Tuned InUncategorized
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next season’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. But premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so …
Tuned InUncategorized
The show that I (and some other critics) named as the best TV show of 2010, Breaking Bad, has finally got a return date for its fourth season on AMC, July 17. I visited the set earlier this year and will have more to write before the season debut; in the meantime, I will spoil exactly nothing about what you’ll see when it returns. But if …
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If there’s one formula for distinguishing a Bravo competition-reality show vs. those of other networks it is: Creation vs. performance. (This category, mind you, does not apply to the Real Housewives series, et al., which are about their own kind of performance.) Top Chef, Top Design, Work of Art and, once upon a time, Project Runway …
Tuned InTuned In
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, ask your butcher for a nice venison roast for dinner and watch last night’s Game of Thrones.
Like a battering ram in a siege, Game of Thrones took a while to roll into place. But now that it’s in motion, its momentum gets more undeniable week by week. And “You Win or You Die” was the …
Tuned InRemembrance
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Jeff Conaway, star of Taxi and Grease and of an unfortunate tabloid/reality-TV saga, has died at age 60, after being taken off life support following a reported overdose of painkillers. It is sad news, and news that most of us would be lying to say we were shocked by. As chronicled on …
Tuned InUncategorized
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next season’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. But premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so …
Tuned InUncategorized
Even though TV is a more year-round phenomenon than ever, the end of the regular TV season—with the crush of upfronts news and all the season finales to watch/cover—still feels like finishing a race for me. So Memorial Day is a good time to do what I would do after running a marathon: catch my breath, set my next goals and get …
Tuned InTuned In
My column in this week’s print TIME magazine reports from the upfronts on a trend I noted more briefly here after the fall-schedule announcements: the peculiar and specious trend of sitcoms about the “emasculated” modern man. It’s most blatant in new comedies like Last Man Standing, Work It, Man Up and How to Be a Gentleman, though …
The Tree of Life star describes the free-form family vibe in making a film with the world’s most reclusive director
From The Wolfpack to the Dirty Dozen, TIME takes a look at cinema’s most testosterone-fueled posses.
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Spoilers for last night’s Modern Family season finale below:
I wrote last week that the previous episode of Modern Family, “See You Next Fall,” played like it was intended as a season finale, ending with a valedictorian speech, bringing the family together for a life transition and putting a …
Tuned InNews Media
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Having recently parted ways with Keith Olbermann, whose controversies and run-ins with management proved too much for the channel, MSNBC now has an Ed Schultz problem. The cable network suspended the evening host for a week after he called conservative commentator Laura Ingraham a …
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Spoilers for last night’s American Idol Season 10 finale below:
I’ll just spoil it for you before the jump: this year’s American Idol is—a country singer!
Oh, which one? The choice boiled down, as in years past, to what you think the voting criteria should be: the finale performance or the season over all? Is Idol the Super Bowl, …
