Tuned InTuned In
Breaking Bad‘s fourth season, last year, had Walter White declaring “I am the one who knocks,” but it wasn’t until the final episode, as Walt engineered the death of Gus Fring, that he actually became that guy. Season five
…
Tuned InTelevision
Well, hellfire, save matches, [American Idol bleep logo] a duck and see what hatches: Steven Tyler is leaving American Idol.
The singing judge, Aerosmith frontman and coiner of obscene folk expressions joined Idol with …
Tuned InTelevision
USA network says the miniseries Political Animals (debuts July 15), about a First Lady who dumps her philandering husband, then becomes Secretary of State for the man who beat her in a run for President, is not about Hillary …
Tuned InTelevision
A confession: unless I’m specifically watching a late-night show to review it, it’s been ages since I’ve sat down and watched an episode of one, live, from beginning to end, and as long as I have a DVR, I’m not sure I ever will. (Exception: sometimes, The Daily Show and Colbert.)
So I usually don’t have a “favorite” late-night show so …
Tuned InTelevision
Summer is the season when you become your own TV programmer. With many favorite shows on break, with more time on your hands, with vacations and downtime, it’s a perfect time to break out that DVD box set or call up Netflix and …
Tuned InNews Media
A lot happened in the media while I was away the last week and a half: Anderson Cooper came out, Ann Curry went out and, when the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act was released, a couple of news organizations flamed out. Fox News and—longer and more spectacularly—CNN made the hurried mistake of reporting, on an …
Tuned InTelevision
I’m back! And so, nearly, is Walter White and the first half of Breaking Bad‘s final season. I’ve been away for a week, but while I was out, TIME published my essay on White and the past decade’s army of cable-drama antiheroes …
Tuned InTelevision
I was on vacation when I saw the news: Andy Griffith had died July 3 at his home in North Carolina at age 86. As usual, I had scheduled a few blog posts to go up in my absence, and because it was the day before Independence Day, …
Tuned InTuned In
Recently, the Library of Congress came out with a list of Books That Shaped America–88 tomes that are not necessarily the “best” American books (though some probably are), but that “have influenced our lives” as Americans, one way or another. (Public radio’s The Takeaway aired a discussion of the list last week.)
The list–which runs …
Tuned InTelevision
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 …
Tuned InReview
Spoilers for last night’s Louie below:
In “Something Is Wrong,” the the season premiere of Louie, Louis CK’s alter ego protagonist bought himself a motorcycle. I’ve seen the first five episodes of the third season by now, and …
Tuned InReview
Anger Management is about a former baseball player whose career was ended by anger issues and who in turn became a therapist. Anger Management is about the motley group of ragers and court-remanded cases who meet for group …
Tuned InTuned In
I’m on vacation starting Thursday through next week, but fear not: my colleagues at TIME Entertainment will continue plugging away in my absence, and I’ve armed your friendly android overlord Robo-James with a few posts to put up in my absence. (You can also find me blathering away, as usual, on Twitter, though a higher proportion of my …
