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The Anthony Weiner twimmolation saga ended today with all the dignity began with: a heckler (Benjy Bronk from The Howard Stern Show) shouting his resignation speech down, cable-news anchors saying the word “sexting” repeatedly and Weiner saying he would step down “most importantly, so …
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It is almost too easy to be horrified and sanctimonious toward TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras, which had its season 6 debut last night. But you know, sometimes the easy thing is the right thing.
The first new episode of the network’s highly successful child-pageant horrorshow was …
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next season’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. But premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so …
The ratings are in for the first week of Scott Pelley‘s anchoring of the CBS Evening News. Everyone knows that you can’t tell much by an anchor’s first week alone; everyone, including the network, will try to. So how did he do? Depends who you ask. According to some of the immediate press reactions, he showed a worrisome lack of …
It’s summertime, when the regular TV season ends, the off-season reality shows get rolled out and TV critics start writing manifestoes. Well, two of them, anyway. The last couple of weeks have seen big TV think pieces by Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter and Todd VanDerWerff of The AV Club, staking out very different positions on …
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next season’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. But premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so …
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Last night in New Hampshire, CNN held its first debate of the Republican presidential primary. Among the headlines: Michele Bachmann announced that she had filed papers for a Presidential run, an indication of her seriousness about entering the race that was evidently not sufficiently conveyed …
Critics spend much of the rest of the year griping about the awards choices of other organizations, so it’s only fair that once a year we allow you to do the same to us. The Television Critics Association (of which I’m a member) today announced its nominations for the 2011 TCA Awards. (The group is no relation to the Broadcast …
Finishing up a magazine story on deadline today, so I’ll leave to you to dissect a Sunday night of TV that pitted two big live events against each other: the NBA final and the Tony Awards. The latter delivered a big night for The Book of Mormon, perhaps giving more reason for fans to see South Park’s midseason finale as a sign that …
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, sit down with your awkwardly uncomfortable fifteen-year-old bride and watch last night’s Game of Thrones.
Well, damn.
I mean, if you read this blog regularly, you know I’ve read the books Game of Thrones is based on. I knew that the ending of last night’s episode was coming this season. …
What does it say about a TV series when its best episode to date is also, by far, its least representative?
It’s not necessarily a bad sign. In some shows, it’s an indication that there is a difference between what makes a great single hour of TV and what makes a great several years of TV. An example I often cite is “Pine Barrens,” …
I’m writing on deadline for next week’s print TIME magazine, so in lieu of a fresh blog post right now, here’s the thing I wrote for this week’s print version of TIME, a.k.a., “My last thing I am writing about Anthony Weiner, I promise, I think.”
My recent column places Weiner in the recent but already storied history of celebrity …
David Simon may feel vindicated by the new report from the Federal Communications Commission. The final season of The Wire, set largely in the newsroom of the Baltimore Sun, made the point that–despite the proliferation of new media sources–cuts at newspapers meant block-by-block, meeting-by-meeting coverage of local events was drying …
