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No, YOU'RE Out of Order!

I’m going to turn things over for a brief guest post by my current e-mail autoreply. Take it away, Auto!

I will be on jury duty beginning January 22 and, unless the Brooklyn Supreme Court has decided to splurge on free wi-fi, will be unable to retrieve e-mail during the day.

In other words, expect posting–much less my blessed …

Why Don't They Watch NBC on The Office?

Great episode of The Office last night. (As for the overhyped musical episode of Scrubs, go here to hear it done right. And Joss Whedon wrote the music himself, instead of hiring pros.) Yet again, I’m amazed at the attention to detail in this sitcom. There are no blank spaces; the characters seem to be thought out down to the atomic

Isaiah Washington, Part 2: What the F Is the Problem?

I have not exactly been a defender of Isaiah Washington lately. But I have to kinda-sorta come to his defense–or at least criticize one of his critics. At the Golden Globes, he denied–implausibly, if you believe his costars–having used a slur against gay Grey’s Anatomy costar T. R. Knight last fall: "No, I did not call T.R. a faggot.

The McWall of McSilence McCrumbles

It took months, but Grey’s Anatomy cast members have finally come out and said what previously you were only allowed to kinda-sorta suggest and imply: that Isaiah Washington did, in fact, use the word "faggot" in an on-set argument with Patrick Dempsey. Since reports of the altercation–and the subsequent outing of gay costar T. R.

You Don't Know Jack, Part 2

People* have been wondering if I want to add any more to my current column–which argues that 24 is not the right-wing tool some critics say it is–in the light of last night’s episode, where a suitcase nuke blew up in suburban L.A. Some detractors–or at least those that ABC News coaxed knee-jerk reactions from–say the blast went too

Lost: Booking Its Return Flight?

I opened my mail this morning and found a DVD of the first episode of Lost after its hiatus, which tells me–actually, let’s linger on that point a minute. I have the new Lost. I have the new Lost. I got the new Lo-o-o-ost, and you ain’t got none, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah…

OK, now that I’ve got it out of my system: I rarely get

Idol Wins Idol

American Idol returns tonight, and last night’s Golden Globes could not have been a better promotion for it had the awards been held on Fox. The Globe for best supporting actress in a film went to Idol also-ran Jennifer Hudson for her work in Dreamgirls. And not to take anything away from Hudson’s acting, but let’s face it, in large

Surfing the Cosmic Waves

Before I went to the HBO panel on new series John from Cincinnati, I didn’t know much about it. Having seen a reel of clips, and having heard creator David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) hold forth on it for a half-hour, I know even less.

As best as I can summarize: It’s about several generations of a surfing dynasty in Southern

HBO Goes to Hell

Last summer at the TV critics’ tour, there was a minor brouhaha when a reporter charged that many of the TV journalists left a conference room before the presentation by Roger Ailes of Fox News–the implication being that liberal TV critics were staging a walkout against the conservative Ailes.

Conservatives who were offended at the

It's Not TV Press Tour, It's HBO Press Tour

Today is HBO day at the cable press tour. It would be impolite to say so, since today also featured presentations by AMC, GSN, Sundance and sundry other abbreviations and nouns. But charmed as we were to see the world’s greatest cat at the GSN luncheon–to promote the network’s airing of the Cat-Minster cat competition, we met last

A Good Dealer Doesn't Use His Own Product

Television is the most influential and widely enjoyed entertainment medium in the world. Except, apparently, among the people who make and work in television. If you cover TV for any length of time, you learn that people in the TV biz watch, or at least say they watch, incredibly little TV. Especially their direct competition.

At the

Dead Tree Alert: Think You Know Jack?

I would have posted this earlier, but the dirty little secret is that even some of us who work at TIME have a hard time remembering it now comes out on Fridays. (Run to the newsstands, people! Run like the wind!) In the print issue, my Culture Complex column looks at the new season of 24, in the light of the charges–which I’ve disputed

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