The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
March 14, 2014
‘Resurrection’: A Show Without a Pulse Helps ABC Rise From the Nielsen Dead
‘Resurrection’ debuted to huge numbers last Sunday night: 13.3 million viewers and a whopping 3.6 rating in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic. ABC isn’t back from the dead, but these are promising signs of life. If only the show itself had a pulse.
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Video on Demand Report: Invite ‘Llewyn Davis’ and ‘Veronica Mars’ Into Your Home
The Coen brothers’ ’60s folk fest ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ and the Kickstarter-funded ‘Veronica Mars’ movie make their VOD debuts.
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The Right Reasons Podcast: ‘The Bachelor’ Finale and ‘Real World’
Juliet and Jacoby close the book on Juan Pablo and celebrate Brian.
Read moreWatch Billy Joel Totally Eff Up, and Then Hate On, ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
You know who really hates “We Didn’t Start the Fire”? Billy Joel, that’s who.
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‘Parenthood’ Cry of the Week: Fight for Your Marriage, Damn It!
Is there any movie or television show in the history of moving images that does not benefit from a momentous dinner scene that forces the characters to confront their lingering issues? There’s a reason the dinner trope is so prevalent. It always works, and this week’s ‘Parenthood’ is no exception.
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Grantland Reality TV Fantasy League: A ‘Challenge’-Shaped Life Raft in a Sea of Juan Pablocalypses
This week brought three hours of ‘The Bachelor,’ an hour and a half of ‘Real World,’ an hour of ‘Survivor,’ and even an hour of some show called ‘Online Dating Rituals of the American Male’ — and none of it mattered once we got one minute of ‘The Challenge.’
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Pilot Wars: Lee Daniels’s ‘Empire’ vs. Martin Scorsese’s Untitled Rock Project
Two new TV projects want to do for other genres what ‘Nashville’ has done for, well, Nashville.
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Matthew Perry’s ‘Odd Couple’ Reboot Will Costar Thomas Lennon
No, Perry’s latest stab at TV re-stardom hasn’t come and gone as quick as ‘Mr. Sunshine,’ ‘Studio 60,’ and ‘Go On.’ It still hasn’t even happened yet! And now ‘Reno 911!’ and ‘The State’ actor and writer Thomas Lennon is set to play Felix to Perry’s Oscar.
Read moreMarch 13, 2014
Seth Rogen Has Never Smoked Weed With James Franco Because James Franco Doesn’t DO That, Man
Also in the Afternoon Links: Black Simon & Garfunkel take on Lorde, CBS renews basically everything it’s got, and a glorious supercut of 1,001 must-see films emerges.
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From Jay and Ye to the Mohawk: When SXSW’s Fantasy Turned Tragic
Austin’s South By Southwest Festival, more than any other, is all about hedging your bets. Having time conflicts that seem important in the moment, and then deciding which option will bring you the most fulfillment. More often than not, the winner is the rarer occasion of the two. It’s why so many of us are here, after all. To try and string together the best series of days possible, before going back to the real world. You’re here for the spectacle, because you live for those moments.
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Overplayed Song of the Week: Katy Perry ft. Juicy J, ‘Dark Horse’
Katy’s always leaned toward songs built off similes and metaphors, but here they’re mixed up so willy-nilly that the song loses all lyrical coherence.
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Girls in Hoodies Podcast: The ‘True Detective’ Finale, ‘Cosmos,’ and ‘Survivor’
Emily, Tess, and Molly discuss the finale of True Detective, the new Cosmos reboot on Fox, and The Bachelor and Survivor. Listen to the podcast here. Subscribe to the Grantland Network on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.
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Down Goes Chu! Arthur Chu, the ‘Jeopardy!’ Champion Crafty Enough to Be Reviled, Has Finally Lost
The 30-year-old Ohio native, whose nontraditional category-hopping, Daily Double–hunting strategy prompted viewers to skewer him as a game-show Antichrist, left just shy of $300,000. His 11-game winning streak was the longest since Ken Jennings’s in 2004.
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R.I.P., Hal Douglas, the Michael Jordan of Trailer Voice-over Guys
One of the best to ever do it.
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Ke$ha, Kesha, and the End of a Pop Era
It’s time to pour one out in memory of the old Ke$ha (especially that dollar sign) — her era is ending, and it was one of the most underrated and best things to happen to pop in a long time.
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Escape From Pop Purgatory: 311 Has Not Changed Since You Were in Middle School
If you liked 311 two decades ago, then lost interest, and for whatever reason feel compelled to check out what the band is doing now, ‘Stereolithic’ will make it seem as if no time has passed.
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Attention, Delayed ‘Flight of the Navigator’ Remake: ‘Explorers’ 2.0 Is Coming for You
Two ‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’ producers are putting together a remake of the ’80s kids cult movie.
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Do You Like Prince Movies? Podcast: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ and ‘True Detective’
Wesley calls from a mall in Buenos Aires to talk about Wes Anderson’s problematic ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ and the problem-tastic season finale of HBO’s ‘True Detective.’
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Lindsay Lohan’s Has-Done List … and Other Career Highlights From This Week’s Tabloids
Did Lindsay Lohan leak her list of conquests to stir up interest so she can get a big payday to write a memoir?
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Who’s Going to Lead ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’? Probably Jesse Plemons or Someone You Don’t Know
Disney’s seriously considering five candidates, including ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ actor Jesse Plemons and Ed Speleers of ‘Downton Abbey.’ “Sources also indicate the reason for the delay has to do whether execs and creatives want someone of a different ethnicity from the previous Caucasian leads,” ‘Variety’ reports.
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