In this increasingly epic 31-part Best of the Decade series, I've referred to litmus tests for different shows, where you can judge the fan based on their reaction to certain arcs or episodes. Generally, with a litmus...
When "Deadwood" first premiered in 2004, I remember that it sent critics and reporters flocking to experts on late 19th Century frontier life, trying to prove that the show's expletive-laden dialogue was ina...
I wrote my first "American Idol" recap for Zap2it in February of 2003, reporting on the performances by the second semifinal ground of the show's second season. That semifinal group included Hadas Shalev, Ja...
The shows that made it into the Top 10 of my list of TV's Best of the Decade are all great. There's not a "very good" show in the group. In placing them and distinguishing between them, that means that somet...
ABC cancelled "Eli Stone," "Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money." That was a bad thing. Or at least a sad thing. But credit to ABC for not just using those episodes as a lure to get fa...
You can spot the good ones coming from a-ways off.
Because I do news coverage in addition to writing reviews and features, I spend most of the spring writing casting notices on pilots and it's hard not to get...
Someday soon, a wiseacre graduate student is going to write a mighty clever dissertation focusing on a strange facet of popular entertainment in the Aughts.
The title of that dissertation is going to be...
Has history been a bit unkind to "The West Wing"?
We're talking about a show that won the decade's first four Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series and probably even deserved two or three of those wins...
On Friday, Sept. 25, ABC was feeling mighty gloat-y.
The network sent out a gleeful press release that led off with the announcement, in bold blue type, "ABC's 'FlashForward' became the first regular ser...
We are, I suspect, going to have a bit of a problem here, not with the placement of "Battlestar Galactica" on my list of TV's Best of the Decade, but with my approach to the series.
During its actua...
