In a finale called “The Choice,” Homeland avoided making its toughest one. But Carrie also had a decision to make, and chose well.
Kids at Tragedies: Turn Off the Cameras
There is no good journalistic reason to put a child at a mass-murder scene on live TV, permission of the parents or not.
TV Weekend: Ask What Your Homeland Can Do for You
There’s a sense that, depending which choices Homeland makes, the season finale could redeem or disgrace itself utterly.What do you need Homeland to do?
Best Comedic Performance By an Awards List: The Golden Globes TV Nominations!
The Globes’ TV nominations are like the awards ceremony itself: a fun time, but worth taking seriously only as the subject of a drinking game.
The Biggest Shows of 2012, on TV and on Google
Comparing the year’s top-charting shows, in the Nielsen ratings and online, shows how starkly how much the definition of “hit” has changed.
The Zero Dark Thirty Argument: Why Deceptive Art Can Be Great
I can’t tell you if the Bin Laden movie really “glorifies torture.” But great art can embody ugly ideas—which is why partisans have such a hard time trusting it
Jury Duty: The AFI 10 Best Shows of 2012 List and How I Voted
From horror to comedy to politics, here are the American Film Institute’s 10 best shows of 2012, and how we came up with the list.
Homeland Watch: Tunnel Vision
A major storyline ends mundanely, for once without any shocker twist. But can Homeland find its way out of its own narrative labyrinth?
Colbert in 2013! OK, Maybe 2014?
When Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., made the surprise announcement that he was leaving the Senate to run the Heritage Foundation, it raised some big political questions. Most important: Stephen Colbert is from where again?
Up All Night Gets Re-Re-Remodeled: Is It Time to Tear It Down?
Another retooling of a struggling sitcom in its second season raises the question: when have you changed a show so much that it isn’t itself anymore?
A Second Look At: Nashville
It began the fall as my most-anticipated new network show, and as it takes a break for the holidays, it’s the one new show (with Last Resort already canceled) I’m most likely to stick with.
We Are a Camera: Life, Death and the Urge to Shoot
At tragic and mundane moments now, we reach for our cameras. The New York City subway death makes me wonder what that’s doing to us.
Taking It Personal: A Look Back at Boardwalk Empire Season Three
The season built to a riveting run, connecting a lot of seemingly loose threads. But it also showed the difference between bringing plot elements together and bringing larger themes together.