Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 106 days ago

The Morning After: A House Is Not a Home

By James Poniewozik
FX

For its second episode, American Horror Story (which I reviewed at length earlier) dialed back the crazy and the feverish imagery, but just a touch. At the same time, it gave us a bigger download of the house’s history and mythology

+Review Movies | 106 days ago

Footloose: A Remake That's Hokey But Heartfelt

By Richard Corliss
K.C. Bailey / Paramount Pictures

Hokey but heartfelt, this remake of the old musical preaches that teens can dance their way out of the Recession

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 106 days ago

My Rosie Serenade; or, You Don’t Really Care for Music, Do You?

By James Poniewozik
OWN

So yesterday in my review of the then-two-day-old The Rosie Show on OWN, I riffed on Rosie O’Donnell’s quoting of her show’s critical reviews during her monologue: “Just in case,” I wrote, “it’s Pah-nuh-WAH-zick.’” Rosie, and her head writer Karen Kilgariff, evidently took this as a challenge, and also discovered that my surname has the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 106 days ago

TV Tonight: Community Rolls the Die

By James Poniewozik
NBC

Community has always been a deeply but not broadly loved sitcom, and its fans may be justifiably nervous about its future given the season’s ratings so far. (The show gave a meta-nod to these worries a few episodes ago, with Abed’s anxiety over the prospects of Cougar Town: “Six seasons and a movie!”) Well, if [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 107 days ago

Rosie O’Donnell, Queen of Dusk

By James Poniewozik
OWN

Rosie O’Donnell began the second night of her OWN network talk show, The Rosie Show, by reading a selection of reviews of the first night of The Rosie Show, for the audience to cheer or boo

+TV Recap Dancing with the Stars: Season 13, Episode 8 | 107 days ago

Dancing with the Stars Week Four Results: Chynna Phillips Can't Hold On

By Melissa Locker
ABC

Monday night on Dancing with the Stars saw everyone hoofing it to music from movies like Indiana Jones, Psycho and Toy Story.

+Review Movies | 107 days ago

The Big Year: Not Just for the Birds

By Mary Pols
Murray Close / Twentieth Century Fox

Big stars Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black go small and score in an unexpectedly sweet comedy.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 107 days ago

The Morning After: Parenthood, Now With More Parenthood

By James Poniewozik
NBC

I will admit that, when it comes to Parenthood, I am part of the problem. It’s always occupied a spot with me where I’m warm to the show but not driven enough to watch it live every week and thus blog about it.

+TV Recap House: Season 8, Episode 2 | 108 days ago

House Watch: The Return to Princeton Plainsboro

By John Cloud
Fox

We knew House had to get back to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, but it was a somber homecoming.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 108 days ago

TV Tonight: Last Man Standing

By James Poniewozik
ABC

On behalf of the men of the world, I want to apologize to women for the existence of Last Man Standing, ABC’s new Tim Allen comedy, if for no other reason than its existence seems predicated on the idea that I need to watch it to rediscover how to be a man. Also, I might [...]

+TV Recap Dancing with the Stars: Season 13, Episode 7 | 108 days ago

Dancing with the Stars Week Four Recap: Cher Visits Movie Night

By Melissa Locker
ABC via Getty Images

We hope you got out your popcorn and jujubes, because it was movie night on Dancing with the Stars, complete with honest-to-God Hollywood royalty in the audience.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 108 days ago

The Morning After: Enlightened: What Is This Show, Anyway?

By James Poniewozik
Enlightened

There are plenty of reasons to critique some of the half-hour series on HBO and Showtime (Weeds, Hung, The Big C) but the critique I’ve never gotten, nor had much patience for, is: “It’s supposed to be comedy, but it’s not funny enough!” I know that classifying things helps make sense of the world, and [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 109 days ago

Interview: Talking Gus Fring with Giancarlo Esposito

By James Poniewozik

Gustavo Fring, immigrant from Chile to Mexico to New Mexico, maker of delicious chicken, purveyor of high-quality crystal meth, was one of Breaking Bad’s greatest creations—and one of TV drama’s most memorable villains, period—but when he first appeared on the show in season two, there was barely a hint how essential he would become.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 109 days ago

Interview: Vince Gilligan on Breaking Bad’s Finale, Season Four and the Future

By James Poniewozik
Vince Gilligan

Last week, after watching a screener of Breaking Bad’s gut-punch of a season ending, I got on the phone with Vince Gilligan, who is about a nice a man as the creator of an unflinchingly dark crime thriller can be.

Tuned In
Tuned In+TV Recap Boardwalk Empire: Season 2, Episode 3 | 109 days ago

Boardwalk Empire Watch: Crank Up the Old Victrola

By James Poniewozik
HBO

Spoiler alert: Before you read this post, stop reading that derivative script about the rich society boy who falls for the servant girl and watch last night’s Boardwalk Empire. I need to keep this week’s Boardwalk Empire Watch brief, which is just as well, since “A Dangerous Maid” (1) dealt largely with advancing more pieces [...]

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Tuned In+TV Recap Breaking Bad: Season 4, Episode 13 | 109 days ago

Breaking Bad Watch: The One Who Knocks

By James Poniewozik
AMC

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, stop watching House, or something, and watch last night’s season finale of Breaking Bad. “A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks.” Walter White described himself thus to Skyler earlier in Breaking Bad season 4 [...]

+Box Office Report | 110 days ago

Box Office Battle of the Hunks: Jackman KO’s Clooney

By Richard Corliss
Everett

This weekend, Hugh Jackman needed a boxing robot to help Real Steel win the box office battle, while George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March came in second

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 112 days ago

TV Weekend: Breaking Bad Cooks Up Another Finale

By James Poniewozik
AMC

You probably don’t need a reminder if you’re interested, but Breaking Bad‘s season 4 finale is this Sunday. When last we left Walter White, he was crumpled on a roof, having found himself in a kill-or-be-killed situation with Gustavo Fring and having failed, at the last second, to end up on the “kill” side of [...]