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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The Long Con
San Diego Comic Con 2011 is starting. I’m not there. No offense to the Con, but my Cad Bane costume still needs stitching, and I don’t believe in doing these things halfway.
There should as usual be a fair amount of TV news and previews, though, along with the other entertainment wares presenters will be peddling, and I’ll be keeping …
South Park's Coming Back for Two More Years! Should It?
The most recent midseason finale of South Park, “You’re Getting Old,” generated a lot of talk among fans about whether it suggested that Trey and Matt were tired of doing the show and were about to call it quits. (The episode, surprisingly poignant for one largely involving poop jokes, focused on Stan’s growing cynicism and his …
The Morning After: The Chatting Cure
Last night, Showtime debuted Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy, or rather imported it. Kudrow’s bite-sized comedy, about Fiona Wallace, a former financial professional who restyles herself as a therapist—dispensing counsel in three-minute video-chat sessions—began online three years ago. The TV version expands the story and fleshes the …
The Morning After: Junk Shots
Because my TiVo apparently decided that I was too happy, it decided yesterday evening on its own to switch the channel and start recording Hoarders on A&E. I always find the show fascinating and depressing, and fascinating in how depressing it is. The stories of the junk fiends, burying themselves in stuff usually as a reaction to deep …
Murdochalypse or Schadenfreude? The Wall Street Journal Defends Its Boss
When Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. acquired the Wall Street Journal in 2007, a big question was how editorially independent the newspaper would be able to remain. If nothing else, the Murdochalypse (not my coinage) precipitated by the British phone-hacking scandal has provided a test. First, Murdoch favored his national American newspaper …
Friday Night Lights Watch (Repost): Let's Go Home
Last night, one of TV’s greatest drama about family, community, faith–and, incidentally, football–Friday Night Lights, came to an end on NBC. When this excellent, moving finale aired in February on DirecTV, I reviewed it here. For those of you who have been watching on NBC, I reprint it below. Spoilers, obviously:
In my preview …
The Morning After: Louie and Joan, Sitting in a Tree
As I’ve said, I’m trying to scale back on the weekly episode reviews here at Tuned In, and I’ve said a great deal already about Louis C.K. and this season of Louie. But we’ve come to the last of the four episodes of the show that I saw in advance, so it’s a good time to check in on how you all are liking the season (which has very …
Graduation Date: Several Big Stars to Leave Glee
I’ve had my issues with Glee this past season, and written about them here, but one thing I have to give it credit for. The producers said from early on that they planned to have the high schoolers graduate on time—real time, not TV-teen-show-time—and it looks like they’re sticking by it, popularity or no. Producer Ryan Murphy …
TV Tonight: Damages Comes Back, While Ted Danson Moves on to CSI
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Damages returns for a fourth season on DirecTV last night tonight. I’ve previewed some of the new season, guest-starring John Goodman as a defense contractor embroiled in scandal, but the show has become a little like legal 24 for me: lots of talent and strong performances, but it has …
The X Factor Previews, Promises to Keep It Real
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During last night’s All-Star game—I believe the baseball team won—Fox ran its latest preview of fall singing contest The X Factor, which made a couple of things clear. First, from the amount of on-screen placement, it seems more as if this show should be called The X Pepsi …
Sherwood Schwartz Dies at 94
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At the height of his TV-writing career, Sherwood Schwartz probably did not particularly anticipate being eulogized by TV critics. Schwartz, who died today at age 94, was the creator of Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch, two sitcoms that were practically critical shorthand for …
The Problems of Power: George R.R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons
Note: George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series on which HBO’s Game of Thrones is based, is out in stores today. I received a review copy several weeks ago. TIME’s book critic Lev Grossman has already reviewed it. But since I’ve been covering the HBO series, and writing about GRRM’s …