Tuned In+Television | 62 days ago

Louis CK Wins the Internet (and a Bet on Human Decency)

By James Poniewozik

The comedian gambled that he could sell a video for $5 online without copy restrictions, and people would step up and do the decent thing. Shockingly—and against a theme of his own comedy—they did.

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 335 days ago

How a Netflix Original-Series Deal Could Change TV-Making

By James Poniewozik

The entertainment-biz press, led by a report in Deadline.com, has the news this morning that Netflix may be about to acquire a high-profile original drama—political thriller House of Cards from David Fincher and Kevin Spacey—by outbidding the likes of HBO. Does this mean, if the deal pans out, that Netflix wants to become a TV [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | 337 days ago

A Disaster We Can't Unsee

By James Poniewozik

It has become a cliché by now to declare that any awful event is “the first YouTube disaster,” “the coming of age of Twitter,” “the desktop-video tragedy,” &c. But clichés are sometimes true, and the endless supply of videos coming from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have had an overwhelming, end of days feel [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 482 days ago

Conan's Live Cam Is Up, Ready to Give You Buns of Steel

By James Poniewozik

Starting today at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, the offices of Conan O’Brien’s coming TBS show are home to the 24-hour Live Coco Cam, set up in a stairwell and promising… well, you’ll have to load it to see. Today, they kicked things off with some aerobics (“Right, left, Cyndi-Lauper-style!”) as staffers made [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 512 days ago

Tickle Me, Elmo: Katy Perry Weirds Out Sesame Street

By James Poniewozik

From the upcoming 41st season of Sesame Street: 1. Is it just the aftereffects of watching that Candyland “California Gurls” video, or does this child-friendly version of Katy Perry’s Hot N Cold (“You want to play / So I wore dress-up clothes”) actually sound dirtier than the original? 2. Did no one do a wardrobe [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 579 days ago

Which Would You Give Up: TV or the Internet?

By James Poniewozik

So a bit more background on my temporary kind-of radio silence: I’m working from home, where, thanks to a vaguely explained snafu on the part of our good friends at Verizon, I have been without DSL since yesterday morning. So I’ve moved “home,” for the moment, to a cafe with wi-fi. (Which, this being Park [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 581 days ago

The Guild Casts Its Spell Again

By James Poniewozik

Those of you who, like me, don’t have an Xbox can now watch season 4 of Felicia Day’s online comedy, The Guild, at MSN, where its first episode (embedded above) posted today. Those of you who (also like me) are not gamers, and who think a comedy about gaming is not for you, should reconsider [...]

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Tuned In+News Media | 585 days ago

So You Want to Work in the Mainstream Media

By James Poniewozik

Use social media! But don’t get too social. Engage your audience! But don’t piss anyone off. Be authentic! But conceal any beliefs regarding anything important you cover. Know your subject! But draw no informed conclusions from anything you learn. Don’t take sides! But be sure to cater to the most easily outraged subsets of your [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 601 days ago

YouTube vs. Viacom: Everybody Wins?

By James Poniewozik

[Note: The above video is definitely not intended for children.] A federal judge yesterday ruled in favor of Google and YouTube yesterday in Viacom’s lawsuit, saying that the site was not liable for copyright infringement because its users had uploaded copyrighted video to the site. The ruling, which Viacom says it will appeal, is probably [...]

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Tuned In+Music | 606 days ago

Snoop to Sookie: I Want to Do Bad Things With You

By James Poniewozik

One thing I’ve always loved about Snoop Dogg is his determination not to take himself too seriously, without making a joke of himself. Here, Snoop declares his love for Miss Sookie Stackhouse in the way that only he can, offering to be the gin and juice to her True Blood. Oh, and just for the [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 682 days ago

iRefuse: Why I Am Not Buying an iPad (Yet)

By James Poniewozik

Someday, after I wash out of journalism, I am going to go into the lawnmower business. I am going to invent a really awesome, beautifully sculpted lawnmower. I will convince the press that my lawnmower will save their imperiled business model. Then I can sit back, relax, and watch news outlets fall over themselves to [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 876 days ago

Beck to Couric: Obama Better Than McCain, Hillary Better Than Both

By James Poniewozik

Katie Couric is launching a new online interview series, called @katiecouric,  this week, and her first subject is a pretty big get, at least if you believe what you read in TIME magazine: Glenn Beck. (Fun fact: Back and Couric have the same publicist. Because he just despises the MSM’s bias, not their professional assistants.) [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 879 days ago

TV for the Law-Abiding: FlashForward Preview

By James Poniewozik

Public-service announcement: you can now watch the first 18 minutes of FlashForward on Hulu. That’s if you haven’t already watched the whole damn thing via BitTorrent, where it has apparently leaked. (Incidentally, so much for ABC’s hoo-hah notion that not sending critics a screener would prevent piracy.) See my (disappointed) original thoughts on the pilot [...]

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Tuned In+924 days ago

Lost Discussion Group: More Mysteries of Lost

By James Poniewozik

I missed this the first time around, but ABC has posted a second installment of its online teaser series, “Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative”:

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 937 days ago

You Too Can Spy on Jay Leno's Stagehands

By James Poniewozik

NBC has just unveiled its website for the upcoming Jay Leno Show, which includes a couple of behind-the-scenes blogs, a page devoted to Jay’s cars and a Leno routine about “Internet fatigue.” As if to illustrate this last point, the site’s most curious feature is a live 24-hour webcam feed of the under-construction stage set. [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 945 days ago

Ctrl-See

By James Poniewozik

  Tonight is the debut of Miami Social, Bravo’s apparent effort to develop its own Hills-like reality soap about the relationships of a set of hot heterosexuals, bisexuals, trisexuals, etc. in the aforementioned city. If that doesn’t sound like your thing, I suggest going to NBC.com for the debut of Ctrl, a sweetly funny webseries [...]

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Tuned In+Advertising | 946 days ago

The (Positive, Enthusiastic, Subsidized) Critics of the Future?

By James Poniewozik

I try not to do too many navel-gazing, whither-the-future-of-criticism posts, but today’s New York Times feature on bloggers paid to do sponsored posts promoting products is the sort of thing that gives me the heebie jeebies.   In a nutshell: successful bloggers can now earn income and freebies by doing posts and videos for advertisers [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 949 days ago

Tape of the Tail

By James Poniewozik

I’m better than this. I’m better than this, right? Sigh. Who am I kidding? I’m not better than this.  So a photo has been making the rounds appearing to show President Obama, along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, checking out the posterior of a young woman at the G8 summit. After the photo graced the cover [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 950 days ago

Newspapers Saved, For Just Pennies A Day

By James Poniewozik

The irony is, this I would have paid 75 cents for:  (From Slate, via Romenesko.)

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 953 days ago

ABC Learns to Hulu

By James Poniewozik

ABC’s deal with Hulu begins today, starting with episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and continuing with new series unrolling throughout the month. And it’s about time. ABC still makes its series available through ABC.com, but I’ve always been irritated by that sites insistence on making me click to continue watching after the 30-second ads, and its [...]