In a week’s time, 7 of the best series that you’re (probably) not watching will have experienced their season or–for shame–series finales, and now might be as good a time as any to catch up with them. Honorable Mention: Welcome to Sweden…I’m sad to see this terrific, underrated Greg Poehler gem go since NBC has already…
Category: TV Reviews
“Outlander” Finale and Game of Thrones’ Big Battle: Is TV Now Better Than Movies?
Big doings happened this weekend, and I don’t mean watching The Rock “battle” an Earthquake in the unintentionally hilarious “San Andreas.” I mean this might be the weekend where it finally became obvious that TV shows are now the place to find all the things movies no longer care about. This weekend, I sat in…
Series Finale of “Mad Men” and Ranking the Seasons
Sometimes, when you’ve been watching a TV show for 7 seasons (that were really stretched over nine years) and said TV show has always inspired conflicting emotions—like “Is Mad Men really that good or are we getting suckered by the prestigious vibe?” or “Was that last episode just straight-up depressing and unsatisfying or true art…which is often depressing and…
TV Reviews: Season Finales for “Good Wife,” “Wolf Hall,” “Red Road,” and “Vikings
All seasons must end, but not all season finales are created equal as the following shows proved… The Good Wife…What a mess of a season finale, and also my pick for the worst episode of an otherwise stellar season. By now, “The Good Wife” is actually at its worst when it’s about, well, The Good…
Series Finale Review of “Justified” PLUS Ranking All the Seasons
It’s an understatement to say that I’m sad to see “Justified” go. Longtime readers know that I was always a big fan of this show, its characters (particularly the “bad” ones), and author Elmore Leonard’s work in general. Plenty of other TV reviewers have called this “the death of the modern Western” but they said…
TV Review: “Better Call Saul” the First Must-See Spin-Off in a Decade
As a general rule, TV spinoffs are not very good, and that is a generous way of saying that for every “Frasier” (the most literate sitcom in Broadcast history that I think is actually a better show than “Cheers”) there are five spin-offs that get cancelled after a first season. In fact, “Better Call Saul”…
Movie Review: The Gunman
A programmer that I wanted to like more than I did. What Works: Sean Penn may be the exact right actor (at the exact right time) to play an action hero. He’s world-weary but intense, briskly intelligent but believably physical, and his “just doing this for the paycheck” detachment actually fits the role really well. Even…
TV Review: “Conan” Goes to Cuba
I’ve always been a Conan O’Brien fan, but I don’t watch the show much since he moved to the wilderness–I mean, “plum channel” that is TBS. I’m no snob when it comes to basic cable—AMC’s “Better Call Saul” gets better every week and FX just might be the best network on TV right now—but Conan…
“Parks and Recreation” Series Finale Review AND Ranking the 7 Seasons
Only a few weeks ago, NBC said goodbye to one of their only two shows I really loved: “Parenthood.” Then last night NBC said goodbye to the other one:”Parks and Recreation.” With that, I pretty much said goodbye to NBC since out of their current lineup I now only watch “The Blacklist” (but for how…
SNL’s Dismal 40th Anniversary Special AND Their First Episode Ever
Two SNL events happened this weekend, one you’re probably aware of and one that didn’t receive nearly as much attention. I’m writing about the SNL 40th anniversary special on Sunday night, but also NBC’s interesting decision to rebroadcast the very first SNL ever the Saturday night before. SNL 40th Anniversary Special…This was 3 and a half hours…
Series Finale: So Long “Parenthood,” I’ll Miss You…Plus, Ranking the Seasons
I get sad just thinking about it, but a majority of my favorite shows have either gone off the air recently or will be going off in the next six months. I’m talking about everything from the dearly departed “Breaking Bad,” “Southland,” “Futurama,” “Eastbound and Down,” “Fringe,” and the more recently deceased “The Newsroom” to the don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out “Boardwalk Empire,” the…
TV Reviews: “Broad City” and “Man Seeking Woman”
Two millennial-courting comedies that just might become the next big cult hits… Broad City…In a perfect world, this would receive the attention that “Girls” does as it may actually be a technically “better” exploration of Brooklyn female friendship, and is certainly a lot funnier. The new season began with a classic sequence of Ilana and…
TV Reviews: “Galavant” and “The Good Wife”
After a couple of weeks where scripted television more or less took a vacation—when the only new episodes of TV available are “Mulaney” and some On-Demand-only episodes of the cancelled “Selfie,” you know things are rough—it seemed to come back last night as CBS and ABC decided to be TV networks again. Galavant…I have a…