Tuned In
If I had unlimited time and it weren’t a dereliction of my duty as a TV critic, sometime I’d like to try taking in an entire season of In Treatment with the picture turned off: just sound, like a radio drama, or a podcast. It wouldn’t be the same, of course; In Treatment is a visual production just like any TV show (or stage play, which …
Tuned InUncategorized
[vodpod id=Video.4756057&w=425&h=350&fv=]
As promised/threatened, I went on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz Sunday to discuss the impending Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert rally in Washington. Among other things, I mentioned that you could see the rally as an outgrowth of Stewart’s appearance on CNN’s Crossfire in 2004, in which …
Tuned InRemembrance
[vodpod id=Video.4755011&w=425&h=350&fv=%40videoPlayer%3D1172082591%26amp%3BplayerID%3D30062599001%26amp%3Bdomain%3Dembed%26amp%3B]
Alexander Anderson, creator of Rocky and His Friends and the subsequent spinoffs involving the cold-war-era capers of the flying squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose, died Friday. TIME film critic Richard …
Tuned InUncategorized
Now I kind of feel bad about picking on the PTC lately. Reports the New York Times, the group is fighting cultural, personnel and financial difficulties:
Like many nonprofit groups, the council raises money by mail: sign and return this petition — preferably with a donation — and we will send it to the F.C.C. But internal documents
…
Tuned InTuned In
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, take out your belt, lash yourself strongly across the back and watch last night’s Boardwalk Empire.
With “Family Limitation,” you’ve now seen as many episodes as I did of Boardwalk …
Tuned In
Those of you with a television machine, and a cable hose, and a free Sunday morning, and nothing else to do, can catch me in the 11:30 a.m. ET half-hour of CNN’s Reliable Sources, talking Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. If you have HD, you’ll be able to see if I’ve gotten around to dry-cleaning any of my jackets!
Tuned In
Though it’s not TV news exactly, there are enough fans of the original British The Office here that I should note that Martin Freeman (our friend Tim from Wernham Hogg) has been cast as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. It’s an exciting choice: Freeman has both the comic and dramatic ability the role needs, and simply physiologically he’s …
Tuned InUncategorized
[vodpod id=Video.4731405&w=425&h=350&fv=]
Quick spoilers for last night’s Office coming up:
The thing about a serialized sitcom like The Office is that you watch it at the same time for how well the episode is doing and how well the series is doing. “The Sting” gave me very little to complain about on the first count; it was probably …
TIME selects the best films starring mediums, psychics and children (always the children!) able to communicate with the dead.
Tuned InNews Media
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBWR31CGR54]
You do not really need to shed a tear for Juan Williams, unless you weep droplets of gold, and them you can pile them on top of the three-year $2 million contract Williams received from Fox News after NPR cut ties with him. To sum up: Monday night, Williams said on The O’Reilly Factor …
Tuned In
Is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear a political event? NPR—which is currently having its own problems defining the limits of public commentary with its Juan Williams scandal—says so, having forbidden its reporters to attend the event. In an essay in this week’s print TIME (not yet available …
Tuned In
Conan O’Brien starts a talk show, he gets Tom Hanks to come by; that’s just the tradition. TBS’s Conan announced it’s first week of guests today, and along with longtime O’Brien stalwart Hanks, he’ll have Seth Rogen, Jack McBrayer (take that, NBC!), Jon Hamm and Julie Bowen. Let’s hope Hanks can avoid being hit by a meteor this …
Tuned InUncategorized
[vodpod id=Video.4726316&w=425&h=350&fv=]
I’ve dispensed a lot of verbiage in this space about what makes an episode of Modern Family work or not. Is it better when it brings the three family units together, or keeps them separate? Is it better when it’s sentimental, or forgoes the warm ending monologues? But “Unplugged” has me …
