There was another election 2012 debate last night, with a moderator and two candidates, and this time all three showed up.
Dead Tree Alert: Big Bird Is a Republican
OK, he’s not, literally. (Though he was the first one to see the elephant. Coincidence?) But as I write in my print TIME column this week, one thing that’s been lost in the debate over PBS funding is that PBS not only serves …
TV Tonight: Nashville
Remember when everyone knew that musicals did not work on TV? An age ago—three, maybe four years—it was common knowledge that TV audiences would reject dramas in which people burst into song as hopelessly implausible or …
Friday Night Lights and the Politicians Who Love It
Capping off what had already been a strong week in the debate and the polls, yesterday Mitt Romney secured the coveted Bissinger endorsement. Sports journalist Buzz Bissinger wrote a piece for The Daily Beast saying that he …
Homeland Watch: The Inside Man
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, turn on your classified satellite-video link and watch last night’s Homeland.
“It fucked me up, Saul. Being wrong about Brody… It makes me not trust my own thoughts. Every time I …
Glee Watch: The Mature Thing
Glee only occasionally gets accused of realism–musical, dramatic or otherwise. But at its best, the show can be emotionally real and raw; it finds ways of capturing truths about growing up that teen shows rarely notice. Its …
Debate Watch: Obama Eats Up the Clock, But Romney Sets the Agenda
During the first Presidential debate last night, CNN ran a clock on screen showing how long each candidate had spoken in total. It reminded me of a time-of-possession clock in a football game. In a game, if one team burns more of the clock, it can mean that they’re controlling the ball, defending their lead, denying their opponents the …
A Second Look At: Revolution
The lights will be staying on at the set of Revolution for at least a full year. Yesterday, NBC announced it was picking up a full season of the postapocalyptic drama, which has been getting strong (or at least NBC-strong) …
Seth MacFarlane, Oscars Host? The Pros and the Cons
Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Seth MacFarlane will host next year’s Academy Awards. Yes, that Seth MacFarlane. And yes, those Oscars. The ones about the movies.
It is definitely a bold choice, which is a nice way of saying surprising, which is a nice way of saying mind-boggling. Even if you …
Homeland Watch: They Pull Them Back In
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, heat up some vegetable lasagna and watch last night’s second season premiere of Homeland.
“Just so we’re clear: this is not you getting your job back. This is you being a good …
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Former New York Times Publisher, Dies at Age 86
It’s only fitting that I got news of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger‘s death through a news alert from the New York Times on my iPhone, just as I had brought the Saturday half of the Times’ Sunday edition in from my stoop. (Long-serving …
Fox News Apologizes After Airing Live Footage of Suicide
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith apologized to his audience this afternoon after his program inadvertently aired live video of a man killing himself.
Louie Watch: Yin and Yangtze
Spoilers for last night’s season 3 finale of Louie follow:
Some sitcoms have ideas behind them. Some wind up episodes with little lessons or observations about life. But it’s a rare sitcom that has a philosophy—that sets itself up, not as a source of answers, but as an investigation into the question of how to live. It’s a rarer …