Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 964 days ago

TV Tonight: Fire Another One Up

By James Poniewozik

  While I and most other critics have been focusing on tonight’s Showtime debut of Nurse Jackie, the network also premieres season 5 of Weeds, something I usually look forward to every summer. And not just because it means another cheesecake publicity photo of Mary-Louise Parker every year. That said, I’ll admit that season 4′s [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 964 days ago

BREAKING: US TV Channel Covers World News!

By James Poniewozik

If there’s one bright side to the increasingly dispiriting story about two American journalists being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea, it’s that it actually brings attention to TV journalists doing overseas reporting, which has increasingly been cut back by networks (and budget-slashing print outlets too). It also—if under unfortunate circumstances—reminds [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 964 days ago

If the Journalism Business Fails, Who Pays for Journalism?

By James Poniewozik

You can’t open a newspaper—or read a newsmagazine website—these days without seeing a report wondering if X, Y or Z “can save journalism.” Maybe that’s the wrong question.  Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that nothing saves journalism. “Journalism,” that is, as a profession and as currently constructed: a full-time job paid for by [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 964 days ago

The Morning After: Center Stage

By James Poniewozik

CBS telecast the Tony Awards last night. I leave it to people who actually follow theater more than I do to assess the wisdom of the award choices themselves. (Except one quibble: Pick one Billy Elliot, people! I demand a cutthroat runoff competition between those three kids!) But to the extent that reaching viewers with [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+967 days ago

JPTV: What I'm Appearing on This Weekend

By James Poniewozik

Because I haven’t opined about late-night television quite enough this week, I will be on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday to talk about the Jay-Conan handover. So if you have plans to spend Sunday relaxing with your family or worshiping, cancel them! This will require your full attention!

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 967 days ago

Stephen Colbert Deploys to Iraq

By James Poniewozik

  I don’t know what the policy is around here for providing free publicity to Newsweek’s freelancers, but I’ll tell you anyway: Stephen Colbert will be doing a week—a Monday-through-Thursday week—of shows from Iraq starting Monday. (As both he and Sarah Palin have hinted.) “Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando” will be conducted under the auspices of [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 967 days ago

Dead Tree Alert II: Nurse Jackie Review

By James Poniewozik

  Elsewhere in this week’s TIME, I review Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, with Edie Falco, which debuts Monday. I like it, a lot, and you can read why here.  A brief note on the headline. The original headline was “Our Bitter Angels,” which plays off the whole angel of mercy / fallen angel contrast I set [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 967 days ago

The Morning After: Burning for You

By James Poniewozik

  As I mentioned yesterday, I appreciate Burn Notice when I watch it, but after repeated tries just don’t feel the urge to make it appointment viewing. (My favorite aspect of the show I neglected to note: Michael Weston’s helpful, “Here’s the good thing about swimming underneath flaming water” spy tips. It’s like half-TV drama, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 967 days ago

Dead Tree Alert I: Talk, About Their Generations

By James Poniewozik

My column in the print TIME magazine looks at the late-night changeover that I’ve been writing about all this week, as a sign of changing eras—not just in the hosts’ sensibilities but in the medium itself: It may just be coincidence, but The Tonight Show somehow seems to know when America is going through a [...]

+Television | 967 days ago

Top 10 Post-SNL Careers

By TIME Staff

Will Ferrell stars in Land of the Lost, in theaters June 5. TIME rounds up other Saturday Night Live alumni who have gone on to illustrious careers after leaving the acclaimed sketch-comedy show

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 968 days ago

Crix Pix Mix II: TCA Award Nominees

By James Poniewozik

Also in today’s TV-critics-list-stuff news: The Television Critics’ Association released its list of nominees, on which I voted, for its annual awards to be given out this summer. The full list after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 968 days ago

Crix Pix Mix I: Best of the '00s

By James Poniewozik

A while ago I posted about having to send in nominations for a critics’ poll of the best shows of the ’00s (I was asked to pick six for each category), and solicited your thoughts on the same question. The poll was for Variety, and the trademagazine released its list of nominees (the winners will [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 968 days ago

TV Tonight: FAIL Success, Psychic FAIL

By James Poniewozik

A lot of summer TV debuting tonight, and not enough time to review it, so it’s time to break out with the capsules:  Tosh.0: Given the unending success of FAIL Culture on the web—you’re probably familiar with FAIL Blog, or at least the various humiliating videos people have forwarded you from there—it’s surprising no one [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Remembrance | 968 days ago

David Carradine Dies

By James Poniewozik

Actor David Carradine was reportedly found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok. He was 72.  My memories of Carradine, beyond Kill Bill, are mostly limited to distant foggy memories of seeing Kung Fu when I was three or four years old. I re-watched some of the series when it came out on DVD, however, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 968 days ago

The Morning After: Will and Disgrace

By James Poniewozik

I did not watch I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! last night. I feel invigorated and empowered by that decision. From having scanned the recaps, however, I know that Spencer and Heidi—shockingly!—returned to the show to plead with the other cast members to let them back on, so that their fame can be [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+968 days ago

Lost Discussion Group: How Dead Is Locke?

By James Poniewozik

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” And by that he meant: “I forgot to post the Lost Discussion Group on Wednesday—get off my back.”  So today’s question is simple: How dead is Locke? And yes, I know we have asked this question before, but it means something [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 969 days ago

Newsweek Joins the Colbert Nation

By James Poniewozik

Because I am just that big a guy, I had to let you know that the competition, Newsweek, has an issue guest-edited by Stephen Colbert on newsstands next Monday. As this New York Observer article notes, guest-edited magazine issues have a mixed history (see the Roseanne issue of the New Yorker), but Colbert’s an incredibly [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+969 days ago

Just Call Him Barack O'Brien

By James Poniewozik

The clip wasn’t available earlier, but also on last night’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC managed to leverage its Inside the White House Special into a presidential plug for Conan:  When this clip first started rolling, I figured there must be some kind of sleight-of-hand going on. Right? The producers must have spliced some [...]