I recently watched the first two episodes of "Downton Abbey" on PBS. Luckily, these episodes are available for a limited time online at PBS since my Tivo has for some mysterious reason twice rebuffed my command to record what I tell it to. 

If you liked "Gosford Park" (also created by… Read full post »

I can't help myself. I just love "The Bachelor." Every season I say that I will not get sucked in (and I have friends who swear to the same thing), but it seems like every time, the inevitable happens. I watch five minutes of the war of the roses, and I'm… Read full post »

What could be better than a zombie movie? A zombie TV show?

Maybe.

It's not yet clear whether "The Walking Dead" can successfully repackage the cult appeal of zombie movies for basic cable. I am guessing it's never been done quite like this before (we've had vampires aplenty, but I'm… Read full post »

Before I begin, I should confess that I have never seen "Rocky Horror" in its entirety. However, I bet I am not the only member of the "Glee" audience who finds herself in this position. And so, I will post my thoughts on the episode, even though I am sorely (un)qualified… Read full post »

None of us should be surprised at any of the outcomes of the season finale of "Mad Men." As has been foretold by many television watchers, professional and amateur, Don and Megan vont s'epouser. Their big news trumped the other big news, most importantly, Peggy has "single-handedly" saved the company… Read full post »

This was perhaps the most obvious and yet most random of theme weeks on "Glee." That's not to say the theme didn't work, just that the songs seemed a little scattered in terms of genre and style. But after Britney week and Religion week, it was a welcome break.

I was… Read full post »

In a recent interview with Terry Gross, Jon Hamm reflected on one of the larger themes of “Mad Men,” actions have consequences. He told Gross,

Matt [Weiner, the creator of Mad Men] stated very early on that one of the driving principles of the show is that actions have consequences… Read full post »

 I have mixed feelings about this week’s episode of “Glee.” Instead of see-sawing between these feelings in paragraph form, I thought I would just lay them out their, binary style in a pro-con list.

Pro

• I was glad to see Heather Morris (Brittany) and Naya Rivera
… Read full post »

It’s “Premiere Week” in TV land and that means the reappearance of some familiar faces. Many of these actors have reappeared as slightly warped versions of their former TV characters, but in places and situations you’d never expect. Others are trying out completely new charact… Read full post »

Leading up to the finale, the producers had managed to finagle me into changing my opinion of two of the three finalists. After last week’s episode, I started to root for Kevin . . . just a teensy eensy bit. Kevin really turned out to be quite the Jersey scrapper, and… Read full post »

Yesterday, Oprah announced that she would be taking her show and her entire studio audience to Australia. I watched some of the build up to the big reveal but found myself flipping impatiently back and forth between "Oprah" and "Ellen" in the final minutes leading up to the big announcement. If… Read full post »

This blogger voices everything I suspected but wasn't quite certain about the post-Project Runway show On The Road with Austin and Santino. I've watched bits and pieces of a few episodes now, though, and I think she's onto something. These guys have better chemistry than most current h… Read full post »

Mad Men is often uncomfortable to watch but never boring, and this week was no different. After last week’s stellar episode, I wasn’t surprised that this week’s narrative left me feeling a little off-kilter. The whole episode had that effect of disruption and dis-ease:

--Don narrat… Read full post »

In an attempt to be accurate and insightful for this week’s recap, I took some notes while watching “The Suitcase." This is probably a manifestation of my inability to let go of my laptop (or my identity as a grad student). Or it might be a manifestation of my desire to… Read full post »

How can Project Runway make the “real women” challenge more painful for all involved? I know, let’s make the women endure a designers’ showcase on top of the usual runway! What could be better than opening yourself up to be scrutinized by hundreds of strangers whose job it is… Read full post »

In the final five minutes of suspense-inducing commercial breaks last night, my friend and I had the feeling that despite our pleas to the TV otherwise, Tiffany was going home.

“It can’t happen! It has to be Kevin!”

Alas, it was not to… Read full post »

Alternate Title: Idio[m]s Need [Not] Apply

To paraphrase Don Draper: “Get it, Peggy? It’s an idiom!” In the spirit of Don, I thought I would cull together some idioms and not-so idioms to talk about the episode last night. Here they are, in no particular order:

[Fur… Read full post »

I’ve never been the kind of person who reads the end of the book first. The same goes for TV watching. When I decide to dig into several seasons of one of those must-watch-but-long-defunct shows—Deadwood, The Wire, Firefly, Battlestar Galatica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer—I start at th… Read full post »

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that all TV and movies are based on a single premise: the freak show. I am not just talking about reality entertainment programming, I’m talking about all entertainment programming. If I think back to the last 9 shows/programs/movies I’ve watched… Read full post »

Is Mad Men the new Lost?

I admit it. Last night, my husband and I were both frantically googling the name, Lyle Evans. All we found were obscure references to librarians and, when paired with “WWII” in a Boolean search, a reference to someone named Lyle Evans who… Read full post »

I’ve heard that working out while listening to music helps you burn more calories. I think that it has something to do with really getting into the moment and (not) feeling the burn. This brings up two questions for me:

(1) If this is true, then why… Read full post »

If Mad Men is based on the assumption that we now know (a little) better than the drunken misogyny portrayed on the show, then why are 21st-century consumers of the show forced to sit through commercials that play on that same misogyny in order to sell products (to men and women)?… Read full post »

“If you read a lot of books, you're considered well-read.  But if you watch a lot of TV, you're not considered well-viewed.” ~Lily Tomlin

I consider myself somewhere in between the poles of the “well-read” and the “well-viewed,” and if I’m b… Read full post »