Television
Contain yourself! Four shows whose “bottle” episodes are short bursts of perfection
Into the life of every TV series, a breather must fall. Here you have a successful plot engine chugging along, peopled by a beloved ensemble cast, all of whom who up every week to continue an ongoing story. But that can get tiring. Everyone needs a palate-cleanser. Which is what happens when a showrunner and…
Read MoreWriting Dead: Why Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse still ask the big questions in ‘The Leftovers,’ ‘The Returned’
Years after “Lost” went off the air, two of its co-creators, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, are still asking the big questions in “The Leftovers” and “The Returned.”
Read More“Last Man on Earth”: Laughing, or not, at the end of the world
Can the end of the world be funny? It sure can be serious: One of TV’s most popular shows has been showing just how un-funny the end of the world can be for five seasons now. In fact, The Walking Dead has pretty much rubbed our faces in not only how bad it is when…
Read MoreArisia 2015: My schedule, and how I’ll defy both time and space while there
Coming to Arisia 2015? Here’s where you’ll find me, hoping to be in two places at once….
Read MoreHo-ho-hold the treacle: Most holiday movies stink. Demand better!
After much delay, at last I saw “Maleficent” the other night. And yes, while it is full of exactly what one expects from a Disney film – for (spoiler alert), example, a villain given grace by his vanquisher tries one last time for the win and ends up falling to his death – it took…
Read MoreWhen fantasy writers turn on TV, what turns fantasy writers on? (Hint: Breaking Bad)
On my way to the World Fantasy Convention in Crystal City, Virginia last weekend, I had a chat with an editor, who sighed with dismay that she’d initially packed only four or five books to bring with her for the long weekend. She wondered if that was enough. I began to wonder if I just…
Read MoreTake me now: The seductive nature of TV’s serial killers
TV can be a scary place, and some of its worst offenders are also the best-written and most seductive.
Read MoreFrom ‘Downton Abbey’ to ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ we’re all soap opera addicts now
Greetings! So glad you could make it. Welcome to the first in a continuing story … sorry, the continuing adventures of – no, that’s not quite right, either. All right, I’ll say it first: I’m a soap opera addict. I am a soap opera addict. I love stories that go on and on, with intertwining…
Read MoreFall previews suck — so here’s how, not what, to watch this coming season
It’s an old, beloved story known well by “Mad Men” fans: How their show got to air. Creator Matthew Weiner had an idea to tell the story about New York ad guys in the 1960s for years before it became a reality. He honed his skills at “The Sopranos” while “Men” sat on a shelf…
Read More‘True Detective’s’ Big Hug Mug a star in itself: ‘I should have bought up a few of those things’
There were many things to admire about "True Detective," HBO's limited series that brought together two tastes that worked great together: Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. But one of the biggest surprise breakouts of the show was … the prop Big Hug Mug that sat next to McConaughey's character Rustin "Rust" Cohle during his nearly…
Read More