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Spoilers for last night’s Sons of Anarchy coming up:
The last image before the title sequence in “Bainne” is of blood spattered across a crucifix hanging on a wall: “Who do you think has to clean that up?” That, in a way—the religious imagery set aside—is the driving question of Sons of Anarchy.
There is a history of blood, and …
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As noted here yesterday, Tina Fey‘s acceptance of the Mark Twain Award was aired on PBS this weekend. Well, most of it was. As it turns out, a particularly scathing run of jokes about Fey’s impression subject Sarah Palin ended up on the cutting-room floor, though they remain in the full acceptance speech on PBS’s website. In the cut …
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Spoilers for last night’s Glee coming up:
In the world of Glee, having Gwyneth Paltrow come on as a guest star and dance on a flooded stage to a mash-up of “Singing in the Rain” and “Umbrella” is actually how the show steps back and takes a breather. “The Substitute” was relatively a more subdued episode of the show, without the …
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In the News About Sarah Palin and the Women Who Imitate Her department, some exciting developments! Sarah Palin’s Alaska premiered Sunday night as TLC’s top-rated debut ever, drawing nearly 5 million viewers. That, incidentally, is about the viewership for an original episode of 30 …
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The Germans should have invented a word that’s like “schadenfreude,” but describing the feeling that comes when someone expresses something in a such a way that you feel vaguely uncomfortable agreeing with them. Schaden-noddin’, maybe?
Whatever the word, it would roughly describe what I felt …
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Spoilers for last night’s How I Met Your Mother coming up:
So from the moment I learned that “Glitter” would be a Robin Sparkles episode of HIMYM, I had to figure that it was going to be—as the hilarious first and the not-as-hilarious second one were designed to be—a one-joke episode. And it was. But it turned out to be not that …
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The pit in NBC’s Thursday night is finally being filled.
NBC announced its midseason schedule today, and if you’re like me, what you really care about is that Parks and Recreation is finally coming back on Jan. 20—and in an actual good time slot, or as close to one as you can get on NBC. The comedy will now air at 9:30, after The …
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Spoilers for last night’s Boardwalk Empire coming up:
While Boardwalk Empire is a crime story, it’s not a story mainly about the men who pull the triggers but rather the men who hire them. And while it is in many ways a …
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I’ve already given my thoughts, at length, on the debut episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which aired last night, so now it’s your turn. I’m especially curious what viewers thought of the balance of content in the show, which was a hybrid of Alaska nature travelogue, celebreality bio of Palin as a public figure, and Jon & Kate style …
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Spoilers for last night’s The Walking Dead coming up:
After a second episode that seemed to be set up partly to showcase what The Walking Dead can deliver in terms of zombie carnage on a basic-cable budget, the third episode …
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There are a lot of things to love about Community, but as I wrote back when the second season debuted, for me it boils down to the sense that everyone involved simply has such a fantastic time at their jobs. Individual episodes have their ups and downs, but there’s an amazing level of craft to the show that goes beyond simply writing …
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Spoilers for last night’s 30 Rock coming up:
Disclosure here: I am bound to be favorably disposed to an episode as devoted to my borough as “Brooklyn Without Limits,” and last night’s episode included a spoof of Brooklyn artisanal-hipster culture as specific as anything this side of Bored to …
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Last night, Rachel Maddow devoted her MSNBC program to an interview with Jon Stewart about the message of his Rally to Restore Sanity, and its critique of the news media, especially—this being a cable news show—cable news. (See the whole thing here.)
I don’t want to oversimplify the …
