Archive for the 'TV' Category

Must not see TV

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the NPR and NY Times reviews that raved about a new sitcom called Aliens in America, in which a Muslim Pakistani exchange student comes to an “All American” home and community.  I hadn’t yet seen the show, so I blogged, instead, about the fact that [...]

Laughing at the enemy

During World War II, Hollywood started churning out cartoons poking fun at Hitler.  Here’s a great example from Warner Brothers with Bugs taking Hitler on, and Disney did the famous Der Fuehrer’s Face, starring Donald Duck.  The cartoons obviously weren’t intended to minimize the dangers America was facing.  They were produced at the height of [...]

A show to watch

I was going to write a review of Friday Night Lights but, somehow, never got around to it. My bottom line would have been: Watch It! Fortunately, S.T. Karnick, writing at National Review Online, has written the review I thought about, if only I could write so well. Karnick’s bottom line [...]

Picking on easy targets again

I think it’s time for me to explain why, after a life as a Democrat, I’ve turned my back so vehemently on my former party, and why I reject the word “liberal,” even though I once embraced it, and still hold to the classic ideas for which is stands. However, this will not be [...]

Studio 60 is in the dumps

Considering that it is a manic polemic, I’m not surprised that Studio 60 is not doing well in the ratings.

Attacking paper tigers

I’ve now watched two episodes of Aaron Sorkin’s new show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Well, to be completely honest, I sort of watched two episodes, sinced I slept through most of the second.
The show has the usual Sorkin trademarks — incredibly rapid-fire dialogue, some of it clever; a camera that likes to [...]

Words, *bleep* words

Mr. Bookworm rented a movie called Tigerland the other day, about men being trained to go off to the Vietnam War. I found it unwatchable, in large part because every other word was a filthy obscenity. There was almost no substance to the dialogue, just foul language. Thinking back, this has been [...]

African-American men and women

Here’s a fascinating NPR radio story about relationships between African-American men and women:
A clip from the upcoming film Diary of a Tired Black Man is generating a great deal of buzz in the African-American community. The scene features a man arriving at the house of his former spouse with a new partner: a white [...]

Bilingualism and HBO

Sometimes, someone writes an article that manages to touch upon more than one issue near and dear to me. Catherine Seipp managed to do just that when she wrote about Walkout, a new HBO film. Walkout is about historic injustice, circa 1968:
You’d need a heart of stone not to root for the plucky, [...]