I’m about to say something that may seem cynical, so first: Seeing the Chilean miners (still being evacuated as I type this) emerge from the rescue pod into the light has been moving, inspiring and a reminder of the power of live television news to deliver a story of raw human triumph.
OK, now the little-bit-cynical part: the news story …
Spoilers for last night’s Glee following:
One criticism I’ve heard from non-fans of Glee is that the show is essentially American Idol with a script. And I could see how an episode with the title and theme “Duets” could reinforce this view. On its face, the episode’s structure was little more than an Idol challenge, “OK, …
Not a lot to say about last night’s How I Met Your Mother, which again offered relatively little on the promised larger-storylines-development for this season. Still, I enjoy the show’s little love letters to New York City like “Subway Wars”; the fact that they so blatantly look like they’re shot on a set in California only adds to …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJORBRpOPM]
It is October 2010, and the Democratic governor of West Virginia, running for Senate, is demonstrating his bona fides to the citizens of his state with a campaign commercial in which he shoots a Senate bill.
And this guy thinks he had it …
The zombie girls sitting next to me were pissed off. In pallid makeup with artful angry gashes on their cheeks, they like the rest of us had stood in line for an hour or more to get into the IGN Theater at the Javits Center to see 6 1/2 minutes of AMC’s The Walking Dead, and they could barely see the big screens. “This is …
The Simpsons may not get people talking the next morning as regularly as it used to, but it showed that it still can, thanks to an opening couch gag by British graffiti artist Banksy, which grimly satirized the means by which pop culture gets (literally, physically) made and merchandized:
[vodpod id=Video.4648745&w=425&h=350&fv=]
It’s …
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, sneak off into the woods with a friend and watch last night’s Mad Men.
Sincerity, as the joke goes, is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Last night’s Mad Men, …
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, check into a motel and watch last night’s Rubicon.
After ten deliberate, talk-heavy episodes, last week Rubicon gave us a taste of the kind of action and violence we expect from other terrorism-and-espionage shows. Now, in the penultimate episode of its season, Rubicon showed that it …
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, curl up next to a nice bookcase and watch last night’s Boardwalk Empire.
Fans of The Wire had to be waiting for Boardwalk Empire, with its sprawling storylines, to finally spotlight …
In my TIME print-edition column this week (not yet available online), I take a look at pop culture and the public school crisis. Besides Davis Guggenheim’s excellent documentary Waiting for “Superman,” the column covers two Friday reality shows that take very different approaches to public school ills: NBC’s School Pride, which …
I’ve seen the first two episodes of AMC’s new zombie thriller, The Walking Dead, but the network has placed an October 18 embargo on any “information,” so I’ve already said too much. (Tell you what! I’ll blink once for “Loved it” and twice for “Hated it.” There—did you see it?)
In the meantime, here’s a new …
Regular Tuned Inlander rousseau writes:
James, can you do The Morning After for today? I missed Modern Family because I was watching the stunning, goosebumps-down-your-flesh film version of the recent New York Macbeth with the great Patrick Stewart on PBS last night. They turned the Scottish kingdom into a very fitting modern
…