Hail, Caesar! lets its stars have a blast, making fun of 1950s Hollywood

Following the mid-to-late January movie wasteland when Academy Awards contenders have made their theatrical runs and studios generally dump projects meant to be ignored or forgotten, Hail, Caesar! arrives to provide some quality and fun. Judging from the trailers, the Coen brothers’ 17th film was also going to be a lighter effort, a wacky palate […]

SNL Recap: Larry David Was Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good

Long-time fans of Saturday Night Live know the history between the show and Larry David. Hired as a writer for the final season of Dick Ebersol’s disastrous tenure from 1981 to 1985, David famously only ever had one sketch, “The Great Elevator Stool Debate,” make it to air during his lone season at SNL before Lorne Michaels returned […]

From Wardrobe Malfunctions to Left Shark: Super Bowl halftime shows, ranked

In January 1993, Michael Jackson popped out from a stage at midfield of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. and changed the Super Bowl halftime show forever. The previous 26 Super Bowl halftime shows were a mixture of university marching bands, the cultish Up With People, and appearances from aging movie stars like Carol Channing, Mickey Rooney, […]

Serial recap: What, you guys couldn’t shave?

Why did Bowe Bergdahl do it? Why did the Army sergeant abandon his post in Afghanistan, leading to his capture and five-year imprisonment by the Taliban? That might not be the only question that Serial seeks to answer in its second season, but it’s at least among the top two that need to be addressed. In […]

Comedians in Cars recap: Jerry Seinfeld visits Will Ferrell’s world

If there was ever a next generation version of Seinfeld, it would have to star Will Ferrell as George Costanza. When he chatted with Jerry on this week’s episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the conversation felt like a callback to some famous moments at Monk’s. If only there had been more about Ferrell […]

Recap: Nodding to the past and the comical, The X-Files delivers again

Well, last week, the “X-Files is BACK!” piece was written with glee. This week was like a blind date set up by a friend, and she turns out to be a size zero in a denim skirt who drinks beer and screams at the football game on TV. She exceeds all expectations. “Mulder and Scully Meet […]

Louis C.K.’s Horace and Pete shows ambition, but tests fan loyalty

If you subscribe to Louis C.K.’s mailing list, you received this surprise message on Saturday morning: Hi there.   Horace and Pete episode one is available for download.  $5.   Go here to watch it. We hope you like it.   Regards,  Louis There was no advance notice, nor any sort of publicity that C.K. was […]

24 hours after looking dead, The X-Files is finally back

Well, we got our old X-Files back. Following a debut Sunday night that felt like a bad first date with an ex-girlfriend from 20 years ago, it would have been understandable to newbies if they “lost” the X-Files’ cell phone number and moved on. Clearly, that would have been a mistake, as “Founder’s Mutation” felt like the […]

The X-Files revives, but alienates and confuses in many ways

We see it happen in music all the time. The band breaks up after a series of great albums because members need to sow their own oats with side projects, realizes after some period of time that they miss what they used to have in terms of notoriety, and gets back together for an album […]

SNL recap: Live television knocks out Ronda Rousey

The athlete host has a long history at Saturday Night Live, starting with Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton all the way back in the second season (Jan. 29,1977). Sometimes, this experiment works really well (Charles Barkley, Peyton Manning), while other times, it is an utter disaster (Nancy Kerrigan, Michael Phelps). Ronda Rousey’s first time hosting, […]

With The Shannara Chronicles, MTV shows it can take fantasy seriously

“There’s a Shannara TV series coming!” “That’s good!” “It’s on MTV.” “That’s bad.” Those thoughts initially went through the heads of some of us who enjoy the fantasy series Terry Brooks started with 1977’s The Sword of Shannara, which has grown to 27 books so far. However, in this case, we were wrong. Through four […]

Serial recap: Trying to find Bowe Bergdahl from the United States

After a two-week break — “one story told week by week, sort of,” as the new intro says, referring to the show’s new biweekly schedule — Serial is back with its latest episode. This time, rather than hearing about Bowe Bergdahl’s captivity first-hand, Sarah Koenig and her staff zoom out on the story. Or maybe […]

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