Before watching Ricky Gervais: Out of England—the Stand-Up Special, I hadn’t really thought of Gervais as a stand-up comedian. After watching it, I still don’t. Which is not to say that the special is not entertaining; it’s uneven but sometimes gaspingly funny. But as he did in The Office, Extras and (to a lesser extent) on [...]

Interesting piece by Brian Stelter about a side effect of the cancellation of My Own Worst Enemy: it also means the end of a high-profile product placement for General Motors, which wasn’t really in the market for yet more bad news.  Is Hank Paulson empowered to bail out Christian Slater action thrillers?

  Not one of my favorite episodes of 30 Rock last night, though like all of them it had its moments. The Night Court closure storyline was over the top of the top but I was willing to suspend disbelief more than usual for Harry and Markie’s sake. (“Court? At night? I’m laughing already!”) Jennifer [...]

In this week’s issue of TIME, a look back at The Shield and very-spoiler-light look ahead to its final two episodes, including some themes I’ve been writing about here:  The show’s themes and Chiklis’ brooding, minotaur-like physicality invite comparison with that Urtext of male antiheroes, The Sopranos. But our relationship with Mackey is more complicated–and [...]