While theater critics turned up their noses at the TV-ification of a Broadway classic, the film version of Stephen Colbert and Neil Patrick Harris’ April stage show is one of the most satisfying Sondheim productions in years
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Scott Pelley's Ratings: Is America Ready for a Male News Anchor?
The ratings are in for the first week of Scott Pelley‘s anchoring of the CBS Evening News. Everyone knows that you can’t tell much by an anchor’s first week alone; everyone, including the network, will try to. So how did he do? Depends who you ask. According to some of the immediate press reactions, he showed a worrisome lack of …
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Cable TV's Better! No, Broadcast TV's Better!
It’s summertime, when the regular TV season ends, the off-season reality shows get rolled out and TV critics start writing manifestoes. Well, two of them, anyway. The last couple of weeks have seen big TV think pieces by Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter and Todd VanDerWerff of The AV Club, staking out very different positions on …
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Test Pilot: Person of Interest
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 …
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CNN's GOP Debate Questions: This Silly or That Silly?
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Last night in New Hampshire, CNN held its first debate of the Republican presidential primary. Among the headlines: Michele Bachmann announced that she had filed papers for a Presidential run, an indication of her seriousness about entering the race that was evidently not sufficiently conveyed …
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Are Critics Any Better Than Emmys? 2011 TCA Nominations Announced
Critics spend much of the rest of the year griping about the awards choices of other organizations, so it’s only fair that once a year we allow you to do the same to us. The Television Critics Association (of which I’m a member) today announced its nominations for the 2011 TCA Awards. (The group is no relation to the Broadcast …
Music Monday: Paul’s Reissued ‘McCartney’ Stands the Test of Time
There are so many albums coming out this summer—Bon Iver, Arctic Monkeys, Death Cab for Cutie, Junior Boys, Beirut, Cults, Gillian Welch, Beyoncé—it seems as if something new pops up every day. New music is fun and all, but …
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The Morning After: Hoops Vs. Hoofers
Finishing up a magazine story on deadline today, so I’ll leave to you to dissect a Sunday night of TV that pitted two big live events against each other: the NBA final and the Tony Awards. The latter delivered a big night for The Book of Mormon, perhaps giving more reason for fans to see South Park’s midseason finale as a sign that …
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Game of Thrones Watch: The Unkindest Cut
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, sit down with your awkwardly uncomfortable fifteen-year-old bride and watch last night’s Game of Thrones.
Well, damn.
I mean, if you read this blog regularly, you know I’ve read the books Game of Thrones is based on. I knew that the ending of last night’s episode was coming this season. …
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Checking In On: The Killing
What does it say about a TV series when its best episode to date is also, by far, its least representative?
It’s not necessarily a bad sign. In some shows, it’s an indication that there is a difference between what makes a great single hour of TV and what makes a great several years of TV. An example I often cite is “Pine Barrens,” …
Top 10 Quotable Movies
This is not ‘Nam, there are rules. It’s only a flesh wound. And there’s no place like home. TIME picks the films with the most memorable lines.
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Dead Tree Alert: The Twimmolation of Anthony Weiner
I’m writing on deadline for next week’s print TIME magazine, so in lieu of a fresh blog post right now, here’s the thing I wrote for this week’s print version of TIME, a.k.a., “My last thing I am writing about Anthony Weiner, I promise, I think.”
My recent column places Weiner in the recent but already storied history of celebrity …
The Trip: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon Make Great Impressions
Michael Winterbottom’s faux-fake movie provides an immediate and lasting kick as well as the spectacle of two comic combatants at the top of their game