Tonight brought the third season finale of AMC’s against-all-odds successful Western, “Hell on Wheels.” Hell on Wheels is subtly groundbreaking in that it keeps fighting uphill battles: an actual Western show that’s managed to survive three seasons, a show about the building of the Transcontinental railroad that manages to keep from putting us to sleep, a show…
Movie Review: “Gravity”–See It
I’ll have a much longer review on Monday (per usual) but craftsmanship like this can’t go unnoticed. Gravity is a film you should definitely see in theaters, and preferably as soon as possible.
Interviews with the Invisible: Interview with the Shut-Down Federal Worker #fedshutdown
It’s been a loooong time since I posted a new interview here on the site (although the archives have plenty of great ones if you haven’t read them…just saying), but an idea pretty much fell into my lap this week when I released that one of my good friends is an inspector for the USDA….
Petty Issues: Capitol Shots, Tea Party (Brain)farts, Bitcoin Drops, London NFL Team Scoffs
The bad news: Shots were fired outside the U.S. Capitol building…The worse news: No Tea Party members were hit. Bitcoin was apparently used on a black-market website called The Silk Road, and since the authorities raided the site and arrested its founder it has dropped Bitcoin’s valuation nearly 20 percent. Right…uhhh…I totally understand how Bitcoin works and…
The Fast Food Critic: Pumpkin Spice M&Ms and Candy Corn M&Ms
“What do M&Ms have to do with fast food?”–New readers might say if they are unfamiliar with The Fast Food Critic’s insistence on reviewing different types of food that’s bad for you. It’s not all KFC buffets and Pizza Hut double-decker pepperoni cheese crust folks. It’s October time, and that means we’re going to be…
Ranking the Breaking Bad Criminals from Dumbest to Smartest #breakingbad
One good way to deal with Breaking Bad Withdrawal (surely as real as any crystal meth addiction) is to make up trivial lists and rankings. And that’s exactly what I’m about to do! I’m ranking the intelligence of all the criminals on the show! I would put it from LEAST intelligent to MOST intelligent and…
TV Reviews: “Hello Ladies” and the Excellent “Eastbound and Down”
Borrowing from Showtime’s formula of having one established show (Eastbound and Down, Homeland) paired up with one new show’s premiere (Hello Ladies, Masters of Sex) to face the juggernaut that is AMC’s Breaking Bad and subsequent Talking Bad coverage, HBO also premiered some shows last night: one good comedy, and one truly great one. …
TV Reviews: Homeland and Masters of Sex
While AMC was capping off a terrific run of Breaking Bad with a record 10.3 million viewers and 6.5 in the key demo (just for perspective, most broadcast networks like NBC or ABC would kill for that number) I’m sure more than a few eyeballs found their way to Showtime’s premieres of Masters of Sex and Homeland……
Five Observations About Talking Bad #talkingbad #breakingbad
The ongoing abortion that is AMC’s Breaking Bad talk show (a weird mix of fully realized product placement and half-hearted attempt to discuss a very deep show in a very shallow way) also comes to an end now that the show it’s dedicated to discussing has, and even though I am deeply saddened to see…
TV Review: Breaking Bad’s Excellent Series Finale #breakingbad
Tonight’s Breaking Bad finale was more than a little sad because it always is to say goodbye to such an amazing show. I can’t say this was the best episode (I would say Ozymandias from two weeks back was a better all-around episode) of the series, but it was pretty damn good. And I think…
Breaking Bad Finale: What I Think Will Happen Vs. What I Want to Happen #breakingbad
Sadly, we’re only a few hours away from finding out exactly how Breaking Bad is going to go out, so it’s prognosticate now or forever hold your peace. I’ve indulged in wild speculation over the years but it’s now time to break it down into What I Think WILL Happen, What I WANT to Happen,…
“Breaking Bad” The Last Truly Great Drama on TV…Any Successors on the Horizon? #breakingbad
Only a few years ago, people were heralding that the golden age of Television drama had arrived, and they were absolutely right. You had “Rome,” “Deadwood,” “The Sopranos,” “Brotherhood,” “Lost,” “The Shield,” and “The Wire” on all at the same time. As all those shows gradually faded out, the only truly worthy successor to them became…
Does Breaking Bad Say Something Universal About the American Dream? #breakingbad
Wednesday brought character profiles, Thursday saw a countdown of the best episodes, and today’s big Breaking Bad theme is…well, Big Themes. Earlier today I pointed out that the show’s five seasons—-whether intentionally or not—-actually mirror the five stages of learning you’re dying. And now it’s time to wonder if the show really speaks to larger…