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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
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 …
TV Tonight: The Loving Story
For Richard and Mildred Loving, their marriage was a pretty simple matter. They grew up in a small Virginia town where everyone pretty much knew everyone, fell in love (not without some obstacles; she found him “arrogant” at …
The Morning After: Second Act
Brief spoilers for last night’s Smash coming up:
I’m on deadline for the print magazine (remember those?), so that makes this a good morning to let you do the work. Namely: how did those of you who stuck with Smash after the …
And the Grammy for Best Animated Pig in a Burrito Ad Goes To…
There were many, many musical performances last night at the Grammy Awards, and I am not here to review them for you: TIME’s music critic, Claire Suddath, has that taken care of for you right here. But though there was a lot to comment on—Adele’s potent comeback from throat surgery, Nicki Minaj’s staging of an early-’70s horror …
Grammy Watch: Whitney’s Legacy, in TV and Divas
There was a lot of chatter before Sunday night’s Grammy Awards about what sort of tribute the production would give to Whitney Houston, who died in Los Angeles the day before the performance. There was a lot of chatter during, …
The Morning After: 30 Rock at 60 Minutes
Watching a very good episode of 30 Rock is like rushing up and down a joke rollercoaster with a jet engine strapped to the back of the car. “Hey Baby, What’s Wrong?” was an hour long and was not a very good episode of 30 Rock, …