The beauty of Sunday’s Mad Men: it appealed to viewer’s fascination with swaggering, confident antiheroes while also questioning it.
Reliable Sources Answers: Who Shall Critique the Media Critic?
More interesting than the individual elements of the Howard Kurtz controversy was seeing a TV host answer for them on his own show.
Game of Thrones Watch: The Game Is the Game (of Thrones)
Like HBO’s The Wire, “The Climb” showed how individuals get sacrificed by organizations: not bureaucracies and drug gangs, but royal houses and religions.
TV Tonight: Maron
In its first three episodes, the abrasive, often funny Maron is a deep dive into the bottomless reservoir of neurosis as a font of comedy.
The Americans Watch: It’s a Knockout
Elizabeth and Philip play a game without frontiers in a confident ending to one of the best debut drama seasons in recent years.
Game of Thrones Watch: The Walking Dead
Winning the Iron Throne is the Targaryens’ and Lannisters’ and Baratheons’ and Starks’ problem. But Westeros’ problem is that it’s had a lot of really crappy kings.
It’s Not TV, It’s Amazon; What Do the Site’s New Pilots Offer That the Networks Don’t?
Like big networks and premium channels, streaming programmers need a brand. So far, Amazon’s involves raw, cable-style laughs and something for the kids.
Two Cheers for CNN
Things haven’t been pretty at CNN lately, but Anthony Bourdain and Jake Tapper suggest two ways the network can get interesting without getting dumb.
TV Tonight: Rectify
Sundance’s meditative drama about a man released from death row is pokey, atmospheric, and the opposite of plot-driven. And it’s one of the best things I expect to see on TV all year.
Earning It: Office Darwinism on Mad Men and The Good Wife
Last night’s episodes of both dramas showed that their firms can be unfair places to work—and some of the same characters we sympathize with like it that way.
Game of Thrones Watch: Fire and Reign
Why is fire so important in Game of Thrones? Because it’s like magic: a means through which something material becomes intangible. Also, it’s freaking awesome.
Boston Manhunt: Scrambling, Waiting, and Digging for Meaning on a Surreal Media Day
Somehow, in years of post-9/11 terrorist fiction, no one had created a narrative for the American-immigrant, high-school-athlete, Eminem-quoting mass-terrorism suspect.
Dead Tree Alert: The TIME 100, TV Edition
The annual TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people is out. And the path to influence in this world being what it is, not a few of those people are involved with TV.
