The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
November 19, 2013
The Google Syndrome: 15 Years Later, What Exactly Is the Company Doing?
One of the most misleading parts of our existence is the commonly accepted idea that we live in the Information Age. We allegedly have information that we can trust at our fingertips, powered by the world’s most used and usable search engine, Google. No longer do we have to “waste time” traveling to public libraries, […]
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Sesame Street Sneaks Pop Culture Past the Baby Gate of Parenthood
Every morning for the past three months I have watched The Best of Elmo. It’s only 30 minutes long, so I usually watch it two or three times in a row. I watch it again after dinner. After 300 viewings, I now can’t hear a tapping sound without humming “Happy Tapping With Elmo,” and whenever […]
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Freak Show & Tell: Attention, Criminals! Maybe You Should Start Watching Doomsday Preppers!
Every week, television documentaries present us with so many unusual people, so many strange and/or disturbing problems, you might find it hard to keep up with all of them. That’s where I come in! Here’s an unflinching look back at TV’s Week in Freak Shows. Doomsday Preppers (Nat Geo) Who Is This Now? Tyler. Why […]
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Charlie Countryman Trips and Falls
Before checking out Fredrik Bond’s Charlie Countryman, I only knew that it was the movie for which Shia LaBeouf Method-ate a bunch of acid. I was under the false impression that it was a Western, because of the title (country, man!) and because I was confusing it with 2012’s Lawless, a violent Western written by Nick Cave that Shia […]
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Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Flees New York for the Desert
Superheroes rule everything, right? The box office, Netflix’s original programming department, prime time on ABC, the children’s fantasy market. Not Broadway, though, buddy. Nope. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is ending its New York run in early January, less than three years after opening, the Wall Street Journal reports. At $75 million, it was history’s priciest […]
Read moreNovember 18, 2013
Afternoon Links: There’s Always More Breaking Bad
Thank goodness someone was thoughtful enough to film Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul reading the final pages of the Breaking Bad finale’s script. Paul is so good at tearing up that he even gets a little misty listening to Cranston read Jesse’s fate. Apparently the clip is part of a two-hour documentary about the making […]
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If Nothing Else, This Insane Reddit Groupie Thread Is a Great Source of Fan Fiction
Every once in a while, a Reddit thread comes along that not only has wide enough appeal to get play in Twitterland and Facebookville, but is able to take on a life of its own, a wriggling amoeba that divides and grows ad infinitum into a beautiful sea beast. Yesterday, Redditor Bhighkin posted a not-so-innocent […]
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Angelina Jolie, Steve Martin, and How the Academy Shot Itself in the Foot (Again)
On Saturday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its fifth-annual Governors Awards, a showcase for the special Oscars — the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and some general lifetime-achievement prizes given to industry veterans for particular merit — that were routinely a part of the actual […]
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Preacher Might Finally Get Adapted, With Help From Seth Rogen and AMC
Two things happened over the weekend: Badass Digest posted an unverified report about Preacher — Garth Ennis’s graphic novel that has nothing to do with a Paul Bettany movie nor a Gerard Butler joint — receiving a pilot order at AMC. Then Seth Rogen tweeted, “Looks like about seven of years of hard work are about […]
Read moreKenny Powers Hall of Fame: Our Most Special Eastbound & Down Memories
Kenny Freestyles Molly Lambert: I am so sad about Eastbound & Down ending that in true Kenny Powers fashion, I am angry. Why must you go, Kenny? What is the world worth without you in it? I know Danny McBride will keep making movies, but what if we all go Misery on him and just […]
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Rick’s Three Questions: The Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 6 — ‘Live Bait’
“Behold! The day is come, foretold by the IMDb, when he of the One Eye shall rise again and walk through the cul-de-sacs of the dead, fearing no bites. He shall save us from pestilence, and the boredom of watching it get cured. He shall wield a bone like a can opener, and there will […]
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The World’s Leading JCVD Splitsologist Weighs In On the New Jean-Claude Van Damme Viral Sensation
There have only ever been two cool things that Volvo has been involved with: 1. In 1997, a Volvo was sold to Rita Somethingorother, a girl with whom I worked at Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza for two months. Rita was dope, which is just a different way of saying that she didn’t have a problem […]
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SNL: Lady Gaga Works Hard for the Applause
This weekend, Lady Gaga hosted SNL for the first time. She had appeared as a musical guest twice, once with Ryan Reynolds and once with Justin Timberlake, and popped up in couple of digital shorts (“3-Way (The Golden Rule)” always deserves a link), but it’s kind of surprising she hadn’t been a host before, especially […]
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He’s Effing Out: The Excellent Eastbound & Down Series Finale
When we first met Kenny Powers, four years and 28 chapters ago, he appeared more caricature than character: a couple catchphrases, a mullet, and two proudly erect middle fingers. As with many of the projects to vaporize out of the heads of Danny McBride and his frequent collaborators, there was a distinct eau de dorm […]
Read moreIt’s the Breaking Bad/Malcolm in the Middle Crossover Ending You Hoped Was Coming Eventually
Oh, and they threw in the “It was all just a dream” Newhart finale business for good measure, but if you’re old enough to remember that, you’re probably reading this from the TVLand in the sky. [Editor’s note: It’s pretty nice up here. Mostly we watch Cheers reruns and debate Woody vs. Coach.] If we […]
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Gisele Bundchen’s Trigger-Happy Bodyguards Get Convicted of Attempted Murder
Hey, you know how paparazzi photographers are so invasive that stars sometimes punch them in the face, call them epithets, or attack their cars with green umbrellas? Well, photographers aspiring to sell their lead to TMZ might choose to think twice after the revelation that two of Gisele Bundchen’s bodyguards have been convicted of attempted murder for […]
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Box Office Top Five: The Best Man Holiday Can’t Stop Thor
1. Thor: The Dark World, $38.45 million (last week: no. 1; $147 million cumulative) Thor & Loki’s Excellent Adventure fell 55 percent from its opening weekend, but that’s not too shabby, considering The Avengers fell 50 percent in the same time frame, and Iron Man 2 and 3 both dipped closer to 60 percent between […]
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