On Lost, dying is just another step in the evolution of your career. Jack’s dead father Christian (or should that be “dead”?) has had an important role in the show through flashbacks; even Boone and Shannon made an appearance in season 3. One character in particular who seemed destined to have a big posthumous role [...]

Wayne Brady launches the counterstrike against Joey Fatone in the battle of the misremembered-lyrics contests with Don’t Forget the Lyrics on Fox. But before that I’m probably going to get a start on the screeners of HBO’s new September therapy drama Tell Me You Love Me, which you may know better as the show where [...]

He’s no Paris Hilton, but Michael Moore provided one of the more dramatic exchanges on Larry King Live in a while, having an on-air throwdown with CNN’s own medical correspondent (and TIME contributor) Dr. Sanjay Gupta last night. (Here’s the transcript, link courtesy of Romenesko; the video’s online at CNN.) The confrontation followed a Gupta [...]

Photo: Michael Courtney/The CW Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let’s [...]

Is it wrong to be waiting anxiously for the premiere of The Singing Bee? Yes. Yes, it is. But I am a weak man. I also plan to catch Don’t Forget the Lyrics on Fox the next night for compare-and-contrast purposes. The latter show is apparently another in the proud Fox history of ripping off [...]

In part because I want to hear what you think, in part to get Chaddogg off my back, a few thoughts on Sunday’s HBO triple shot: * JFC. This episode largely ignored the peripheral characters, like the motel Greek chorus, who have been among my favorite things about this series. But in so doing it [...]

The 2007 summer TV critics’ press tour–nearly three weeks when the TV networks bring out their stars for group interviews with the Television Critics Association–begins this week in LA. I’ll be watching it from the vantage point of sunny NYC. There are professional reasons (largely involving getting TIME to pony up for a three-week trip) [...]

HBO photo: Lacey Terrell Well, you can say this much for Bill: When he orders the pie, he really orders the pie. Seeing him chat up the waitress in the diner–and then confess his feelings to Don Embry–was one of those bracing moments where you realize that his lifestyle is still alien, as comfortable as [...]

I don’t know if people who live outside New York City can understand the phenomenon of nostalgia for the city’s sleazy days of the 1970s. Maybe it’s a combination of high real-estate prices in the newly-cleaned up “America’s safest large city,” hipster irony and old-fashioned NYC contrariness, but it’s not uncommon to find people occasionally [...]

ABC Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let’s get on with… [...]

Because we had to put the magazine to bed on the actual Fourth of July, TIME’s Independence Day holiday is today. Meaning that today you, like the colonists, have won your freedom–from having to read any of my blathering blog posts today. God bless America! Have a good weekend. And wish America a belated happy [...]

As Carrie Bradshaw might ask, does size matter? We’ll finally have a chance to find out, as a deal has been struck to bring Sex and the City to a bigger screen in movie form. Says Variety, “Fans of the show have clamored for a movie version of Sex and the City since the series [...]

On Lost, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. Literally. There’s been plenty written by Lostophiles about the show’s dualities: faith/reason, black/white, destiny vs. free will, and so on. There are probably several weeks’ worth of LDG questions in there, but for now, let’s stick with one: good / evil. Namely: Who or what are [...]

FOX Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let’s get on with… [...]

HBO Big Love is on a tear right now; while this episode didn’t quite match last week’s, it was again one of my favorites yet. It feels like the first season was just a prologue to this one–the show spent some slow time building its wide web of relationships, and we’re now seeing that pay [...]

HBO photo: Nicole Rivelli I missed last night’s Entourage, owing to a difference of opinion between my Tivo and Time Warner Cable as to what channel HBO HD is on. At this point, anyway, I’m more interested in Flight of the Conchords, which I’d already seen on a preview screener. This show is obviously a [...]