Since the beginning of “Buffy,” I’ve found myself liking the characters more and more and the world they live in — the “mythology,” in geek-speak — less and less. (I’m talking in generalities; obviously, Angel’s backstory in Season 2 was a great addition to the mythology, for example.) It puts me in a weird position […]
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (9 p.m. Central Thursdays) is getting so crazy that even the FX network seems jittery about it, running so many “mature content” advisories that you’d think it was screening “Hobo with a Shotgun” instead of a half-hour comedy. Not that I blame them; Thursday’s Season 7 premiere, “Frank’s Pretty Woman” — the first […]
I detest the phrase “something for everyone” because 95 percent of the time when an event claims to offer “something for everyone,” it doesn’t interest me in the least bit. “Parenthood” (9 p.m. Central Tuesdays on NBC) is very much a “something for everyone” show, and indeed it doesn’t have a singular, definable hook (other than what’s […]
With Zooey Deschanel in the title role, I expect “New Girl” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays starting Sept. 20 on Fox, but the first episode is already on Hulu) to be a notch above a standard sitcom. Her presence puts the stamp of passion-project quality on an endeavor, as seen in “Almost Famous,” “(500) Days of Summer” […]
TV review: Joss Whedon’s high-school-is-hell epic begins in promising fashion with the 12-episode first season of “Buffy.”
Believe it or not, the fall TV season is less than a week away. Fittingly, one of the best-looking new shows and one of the best returning shows will throw out the first pitches of the season when they premiere on Tuesday. Here’s a closer look at those shows and more — my top six […]
With a few days off from work and a couple weeks to go before the fall TV season, I took the opportunity to rent some movies that I’d wanted to see for a while that didn’t play at my local theater or that I’d missed. First up are two movies that retroactively make my top […]
I don’t mean to rain on the parade of fans who are excited for the Sept. 16 release of the “Star Wars” saga on Blu-ray, but I’m not getting too worked up about it. As readers of my blog know, I am a technological laggard despite being a TV and movie geek; I just got […]
I think the second “X-Files” movie, 2008’s “I Want to Believe,” is a nice thank-you letter to fans, who are given one last chance to follow Mulder and Scully into the darkness (plus: Hey, there’s Skinner!). It certainly has its detractors, though: The film scores a 5.9 on the IMDB ratings (compared to an 8.9 for the […]
I spent all of my 20s waiting for a hit show about 20-somethings. I don’t mean that I was staring at my TV, waiting for a show about 20-somethings to suddenly come on rather than going out and actually being a 20-something. I just mean that I watched a lot of good TV in my […]