Tina Fey comedies are almost a distinct genre at this point. The formula, established by 30 Rock and followed closely by Kimmy Schmidt and Great News, seems to be confidently quirky characters delivering rapid-fire punchlines laced with ultra-current pop culture references, with quick cutaways and peppy music bopping along in the background. It doesn’t always
Reviews
When Regina King confidently strutted her way through Union Station at the top of this year’s Oscars broadcast with candy-colored movie-style credits popping up behind her, I got excited that this year’s show might actually be different. And indeed, it was… but that’s not necessarily a compliment. Yes, Sunday’s Oscar broadcast on ABC comes with
Remember that Friends episode where Chandler, Monica and Ross want to go see Hootie and the Blowfish, but Rachel, Phoebe and Joey can’t afford to? It’s notable, not only because Monica ends up making out with a Blowfish, but because it directly addresses a taboo subject on TV: money. Most sitcoms act like struggling young
RELATED STORIES When The Nevers‘ first footage dropped earlier this year, I distinctly remember thinking, “Ooh, it’s steampunk Buffy with corsets!” Now that the drama, created by Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Joss Whedon, has released its first four episodes to the press, I can confirm: It is, indeed, steampunk Buffy with corsets — and for
HBO’s new limited series Mare of Easttown asks for our patience… but it rewards it as well. The seven-hour murder mystery starring Kate Winslet — debuting Sunday, April 18 at 10/9c; I’ve seen five of the seven episodes — is the definition of a slow burn, taking its sweet time to immerse us in the
RELATED STORIES Whether lacing up against the peewee league’s elite Hawks, Team Iceland at the Junior Goodwill Games or Eden Hall’s dominant varsity team, The Mighty Ducks built a lasting legacy as the scrappy underdogs who play the game fairly and still end up on top. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (premiering Friday, March 26)
Like WandaVision before it, Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier serves up Marvel-ous set pieces while also being afforded the time to delve deep into the characters’ mindsets. Only the first episode, premiering Friday, March 19, was screened for critics, but its 47-minute running time nonetheless promises feature film-caliber action sequences, as well as
NBC’s new sci-fi drama Debris opens with a fairly standard action scene, with federal agents chasing black-market crooks through a luxury hotel. But the crooks aren’t selling guns or diamonds; they’re selling fragments of a destroyed alien spaceship that are scattered across the globe. And when a hotel maid innocently touches one of those fragments,
It’s not a great sign when watching a new show just makes you think about other, better shows. That’s the case with Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia — premiering Wednesday, Feb. 24 on the streamer; I’ve seen five of the ten episodes — a mildly cute, kind of boring new dramedy that wears its pop-culture inspirations proudly
True story: Despite being a Smallville superfan, I have had zero interest in Superman & Lois since the day it was announced. For one, it overlaps with Supergirl’s own run on The CW (which we now know to be ending), and TV’s Girl of Steel has already and liberally borrowed from her cousin’s comic book
Even given TV’s current obsession with rebooting and reviving anything and everything, The Equalizer is an curious choice. The original 1985-89 CBS series, starring Edward Woodward as a spy-turned-private eye who cleaned up a crime-ridden New York City, is only a hazy memory to most viewers and plays like a dusty relic these days. (He
What would Silence of the Lambs be without Hannibal Lecter? The coldblooded cannibal genius played by Anthony Hopkins is one of the most iconic villains in film history — but, due to nagging rights issues, his name can’t even be uttered in CBS’ new drama Clarice, which follows FBI agent Clarice Starling a year after
I’d love to say that I was wowed by Netflix’s series adaption of Kristin Hannah’s novel, Firefly Lane (dropping Wednesday, Feb. 3). Truth be told, I dive into every show that I’m tasked with reviewing hoping the same thing — to be dazzled, stunned, impressed. I was none of those things. There was nothing there that
A seven-hour drama series about chess players? It might sound more like a punishment at first than a pleasure. But The Queen’s Gambit — now streaming on Netflix; I’ve seen all seven episodes — does the unthinkable: It manages to make the game of chess fascinating… and sexy, even. (I know!) It’s an underdog story
RELATED STORIES In the 13 years since Iron Man first hit theaters, Marvel Studios has established quite well its ability to nail a big-budget popcorn movie. The proof, outside of gargantuan box office numbers, is right there in those Avengers: Endgame audience reaction videos that circulated last spring; Marvel’s got the best action scenes in
At the movies, January is the traditional dumping ground for box office bombs that the studios are eager to bury and forget. Unfortunately, NBC’s new sitcom Mr. Mayor — debuting this Thursday, Jan. 7 at 8/7c; I’ve seen the first two episodes — feels like the TV equivalent of that. It’s a real shame, because the
Bryan Cranston‘s return to dramatic television should be cause for celebration, right? After all, his turn as Breaking Bad‘s Walter White, a meek chemistry teacher who transformed into a sinister drug lord before our very eyes, is one of TV’s all-time great performances. It’s a shame, then, that his new Showtime limited series Your Honor
If you’re a TV viewer of a certain vintage (like me), Saved by the Bell imprinted on you at an early age, whether you liked it or not. (In our defense, there wasn’t much TV to choose from back then.) Yes, the cheesy ’90s high school antics of Zack, Kelly, Slater, et al do have
RELATED STORIES True-crime TV has found its new obsession: The twisted saga of the NVIXM cult, with famous followers like Smallville alum Allison Mack and salacious accusations of sex slavery, has inspired not one but two long-form TV documentaries, along with a number of one-off investigative specials. HBO’s The Vow, which premiered in August, was
A successful sitcom boils down to two things: characters and chemistry. Even the most inspired premise doesn’t matter after the first few episodes, if the show doesn’t have characters we care about and actors who work well together. Case in point: CBS’ new fall sitcom B Positive, debuting this Thursday, Nov. 5 at 8:30/7:30c. (I’ve
Each episode of FX on Hulu’s A Teacher is preceded by a content warning I’ve never seen before: It warns about “sexual situations,” but also “depictions of grooming that may be disturbing.” And it’s needed, too, because A Teacher — debuting Tuesday, Nov. 10; I’ve seen all ten episodes — is certainly disturbing, depicting a
With Nicole Kidman starring in a HBO drama written by David E. Kelley, it’s easy to imagine The Undoing as a sort of Big Little Lies spinoff, with Kidman’s Celeste moving from Monterey to New York City and finding love again with Hugh Grant after that unfortunate Perry situation. (Hey, she deserves it!) But The
When I mentioned to a colleague that I’d just watched the premiere of AMC’s second spinoff of The Walking Dead, World Beyond, he asked just one question: “Do you think there’s an audience for it?” And I had to admit, I do. The series, which follows teenage sisters Iris (Aliyah Royale) and Hope (Alexa Mansour)
Really, was anyone out there crying out for a Nurse Ratched origin story? The trailers for Netflix’s Ratched — premiering this Friday, Sept. 18; I’ve seen the first four episodes — bill the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest villain as “one of the world’s most iconic characters,” but as played by Oscar winner Louise
Another Fall TV season is nearly upon us… and it looks absolutely nothing like any of its predecessors. You may have heard something about a pandemic that has turned the world on its head for much of 2020 — and the TV industry has been affected, too, delaying and halting production on countless series. But
Keef Knight just wants to “keep it light,” OK? He’s a Black cartoonist living in ultra-progressive San Francisco and drawing a popular, inoffensive comic strip called Toast ‘N’ Butter that’s about to hit syndication and make him rich. He doesn’t address race in his comics because it’s never been a big factor in his life,
A dark, gritty reboot of the golden oldie Perry Mason? At first, it sounds like a joke, or like a Jack Donaghy idea from 30 Rock. The classic legal drama debuted way back in 1957, which leaves quite a thick layer of dust to brush away, but HBO’s reboot — premiering this Sunday at 9/8c;
RELATED STORIES It’s been just over two years since the theatrical release of Love, Simon, the 2018 rom-com that broke new ground as the first major studio film to center on a gay teen romance. The movie is a charming and inoffensive coming-of-age flick — and your opinion of the film will likely dictate how
RELATED STORIES Snowpiercer‘s four-and-a-half year journey to the small screen ends on Sunday, May 17, when it pulls into the proverbial station at TNT. When all is said and done, was it the little engine that could? Or not quite? What you get out of TV’s Snowpiercer largely depends on what you expect from it.
I’ll say this about Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix drama Hollywood: The costumes are fantastic. With its characters decked out in fedoras, three-piece suits and bejeweled ball gowns, the 1940s period piece co-created by Murphy and his Glee co-writer Ian Brennan — debuting this Friday, May 1; I’ve seen all seven episodes — gives us a