The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
April 26, 2013
Songs of the Week: Surfer Blood Goes Extra-Alt, MGMT Goes Extra-Weird
MGMT, “Alien Days” I’m disinclined to declare the next MGMT record a make-or-break moment for these erstwhile synth-poppers-cum-weirdo psych-rock doodlers. As a defender of 2010’s little loved Congratulations — “Flash Delirium” is a lost jam! — I think MGMT’s not wholly successful attempt to subvert the immediacy of early singles like “Kids” and “Electric Feel” […]
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R.I.P., George Jones: Hard-Living, Hard-Drinking Country Music Legend
George Jones died today inside a hospital in Nashville. His exit from the world was not uncommon for an 81-year-old man: He was sick — with a fever and irregular blood pressure, reports the New York Times — he got himself checked out, he spent eight days in a reclining bed, and then he was […]
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FX Signs Up House of Cards’s Corey Stoll to Fight Vampires With Guillermo del Toro, Continues to Make Smart Moves
Plenty of people like to say “TV is the new movies.” It’s meant as a compliment: Look at all this great writing and non planet-exploding storytelling! But more and more it’s starting to appear accurate in a less positive light. Though plenty of excellent, intricate character-based dramas remain, increasingly it seems that The Shield creator […]
Read moreVideo on Demand Report: It’s Dumpuary All Over Again With the VOD Premiere of Gangster Squad
The Headliner Gangster Squad Gangster Squad was originally supposed to hit theaters last summer, but after the shooting at a Colorado screening of The Dark Knight Rises, Squad was quickly yanked so that it could be edited: Originally, it also featured a shootout in a movie theater. The scene excised, it was rescheduled for January, […]
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Apocalypse Fever, Sausage Fests, and the White House Under Siege: Thoughts on the Summer Movie Season
Summer is always an endurance contest: week after week of Movies You Have to See. Once upon a time the season was four months, like actual summer. But climate change has managed to monkey with the Hollywood release schedule. Now summer starts whenever a studio says it does; last week Universal called summer first. So […]
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Grantland Reality Fantasy League: The Real World Masshole Power Rankings
Managing expectations is the key to success. When you draw a money hand, you should slow-play it — all the better to draw the suckers in. You keep the element of surprise in your corner. This week in reality television, Real World and Survivor overplayed their hands; they raised big with story lines that didn’t […]
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Luc Besson Gets Scarlett Johansson to Be His Druggy Liam Neeson
“But the drug instead goes into her system, transforming her into an ass-kicking machine …”
Read moreApril 25, 2013
Afternoon Links: The Amazing Arrested Development Sneak Peek Is Finally on the Internet
The 15 new episodes of Arrested Development drop on May 26, but here’s a new two-minute clip to tide you over. It’s good to see that Lucille is as nurturing as ever, lovingly feeding Buster her secondhand smoke so he can carry it over to the window and set it free. Operation Hot Mother, commence.
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Rembert Explains the ’90s: Limp Bizkit, ‘Faith’
Welcome to our new series, Rembert Explains the ’90s. Unlike the source material for our previous, ’80s-themed series, these videos have been seen countless times, with the result being an unparalleled, almost embarrassing level of expertise. Rembert will write down his thoughts as he’s watching the video, then we’ll post those thoughts here. This week’s […]
Read moreGirls in Hoodies Podcast: Hemlock Grove, Otherkin, and 50 Shades of Development Hell
You’ll have to bear with us a little this week; mere hours before we were set to talk about Reese Witherspoon’s legal troubles for at least twice as long as our Hollywood Prospectus podcast buddies (rivals? RIVALS) did earlier this week, we were informed by Grantland writer and obscure reality specialist Tara Ariano that the […]
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Parenthood Pickup Watch: Sarah’s Second Career, and New Braverman Ventures
Dear Mr. Greenblatt, This week we’re trying to see the bigger picture for you. If you renew Parenthood (and you will, right?), you should probably go all in with it. Spend more money and optimize it to cross-promote your other successful franchises. And maybe you can even get Ellen DeGeneres onboard! Thank us later. Forever […]
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Five Questions on American Idol: The Fellowship Is Breaking
Whatever doesn’t deafen you makes you stronger: Grantland’s Jay Caspian Kang, Mark Lisanti, and Emily Yoshida have returned, bowed but not broken, to tackle another season of American Idol. They don’t think they can make it, and with the judging panel in crisis, they may never have that recipe again. One Is there any way […]
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The Americans Season 1, Episode 12: Feelings Come and Go, But ‘The Oath’ Is Forever
One of the many subtle arguments The Americans has advanced during this remarkable debut season is the notion anyone is capable of doing just about anything. Maybe we can’t all get an armed FBI agent to stab himself in the gut, like Philip, or spice up foreplay with a metal towel rack to the head, […]
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Started From the Bottom, Now He’s the Rock … and Other Inspirational Tales From This Week’s Tabloids
Star The Rock Had a Tough Childhood: “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has a reputation for being the ultimate showman, playing badass tough guys in movies like G.I. Joe Retaliation and The Scorpion King, and winning over WWE wrestling fans with his charisma, sarcasm and million-dollar smile. But behind his confident facade, it turns out the 41-year-old actor has been […]
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Survivor: Caramoan, Episode 11: Bow Down Before Lord Cochran!
After last week’s crazy tribal council, there was a Grantland e-mail chain during which all of the office Survivor fans discussed Malcolm’s strategy of letting Stealth know that the Three Amigos (if I’m embarrassed to type that, why are they not embarrassed to refer to themselves as that?) were voting for Phillip. A good question […]
Read moreThanks to Kickstarter, Zach Braff Finally Has Millions of Dollars
Uh oh, people are mad at Zach Braff.
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