TV

How often this season have we seen ‘tween girls, and their forty-something moms, blamed for the sorry state of American Idol?
Read more »

The themed episodes often bury narrative and character development, but this week saw a powerful blending of Lady Gaga’s music and persona and the storyline. Her promotion of both over-the-top performance and being a “freak” allowed the show to return to one of its favorite themes.
Read more »

It is not that I harbor ill will toward the television industry—far from it. Rather, I’d hoped that some of the desperation of recent years might be enough to create the momentum needed for some real change. This remains a seriously strange way to allocate billions of dollars.
Read more »

24 crosses the finish line with a return to form - and further resources to question and negotiate its assumed reactionary politics.
Read more »

It's time to let go.
Read more »

The upfronts may seem like a vestige of a dying regime. However, given that this is also an era of brands - i.e., hot shows, and in theory, hot networks - the upfronts also serve to launch anticipation on multiple fronts. Derek Kompare takes a look at the NBC upfronts in this media context.
Read more »

Three characters make fate-changing choices, as we're back in the contemporary timeline(s) to set-up the endgame.
Read more »

I feel like the “powers that Glee” (PTG) are trying to combat complaints of minimal plot development. After last week’s most excellent narrative-filled musical numbers, my hopes were high. It looked like they might pull it off, but then it became Glee meets Friday Night Lights. Say it ain't so!
Read more »

It might be the most divisive, bold, and risky episode in series history. What can we make of it the morning after?
Read more »

Tonight, when Betty White hosts Saturday Night Live, American network television will be stepping outside of its comfort zone, by featuring someone a whole 5.5 times as old as Justin Bieber.
Read more »

I think this is the essence of Glee’s appeal: It “mashes” together the old and the new, the shallow and the deep, and in the end asks us to appreciate that our lives are much like popular culture.
Read more »

Returning from a week off, let's get right to the carnage.
Read more »

We hear a lot about teams and fans that are "tortured," but what about the ones we don't hear about at all?
Read more »

NBCU is offering "integrated sales marketing" to advertisers at this year's upfronts to bolster poor ratings during the ad sales push...but will it work?
Read more »

Looking back at Damages, I realize it would have been right at home amidst '80s film narratives that demonized career women while asserting the proper place of women at the hearth in the home.
Read more »