James Poniewozik

It’s a sad fact of free speech advocacy that you rarely end up defending really, really good speech. Flag burners tend to be obnoxious, childish ideologues; that Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake performance was really lame; and the less said about Opie and Anthony, the better. But the Founding Fathers did not write an amendment to exclude

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So it has come to this: Mitch Hurwitz has elected to become the Claire Danes of the 21st century, except with less-pretty cheekbones. Fans of My So-Called Life will recall the brief posthumous flurry of hope that MSCL might be revived on another network–perhaps MTV, which aired the reruns–but that the deal was scotched when,

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The problem in reviewing the first episodes of this season of The Sopranos was being unable to write about anything interesting that happened. Tony’s getting shot, his wandering in that odd Southern California purgatory and then his awakening from a coma last night — a critic had little to say except. "Um, some interesting stuff

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COMEDY CENTRAL / REUTERS

Is Scientology a legitimate religion? Who can say? Was L. Ron Hubbard a con artist? I have no opinion (that I’m willing to share in the light of my financial ability to mount a legal defense). But one thing is clear: there must be a God. For only a benevolent divine presence could have led Isaac Hayes and the

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SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses last night’s Lost. So scram.

Last night’s Lost devoted another flashback to the lovely Yunjin Kim as Sun (who, Mrs. Tuned In observed, has gorgeous nails for someone who’s been stuck on an island for over a month). In it we learn that she’s pregnant, which is apparently another island medical miracle

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Last night on American Idol, the contestants got help in their song stylings from singer-songwriter Barry Manilow. At least I’m assuming it was him. Thanks to an oddly spiky haircut and a weirdly tanned appearance, he looked a little more like Martin Short doing Barry Manilow.

But I digress. It was ’50s night on American Idol, and

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Having already whacked the best sitcom currently on TV, Fox seemed to be well on the way to killing one of the next-best. So it was a welcome surprise to hear yesterday that Mike Judge’s King of the Hill was picked up for an 11th season, contrary to industry and cast scuttlebutt that the show was on its way out. In a way, this is an even

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We all know, of course, that Hollywood is liberal. And liberals hate the Bush Administration. And Bush Administration haters hate Dick Cheney the hatingest of all. So you probably wouldn’t be surprised to know that there’s a TV network that has not one but two series featuring a sinister Vice President of the United States. Which

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There are two things that suck about the summer: missing your favorite network TV shows, and having to sit in an office working on a beautiful day. For fans of NBC’s The Office, both situations will get slightly better in summer 2006. The network is planning 10 online-only episodes of the sitcom, in which supporting characters from the

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The Federal Communications Commission had one of its semi-regular paroxysms of moral cleansing yesterday, upholding the fines against CBS for the Janet Jackson incident in 2004 and levying about $4 million in new fines for various shows, including a record $3.6 million against 11 CBS affiliates for airing an episode of crime show Without

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Yesterday, 60 Minutes’ Mike Wallace acknowledged that the tick, tick, tick of time waits for no man. At 87, Wallace said that his eyes and ears were not what they used to be, and that he would step down from the newsmagazine after this season, though not necessarily end his news career. Immediately, there were suggestions that, as Tom

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When Mark Burnett premiered The Apprentice just over two years ago, the parallels with his hit Survivor were obvious: two groups of contestants, competing in immunity challenges on a hostile island (in this case Manhattan). In the first episodes, host Donald Trump made a big point of comparing the business world to "the jungle."

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With the long-awaited return of The Sopranos looming Sunday night, you may already feel you’ve read every possible angle on the show’s cultural significance. Not this one, I’ll bet. The Jewish news-and-culture paper The Forward is featuring a set of essays looking at Jewish themes, stereotypes and tributes in The Sopranos and six other

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