For anyone who has stuck by the American version of The Office since the very beginning – or maybe I should specify the beginning of the far superior second season – the anticlimactic news that broke Monday about Steve Carell leaving the show was a bittersweet development. He’s been talking for months about stepping away from …
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You Are the Emmys Week: Best Actress, Drama
As you read this post, I am currently secluded in the tony vacation getaway known as southeastern Michigan. While I’m out, I’ve directed Robo-James to serve up a series of daily posts asking you whom you’d nominate for this year’s Emmys—whose nominees are announced next week—and sharing some of my own picks.
For my personal picks, …
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The Morning After: Robo-Edition
This is Robo-James. While Flesh-James is absent, I invite you to use this open thread to discuss and analyze the previous night’s transmissions on the television-receptor device. Though I assume that the logic of your analyses will inevitably be corrupted by human emotion and subjectivity. I shall distract myself by singing quietly to …
David is Now Goliath: Entourage's Urgent Quest to Remain Relevant
Entourage returned Sunday night – a fact that, in previous years, would have been cause for jubilation around my house. But over the last few seasons, what used to be a witty, cutting, edgy observational drama about four young friends navigating the halls of Hollywood power has instead become a sort of male-oriented Sex and the City …
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Programming Note
I’m going to be away for the next week, exploring the exotic and humid climes of southeastern Michigan. (I probably won’t be able to keep myself off Twitter, so as always you can find me there.) So I regret to inform you that Tuned In will be temporarily improving in my absence, with not one but two guest bloggers.
Steven James …
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TV Next Week: Big People on Huge, Big Laughs on Louie
I’m on vacation next week (but Tuned In will still be kicking, thanks to the cyborg duo of Robo-James and Steven James Snyder; more on that later). While I’m out, here are a couple debuts I won’t have time to write up at greater length, but are worth some attention: ABC Family’s Huge and FX’s Louie.
ABC Family, which already has …
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Peter Jackson Reportedly to Direct The Hobbit; But Can He Top Rankin-Bass?
The big-screen adaptation of The Hobbit is reportedly close to solving its directing dilemma, with Peter Jackson himself, according to The Hollywood Reporter, in talks to direct the Lord of the Rings prequels.
No, this isn’t a TV story, but the Tolkien books are dear enough to me to make me notice. And to get nervous. Note that …
Anything You'd Like to Know About Don Draper?
We’re only a couple weeks away from the July 25 return of Mad Men, so what better time to get back into the rhythm of debating the actions, motivations and true lies of Don Draper. TIME is just about to interview Jon Hamm about the show’s new season. Is there anything you want to know? Questions you’re dying to have answered. Just click here.
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TV Weekend: Hung and Hangin' on HBO
This Sunday, HBO returns the second season of Hung and the seventh of Entourage, two series that I continue to follow despite their considerable challenges, but for very different reasons. With Hung, the story of a Detroit-area male prostitute (Thomas Jane) and his pimp (Jane Adams), I feel that there’s a really good dark comedy about …
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TV Tonight: Futurama
After seven years in cryogenic suspended animation—well, with a few wake-up breaks for TV movies—Futurama comes back to life tonight as a weekly animated series on Comedy Central with a one-hour, two-episode premiere. And appropriately enough, the comedy about the future crew of a Planet Express delivery ship comes back from the …
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The Morning After: Still Hot for Cleveland?
Ignoring the mandate of Universal Approbation for Betty White Projects in the year 2010, I gave Hot in Cleveland a mostly negative review last week, finding the show stale and clichéd despite a strong performance by White and not-terrible ones by her sitcom-alumnae costars. America responded by tuning in five million strong to the …
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See Bristol Palin's Acting Debut
The Palin Family’s domination of American television proceeds this summer, as Bristol Palin makes a guest appearance July 5 on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager—a teen-pregnancy-themed show that fits with Palin’s teen-pregnancy-themed public career. And now you can watch for yourself a clip from Palin’s …
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Meanwhile, on the Mahut-Isner Channel…
The endless Wimbledon match has resumed at 2 sets and 59 games all on ESPN3 and ESPN U. Clear your calendar for the day.
[Update: And finally, Isner has won the match, taking the final set 70 to 68. Thus ruining Daily Show writer Tim Carvell's theory that one of the players would eventually have to find a "Candidate" to replace him.]
