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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 302 days ago

Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em: AMC, Weiner Reach Multi-Year Mad Men Deal

By James Poniewozik

The turbulence and unrest of the 1960s are finally over—the turbulence and unrest, that is, having to do with Mad Men‘s contract renewal negotiations with AMC. The network announced today that it struck a deal with Matthew Weiner for seasons five and six of the show, while Weiner also signed with Lionsgate studio for a [...]

+Review Movies | 302 days ago

Source Code: A Sci-Fi Groundhog Day, with Bombs

By Mary Pols
Jonathan Wenk / Summit Entertainment Inc.

Duncan Jones played with twisted realities in “Moon.” Now he’s back, scrambling up the timeline with “Source Code:” The story of a military man who can relive the last eight minutes of another’s life, on the hunt for a train bomber

+Review Movies | 302 days ago

Heartbreaking Trust: A 14-Year-Old Star Is Born

By Mary Pols
Chuck Hodes / Millenium Entertainment / Everett Collection

Director David Schwimmer’s grim story of Internet-based pedophilia is hard to watch but impossible to ignore

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 302 days ago

The Peabody Awards Justify Their Love

By James Poniewozik

Appropriately enough after its strongest episode so far this season—including a flat-out stunning performance by Margo Martindale (above)—Justified headed the list of nearly 40 broadcast programs honored by the Peabody Awards this year. The (long) list follows the jump, but among the standout choices to me are Men of a Certain Age, ESPN’s 30 for [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 302 days ago

Top Chef Watch: Coup de Gras

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for last night’s Top Chef All-Stars coming up: In last night’s finale, Richard Blais and Mike Isabella flung foie gras ice cream against pepperoni sauce in the Top Chef All-Stars final round. Two four-course meals later, the Toppest Chef of all time is…

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 303 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 11, Redux — Did Casey Vindicate Himself?

By James Poniewozik

The eleven remaining Idols gathered last night to sing the songs of Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Who Crocodile Rocked it? Who’s going to hit that Yellow Brick Road? Click the pix for my reviews: Read Last Week’s Review of the American Idol Performances

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Tuned In+303 days ago

A Second Look At: Bob's Burgers

By James Poniewozik

When it first debuted, I thought that Bob’s Burgers was worth keeping an eye on, despite a slow start, because of some appealing writing and the general past level of creator Loren Bouchard’s work. I’m ready to upgrade it now: this show is going on my Season Pass list, and if you haven’t checked it [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 303 days ago

The Morning After: Odd Body

By James Poniewozik

I don’t know if we can blame The Mentalist or The Closer or House or Monk, or whether we can trace the causes much, much farther back in history, but we are presently up to our occipital lobes in eccentric doctors/inverstigators who annoy their colleagues with their quirks yet get the job done. At this [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 303 days ago

The Good Wife Watch: Alien Nation

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for last night’s The Good Wife coming up: We’re well into The Good Wife‘s second season, and at long last, the longest, most expensive and highest-profile State’s Attorney’s race that has ever been held is approaching its close. On top of that, the battle for control of Lockhart Gardner and Bond has ended [...]

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Tuned In+304 days ago

Mad Men Held Hostage: Drama over Advertising on an Advertising Drama

By James Poniewozik

I had unofficially resolved not to blog on any of the gossip and reports over the negotiations for the Season 5 return of Mad Men, figuring I’d just pick up the news when the inevitable renewal announcement finally came. It hasn’t, but from the reports, things are getting interesting. Don’t get me wrong: whatever egos [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 304 days ago

The Morning After: The Showtime Goes On

By James Poniewozik

There’s an odd side effect to Showtime mailing out critics entire seasons of shows like Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara in advance: I get so paralyzed by the impossibility of finding time to watch the entire thing that I often end up watching nothing ahead of time. So I saw the season-three debuts [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 305 days ago

Ken Burns Going Back to War, This Time in Vietnam

By James Poniewozik

When he was making the rounds for his World War II documentary in 2007, Ken Burns told me (and other reporters) that he had finally decided to make a film about Vietnam too. Here’s what he said at the time: Not today, but–there was a point where, with the same vehemence of conviction that I [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | 305 days ago

The NY Times Paywall Goes Up. When Is It Immoral to Go Around It?

By James Poniewozik

This afternoon, the digital paywall goes up at the New York Times. The Times’ effort to charge online has begun to be treated like the Helm’s Deep of journalism: a last, best stand by the forces of light against the ravening hordes of aggregation and bankruptcy. (Last week’s 30 Rock, about the decline of writing, [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 305 days ago

The Morning After: Great Recession vs. Great Depression

By James Poniewozik

We’re heading into a TV midseason full of debuts: Game of Thrones, The Borgias, The Killing and Camelot on cable, various replacements including Paul Reiser’s sitcom on the broadcast networks—not to mention specials like Human Planet on Discovery next month. But we still have some business to get out of the way. Last night, we [...]

+Review Movies | 308 days ago

Sucker Punch: Don't Drink the Kool-Aid

By Richard Corliss
Warner Bros.

Director Zack Snyder’s limp stab at girl-power fantasia wusses out on divine delirium

+Books | 308 days ago

Top 10 Kids' Book Series We Miss

By TIME Staff
kidsbooksseries_tout

The writers at TIME are not as old as you think. Here are the kids’ and young-adult books we cherished in our younger years.

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Tuned In+308 days ago

TV Weekend: Mildred Pierce

By James Poniewozik

As a director, Todd Haynes (Safe, I’m Not There) sometimes seems less like a filmmaker than an enthusiast: a collector, say, of a certain brand of out-of-production figurine (he cast his early Karen Carpenter biopic, Superstar, with Barbie dolls) or a passionate fan of a highly particular out-of-fashion design genre. His 2002 film Far from [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 308 days ago

Best of Both Universes: Fringe Renewed! (But Lights Out for Lights Out)

By James Poniewozik

Strawberry milkshakes for everyone! Fringe, whose ratings have not exactly been keeping pace with its creative growth, was officially picked up for a full fourth season yesterday. I was modestly optimistic the show would be saved—though it’s ratings have fallen off, arguably they’ve fallen less than you would have guessed when it moved from high-profile [...]