TV
New CW Show: Hit or Miss
“That’s my trust fund,” Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) cries out to his unappreciative father after the latter takes off his mask in the midst of a fencing sparring session. With an evil laugh, the father retorts, “…Which is comprised of my money. Excuse me, was comprised.” Yes, folks, the CW has begun running another show [...]
The Second British Invasion
Movies are out and TV is in. This is a fact of 21st century entertainment. TV shows are the greatest catalysts of fandoms. Today, and especially in Stuyvesant, some of the biggest and most active fandoms are centered around British television shows. This second-wave “British Invasion,” was brought by shows such as “The IT Crowd” [...]
Dr. Emily ‘Awkward Pitts’ Owens
Fresh out of medical school, Emily ‘Pitts’ Owens (Mamie Gummer) promises herself that she’ll become the confident, wondrous person she was meant to be. That is, before she realizes she will be completing her surgery residency with her med-school crush Will Collins (Justin Hartley) and high-school nemesis Cassandra Kopelson (Aja Naomi King). To add to [...]
Same Show, Different Tune
Admit it: the acting is going downhill, the actors aren’t nearly as attractive as they used to be, and the plot is getting ridiculous. But despite these faults, so many of us continue to watch the same television shows season after season. Perhaps we are—or at least, I am—returning to these shows we loved months [...]
Some Projects Need More Work
For those looking for a show about independent women, “The Mindy Project” is not for you. Its rom-com premise is similar to that of many other shows: a successful woman looking for Mr. Right, who (what do you know?) happens to be a doctor. She also happens to be “man-crazy,” thinking of nothing else but [...]
Someone Get This Show a Doctor
In a hazy background, a little girl stands out clearly, alone and lost in a vast meadow. She stumbles upon a dead man, as a voiceover announces that this moment plays a significant role in the narrator’s childhood. Unlike most children, she crouches down, touches the man’s face, examines his cuts and bruises, and closes [...]
Caught on the Web: The Sexcapade From Hell
Being shipped off to a mansion for an indefinite amount of time for a reality television show focused entirely on hypersexual encounters between housemates may sound ludicrous to some, but it may sound like any reality show to others. Satirical giant “The Onion” proves to viewers of “The Sex House” that it is anything but [...]
Caught on the Web: Diary of a Regency-Era Woman
Any great novel or even one that has had relative success on the market will inspire numerous remakes—some good and others terrible, some flat and others that twist the original and give it a re-imagined life. The latter perfectly describes the new video series, or fake video blog (“vlog”), “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.” Created by [...]
The Apocalypse is So Four Years Ago
When we fantasize about the end of the world, whether through science-fiction novels, a nebulous Mayan “prophecy,” or this year’s Senior SING!, our hearts pound with uneasiness at the futuristic gloom. “Jericho,” a TV show that aired from 2006 to 2008 and has now risen to cult status, captures this anxiety in a dynamic and [...]
A Novel Twist on a Classic Genre
When every channel has a crime show (or three), “Castle” could easily be overlooked as just another murder drama. However, its characters, which are as complex as the cases they crack, and its startling mysteries, which often blend the fanciful— fairytales or CIA conspiracies—with murder, make it anything but mundane. In the pilot “Flowers For [...]
