The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
October 31, 2013
Afternoon Links: NBC Bought a Tina Fey Show Starring Ellie Kemper
Since not even NBC is crazy enough to stay out of the Tina Fey business for too long, the Peacock has ordered 13 episodes of a sitcom that Fey and her 30 Rock co-executive producer Robert Carlock will write and produce together. Ellie Kemper will star as a woman who “escapes from a doomsday cult […]
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Let’s Try Not to Panic About Totally Biased’s Tiny Ratings on FXX
This fall, comedian W. Kamau Bell more or less found himself the de facto face of FX’s comedy-leaning offshoot, FXX. Bell’s Totally Biased — a bright spot of diversity and progressive real talk in the late-night arena, executive produced and co-created by Chris Rock — was upgraded from one episode per week to five. (The […]
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The CW Is Making a TV Show Based on Fred Durst’s Life? Great!
I’ve written before, at length, of my sober admiration for the survival instincts of Fred Durst, so I won’t make too big a deal of this. But let’s be real: That the CW, a real-enough network, wants in on the Bizkit business 16 years after he warbled George Michael is another notch in Durst’s bedpost. […]
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Your Last-Minute Pop Culture Halloween Costume Guide
Uh-oh, weirdos! It’s Halloween! Does this news take you by surprise? Double uh-oh! I take it, then, that you haven’t spent the last two weeks driving to every last secondhand store in your town, zombie dead-eyed, searching for that one elusive lapel-less pewter grey jacket that will really bring your Sloan Sabbith getup together, waiting […]
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Lessons Learned From a Day As a Hollywood Walk of Fame Celebrity Impersonator
The intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Los Angeles is basically the West Coast version of Times Square. It’s a tourist trap featuring “museums” like Madame Tussauds and Ripley’s Believe It or Not, overpriced chain restaurants, and vendors peddling tchotchkes including plastic Oscars that read “Best Mom.” Throngs of travelers descend on this […]
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The Walking No-Longer-Dead: The Sundance Channel’s The Returned Goes for Smart Horror
“The highbrow AMC” may seem like a strange identity for a cable network looking to make a splash. But for Sundance Channel it makes sense. The unprecedented ratings success of The Walking Dead has gobbled up everything in its wake, leaving little room for the sort of idiosyncratic, brainy (as opposed to brain-devouring) fare that […]
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Ghouls in BOO-dies Podcast: Halloween Movies, American Horror Story, and Kanye West
On this week’s podghast, we start off getting into the Halloween spirit by discussing our Halloween costume hopes and fears. At what age is it appropriate to ask your parents to play the Castevets in a Rosemary’s Baby group costume? Then it’s time to recap our weeks in live music — Molly and Tess’s evening […]
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The Best Horror Movie of the Year Is an Insane, Micro-Budgeted 29-Minute Story About an Indonesian Cult
These are boom times for horror. An unquestioned cavalcade of money and interest and exaltation (and screaming) are in play. In the history of the genre, which spans as far back as a 1910 adaptation of Frankenstein, eight of the 35 highest-grossing horror movies have been released in the last 24 months. These movies include […]
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Duck, Duck, Sparrow: The Evolution of the Selfie
Yesterday was the Internet’s 44th birthday. Here’s lookin’ at you, Internet, which also entails lookin’ at ourselves. In the past two weeks, we’ve considered the selfie from various flattering, filtered angles: the Tumblr “Selfies at Funerals” was born; duck face was dethroned by “sparrow face”; a performance artist streaked across Lyon posting disembodied selfies, and […]
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Kerry Washington’s Pregnancy, Lindsay Lohan’s Drinking … and Other Major Milestones From This Week’s Tabloids
Us Weekly Kerry Washington Is Pregnant: “For the past several months, the Scandal It girl, 36, has been relying on a seamstress to help her conceal a huge secret: Multiple sources tell Us she and NFL Pro husband Nnamdi Asomugha are expecting!” A friend says Kerry is “about four months along,” and just like her secret engagement and wedding, […]
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How I Met Your Father Might Happen Next
How I Met Your Mother has managed to turn what could have been a quick after-dinner story explaining its titular subject into a sitcom of Friends-ian proportions, spinning out into nine seasons and as many Emmys. Now Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the show’s co-creators and executive producers, have found their next big move: doing […]
Read moreOctober 30, 2013
Afternoon Links: Guy Fieri Kicked a Crying, Swearing Hairdresser Out of His SUV
Here’s one of those situations where you definitely want to know it happened, but you don’t want any more than the bare minimum of information. Someone, a hairdresser called Ariel Ramirez, is deploying a furious melange of curses at someone else who has booted him from an SUV. The someone else is Guy Fieri, a […]
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We Went There: A Night Among the Arcade Fire Reflektors at Capitol Records in Hollywood
It’s been six days since Reflektor, Arcade Fire’s fourth LP, leaked, and I truly believe that most people spent the first three trying to sort out whether it’s better than The Suburbs, or even Funeral if they were feeling frisky. Maybe people are still grappling with that question, but as the workweek commenced, it feels […]
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Michelle Obama Responds to Kanye West’s Recent Comments
Kanye West recently spoke to Ryan Seacrest about a number of things. Here’s one of the things he said. There’s no way Kim Kardashian shouldn’t be on the cover of Vogue. She’s like the most intriguing woman right now. She’s got Barbara Walters calling her like everyday … and collectively we’re the most influential with […]
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Escape From Pop Purgatory: Ed Kowalczyk’s The Flood and the Mercy
Welcome to Escape From Pop Purgatory, where we check out new music made by people who are more well-known than 98 percent of the oppressively “cool” artists over whom the media obsesses, and yet are commonly perceived to be years past the point of their cultural relevance. (Pop Purgatory is fame plus time.) Because we’re […]
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Prism Is Katy Perry’s Second No. 1 Album
When you deploy a shimmering golden 18-wheeler to announce your new record, you’re gonna debut at no. 1. There is no other way. And so it was that Katy Perry sold 286,000 copies of Prism to claim the top spot on the Billboard 200 this week, also securing bragging rights for 2013’s best debut week […]
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YouTube Hall of Fame: Very Special Halloween Episodes
Halloween episodes are an underappreciated art and, when done well, they’re uniquely satisfying. You get to see all your favorite TV buddies in delightfully character-appropriate costumes, and inevitably something weird or scary that would not happen any other week goes down. Here are our favorite spooktacular moments from the small screen — happy early Halloween!
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Endgame: The ‘Unfilmable’ Ender’s Game’s 28 Years in Development Hell
When Gavin Hood told Orson Scott Card that he planned to adapt Card’s science-fiction classic Ender’s Game for the big screen, the author replied with a familiar refrain: “Good luck, kid.” Card was done trying to bring his book to the screen. If someone else wanted to spend years of his life spinning in circles, […]
Read moreDo You Like Prince Movies? Podcast: The Counselor, Lou Reed, and Katy Perry
This week, Wesley asks Alex where in New York he should live. They talk about Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy’s The Counselor, Katy Perry, and the death of Lou Reed. Listen to the podcast here: ESPN.com Podcenter. Subscribe to Grantland Pop Culture on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.
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Grantland Style Report: Halloween Costumes of the Rich and Famous
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher Cohen dressed as, I think, a business-casual ape having sex with a peasant woman (or he could be an ape riding an old lady who is pretending to be a horse), while Fisher was a ballerina tiger on their way to a rave at the Casamigos Halloween party in […]
Read moreThe Wolf of Wall Street Trailer: Merry Greedmas From Leo, Jonah, Marty, and the Boys
It seems that hanging out in baseball front offices while Brad Pitt put on his usual master class in snacking served Jonah Hill well. He’s really learned how to eat: He looks totally comfortable sitting beside Leonardo DiCaprio, ordering all the scenery on the menu and running up a 26-grand bill because fuck you, it’s […]
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JoBroNoMo: Remembering the Brief But Passionate Era of the Jonas Brothers
After weeks of confusing comments from their camp, a deleted official Twitter account, and rumors ranging from fraternal discord to heroin addiction, the Jonas Brothers have officially announced to People that they are indeed breaking up. Having canceled an upcoming tour, they’ve also chosen to shelve what would have been a comeback album. It might seem ridiculous […]
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Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart Are Doing London Has Fallen
I could sit here and tell you White House Down was getting a sequel and, unless you’re a drooling Channing Tatum fan, you might not even know I was lying. But it’s actually Olympus Has Fallen that’s heading to London. Just for crystal clarity, that means you’ll have the opportunity to spend another couple of […]
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