by Daniel Erenberg

Three new television shows premiered last week, amidst much hype and ubiquitous advertising campaigns. All three shows turned out to be ratings disappointments, but the networks certainly couldn’t be blamed this time. They got those shows out there. For one, who here hasn’t heard of Kings? That show has been everywhere these last few months. I haven’t been able to take a damn train without seeing that orange butterfly flag waving. NBC, the show’s home network, has also had an extended trailer for it in front of every movie at every movie theater in New York City. The show has HBO-level production values, a superb cast, includingDeadwood’s Ian McShane and underrated character actor Dylan Baker (so incredible in Happiness), and an ambitious premise, conceived by Heroes writer Michael Green. NBC gave it a high-profile two-hour premiere on a Sunday night, and it managed to grab just 6 million viewers, who bought into the hype. I was one of them, and I also decided to DVR the new ABC comedy series, Better Off Ted, by Andy Richter Controls The Universe co-creator Victor Fresco, which has been endlessly compared to Arrested Development, largely because of Portia de Rossi’s presence in the capable cast. And, just to round things off, I also taped Party Down, the new Starz original series about a party planning company, which lists Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd among its writers, and boasts fabulous comedy pseudo-legends, like Ken Marino (The State), Jane Lynch (Best In Show) and Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks) in its unbeatable cast.

FULL REVIEWS

Tags: Kings Party Down Better Off Ted tv reviews
March 26, 2009 at 12:36am

Nan Goldin’s famous slideshow at MoMA

by Janna Washington

Ryan in the tub, Provincetown, Mass. 1976

Growing up, everyone has that hip friend. You know the one I’m talking about. The worldly girl who sneaks you your first cigarette one afternoon in the bathroom next to the cafeteria. The guy who has his own car while you still depend on your mom to pick you up from the movies. The kid who has the coolest clothes and has seen the most obscure movies and listens to bands you have never even heard of.

My hip friend made me brilliant punk rock mix tapes and introduced me to the work of photographers Larry Clark and Nan Goldin. Theirs are photographs filled with sex and drugs and guns, whiskey, fights, and nudity, and an indescribable yet palpable sense of affection for the people on the other side of the lens. They are a candid look at a world most of us will never see. Looking at these photographs, I never wanted to be friends with these people, but nevertheless I found myself unable to judge them.

FULL ARTICLE

Tags: photography museums MoMA
March 15, 2009 at 8:44pm

by Daniel Erenberg and Joe Ireland

Joe: I think I should start out by saying that I’m no expert when it comes to comics, though I’ve read several series and enjoyed most of the ones that I’ve read, some of them quite a bit. Watchmen is hands-down my favorite comic, so I was super excited when I heard that an adaptation was going to be released, and only slightly less excited when I heard that said adaptation was going to be directed by Zack Snyder (director of 300). I have to say that I enjoyed the movie, though I recognize its flaws (of which there are many).

Daniel: I am an expert on comics, I guess. I’ve been reading them since I was a wee young lad in Brooklyn. My first was a Chris Claremont X-Men book, bought for me by my grandfather when I was 4. I read Watchmen for the first time when I was about 12, and starting to get a little jaded about superhero books. And Watchmen isn’t a superhero book. No, really. It isn’t. It’s a book about how writer Alan Moore sees the world, and what would make it “a stronger, loving world to die in,” as John Cale is quoted in the book. That’s the real problem with Zack Snyder’s bold, but woefully misguided film. He made a cool, flashy, superhero film and ended up with a heartless, if occasionally fun, early summer blockbuster that’s gonna be forgotten in less time than it took the comic to come out in serialized form. Fanboys used to argue on the internet about whether Watchmen should be a film or a TV miniseries, but that’s missing the point. Watchmen is as perfect as comic books get, and no filmed adaptation could replicate it. But I’m a fanboy too. I got excited when I heard about it. I was super-excited when Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, the last two Bourne pictures) was set to direct. And I got choked up at the trailer in front of The Dark Knight last summer. But Watchmen is now a great comic and a very, very bad film. Bummer.

FULL CONVERSATION

Tags: comic books watchmen point/counterpoint zack snyder
March 14, 2009 at 2:39pm

by Daniel Erenberg

Somewhere, in a saner universe than our own, Nathan Fillion is the biggest movie star on the planet. He’s got matinee idol looks, he looks like he could take you in a fight, he’s as good at slapstick as he is at subtler verbal humor and he forces you to immediately care about the characters he plays, no matter how morally ambiguous they are. Unfortunately for his career and bank account, Fillion has historically chosen roles in difficult, unconventional films and television series destined from the start to be universally beloved critically while being watched by a very few devoted followers. He was Captain Malcolm Reynolds in Joss Whedon’s cult space western, Firefly, and its companioning theatrical release Serenity. He was a murderous and possibly immortal priest named Caleb in the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He starred as a man entering a cross-country race in FOX’s wonderful Drive, which aired for two weeks before its cancellation. Last year, he brought his charm to theaters in the minor indie hit Waitress. But now Fillion has done something totally genius. Following a stint last year on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, he’s taken a role in a middling, but halfway decent, crime-of-the-week police procedural on ABC, which airs after Dancing With The Stars. If Castle is even remotely watchable on a weekly basis, it’s going to be a hit.

FULL REVIEW 

Tags: nathan fillion castle tv review
March 11, 2009 at 3:51pm

by David Zarnitzky

A city tree
like a peasant indentured
with shackled feet
has no fair vision
of lofty heights climbing
or great girth gaining
to be hole-cut-through
and driven
on a picture postcard placed.
To the heavens
from its common root
Never shall it rise…

FULL POEM AND MORE BY DAVID

Tags: city tree david zarnitzky
March 10, 2009 at 1:04pm

by Daniel Erenberg

I Love You, Man is a good film for only one reason. Its cast is phenomenal. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel carry this movie, completely elevating it beyond the rather uninspired material they are given. The film is also populated with such gifted comedic actors as Rashida Jones, Jon Favreau, Jaime Pressly, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin and Andy Samberg in appropriate supporting roles. This exact same script with a completely different cast would have resulted in something completely mediocre and unmemorable. But, dipping into the Judd Apatow casting pool ends up working as well for this film as it did for Role Models back in November, and director John Hamburg has given Rudd and Segel a supporting cast that can completely play off of their brilliance.

The structure of I Love You, Man is a charmer. It’s a romantic comedy about guys. Two guys become best friends, there’s a complication, they “break-up” and they somehow get back together and live happily ever after….

FULL REVIEW

Tags: jason segel paul rudd apatow i love you man
March 9, 2009 at 4:28pm

by Danielle Berg and Daniel Erenberg

The smoke monster of Lost is perhaps the show’s most mysterious element; “Smoke,” off Ben Fold Five’s album Whatever and Ever Amen is a fantastic song about a breakup. Dan and Danielle pitted these two contenders against each other to decide which is better. What they found was not the obvious conclusion they had predicted; led, perhaps, by destiny, they discovered some uncanny coincidences.

Here are some snippets from their conversation.

FULL BATTLE

Tags: lost ben folds versus
March 3, 2009 at 4:09pm

by Daniel Erenberg

It occurred to me this week that we are a mere two and a half months away from the broadcast network upfront presentations. So I thought we could take a look at some existing shows that remain on the proverbial network bubble and whether they will or won’t and should or shouldn’t be cancelled. I’m not going to go into mid-season replacement shows like Dollhouse or Castle because it’s far too early to go into discussion. I also won’t be going into hit new shows like Lie To Me or total pieces of shit like Kath and Kim because, well, who really cares? I’m just going to read into a few decent-to-great shows that may or may not be on your TV dial next year. 

FULL ARTICLE

Tags: bubble shows cancelled
March 2, 2009 at 6:13pm

by Daniel Erenberg

I’ve been watching the Red Carpet show on E! for an hour and I’m already pissed.

I should probably give you guys a disclaimer. I thought Slumdog Millionaire was a totally lame movie, and I don’t care what anyone says. And don’t try to explain the film to me. I don’t care that it’s a fairy tale. I don’t care that it’s being honest about real life events that have occurred in Mumbai. I don’t care that it’s an underdog masterpiece with many wonderful amateur actors. I don’t give a shit. I hated the “message,” I didn’t buy the plot contrivances and I thought the characters were motivated by completely false impulses, and it’s not “feel-good” if it just makes me feel disdain. Also, worst ending ever. And I’m referring to the phone call, the race across the train tracks, the “Destiny” choice and the Bollywood number. It was all awful. But it’s going to win Best Picture tonight. And it may be the worst Best Picture winner of all time. That’s right. Crash was better. So was Million Dollar Baby.  So was Shakespeare in Love. If Slumdog wins tonight, it would be worse than if Little Miss Sunshine had beat The Departed three years ago or if Michael Clayton had taken down both No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood last year. The Academy is gonna be really embarrassed about this in a few years. Also, I’m sick of Danny Boyle’s smug face. So let’s get going. Time for the Oscars!

FULL OSCAR DIARY

Tags: oscars diary slumdog
February 22, 2009 at 11:59pm

by Daniel Erenberg

“Not Fair,” the third track on Lily Allen’s new album, represents everything that is great about her as an artist. It’s a break-up song about a guy who is perfect in every way, with the apparently massive exception that he’s terrible in bed. The lyrics are cutting and laugh-out-loud funny, calling attention to those aspects of relationships that no one really talks about aloud. And, importantly, Allen never comes across mean or unreasonable. She’s just unsatisfied and just about ready to call it quits. Meanwhile, the music, co-composed by Greg Kurstin, half of the pop duo The Bird & the Bee, is an exhilarating cut-time jig, punctuated by spaghetti-western guitar bends and mechanical drumming. The best verse I’ve heard this year so far must be: “Oh I lie here in the wet patch/ In the middle of the bed/ I’m feeling pretty damn hard done by/ I spent ages giving head/ Then I remember all the nice things that you ever said to me/ Maybe I’m just overreacting, maybe you’re the one for me.”

FULL REVIEW 

Tags: lily allen pop music greg kurstin
February 17, 2009 at 6:31pm