Bill Maher hones his act in New Haven
Bill Maher put on a terrific show at the Shubert Theater in New Haven Saturday night, surprising those who only know him as a TV host with a powerhouse stand-up act. The theater was packed and I only...
View Article‘White Collar’: old-fashioned capers in modern New York
After an odd five-month break, season three of the USA series “White Collar” will resume Tuesday night at 9 with six new episodes running through Feb. 21. It’s the sort of bizarre scheduling that can...
View Article‘Royal Pains’: a winter escape to the Hamptons
So far, we haven’t had much of a winter in the Northeast, but it’s still nice to dream of summers at the beach via the USA series “Royal Pains,” which restarts tonight at 10. The Hamptons-based show...
View Article‘Mandingo’: they don’t make them like this anymore (or do they?)
Because I was living not that far above the Mason-Dixon line in 1975, I never had a chance to see the widely panned but hugely successful Southern plantation sex-and-violence drama, “Mandingo.” I...
View ArticleSpoiler insurance on soaps — ‘The Bachelor’ vs. ‘Downton Abbey’
Two popular soaps return to the airwaves over the next two nights — the scripted BBC/PBS co-production “Downton Abbey” tonight and the presumably unscripted ABC reality show “The Bachelor” tomorrow...
View Article‘Dating Naked’: now we’ve seen everything (almost)
With melanoma so common these days, dermatologists might be the most appalled viewers of the new VH1 reality series, “Dating Naked,” in which the participants go out on first dates in what used to be...
View ArticleAre people really upset by the sex in ‘Shondaland’?
Not to sound overly prurient, but I don’t understand how people can continue to express “shock” over the sex content of a 2014 network TV series like “How to Get Away with the Murder” four decades...
View ArticleOscar exhaustion: a season of hype & dirty tricks
I’m sure there will be a lot of fun to be had watching ABC’s telecast of the Oscar ceremonies tonight — who doesn’t want to watch what Neil Patrick Harris does with the host gig? — but I must admit I...
View Article‘UnREAL’: somewhere Paddy Chayefsky is smiling
Thanks to the wonderful critic Mark Harris and his piece in “Grantland” last week, I downloaded the first episode of a terrific new Lifetime series, “UnREAL,” which examines the machinations behind a...
View Article‘Best of Enemies’ launches Hearst movie meet-up
It will be my pleasure tonight to host the first movie meet-up – “Movie and a Martini” — that is part of the new S magazine that will be launched in the four Hearst Connecticut newspapers on Sept. 27....
View ArticleABC takes the low road with Oscar telecast
The winners were as expected at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony, but the telecast was an off-putting mix of low and high culture (mostly low), demonstrating that ABC’s recent attempts to make a reality...
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