Television
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Caryn James1 commentlike0tweet0
Michael Douglas, Kitsch and Depth: Soderbergh's 'Behind the Candelabra'
Despite the earnest pr spin surrounding it, Behind the Candelabra invites us to laugh at - not always with - the grinning, gaudy Vegas spectacle that is Liberace. But Michael Douglas' performance is also deep, sympathetic and brilliant, an act of impeccable mimicry that reveals the essence ...
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Caryn James0 commentslike0tweet0
Seth and Stefon's Big SNL Wedding, and Iran's Reply to Argo (Video)
Stefon -- the guide to New York's hottest, most twisted clubs - was never my favorite Bill Hader character, but he grew on me. And since last night's SNL was Hader's last, it was inevitable that Stefon would pop up on Weekend Update. But who could have guessed that, tired of his unrequited ...
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Leonard Maltin2 commentslike0tweet0
What’s On TV Tonight?
guest review by Darwyn Carson — We’ve all heard it. Someone channel surfing tosses the remote aside and says: “Over a hundred channels and nothing’s on TV.” Seems times have changed. Point of fact, the viewing pendulum has swung from nothing to watch to too much to watch.
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Caryn James1 commentlike6tweet3
Al Pacino, 'Phil Spector,' and Media Justice
The gigantic frizzed-out wig on Al Pacino's head might be enough to make you curious about Phil Spector, the new HBO drama written and directed by David Mamet. In a multitude of wigs as conspicuously creepy as the actual Spector's, Pacino plays the fantastically successful music produ...
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Press Play1 commentlike93tweet52
VIDEO ESSAY: Gliding Over All: The Cinematography of BREAKING BAD, Season 3
Dave Bunting Jr.’s video essay on Season 3 of "Breaking Bad" opens with time-lapse landscapes, which are de rigueur establishing shots in TV these days. Here, though, they are uniquely awe-inspiring, in part for their exotic nature, and in part for how they seem to breathe life into everything.
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Press Play3 commentslike99tweet58
Why FX’s THE AMERICANS May Feature the Most Compelling Romance on TV
Though it is as flush with moral ambiguity as its predecessors, Joe Weisberg’s creation offers an altogether different breed of protagonist. What separates "The Americans" is its foregrounding of the simplest device in the history of narrative: love. In effect, The Americans is an extended remarriag...
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Caryn James0 commentslike9tweet2
Justin Timberlake's All-Star, All-Good SNL (Video)
Justin Timberlake was totally aware of the high expectations for his hosting gig on SNL - "Thank you, Internet," he said during the monologue - but there was no need to worry. He was so on, he even gave just the right sly, I-know-it's-hokey reading to the line "Five Timers Club" when ...
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Caryn James2 commentslike3tweet2
Stephen Colbert Asks James Franco, 'Are You a Fraud?'
James Franco has taken on one of his most mainstream roles in the new Disney film, 'Oz the Great and Powerful'; nothing is more mainstream than Disney. (You can read my review here.) But his entire career still has the shape of wide-ranging performance art -- and with a lot more focus, Step...
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Caryn James1 commentlike2tweet8
Watch Justin Timberlake's 'SNL' Promo
I don't believe in jinxes, so I'll flat-out say that nothing is a safer bet for fantastic television than Justin Timberlake hosting 'Saturday Night Live'. He's back this week, and even his promos are better than SNL's usually are (better than some of the sketches lately.)
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Caryn James0 commentslike9tweet10
Review: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Stoppard and HBO's Dreamy 'Parade's End'
In Part 3 of HBO’s lyrical, nuanced, romantic and tough-minded World War I era series, Parade’s End, the aloof Sylvia Tietjens says of her aristocratic husband, “Christopher is the last decent man in England. How dare they put their knives into him – he’s mine.&rdq...
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