Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Review: “Saturday Night Live” With Cameron Diaz

Posted November 23, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  Cameron Diaz has had an extremely busy year, already starring in the hit The Other Woman and the flop Sex Tape, and with a featured role in the rebooted Annie (as Miss Hannigan) still to come.  Her promotional duties on the latter brought her to SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE tonight, where like most hosts she […]

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Midseason Premiere

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Parks and Recreation”

Posted January 13, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  PARKS AND RECREATION:  Tuesday 8PM on NBC There will be plenty of time to lament the passing of PARKS AND RECREATION, and what it portends for network TV comedy and especially for NBC.  Well, “plenty” may be overstating it, since NBC is burning off the remaining episodes two at a time, apparently in a […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “How To Get Away With Murder”

Posted February 27, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  A weaker show than HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER would be crippled by its sizable flaws.  With the all-important exception of its central character, Philadelphia law professor and expert criminal lawyer Annalise Keating, and Viola Davis, the richly talented actress who plays her, the rest of the characters and cast are bland to […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Review: “Saturday Night Live” with Michael Keaton

Posted April 4, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  It wasn’t until the last few minutes of tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE that the show seemed to figure out what to do with this week’s host–which was weird, because Michael Keaton, making his return to SNL after decades, much as he returned to public consciousness with last year’s Birdman, has a wide range that […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “True Detective”

Posted June 22, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  TRUE DETECTIVE:  Sunday 9PM on HBO The first season of TRUE DETECTIVE was so masterfully assembled that it took some time for people to question what taste it was leaving in their mouths.  When Matthew McConaughey’s arias of philosophizing, and the brilliantly extended tracking shots, and the dense mythology were done, how new were […]

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Film Festival

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Review: “The Lobster”

Posted September 12, 2015 by Mitch Salem

  The allegory is piled on so thickly in Yorgos Lanthimos’ THE LOBSTER that after a while, it’s not clear just what the underlying subject is supposed to be.  Lanthimos is a cult-favorite filmmaker (the cult mostly consists of critics and film festival selection committee members) whose arresting Dogtooth was an unlikely Best Foreign Film […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Ray Donovan”

Posted June 25, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  RAY DONOVAN:  Sunday 9PM on Showtime When a car crashes into a Los Angeles wall in the Season 4 premiere of Showtime’s sizable if somewhat inexplicable hit RAY DONOVAN, it doesn’t just crash into a wall:  it crashes directly into a giant mural of the Virgin Mary.  That’s the way Ray Donovan rolls, its […]

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Reviews

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Westworld”

Posted December 5, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  “Interactive TV” is a phrase that’s been used many times in many contexts over the years, and HBO’s WESTWORLD provided a new way to look at the concept.  The first season of Westworld was–more than Lost, more than Mr. Robot, even going back all the way to The Prisoner–an unprecedentedly elaborate series of puzzles.  […]

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