I traditionally write about television, but I recently spent some time watching Steve James’s wonderful documentary, Life Itself, about the life and death of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert. The experience was so powerful, so intense, that I felt compelled to write. If it helps, then I did watch it on AppleTV. That counts, …
Category Archives: Feature
Elaine Stritch: 1925 – 2014
When it got to be time to write about Elaine Stritch, I immediately thought of her stage credits. Being a dramatic child of the musical the-ah-tah myself, Stritch 101 is essential to your education. Even if you didn’t know who she was, you’d soon learn when you turned on the original cast recording of Stephen …
Big Brother: True Confessions of an Almost Houseguest
CBS’s summer trash perennial Big Brother returns tonight after leaving an unforgettably bad taste in the collective mouths of viewers last year. For the uninformed, the competitive reality show houses an assortment of mostly white, mostly young, mostly attractive contestants as they vie for $500,000 by hustling and backstabbing. The unique gimmick here is that …
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Nickelodeon’s “Hey Dude” Reunites 25 Year Later at ATX
Austin, Texas may be known as a live music capital of the United States, but from June 5 to June 8, it was the TV capital. The ATX Festival highlighted current series television (“Justified,” “Orange is the New Black”), upcoming ones (TNT’s “Legends”), and even the recently canceled (RIP Fox’s “Enlisted”). But in its third …
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Dear Emmy – Four Words: Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany
First of all, congratulations to television for offering a larger venue for more amazing female performances than one generally finds in movies, but shame on Emmy for repeatedly failing when it comes to nominations. The fact Tatiana Maslany, the star of BBC America’s Orphan Black was ignored last year despite playing multiple yet subtly distinct roles …
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A Good News/Bad News Situation
Mediate breaks down all the different important stories Al Jazeera America squeezed into the 14 minute space rival network CNN devoted to it’s ongoing obsession with the missing Malaysian airliner yesterday. Check it out and be angry. There was a time when broadcasting news was the responsibility of every network in exchange for their free …
The Death of Net Neutrality, Death of Internet Freedom
While you were all busy thinking about something else the FCC made the tragic (even if inevitable) decision to allow ISP providers, or content providers, who pay more to give speedier access to customers. That is really how they are describing it to people. So you might think, hey great! I can pay for faster …
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The Pointless Outrage at Game of Thrones Rape Scene
I’ve just about had it with the internet. I used to think, wow it’s so great that there are so many young strong voices protesting things that matter. I used to think that the youth’s collective outrage over things like sexual assault and racism was a good thing. But what it has turned into, what …
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Television – the Way of the Future, House of Cards and True Detective Raise the Bar
(continued from main page) It’s the heat of Oscar season and all anyone can talk about is House of Cards and True Detective. When did it become all about TV? It’s hard to say when but television has provided a global community in ways that film can’t quite match. David Fincher’s Netflix series House of …
Whither the Boob Tube?
Speaking before the National Association of Broadcasters in 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minow famously called television a “vast wasteland.” As a commercial medium, television was only in its 20th year at that point and it consisted of three national networks that didn’t even broadcast 24 hours a day. Today of course there are hundreds of …