Opening Defense: I know the pushback I’ll most likely receive is “but wait–black people love ‘Atlanta’ too.” Sure, but this year saw a variety of black-starring and created TV shows from “Loosely Exactly Nicole” to “Insecure” to “Luke Cage” to “Queen Sugar” and none of them received the universal adoration from white critics that “Atlanta” did….
Category: Entertainment Editorial
The 10 Best TV Shows of 2016
You’ve seen the Best (and Worst) Characters, and the Best Scenes or Episodes, but still, there can be only one true list of the year’s 10 Best TV Shows… Honorable Mention: “Real Time with Bill Maher” is about to become the most important voice for “The Resistance.” Let’s quit kidding ourselves that Trumpers will ever listen to…
The Best TV Scenes or Episodes of 2016
Note: This is a combination of TV episodes, scenes, moments, shots, or whatever you want to call it. This is not to be confused with “The Best TV series of 2016” which ranks an entire season, and will be posted shortly… Honorable Mention: “The Good Wife” Iowa episode…”The Good Wife” gave us a lot of good…
The BEST TV Characters of 2016
People Vs. OJ…Veep…Westworld…The Night Of… Best Self: Campbell Scott as himself in “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll”…Having a celebrity play themselves rarely leads to anything other than smiles or a soft chuckle, but “Sex” gave Scott his most interesting role since “Roger Dodger,” as a manipulative, hilarious genius trying to stage a Hamilton-rip-off. He has only…
The WORST TV Characters of 2016
Note: As always, these are bad characters in otherwise good shows. There has to be a certain element of “ruining a good series” present, otherwise I could just list participants at an RNC debate… Have to Include It: The “Sand Snakes” and Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) in “Game of Thrones”…Actually, they didn’t get on my nerves so much,…
Please Watch My Short Film “Falling Towers”
First completed short film under the Alabama Liberal YouTube Channel (subscribe please), Playlist One Man Movies, movies made by one person, filmed in one day, from idea to finished film in one week, on a budget of no more than one dollar… Please watch, like, and comment
Book Review: the Terrific “Movie Freak”
Great books about movies are rare, and books that manage to truly capture the feeling movies can give you (like Patton Oswalt’s “Silver Screen Fiend”) are even rarer. Yet Owen Gleiberman’s “Movie Freak” may be the best book about movies I’ve ever read, and is the best book ever written about the lure of films, as evidenced from the book’s…
Book Reviews: “The Girls,” “Barkskins,” and “Lily and the Octopus”
It may seem like a cop-out to praise all three of these very different books, but they take wildly divergent paths to being equally terrific… Barkskins by Annie Proulx…A big, bold, ambitious book that practically has “Great Novel” stamped on the book cover. It’s about two “barkskins” (tree cutters) who settle in New France and…
What Are the Most Fitting TV Shows to Watch On 4th of July?
These are not necessarily the most patriotic shows or even the most American ones, but the shows I like to think that represent a certain American-feeling that is appropriate for the 4th… Silicon Valley…What better than watching a bunch of intrepid explorers try—and sometimes fail—to create something great out of nothing? The spirit of innovation…
The Five Best TV Shows You’re Not Watching…
What are the best shows currently on television that don’t have “Game” or “Thrones” in the title? I’m glad you asked… 5. [Tie] Turn and Hell on Wheels…AMC’s two all-but-forgotten, mostly buzz-less historical dramas are in different places in their runs. “Turn” has finally realized its potential with its best season so far, and has discovered a…
“Banshee” Finale Review, and Ranking the Seasons
It was the end of times, and—as is so often the case with TV finales–it was the worst of times. Cinemax’s “Banshee” was one of the most consistently underrated shows on television, and in fact many readers of this article may not have even heard of the series, let alone watched it. I want to…
The 10 Most (and Least) Anticipated Movies of the Summer
It’s time for our Summer Movie preview, and as usual there’s at least ten movies I’ll not be looking forward to along with the good ones. The Least Anticipated Movies of the Summer Runner-Up: Captain America: Civil War…I know, I know, it’s gotten “great” reviews so far, but so did Captain America 2 and if anything my interest in…
Can “Game of Thrones” Save This Lackluster TV Year?
First off, let me say that I’m not in general one of those people that says “There’s nothing good on TV.” I find those people to be incredibly boring and really spoiled. There are now more than 100 basic cable channels each with their own handful of original series; plus great premium networks like HBO, Starz, Cinemax,…