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Judging American Idol: The Final 4

Tonight, the four American Idol finalists sang songs that inspire them, plus the songs of Leiber and Stoller. (Inspired by the songs of Leiber and Stoller? Too bad!) Who was inspired? Who should be fired? Click the pix to read my reviews: Read Last Week’s Review of the American Idol Performances

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Ken Burns and Keith Olbermann, Together Again at Last

Keith Olbermann has announced a roster of regular contributors for his new iteration of Countdown on Current TV, premiering June 20. A lot of political attention will go to voices-from-the-left (and monogram buddies) Michael Moore and Markos Moulitsas, but my attention was captured by another name: Ken Burns, of PBS-documentary fame.

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The Good Wife Watch: An Affair to Forget

Quick spoilers for last night’s The Good Wife below: “Getting Off” was the first of a two-part season finale, so it seems to make sense to withhold judgment on the episode, by and large, until the season wraps up. The confrontation between Alicia and Kalinda was more satisfying than the legal case of the week; [...]

Bridesmaids: Kristin Wiig's Merry Band of Party Poopers

Suzanne Hanover / Universal Studios

Wrapped in slapstick and sweetened with romance, Bridesmaids is at its core a shrewd examination of female friendship and insecurity

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Humans, Targeted: Fox Adds & Cuts for Fall

The major-network “upfront” schedule announcements are next week, but as usual the programming news for next season is coming out earlier. Yesterday saw a major news dump from Fox, which announced several shows it would add and cut from its roster next year. Out: The Chicago Code, Traffic Light, Lie to Me, Breaking In and [...]

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Glee Watch: The Big Dance

Spoilers for last night’s Glee follow: Prom night, typically, is about failure to live up to expectations, the disparity between an impossible fantasy and an unattainable reality. It’s long stretches of mundanity, redeemed, if you’re lucky, by a few memorable moments. (So I’m told. That, or your date comes down with mono like two days [...]

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The Morning After: Demolition Man

Catchup from the few days I was out, prep work for the couple days I have ahead and general lack of enthusiasm for the episode itself keep me from writing at more length about last night’s How I Met Your Mother. Fortunately, Alan Sepinwall expresses many of my thoughts about both the episode and the [...]

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Fringe Watch: Flash Forward

Spoilers ahead for the Fringe season finale: Fringe committed more than ever to hardcore sci-fi, if that were possible, in its multipart finale, with mixed results. I thought the last installment, “The Day We Died,” was not Fringe’s finest moment as an individual finale. But it left me reasonably hopeful for the overarching storyline as [...]

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While I Was Out: The Old Man and the TV

I’m back from a long weekend in Dallas with Tuned In Jr. at the National Elementary Chess Championships. If you ever want to see something truly terrifying, sit in on a room full of hundreds of children at chessboards, staring in murderous silence at something that is not a handheld game system. I’ve got a [...]

Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell, at Home in Carver Country

John Estes / Roadside Attractions / AP

The comedy superstar takes a serious turn in a melancholy new drama

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Game of Thrones Watch: Sons of No One, Bastards of Young

Spoiler alert: Before you read this post, set up your DVR to record the big joust later, and watch last night’s Game of Thrones. One complaint, or at least comment, that I’ve heard about Game of Thrones so far is that the episodes are not really episodes. That is, even more so than most HBO [...]

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Parks and Recreation: Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors

Quick spoilers for last night’s Parks and Recreation coming up: Parks and Recreation is getting to the point that Breaking Bad did for me last year: it’s getting near-impossible to figure out how to whittle down which episode(s) I include on my year-end ten-best list while still leaving room for anything else. “Eagleton” was another [...]

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Programming Note

I’m traveling through Monday night, so posting will be light here. I’ll have a Game of Thrones Watch ready to robo-post after Sunday’s episode airs, and a post on last night’s Parks and Recreation, which I’ve seen in advance. But it will be a while before I catch up on Thursday-night and weekend TV, so [...]

The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time

Everett

TIME, feeling the need for speed, decided to choose the best car chase scenes of all time.

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Justified Watch: Mom, Baseball and Apple Pie

Spoilers ahead for the season finale of Justified: It could not have been more fitting that the climax of this fantastic season of Justified, “Bloody Harlan,” came with Mags Bennett telling a lie about her family, encased in a truth about family. Facing Loretta, whose father she poisoned, and staring down her own possible death, [...]

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Judging American Idol: The Final 5

Last night, the five remaining contestants on American Idol each sang a song from the present and one from a generation ago — a theme otherwise known as Now and Then; or, A Song, Plus Another Song to Make This Last 90 Minutes. Who made the past a blast? Who was a bad acid flashback? [...]

Thor: A Minor Marvel

Mark Fellman / Marvel Studios

The Norse god faces two daunting challenges: to vanquish his enemies in mythological Norway and modern-day New Mexico, and to top Fast Five at the box office

The Beaver: Are We Ready to Forgive Mel Gibson?

Ken Regan / Summit Entertainment

Mel Gibson’s real-life meltdown wrecked his career. His meltdown in Jodie Foster’s new drama, ‘The Beaver,’ could help save it