Posts with tag newsweek
Posted May 6th 2008 11:22AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free
Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been ten years since
Seinfeld aired its monumental finale.
Newsweek decided to celebrate the anniversary by having two of its writers debate whether the show has held up over the years. One minor problem with the article, though: the arguments made on either side don't make any sense.
One of the reasons
Marc Peyser didn't think the show held up was because, after watching the show's reruns for the first time in years, he found that "The pacing - no show had ever packed in so many scenes, some of them lasting a few seconds - now seems formulaic and forced." Well,
duh, of course it seems formulaic now, since almost every sitcom that has come since has adopted that method of storytelling.
Continue reading Newsweek examines if Seinfeld still holds up after ten years
Posted Apr 21st 2008 10:43AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, The Riches, Reality-Free
I guess in a world where a wrestler and an action hero can both be a governors, anything is possible. Eddie Izzard, cross-dressing stand-up comedian who's currently playing Traveler Wayne Malloy on
The Riches, is thinking that in ten years or so, he might want to go into politics. Yes, you heard me.
In an interview with Newsweek.com, Izzard feels that
he might want to participate in European Union politics. What's his big issue? "People are very worried about sovereignty and the loss of sovereignty. I think the stakes are if we don't make the European Union work, then the world is screwed. End of story."
Continue reading Eddie Izzard: Cross-dresser, Traveler... politician?
Posted Jan 22nd 2008 8:41AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, The Daily Show, Episode Reviews
Jon kicked off the episode by running a few rounds of paper football. Not that I'm a big paper sports enthusiast, but I couldn't help but notice that he wasn't holding the football quite right. Jon, your story just doesn't add up. He then flubbed a gag with a toy robot, which was pretty precious, even though it didn't make much sense. What can I say? I like satirists and robots.
"Indecision 2008": The Democrats took on Nevada and the media took on the world's most cliche Las Vegas metaphors to cover Hillary Clinton's win. However, Jon had them all beat with his "bet on black" comment. Of course, Hillary's win was met with criticism and Bill Clinton defended her like he's already the First Laddie. And then that drew even
more criticism. So it goes.
Continue reading A Daily Show: January 21, 2008
Posted May 7th 2007 5:23PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Gilmore Girls, Celebrities
One of the big reasons why
Gilmore Girls is not returning for an eighth season is because Warner Brothers and the CW reportedly could not come to terms on new contracts for both Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. So, it's not a big surprise to hear that Graham
is not sorry to see the show go gently into that good night.In fact,
she told Newsweek as much in this week's issue. "I think it's the best decision for the show," she told the magazine. "One of the things Alexis and I wished could be different was the schedule, and it really can't be."
(Update: Graham also spoke to TVGuide.com's Mike Ausiello about the show's end.)Continue reading Lauren Graham not sorry to see Gilmore Girls go
Posted Mar 1st 2007 2:41PM by Meredith O'Brien
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, FOX, OpEd, 24
It's the issue that will not die.
Torture and 24.
Newsweek is the latest to weigh in on the never-ending controversy about 24's portrayal of torture and its impact on real-life interrogators in the field. Even though the show's producers have said they're going to scale back on such scenes (you could've fooled me with the promos for next week with Jack Bauer threatening to remove a Russian official's fingers) the issue continues to be hotly debated.
Continue reading 24 and torture. Yes, again.
Posted Nov 7th 2006 11:01AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Syndicated
Newsweek's November 13th issue features a story on
what television taught baby boomers. Apparently, it first taught them how to buy a Davy Crockett cap and shotgun. Then, however, things got more complicated.
All in the Family. M*A*S*H. Good Times. The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Roots. "What boomers ultimately took from early TV was a collective sense of irony." The article isn't entirely convincing in this argument, but it does level a pointed criticism about television today.
Modern TV, according to
Newsweek, has lost its edge. "The most popular shows are still crime procedurals (
CSI) or soaps (
Grey's Anatomy) - slick and sexy, but not about much. The reality shows
American Idol and
Dancing with the Stars are so retro, they're practically
The Lawrence Welk Show. When
The Unit or
24 does dare to focus on something like the war on terror, their take is uncritically gung-ho - no network today would risk satire on the level of
M*A*S*H."
Continue reading What baby boomers learned from TV
Posted Jun 27th 2006 2:02PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Cable, News, Talent
Bravo to Newsweek! This week's edition of the magazine features a
cover story titled, '15 People Who Make America Great: The Giving Back Awards'. CNN's
Morning Edition anchor Soledad O'Brien is number 9 on that list. She's the only television personality on the list. The editors included her for her much-overlooked reporting in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina (you may remember, Anderson Cooper stole the spotlight). The magazine commends O'Brien for her passionate reporting and her humanity, and for being among the first to nail former FEMA chief Michael Brown to the wall.
Others on the list include Brad Pitt, for luring the paparazzi to Africa and other wordly locations that attention; Target, for giving back to communities, and a handful of people you've never heard of who have inspiring stories.
Posted May 23rd 2006 4:03PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Daytime, Celebrities
Ah, now it's on, bee-otch! You may be able to get away with insulting the President, but no one talks smack about
The View. Wait, what am I saying? Everyone talks smack about
The View. It's incredibly talk-smackable, or smack-talkable, or whatever. Anyway, I missed this morning's episode because I was busy engaging in one of forty million other activities I enjoy instead of watching that particular yakfest, but apparently the ladies took some objection to a comment one of the Dixie Chicks made to
Newsweek. One member stated, "Would Bruce do
The View?" referring to Bruce Springsteen and his career path, which the Dixie Chicks hope to emulate. I'm not sure which is stranger to me, their attack on
The View or that they actually think they're in the same league as Bruce Springsteen.
Posted May 15th 2006 8:14AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Lost
In this week's edition of Newsweek,
Lost producer Carlton Cuse promises that the season finale will answer some very big, looming questions. What questions? 1) Why did the plane crash? (Ohhh! That's a biggie!); 2) What happens if the button isn't pushed; and 3) "We're going to resolve the Michael-and-Walt story." The article also quotes Dominic Monaghan and Evangeline Lilly talking about how some actors are becoming high maintenance and misbehaving on set (no, they don't name names).
I kind-of feel like we already know what happens when the button isn't pushed: NOTHING. Last week, we learned that the button-pushing is just an experiment. But, we've never actually seen anything past the hieroglyphics.
With all those big questions answered, what do you think next season will be all about?
Posted Feb 20th 2006 7:13PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: FOX, TV Royalty, Web
While ABC, NBC, and CBS have been quick to offer up shows on their websites and in iTunes, FOX has been mysteriously
silent about the whole
online
video craze. It's surprising, since FOX tends to take more chances and be more cutting-edge than its competitors.
Now we know why. Rupert Murdoch recently
told
Newsweek he's not convinced that putting television shows online is a good idea (I think NBC would
disagree).
Said Murdoch,
"We're not knocked out by iPod so far. We've talked to them, to Google and others. But how many people really want
to get video on a tiny screen when they already have TiVo or a similar service from their cable company or
DirecTV?"
Continue reading Rupert Murdoch doesn't see the benefit of online video
Posted Feb 5th 2006 4:06PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, News, Celebrities
In this week's Newsweek
magazine, Bill O'Reilly spins
The Colbert Report in his favor. Despite being an obvious target of Colbert,
O'Reilly says he finds the comedy "refreshing". In true Bill O'Reilly fashion, he conjures up a statistic and
hypocritically says of his detractors, "Ninety percent of them are just vicious and they use their platform to
injure people." I imagine he's including
Keith Olbermann in that statistic.
O'Reilly basically laughs off
The Colbert Report a rip-off of his own show, saying, "This formula of
his program is they match
The Factor and they seize upon themes that work for them. He ought to be sending me
a check every week, 'cause we're basically the research for the writers." Do you think Bill understands the word
'satire'?
O'Reilly is only one tiny part of a much larger article on
The Colbert Report. You can
read it
here.
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