Sen. John McCain wants to "let" cable customers buy channels individually, by forcing cable companies to offer them the option. Rest assured that the mandate, if implemented, will have the opposite of its intended effect and end up raising prices and reducing access to TV programming.
Annette Funicello, famous as an early Mousketeer and as the star of a string of 1960s beach movies, died today at the age of 70. I remember her well. I wasn’t one of those who had a crush on her, since her wave crested before I hit adolescence, but I was well aware of her. After working many years with Disney she got cast with Frankie Avalon in a string of silly beach blanket movies. She also had a successful career as a singer. Through…
The new series on 'Masterpiece Classic' on PBS, 'Mr. Selfridge," is a balanced, sympathetic, and wise portrait of a capitalist, a welcome example of thoughtfulness in these politicized and ignorant times. . . .
A&E's new drama series, 'Bates Motel,' is another entry in the already overpopulated serial-killer genre, but it tries to do a bit more than just invent new ways to show gore and cruelty. In fact, its attempts to place in context the protagonist's eventual murderous behavior suggest an interesting social criticism. . . .
As reported here a few weeks ago, Netflix is making a strong commitment to original programming, as an online challenge to cable giants such as HBO and Showtime. The money Netflix is spending is even more than many analysts expected, according to Variety: CAA TV literary agent Peter Micelli was forthcoming about how Netflix — and other digital media upstarts — do business with Hollywood during a panel discussion Friday at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium. He went so far as to specify how much was spent…
The story line of the new CW show 'Cult' is reasonably complex. The protagonist, a newspaper reporter named Jeff Sefton, is searching for his troubled brother, Nate, who disappears in the first episode, leaving behind a blood-soaked chair in his apartment. The sister of the main character on the show-within-the-show (SWAS), named Meadow, is also missing, in the narrative of the SWAS—and this is where things really get weird and possibly headache-inducing for the unwary: numerous phone calls and texts from the ostensibly fictional Meadow…
The new five-part miniseries 'The Bible,' the first episode of which premiered on The History Channel Sunday night and will repeat tonight at 9:00 EST, is clearly a budget-conscious production but well worth watching. . . .
Any awards program longer than a David Lean film that simultaneously left this viewer longing for the comparable whimsy of previous wince-inducing hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco has to be judged a disaster – three-and-one-half hours signifying nothing other than the egos of those put in charge of this year’s Oscar telecast. Admittedly, I threw in the towel less than two hours in, but I didn’t see the point of going any further after watching a tribute to 2002’s Chicago and an over-the-top rendition…
Last weekend's 'Saturday Night Live' featured a parody movie trailer for 'Djesus Uncrossed,' an imaginary film in the Quentin Tarantino vein, in which Jesus Christ and his apostles seek revenge on the Romans after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. It's as gory and vulgar as Tarantino's films, and rather funny. The video also does a good job of showing how far the teachings of Christ are from natural human impulses, and of course it illustrates how absurd and perverted Tarantino's film style is. Naturally the video…
Those of us on the right are used to being mocked and ridiculed by the progressive entertainment-industrial complex, but there is so much more material on the left that is rife for mockery. Watching the recording of last weekend’s 'Saturday Night Live' the other night (I skip most of it, because most of it isn’t very funny), I happened to catch that week's digital short film, and I’m glad I did. This one is hilarious and actually mocks the PC obsession of our cultural elite…
Creeping back from the abyss, Netflix appears to be taking the smart road after its highly publicized missteps of the past couple of years: innovation and risk-taking. With several high-profile programming moves, Netflix appears to be staking out territory as the Internet alternative to cable TV subscription channels such as HBO and Showtime. Netflix has an impressive slate of original programming from some of the industry's most successful creative people—but opportunities remain for Netflix or another savvy company to profit from a huge market segment…
In his monologue near the beginning of last night’s episode of NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Live, host Jamie Foxx said that in his forthcoming movie Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino, Foxx’s character is a former slave who “kill[s] all the white people in the movie. How great is that?” This allusion to mass murder motivated by race hatred was greeted by the audience with delighted laughter and screams of approbation. See it here:
"Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul." — Marilyn Monroe
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