Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was up to its old tricks again this week, stuffing its hour with guest stars, some of them doing appalling things. One guest who had something appalling done to her was Miranda Lambert, and while she didn’t have many lines, she made her presence felt. READ FULL STORY »
The River is a fun, scary tale that arrived on Tuesday night disguised as a grim, scary tale. That’s the way these things work: The frights wouldn’t be nearly as effective if the characters didn’t find blood-curdling precisely the stuff that made us jump and giggle. Thus, when Leslie Hope’s Tess got abruptly sucked beneath what was thought to be shallow water (for a few seconds, only her frantically gesticulating hand remained in view), you might have yelped, but you might also have laughed at how smoothly executed the scare effect was achieved. READ FULL STORY »
Smash premiered on Monday night right after the most agreeable lead-in NBC could possibly muster: The Voice, thus having musical-reality television lead into musical-fiction television. There’s been a lot of TV-industry reporting about how many millions of dollars NBC has spent promoting Smash, and I’ve done some speculating of my own about whether or not Smash will become a ratings hit. But let’s put all the biz stuff aside and concentrate on the show itself: Did it deliver? READ FULL STORY »
Lilyhammer is a new show that Netflix is premiering right now — in fact, you can watch the entire, eight-episode first season streaming on Netflix’s site, if that’s how you want to spend today’s eight-hour work day, though you may not want to tell your boss. Speaking of the boss, Lilyhammer stars Steven Van Zandt, from the soon-to-tour E Street Band and from The Sopranos. It’s the latter job, however, not the musical one, that got Van Zandt his first starring role: He’s a New York gangster who’s relocated to the freezing cold city of Lillehammer, Norway, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics. READ FULL STORY »
Madonna was careful, in interviews before the Super Bowl, to say how nervous she was, how no one had to worry about her plotting to incite controversy. But instead of resulting in a cautious, tedious performance, Madonna gave a joyous, unironic, openhearted one. She deployed guest stars including Cee Lo Green, Nicki Minaj, and M.I.A., but they never stole her glowing spotlight. From her entrance hoisted aloft by Roman-soldier dancers to the massed choir that sent her off, she was both in full command and full of generosity toward her massive audience. READ FULL STORY »
Smash is an admirable risk for a network television series. Given that the size of the Broadway-show audience, if every ticket-holder tuned in, would probably fit into the bodice of The Voice‘s Christina Aguilera, the notion of a weekly show chronicling the behind-the-scenes creation of a Great White Way musical about Marilyn Monroe is gutsy. And optimistic. And, let’s face it, Glee-fully, exhilaratingly over-reaching. READ FULL STORY »
On Wednesday night’s Late Show With David Letterman, the host celebrated his 30 years in late night with typical asperity, noting that at this point, what’s keeping him going is “Lipitor and vodka.” The greatest talk-show host ever — the sum of what came before him, the invention of his own body of work, the influence he has bequeathed to every host who’s come after him — nodded to his past with a Top Ten recited by longtime staffers heaping abuse upon their employer. READ FULL STORY »
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are, they proclaimed on the debut of their Key & Peele half-hour on Tuesday night, biracial–”half-black, half-white”–and therein lies the source of their comedy. They play with the contrasts in tone, if you will, that blacks and whites use in comedy, and in everyday life. READ FULL STORY »
By 8 p.m., the Florida primary victory had been called for Mitt Romney by all the news networks. Before the 9 p.m. hour, a shift could be discerned in Romney’s speech: Instead of trying to distinguish himself from the Republican pack of candidates, he looked frequently straight into the TV camera and addressed not merely his cheering campaign staffers, or the state of Florida, but the entire country. And his message to us all was to quote Thomas Paine and then go after the other party: “‘Lead, follow, or get out of the way.’ Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you followed, and now it’s time to get out of the way.” READ FULL STORY »
Luck, the new David Milch-Michael Mann HBO series, premieres tonight. I’m so on-board (on-horse?) with this show, I’m offering you two reviews of it. READ FULL STORY »
