Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 689 days ago

Showtime Seeks Oscar Bounce from Gaby

By James Poniewozik

Gabourey Sidibe—the Precious star who was also the most delightful new presence on the Oscar red carpet this year—is joining Showtime’s The Big C, a self-described “dark comedy” about cancer starring Laura Linney. Judging by the production still already available, this was in the works before the Oscars, but you can’t fault Showtime for the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 689 days ago

The Morning After: Anyone Still Traumatized by NBC?

By James Poniewozik

Coming back from a vacation is a pain in the ass, isn’t it? It is for NBC, which, its second week back from its blissful Canadian Olympics idyll, is now back in the soggy late-winter reality of its usual shows and its normal ratings. (Indications are that Jay Leno’s high return ratings may also be [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 689 days ago

HIMYM Watch: J-Lo and Behold

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for How I Met Your Mother after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 690 days ago

Big Love Watch: Divided We Stand

By James Poniewozik

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, let me give you a little shot, relax, and watch last night’s season finale of Big Love.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Advertising | 690 days ago

Best Picture: Logorama's Brandscape Painting

By James Poniewozik

Just so you know we’re not all about Oscar complaints here this morning, last night’s awards got one thing 100% right: the award for Best Animated Short went to Logorama, one of the most spectacular things you’re likely to see in quite a while. The 15-plus-minute film tells a hardboiled action-disaster story in a Los [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 690 days ago

The Oscarcast: Classic, Not Necessarily in a Good Way

By James Poniewozik

The awards at this year’s Oscars were more interesting than the show that gave them out. Best Director went to Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman ever to win the award, and her movie, The Hurt Locker, won Best Picture, becoming the smallest-grossing movie to win the award in ages, over the billion-dollar Avatar. (This in [...]

+Photos Movies | 691 days ago

Rating Oscar Fashion 2010

By TIME Staff
JASON MERRITT / GETTY IMAGES

TIME’s Belinda Luscombe rates the best and worst of the gowns at the 2010 Academy Awards

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 691 days ago

Red Carpet Showdown: Disney Yanks ABC from Cablevision on Oscar Day

By James Poniewozik

A showdown between Disney, the parent company of ABC, and New York-area cable provider Cablevision went nuclear today, as the Mouse pulled the Alphabet from the—um, the cable-TV company—just before its biggest broadcast of the year, the Academy Awards. If you’re like me, the details of these contretemps make your eyes glaze over, but the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 693 days ago

CoCo to Go-Go: Conan O'Brien Reportedly Taking Show on Road

By James Poniewozik

Not content with taking over Twitter, Conan O’Brien will, as previously rumored, do a live tour of the country this spring, likely with sidekick Andy Richter and Max Weinberg, report TMZ and The Hollywood Reporter (though the two sources disagree on the details). The tour plans to stop on Jay Leno’s doorstep in Los Angeles, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 693 days ago

Community / Parks & Rec Watch: Public-Sector Partnership

By James Poniewozik

I’ve never really thought too much about the flow of NBCs Thursday night comedies and why which shows run in which order. From a scheduling standpoint, NBC wants to put its established heavy hitters (The Office and 30 Rock) in the 9 p.m. slot, and the relative newbies (Community and Parks and Recreation) warm up [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+693 days ago

Dead Tree Alert 2: Justify My Love

By James Poniewozik

Also in this week’s print TIME is my review of FX’s Justified, which so far I am loving, and not just because of my man-crush on Timothy Olyphant. (Mrs. Tuned In likes him too so it’s a wholesome shared family interest.) It doesn’t debut until March 16, but the review had to run early for [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 693 days ago

The Morning After: Hourlong Marriage Ref? You Make the Call!

By James Poniewozik

EW’s Ken Tucker is not only a brilliant critic but a braver man than I am, and therefore he subjected himself to last night’s hourlong edition of The Marriage Ref. (Actually Ken liked the first airing of the show, but I won’t hold that against him.) He reports what I might have expected: that stretched [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+693 days ago

Dead Tree Alert 1: Tom Pacific

By James Poniewozik

There’s a TV-related cover on the print TIME this week, though I didn’t write it; historian Douglas Brinkley looks at HBO’s The Pacific, Tom Hanks and the actor’s drive to become America’s celebrity-historian-in-chief. As Brinkley notes, the follow-up to Band of Brothers is similar and in significant ways very different:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 693 days ago

Office Watch: Special Delivery

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the one-hour Office special coming up after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 693 days ago

Idol Watch: Down to 16

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for American Idol coming up after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 694 days ago

Jamie Oliver vs. the School Lunch

By James Poniewozik

Speaking of ABC reality shows, I’ve just watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which I recommend checking out when it debuts later this month. The series follows the British chef, who’s done anti-obesity work for years, as he goes to a West Virginia town which has been rated the unhealthiest region in [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+694 days ago

ABC to Try Ice Dancing with the Stars

By James Poniewozik

Those who fail to learn from the history of celebrity ice-dancing competitions are doomed to repeat it. In this case, ABC is teaming up with the BBC and the makers of Dancing with the Stars to produce a skating version of Dancing to air later this year. “A skating version of Dancing with the Stars” [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 694 days ago

Report: Sarah Palin to Fix Television

By James Poniewozik

For a woman who has so many issues with TV series and hosts, Sarah Palin is becoming awfully active in the industry. The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate turned Fox News contributor is now, according to Entertainment Weekly, teaming up with Survivor producer Mark Burnett to pitch a reality show about Alaska.