Television

Features, reviews, interviews, and lists about television, covering the latest as well historical topics.

Music/Feature Sub Head/Features/Film/Television

Why Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work” Is the Ultimate Screen Song

Timbray Shafer / 13 April 2026

The lyrics to Steely Dan’s 1972 song “Dirty Work” are not the enigmatic stanzas that make up most of their discography, so why is it still used in films and TV to this day?

Television/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features

‘Drops of God’ Drinks Wine with a Proustian Sensibility

Adit Chandrachud / 30 March 2026

Drops of God chooses to speak the language of luxury through philosophy and meaningful cinematography – with drinks.

Features/Feature Sub Head/Film/Film Feature/Television

Star Trek’s Ultimate, Absolute, Inarguably Final Frontier

Amir Segal / 23 March 2026

In the minds of Star Trek‘s many creators, the “sky” is the limit(less), but been there, done that. So what’s left for our adventurous mythmakers to explore?

Television/Feature Sub Head/Features

What Is Wrong with ‘Bridgerton’?

Ashcharya Wickramage / 17 February 2026

In Brigerton‘s imagined world, racial inequality appears to be resolved simply through elite inclusion, without any reckoning with empire, exploitation, or power.

Culture/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Television

How MAGA Humor Took Over American Comedy

Iain Ellis / 16 February 2026

In the minds of MAGA humorists, they, not their risk-averse and PC-hobbled liberal counterparts, are continuing the tradition of bold, truth-telling comedy.

Music/Feature Sub Head/Features/Film/Music Features/Television

2025 Marks Pop Music’s Gilded Age

Matthew Dwyer / 29 January 2026

Embracing craft alongside vulnerability in the 2020s, pop music reaches the apex of its powers in 2025 by reveling in its own glamorous facade.

Television/Reviews

Dance Moms’ Ferocious Appetite

Hannah Kurien / 28 January 2026

In the aftermath of the 2008 stock market crash, Dance Moms helped feed America’s ferocious appetite for cruelty.

Lists/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/PopMatters Picks/Television

The Best TV of 2025 You May Have Missed

Ana Yorke / 16 January 2026

These best TV shows you may have missed include a show that’s ludicrously funny, one filled with scattershot mayhem, one that’s brutal and macabre, and a surreal comedy.

Television/Books/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features

The ‘Shōgun’ Series Is Like a Beautiful Car with No Engine

Mike Cormack / 4 December 2025

James Clavell’s Shōgun is about profound transformation through understanding, but FX’s Shōgun is just a spectacle of surfaces with no meaningful drive.