Special guest stars, as I may have told you in the past, pose a problem for television shows, particularly whodunits. If you recognize the actor or actress's face when the police are questioning an individual, you know that the police… Read More ›
Month: January 2009
Scrubs Hacks Into My E-mail
I would like to, if I may, tell you a brief, and, if I'm honest, slightly disgusting story (but, that's my prerogative, this is after all my column). About 10 months ago (give or take), my daughter issued a bowel… Read More ›
Anyone got the Rent?
Going to a show on Broadway — not just to a Broadway show — is something special. Being around Times Square, the hustle and bustle, never knowing whether you're going to see the next huge star, and sitting in an… Read More ›
13 Going on 30 – Like Big, but Still Enjoyable
Though it may be a little clichéd, sometimes sitting down to watch a movie is just a “feel-good” experience. The movie may offer little that is new – in fact it could simply be a very slight reworking of an… Read More ›
Lost Came Back… You Didn’t Follow
So, Lost returned last night. Now, if the ratings are anything to go by, you weren't that interested. Yes, some of you watched, but far fewer than watched last year. I'm not quite sure how that could be though. How… Read More ›
It’s Groundhog Day… Again
It's always nice when one can revisit a film 15 years after its initial release and see that the piece is just as good — if not better — than it was originally. Such is the case with the upcoming… Read More ›
HIMYM Goes a Long Way for a Joke
Last night marked the first night of FOX's latest (greatest?) Monday night lineup. It's actually a really solid couple of shows – 24 and House. At least on the first night of the new lineup, FOX was able to come… Read More ›
To Hit 100, Desperate Housewives Goes in Reverse
I was struck by two very different thoughts while watching TV last night. The first is that it's awfully hard for a show to do the kind of episode Desperate Housewives did this week. I think that they did it… Read More ›
Thursday Night Television – Fun, but Factually Incorrect
Last night, after our Commander-in-Chief spoke I had the good fortune to do something fun. I watched TV. First up, Kitchen Nightmares. For the uninitiated, that's the show where Gordon Ramsay goes to bad restaurants, yells at everyone, and magically… Read More ›
Lakeview Terrace Not Among My Favorite Neighborhoods
All too often watching a movie one gets the sense that the movie went into production before anyone actually knew the plot, that the film was made based on a one-paragraph synopsis and signed contracts with a few actors. Then,… Read More ›
No Idol, But Not Idle
Let's see, what happened in the world of television last night? Was there anything possibly new, different, and/or interesting on the TV? Hmmm… Well, I know that I'd love to talk about Top Gear, I watched an episode last night,… Read More ›
Swing Vote Puts the Pendulum Into "Distinctly Unfunny"
There is a contingent of the world's population (perhaps a large contingent) that thinks the average American voter is less than intelligent. There is another contingent of the world's population that thinks the average American politician is less than intelligent… Read More ›
24 Goes All John McClane-y
I love the notion of terrorists taking control of our air traffic control systems, well, I love the idea in film and television anyway. 24, of course, did it last night. Terribly fun to watch, it was almost as fun… Read More ›
How Did Salma Hayek Manage to Sneak Her Way Onto My TV?
Regular readers will know that I truly enjoying watching Salma Hayek on screen. Some would call it a fascination, some would call it an obsession, a judge might order me to stay back 100 yards. Whatever the case, I tend… Read More ›
Former Teen Idols Waste My Evening
At the behest of Erin Medley, who recommended on our radio show this past week that I watch Confessions of a Teen Idol, I set my TiVo up to air one of VH1's umpteen repeats of the premiere. Last night,… Read More ›
Scrub-bing in for One More Season
Boy, was last night a fun night of television. First up was Leverage, which really seems to have hit its stride. I was, as you may recall, initially concerned over the fact that the show's twists weren't very twisty. Happily,… Read More ›
A Night of Top Gear and Secret Life
In describing how flat, non-stylized, utilitarian things can still be beautiful and function perfectly, a wise man said last night, “Look at Keira Knightley, she's just an ironing board with a face, and she works.” I'll give you three guesses… Read More ›
Legendary This Game is Not
It seems as though all too often a great idea for a video game becomes a less than amusing game. Ideas are, sadly, sometimes hard to translate from paper to bits and bytes. As a case in point, take the… Read More ›
Assessing the Damages
Well, it took long enough getting here, but the New Year has finally arrived, and that seems to mean, for both the broadcast networks and cable that it's time to roll out a bunch of new shows. Or, at the… Read More ›
The TV and Film Guy's Reviews 