It’s rare that an awards show both rewards the people who really deserve those awards and is itself a rewarding show. But this year’s Emmy Awards was both. Led by spunky, clever host Jane Lynch, the Emmys were delightfully surprising — Margo Martindale! Kyle Chandler! Melissa McCarthy plus all the other Best Comedy Actress nominees onstage together! — and, in most ways, quite satisfactory. READ FULL STORY »
Never have I been so glad to be wrong… in just a couple of Emmy categories. I’m certainly not going to whine about not predicting such superb surprise nominations as Louie CK, Timothy Olyphant, and Walton Goggins.
Yes, I’m doing my due diligence in following up on my Emmy predictions post yesterday; I owe it to you to own up to my miscalculations… and crow about my perspicacity! READ FULL STORY »
What a week for Tina Fey to return to Saturday Night Live, which itself is returning from a three-week hiatus. To say that a lot has happened since the last SNL is an understatement, and yet READ FULL STORY »
Season finales always have the potential for surprise. I was struck by how low-key, for example, Justified chose to close out a superbly acted season; I was a little disappointed that it withheld the pleasure of a good old Western shoot-out that would have forced Raylan Givens to give in to his held-in-check violent side and dispatch one or two of the season’s memorable antagonists. Similarly, last night’s 30 Rock surprised me for the almost bleak finale it presented, which READ FULL STORY »
Comedy Central’s first annual Comedy Awards was a curious mixture of really funny and really boring, so chock-full of funny people squeezed into two hours that only a few of them stood out effectively. We’ll see about that “annual” thing. READ FULL STORY »
These two races present different challenges to anyone trying to predict a winner. I think the lead actress category is wide open (in addition to my “possible upset” pick below, I wouldn’t count out Tina Fey). On the other hand, I’ll be shocked if my choice for supporting actress READ FULL STORY »
Tina Fey’s return to Saturday Night Live wasn’t a non-stop laugh-fest — it was something almost better: interestingly uneven, as though Fey wasn’t quite sure how to fold her sensibility (and her sitcom and movie stardom) back into the role she used to occupy as a writer and performer on SNL.
After a mildly awkward opening monologue/musical number that addressed how READ FULL STORY »
Usually actors hosting Saturday Night Live are there to promote a movie. But Tina Fey’s new film, Date Night, has already been overshadowed in the walk-up to her SNL stint tonight by the announcement that, yes, she’ll impersonate Sarah Palin once again (at least).
Fey’s Palin impersonation became one of the pop-culture flash-points of the last election. Bieber told Jimmy Fallon earlier this week that he, too, would appear in sketches. I’m guessing they’re not going to cast him as John McCain.
For my full recap, go here; thanks.
Watching Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock last night, I was struck anew by the ways these once-and-future SNL stars, Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler, have crafted sitcoms that could not be more different in tone and philosophy from each other.
30 Rock is, like its title, very “New York,” granite-tough. Even when Fey isn’t onscreen, her comic tone — cutting; ruthlessness wearing the mask of whimsy — slices through most scenes, particularly anything involving Alec Baldwin’s Jack and his business dealings. It’s kind of amazing to me that Fey gets away with making such fierce fun of NBC corporate masters like GE and now Comcast/Xfinity, aka, Kabletown. Last night’s brutal assertion that Com… er, Kabletown is a cynical purveyor of on-demand porn incapable of (to Jack’s old-capitalist way of thinking) creating anything new was, well, magnificent. (It also helps explain why, when I just went to my home “Kabletown” DVR to record the 1971 Paddy Chayefsky-written movie The Hospital, the screen menu was offering stuff like Hot Nasty Girls just a few listings down the screen.)
By contrast, Parks and Recreation is frequently as sunny as Leslie Knope’s smile, and, increasingly READ FULL STORY »
