwelling hot mess prone to girdle mishaps. Fielding constructed her novel from diary entries detailing Bridget's wildly wobbling weight, alcohol intake, cigarettes smoked and insecure sexual daydreams. But an acerbic wit always slipped out between bites of chocolate croissant.
Read More'Masters of Sex": New Showtime series is a funny, heartbreaking look at Masters and Johnson's revolutionary work.
Welsh actor Michael Sheen specializes in conveying lust, rage and grief through a veil of restraint, and the scripts let him reveal Masters' secrets slowly and deliberately. After his daily discussions of arousal and orgasms, he goes home to a house straight out of a vintage Ajax commercial.
Read MoreWhen mob mentality tramples justice: 'The Central Park Five' revisits the case of teens wrongly convicted of a high-profile assault.
"The Central Park Five," documentarian Ken Burns' collaboration with his daughter, Sarah, and her husband, takes us back to the ugly racial reality of New York City in the late '80s, the days of crack and "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz, when no one felt safe.
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Bloody Sunday: HBO's fantasy series 'Game of Thrones' resumes with Season 3 of its harsh saga of tribalism and revenge, leading up to what could be some of the most violent television ever.
Watching "Game of Thrones" is an act of courage.
Not just because of the level of commitment it takes to grasp the implications of every scene in this ornate, medieval fantasy world, but because of the base emotions that its countless souls, sprawling realms and ruthless politics can stir.
Cameras do them justice: 'West of Memphis' documentary uncovers more outrage in the Bible Belt.
The town's desperate police force manufactured and coached witnesses, manipulated all-too-willing local media, dismissed abundant alibi affidavits and failed to interview the victims' families and neighbors. Instead, authorities focused on a misfit kid with long hair, black heavy-metal T-shirts, dark journal scribblings and a problem with authority.
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Runway train: Tyra Banks' nemesis, British supermodel Naomi Campbell, brings her brand of reality to TV.
"Top Model," especially in its saturated, syndicated marathon form, is a haven to gaze upon and critique other women, especially those who haven't perfected walking on spikes without crying. It's a zoo-like, oddly validating experience for the woman who once spent her adolescent allowance on a strawberry-flavored lip gloss, trying to reconcile what she saw in Vogue, Elle and Harpers with her own closet, mirror and scale.
Read MoreSpeaking up for victims: Documentary 'Mea Maxima Culpa' defines the reasons behind the Catholic church's sex abuse scandal.
It would be comforting to call the horrific violations recounted in "Mea Maxima Culpa" unthinkable.
But after decades of revelations about the epidemic of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the ever-accompanying accounts of enabling church officials, a new documentary from Oscar winner Alex Gibney tracks the problem to its source.
'The Following' is brooding and bloody: Tormented Kevin Bacon is awash in gore as he hunts a Poe-obsessed serial killer and his cult.
It's fun to see Bacon on television, especially as former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, who breaks into private homes and breaks fingers in the interview room like a gaunt Harry Callahan. He's the classic damaged ex-cop haunted by one horrific case, and his first day back on the job is just going to get worse.
Read MoreRise of an entertainment titan: PBS' 'American Masters' highlights David Geffen's influence but only hints at a dark side.
David Geffen has made so many people rich and famous that everyone from Tom Hanks to Joni Mitchell lines up to sit on a couch and talk about his roller-coaster career in music, movies and theater. If there are pop culture consumers out there who have never heard of Geffen, they should recognize the Eagles, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Cats." Not bad for a guy who started out by lying his way into a mailroom job at William Morris Agency.
Read MoreHow a band was painted black: In HBO documentary "Crossfire Hurricane," the Rolling Stones go from fresh-faced kids to street fighting men.
Like its scholarly 1993 predecessor "25X5," "Crossfire" sets the stage for its violent rock journey with clips of the five overwhelmed youngsters fielding odd questions, juxtaposed nicely with harrowing escapes from hordes of someday-hippies in horn-rims. The slightly scruffy, baby-faced guys carrying their guitar cases over train tracks don't seem like they're the dangerous kids at all.
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