Thursday, November 3 2011
The Funeral Parlor Palette: Color Symbolism in ‘Six Feet Under’
The use of a symbolically coded color palette in Six Feet Under adds a subtle dimension of depth to an already complex and rich array of characters.
Wednesday, November 2 2011
‘Six Feet Under’ and the Funeral Industry
Six Feet Under brought the stark, unglamorous realities of death and dying into living rooms, and shed light on the often times vicious business of the funeral industry.
Tuesday, November 1 2011
Living the Scream: How ‘Six Feet Under’ Woke TV from the Dream
Six Feet Under went straight for the jugular of the American Dream, daring to suggest it less an ongoing embarrassment of riches, more a shame-filled endurance of unease.
Monday, October 31 2011
‘Your Whole Life Is Leading Up to This’: Developing ‘Six Feet Under’ at HBO
Kicking off our Six Feet Under series... Like its fellow HBO series, Six Feet Under blurred genre categories, merging elements of soap opera and serialized broadcast dramas alongside nods to art-house cinema and modernist theater.
Tuesday, October 4 2011
20 Questions: William Shatner
William Shatner, Captain Kirk, Cultural Icon Extraordinaire. Shatner Rules. Like all great American actors – he’s not American. We’re not even sure he’s human. We’re certain, however, that he’s The Captain of Everything -- not least PopMatters 20 Questions.
Tuesday, September 27 2011
Smells Like MTV: Music Video and the Rise of Grunge
MTV’s central role in delivering grunge to a national audience in the early 1990s demonstrated the network’s power as a creator and definer of culture, and the reaction of many of grunge’s iconic figures against the video medium revealed the gulf between principle and reality.
Thursday, September 22 2011
Michael Has Issues: A Sad Sad Conversation with Michael Ian Black
Michael Ian Black -- of The State, Stella, and Michael & Michael Have Issues fame -- discusses his new album, Very Famous, and connecting to people through sad, sad conversations ...
Tuesday, September 20 2011
“I Cherish the F—k Ups As Much As the Triumphs”: An Interview with Patton Oswalt
With a Showtime special behind him and his new album out now, Patton Oswalt speaks to PopMatters and manages to fit in The New Yorker, Penthouse, and Acme Novelty Library in a single sentence.
Thursday, September 15 2011
With Our Help, You Can Have It All: The Depressing Rhetoric of Unemployment TV’s Commercials
Viewers of daytime TV are perceived to be losers in need of services (mostly legal), because they don't seem willing to make long-term decisions or capable of helping themselves.
Tuesday, September 13 2011
Joke’s on Us: Reality TV Always Gets the Last Laugh
The "rich" and "famous" are NOT like us... at least not on TV. Reality 'stars': Whether we love them or loathe them, if we watch them, they win.
Monday, September 12 2011
Documenting Memories of 9/11
The many documentaries on 9/11 show that this is what the day has been and remains, history conveyed by images, history reconfigured to shape what comes after, history that is perpetual.
Wednesday, September 7 2011
B(ew)itchin’ the Kitchen: Funny, Feminine, Femminista
On Bitchin' Ktichen', Nadia G. cooks up culinary comedy while taking on and upending the televisual and societal conventions of the traditional cooking show format.
Thursday, August 18 2011
Here Comes Fall TV: 2011 Edition
This year's new shows include fewer straight up procedurals about cops, doctors, and lawyers than usual. And only a few comedies involving young people cohabitating in urban environments. We've got the video previews here along with what to watch and what to miss.
Monday, August 8 2011
PopMatters 20 Questions: Jon Polito
Jon Polito’s mug is so familiar that he almost feels… familiar, like the merchant at the corner store, the beat cop in your ‘hood, or the local mobster. Yeah that's it, the local mobster.
First Impressions Count: The Importance of TV Pilots
It’s one of entertainment's must cutthroat tryouts. The modern TV viewer knows what they want. Failure to deliver on such expectations can spell doom for a new program.
Wednesday, August 3 2011
When Reality TV Is Real… No One Is Watching
"You can’t have drunk bicycle messengers, it would be too dangerous and these were real businesses with reputations on the line." What’s interesting about Triple Rush is not the show itself, but why the show foundered and what this reveals about audience’s expectations from reality TV shows today.
Friday, July 29 2011
Ashton Kutcher vs. The Village Voice: Looking for Real Men on the Internet
The feud between Ashton Kutcher and the Village Voice sparked a firestorm, and highlights a need for a greater understanding of sex trafficking -- and media representation of it -- across the board. How should the media and Hollywood approach this complicated subject?
Wednesday, July 27 2011
Sherlockians, Whovians, Woodies: Summer is the Season for Cinematic Tourists
Each summer they descend upon London en masse. Who are these cinematic tourists, and why do they travel thousands of miles to see where real or fictitious people enacted the stories that captured fans’ imagination?
Wednesday, July 13 2011
Batman’s Cultural Impact: Promoting Great Society Values
The Batman TV series (1966-1968) is famous for its witty camp humor and colorful cast of villains. But, argues Chris Gould, it also enthusiastically espoused the social and political goals of LBJ and the Great Society.
Tuesday, July 12 2011
“I Get Recognized at Least Once a Day”: An Interview with Kristen Schaal
She wrote The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex and is the Women's Issues Correspondent on The Daily Show. The upfront female comic sits down to talk to PopMatters about comedy, fame, and so much more ...
