Okay, so technically it’s not Breaking Bad’s season finale, and it’ll continue this season with eight final episodes, but that’s all the way until next year. For now, let’s get into it… Breaking Bad…It’s no secret I consider this the best show currently on television, and this season has been no exception. It may not…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Alabama Liberal’s Book of the Month Club Pick is…
“Dare Me” by Megan Abbott. I wasn’t totally in love with any of the books I read this month, but Dare Me is a very strong book that cleverly reinvents the noir genre by setting it in a high school…and unravels some deep truths about what the book calls, the “dangerous boredom of teenage girls.”…
Why Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” is a Great Show (and Why Most Critics Don’t Like It)
Watching HBO’s great new show “The Newsroom,” two feelings come over me. First, a feeling of “I can’t believe a show gets it this honest, this succinct on these complex issues, this…right.” Second, a feeling of “Of course critics largely pan this show. It’s as much about their failures as it is the news media’s.” So, in a tradition I…
TV Reviews: “True Blood” Season Finale, Premiere of “Go On,” “Animal Practice,” and “Grimm”
Although I really want to talk about a great show a little later today (Newsroom), let’s warm up by quickly grading some shitty ones. [Except for Grimm, which is just mediocre, not bad.] True Blood…Last night was the fifth season finale of HBO’s (current) longest running drama show, and just realizing that makes me depressed. The fact…
Mom Jokes: Grandfathers Don’t Know Everything
Hunter was 4 years old and was staying with his grandfather for a few days. He’d been playing outside with the other kids, when he came into the house and asked: ‘Grandpa, what’s that called when two people sleep in the same bedroom and one is on top of the other?’ His Grandpa was a little…
TV Reviews: Finales of Political Animals, The Closer, and Falling Skies
In the last week, we’ve seen long running TV series end (The Closer), short running TV series end (Political Animals), and the second season finale of an occasionally strong, often frustrating series (Falling Skies). The Closer…I’ve never watched a single episode of this show, so the “finale” (which really just set up an almost identical…
Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: Hope Springs…A Minor Triumph of a Movie
The exact opposite of Killer Joe (a daring surface movie with a somewhat cheap center), Hope Springs is a comfortable, feel-good movie that actually contains a quiet, deep knowledge of relationships. There is more truth and perceptiveness in this film than in the last twenty big studio romances I’ve seen. Much like Ruby Sparks, it starts…
Movie Review: My First NC-17 Rated Movie Theater Experience with “Killer Joe”
I have never actually seen an NC-17 rated movie during its theatrical run until this film. Now I can say I’ve lived. It was drastically different than most films shown at big screen multiplexes. First I had to show ID when I bought a ticket, even though only the most obtuse theater cashier would think…
Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer
“Red Hook Summer” is the new film from Spike Lee and one that quite a lot of people might be looking forward to since it returns the filmmaker to his Brooklyn roots and even has a cameo by Spike himself, playing his old Do the Right Thing character and still delivering pizzas. Those that might…
Movie Review: Ruby Sparks
Ruby Sparks is the indie romance of the summer that stars Paul Dano—–an actor you either don’t like or have never heard of—–as a writer and Zoe Kazan as the title-character, a woman he literally creates. The central plot involves Dano’s writer trying to cure his block with a writing exercise describing the girl he…
Movie Review: The Watch
This movie opened a mere three weeks ago, but has more or less vanished since. I’ll keep the review short, and put about as much time into it as all involved put into making this movie. What Works: To say this movie has no laughs would be wrong. It has four…spaced out over nearly 100…
Monday Morning Movie Review: “The Campaign” A Sharper-Than-You-Think-Satire
I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend it for just about anyone, which is the film’s double-sided magic. People that already know about politics will laugh at the broad satirical parodies and enjoy the on-target belly laughs at our super-PAC age. People that don’t already know about politics will laugh at the dick jokes but be…
Two Train Robberies on AMC’s “Hell on Wheels” Premiere and Breaking Bad’s Latest Terrific Episode
In what must have seemed like a strange coincidence (or maybe it was deliberate), both of AMC’s dramas revolved heavily around train robberies last night. This type of heist hasn’t been popular since the days of Jesse James, so it was more than a little unique (and refreshing) that it was last night. First, the…