Hollywood is a forgiving town. Yes, you can behave badly, you can become a danger to yourself and others, you can burn bridges, and yet you can get a second chance, if you turn your life around, make amends and pay your debt to …
You Are Watching Big Brother: The Disturbing Spy Games of Person of Interest
A mass audience is watching a drama about a creepy surveillance system that is watching and analyzing their every move–and cheering for the creepy surveillance system.
TV Tonight: Beavis and Butt-Head Return
I always loved Beavis and Butt-Head, but it was mostly for the wrong reasons. The ’90s show was groundbreaking and culturally significant for its interstitial scenes, in which Mike Judge’s two cartoon idiots would watch music …
The X Factor Live: It’s Not Idol. And That’s Not a Compliment
When Simon Cowell announced plans to launch The X Factor on Fox, I figured I had a bead on it: it would be more or less another version of American Idol in the fall, with different talent groupings. Which would be fine, but I …
Can’t Stop the Zombies: The Walking Dead Gets a Third Season
Since its second season debuted Oct. 16 to ratings that would (and I assume did) make broadcast networks envious, you should have expected this, but AMC made it official: The Walking Dead will swarm across your TV for a third season.
Campaign Video: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em for Herman Cain
Can this insane campaign ad help keep Herman Cain from inadvertently getting himself nominated?
What Would You Like Apple to Do to Your TV?
When writers dream of someday producing work that will change the world, they are not necessarily thinking about adding millions of dollars to a company’s market cap. But my old boss, Walter Isaacson, pulled off just that with his upcoming biography of Steve Jobs, as Apple’s stock rose $3 a share 3% on a quote that Jobs was on the verge …
Boardwalk Empire Watch: Not Out of the Woods Yet
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, have your servant bring the cocoa and watch last night’s Boardwalk Empire.
In a quote that you are probably tired by now of hearing critics like me repeat, playwright Anton Chekhov …
TV Weekend: Once Upon a Time
There is a school of thought in Hollywood that the best way to tell an audience a story is to make it one they’ve heard before. Hence the revival of multiple comic-book franchises, the (failed) rebooting of Charlie’s Angels and …
Starz’s Politics Drama Boss: Powerful But Messy, Just Like Its Subject
The dramatic grimness comes quick and often in Starz’s new show starring Kelsey Grammer as a Chicago Mayor
Did You Need to See Gaddafi’s Corpse?
When Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in May, people criticized the government’s decision not to release the reportedly grisly photos of his corpse. Rumors were swirling that bin Laden was not actually dead, and the lack of visual evidence—as opposed to the leaked video that emerged after Saddam Hussein’s hanging—encouraged them. We …
NPR Listeners May Finally Be Protected from Opera Bias
Public radio listeners! Have you long worried that your station was undermining capitalism through its broadcasts of the Ring Cycle? Tired of having your children brainwashed by the socialistic messages of La Traviata? Well, fear …
The Morning After: X, Men
With Tuned In having been folded into TIME Entertainment, I’ve been trying to decide which of the old blog features do and don’t work in the new format—among them, The Morning After open-discussion posts for last night’s TV. But because I like having that option—and don’t have the time right now to post at more length—let’s give it …