“The ’90s was the decade…in which conspiracism…became a form of kitschy entertainment”
The ’90s was the decade of Oliver Stone’s “J.F.K.,” “The X-Files” and late-night Roswell...
Category Archives: Television
“The tone-setting awkward sex scene has become a staple of the modern television series opener”
Perhaps you’ve seen the new TV series whose pilot episode begins this way: A...
“Superhero team-building is a venerable comic-book practice, one that flourished in the ’60s and ’70s…more or less contemporaneously with the first voyages of the Starship Enterprise”
Nothing in popular culture, or in consumer capitalism, is ever really new. Superhero team-building...
“There’s room for both kinds of shows, but as ‘Cosby’ recedes from reruns, ‘Roc’ seems especially worthy of reconsideration”
…looking back at “Roc,” I find it interesting to consider that before his acting...
“As a reality TV professional, I would be lucky to strike gold like Donald Trump once or twice in a career”
I’ve been working in reality television for 10 years, and I can tell you...
“Donald Trump is the presidential candidate that reality TV made”
Donald Trump is the presidential candidate that reality TV made. An electorate trained in...
“The humor and pathos of “Louie” come not only from the occasional funny feelings that he has about his privileges…but also, more profoundly, from his knowledge that the conceptual and imaginative foundations of those privileges have crumbled beneath him”
The humor and pathos of “Louie” come not only from the occasional funny feelings...
“The catalyst for pro football’s breakthrough in the latter half of the 1950s and 1960s was the new medium of television”
The catalyst for pro football’s breakthrough in the latter half of the 1950s and...
“…’The Sopranos’ and ‘Mad Men’ heralded the end of male authority; we’ve also witnessed the erosion of traditional adulthood in any form…”
Not only have shows like “The Sopranos” and “Mad Men” heralded the end of...
“TV characters are among the allegorical figures of our age, giving individual human shape to our collective anxieties and aspirations…”
TV characters are among the allegorical figures of our age, giving individual human shape...