Television
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'The Daily Show' Visits Sorkin's 'Newsroom' (Video)
Jon Stewart and the cast of The Daily Show are fond of saying they’re pretend journalists, even though they often do a better job of delivering actual news stories than the circus that is CNN. In this segment about the loss of investigative journalism -- too expensive, too ratings-c...
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'Girls,' Season 2: Where Does Lena Dunham End and Hannah Begin?
With the ultra-sharp new season of Girls, I finally understand – though I don’t agree with – the Lena Dunham backlash. For all I know, in real life she’s perfectly likable. But her character, Hannah, is the most squirm-inducing character on television. Hannah’s...
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'Downton Abbey,' The Middle Class and Money ('Ya Gotta Spend It on Somethin' ')
Season 3 of Downton Abbey – as soapy, dramatic and witheringly funny as ever, and at times shatteringly sad – begins in the spring of 1920, and everything now has a whiff of the modern. Daisy the kitchen maid rides a bike through the village, Mary and Matthew are planning their wedd...
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Cast of 'Downton Abbey' Does 'Breaking Bad' on 'Colbert Report'
Much of the cast of Downton Abbey -- including Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, but not Magge Smith or Michelle Dockery -- has been in New York promoting the Jan. 6th premiere of the new season, and they have faced a flood of uninteresting questions. But if the low point was Savannah Gu...
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Charlotte Rampling and Michelle Dockery Go Spying in Sundance Channel's 'Restless'
Once a spy, always a spy – that’s the premise of the sleekly entertaining and wonderfully (if sometimes implausibly) cast thriller Restless. The two-part period piece on Sundance Channel (Part 1 premieres tonight, Part 2 next Friday) offers a double-whammy of time periods. The story...
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The Revolution Was Televised: The Conversation
I worked with HitFix.com television critic Alan Sepinwall at the Star-Ledger of Newark for nine years, 1997-2006. We shared the TV beat together throughout that period, writing reviews and features, and collaborating on a daily column of news and notes titled "All TV."
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An Irresistible Mix: Smart Meets Soapy in 'The Hour'
When smart meets soapy, the results can be delicious and addictive television – as long as the show proudly owns its soap opera qualities (that’s one of the secrets of Downton Abbey) and integrates them into the drama (the gap between soap and preaching is what dooms The Newsroom.) ...
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Anne Hathaway and SNL Do Homeland
Someone at SNL really likes Homeland (don’t we all?) Last week, in their hurricane press-conference sketch, Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained to Spanish-speaking New Yorkers that white people were cranky because they were missing Homeland. This week, Anne Hathaway was at the center of a sketch...
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Returning to St. Eligius: ST. ELSEWHERE, 30 Years Later, Part 2
Your ears didn’t deceive you. In the clip above, Dr. Wayne Fiscus (Howie Mandel) takes a verbal walk down Memory Lane as his residency at St. Eligius comes to a close in the final episode of "St. Elsewhere"’s six-year run and says it lasted “three years.”
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Mike Bloomberg, Chris Christie and Some Jersey Hand Gestures (SNL Video)
I wonder how this will play outside New York and New Jersey, but if you’ve been watching Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s press briefings you know that his sign language interpreter has become a minor celebrity. SNL’s cold open did a brilliant take on Bloomberg and New Jersey Governo...
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