As year-end lists have poured in, it’s been nice to see Community top or near the top of so many rankings of the best thing on television. I’m in something of withdrawal over the show’s hiatus already, and my thoughts are turning, rather grimly, of what it’s going to take for the series to survive. In some ways, Community reminds me of 30 Rock. Like its network sibling, Community... 

Over the weekend at The Atlantic, I took a look at Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which premiered last night. As I wrote, it’s no great shakes as a political statement or a conservationist documentary, but as reality television, it’s pretty promising: In the first episode, that family—particularly the Palins’ younger, less-exposed daughters Willow and Piper—make an for an appealing... 

I was watching A Bit of Fry and Laurie the other night, and as much as I enjoy it, it strikes me as the kind of show that could only be make in England, and is only accessible to a certain kind of audience. The range of jokes in a single episode, from faked and exceedingly funny cultural criticism, to satire of pretentious businessmen, to dead-on knock-offs of Australian soap operas, requires... 

Sorry for being about posting these, folks. It was a busy last week. But, I expanded on our conversation about how to make good religious movies, wrote about the odd hold Eliot Spitzer has on popular culture if not on our nation’s actual current events, and recapped the latest episode of Community.  Read More »

I watched this episode of Louis C.K.’s show that Ta-Nehisi highlighted, in which Louie hits on an African-American checkout girl in a way that at first is cute (he tries to buy her flowers, which she rejects) and then blatantly inappropriate and threatening (he follows her home, where she cuts him dead). There’s a lot to be said about the racial and gender interactions in the episode, but... 

I’m finally getting around to watching the first episode of Rubicon. From what I can understand, super duper secret agency analyst Will Travers is a dedicated but conflicted widower who lost his wife and daughter during the 9/11 attacks. His boss–also his father-in-law–David, urges Will to leave the agency just before being killed in a train crash. And also, some billionaire... 

I was–I am–a Lost dork. I listened to all the best Lost podcasts, I read the message boards, I delighted in puzzling over each episode until the final moments of the season. For a lot of Losties, the show didn’t end with the final scene–there was still an endless amount of questions. And now, some of those questions are answered. In the interest of folks who don’t want... 

Many thanks to Alyssa for asking me to help tend the shop while she’s off in the Alaskan wilderness. I can’t wait to hear the stories she brings back. I was hooked on RuPaul’s Drag Race after the first episode. In addition to watching the transformations of each superdrag diva, it’s really refreshing to see a realilty show that embraces its theatricality... 

Thanks so much to Alyssa for having me on while she’s adventuring in Alaska. Let me first say that “Work of Art” is not about art. I do not tune in to learn anything about art or art history. The “art” produced by the contestants isn’t interesting or even on the level of most art students at most major universities. In short, the art on this show is bad and probably... 

Man, is this a busy pre-vacation week! First up this morning, Morning Edition aired the episode I taped a while back about Real Housewives of Washington, DC, and I posted an interview I did with one of the stars. It’s absolutely fascinating seeing the gap between how these women are cut and portrayed on screen, and what it’s like to talk to them in person. Then, yesterday at The Atlantic,...