Archive: December 2010 (21-30 of 36)

Dec 12 2010 08:29 AM ET

'Saturday Night Live' recap: Paul Rudd and Paul McCartney made the little moments count

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Categories: In the News, Music, Politics, Saturday Night Live, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

It was the little things that mattered on this week’s Saturday Night Live. Which is a generous way of saying that in any given sketch, there tended to be a few seconds of amusement to be coaxed out of the material. I’m searching for ways to accentuate the positive here… ah, yes: More use was made of talented rookies such as Vanessa Bayer, Jay Pharoah, Paul Brittain, and (still too briefly) Taran Killam this week.

There was a grim cold-open sketch featuring Fred Armisen as President Obama pushing READ FULL STORY »

Dec 11 2010 10:57 AM ET

'Saturday Night Live' with Paul Rudd and Paul McCartney: Your opinion is desired.

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Categories: Music, Saturday Night Live, Television, TV Tonight

This week, Paul Rudd will host Saturday Night Live; the musical guest is Paul McCartney. Beyond their identical first names, the two men share a certain puckish sense of humor and… READ FULL STORY »

Dec 10 2010 11:31 PM ET

'Smallville' recap: Clark and Lois get engaged, and a super-hero dies

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Categories: Dramas, Sci-Fi, Smallville, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

On Smallville this week, in the episode titled “Icarus,” super-heroes’ “vigilante” status has been “upgraded to terrorists.” Metropolis was overrun by agents of darkness outfitted in uniforms meant to remind of a fascist state. Not the greatest atmosphere for a marriage proposal, to be sure.

Nonetheless, in a shower of READ FULL STORY »

Dec 10 2010 08:14 AM ET

'Fringe' recap: A 'Marionette' and a strawberry milk shake with extra whipped cream

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Categories: Dramas, Fringe, Sci-Fi, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

Knowing that this was the first Fringe after the alternating alternate-universe arc and the last before a winter break placed quite a burden on this week’s episode, entitled “Marionette.” But by now, the series is so sure of its tone, its surging story-telling power, that it more than met its challenges. The fringe-science case was a resonant dilly: A man is harvesting the donated organs of a dead woman he loved/loves, hoping to put her together, Franken-style, and reanimate her. In the same way as this harvester, Fringe has become exhilaratingly fearless about READ FULL STORY »

Dec 8 2010 10:30 PM ET

'Friday Night Lights' recap: A 'Swerve' in the wrong direction proves right for the series

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Categories: Dramas, Friday Night Lights, Sports, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

It’s interesting to see where Friday Night Lights places its emphasis in its final hours, and the biggest surprise in this week’s episode, titled “Swerve,” was the prominent Julie-centric plot. I really thought we’d pretty much waved good-bye to that kid when she left for college, and her smooching-the-married-TA subplot seemed an almost literal kiss-off to a character that had outgrown the show.

But FNL has a way of making dramatic gold out of other shows’ tin cliches. After last week’s college showdown between READ FULL STORY »

Dec 6 2010 11:10 PM ET

'Men of a Certain Age' season premiere review: Making failure and frustration funny, and touching

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Categories: Dramas, Sitcoms, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

The second-season premiere of Men of a Certain Age on Monday night found our trio of pals – Ray Romano’s Joe; Andre Braugher’s Owen, Scott Bakula’s Terry – facing, or avoiding, new challenges. Joe was self-treating his gambling addiction by geting in shape for a golf senior tour; Owen was trying to assume the mantle of leadership at his father’s car dealership; and Terry was swallowing his actor’s ego and trying to boost his income by selling cars at that same dealership. It’s not a spoiler to say that READ FULL STORY »

Dec 6 2010 12:28 PM ET

'Boardwalk Empire' season finale: Ending with love and loyalty betrayed

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Categories: Dramas, Fall TV, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

Boardwalk Empire finished out its first season very strongly, with a finale that ended on a historical note — the election of Warren G. Harding, a Republican Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson backed — as well as on a more emotional note. Nucky’s confession to Margaret about his past (his child’s death and how it drove his wife to suicide) brought Margaret back into his arms. Michael Pitt’s Jimmy tried to rekindle his marriage, but it seems such a lost cause, he was driven to find comfort in family elsewhere — with his dying father (what a wonderfully terse performance by Dabney Coleman) and, at the end, plotting with Nucky’s alienated brother, Eli, to try and take down the Nuckster.

What initially seemed like Boardwalk Empire‘s limitation — the way Nucky READ FULL STORY »

Dec 5 2010 10:30 PM ET

'Sarah Palin's Alaska': Palin shoots the caribou, and the bull, with her father

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Categories: Controversy, Documentaries, In the News, Politics, Reality TV, Sarah Palin, Sports, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

We learned a couple of things during this week’s Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Palin can bag a caribou with a rifle, give or take five shots or so, and she’s got a cute, doughty father.

Seventy-two year old Chuck Heath, a genial turtle of a fellow, took his daughter and a family friend out hunting when it was discovered that, in rummaging through the Palin family freezer, the Palins were down to “five packages of moose and three [packages] of caribou” meat. Oh my gosh — they might starve! This bit of READ FULL STORY »

Dec 5 2010 08:40 AM ET

'Saturday Night Live' recap: Robert De Niro, better in drag these days

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Categories: In the News, Music, Politics, Saturday Night Live, Television, TV Recap, TV Review

You have to wonder what Robert De Niro wants to accomplish when he appears on Saturday Night Live, beyond promoting his latest movie and having a bit of fun without leaving Manhattan. Those may indeed be the only reasons he does SNL (he wouldn’t be the first host guilty of that), and he certainly wasn’t out to compete with Alec Baldwin or Steve Martin, or even Nov. 20′s Anne Hathaway, in inserting himself into this week’s sketches. There’s a cultural disconnect between De Niro and SNL: It doesn’t seem to mean as much to him as it does to other, more eager hosts. If he rarely dropped the granite-faced De Niro persona, he fared best whenever READ FULL STORY »

Dec 4 2010 10:59 AM ET

'Saturday Night Live' with host Robert De Niro: Your opinion is desired.

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Categories: Fall TV, In the News, Movies, Music, Politics, Saturday Night Live, Television, TV Tonight

Tonight, Robert De Niro will host Saturday Night Live; the musical guest is Diddy-Dirty Money. De Niro has reached a point in his career in which he’s increasingly comfortable with doing silly film comedies, such as READ FULL STORY »

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