The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
December 31, 2013
Hyden Defends the ’90s: The Black Crowes
Steven Hyden has been known to stick up for underrated, overlooked, or plain old maligned institutions of ’90s pop culture. Because we know he can’t help himself sometimes, we decided to give him a space to get it out of his system. The Black Crowes performed 121 shows in 2013. They haven’t put out a […]
Read moreHollywood Prospectus Podcast: The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, and Her
Let’s all go to the movies and watch people come apart at the seams. For the final HP episode of the year, Andy and I looked to the big screen to talk about three of the most critically acclaimed films of 2013: The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, and Her. Some handy supplemental reading […]
Read moreThe Price Is Right Gives Away Its Biggest Prize, Contestant Has Exact Right Reaction
Sheree. Was there ever as Price as Right–ish a name as Sheree? Sheree L. Heil, from Tacoma, Washington? There never was, which goes a long way toward explaining how Sheree took home the show’s priciest prize of all time Monday with an Audi R8 V8 Spyder Quattro S Tronic valued at $157,300, or $22,471.43 for […]
Read moreDecember 30, 2013
We Went There: A Nearly Empty Sunday-Night Showing of Justin Bieber’s Believe
Tears, teens, and thigh tats.
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My End of Villainy: Sharlto Copley in Oldboy and Elysium
Now more than ever, pop culture is about the small stuff — an obscure TV show, a few notes in a pop song, a tweet. To celebrate a year of micro moments, every day a new Grantland writer will highlight one specific thing — a Big Little Thing — that we won’t soon forget. I […]
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Duck Dynasty Disaster Dissipates As A&E Welcomes Phil Robertson Back
The “indefinite” part of “indefinite suspension” isn’t always a bad thing, Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson just learned. Less than two weeks after the publication of a GQ profile laden with homophobic remarks alongside racially reprehensible comments stacked atop more homophobia, Robertson has been reinstated by A&E’s marquee program. “We at A&E Networks expressed our disappointment with […]
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The 10 Most Underappreciated TV Performances of 2013
The holiday lights are off, but the ball has yet to drop. It’s the perfect time to use 2013’s remaining shine on some of its least-heralded performers. What follows isn’t a list of the year’s best TV shows (already done!) or the best actors on those shows. These are simply 10 of the performances that […]
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Now That Treme’s Over, It’s Time to Give It Another Chance
It’s OK to come late to Treme — most of the show’s characters don’t consider punctuality much of a virtue, anyway. You can roll up whenever you like. Just bring an open mind, especially if you’re someone who dismissed it after watching a few episodes of the first season. Now that the show’s 36-episode run has […]
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A Spoonful of Cyanide: The Chilly, Borderline Nastiness of Saving Mr. Banks
In Saving Mr. Banks, Emma Thompson plays Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers. It’s the early 1960s, and Travers keeps her hair in a short, close perm. She wears body-hugging tweed suits and her face is frozen in a clench of exasperation. Everything about her is tight, which is meant to make her eventual emotional undoing […]
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Box Office Top Five: The Hobbit and Frozen Keep Slaying, Hustle Beats Wolf
1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, $29.85 million weekend, $49.3 million five-day weekend (last week: no. 1; $190.3 million cumulative) Five new movies opened last Wednesday, on a holiday called Christmas, and the four most-watched remained identical to last week’s top four, save for one place-swap in the middle. This means The Desolation of […]
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