Continue reading "Lifetime Network Pursues Homosexual Audience" »
The embarrassing Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair photo shows the value of public relations people—and why investing real money makes people more careful about what they do.
Continue reading "Miley Cyrus, Unprotected Celebrity" »
Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon reportedly will take over Conan O'Brien's spot as host of NBC's Late Night next year.
Continue reading "Fallon to Host NBC's 'Late Night'" »
The media industry publication Advertising Age reports that viewers are not returning in hoped-for numbers to the TV shows they watched before the writers' strike interrupted the television season, even though new episodes are airing.
The Advertising Age article suggests that the convergence between broadcast and cable TV audience levels may be even greater than in recent years. This bodes well for audiences, as it further undermines the power of the big networks and portends a possible increase of consumer choice as competition makes the networks more resonsive to their audiences' preferences.
This won't necessarily bring on a Golden Age of Television, as long as the most popular cable and broadcast networks are owned by a small cartel of media conglomerates, as they are today. Nonetheless, anything that further breaks up the networks' oligopoly is good for the public at large. Something good may thus come from the writers' and producers' mutual greed.
Two new network TV situation comedies show a more optimistic and positive approach to their subject matter. This reflects an increasingly strong trend in TV fiction programming.
Continue reading "New Series 'Jezebel James,' 'Miss Guided' Inclined Toward Traditional Values" »
Hollywood actor Richard Widmark dies at age 93, represented Hollywood's heyday.
Richard Widmark, best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance as a giggling, grinning gangster in the 1947 film noir classic Kiss of Death and as an NYPD policeman in the 1970s TV program Madigan, represents a Hollywood long gone and greatly missed, where on-camera performers and others involved in making films saw themselves as professionals, not artists—and succeeded in creating real art much more often than today's more overtly ambitious and politically active generation.
Madigan was based on a very good film directed by Donald Siegel, which is well worth seeing.
For more on Widmark and his career, see the AP story.
A new TV network, Planet Green, is about to provide a forum for allegedly "eco-friendly" lifestyle choices. In reality, this entire movement will make money for opportunists and phonies and hurt everybody else.
Continue reading "Discovery Goes Green" »
TAC correspondent Michael D'Virgilio analyzes the cultural implications of the political journey of David Mamet, another modern liberal mugged by reality.Continue reading "David Mamet Swings to the Right" »
Could this be the start of a new trend toward greater optimism and positivity in the culture? HBO, for two decades the home of dark, unhappy, "edgy" TV series, is debuting a new show with a light touch.
Continue reading "HBO Lightens Up With New Detective Series" »
Fox TV comes up with two new drama series featuring troubled geniuses.
Continue reading "Fox Clones 'House' - Rather Successfully" »
Fox TV network debuts a sitcom that imitates Seinfeld—and actually works.
Given that the new Fox comedy series Unhitched is executive produced by the Farrelly Brothers—makers of lunatic and politically incorrect comedy films such as Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, Stuck on You, and The Heartbreak Kid—one would be forgiven for expecting the show to be "edgy," slapsticky, frequently obscene, and rife with somewhat disturbing ideas and images.
The show does have its share of Farrelly moments, but overall it tends to reflect the filmmakers' sweeter, goofier side. In fact, more than anything it's reminiscent of Seinfeld.
Continue reading "'Unhitched' Sitcom Reminiscent of 'Seinfeld'" »
Continue reading "The Light in "Dark" Fiction" »
'Big Four' network brings original programming to Saturday nights, chasing MMA's upscale, young audience.
Continue reading "CBS Brings Mixed Martial Arts to Major Network TV" »
In addition to the low box office numbers for most of the films nominated for Academy Awards and those that won, perhaps the strongest evidence that Hollywood—like the U.S. cultural elite in general—has become very distant from its audience is the fact that the TV ratings for Sunday's Academy Awards show were the lowest ever.
Continue reading "Oscars Draw Record-Low TV Audience" »
This past Sunday NBC premiered a new movie, an updating of the 1980s series Knight Rider, about a young crimefighter aided by a supercar with artificial intelligence. The remake takes up the story of some of the characters' children, now young adults, as they move into roles analogous to those of their parents in the original show.
It is, of course, a romance with an entirely fanciful premise with possible positive meanings at heart, and must be accepted as such if one is to appreciate it at all.
Too bad the film's producers failed to do that. An early scene establishing the important character of a female FBI agent shows her concluding an interracial, lesbian one-night stand.
Now that's realism!
Now we'll believe in an artificially intelligent, nanotech supercar piloted by a touseled-haired mesomorph, now that they've acknowledged that there is such a thing as lesbianism.
Yes, that is precisely what a nitwit might think.
Continue reading "Monk and God" »
Here's a preview of an article coming soon on another site. I've been working with the editor for a week to get this published, and an updated version will run eventually, but in the meantime here's a version that is timely because the season-ending of Prison Break will run on Fox tonight at 8 EST.Continue reading "A Defense of Pop Fiction" »
This Sunday night at 10 p.m EST, CBS attempts to bolster its writers-strike-depleted primetime lineup by bringing over a program from pay cable, Showtime's Dexter.
For those not familiar with the show, Dexter is a limited series based on the first in a series of novels about a Miami police forensic consultant whose expertise happens to be based in great part on the fact that he is a serial killer.
Continue reading "'Dexter' Comes to CBS" »
As former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens testifies before a congressional committee investigating allegations of the use of performance enhancing drugs in the sport, the observations in my Tech Central Station article during the last big government investigation into the matter apply as strongly as ever:
Continue reading "Clemens and the Constitution" »
For those wondering when new episodes of network primetime TV series will begin appearing if the writers strike ends Tuesday as expected, there's a good AP article on the subject here.
Short answer: the rest of the season will be a mess. New episodes of popular fiction series will be scarce, and new episodes of most fiction shows that began this season are unlikely.
The worst news is for fans of the popular Fox series 24. The show will probably not return until early next year, according to reports.
Thus the writers union has accomplished what the worst supervillains in the world could not. Now that's power.
This Friday at noon EST the USA Network will rerun the comedy-espionage-mystery movie Underfunded, which premiered last fall. Co-written and co-produced by David Breckman, a writer for USA's Monk, the film depicts the travails of a Canadian spy who must endure numerous problems created by the organization's pathetically low budget.
It seemed originally that the film was the pilot for a forthcoming series, but the hoped-for show has not come forth yet. Nonetheless, Underfunded is good fun and worth a look. For more information, see my original review here.
The new ABC tv series Eli Stone deals with some serious issues—most importantly the question of whether our time is a congenial one for religious truths. Central to the story is the premise that the title character may actually be a religious prophet.
Continue reading "'Eli Stone' Tackles Heavy Issues with Light Touch" »
ESPN2 morning co-anchor Dana Jacobson is back at work after a week's suspension for her drunken, foul-mouthed tirade at a public dinner.
At the beginning of the Jan. 28 program, the first since her suspension, Jacobson offered a rather cryptic apology:
I want to once again say how truly sorry I am for my poor choices and bad judgment that night. I've taken responsibility for what I did say and do that night.
What's cryptic about it, of course, is the phrase "what I did say and do". Certainly no one should expect her to apologize for anything she did not do, so the use of the word 'did' is redundant and indeed confusing.
Evidently her intent was to imply that she did not say the most offensive thing attributed to her: "F— Jesus!"
Yet neither Jacobson nor her ESPN bosses has denied that she said it. Hence the use of the word 'did' is obviously intentional dissembling.
Continue reading "Jacobson's Back, Protesters Unsatisfied" »
The scene depicts polymorphously perverse series protagonist Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) with guest star James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
I was not impressed by the first season of Torchwood, as it is rather too cute and the special effects too cheap to make up for the snarkiness of the whole affair. The short-lived U.S. series Firefly was far superior. Not recommended.
For additional information about the series, visit the BBC America Torchwood page.
Update: In the original version of this article I used the words 'sex scene' to describe the sequence, which may have been technically accurate but certainly had the unfortunate effect of suggesting that the scene includes pornographic effects. That is an inaccurate impression, according to reports. Hence I have changed the term to avoid any potential confusion. As it happens, it took me rather a long time to figure out a phrase that wouldn't sound too creepy or would too weakly describe the scene, and I'm not altogether sure that I have succeeded.
Providing further proof that America's elites are delighted when people of low mental ability use Christians and Christianity as punching bags, ESPN has suspended sports-show anchor Dana Jacobson for one week after she indulged in a drunken, foul-mouthed public tirade that included an astonishingly vulgar curse directed at Jesus Christ.
The one-week suspension is very revealing of the mentality of the management team at the Disney-owned sports network, given that the same behavior would have gotten anyone not in the media fired, and it would have gotten a media person fired had it been delivered against an accredited victim group—cf. the termination of radio host Don Imus and basketball commentator Tim Hardaway last year.
Continue reading "Christ-Hater Skates,Thanks to Elite Prejudice Against Christians" »
Turner Classic Movies is presenting a documentary on filmmaker Val Lewton, produced and narrated by Martin Scorsese, tonight at 8 EST with a repeat presentation at midnight.
Lewton (b. Vladimir Ivan Leventon in Yalta, Russia) was a highly talented writer and producer whose atmospheric suspense and horror films of the 1940s for Hollywood's RKO studio are much admired by film critics and scholars and the more tasteful and well-informed of today's filmmakers.
Continue reading "Salute to Val Lewton" »
The title of Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles definitely captures show's real emphasis. The Terminator character, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film series, is the hook to get people to tune in, but the real focus of the show is the character of Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), mother of the man who will one day save the world.
Continue reading "Sarah Connor, Woman As Protector" »
Starting this evening at 9 EST and over the next four months, PBS will broadcast The Complete Jane Austen. The series runs through April 6, and will include adaptations of all of Austen's novels, plus Miss Austen Regrets (Feb. 6), a film biography detailing the never-married author's "lost loves."
The Complete Jane Austen will consist of new adaptations of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility, plus previously produced versions of Emma (featuring Kate Beckinsale) and Pride and Prejudice (starring Colin Firth).
Continue reading "Masterpiece Theater Does Austen" »
Last night's mid-season premiere episodes of Monk and Psych, both on the USA Network, were very entertaining and inspire optimism that both series are going to have a good year.
The Monk episode had a strong story, a relatively uninspired but workable mystery, some very funny scenes, a good subject area (a religious cult), and several superb character points.
Monk's assistant, Natalie (Traylor Howard), was not used very promenently, as Monk spends much of the episode separated from her, and Captain Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) does not get to do much, either, but Jason Gray-Stanford has a couple of very funny moments as Lt. Randall Disher, and the guest actors, particularly Howie Mandel as the cult leader, were very good. And Tony Shaloub was in top form as Adrian Monk.
Continue reading "'Monk,' 'Psych' Mid-Season Premieres Strong" »
After the success of several tie-in novels featuring characters from the USA Network detective-comedy series Monk, written by TV mystery veteran Lee Goldberg, two more USA Network series will get the same treatment, according to an item on The Blog of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
TV writer William Rabkin has agreed to write three original novels based on Psych, with the first going into print in January 2009, and Tod Goldberg will produce three books based on Burn Notice, with the first installment due out in July 2008, when the series' second season will begin on USA Network.
Continue reading "Tie-In Novels for 'Psych,' 'Burn Notice'" »
USA Network's superb comedy-mystery series Monk and Psych return to action with new original episodes tomorrow night, at 9 and 10 EST, respectively.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that the FX legal drama Damages will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray disc on January 29. The three disc set, nearly ten hours in length, will include all thirteen episodes of the first season of the suspenseful drama series starring Glenn Close and Ted Danson.
As noted earlier on this site, the main innovation of the show is its willingness to take a realistic look at the character of the crusading lawyer:
Continue reading "Fox's "Damages" on DVD" »
My favorite BBC programming has always been its mystery series, and the best of those are not the ones that mimic American programs but those that have the most British feel to them.
Unfortunately, the BBC has almost fully assimilated former Prime Minister Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" notion, turning the government media service into a bastion of vulgar flash and nonsense designed to appeal to sex-addled teenagers of all ages.
Hence it's a happy day any time the BBC accidentally puts out one of its increasingly rare programs of intelligent and sensible entertainment. Life on Mars is just such a one and is not to be missed.
Continue reading "BBC's Excellent "Life on Mars"" »
Comedian-actor Sacha Baron Cohen is retiring two characters that made him famous—and notorious.
He has announced that he will no longer portray the characters of Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh journalist notable for his amazing ignorance, anti-semitism, lack of respect for women, and overall vulgarity, and Ali G, a young English yobbo version of the same character.
"I am never going to play them again," he told the London Daily Telegraph.
Continue reading "Cohen Retires Famous Characters" »
Senator's thinly veiled threat of congressional action to ensure fans see New England football game is emblematic of what's wrong with America's government today.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has decided to step forward to handle one of the great crises of our time.
No, not the War on Terror, concerns about global warming, or increasing access to good health care.
Continue reading "Thanks but No Bloody Thanks, Sen. Kerry" »
Tonight USA Network presents two mystery-comedy Christmas specials.
At 9 EST (repeated at 12 a.m.), is the annual Monk Christmas special. The comedy-mystery program is a limted series appearing in two sets of episodes per year, in summer and midwinter, so USA Network wisely presents a Christmas episode each year to help sustain viewers' interest during the long layoff.
The USA Network describes tonight's episode, "The Man Who Shot Santa," as follows: "Monk becomes a social pariah when he shoots a man dressed as Santa Claus. Can he clear his name and foil a larger criminal plot in time for Christmas?"
After Monk, at 10 EST (repeated at 1 a.m.), is the first-ever Psych Christmas episode. USA Network describes it thus: "The scoop: Christmas with the Gusters is ruined when evidence in a murder case leads the police right to Gus' dad. Phylicia Rashad and Ernie Hudson guest star as the Gusters in the premiere of 'Gus' Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy'!"
Those who enjoy mysteries, comedy, and Advent, will definitely want to watch these.
Program's mistakes show the importance of narrative coherence.
The NBC TV show Heroes, a widely acclaimed program just a year ago in its first season, slid badly in audience numbers during the first half of this year's TV season, and has lost much support among the show's fans.
In fact, in response to the criticisms and decreasing ratings, a couple of week's ago the show's creator and driving force, Tim Kring, apologized to the fans, saying that his team had underestimated the viewers' willingness to sit through long expository sequences as opposed to wanting the action to move forward.
Continue reading "Heroes Audience Shrinks Due to Producers' Missteps" »
I haven't got around to seeing Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project yet, but I certainly will. The documentary on the veteran stand-up comedian, who is now 81 years old, premiered last Sunday night on the HBO cable network and was shown at the New York Film Festival a couple of months ago.
According to reports, the movie was directed with evident affection by comedy filmmaker John Landis. (To see the Variety review click here.)
Rickles has that effect on people, and he has always been highly respected by other comedians.
Rickles is well-known for his tart-tongued improvisations in which he picks on members of the audience and celebrity guests and upbraids them for presumed character flaws and stereotyped ethnic characteristics.
Continue reading "The Splendid Mr. Rickles" »