Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 820 days ago

Who Says TV News Is Biased? TV News Viewers Do!

By James Poniewozik

The Pew Research Center has issued a study about the public perception of TV news which finds shockingly—shockingly!—that TV audiences see Fox News as the most ideological network. But beyond that, the study is a trove of curious data points showing that people find ideology in a lot of places—and they don’t necessarily mind it. [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 820 days ago

Halloween Comedy Watch: Who Wants a Chuckle?

By James Poniewozik

Last night, each of NBC’s Thursday comedies aired episodes that were, more or less, Halloween-themed. In the spirit of the holiday, I have something for each of them! But who gets a fun-size Snickers and who gets a rock?

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 821 days ago

South Park: The Meat of the Matter

By James Poniewozik

In the interest of balance today, time to post about some offensive TV on Comedy Central that I liked. South Park’s “Whale Whores,” while not an all-time great, was one of those episodes that hit for the cycle of South Park fixations: pop-culture mocking (Whale Wars, Lady Gaga), stories about the kids and, at the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+821 days ago

NBC News: More Chuck, Less Trauma

By James Poniewozik

Chuck fans, you do not have to eat at Subway today unless you actually feel like it. In a pretty surprising move, NBC announced that it was expanding its order for the Zachary Levi spy comedy by six extra episodes this season. Giving you extra time to work on those “Save Chuck” avatars for your [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 821 days ago

Jeff Dunham: What Am I Not Getting?

By James Poniewozik

I usually believe in accepting defeat gracefully. When my preferred candidates lose an election, I do not threaten to move to Canada. When my government chooses a policy I reject, I do not believe that makes it constitutionally illegitimate. Part of being a grown-up is recognizing that decent, reasonable, non-brainwashed fellow citizens can simply disagree [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+821 days ago

TV Tonight: League of Not-Exactly-Gentlemen

By James Poniewozik

The League might have been a lot better if there were a lot less of it. Watching the first two episodes of this raunchy FX sitcom, about 30-something guys in a fantasy-football league, I got to thinking that the premise would have made a perfect webisode series. Online series have not been around long enough to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 821 days ago

The Morning After: Post-Game

By James Poniewozik

It was not a great night for sports in New York City, so it’s a good thing Friday Night Lights came back. At least if you have DirecTV, or access to the DirecTV press website. My unscientific poll of Tuned Inland yesterday showed more people in favor of my waiting to write about FNL until [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 822 days ago

FNL Gets the Ball Back

By James Poniewozik

Friday Night Lights returns to DirecTV tonight, and my review (which was held for a week in the print magazine) just posted at time.com. So far, season 4 is not just characteristically excellent, but it’s reinvigorated by the device of sending Coach Taylor to start over at the down-and-out East Dillon High. I don’t have [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 822 days ago

The Best Episodes of 2009

By James Poniewozik

Yes, it’s that time of year, when people who work at magazines with lengthy production schedules must start thinking about lists of The Best Things of a year that still has two months to go. And I’m asking for your help. It’s no state secret that I do two 10-Best TV lists: best series of [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 822 days ago

The Morning After: Not the Fault of My Receiver

By James Poniewozik

My live-primetime-TV viewing is going to be limited for the next week or so, and for once, it’s not my Tivo’s fault. I’m having some house work done which has put my primary TV in storage for a while. So I’ll be more dependent than usual on Hulu and on whatever episodes I get in advance [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 823 days ago

Ex-Letterman Writer on Dave's (and Late Night's) Problem With Women

By James Poniewozik

Throughout the David Letterman blackmail/affair imbroglio earlier this fall, part of the debate was: was it just sex, or was it sexual harassment? The latter question depends not just on whether Letterman’s lovers felt pressured, but on whether other female staffers felt the affairs created a hostile work environment. Well, now at Vanity Fair, former [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+823 days ago

TV Tonight: You Gotta Be Sincere

By James Poniewozik

ABC airs It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tonight at 8 E.T. I don’t know if Charles Schultz ever read Albert Camus, but there’s something about the whole Peanuts body of work that espouses a kind of hopeful existentialism. The characters are in absurd situations; like Sisyphus, they are doomed to suffer the same failures [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Advertising | 823 days ago

In Other News, Turns Out That Talking Paper Clip Was Annoying

By James Poniewozik

So Microsoft has a new operating system to launch. It wants your attention. It wants to reach the young people, who like the Family Guy, which is on the television machine. So Microsoft hired Family Guy’s creator Seth MacFarlane to produce a comedy variety special on Fox sponsored solely by the new Windows 7. Then Microsoft [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 823 days ago

BSG Returns (on DVD Only) with The Plan

By James Poniewozik

In the DVD era, fans of series and movies have come to expect commentary tracks, with directors, stars or writers talking over scenes about what was going on in their heads or offstage at crucial moments. Today, the makers of Battlestar Galactica—who are already keeping the franchise alive with next year’s Caprica prequel—are releasing The [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+TV Ratings | 824 days ago

This Was CNN: Where Have Its Viewers Gone?

By James Poniewozik

CNN is a sister company to TIME within Time Warner, so let me be unambiguous and without corporate favor when I say that its latest round of primetime ratings are in the dumpster. Bill Carter of the New York Times reports that for the first time, CNN will finish October in fourth place among cable-news networks [...]

+Movies | 824 days ago

Top 10 Concert Movies

By Glen Levy
Everett

From Hendrix to Hova—TIME rocks out with the greatest concert movies to ever hit the big screen.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 824 days ago

Ricky Gervais to Host Golden Globes

By James Poniewozik

While we’re on the subject of awards-show hosts today, NBC has just announced that Ricky Gervais will host the previously host-less Golden Globes on Jan. 17, having semi-auditioned by being the funniest presenter/accepter at various awards shows past. With Neil Patrick Harris having brilliantly hosted the Emmys and Tonys, who’s left as your dream host [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 824 days ago

Dr. Horrible Vs. Batman

By James Poniewozik

Because you are no longer allowed to be a show on television without having Neil Patrick Harris sing, NPH recently made his musical debut as the villain The Music Meister on Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold. While it’s not Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the whimsical episode was a notch above the typical Batman: [...]