Craig Blankenhorn / AMC …along with 48 other top tens ranking pretty much every aspect of human (and possibly nonhuman) endeavor, at time.com. Here are my top ten new shows, and here are my top ten returning shows. Elsewhere, other critic’s lists are starting to trickle in, with an eclectic list from John Leonard at [...]

So much for settling the strike by Christmas. On Friday, the producers’ side walked out of the negotiations as the writers dug in their heels over the Writers’ Guild demand, which they until recently had not been stressing, that it get to represent reality-TV and animation staffers. Seeing as how the usual purposes of a [...]

How happy it is that, after its post-Family Edition lull, The Amazing Race–the only situation in the world where it’s a bad thing to get inadvertently bumped up from coach to business class–is worth watching again. I won’t spoil last night’s episode, but read the comments at your own risk. All I know is that [...]

HBO photo: John P. Johnson If the blog is reading particularly lame lately, my excuse of the week is that I’ve been buried in end-of-the-year projects, including, but not limited to, the year-end 10-best lists that we post every year on time.com. And this year, there are going to be more than ever! Lists upon [...]

You may have already seen the Speechless Hollywood series of videos, produced in support of the writers’ strike, in which celebrity actors demonstrate the dangers of working without a script: The message: Actors are nothing without the words that writers put in their mouths. The meta-message: You will look at anything if it has a [...]

Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS Because of a TV backlog and life in general, Survivor: China is still sitting in my TiVo queue. What kind of idiot invites people to spoil a show he hasn’t watched for him on his own blog? This kind! Share your thoughts, on this or any other of last night’s rerun-heavy December [...]

Bravo Photo: Trae Patton If you’re a fan of Bravo’s Project Runway and Top Chef, then you are possibly a fan, but not nearly quite as big a fan, of Top Design and Shear Genius, the home-decor and hair-styling counterparts of those reality shows. If so, then there’s slightly good news for you today! From [...]

I should let Swampland handle the political analysis of Mitt Romney’s religion speech, but I suppose my rant yesterday obligates me to follow up. I should disclose that Romney was not speaking to me, as a nonreligious American: he made that pretty clear with “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom.” (Joe Klein elaborates [...]

Today in writers’ strike news: * The upside of the strike is that it has freed up Hollywood talent to devote some quality time to their passion projects. Like going to jail. Kiefer Sutherland gets 24 days, times two, for a DUI infraction and probation violation. * I get the same press releases as the [...]

Robert Voets/CBS One of the delights of Kid Nation is how it makes you swing between corny, parental pride in Bonanza City’s residents and abject horror for the future of our nation. You had the moment when the town council came over the ridge and saw the Native American encampment: “Hey guys, look! Looks like [...]

Tomorrow, Mitt Romney gives his much-heralded speech on his Mormon faith and his presidential candidacy. Mind you, I am not a political pundit and don’t play one on TV, but I’m interested (and cynical) enough to have a few questions: * To what extent was Romney “forced” to make the speech? I’m not denying that [...]

Keeping the posts brief for now due to numerous year-end deadlines, but a couple interesting strike tidbits this morning. First (this via TV Decoder at the NY Times), someone at the AP with a better eye for numbers than mine has assessed the studios’ latest proposal and the writers’ counterproposal and concluded that the two [...]

My shameless bit of boasting about the season 5 Wire screeners HBO just sent out seems to have struck a nerve. Maybe we need to have a mini Wire Discussion Group to get us limbered up before the series returns on January 6. In the meantime, this HBO preview that gives the slightest taste of [...]

SCI FI Channel Photo: Art Streiber We’re getting into December now, which means less and less original-run watercooler programming to discuss the morning after. And if the strike continues, every month will be like December. It’ll be like nuclear winter, the TV version. The gnarled, dead branches of the networks searching the sky, their ashen [...]

HBO photo: Paul Schiraldi Yeah, I’ll say it: I have seven new episodes of The Wire sitting right here. I’m not going to jump the gun. I’m not going to spoilerize anything. I’m not that big a jerk. I’m just a big enough jerk to say it again, and let it play. I have seven [...]

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, whip yourself up a batch of chilaquiles and watch Heroes. NBC photo: Adam Taylor Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, so in the spirit of holiday generosity, I will kick things off by finding something nice to say about the volume-two finale of Heroes: Well, at least [...]

So we all know that the writers’ strike has shut down some of your favorite shows and that it’s cost the jobs of numerous below-the-line workers in the TV business. (The writers are making a counteroffer as negotiations resume today.) But it may claim a bigger casualty: TV critics may not have an excuse to [...]

NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater …and so the Nerd Herd takes an unscheduled vacation, thanks to the writers’ walkout. It’ll be some time before I catch up with this on TiVo, so feel free to offer your performance evaluation here.

NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater Tonight, as NBC is promo-ing, “two heroes will fall” as “Volume 2: Generations comes to an explosive, bloody finish.” Judging by recent history, I think we can definitely take that as an ironclad promise that two characters will fall, downward, and substantial portions of their body will come in contact with [...]