Television Review
-
Caryn James0 commentslike5tweet7
Was it Smart or Dumb? Who Survived the 'Homeland' Season Finale?
There are very few things in Homeland, with its endless twists and reversals, that are irrefutably true, but this comment from Saul to Carrie in the season 2 finale is one of them: “You are the smartest and the dumbest fucking person I’ve ever known.” Sometimes you...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike2tweet5
Might Live Free, Might Die. The Last Season of 'Breaking Bad' Begins.
Where do you go after you’ve blown off the face of your rival, the area’s biggest meth-lord? Really blown off his face, the way Walter White (Bryan Cranston) did at the end of last season’s 'Breaking Bad,' when he set a bomb and lured Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) to ...
Read More » -
Caryn James2 commentslike2tweet5
Aaron Sorkin Moves 'The Newsroom' To Fairyland
Aaron Sorkin has always had a huge, corn-fed Capraesque streak, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. Even in his own day, Capra’s Americana was more willful than trenchant, but at least it suited its Greatest Generation era. Sorkin’s high-blown patriotic speeches, tran...
Read More » -
Caryn James1 commentlike5tweet4
How 'Mad Men' Ended Its Season of Old-Fashioned Sexual Politics
Matthew Weiner loves to tease Mad Men viewers and keep them off guard, so of course the season finale refused to give us the expected, explosive plot turn. There were enough of those in the past few weeks: Joan agreed (yes, agreed) to be pimped out to a client, Peggy quit, Lane killed him...
Read More » -
Caryn James0 commentslike1tweet5
Femme Fatale Meets Literary Lion: Nicole Kidman And Clive Owen in "Hemingway and Gellhorn"
Three of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives were maternal or authority figures. There was Hadley, the starter wife, gentle but nearly eight years older than the young Hemingway. Then the boyish-figured Pauline came along, took charge and led him away -- willingly, but still. Wife number ...
Read More » -
Caryn James2 commentslike15tweet3
Still Lying: How "House" Ended The Series
It would not be true to the spirit of House to get all sappy at the end – the show didn’t and there’s no reason for us to either. Most of the series’ last hour seemed bizarrely off, not like House at all as he sat in a burning building, visited by the ghosts and ha...
Read More » -
Caryn James4 commentslike5tweet28
Sherlock Meets Bieber And Fifty Shades of Grey
Downton Abbey is not the only buzz-worthy upscale/downscale gem from PBS’s Masterpiece this year. Season 2 of Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the 21st century version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s ultra-rational hero, begins on Sunday with “A Scandal in Belgravia.” The ...
Read More » -
Caryn James1 commentlike6tweet9
Jon Hamm, Paul McCartney Guest On Hilarious, Live 30 Rock (UPDATED WITH VIDEO)
When recorded series go live, it’s usually hard to overcome the stuntiness of it all. (Alec Baldwin promised in a promo that the live 30 Rock would be “liver” than ever, so we all get to make up new words). But 30 Rock found a brilliant, hilarious meta-solution by making its l...
Read More » -
Caryn James1 commentlike0tweet1
Where Even The Spoons Are Political: "Veep" and "Scandal" Do D.C. For TV
“We live in a culture now where it’s almost like we are used to being lied to,” Julia Louis-Dreyfuss said in a recent New York Times Magazine piece about her HBO series Veep – to which any thinking person can only respond, “ALMOST?” (Or hope that she de...
Read More »
fresh from the blogs
-
Critic and Filmmaker Spar on Facebook over Sundance ...Criticwire
-
Captain Kirk & John Harrison Face Off In 2 New 'Star ...The Playlist
-
Shadow & Act Presents The PAFF Institute's 2013 Lineup ...Shadow and Act
-
Friday Box Office: 'Identity Thief' Outpaces Weak Pack ...Thompson on Hollywood
-
Hollywood Sexist of the Day: Rex ReedWomen and Hollywood
-
VIDEO ESSAY: Why SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Should Win ...Press Play
-
Good Night, Lost Boy(s)The Lost Boys
-
SIDE EFFECTSLeonard Maltin
on 
