Friday, May 25 2012
Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective
With two TV shows returning Arthur Conan Doyle's creation to our screens, Sherlock Holmes has never seemed more influential. But for the good of detective fiction, it might be time to look elsewhere for our unorthodox investigators...
Friday, May 11 2012
Stand-Up! America’s Dissenting Tradition Part 2: Transformers George Carlin & Richard Pryor
Whereas Richard Pryor used autobiography for his comedy of social dissent, George Carlin aimed his critical lens outwards, to reflect upon a world of greed and self-delusion.
Friday, May 4 2012
In Defense Of ... David Simon and the Legacy of ‘The Wire’
In light of David Simon's recent comments to The New York Times on its intent to 'stir actual shit', we revisit how important The Wire should be to both popular culture and American society.
Friday, April 27 2012
In Defense Of… Cutting the Cord on Conventional Cable Television
With more and more websites developing original programming and cable companies raising prices each year, there has never been a better time to turn away from your television and toward your computer.
Wednesday, April 25 2012
For Your Smoking Pleasure
Love and hate. Success and failure. Life and death. Cigarettes. You could get addicted to Brian Dooley's The Smoking Room.
Tuesday, April 17 2012
Thursday, March 22 2012
In Defense Of… The HBO Television Series, ‘Luck’
In light of a third animal death on set, HBO swiftly canceled its promising new racetrack drama. But considering the latest obsession with television nostalgia, was immediately axing the show the right move? Or even better, was it the least bit hypocritical?
Friday, February 24 2012
Why I Dumped Ricky Gervais for Karl Pilkington (but Am Still Seeing Stephen Merchant on the Side)
Did the record breaking Ricky Gervais Show podcast give insight into the real people behind it? Or were they just three more brilliant comic creations?
Wednesday, February 22 2012
Twilight of the Toffs: ‘Brideshead Revisited’
Like Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, Brideshead Revisited can be considered a requiem for the days of Empire and the unyielding class structure that governed British life pre-World War II.
Thursday, February 2 2012
Prime Time Larceny: It Takes a Thief
Al Mundy (Robert Wagner) enjoys a reputation as a world-class thief, a glamorous burglar, a pickpocket's pickpocket. Too bad he landed in prison.
Wednesday, January 25 2012
‘How to Make It in America’? Well for Starters, Don’t Make Hopeful Television
The HBO dramedy How to Make It in America, despite being one of television's best programs, could not make it because it was too hopeful and joyful to survive a culture of cyncism.
Tuesday, January 17 2012
Misery Loves Comedy, But Has It Killed the Traditional Sitcom?
Comedian Lee Mack believes that realism is the enemy of comedy. But his own series, Not Going Out, proves that the Old-School sitcom is alive and kicking.
Tuesday, January 3 2012
Designing Fantasy Worlds the Weta Way
Weta Workshop’s Daniel Falconer has designed creatures and worlds from A (Avatar) to X (Xena: Warrior Princess), but with so many projects in his busy schedule, he doesn’t have time for a lot of Zzzzzzzs.
Friday, December 16 2011
O Captain! My Captain! Going Where No Octogenarian Has Gone Before
As "Bill" explores the meaninglessness of celebrity, "Shatner" embraces the shallow and the superficial like an Andy Warhol soup can come to life.
Monday, December 12 2011
Hollywood’s Steep Hills: Gender Inequality and ‘Miss Representation’
Gender inequality in Hollywood reigns supreme, but as Miss Representation shows, the male/female binary is so insidious that it even makes its way into productions that aim to counter it.
Tuesday, December 6 2011
Showing My References: On Reading Too Much About TV & Watching Too Much TV
I still yearn for a hefty volume of pages to take down from the shelf, to leaf through at my leisure or to zero in on that relevant fact.
Thursday, November 10 2011
How Would You Like It, a Little More Off the Top?
Makeup and special effects artist Genevieve Garner can transform the average beast into a beauty—or vice versa.
Tuesday, November 8 2011
Humor vs. Religion: An Unholy War. Part Two: Dispatches from the Front Lines
For comedians like Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher and others, the non-rational beliefs and behaviors that religion fosters are, from a “material” perspective, manna from heaven.
Thursday, November 3 2011
This Show Just Got a Little Too Real: Bravo’s ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
Bravo’s schadenfreude is such a fundamental part of Real Housewives that every episode unavoidably concerns a tragic figure that never appears on screen and cannot defend the character assassination the show perpetuates.
Wednesday, October 26 2011
Tough Guys Recite: The 5 Best Poetry Spittin’ TV Characters
Every generic hero on TV can finish a poetic quotation or identify a poignant quatrain (down to the line numbers). But few can spit Tennyson or Yeats with such venom as these guys.
