Linda Holmes appears in the following:
Why I Resist Web Redesigns (And Maybe You Do, Too)
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Words many of us never want to hear: "It's the transmission." "We can't get a technician out there until next Tuesday." "Your ex will be there."
And, of course: "Welcome to our redesigned site!"
I know how it is, believe me. I stumble through many, many sites every day. I ...
On 'Doomsday Castle,' If Armageddon Doesn't Get You, Your Tractor Might
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
In the annals of The National Register Of Rather Ironic Ways To Die, I'm going to guess there would be a hallowed place for "tied two logs to a tractor and flipped it on myself while trying to test the steel-reinforced drawbridge on the castle my father built so that ...
Can You Really Dissolve A Guy In A Bathtub? 'Mythbusters' Tackles 'Breaking Bad'
Monday, August 12, 2013
Perhaps you heard that last night, a plucky little drug dealer named Walter White returned to television for his last eight episodes of the award-hoarding Breaking Bad.
But before he began his life of crime, Walter White was a chemistry teacher, and chemistry is what originally made him such a ...
'Elysium': To Build A World Is Not To Tell A Story
Sunday, August 11, 2013
[General plot/premise discussion within; no major spoilers regarding big developments.]
One of the great threats to any film is that the people who are making it live too much inside it. Just as you learn to navigate a city without looking at signs, they learn to navigate the world they've ...
The Real Foodwives: Bravo Found Some More Rich Ladies Who Gossip!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
The first person we meet in Bravo's new rich-white-ladies-fighting show Eat Drink Love is Waylynn. Waylynn is a pastry chef who has a store where she sells what she calls "fonuts."
Point the first: There's supposed to be a mark indicating it's a long "o," but I'm leaving it out ...
Grief And Community In 'Broadchurch'
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
It's hard to import a European murder mystery without importing baggage along with it — expectations of a gray chill, of relentless and austere severity.
It's not that you won't see any of that in Broadchurch, the eight-part British drama that comes to BBC America beginning Wednesday night. It begins ...
Death And Walter White
Saturday, August 03, 2013
A lot of shows kill a lot of people, but no show kills quite like Breaking Bad.
Rushing The Revolution: Television Is Disrupted! (Sort Of)
Friday, August 02, 2013
Television is in the middle of a cataclysmic upheaval, in which there's no more season or midseason, no more requirement that a series run for 22 episodes at a time, no more stigma surrounding film actors going to television, no more assumption that television is watched on a television, no ...
10 Awkward, Unexpected, Or Otherwise Curious Press Tour Moments
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
The Television Critics Association press tour, a two-week event in which press conference after press conference parades through a hotel ballroom, is about half over, so it's time for a few stories.
In a room of 250 or so reporters and a rotating set of actors, producers, and executives, there's ...
The Never-Ending Story: Why They're Not Getting Out From Under That Dome
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Bad news for the fictional characters trapped under the dome in the CBS summer series Under The Dome: Your show was renewed. The dome isn't going to lift. And no less than Les Moonves, the president and CEO of the CBS corporation, says that's just fine.
"Why can't they be ...
Mike Tyson And The Questions Not Asked
Friday, July 26, 2013
HBO's press tour presentations this year were quieter than they've sometimes been. They don't have a big, splashy new drama series to talk about — in part because they still make a limited amount of original programming and don't have a lot of room when they're happy with how things ...
Keith Olbermann Talks Sports, ESPN, And The Secret Identity Anthony Weiner Stole
Thursday, July 25, 2013
"Carlos ... Danger," says Keith Olbermann with utter awe, and arcs his hand across his field of vision.
It's the first day of press tour, and he's here to talk about his new ESPN show Olbermann, which we're told had its first rehearsal just the night before. When he was ...
Rob Lowe On Playing JFK Without Sounding Like You're On 'The Simpsons'
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The National Geographic Channel is a little all over the place when it comes to their programming. There's some nature material, there's some fairly sensational reality stuff (Doomsday Preppers, for instance), and there are historical documentaries and, sometimes, historical scripted films. Their presentation at press tour thus covered a lot ...
Welcome To The Television Critics Association Press Tour
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
For the next two-plus weeks, I'll be in California, hearing all about the next six months in television. It's the annual press tour of the Television Critics Association, and it's always a combination of interesting discussions, weird little stories, and increasingly punchy critics.
You can see, for instance, all of ...
20 Really Great Royal Baby Titles For Classy Parents
Monday, July 22, 2013
Look, it's possible that I don't completely understand how British titles work. But it's 100 percent true that Prince William is also called Baron Carrickfergus. (You may Google that. I'll wait.)
Now that we have verified that Prince William, who is also Duke of Cambridge and Earl of Strathearn, was ...
Hey, Kid: Thoughts For The Young Oddballs We Need So Badly
Friday, July 19, 2013
Rian Johnson, who wrote and directed films including Looper and Brick, not to mention directing a few episodes of Breaking Bad, tweeted early this morning: "To me the great hope is one day some little fat girl in Ohio is going to make a summer movie where skyscrapers don't fall ...
Netflix Storms The Emmy Nominations, But How Much Has Really Changed?
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Even a year ago, the original programming on internet outlets like Netflix and Hulu was an asterisk. We all knew Netflix would be premiering House Of Cards starring Kevin Spacey this spring, and Arrested Development a bit later, and that there were other projects coming. But it all seemed a ...
Pop Culture Happy Hour: The Big Three
Friday, July 12, 2013
Back in the summer of 2010, we sat down to do our very first Pop Culture Happy Hour. We talked about Community, Wipeout, Doctor Who, and Netflix streaming. And now, three years later, we sit down for our 147th episode — which is, appropriately enough, all about the ...
'Sharknado' Dares To Ask: Is It Going To Rain Giant Man-Eating Sharks?
Friday, July 12, 2013
If you have a Twitter account, there's an excellent chance you already know about Sharknado, SyFy's meteorological-marine horror movie that premiered last night. When I tell you that a lot of people were tweeting about Sharknado, I'm not lying.
Not to mention ... well, you know. ...
A Sunny 'Camp' Kicks Back For Summer
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
We have to begin with a discussion of how Camp, NBC's new summer comedy-drama series premiering Wednesday night at 10, begins.
We see a dock, a lake, and sailboats. We hear affable pop music. Kids walk around a woodsy locale, some in swimsuits carrying air mattresses. Others ride a paddleboat ...