As the powerhouse Season Six premiere of Lost starts settling in a bit, I see at least three crucial questions emerging from what the new split has brought us.   Here they are, with my answers, as of now:

1.  Is there any linkage or leakage between the Los Angeles reality, in which… Read full post »

I thought the Lost Season 6 two-hour premiere was superb, especially because of the alternate reality LAX half, which was about as fine an alternate-reality construction as I've seen on screen- But, first, how did this come about?

The H-Bomb that Juliet set off at end of last season was the… Read full post »

CBS marred a fine Grammy night this past Sunday by silencing the Lil Wayne, Eminem, Drake performance at least 10 times.

What was CBS afraid of? More unconstitutional FCC fines? If so, the CBS execs who made the bleeping decision should resign, and let people who have respect for Americans and… Read full post »

Well, Barack Obama, one of the most gifted orators of this or any generation, delivered a fine, rousing State Union address tonight from the standpoint of style.  He made his points with eloquence, passion, and good humor.   No boor in the audience shouted "you lie," though Associate J… Read full post »

Good for the US Supreme Court for overturning the 20-year ban on direct corporate spending on elections.  Last time I checked, the First Amendment - "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" - contained no language excluding corporations from its protectio… Read full post »

1. This is the way of democracy.  Surprising.  Take nothing for granted.  America has been split 50/050 politically at least since 2000.   Every race is potentially close.  Next time, if you're running for the Senate in a race crucial to the country - and these days, all… Read full post »

How did the media do in covering the resurgence of terrorism in the skies on Christmas day?

1. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's assessment on several news shows this morning that "the system worked" - by which she meant that, after the would-be bomber was stopped, everything went well an… Read full post »

My 1972 album Twice Upon a Rhyme is now available in MP3s on Amazon.  Says something about the potential longevity of anything you move from your brain to any place in the world beyond...

Well, it was the end of the world in last week's Mad Men 3.12, in every way for most of our major players, especially for Don. Tonight's surprising, satisfying altogether brilliant Season 3 finale reversed that. It was the best of times, for everyone, especially including Don, especially regarding hi… Read full post »

Well, I've often said that truly good combinations of mystery and comedy are as scarce as hen's teeth, and none do it better than Bones, as tonight's episode 5.6 about a murder in a chicken coop so tastily shows.

The chicken part led to fine puns, which I'll just let simmer without… Read full post »

Kenneth Johnson's original 1983 mini-series V - along with its 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle - was oddly one of my favorite television shows. Actually, it still is. But I say "oddly," because although the story was trite - aliens landing on Earth, claiming they want to help us, only… Read full post »

Skeeter Davis's The End of the World played under the closing credits of Mad Men 3.12 tonight, and it came pretty close to that in many, but not all, ways...

We knew it would be coming. But the logical time was the Season 3 finale - which will be on next week.… Read full post »

I thought it was long since time that I checked in with a review of Lie to Me, which last night aired episode 5 of its second season on Fox.

It's one of my and my wife's favorite shows, and along with 24, Bones, House, and (formerly) The Shield, makes Fox easily… Read full post »

My wife and I just got home from an afternoon showing of This Is It - just in time to see the World Series, but I wanted to write this first.

What a wonderful, heartfelt, inspiring, original movie. All of it was great, here are some of the highights for me:

.Michael… Read full post »

I've been saying for years that Shep Smith, who anchors the Fox Report on Fox News, is a class act. He did an heroic job - along Anderson Cooper of CNN, Geraldo Rivera of Fox News, and other reporters on the scene -- in holding the Bush government to account for… Read full post »

Well, Betty finally brings it all up to Don on Mad Men 3.11 last night, in an evening's confrontation that puts her in the superior, stronger position, and may well change everything in the series.

With Suzanne waiting in the car outside for a week away with Don - Betty doesn't know… Read full post »

Back with clockwork weekly reviews of Dexter Season 4. Episode 5 was on tonight, the first new episode since my sneak preview non-spoiler review of the first four episodes last month.

What I couldn't tell you in that non-spoiler review was that Lundy and Debra would be shot at the end… Read full post »

A memorably media-savvy episode 3.10 of Mad Men tonight - come to think of it, just about every episode is - which quotes the Chinese proverb that is the basis of the invention and flourishing of writing ... "the faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory."

Actually, Kinsey paraphrases th… Read full post »

This is the third post in my continuing series, What's Newer Than New New Media, published in different blogs, which examines developments in the world of blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc - what I call "new new media" - since the publication of New New Media in September 2009.… Read full post »

One fine House 6.4 last night, with a central story that pits the diagnosis of House against the karma of the cosmos.

A multi-billionaire's son is dying. No one, including House and the team led by Foreman, can come up with the right diagnosis. When House does, it's an incurable malady that… Read full post »

An even more emotionally brutal, powerful Mad Men 3.9 tonight, which gave us the worst side of Don this season...

Sal rebuffs the advance of the head Lucky Strike man, Lee Garner, Jr., who consequently calls upon hapless Harry Crane to fire Sal. It all comes to Don, who ... fires Sal.… Read full post »

Fringe 2.4 finally dished out some significant answers last week. In the process, we got a tender romantic moment for Walter, a resolution for the shape-shifter Charlie, and a good, welcome dose of William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) - all in all, making for the second best episode of the entire series… Read full post »

Last week, Bones and Booth visited Amish country. Tonight's case - 5.4 - took the two, and us, to somewhere between Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives. Suburbia, that is, with all its lovemaking and murder.

We also get a good contest of anthropology vs. psychology, in Bones vs. Sweet's analyses of… Read full post »

The riveting paradoxes of FlashForward continue to be lit most clearly in the person of Agent Demetri Noh, who in episode 1.3 sees his possible futures ratcheted up one additional, wrenching level. A foreign agent (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, Behrooz's mother of 24, Day 4 fame) calls Demetri and te… Read full post »