Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 493 days ago

Glee Watch: Back to School

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the second-season premiere of Glee coming up: If there was one thing season one of Glee trained us for, it was never to know what was coming next. The show could go from scattershot and goofy to assured and transcendent within a week, from wacky fantasy to heartfelt realism between commercial breaks, in [...]

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Tuned In+TV Ratings | 494 days ago

HBO Renews New Hit Boardwalk Empire; Fox Puts the Lone in Star

By James Poniewozik

I say this often enough that I should make it an annual boilerplate disclaimer: when I say that I like a show, I’m not predicting it will be a hit. It’s not snobbery, and it’s not not snobbery; they’re just two entirely different issues. There are great shows that have broad commercial potential (Lost) and [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 494 days ago

TV Tonight: What Do You Do for a Second Act?

By James Poniewozik

Say you create a sitcom that you’re really proud of. You like it, critics like it, it develops a loyal fan base. It has its run and goes off the air, maybe sooner than you’d have liked, sooner than your fans would have liked, before you’ve had a chance to really tell all the stories [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 494 days ago

The Morning After: A Full Dance Card

By James Poniewozik

Last night was the biggest night of television so far in the 2010-11 season. It was also the first night of television of the 2010-11 season. But still, it was pretty big. Monday saw the debuts of The Event, Chase, Hawaii Five-0, Mike and Molly and my favorite new broadcast show of the season, Lone [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 494 days ago

HIMYM Watch: High Six?

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s season premiere of How I Met Your Mother coming up: When last we left HIMYM Watch, your humble narrator was close to giving up. For four seasons I’d adored the show, love the characters, the quick humor, the play, the nonlinear storytelling and the commitment to Ted’s quest for love. Last [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 495 days ago

Tickle Me, Elmo: Katy Perry Weirds Out Sesame Street

By James Poniewozik

From the upcoming 41st season of Sesame Street: 1. Is it just the aftereffects of watching that Candyland “California Gurls” video, or does this child-friendly version of Katy Perry’s Hot N Cold (“You want to play / So I wore dress-up clothes”) actually sound dirtier than the original? 2. Did no one do a wardrobe [...]

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Tuned In+495 days ago

TV to Skip Tonight: The Event, Mike & Molly

By James Poniewozik

One of the most anticipated—and to me, disappointing—debuts of the fall is tonight’s The Event on NBC. My feelings haven’t changed much since I previewed an early version in July. (“The Event, really, feels more like NBC’s attempt to create the next FlashForward: an extremely plot-forward sci-fi thriller with a Big Question and no characters [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 495 days ago

Mad Men Watch: Women's Movements

By James Poniewozik

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, hop a train to the city and watch last night’s Mad Men with your father’s “friend.” No one knows where the next revolution is coming from. I suppose that’s why they’re revolutions. So it is that when hipster journalist Abe sits down with Peggy and starts talking her [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+495 days ago

TV Tonight: Lone Star

By James Poniewozik

Bob Allen (James Wolk), as he tells us in the pilot of Lone Star (Fox, debuts 9 p.m. E.T. tonight), is in the “relationship business.” Boy, is he ever. He has a beautiful girlfriend (Eloise Mumford) in Midland, Texas, where he sells land shares in an energy-development deal. And he has a beautiful wife (Adrienne [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 495 days ago

Rubicon Watch: Movin' Out

By James Poniewozik

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, pack up a tomato and a gun and go watch last night’s Rubicon with someone you barely know. Who among us hasn’t opened our door at nearly midnight, let in an attractive stranger we only know by sight (pickup line: “You looked pretty”), and agreed to a date [...]

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Tuned In+TV Recap Boardwalk Empire: Season 1, Episode 1 | 495 days ago

Boardwalk Empire Watch: Land of Opportunity

By James Poniewozik
HBO

I plan/hope to do a full-fledged Boardwalk Empire Watch, but with a looming deadline and Mad Men and Rubicon on the same night, with network premiere week looming—and having just published my review based on the first six episodes—I’m going to give myself a partial bye from doing an all-out review this week. (There’s a [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | 496 days ago

Maher Reveals O'Donnell "Witchcraft" Tape; Candidate Makes Self Disappear

By James Poniewozik

Who didn’t do regrettable things in the ’90s? Grew a goatee? [Raises hand.] Bought a Limp Bizkit CD? Went on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and recalled having “dabbled into witchcraft,” not considering that you might some day run for the U.S. Senate? This is the pickle Christine O’Donnell finds herself in, after Maher went [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 498 days ago

Hawaii Five-0: Broadcast Takes a Vacation from Ambition

By James Poniewozik

The premise behind the remake of Hawaii Five-0, debuting Monday night, is that Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), head of an elite Federal task force in the Aloha State, has been given carte blanche, nearly unlimited resources and tools and vast leeway to accomplish his job by almost any means necessary. That also, it would seem, [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 498 days ago

Jon Stewart to Rally for Sanity. Good Luck With That!

By James Poniewozik

If your Potentially Best Thing Ever alarm went off this morning and you’re not quite sure why, here’s the explanation. Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart went Glenn Beck on us and announced a rally in Washington, DC for Sat. Oct. 30. The purpose of the Rally to Restore Sanity: to take back [...]

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Tuned In+498 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Boardwalk Empire Review

By James Poniewozik

My review of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, premiering Sunday night, is in the new print TIME. (There’s also a bonus Web exclusive of pretty pictures from the set.) We went with the same “Jersey Shore” headline as did the New York Times, Newsweek, and, I am guessing, your cousin’s blog. I am not proud of this. [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 499 days ago

E! Plans Bridal Plastic-Surgery Competition

By James Poniewozik

First, reality TV gave us Bridezillas; now it’s going to construct Frankenbrides. According to the Hollywood Reporter, E! has ordered Bridalplasty, a new reality show in which brides-to-be compete for plastic-surgery procedures. Each week, James Hibberd reports, ” a group of women competes head-to-head in such challenges as writing wedding vows and planning honeymoons. The [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 499 days ago

The Morning After: Never Trust Anybody Under 30, or Over 40

By James Poniewozik

Quick hail-of-bullets-style spoilers for Survivor: Nicaragua coming up: * For a Survivor installment built around a high-concept gimmick, Survivor: Youngs Vs. Olds is not, so far, terribly interesting for that gimmick. This may be because the producers decided to crowd that gimmick with at least two others.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 499 days ago

Top Chef Watch: Asian Flu

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the finale of Top Chef DC coming up: Top Chef DC ended its run in Singapore, but it started off in our nation’s capital, and it tried to structure its challenges around Washington, its culture and its politics. So it’s fitting that the end of the season should come down to a choice [...]