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Television

Interview: Leonard Nimoy

Hot Vulcan
If Leonard Nimoy’s acting work had been limited to that deliriously crazy music video for “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,” he’d probably still be celebrated by a lot of us.

By ROB TURBOVSKY | November 16, 2009

A new show shines a light in the recording studio
“Working in a studio for so many years, we get to work closely with musicians when they are at their most creative — and most vulnerable,” says Marc Bartholomew, audio engineer and co-runner of Hanover Street’s Acadia Recording Company.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | October 07, 2009

Holy landscape!

Ken Burns worships America's spiritual resource
At its core, Ken Burns's PBS 12-hour epic The National Parks: America's Best Idea (nightly on WGBH Channel 2 at 8 pm, from September 27 through October 2) is a selective, initiative by initiative, advocate by advocate, chronicle of the evolution of the National Parks system and the changing roles protected lands have played in American culture since Congress validated Yosemite in 1864.

By CLIF GARBODEN | September 24, 2009

Big sleepy

Bored to Death brings a stoner PI to HBO
If television is indeed a reflection of society, then to judge from what's on the screen these days, we're all surrounded by people leading seedy double lives.

By RYAN STEWART | September 16, 2009

West coasting

Is Project Runway walking in circles?
As I watched this season's 16 Project Runway hopefuls squinting into the setting sun during their champagne reception atop the Title Guarantee Building in Los Angeles, it was hard not to view the scene as a sad little metaphor for the state of the show. What's supposed to feel like the beginning of something new sure looks a lot more like the end of something old.

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | August 26, 2009

Our Don Drapers, Ourselves

The Mad Men mystique
This Sunday is the premiere of the third season of Mad Men (AMC, 10 pm), the Emmy-winning show that made fans of good television have to figure out where AMC was on their basic-cable schedules.

By GUSTAVO TURNER | August 12, 2009

Mr. Peepers in Mumbai

Can Chris Kattan be a Bollywood Hero?
Here's something Chris Kattan probably rarely hears in real life: "In Night at the Roxbury, you were awesome!" Such, however, is the encomium proffered by two young Indian fans toward the beginning of IFC's somewhat random but not altogether terrible new mini-series Bollywood Hero .

By MIKE MILIARD | August 05, 2009

Boys' life

Hung and Entourage measure success
The premise for HBO's new half-hour comedy Hung (Sundays at 10 pm) is so over-the-top as to be cringe-worthy: high school basketball coach Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), divorced and broke, starts whoring himself to ladies on the basis of his giant schlong. I know: ugh.

By JON GARELICK | July 14, 2009

Going Mental

Fox's new psych-doc drama
Fox's new drama Mental (Thursdays at 9 pm on Fox) is House with a thoroughly likable doctor at its center, but it won't have half the shelf life of its predecessor.

By DAVID KRONKE | May 27, 2009

Gag reel

Sit Down, Shut Up needs to take its own advice
The Devil's in the details in Fox's new animated series, Sit Down, Shut Up , but I wish he'd gotten more involved in the main elements as well — like stories.

By DAVID KRONKE | April 14, 2009

Botswana beauty

HBO does Alexander McCall Smith proud
As any fan of traditional mysteries knows, a good detective must pay attention to details. And Precious Ramotswe, the founder of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, finds that truer than most.

By CLEA SIMON | March 16, 2009

Interview: Joss Whedon

Cult of personality
When I first reach Joss Whedon — the director, writer, and producer who is perhaps best known as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer — at his office at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, it's about 9 am his time, and it sounds as if I'd caught him before his coffee had kicked in.

By SHARON STEEL | February 09, 2009

Review: Dollhouse

Joss Whedon continues to fight the darkness
Joss Whedon continues to fight the darkness

By SHARON STEEL | February 09, 2009

Media misfits

News from waaay outside the mainstream
The series grew out of an excellent 1999 documentary directed by author Arthur Bradford ( Dogwalker ) and produced by South Park 's Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

By MIKE MILIARD | February 09, 2009

Faking it

MTV's The City never gets real
if you were Whitney Port, the colt-legged, honey-haired, cow-eyed star of The City , you might not think that what Herman Rosenblat did was so terrible.

By SHARON STEEL | January 06, 2009

Christian’s folly

His Own Worst Enemy
Two men. One body. It sounds like the title of a squeamish sequel to “Two Girls, One Cup.” But the good news is it’s just the premise of My Own Worst Enemy , Christian Slater’s foray into the world of crappy small-screen dramas that use a lexicon of jargon in order to sound “sciency.”

By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | November 06, 2008