Entertainment

Cliff Lipson/CBS

Everybody’s praising Bob Barker as he gets ready to retire, but in my Culture Complex column this week, I take a minute to give the love to that most American of game shows itself, The Price Is Right:

[U]ltimately, what wins Price are the skills that matter. Remembering facts (and I say this as a ruthless Trivial

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Well, it’s the first night of the TV summer. Reruns and whatnot. Perhaps I shall take up an instrument, or read an improving book!

Just kidding. I’ll be watching On the Lot. Because I’m a sucker.

Recommended, although I’ve already watched the screener, is Sundance’s Aussie-import docuseries John Safran Vs. God. It’s an …

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched last night’s Lost yet, come back at a point in the future when you have.

ABC/Mario Perez

So I am enough of a dork that I watched the prequel clip-show, “Lost: The Answers.” And irony of ironies, it turned out the show actually had an answer in it, though I didn’t realize it at the time. At one …

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched last night’s American Idol yet, don’t read this. Or listen to the radio, open the paper, talk to your family or go to work.

I’ll confess that I didn’t catch Jordin Sparks’ coronation last night: I was watching Lost (in re which: OMG!, and yes, you’ll get your freaking Lostwatch in the morning, keep …

Not much suspense as to what I’m watching tonight, on Ragnarok, the last day of the 2006-07 TV season, the night of coronations and cliffhangers. There’s Lost, of course; and I’ll also be watching American Idol for the blog, because (1) it is a Truly Important Cultural Event That Defines Us As a Nation and (2) you could sneeze on a …

HBO has put the entire first episode of its new comedy series, Flight of the Conchords, online at MySpace. [Update: it's also at hbo.com, but oddly, with fewer bells and whistles.] The premise: “New Zealand’s fourth most-popular folk parody duo” seek success and cheap dates on New York’s Lower East Side. Give it a half-hour of your time …

Last Idol review of the year is posted on the Time.com homepage. The final night played out pretty much as I suspected, playing wholly to Jordin’s strengths. Idol ballads are written precisely with a 17-year-old’s sense of melodramatics in mind, and I have a feeling that Jordin’s peer group will reward the 17-year-old wunderkind for it. …

Like you have to ask?

But also: The preview/debut of On the Lot, the moviemaking reality show from Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg. I’ve seen only a few-minute trailer, from which I can’t tell much (lots of overwhelmed would-be directors touring real-life movie sets and saying “This is where it all happens!”). I don’t know if they can …

WARNING: Heroes spoilers ahead! Don’t think of the bogeyman!

NBC Photo: Trea Patton

So the Heroes season 1 — sorry “Volume 1″ — finale: I wasn’t overwhelmed. I wasn’t exactly underwhelmed either. Call me whelmed.

Nathan Petrelli, for better and worse, has been the subject of many of my questions this season. Such as: why, exactly, …