culture & television — #
From the Oh Darn, Turns Out That Never Happened Dept: Johnny Carson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, & the Pussy Cat
25 January 2012
21 November 2011
politics & television — #
Poll Shows Fox News Viewers Less Informed on Major News Stories
television & technology — #
Netflix, Fox ready to resurrect Arrested Development as a streaming exclusive in 2013
2 October 2011
television & culture — #
Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Arrested Development
The big news of the afternoon: If all goes according to plan, the series will return to television in a nine- or ten-episode limited-run series, set to film next summer, with each episode focussing on a single member of the Bluth clan. And series creator Mitchell Hurwitz said that he is halfway through the screenplay for a reunion film and is “eighty per cent” sure it will happen.
20 August 2011
politics & television — #
Jon Stewart: Jon Stewart addresses conservative media claims that Warren Buffet is a socialist
3 July 2011
travel & television — #
Anthony Bourdain has a new show on the Travel Channel filmed during layovers for No Reservations
25 May 2011
culture & television — #
Oprah’s Conflicted, Empowering, Shaming Bond With Women Like Me
I’ve been disappointed plenty—I consider my ability to feel let down by Oprah (as well as the fact that it feels unnatural to call her anything but her first name) further proof of the intimacy she’s cultivated with her audience. I remember the “Diabetes: America’s Silent Killer” episode she did last year with Dr. Mehmet Oz, about how the disease plays out in the black community. The show was so irresponsible it felt offensive.
“Diabetes is a ticking time bomb,” Oprah said gravely during the introduction. “It’s a silent killer. It’s annihilating the African-American community. Literally, killing almost 100 of us every single day, in the African-American community.”
“It’s time to get out of denial.”
All true: Diabetes does indeed impact a disproportionate number of black Americans, who are both more likely to contract it and more likely to die from it. But in Oprah’s telling, the solution wasn’t fixing food deserts or increasing access to preventive health care or building parks in urban neighborhoods or any of those boring things. Rather, the epidemic calls for a healthy dose of shaming.
So After Dr. Oz led the audience through a thorough introduction on the ravages of diabetes, Oprah took viewers to Dayton, Ohio, to meet some black church ladies. Viewers watched as the women served up one of their typical post-service meals of fried chicken and meatloaf, and a table of heavy sides. They’d written to the show about their collective weight issues, Oprah said.
Oprah then staged an intervention and sent the women to a boot camp of sorts to get them motivated about changing their lifestyle. When the video segment was over, Oprah turned to the women, now seated in her studio audience, some dressed in their Sunday finery, and clucked her tongue at them, scolding them for being lazy about exercise and stubborn about their diet. It made me so angry to see these women brought from their homes to be shamed on national television.
It felt especially unfair to see Oprah lay into these women with a simplistic cultural criticism without discussing the structural disparities that shape people of color’s lives. One conversation is not complete without the other.
But hadn’t Oprah detailed her own long struggle with her weight and diet and with taking charge of her health? Hadn’t she partaken in her own game of public self-flagellation, and then redemption through self-acceptance? It’s a story line to which she has returned frequently, an endless recurring cycle that was as irresistible as it was exhausting.
18 February 2011
television & food — #
If you are a fan, these Top Chef episode recaps by Max Silvestri are just to die for.
29 January 2011
television & culture — #
Aaron Sorkin’s cable news network drama earns HBO pilot order
14 October 2010
television & business — #
Conan Washes His Desk! is one of Conan O’Brien’s fantastic teaser ads for his “new” show.
13 September 2010
television & culture — #
Arrested Development’s ‘Good Grief’ episode WAS one of the better episodes of all time.
9 September 2010
food & television — #
As always, Max Silvestri’s recap of last night’s Top Chef D.C. Episode 13 is hilarious.
Kelly asks Ed, “How was your flight?” Ed says, “It was awesome.” What sort of psycho says a 19-hour airplane ride is awesome? “It was fucking sick, bro. I crushed like two bags of gorp, then blew through the first three Twilight books on my Nook, then drank Brown Marys (Bloody Marys made with whiskey) until I passed out in my own drool listening to Incubus on my Zune. Then I woke up and there was still eleven more hours. Like I said, awesome.” Ed so has a Nook. Angelo is wearing an outfit that is a head-to-toe gradient of white to blue and it is giving me a headache. Maybe it’s hyper color? If you breathe on his shirt, it turns into a v-neck. Meanwhile, Kevin has a very silly hat on.