So last night was the premiere of FX’s new comedy block, complete with new seasons of Louie (wildly regarded as the best comedy on TV, but I think is a little too inconsistent for that label), and Wilfred (widely regarded as one of the worst, and very consistent in that label), and the series premieres…
Author: Alabama Liberal
Petty Issues, Healthcare Law Edition: Fox News Pulls a Fox News, Boehner Lies, and Cantor Remains Dimwitted
[The subtitle of this title could be “or, in other words, today is Thursday.” Still, there was more than enough material to devote an entire Petty Issues to the healthcare law.] John Boehner once again seemed flummoxed by the constitution as he actually uttered this quote (just imagine Tom Brokaw’s voice, and you’ve got Boehner’s…
Larger Editorial: The Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Law, Now Can We Finally, Finally Move On?
Just a few minutes ago, the Supreme Court upheld the entirety of the Obama Health Care Law that congress already passed over two years ago. That’s right, they even upheld the dreaded individual mandate requiring people to buy health insurance (so the cost of the entire system will go down, and only affecting about 6…
The Fast Food Critic: The Evil Genius of Burger King’s B-A-C-O-N Sundae
So earlier in the year, Burger King—-in an effort to stop sliding sales—-momentarily stopped focusing on calorie bomb foods for young men trying to get over a hangover and actually tried to court eaters that don’t want a weekend’s worth of calories in one meal by rolling out some fresh fruit smoothies and salads and…
Good Times’s Jimmy Walker Has a Q & A for his memoir called (Sigh) “Dyn-o-mite!”
Tonight, I went to a Barnes and Noble mostly to check out new books and see what might be worth reading for next month’s Book of the Month Club pick, and inadvertently stumbled upon a book signing for the autobiography of Good Times’s Jimmy “Jay Jay” Walker, a man mostly known for saying “Dy-no-mitttttte!” but…
Down & Out In Bumblefuck: The Summertime Blues…The Ultimate Slow News Cycle
Last year was the site’s first year, and that meant I was still getting to know all the rhythms that came in the yearly news cycle. I launched it in early February (the DAY after the Superbowl, a time when men can think for about six months), I enjoyed a wave of events in the…
Entertainment Editorial: June’s Book of the Month Club Pick is…Gone Girl!
click on the book image to pick-up a copy [Buy this book from the link above] Ordinarily, for my book of the month club pick, I like to pick a lesser-known book that is deserving of your awareness but—-for whatever reason—-just never caught on in the way it should have. However, June’s Book of…
TV Reviews: Falling Skies, Futurama, and, of course, Dallas
So the Summer TV season is in full swing, and that means it’s the dominant season of cable, who have original shows more or less all to themselves while the broadcast nets show Big Brother ripoffs like ABC’s “Glass House.” So if you don’t like reality shows (and I sure as hell don’t) but want…
Monday Morning Movie Review: Rock of Ages
This is really two movies. There’s one movie that’s pretty good whenever Tom Cruise is onscreen. And there’s a second movie that is God-awful whenever he’s not onscreen. Unfortunately, he’s only onscreen for about one quarter of it. What Works: Again, Tom Cruise. Just as “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” was…
Movie Review: Seeking a Friend For the End of the World
Skip it. It kills me to say that, as this was one of the films I was looking the most forward to this summer, but it really is a disappointment. You’ll have an okay time if you do go, but pretty much all the jokes are in the trailers and nothing much wilder than that…
Movie Review: Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson (that fussy man-child who made the terrific Rushmore 15 years ago and hasn’t left that world since with Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited, etc.) is a very specific kind-of filmmaker who draws a very specific kind of audience. By now, you either know if you’re a Wes Anderson fan or a hater. A person…
Down & Out: “Hatfields & McCoys” and A&E’s “Longmire” Go For Rural Programming
So here lately we’ve seen more and more cable networks try to get into the business of rural programming, or, if you’re feeling snarky, red state programming. Both The History Channel (which produced H&M…not the clothing brand) and A&E (the new series Longmire’s network) are no strangers to rural programming. Whatever actual “History” the History…
Entertainment Editorial: How’d I Do On Predicting Last Fall’s Shows? Pretty Good Actually
So, the “new” Fall season is long over and before the new one begins, I thought I’d revisit a betting pool list of what shows from the 2011-2012 season would make, and which would be renewed. As you’ll see, I didn’t score perfectly, but I did better than you might think. What I wrote then…