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

Dead Tree Alert: When Judges Won't Judge; Plus, Last Night's Idol-imination

My column in this week’s paper-and-iPad TIME is about the success of American Idol‘s new judging panel, which has done a 180 from the Simon Cowell era by abandoning meanness—and, pretty much, any other form of criticism. Idol’s ratings are up (if slightly) for the first time in a few years, but we now have [...]

+News Media | 273 days ago

Will and Kate Colonize American TV, for a Morning

By James Poniewozik

Maybe the best weddings to be invited to are those thrown by distant but rich acquaintances. You get to attend the bash and enjoy the digs, but without the family drama or personal investment. Just so, the attraction of a British royal wedding, for an American audience, is that it’s a freebie. It may be [...]

+Uncategorized | 273 days ago

The Office Watch: Leaving On a Jet Plane

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for Steve Carell’s last episode of The Office: “The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. I mean, you don’t know them, it wasn’t your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family. But probably all you have in common [...]

+News Media | 274 days ago

Lara Logan Speaks Out About Her Assault

By James Poniewozik

Over two months after she was badly beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, CBS’s Lara Logan is recounting the ordeal for Sunday’s 60 Minutes (I can’t embed the CBS video in our blog template, but here’s a link). She’s also done an interview with the New York Times’ Brian Stelter, [...]

+Review Movies | 274 days ago

Fast Five: The First Great Post-Human Movie

By Richard Corliss

Forget character and dialogue. In a movie like Fast Five it’s the action, not the acting, that matters

+Uncategorized | 274 days ago

The Morning After: A Bite of Apple

By James Poniewozik

It’s going to be interesting seeing how the 15th season of South Park plays out, now that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are Broadway stars with The Book of Mormon. As it was, the past season or so have felt off, with more and more episodes devoted to parodies of cable reality shows or material–like [...]

+Uncategorized | 274 days ago

Justified Watch: Family Feud

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s Justified follow: In a recent Justified post, I noted how the show had developed its cast so well that it can hold my attention even without Raylan Givens. Last night’s “Reckoning” didn’t change that opinion—much of it, especially Jeremy Davies’ work, only underscored it. But it also emphasized, undeniably, that Timothy [...]

+Uncategorized | 275 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 6

By James Poniewozik

It was Carole King week, as the half-dozen finalists sang the work of the song-scribe and recording artist whom, I assume, their grandparents once told them about. Who made the Earth move? Who made us want to go so far away? Click on the pix for my reviews: Read Last Week’s Review of the American [...]

+Uncategorized | 275 days ago

Glee Watch: Turning Lebanese

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s Glee follow: “Born This Way” was something different for Glee: a 90-minute episode (even if a lot of that extra time was for commercials). And in another it was something absolutely ordinary for Glee: a return to its default theme of difference and acceptance. The former fact made the episode a [...]

+News Media | 275 days ago

Congratulations, America, Donald Trump Is the Boss of You

By James Poniewozik

Today, with a precarious economy, rising gas prices and three wars under way, the President of the United States of America held a press conference to announce the release of his original birth certificate, to prove that he is eligible to hold his office and quell a controversy fomented by a reality-show judge who by [...]

+Uncategorized | 275 days ago

The Morning After: Hundred Grand

By James Poniewozik

Last night, I went to the TIME 100 gala at the Time Warner Center’s Live at Lincoln Center, which means I can answer the question you’re all dying to know about: yes, Blake Lively‘s hair is red now! The late night (I know, I know, cry me a river) means I’ll be behind in my [...]

+276 days ago

TV Tonight: The Voice

By James Poniewozik

Tonight, NBC debuts The Voice, the American Idol knockoff from Mark Burnett. (Not to be confused with Burnett’s American Idol knockoff Rock Star.) The Voice, from the previews, is a singing competition, but it differs in its hook: the panel (Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton) first rate singers with their [...]

+News Media | 276 days ago

It's Official: Katie Couric Leaving CBS Evening News

By James Poniewozik

The Great Katie Experiment is over: Katie Couric has announced, via an interview with TIME sibling People magazine, that she is leaving CBS as evening news anchor. CBS brought Couric on in 2006 to bring in star power, generate buzz and grow the audience. She accomplished the first two. About her third-place struggle at the [...]

+News Media | 276 days ago

Current Sets Date for the New/Old Countdown With Keith Olbermann

By James Poniewozik

Current TV, the earnest-but-little-viewed cable channel founded by Al Gore, has announced the new title for its version of Countdown With Keith Olbermann: It will be called Countdown With Keith Olbermann. It launches June 20. If there’s news in the new/old title, I suppose you could interpret it as a signal of purpose for the [...]

+Uncategorized | 276 days ago

Donald Trump Would Like You To Just Take His Word About the Missing Birth Certificate

By James Poniewozik

Donald Trump, the reality-show judge who is not running for President but would very much like you to believe that he is—see my colleague Alex Altman’s explanation as to why—went on Anderson Cooper 360 last night to enable America to pay attention to him on TV. The show had done a yet-again debunking of the [...]

+Uncategorized | 276 days ago

TIME 100, the TV Edition

By James Poniewozik

TIME throws its annual Time 100 gala again tonight in Manhattan, a party that, like the list itself, brings together world leaders, innovators and celebrities in one place and, unlike the list, forces them to share oxygen with nerdy journalists like myself. (Follow me on Twitter if you want to see what I might say [...]

+Uncategorized | 277 days ago

Ron Swanson's Turkey Burger Made Flesh

By James Poniewozik

Parks and Recreation has for some time been the best and most hilarious comedy on TV. It is now also the most tasty. In last week’s “Soulmates,” Ron Swanson, asked by Chris if he had ever had a turkey burger, replied: “Is that a fried turkey leg inside a grilled hamburger? If so, yes. Delicious.” [...]

+Uncategorized | 277 days ago

Please Help Me Care About the Royal Wedding

By James Poniewozik

I’m back from vacation! And just in time—sigh—to catch a week’s worth of buildup to the wedding of two highly privileged people who hold no actual power in my country. (Nor, really, in their own.) The wedding of Bonnie Prince Smiley and Commoner Kate, the Best Person in the World, will consume American media from [...]