Have a screening and some other business this morning, so I leave you to talk among yourselves. First order of business: Fringe. Didn’t you have Chris Eigeman pegged for a sci-fi villain the moment you saw him in those Whit Stillman movies?

Credit where it’s due time. Tuned In has poked its share of fun at Sarah Palin and her cosseting from the press these past few weeks. But man, is the woman making up for lost time! She’s talking to CNN’s Situation Room today, doing an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams and has begun fielding questions [...]

On the new 90210, a black guy raised by a white family attempts to fit in to the exclusive, largely white world of Beverly Hills teen society. In the Nov. 4 election, a black guy raised by a white family attempts to fit in to the exclusive, largely white club of U.S. Presidents. Worried that [...]

For a full season. It may not have the ratings or the critical praise, but the ’80s talking-car remark remake has one thing going for it: the fact that NBC can’t cancel everything it’s put on the air this year at once. Update: In unrelated but happier news, Showtime just announced that it’s bringing Back [...]

I watched the entire series of Swingtown. No, I’m serious. Beginning to end. Didn’t miss a single one. Kept watching even after I realized the show was never going to live up to its potential, that rather than being Big Love with bellbottoms, it ended up being a case study in eBay fiction, more interesting [...]

Monty Brinton/CBS SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, down a shot of wheatgrass juice and watch last night’s How I Met Your Mother.

A few ratings/deals items I haven’t gotten around to posting: Renewed: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (to my surprise), for the rest of the season; Mad Men (not to my surprise), for a third. (Creator Matthew Weiner reportedly has not yet signed a deal, news that I’m not much worried about for now on the [...]

How circumspect is NBC anchor Brian Williams about his political leanings? According to a piece in the Yale Daily News (via Romenesko), Williams says that he doesn’t even tell his wife or daughter whom he votes for: “I’ve trained myself in twenty-six years in this business to not have [opinions],” Williams said in an interview [...]

The only poll that matters may be on Election Day, but the only numbers that matter on TV are ratings, and when it comes to them, Sarah Palin is an unquestionable asset. Her appearance on SNL gave the show its highest ratings in 14 years. John McCain, meanwhile boosted David Letterman’s ratings to their best [...]

Peggy (Elisabeth Moss, left) puts her Catholic education to work. / AMC SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, throw your dinner off the balcony and watch last night’s Mad Men.

NBC Photo: Kelly Walsh Friday night saw the debuts of Starz’s Crash and NBC’s Crusoe, which I didn’t get around to reviewing, and to any of you who thus spent time on them over the weekend, I apologize. Crash, Starz’s entry into the original-drama sweepstakes, managed to re-create the strained, self-consciously shocking and implausible culture [...]

Like most political-celebrity appearances on Saturday Night Live, Sarah Palin’s didn’t really live up to the original skits, nor could you expect it to. The thing with cameos like this is that the main payoff is the announcement that the candidate is doing the show. The actual performance is more a formality: the politician gets [...]

…when she gets angry, she grows as big as a house! From which you can see Russia! Politico’s Jonathan Martin hears from Sarah Palin‘s aides that the VP candidate will appear on Saturday Night Live this weekend. On a related note, I was struck last night to notice that NBC is using Tina Fey’s Palin [...]

My piece in this week’s TIME looks at Fringe, several episodes into its run. It’s not so much a review—I’ve been back and forth on that here on the blog—as it is about how its brand of science fiction, like sci-fi of the past, speaks to today’s particular fears: Show me a human fear, and [...]

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, strap in your watermelon securely and watch last night’s Office.

The conventional wisdom in the debates was first that John McCain would do best in the town hall format. Then it became that—whoever you thought won the final debate—he actually did best in the seated-at-a-table format. But now that the debates are over, I think it’s clear: he really excels at the format involving a [...]

So who plays Joe the Plumber on Saturday Night Live? Also: How happy are these guys right now?