Tuned InTelevision
What Do We Want from the Oscars?
It’s not a rhetorical question. I actually want to know.
Articles from Contributor
Tuned InTelevision
Tuned InTelevision
The Morning After: Happy Leap Day! Edition
When a network airs four comedies across one night of television, you’re going to end up with a certain amount of unintentional repetitions of jokes, whether it’s different versions of the same Lady Gaga “Poker Face” gag (as …
Tuned InTelevision
The Morning After: To Be Continued…?
The four remaining Republican Presidential candidates debated on CNN from Mesa, Ariz., last night, and God help us, it may actually have been the last debate of this GOP primary, ever again, for now. (There are no more debates presently scheduled,* after a planned face-off next week was scrapped, but as the New York Times reports this …
Tuned InTelevision
Top Chef Vs. Chopped: Who Rules the Food TV Kitchen?
Tonight, Top Chef: Texas ends continues its season finale, which began last week with what may well have been the dumbest challenge theme the show has ever done. After whisking the four finalists off to Vancouver—because as we all know, British Columbia is the Texas of the North—it ran them through a gauntlet of three Olympic-style …
Tuned InReview
Glee Watch: The Bully Becomes the Bullied
Spoilers for last night’s Glee below:
I will say this for the way Glee handled Karofsky’s suicide attempt in “On My Way”: the beginning of the episode was a very effective 15 minutes or so of television. The problem: it was …
Tuned InTelevision
Human Beings Rejoice! Community Returns to NBC March 15
When NBC pulled Community from its schedule in December, saying it would bring the show back in midseason, fans began to spin all sorts of dark predictions as to what would happen to the show. Well, if you bet on “NBC will bring …
Tuned InTelevision
Serial Killers: Are HBO-Style Dramas Ruining the TV Episode?
I’m currently fighting off a cold so potent that you probably caught it simply by reading this sentence, so blogging may be a little light for a while. Fortunately, my colleague and critic-pal Ryan McGee at the A.V. Club has …
Tuned InReview
TV Tonight: The ’90s Are Back, with PBS’ Clinton
It may not be the most novel political insight to point out that history repeats itself, but the most intriguing thing about watching PBS’s new American Experience documentary, Clinton (airing tonight and tomorrow), is seeing how …
Tuned InReview
TV Weekend: Life’s Too Short
Ricky Gervais needs to stop hosting awards shows.
This is not a criticism that his searing jokes as host of the Golden Globes have been too nasty. It is not a criticism that his jokes at his last outing were too tame. It is …
Tuned InTelevision
TV Weekend: The Simpsons At 500
Is there anything left to say about The Simpsons? Is there anything left to be said by The Simpsons? Maybe not on either count, but the show has, despite some recent contract-negotiation drama, kept chugging along past landmark …
Tuned InMusic
Dead Tree Alert: The DJ in Chief; or, Running for Office, One Pop Song at a Time
Watching a screener of PBS’ very good American Experience documentary, Clinton, which airs next week, I was reminded of watching Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech at the 1992 Democratic Convention. When Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” swelled up at the end of the speech, I remember thinking, That’s it. He’s going to win the election. Now, …
Tuned InReview
The Morning After: I’ll Be There for You
Spoilers for last night’s Modern Family below:
An unexpected thought occurred to me after watching last night’s Modern Family: Is it the 2012 equivalent to Friends?
It’s not the likeliest comparison: Friends was a hangout …
Tuned InTelevision
TV Dinners: NBC Orders Hannibal Lecter Series
During the writers’ strike a few seasons ago, CBS experimented with rerunning Showtime’s Dexter in primetime. The episodes were edited for broadcast, and while they raised unsurprising protests over a major network airing a show …