The State of Scary TV

‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.

October 25, 2011

Grading This Week’s Top Christian Songs

Times are tough and rock is hard. Below, just as we have the rock and latin-pop charts, this week we grade the top ten songs on Billboard’s Christian chart. 1. MercyMe, “Move” This just sounds like Maroon 5. That is all. Grade: D 2. Casting Crowns, “Courageous” Okay, this is more like it. This is […]

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October 24, 2011

Oscarmetrics: What Will the Academy’s Ever-Tasteful Screenwriting Branch Vote for This Year?

There may be no Oscar category more maddening to try to handicap than writing. When it comes to editing or sound, at least we all know that we’re clueless — film editing, after all, is called “the invisible art” by the very people who do it, and if you’re aurally sophisticated enough to judge the […]

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Homeland

Homeland Recap: Buck Hunter

Everyone’s a spy in the paranoid universe of Homeland. Carrie is a professional spook, of course, gaining kudos and crushes from other operatives thanks to her cracking of the Abu Nazir money transfer. Yet she’s also continuing her semi-legal surveillance of the Brody household which has yet to reveal anything other than her own increasing […]

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Boardwalk Empire Recap: Tree Rats

Steve Buscemi always sounds great as a tremendous phony. He knows how to press the oil out of each line without overdoing it. Shooter McGavin tips his hat. Nucky calls Jimmy (“James”) Darmody up to the podium to speak about military service. Jimmy, his hand shaking and upper lip jutting out as poutily as ever, […]

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Did Zooey Deschanel Sing the Least Inspired National Anthem Ever?

Jay Caspian Kang: Can we collectively agree to never, ever, ever desecrate the national anthem in the name of promoting bad television? I understand that Zooey Deschanel is currently starring in a show on Fox and that Fox is carrying the World Series and that at some point in her career of having bangs, smiling […]

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The Walking Dead Recap: Lost Highway

Some might argue that the great gift cable television has given storytellers is the lack of limits: Freed from network standards and practices, showrunners are free to lard their adult-themed hours with rivers of blood, rails of crystal meth, and, when all else fails, some totally non-gratuitous sexposition. I would argue the reverse to be […]

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