Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 607 days ago

Breaking Bad Watch: Working at the Car Wash

By James Poniewozik

Brief spoilers for last night’s Breaking Bad coming up after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Remembrance | 610 days ago

Gary Coleman, 1968-2010

By James Poniewozik

Gary Coleman, best-known for his performance as a child actor as Arnold Jackson in Diff’rent Strokes, died today of a brain hemorrhage. He was 42. Coleman will be remembered by people who grew up with his catchphrase (“Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”) and his portrayal of a spunky kid from Harlem who, with his brother, was [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 610 days ago

The Morning After: FlashForward, Over and Out

By James Poniewozik

Brief spoilers for FlashForward’s SeasonSeries finale coming up. It is cheap and too easy, I realize, to cite FlashForward as a comparison point to Lost’s finale. If you believe Lost failed, then another show’s greater failings do not make it any better. But in the end, it’s still instructive. Having a plan from the beginning [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 610 days ago

Today in Week-Old Sitcom Reviews: Community, Parks & Rec, 30 Rock

By James Poniewozik

Because of a mad rush of stuff at the end of last week and the beginning of this one, I didn’t manage end-of-season writeups on any of NBC’s Thursday comedies except The Office. Tuned Inlanders have asked about them since then, and thought I might as well post something an even week later. Briefly, then, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 611 days ago

The Morning After: That Which Is Not American Idol Edition

By James Poniewozik

It was a hard night for any show that did not involve young people paired up with aging singers. But American Idol’s ratings, while still enviable, have been on the decline, so somebody had to have been watching something else. Perhaps it was you! Any Criminal Minds partisans in Tuned Inland? (Ah, Paget Brewster—how sad [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 611 days ago

The LOST Finale and Season 6, Reconsidered

By James Poniewozik

In the Lost podcast I posted Tuesday, Maureen Ryan, Ryan McGee and I hashed over how our thoughts on the finale had evolved over a couple days. Before the finale aired, I had considered following up a few days after the finale with a second review. I’m not going to do that, yet anyway. In [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 611 days ago

Idol Watch: Hello Idol, Goodbye Simon

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the finale of 2010′s American Idol, after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Remembrance | 612 days ago

Art Linkletter, 1912-2010

By James Poniewozik

Art Linkletter died today at age 97. Over his decades as an entertainer, he had many roles—radio host, TV host, celebrity endorser, comic, anti-drug crusader—but his best-known work came in TV and radio shows based on a simple idea: that ordinary people are tremendously entertaining. In People Are Funny, Linkletter gave out prizes to people [...]

+Movies | 612 days ago

Top 10 Worst Chick Flicks

By Laura Fitzpatrick
Everett

TIME takes a look at some of the absolutely terrible films that have been cynically pitched at female audiences.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 612 days ago

The Good Wife Watch: Compromising Positions

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the season finale of The Good Wife: The Good Wife‘s first season ended–well, almost ended–with Alicia and Peter Florrick standing in a backstage corridor, very much like the one where she hauled off and slapped him across the face for betraying her in the show’s pilot. The pilot was a very good one, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 612 days ago

Glee Watch: Going Gaga

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s Glee coming up: After a string of improved episodes, especially last week’s high point, “Dream On,” I was nervous about “Theatricality,” because it was another episode devoted to showcasing a particular artist. I know some fans vehemently disagree with me, but “The Power of Madonna” was an example of how Glee [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 612 days ago

The Morning After: On the Hoof

By James Poniewozik

There is a limit to the number of overstuffed reality-competition extravaganzas I’m willing to cover, even to support my family, so if you’re looking for commentary on last night’s Dancing with the Stars finale here, you’ll have to provide it yourself. I’m playing catch-up on season-finale night, so I hope to have quick writeups on [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 612 days ago

American Idol: The Final Performances

By James Poniewozik

It was the last performance night of the season, and Simon Cowell’s last judging night ever. Will it be the rocker or the folkie? The paint-store worker or the coffee-house singer? The husky-voiced guy or the husky-voiced gal? Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox squared off to be the ninth American Idol: click the pix to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 613 days ago

Because You Haven't Heard Enough LOST Finale Talk…

By James Poniewozik

…here’s an hour and change more, courtesy of the good offices of Ryan McGee of Zap2It and Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, plus yours truly. We walked about how our views of the finale have evolved (or not) over 36 hours, the polarized online debate over the ending, our thoughts on the ending itself [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 613 days ago

The Morning After: 24 Stops (or Pauses?) the Clock

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the series finale of 24 coming up: 24 came onto the air in 2001 as a form-breaking serial that looked strikingly different from anything else on TV. As all successful insurgents do over time, though, it became another institution, with its own familiar forms, tropes and patterns. And last night, 24 said goodbye—to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 613 days ago

HIMYM Watch: Conceiving of Change

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for How I Met Your Mother’s season finale coming up: We’ve reached the end of another season of How I Met Your Mother. How far have we come? Robin dated Barney, then dated Don, and is now single again. Barney is hooking up with as many people as possible. Ted is… well, Ted is [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 614 days ago

Those Other Finales: Time's Up for 24, Law & Order

By James Poniewozik

The finale of Lost belonged to that rare, much-analyzed and treacherous category of series finale: the ending of a TV phenomenon while it’s still a phenomenon. Success or disaster, only a handful of series—Seinfeld, Friends, The Fugitive, The Sopranos—get this kind of send-off, much less at a time of their own choosing. There are other, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 614 days ago

Watch Together, Judge Alone: What Everyone Else Thought of Lost's "The End"

By James Poniewozik

I’m not going to be good for much today beyond reading other critics’ and bloggers’ writeups of Lost, so I can at least be of some use to you and refer you to some of the other opinions I’ve been reading this morning: Myles McNutt, Cultural Learnings: “Beautiful and heartwrenching, ‘The End’ captures more than [...]