Roger Holland

Features

The Best Country Music of 2007

Whatever your taste in music, be it Country or Western, 2007 has been something of a disappointment when compared with recent years. You have to look a little harder to find the diamonds in the Van Lear coal-mine that was the year that was, but they're there. [14 December 2007]

Kids’ DVDs: June 2007

Given that babies and young children love nothing more than repetition, repetition, and... um.... repetition, I can't understand why even the pointiest of heads would think children between the ages of six months and three years could possible need 23 different Baby Einstein DVDs. [6 June 2007]

Architecture and Morality: The Wedding Present Revisited

Pop scholars frequently undervalue The Wedding Present. If the Smiths were the undeniable figurehead for the UK's thriving independent pop scene of the 1980s, then Gedge's little-band-that-could certainly inherited that mantle. [31 May 2007]

Best Country of 2006

Goodbye to Academia, Pedantry, and even Austin: Roger Holland's favorite country albums of 2006 come from a very broad church indeed. [21 December 2006]

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?

As our inner Helen Lovejoy knows full well, Christmas Is For Thee Children. So what on earth can we pick up for our kids from Wal-Mart that'll fit into an SUV laden with goodies from the Pottery Barn and beyond? Well, DVDs. Obv. And why not start with the Christmas Classics? [6 December 2006]

The L-Words: An Interview with the Cardigans

It was two years of hard work (both on and away from the music), but the Cardigans still made an album to last. [12 November 2006]

Celtic Soul Rebel: Talking to the Dentist About Poetry

Shane MacGowan recorded five albums with the Pogues. As the reformed band sets out on its most ambitious tour since 1991, and Rhino Records releases expanded and remastered versions of all five, we take the opportunity to review the rise and fall of the Pogues. [23 October 2006]

Kids DVDS - October 2006

The debut DVD release for Disney's 1990's TV series, TaleSpin, is a joyous hybrid of widespread source material that includes three ever-loveable characters from The Jungle Book -- Baloo, King Louie, and Shere Khan. [11 October 2006]

Kids’ DVDS: August 2006

Raven-Symone Christina Pearman must die. She's been on TV since Adam bought Eve a portable Sony from a souhk just outside Bahrain. Her records have all sucked like Heather Harmon. She can't decide whether she's a Cheetah Girl or not. [4 August 2006]

Kids’ DVDS: May/June 2006

It comes as a pleasant surprise to be able to report that the best new children's DVDs all come from Disney, so often the source for substandard and exploitative 'product'. [19 June 2006]

Practice Makes Imperfect

Yet another reissue of Wire's early albums presents a chance to reappraise the band's vaunted reputation -- were they punk-inspired innovators or canny and cynical manipulators of their audience's pretensions? [17 May 2006]

The Busy Boy Buys Box Sets: Billy Bragg Revisited

Billy Bragg has been described elsewhere as a one-man Clash, but that's the sort of arrant nonsense that gets music journalists a bad name. No, what Bragg is, is an English Bob Dylan. Cross-bred with a cockney Morrissey who learned how to box. [1 May 2006]

Kids’ DVDS: March 2006

'Collect Them All' is not only about moving Disney units by the gazillion or linking fast food with movies, TV shows with toys, and favourite characters with t-shirts. Above all, it's about teaching children to be consumers, to identify themselves with and by brands. [27 April 2006]

Kids’ DVDS: March 2006

Poor SpongeBob. A highly original fellow who breathes much needed fresh sea air into the stale kiddiesphere, he has faced frequent criticism from one side or another in the war for our children's minds. [27 March 2006]

To Everything, There Is a Season

Roger Holland looks at three new paperbacks from crime lit's biggest names -- Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, and Linda Fairstein. [14 February 2006]

Kids’ DVDS: February 2006

This month's outstanding DVD release for children of all ages is Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water, Volume 1. [10 February 2006]

Kids’ DVDS: January 2006

Dark, complex, and intelligent, Gargoyles is an animated series from the mid-'90s that's become something of a cult favorite, and deservedly so. [13 January 2006]

XXX—Born to Lose, Live to Win

Ugly as sin and utterly uncompromising for 30 years, now, Motörhead remains the squarest of pegs in an industry obsessed by round holes. [23 December 2005]

Kids’ DVDS: December 2005

It's getting noticeably colder now we're in December, and if you listen carefully, you can already hear Santa Claus checking his list. For the second time. [1 December 2005]

Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Don’t Stand Me Down (1985)

His lone American hit "Come on Eileen" made chief Dexy Kevin Rowland seem a one-note, barefoot-ragamuffin cliché. But his most brilliant work would come after he ditched the rags and the better portion of his fans. [11 November 2005]

A European Superbowl?

It is possible that Glazer's grand adventure into English football will bring Manchester United to its knees, and Glazer along with it. [28 July 2005]

Carradonna: Heart as Big as Liverpool

Jamie Carragher comes from one of the rougher sides of Liverpool. He's a footballer whose honesty, hard-work, loyalty, dependability, and refusal to act like some sort of primadonna arsehole just because he can kick a ball a bit places him head and shoulders above any other top-flight player in the English game. [24 May 2005]

Turin’s Shroud: Has the English Disease become the Italian Complaint?

The story behind these games is truly a history of modern football hooliganism. [2 May 2005]

Song of the Traveling Clawhammer Banjo Player

Abigail Washburn reflects on the two worlds that inform her art. [1 January 1995]

What Goes Around Comes Around: A Conversation With Patricia Vonne

Don't mess with Texas or a green-eyed girl. Whatever it is, Patricia Vonne has got it going on. But PopMatters is taller and wears bigger shoes.

Love is the Tender Trap

Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey explore the challenges of putting out an album and a baby at the same time.

American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine

The Schoolyard Heroes are like a serial killer party thrown at an evil Rushmore. And, apparently, they're tight. Like a tiger.

California Man

Living a dual-life is a bit of a balancing act for Allen Clapp, leader of summer pop specialists the Orange Peels.

Hope Is the Thing With Feathers

PopMatters talks poetry, ornithology, and dead languages with the whipsmart post-folk rocker Erin McKeown, who might not have made her new album at all if she'd paid more attention in high school English.

Kicking Against The Pricks!: An Interview with Half Man Half Biscuit

PopMatters talks to the most complete and authentic British group since the Clash -- Half Man Half Biscuit.

A Cheap Thrill (Plus One)

To celebrate the belated US release of their new album Baby, PopMatters presents 10 things you need to know about Rachel Nagy and the Detroit Cobras.

Who’s That Girl?: Grey DeLisle on How to Be Both Bubbly and Badass

As an in-demand voice actress, DeLisle has supplied animated identities to many cartoon characters. Her true passion, however, lies in finding a voice for the songs she performs -- that goes for murder ballads and

A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Also Country

Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell let their joy bloom while talking about their new album.

Not the Tremblin’ Kind

Laura Cantrell got some surprising help on the way to being one of indie's premiere country singers.

Reviews

Led Zeppelin: Mothership

More Songs About Groupies and The Lord of the Rings. [12 December 2007]

The Amazing Race

This is the way the best reality show on TV returns. Not with a bang, but a whimper. I love The Amazing Race, but I'm increasingly unhappy with how its handling. [2 November 2007]

Men in Trees

Reasons to watch Men in Trees, Part One: It's not Sex and the City. [18 October 2007]

Beauty and the Geek

If she lasts long enough to find her place between the geeks and beauties, Nicole will enjoy her very own "Why, Miss Jones, You Were Beautiful All Along" moment, and make more than one geek's day. [9 October 2007]

Private Practice

The show's true centre of dramatic gravity can be found midway between Violet (Amy Brenneman) and Cooper (Paul Adelstein). [3 October 2007]

NCIS

In the best episodes of NCIS, the plot is all but incidental. [2 October 2007]

NUMB3RS

NUMB3RS combines two of television's most staply of staples, crime-fighting and family drama. [28 September 2007]

House

Hugh Laurie's outstandingly charismatic Dr. Greg House doth bestride the increasingly narrow-minded world of network television like a contemporary Colossus. [25 September 2007]

Chuck

Marvelous Adam Baldwin is the deadly NSA Major John Casey, all sneers and casual disregard for sanctity of life. [24 September 2007]

Emerson Lake and Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition

Emerson Lake and Palmer has been one of my guilty pleasures for many a long year. [12 September 2007]

Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight

If there's anything at all in Jenny Lewis's cheek, it's probably not her tongue. [29 August 2007]

The New Pornographers: Challengers

Roger Holland thinks Challengers is what the New Pornographers always wanted to sound like and that it just took them four albums to get there. [21 August 2007]

Traveler

Traveler over-promised and under-delivered. [2 August 2007]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide To Bellydance Cafe

A splendidly diverse introduction to one of the most influential and intriguing musical families of the East. [31 July 2007]

Mad Men

Mad Men is stylish and clever, showing men who are simultaneously at the pinnacle of their corporate and personal worlds, and at risk of losing everything. [26 July 2007]

The Singing Bee / Don’t Forget the Lyrics

Where The Singing Bee piles on the action, snapping through round after round of quick-fire singing, winning, and losing, Don't Forget the Lyrics drags out every decision in search of something like tension,

Amy LaVere: Anchors & Anvils

If you can find a better opening song anywhere, then I'll eat the hat of your choice. [14 June 2007]

Robin Hood

Robin Hood makes a quick anti-war comment, establishing right-on credentials for the benefit of the Islington classes, but doesn't pursue broader issues of taxation and social justice. [5 June 2007]

Joan Osborne: Breakfast In Bed

All shine and polish, but no sex or sensuality.

Veronica Mars

The final scenes of Veronica Mars offered no sense of closure. Rather, we were left with the sense we'd been denied a genuinely thrilling fourth season. [29 May 2007]

Miranda Lambert: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

In “Kerosene”, the broken-hearted singer turned to arson to resolve her issues with a cheating boyfriend. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend sees her opt for “Gunpowder and Lead”. [24 May 2007]

The Amazing Race: All-Stars

You travel a gazillion miles and work your cute little Beauty Queen butt to the bone to reach the final three, and then Bertram Van Munster gives away a million dollars on the equivalent of a coin toss. Quelle crock. [14 May 2007]

Elizabeth Cook: Balls

Elizabeth Cook seems to have had everything going for her, except the dice. [1 May 2007]

Drive

Deemed a failure after just four episodes, Drive was the only new drama to catch my imagination this year. [30 April 2007]

Wreckless Eric: Big Smash

One of the very few songwriters to have been covered by Cliff Richard and Die Toten Hosen, the Monkees, and Yo La Tengo. Oh, and Will Ferrell. [9 April 2007]

Graham Parker: Dont Tell Columbus

The 56-year-old Parker has lost little of his young man's ire. However, time certainly seems to have tempered the bile in his sneer. [14 March 2007]

The Moaners: Blackwing Yalobusha

After six strong, but flawed attempts, Melissa Swingle has finally got her mixture right. [9 March 2007]

The Amazing Race: All-Stars

After just three episodes, The Amazing Race: All-Stars is already looking like a bad idea executed poorly. [8 March 2007]

Lucinda Williams: West

In her search for something "mature yet hip", Williams seems to have forgotten that there's nothing more mature, more hip, or indeed more totally happening than the magic that occurs when she plays country. Pedal steel guitar and all. [12 February 2007]

The Dresden Files

Picture Paul Blackthorne with a broken razor and an almost convincing American accent, playing an alternative Harry Potter, all grown up, cynical as hell, but cursed with a heart of gold. [1 February 2007]

The Apprentice: Los Angeles

This season, Trump has is no longer merely loitering around the line that divides irony from delusion; he's jumped headlong into some totally scary, reality-free netherworld. [18 January 2007]

Dierks Bentley: Long Trip Alone

Bentley's new CD can stand proudly against, say, some of Blake Shelton’s lesser numbers. [19 November 2006]

Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift

Sixteen years old, blonde, willowy, and undeniably gorgeous, Taylor Swift is every marketing man’s wet dream girl [9 November 2006]

George Strait: It Just Comes Natural

There are great joys to be had in George Strait's phrasing, diction and emotional interpretation. And then there's the music. [7 November 2006]

Alan Jackson: Like Red on a Rose

While it was Alan Jackson's idea to bring in Alison Krauss, it seems he may have got more than he bargained for. [18 October 2006]

Click (2006)

At heart, Click is a trivial movie that asks an important question about life, the universe, and everything: how on earth can a man who's doing Kate Beckinsale on a regular basis be at all dissatisfied with his life? [16 October 2006]

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gold

I personally would've sewn a Confederate flag to the back of something or other, if not for the sneaking suspicion that I would've looked like a complete twat. [13 October 2006]

Mindy Smith: Long Island Shores

Almost three years after her debut, it's finally Difficult Second Album time for Miss Mindy Smith [10 October 2006]

The Bachelor: Rome

If "Prince" Lorenzo "P-Lo" Borghese really wants to find the love of his life, he'd be better off paying eHarmony $250 a year. But where would be the fun in that? [9 October 2006]

Anne McCue: Koala Motel

Anne McCue's trying to shake her influences, but one keeps holding on. [29 September 2006]

Greys Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is a well cast and beautifully shot soap opera, with characters we can love and hate and a soundtrack of frequently marvelous music. [28 September 2006]

The Amazing Race

The race began on Kite Hill in Seattle's Gas Works Park, a perfectly photogenic place, but also the scene of the most unpopular victory in the show's history. [21 September 2006]

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: Gold

You can count the number of songwriters who have matched Robinson's achievements on the fingers of one stump. [20 September 2006]

Slumber Party: MUSIK

MUSIK slaps some happy juxtapositions on the flagpole, and I salute Slumber Party for them. It’s pick and mix time. [15 September 2006]

Two Ton Boa: Parasiticide

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a band with two bass guitars sound less funky. [13 September 2006]

Standoff

The first episode included a good deal of Where Is This Relationship Going, a little of Isn't My Floppy Fringe Just Fantastic, and a couple of hostage situations. [12 September 2006]

Million Dollar Listing

All you really need to know about Million Dollar Listing is that it's brought to you by the same people who conceived Showbiz Moms & Dads and Showdog Moms & Dads. [5 September 2006]

Trace Adkins: Dangerous Man

A big man with a big hat, a likeably warm baritone, and a fine ear for a crowd-pleasing song, Trace Adkins is one of those country types you could end up enjoying despite yourself. [30 August 2006]

Led Zeppelin: The Origin of the Species [DVD]

Zeppelin fans will know much of this material already. But I once wrote a book about this band (not a very good one, admittedly), and there are things here that I never knew. [29 August 2006]

Danielle Peck: Danielle Peck

The next wave of that wooden-legged phenomenon known as Shania? Well, good luck with that.

Various Artists: Paupers, Peasants, Princes and Kings

Few of these bands have anything like the personality it takes to become a great cover band. Some of them, however, do have the sense to come in out of the rain. [3 August 2006]

The Divine Comedy: Victory for the Comic Muse

Neil Hannon has largely toned down his extravagant look-at-me persona, and decided instead to rely on the quality of his song-writing. [20 July 2006]

Tender Trap: 6 Billion People

Peter Pan and Billie Joe Armstrong can stay young forever. For everyone else, there's Tender Trap. [12 July 2006]

Julie Roberts: Men and Mascara

Rich with melody and dark with possibilities, Julie Roberts' voice has a depth and a reach that cannot be denied. [28 June 2006]

NCIS: review_item_subtitle

Bellisario's cast, dialogue, and wild collection of jokes, in-jokes, and meta-jokes, however? These are such stuff as dreams are made of. [27 June 2006]

NCIS: The Complete First Season

Bellisario's cast, dialogue, and wild collection of jokes, in-jokes, and meta-jokes, however? These are such stuff as dreams are made of. [5 June 2006]

Cracker: Greenland

When you think about it, Greenland is a lot like life, really. It's huge, but 85% of it is covered with ice and completely uninhabitable. It's confusing. And it belongs to Denmark. [1 June 2006]

Date Movie (Unrated) (2004)

Date Movie is not the spoof it seemingly aspires to. Rather, it's but a dreadfully long catalog of references to other infinitely superior movies. [29 May 2006]

Black Sabbath: Greatest Hits 1970-1978

Does Ozzy want a special prize for helping to invent the power ballad? Because I've got a bullet with his name on it right here, if so. [17 May 2006]

The Wedding Present: Search For Paradise

Let's face it, no-one does love, break-ups and hurt like David Gedge. [16 May 2006]

Sergeant Bilko - 50th Anniversary Edition (The Phil Silvers Show)

The first episode, 'New Recruits', is a wonderful introduction, establishing not only characters and set-up, but also the series' underlying morality. [8 May 2006]

The Charlatans UK: Simpatico

On the evidence of Simpatico, Tim Burgess has been spending all his time on Negril Beach, smoking fattie after fattie and getting self-indulgently down with his inner trust-fund rasta self. [3 May 2006]

Teachers

Fortunately for all concerned, Kali Rocha plays school principal Emma Wiggins as Megan Mullally-lite, with barely a hint of a circulatory system. [27 March 2006]

Cheerleader Nation

If one of Cheerleader Nation's many home sequences had revealed that Terri and Amanda were mutant lizard sleeper agents waiting patiently for the return of V, I wouldn't have been at all surprised. Well, maybe a little. [21 March 2006]

Television Personalities: My Dark Places

For fans of a certain kind of music, there is unlikely to be a more significant release in 2006. [16 March 2006]

Tres Chicas: Bloom, Red and the Ordinary Girl

Bloom, Red And The Ordinary Girl looks back occasionally to 2004's Sweetwater, but taken as a whole this is essentially an evolution in sound. [14 March 2006]

Pansy Division: The Essential Pansy Division

Pansy Division were the first openly homosexual rock band I can remember, since Tom Robinson first told the world he was glad to be gay. [10 March 2006]

The Amazing Race - Season Nine

While I wish Desiree hadn't described herself and her mother Wanda as 'sexy little tamales', their Team Boricua is both charming and competent, but doomed to fail on a physical challenge. [7 March 2006]

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Anniversary Edition) (1961)

I suppose we should just count ourselves fortunate Capote didn't write any Indian characters into Breakfast at Tiffany's, otherwise Blake Edwards might have asked Peter Sellers to break out the boot polish. [21 February 2006]

Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson Uncensored!

About as funny as anything involving Andy Dick has ever been: this sums it up for this whole roast experience, really. [20 February 2006]

Luke Doucet: Broken (And Other Rogue States)

It's still a real shame that absurdly talented writers and performers like Luke Doucet are condemned to fly well below the popular radar. [10 February 2006]

American Idol 5

American Idol is an entertainment industry shark, a brutally efficient money-making machine. [25 January 2006]

Upstairs, Downstairs - Collector’s Edition Megaset: The Complete Series Plus Thomas and Sarah

Upstairs, Downstairs may not have been startlingly original, but its primary strength lay with its complex characters and class-based construct. [20 January 2006]

Seven Men From Now (1956)

Seven Men From Now is a small, economical movie, concerned with sacrifice and nobility. [19 January 2006]

Dolly Parton: Those Were the Days

Feel the room swayin', while that ole band keeps on playin' one of Parton's old favorite songs from way back when. [13 January 2006]

Beauty and the Geek

This year, Mr. Kutcher, in his wisdom, has decided science will be better served if the girls lounge around by the pool in their bikinis, while the nerds present themselves for inspection one at a time. [12 January 2006]

Amy LaVere: This World Is Not My Home

With the new year barely upon us, Amy LaVere's already released one of the albums of 2006. No, honestly.

The Biggest Loser - Special Edition

You could call this The Biggest Loser Lite, and since I like nothing better than a cheap laugh, I will. [11 January 2006]

Rollergirls

If the boldest thing you do all week is a little unauthorised web surfing from your corporate cubicle, then you should celebrate the Lonestar Rollergirls and their refusal to renounce violence or dress appropriately. [9 January 2006]

Lucy Kaplansky: The Tide

Remastered and re-released after 11 years and four increasingly successful albums, The Tide gives us all a chance to re-evaluate Kaplansky's work.

Gary Allan: Tough All Over

I am more open to Allan's music precisely because I assume it to be authentic as hell and rooted in a deep, personal tragedy. [5 January 2006]

The Frank Sinatra Show: High Hopes - With Dean Martin and Bing Crosby [DVD]

In the words of his own director, Jack Donahue: 'There are quite a few performers who have no business on television each week, and Sinatra is one of them.'" [6 December 2005]

Various Artists: I Heard It on NPR - One World Many Voices

An interesting assortment of hits and misses from public radio. [1 December 2005]

Mummy the Peepshow: School Girl Pop

In a world where an Iowa independent label reissues the fourth album from an Osaka-based all girl trio that is not Shonen Knife, School Girl Pop is better than you'd expect. Much better. [28 November 2005]

Kurupt: Against Tha Grain

This just in: the Titanic sank and 2Pac died. Why can't modern hip-hop... ahem... get off his dick, stop robbing his grave, and let him rest in peace?" [3 November 2005]

The Amazing Race - The Complete First Season

The Amazing Race sets its participants a wide range of daunting and occasionally hilarious challenges. It's a kibbitzer's dream. [1 November 2005]

The Carter Family: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Carter Family

Re-issue! Re-package! Time to re-evaluate the songs... [25 October 2005]

Gretchen Wilson: All Jacked Up

Gretchen Wilson is precisely the sort of potentially great performer that country music needs. [21 October 2005]

t.A.T.u: Dangerous and Moving

If you don't like t.A.T.u, you don't like pop music. Simple as that. Straight outta Eurovision-East, t.A.T.u are the Abba for the new millennium. [7 October 2005]

America’s Next Top Model: Cycle 5

It's easy (and obligatory) to poke fun at America's Next Top Model, but important to remember that it represents the televisual tip of a gazillion dollar industry iceberg. [5 October 2005]

House

If you're not already watching Fox's House, you should be. [4 October 2005]

Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005)

While Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie proved to be just a little scary for a two-year-old, the prospect of living with even one of Disney's Princesses for any length of time fills me with dread. [27 September 2005]

The Apprentice

More than any other episode, The Apprentice premiere is so consumed with scene setting and its money-shot boardroom footage that there is precious little focus on the challenge itself. [22 September 2005]

Rumpole of the Bailey - Set 3, Series 5-7

Rumpole plots were primarily an outlet for Mortimer's humor, morality, and social viewpoint. [19 September 2005]

Bones

It's a weak TV-by-numbers show that makes no attempt to live up to the Temperance Brennan books, and it has a single scant hope of surviving the scheduler's cull.

Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)

Simple, kind, honest, and unpatronising, Because of Winn-Dixie handles the friendship between Opal and her mutt quite perfectly. [16 September 2005]

Pieta Brown: In the Cool

It's hard to resist the temptation to compare Pieta Brown with the greatest of the best. Unfortunately and inevitably, In the Cool doesn't quite live up to the comparison. [13 September 2005]

Valiant (2005)

Though Valiant is cheerful enough, its actors, animators, and audience have all been let down by its lack of ambition. [26 August 2005]

Devil’s Corner by Lisa Scottoline

Roger Holland looks at a couple of instant classics of Crime-Lit For Chicks and Right Wing War Games For Boys. [19 August 2005]

How Soccer Explains the World: An (Unlikely) Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer

The truth is that English football supporters were far from the lethal killing machines Foer would have you believe. [11 August 2005]

Eliza Gilkyson: Paradise Hotel

It's her most accomplished and consistent work to-date.

Lauren Ellis: Feels Like Family

This is not the 1970s, and being a 'woman in rock' is not an end in itself. [10 August 2005]

Carrie Newcomer: Regulars and Refugees

It's a well-crafted collection of thoughtful, touching songs that will keep listeners coming back time and time again. [9 August 2005]

Nine Pound Hammer: Mulebite Deluxe

Essentially, Nine Pound Hammer are the Dictators from the bible belt, and Mulebite Deluxe has caught them at the top of their powers. [8 August 2005]

Erasure

Forget meaning, forgo relevance, and alliterate the hell out of socio-politics. A touch of theatrical flamboyance never goes amiss. [31 May 2005]

One For My Baby by Tony Parsons

Today's Tony Parsons writes like a sensitive new millennium New Man, but he's still the same old unreconstructed hack he ever was. [24 May 2005]

Treasure Hunters

Treasure Hunters is all about America, taking viewers back to a glorious past, boosting domestic tourism, and helping us forget about the war on terror, the price of oil, Karl Rove, and his New World Order. [1 January 1995]

NCIS

Though she has more than a passing interest in death, BDSM, and the industrial-goth combo Android Lust, Abby is a veritable ray of sunshine among the body parts and analytical equipment that clutter up her workplace.

Hell’s Kitchen

After just one day in Hell's Kitchen, the contestants were already so tired that Larry could get carted off to hospital without anyone else even waking up. Way to go, Gordo.

America’s Next Top Model: Cycle 6

To anyone even remotely web savvy, it was obvious who was going to win this cycle of America's Next Top Model long before New Oprah's forehead hove into view for the finale.

The Amazing Race - Season Nine

It wasn't just that most players in TAR-9 failed to click with viewers, they also didn't provide enough real competition.