It was I Love the ’90s Day in TV news Monday. First, there was a dramatic press conference featuring Gloria Allred and an explosive charge of sexual harassment against a political figure. Scant hours later, the news networks broke away for the verdict from Los Angeles in a celebrity-death trial. The whole scene was so nostalgic, I …
The Morning After: Yes, No, Maybe So
“You can’t deny the facts just because you find them inconvenient.”—Saul Berenson
As I started watching last night’s Homeland, “The Good Soldier,” I noticed that the episode was written by producer Henry Brommell, the …
Boardwalk Empire Watch: Do the Right Thing
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, stop listening to that pay-wireless boxing match and watch last night’s Boardwalk Empire.
Much of all drama boils down to whether a character will do the right thing. What complicates …
Andy Rooney Dies at 92
Longtime CBS journalist and 60 Minutes essayist Andy Rooney died Friday night at age 92 of complications from minor surgery, CBS News announced Saturday morning. Just last month, Rooney announced, in the commentary above, that he …
TV Weekend: AMC’s Hell on Wheels Gives ‘Em, At Best, Heck
Sometimes it feels like TV has been making revisionist Westerns longer than it was making the Westerns they re-envisioned. Gunsmoke alone was on TV for two decades, and the straight-ahead genre survived (with some tweaks, as in …
Dead Tree Alert: Mideast Meets Midwest in All-American Muslim
One reasonable definition of a good TV show is one that makes you see something familiar in a new way. That was particularly the case for me with All-American Muslim, a reality show debuting on TLC Nov. 13 and the subject of my …
Top Chef Returns: You’re Texas Toast
Last night saw the debut of Top Chef Texas, and true to the popular cliché about the nation’s largest state (until Alaska ruined everything), it was bigger. I have long since learned that it is pointless to really judge a Top …
South Park‘s 1% Solution
Sometimes South Park makes strong episodes out of topical stories that are happening in the news. Sometimes it makes strong episodes out of non-topical stories that involve its main characters dealing with childhood. Given that …
Could Sex-Scandal Coverage Be Doing Herman Cain a Favor?
If there’s one thing people who follow politics are trained to believe, it’s that sex scandals bring politicians down. A sexual harassment scandal, doubly so. And an inartful response to a sexual harassment scandal, triply. So after Politico reported that Herman Cain had been accused of harassment by former employees who received …
First Horse Out of the Gate: HBO to Sneak-Peek Luck Pilot
HBO has announced a premiere date, Jan. 29, for its David Milch / Michael Mann horseracing drama Luck. But should you care to lay odds on it early, the network will run a sneak preview of the pilot episode on Dec. 11, after the season finale of Boardwalk Empire. Then HBO will hold its horses, so to speak, for a month and a half, when it …
‘Rock Center with Brian Williams’: Why Isn’t the Evening News More like This?
Brian Williams is my favorite network news anchor. That is not to say that I watch him very often on NBC Nightly News. Let’s not get crazy here! But I love his dry humor and sharp observations; I like his work on 30 Rock and his …
Boardwalk Empire Watch: I Confess
Let’s try something different this week. This recap will not be a recap. We’re at about the halfway point of Boardwalk Empire season 2, and at the end of the six episodes HBO sent me in advance. “The Age of Reason” advanced …
Dead Tree Alert: Shooting to Kill
In my print TIME column this week, I take a look at the much-photographed and -videotaped death of Muammar Gaddafi. (The column is behind TIME’s paywall, because TIME is a for-profit publication in the business of making people …