Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 589 days ago

Celebs to IMDB: Stop Telling Our Ages!

By James Poniewozik

We may have to make this a Hollywood-ageism theme day: Betty White may be living large, but for the rest of the showbiz industry, age ain’t nothing but an zealously protected number. Now the Writer’s Guild of America has started a campaign to enable showbiz folks to be able to zap their ages from IMDB; [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Advertising | 589 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Last Golden Girl Standing

By James Poniewozik

The debut of Hot in Cleveland, starring Betty White with a trio of sitcom-nostalgia iconettes, attracted nearly 5 million viewers Wednesday night, making it the most-watched show on cable. Those numbers would be fairly decent for a broadcast network show (it’s not far from what, say, 30 Rock or Parks and Recreation draw), they’re outstanding [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 590 days ago

Seven Minutes Into the Futurama

By James Poniewozik

Do you really need a seven-minute video to catch you up on the plot of Futurama before it returns with original episodes on Comedy Central June 24? Probably not. Do you have anything better to do? Seeing as how you’re reading my blog, probably not. You’re welcome!

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 590 days ago

"Release the Sprachen!" Jon Stewart on Obama's Oil Spiel

By James Poniewozik

Yesterday I wrote about the mixed messages in Barack Obama’s oil spill address, but last night Jon Stewart took on the same theme and showed why he gets paid a zillion dollars to do his work on TV, while I have this little blog I run out of the less-nice part of my basement: “I’ve [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 590 days ago

Top Chef Watch: Landslide Victory?

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s premiere episode of Top Chef: DC follow: “I will set the presidents,” misspoke Angelo with perfect appropriateness, as he kicked off Top Chef‘s first series set in the nation’s capital by rolling to a win in both the Quickfire and the Elimination challenges. If the precedent has indeed been set, we [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 591 days ago

TV Tonight: Hot in Cleveland

By James Poniewozik

I am pretty sure that, this year, it is illegal to write anything negative about Betty White, at penalty of being severely Disliked by Facebook. So let me say upfront—and honestly—that White is easily the best thing about TV Land’s new sitcom Hot in Cleveland. It makes sense that White should cap off her yearlong [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 591 days ago

Obama's Oil Speech: The Choir Vs. the Preacher

By James Poniewozik

People who follow the news and politics closely come to a Presidential Oval Office speech with a list of expectations: policy aims, specific targets, forceful rhetoric, political positioning, expressions of leadership, definitions of problems, proposals of solutions, framing of issues and concrete calls to action. For the broad audience, a Presidential TV speech needs to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 592 days ago

Lawrence O'Donnell to Fill MSNBC 10:00 Slot

By James Poniewozik

MSNBC, which has for some time programmed its last hour of prime time with reruns of Countdown, has finally concluded its search for a 10  p.m. host—by hiring someone who has been on MSNBC approximately forever. (Sigh—sometimes it turns out The One has been right under your nose all along!) Lawrence O’Donnell, a former Democratic [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 592 days ago

The Morning After: What's the Buzz?

By James Poniewozik

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz while watching World Cup coverage bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz dominated bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bizarre and deafening sound bzzzzzzzzzzzz vuvuzelas bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz culturally beloved and ear-damaging horns bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ESPN has adjusted its sound mix bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz nonetheless bzzzzzzzzzzzz each game bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz like I’m in the freaking Houston Astrodome scene from The Swarm. So what do you think of the Cup coverage so [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 592 days ago

It's Official: Michaele Salahi to Crash Prime Time With Real Housewives of D.C.

By James Poniewozik

This morning, Bravo announced a premiere date (August 5) and cast for The Real Housewives of D.C. And in the not-exactly-a-surprise of the day, the cast includes White House party crasher (though she contests the characterization) and media gadfly Michaele Salahi. So if you have been wondering, America, if there is a sure route to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 592 days ago

Test Pilot: My Generation

By James Poniewozik

Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 593 days ago

The Morning After: Rubicon Job?

By James Poniewozik

After last night’s season finale of Breaking Bad, AMC aired a preview of its next drama series, the conspiracy thriller Rubicon, starring James Badge Dale, which begins in August. (Actually, though I didn’t catch the airing since I saw Breaking Bad on a screener, I believe AMC aired the full pilot. Update: They did, and [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 593 days ago

Winter Is Coming: HBO's First Game of Thrones Trailer

By James Poniewozik

The first Game of Thrones teaser is out. It’s short; it doesn’t say much; it doesn’t prvoe whether or not HBO will successfully wrestle the sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire books into a series. But damn, I cannot wait to see this.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 593 days ago

Breaking Bad Watch: Nowhere to Go But Up

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the season finale of Breaking Bad coming up: The story of Breaking Bad has been the story of Walter White crossing thresholds. It’s been a journey with him down a descending corridor leading further into his damnation, as he approaches one door after another and crosses—maybe with trepidation, maybe with doubt, maybe with [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 593 days ago

Treme Watch: Down to the Holy River

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s episode of Treme coming up: “Unlike plot-driven entertainments, there is no closure in real life. Not really.” —Creighton Bernette

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 595 days ago

FNL Watch: Get Out of Town

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for tonight’s Friday Night Lights coming up: Last week gave us some devastatingly emotional scenes in Friday Night Lights‘ “The Son,” a high-water mark for the season to this point, if not for the whole series. The followup, “Stay,” gave us a set of stories that were about aftermath: the aftermath of Matt’s father’s [...]

Tuned In
Tuned InComments closed596 days ago

TV Weekend: Thrice Bitten

By James Poniewozik

The second season of HBO’s True Blood ended on a cliffhanger, as vampire Bill asked mortal-or-mostly-mortal (I think) Sookie (a.k.a. “Suh-key”) for her hand in marriage, then disappeared after she asked for a minute alone to think. The first three episodes of True Blood’s season 3 arrived a while back, with the entirely reasonable request [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+596 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Breaking Bad, Breaking Best

By James Poniewozik

In the print issue of TIME on newsstands today, I have a piece on the amazing third season of Breaking Bad, which wraps up Sunday night. [Update: Oh, it's customary to link to the story, isn't it? Ahem.] I’ve been a broken record about this at the blog, but it’s really something that a show [...]