James Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Tuned In, the blog version, is about the stuff we used to call "TV," whether it's in your living room, on your computer or - once the networks figure out the technology and line up the advertisers - in your dreams themselves.
OK, Mr. Killjoy TV Critic: you didn’t like The Company–what am I supposed to watch on TV this Sunday? One of cable’s best low-key pleasures of 2006, IFC’s The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, is back for a second season. Starring, created and written by the brassily sardonic Laura Kightlinger, it’s a sort …
The Dow Jones / News Corp. deal has entered the 2008 Democratic primary, with Fox News as the new Willie Horton. In an e-mail to supporters, John Edwards called on Democrats to speak out against the merger and “take the necessary steps” to stop it.
Regular readers know that I’m pretty libertarian on media-and-government issues. (Though …
SPOILER ALERT: Watch last night’s Mad Men before you read this. And don’t forget the cake.
This week’s was the first episode of Mad Men I didn’t receive an advance screener of, and so watched on TV like a civilian. So it was the first time I saw the interview segments after the show with Matthew Weiner and the cast, talking about the …
In the print TIME this week, a brief review of TNT’s six-hour CIA miniseries The Company, debuting Sunday night. I’m loath to expand on it, because the review is the only thing brief associated with this mini. A history of the cold war told through the stories of a set of American and Russian spies, it covers much the same thematic and …
Has the Tuned In community embraced Damages? I had considered giving it Watch status this summer but last week’s post drew an underwhelming response, so maybe the show doesn’t merit it. Or maybe it’s me.
Anyway, brief, mildly spoiler-y thoughts on episode 2, because it’s been a while since I screened it. I was a bit skeptical about Ted …
This week: the white rabbits. Yes, I posted about this last week, but it was late on a Friday, there was no good video available yet, and also, dude! White rabbits! Magically multiplying! Like rabbits! That’s good for at least two posts! Here’s the video, screened by Lost’s producers at ComicCon last week:
Filming for Shark Week’s Perfect Predators. Doug Perrine/Seapics.com
Sharks have legs. In its 20th year, Discovery Channel’s Shark Week had its biggest debut ever, drawing 3.9 million viewers to Ocean of Fear: The Worst Shark Attack Ever on Sunday night. There’s the publicity pull of the big 20th anniversary, of course, but I suspect …
Queen Babs has filled one of the vacancies at The View roundtable, hiring Whoopi Goldberg. From the ABC press release:
Barbara Walters, creator/executive producer and co-host of ABC’s “The
View,†officially announced today, live on “The View,†that Whoopi Goldberg has
been named moderator of her Emmy®
The morning after News Corp.’s all-but-finalized acquisition of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, Fox News Channel demonstrated the fairness and balance it’s world famous for. “Oh, come on, let’s just say it! I’m excited!” said Fox business correspondent Dagen McDowell, flashing a smile the width of an ear of corn. “Who isn’t …
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let’s get on …
Sifting through the weekend reports from ComicCon, I came across a bit of news from the 24 panel there. OK, so first question: 24 presents at ComicCon why? Maybe we can take it as an admission that the show has become so implausible it should best be treated as science fiction. That, at least, is the conclusion I draw from the news, …
Lewis (left) works at home. Bravo Photo: Isabella Vosmikova
We had CNNFN, we have CNBC, coming up this fall we’ll have the Fox Business Channel or the Ha Ha I Own Dow Jones Channel or whatever it ends up being called. But I increasingly have the feeling that Bravo has become America’s dominant business channel without anybody knowing …
SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read this post until you’ve watched Big Love. With a butterscotch sundae and a Seven-Up.
HBO photo: Lacey Terrell
So despite the HBO promos last week declaring that this would be the Big Love everyone was going to talk about, I didn’t see that coming. (I had my money on Lois whacking someone, probably Frank.) …