What’s good, bad and happening, from pop culture to high culture | Page 4

Obama to America: Open Your Eyes

It was fortunate coincidence that President Barack Obama was able to begin his memorial speech Wednesday in Tucson with a bit of good news. Before he spoke to the memorial for the victims of Saturday’s shootings, the President announced, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since her treatment for a [...]

+News Media | 380 days ago

Sarah Palin Steers Into the Skid

By James Poniewozik

Wait! Come back! I swear this is not one more post about Sarah Palin’s “blood libel” reference! Well, not exactly. I will leave it to others to judge the way she described her personal claim of unfair treatment in the media using the term for the charge that a religious minority, usually Jews, use the [...]

+Uncategorized | 380 days ago

BET Raises Its Game

By James Poniewozik

There are series that get low ratings and get cancelled. There are series that get low ratings, are nurtured by their networks, and gradually get better ratings. There are series that get low ratings, then move to another network for which they’re a better fit, and where the low ratings are more acceptable. And then [...]

+Movies | 380 days ago

Top 10 Movie Gimmicks

By TIME Staff

Australian director Baz Lurhmann recently hinted that he was considering filming The Great Gatsby in 3D, a format that has become a reliable cash cow for the movie industry. TIME looks at other Hollywood attempts to rack in extra dough and extra crowds.

+380 days ago

TV Tonight: First World Problems

By James Poniewozik

Do you like Grey’s Anatomy, but wish that the doctors’ private crises and personal issues were analogized to Third World suffering? Then you’ll love Off the Map! The new medical drama from Grey’s creator Shonda Rhimes, debuting tonight on ABC, was probably a no-brainer for the network to pick up, because it combined elements of [...]

+Uncategorized | 380 days ago

The Morning After: Lights On

By James Poniewozik

Time and interest permitting I may do a regular (or semiregular) Lights Out Watch here as the season goes on. Having some catching up to do, however, and having written about 1500 words on the show in my review this week, I’ll leave further breaking down of the pilot to you. I will say that [...]

+Uncategorized | 380 days ago

TCA Roundup: Shows Involving Jungles Edition

By James Poniewozik

I was away from my desk on personal business yesterday, which means that not only was I absent from the TCA press tour, I was absent from not being at TCA press tour. Herewith, a selection of headlines from the last two days, as the broadcast networks began presenting to assembled TV reporters: * Fox’s [...]

+Uncategorized | 380 days ago

I Have Seen 15 Minutes of Game of Thrones

By James Poniewozik

I’m not at TCA press tour where it was screened, but had a chance to stream the very, very impressive 15-minute preview reel of Game of Thrones that HBO put together. (No sharing permitted, alas; above is a preview featurette that HBO aired.) After the jump, a few impressions—don’t call this a “review,” because anyone [...]

+381 days ago

The Night Shift: Jon Stewart Confronts the Arizona Shootings, Makes a Passionate Appeal For Sanity and Hope

By Steven James Snyder

Talk about a hard night to be a late night comedian. Given the very public violence of the weekend, and the attempted assassination of a sitting United States congresswoman, more than a few media observers wondered aloud as to how the nation’s funny men would return to the air Monday night. In the case [...]

+381 days ago

TV Tonight: Lights Out

By James Poniewozik

[Special spoiler alert: The following review mentions certain plot points that, at first viewing, I thought would be spoilers, but that FX's commercials and promotions have abundantly given away--specifically, where the story goes after the pilot episode. I didn't give away anything I wouldn't want to know in advance, but in the event that you've [...]

+Movies | 382 days ago

Critics’ Awards: An Early Clue to the Oscars?

By Richard Corliss

The nationwide film critics’ associations have named their best films and actors of 2010, with ‘The Social Network,’ Colin Firth, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale taking an early lead for the Academy Awards

+Uncategorized | 382 days ago

TCA Roundup: AMC, HBO Set Dates

By James Poniewozik

While I shiver at my desk and another snowstorm practices on the South before heading up the East Coast, my TV critic brethren are still sitting through hours of TV executive presentations at the TCA press tour. Who has it worse? You be the judge! Over the weekend, the people-who-write-about-TV heard from the remaining cable [...]

+Uncategorized | 382 days ago

The Morning After: Walk of Shame

By James Poniewozik

As I wrote in my roundup Friday, it was a big weekend for midseason TV debuts, and it was all I could do to keep up. If any Tuned Inlanders caught Bob’s Burgers (for which I’m optimistic, with reservations), Episodes (mixed, but improves as it goes on), Downton Abbey (looks great but have yet to [...]

+News Media | 382 days ago

Did Extreme Talk Pull The Trigger? Wrong Question

By James Poniewozik

One of my first reactions to the sickening shooting in Arizona, and to the charge that it resulted from violent imagery from politicians and media figures: the Rally for Sanity is suddenly not looking so wishy-washy and irrelevant for focusing on the tone of politics. One of my next reactions: something else will happen. At [...]

+Remembrance | 384 days ago

Remembering Anne Francis (1930-2011)

By Richard Corliss

Francis died Sunday, Jan. 2, of pancreatic cancer at a rest home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 80.

+Uncategorized | 385 days ago

TV Weekend: Burgers and Sides

By James Poniewozik

This weekend, midseason-debut frenzy kicks into high gear, with several new shows debuting on Sunday alone. I’m on deadline for the print magazine, as well as trying to get some work done in advance before taking some time for personal business next week, so I don’t have time to review any of them at length. [...]

+Uncategorized | 385 days ago

TCA Roundup: Oprah Speaks. And Speaks…

By James Poniewozik

The cable portion of the Television Critics’ Association winter press tour has begun in Los Angeles. As appealing as Southern California—or even the inside of a hotel conference room—sounds from Brooklyn right now, I am not attending, for reasons personal and professional. But here are some highlights from the coverage so far, and I’ll keep [...]