Posts tagged as TV
Two Altbro Hipsters on MTV's "I Just Want My Pants Back"
By way of introduction, RJ Cubarrubia and Jon Blistein are two altbros living in Williamsburg. They’re both trying to be music writers. RJ and Jon consider themselves quite culturally aware, but also recognize that their existence is made up of run-of-the-mill hipster clichés—hipster clichés which are now reaching larger audiences thanks to things like Bon Iver, Wes Anderson flicks, Honda commercials with Vampire Weekend, the term “buzz band,” etc. Some of this has been good; other stuff... well. Now there’s MTV’s "I Just Want My Pants Back," a show about four attractive post-grads living in Williamsburg, rife with pop-culture references and a hipster soundtrack. As solid members of the target audience (though admittedly more sedentary and maybe less beautiful than the actual characters on the show), RJ and Jon came to "Pants" with morbid curiosity and an open mind, due to their deep love of TV. Also, they’re narcissists. READ MORE
Sneak Peek: NBC's "Smash" Self-Leaks Its First Episode on Airplanes
You know what America is craving right now, post-recession and during a harrowing election? That's right: a very self-important drama about New York City gays, Fosse impersonators and their ladies who all love Broadway musicals and like to be mildly catty! That's why NBC is going big guns on its mid-season spectacular, "Smash," which premieres a week from today. It's supposed to redeem their fall season. Ahem. Not even kidding, about the plot: "Former 'American Idol' contestant Katharine McPhee stars as struggling actress Karen Carpenter, competing for the leading role in a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe." READ MORE
Talking To The Nerdist's Chris Hardwick
Chris Hardwick has made a career out of being a nerd. Well, actually, he has made several careers out of being a nerd, as the host of "Web Soup" a writer for Wired, an author and the host of The Nerdist podcast. Paste Magazine and Rolling Stone both named The Nerdist one of the ten best podcasts of the year, which means that it's now a TV show, with a special airing tomorrow night on BBC America. The podcast has also spawned a community of tech, science and nerd culture enthusiasts on Nerdist.com. READ MORE
"Louie" in Divorceland, Where a Fun Schlub is a Super-Stud
Second in a pair of essays today on Louis C.K. Previously: The Louie Bubble. READ MORE
"State of Play" Returns to TV Tonight
Ooh, "State of Play" is being re-aired on BBC America starting tonight. ("The cast is so loaded that a very young, baby-faced James McAvoy doesn't even get mentioned in the opening credits.") Even some of us who unhappily suffer with no BBC America HD are going to record this.
'Homeland' And 'Enlightened': Women On The Verge Of Nervous Breakthroughs
Mention Lindsay Lohan to me and you’ll be treated to an excoriation of the joy with which this culture greets your average female public breakdown. As such, I've surprised myself this fall with my absorption in the personal and professional unravellings of two female television characters: Carrie Mathison of "Homeland" (Claire Danes) and Amy Jellicoe of "Enlightened" (Laura Dern). If you've also been watching those shows, you might question my yoking them together. Carrie and Amy could not occupy (heh) two more different dramatic universes. “Homeland” is a taut, quickly paced thriller about terrorism whose signature gesture is to end each episode on the edge of a cliff; while “Enlightened” is a more meditative, patient, voiced-over and incredibly intelligent dramatization of a sort of Eat, Pray, Love moment in the life of one not-particularly-remarkable woman in California. READ MORE
What's Wrong with the HBO Movie?
This is totally a thing! Richard Rushfield went to see a forthcoming HBO movie and came away thinking... hey, that is sure an HBO movie! It's "an intriguing concept, great art design, some fine actors that somehow doesn’t come together as anything special or present any compelling reason why it should be up on a big screen." Hey, yeah, that! First, there's a certain kind of sweeping literalism to the high-end TV movie and miniseries: what's Temple Grandin about? Oh, Temple Grandin. What's Too Big to Fail about? What's Hemingway and Gellhorn about? Ohhhh. I think part of this is: HBO straddles the budgetary line between movie-movies and TV. They make the million- or couple-million-dollar, high-end movie. It's a great awards and prestige strategy; they can dominate in the space, but still not spend a lot. And they can take films that otherwise have no distribution future—films that should be seen, for sure!—and mold them to the form. READ MORE
'Saturday Night Live' Is Funny (!!!)
If you don't watch "Saturday Night Live," as I don't, except when something really special happens, such as Anna Faris hosting, you might not know that it's kind of gotten delightfully weird again! That's exciting! This is a premise that could have gone so wrong and totally didn't. (Here's more from Saturday.)
David Lynch's "On the Air," Episode One
God bless Network Awesome for digging up episodes of "On the Air." Picture it! 1992! It was the much-hyped return of David Lynch to television! We marked our paper calendars and came home early, because if you missed a TV show then, you missed a TV show. We were, let's say, floored. Quite soon, it disappeared entirely and we were sad. (via, via)
"The Secret Circle": Can You Circle Up if You're Over 27?
Um, did any of you see that "The Secret Circle" TV show last night on the "CW Network"? It was basically "90210" meets "The Craft." (With a little bit of Mean Girls?) It was also vapid, rushed and definitely not "The Killing." Also kind of amazing! But is it okay to watch if you are like "that's weird, the hot guy from 'Queer as Folk' is playing the dad... and, oh, Jesus, the target audience is half his age, right, HE'S THE OLD MAN SECONDARY CHARACTER"? Probably not. ANYWAY, this is what there is to watch now if you don't like vampires and autopsies on the TV.
