Tag: Burning Questions (1-10 of 78)

Mar 15 2013 02:10 PM ET

Is 'Girls' still a comedy?

by
Tags: , , , , , , TV
Girls-ep18-Recap

Image Credit: Jessica Miglio/HBO

January 13 was a big day for Lena Dunham. The second season of Girls premiered on HBO at 9 p.m. ET that evening; around 10:30 the very same night, Dunham’s show was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical.

Dunham — already a winner that night for Best Actress in a TV Comedy — accepted the award with an exuberant yelp, urging her co-stars and creative team to get “super close” to the microphone. Her heartfelt acceptance speech ended with Dunham thanking Chad Lowe, a joking reference to Hilary Swank’s famous omission at the 2000 Oscars. It was frank, funny, and a little bit awkward — just what someone who loved Girls‘s first season would expect from the show’s visionary.

READ FULL STORY »

Oct 24 2012 12:01 AM ET

'Pretty Little Liars' Halloween episode react: 6 burning questions

by
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , TV
Pretty-Little-Liars.jpg

Image Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC Family

Last night’s Halloween episode of ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars was — as has come to be the norm with this dark-and-twisty show — rather explosive. Well, not literally explosive — although that wouldn’t be out of the realm for this drama. But so much happened when our Pretty Little Liars foursome — Aria, Spencer, Hannah, and Emily — jumped on that Halloween night Ghost Train with (most of) the rest of Rosewood. And Adam Lambert. Yes, Adam Lambert was there, too! He performed two songs, which were actually pretty fun to watch.

And despite the photo attached here where Hannah looks like she’s smiling, that’s not the reaction I think most people would have from watching the episode. No smiles after the deadly episode! My major response was: Huh? So many questions! (Again, not shocking with this show.)

Questions like: Who killed Garrett? Who is the Queen of Hearts? Was that Alison’s body in the ice chest? Was that creepy little girl the same one from last year’s Halloween episode? Whose hand popped out of the ground? And, rather importantly: Could Ezra be on the “A” team? All those questions are why I thought it best to react to the hour by dissecting (or trying to dissect!) some of the biggest burning questions from last night’s episode:

READ FULL STORY »

Sep 26 2012 12:00 PM ET

'Modern Family' season 4: Are you still down with the Dunphys?

by
Tags: , , , , , , TV
modern-family-cast

Image Credit: Bob D’Amico/ABC

As Sunday’s Emmy Awards proved, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences members are still gaga for Modern Family. Six out of twelve Outstanding Supporting Actor/Actress nominees hailed from ABC’s flagship sitcom; cast members Eric Stonestreet and Julie Bowen won their respective categories, both for the second time. The show itself took home its third consecutive Outstanding Comedy statuette, as well as awards for writing and directing. Maybe Phil didn’t need to fix that step after all.

But for some viewers, this outpouring of Emmy love might seem misplaced. Modern Family‘s third season was funny, but it was also uneven — and too often, it featured characters hitting the same notes over and over. A show that once won praise for its innovation had started to feel just the tiniest bit stale. This is inevitable for any long-running show, especially a family comedy like ModFam  — but still, it’s tough to say whether the series is simply settling into middle age or beginning a slow but steady decline.

READ FULL STORY »

Sep 6 2012 01:29 PM ET

'The X Factor' vs. 'The Voice': Which gets your vote? POLL

by
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Music, TV
britney-spears-christina-aguilera.jpg

Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX; Mark Seliger/NBC

Oh, it’s on.

The Voice is officially challenging The X Factor for the title of Biggest Non-Idol Singing Show. NBC just announced that next week, it will air The Voice on three consecutive nights rather than two — meaning that on Wednesday, the series’ third audition episode will go head to head with The X Factor‘s season premiere on Fox.

Simon Cowell isn’t too pleased about this development: “This is a cynical, cold-hearted, unprofessional way of doing business,” he told TMZ today, explaining he thought NBC and Fox had a “gentleman’s agreement” to air The Voice on Mondays and Tuesdays, while X Factor would appear Wednesdays and Thursdays. “Britney’s not going to appreciate the fact that Christina — who has been a bit of a rival — isn’t allowing Britney to have a night of her own,” Cowell added. And whether or not Cowell’s assessment is correct, these shows are clearly engaged in a battle for melismatic dominance.

So, what will it be: Britney or Christina? Flash or substance? Chairs or another kind of chair? Let’s examine what we know about both The Voice Season 3 and The X Factor Season 2, category by category:

READ FULL STORY »

May 14 2012 01:28 PM ET

'Smash': Are you hate-watching it? Or do you still have hope for an improved Season 2?

by
Tags: , , , , , , TV
smash-walkup

If there’s one thing critics enjoy more than rhapsodizing about something they love, it’s gleefully picking apart something they despise. And this season, the hottest punching bag on TV is Smash — a backstage drama that went from NBC’s Great White Hope to a total mess in about four episodes flat.

The same writers who once praised Smash‘s pilot are still watching the show — but instead of extolling its virtues, they’re writing with relish about how fascinatingly awful it’s become. And even though I haven’t been as hard on the series as some of my ink-soaked colleagues, my weekly Smash recaps include their share of snarky, frustrated jabs. The clunky dialogue, the nonsensical plot twists, the infuriating romantic entanglements, the slow but steady deification of Karen “Iowa” Cartwright — all of it combined makes the devoted Smash viewer feel like an Ivy-style masochist.

READ FULL STORY »

May 10 2012 07:31 PM ET

Toby and Kelly (and Dwight?) clock out: Where does 'The Office' go from here?

by
Tags: , , , , , , TV
the-office

Image Credit: Danny Feld/NBC

The Office is about to get a serious renovation. In March, fans learned that Paul Lieberstein — who plays Toby Flenderson and is also the series’ showrunner –  will depart at the end of Season 8 so he can concentrate on launching an Office spin-off about Schrute Farms. If that show gets off the ground, Rainn Wilson’s Dwight will also leave Dunder Mifflin.

And today, Fox officially picked up It’s Messy, a sitcom created by and starring Mindy Kaling — meaning that motor-mouthed Kelly Kapoor is also on her way out the Office door. Since Kaling’s an executive producer and the writer of some of the sitcom’s most memorable episodes (“The Injury,” “Take Your Daughter to Work Day,” and “Diwali,” among others) as well as one of The Office‘s stars, losing her will be especially tough on the series.

It was hard enough to watch Steve Carell’s Michael Scott depart for Colorado — and a movie career — in Season 7. But what will happen to NBC’s most-watched sitcom if three of its biggest names leave for less fluorescent pastures? Can this Thursday-night staple overcome an uneven year to finish strong in its (presumably last) season? Would a reboot revitalize the show — or make matters worse? And who will bother sticking around to watch?

READ FULL STORY »

Apr 25 2012 08:30 AM ET

The movie biz gives Mel Gibson another chance -- do you?

by
Tags: , , , Movies
Mel-Gibson

Image Credit: Dominique Charriau/WireImage.com

Like Rasputin or Robin Swallows, Mel Gibson’s film career just won’t die. One minute, he’s (again) being called “a serial offender, a serial hater, and a serial bigot” by the Anti-Defamation League; the next, it’s reported that he’s in serious talks to appear in an upcoming Robert Rodriguez movie.

A celeb who generates financial success can find it easier to overcome accusations of domestic abuse, anti-Semitism, and misogyny — see Chris Brown, for example. But it’s been some time since Mel Gibson delivered box-office gold. Since his first publicized anti-Semitic tirade in 2006, the few films Gibson’s made have underperformed. Edge of Darkness barely broke even, and that’s not counting marketing costs. His involvement hindered the release of The Beaver, which made less than $1 million on only a handful of screens. And Gibson’s upcoming film, Get the Gringo, isn’t even being released in theaters. (The exception: Apocalypto, his starless, foreign language action film that was released about five months after his infamous DUI arrest.) 

What, then, can explain Gibson’s un-shunning?

READ FULL STORY »

Apr 16 2012 05:03 PM ET

The 'Harry Potter' encyclopedia is finally in the works! Which burning questions should it answer?

by
Tags: , , , , Books
JK-ROWLING

Image Credit: David Cheskin/AP

Where do Hogwarts professors go during their summer vacations? What are the 12 uses of dragon’s blood? What’s behind that locked door in the Department of Mysteries? And why in the world did Hermione and Ron name one of their kids Hugo?

I’ve been yearning for answers to these questions since 2007, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows marked the end of J.K. Rowling’s book series as we knew it. (Well, technically, The Tales of Beedle the Bard marked the series’ real conclusion — but since it’s a supplementary storybook, I don’t know if it should really count.) Rowling responded to a few pressing fan inquiries soon after the book was released; she revealed, for example, that Harry himself became the head of the Ministry of Magic’s Auror Department and occasionally moonlights as a guest Defense Against the Dark Arts speaker. But there are still plenty of mysteries about the wizarding world that remain unsolved.

Luckily, they won’t stay that way for too long. READ FULL STORY »

Apr 10 2012 06:13 PM ET

Behind Facebook's billion-dollar bet: Seven burning questions about Instagram

by
Tags: , , ,

Something is always buzzing in the social media world, but this week Facebook’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram is the queen bee.

The deal between the social network giant and the quirky photo-sharing app has journalists, bloggers and the general mobile population (including 30 million Instagram users) overflowing with energetic opinions and questions about how Facebook plans to use its latest product, and what it means for the future of the little camera app that could did.

Why did Facebook purchase Instagram?
Any media savant will tell you that one of Facebook’s biggest struggles is with its mobile technology — notably on iOS — due to the massive amount of content offered and the clunky, inconvenient platform currently being employed to display it. “They realized that their mobile experience was just too cluttered,” said Nick Bilton, lead columnist for The New York Times’ tech blog. “Facebook has so many different services within the company that it takes 11 steps to take a photo and share it. With Instagram, it’s almost an instant process.”

One approach the company has started to take to rectify their mobile woes involves building out smaller apps — like the recently launched Messenger — which offer standalone doses of specific Facebook features. In the case of Instagram, and considering that photo sharing is the start-up bubble du jour — Facebook looks to have finally found a photo-sharing property that, coupled with other acquisitions, may be the missing puzzle piece of their mobile strategy. Tech pundit Om Malik’s opinion suggests far less amiability: “Facebook was scared s–tless… Facebook is essentially about photos, and Instagram had found and attacked Facebook’s Achilles’ heel — mobile photo sharing.”

NEXT: “The number to watch is really going to be Instagram’s audience”

Mar 12 2012 10:45 AM ET

'Game Change' poll: Was the movie fair to Sarah Palin? -- VOTE

by
Tags: , , , , , TV
game-change

Image Credit: Phillip V. Caruso/HBO

Back in 2008, actor and activist Matt Damon likened Sarah Palin’s transformation from Alaskan governor to vice-presidential candidate to “a bad Disney movie.” And while “President Hockey Mom: Don’t Puck With The Commander-in-Chief” hasn’t been made (yet), HBO did tell a portion of Palin’s meteoric and controversial rise to fame, both political and otherwise, with the adaptation of John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s shocking and detailed account of the 2008 presidential campaign, Game Change.

So how did the film, which premiered over the weekend, portray Palin? It likely depends on who you ask. Some will argue that Julianne Moore‘s performance and Danny Strong’s screenplay showed Palin as nothing more than an erratic, emotional, and downright ill-informed hockey mom thrust into a world of politics far beyond her grasp. Others will argue that Game Change actually went easy on Palin and showed her in a positive light as a determined wife and mother who simply took matters into her own hands.
READ FULL STORY »

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Which show had the better finale this season?