The easiest way to make sense of all the (emotional) carnage on last night’s finale of “The Terror” is just to list it… 5. “Close”…Last night’s arc of Lt. Little was one of the more devastating. Almost all of Crozier’s loyal officers are either dead (Tobias Menzies’s excellent Fitzjames, the senselessly murdered Lt. Irving who…
Category: TV Reviews
Movie/TV Review: “Fahrenheit 451” (the Book) is More Relevant Today than Ever
Coming out only 4 years after George Orwell’s more famous “1984” was published, Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” isn’t given nearly as much credit as it deserves for predicting the future. Although a debate has raged about whether Huxley’s “Brave New World” or Orwell’s “1984” is the more prescient work, I actually think “Farenheit” deserves to be (at…
TV Reviews: Why It’s So Troubling “Barry” Killed Off Two Interracial Couples
I mostly loved “Barry”‘s first season. The great Bill Hader delivered a career-best performance (no small feat for the genius behind the excellent “Documentary Now” parodies). Stephen Root displayed a crackling newfound ruthlessness that felt electric. And Henry Winkler was a delightful, easy “Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy” series contender as Gene Cousineau the…
The 5 Best TV Shows You’re Not Watching
What are the 5 best TV shows you may not be watching? Watch this and find out…
TV Reviews: Barry, Silicon Valley, The Terror
Three series premiered at the same time last night, two of them brand-new. And although you never can judge a series by its pilot alone, I already feel “The Terror” and “Barry” are worthy of watching for a full season… The Terror…An 1845 British expedition through the arctic, as two naval vessels attempt to find…
The Season Finales of “American Crime Story” and “X-Files” Play to Strengths and Weaknesses
Two very different series had their season finales last night (possibly series finale in “The X-Files” case), and even if both were inconsistent experiences, it was quite surprising which show ultimately had the stronger season… American Crime Story: The Assasination of Gianni Versace…There could’ve been no clearer example of this series strengths and weaknesses than…
TV Reviews: Did “Crashing” Get Better in Season Two?
That’s a deceptively simple question since in many ways “Crashing”‘s season two was a more satisfying, more consistent experience with an interesting arc (perpetual lost puppy Pete Holmes meets a razor-sharp, competitive female comic in a very realistic and twisty version of “Boy Meets Girl”), but I also found myself mysteriously sluggish in watching the…
TV Reviews: “UnReal,” “McMafia,” “Final Space”
Three very different series premiered this week, and the only returning show of the bunch (“UnReal”) may have waited a little too long to come back after a weak season 2… UnReal, Season 3…The show had a terrible second season, but–to me–it doesn’t look like they fully understand what the problem is: stagnant, obnoxious characters…
“The Walking Dead” is TV’s First Unisex Soap Opera
Cables two biggest soap operas are back this week with premieres for “The Walking Dead” and “UnReal.” Now before you scoff at the definition of TWD as a soap opera remember that zombie Godfather George A. Romero dissed “Dead” as a “soap opera with zombies.” And I might have to agree after watching the mid-season…
TV Reviews: “Homeland,” “Here and Now,” and “Another Period”
Three shows that really have nothing in common except they premiered new seasons around the same time… Homeland, Season 7…It’s a cruel irony that the better “Homeland” gets, the less other critics pay attention to it. For me, the series has only gotten better with age, starting with the amazing, Afghanistan-set season 4 that fully…
“The Good Place” Just Might Make You a Better Person
The Good Place…How many TV shows (network or otherwise, drama or comedy) actually get you to think about “Am I good person?” I would say out of the shows currently on TV, exactly one: “The Good Place.” Sure, not everything featured on Michael Shur’s bananas-comedy (the wildest network show since “Pushing Daisies” and “Arrested Development”…
TV Reviews: “The Alienist,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” “Counterpart”
Three very different crime series are early into their seasons, but so far it’s become pretty clear which one is most worth watching… American Crime Story Season 2: The Assassination of Gianni Versace…In season one of “American Crime Story,” I resisted watching (at first) largely because I had no interest at all in rehasing the O.J. Simpson…
Reviewing the end of “Episodes” and Ranking the Seasons
It’s extremely difficult to rank the five seasons of Showtime’s recently departed “Episodes” partly because the seasons are fairly consistent in quality (you might argue that not enough changes over the course of the five seasons spread out over seven years) and also because I suspect I might be the only person who even watched…