Tuned In
One of the most anticipated—and to me, disappointing—debuts of the fall is tonight’s The Event on NBC. My feelings haven’t changed much since I previewed an early version in July. (“The Event, really, feels more like NBC’s attempt to create the next FlashForward: an extremely plot-forward sci-fi thriller with a Big Question and no …
Tuned In
Bob Allen (James Wolk), as he tells us in the pilot of Lone Star (Fox, debuts 9 p.m. E.T. tonight), is in the “relationship business.” Boy, is he ever. He has a beautiful girlfriend (Eloise Mumford) in Midland, Texas, where he sells land shares in an energy-development deal. And he has a beautiful wife (Adrienne Palicki) in Houston, …
Tuned In
One reason that Mrs. Tuned In and I have a lasting marriage is division of labor. I am the cook; she is the baker. I blister dried chilis in cast-iron pans and bring weird meats back from the store; she produces meltingly buttery cookies and a chocolate-frosted malt cake that I would kill or die for.
I say that by way of full …
Tuned In
Outlaw, starring Jimmy Smits, is not a comedy, though it’s from Conan O’Brien’s production company. (Irony alert: the series is on NBC.) In fact, the series—renegade, rule-breaking judge quits the bench and becomes renegade, rule-breaking lawyer—sounds like it could be a show O’Brien would make as a parody. It’s not that either, …
Tuned In
I don’t have a full-length review for you of The CW’s Nikita, debuting tonight, partly because of other deadlines, partly because, while the pilot is a sleekly executed version of a familiar woman-who-kicks-ass theme (based on the ur-woman-who-kicks-ass story), there’s not enough compellingly original about it to comment on. If it’s a …
Tuned InUncategorized
NBC has generated headlines over the past year with its attempt to remake ’70s private-eye show The Rockford Files. Somebody should let them know they can stop trying now.
FX has not remade The Rockford Files with its sly-humored new P.I. drama Terriers, debuting tonight, but it has pursued what is probably a better idea: creating a …
Tuned In
The outstanding season 2 of Sons of Anarchy ended in a blaze of action: the SAMCRO motorcycle gang got revenge (of sorts) for the rape of matriarch Gemma (Katey Sagal) by the minions of a white-power group; Gemma herself went on the lam after being set up for murder; and protagonist Jax (Charlie Hunnam) was dealt another blow in the …
It might seem unlikely that Conan O’Brien will walk away with an Emmy Sunday night for his short-lived stint atop The Tonight Show, but surely no more unlikely than the fact that he received a nomination in the first place. And if he were to indeed win and hop up on stage to accept his honor, the Hollywood Reporter Esquire Blog is …
Tuned In
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I must apologize for having been remiss in my coverage of Shark Week this year: the way I see it, you’ve seen one shark, you’ve seen 250 million years of evolution. In compensation, here’s CBS’s Craig Ferguson talking with most talented woman in TV history Julie Chen about his own …
Tuned In
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6DYpBFaHfo]
Tonight, Jersey Shore returns to MTV for season 2. Which is not set in New Jersey. Rather, the metaphysical state, or Situation, known as “the Jersey Shore”* has drifted down the eastern seaboard to Florida, where Snooki, The Situation, J-Woww and company relocated earlier this …
Tuned InUncategorized
There needs to be a term invented that conveys the message, “You might enjoy this show a lot, if you’re a fan of this kind of thing, as long as you don’t need it to be, in any grand sense of the word, actually good.”
The term “guilty pleasure” doesn’t quite apply to a project like Starz’s The Pillars of the Earth, debuting tonight. …
Tuned InUncategorized
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People have mocked me for liking The Hills—behind my back! You think I can’t hear you but I totally hear you!—but I’m OK with that. Really. To be honest, I’ve drifted away from the show—which airs …
Tuned In
You shall have to go elsewhere for your LeBron James analysis; my awareness of pro baskbetball ended right around the time of one of Michael Jordan’s retirements. But this is a TV blog, and so it it my duty to inform you that ESPN will be carrying James’ decision—whether to spare the human race or crush us with the robot army currently …
