Television as a medium seems to become more exciting and surprising practically every week these days, but one thing remains the same:  The EMMY AWARDS is still the weak, erratic sibling of the other major awards shows, even when the telecast itself is slickly packaged, as was mostly the case with tonight’s rendition from […]

> The atmosphere on this week’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE was far more relaxed now that last week’s Lindsay Lohan Extravaganza Express has left town.  That didn’t make it a great episode–SNL is lucky to manage 1 or 2 of those in a season–but it had its share of laughs. Jonah Hill was a good choice […]

  BONNIE & CLYDE saved its most idiotic inspiration for the end.  Up until its last few minutes, the second half of the Lifetime/A&E/History miniseries was perhaps marginally better than its first (which we dealt with in yesterday’s review).  There was less chatty posthumous narration from Clyde (Emile Hirsch) this time around, a greater role […]

    666 PARK AVENUE:  Sunday 10PM on ABC   WHAT IT’S SAYING:  The Devil’s Advocate, Rosemary’s Baby and The Shining in a stunning NY apartment, and fielding an all-star team of ABC veterans (Terry O’Quinn, Vanessa Williams, Dave Annable, Rachael Taylor).  

> Until its final 45 minutes, the one thing that could be said about this year’s Oscar telecast was that it was at least brisk.  Merely 2 hours and 15 minutes into the show, there were amazingly only 3 awards and the In Memorium segment still to go.  But for ABC, running under the appointed […]

  Every year the Oscars flail around searching for a host, a theme, a tone–anything to make its annual 4 hours of primetime cohere instead of congeal–and every year THE TONY AWARDS make it look relatively easy.  This wasn’t a great year for Broadway–swamped with family- and tourist-friendly musical extravaganzas and star vehicles, its serious […]

> Tonight’s Grammy Awards were inevitably somewhat haunted by the awful loss of Whitney Houston barely 24 hours earlier, a tragedy that seemed to have been going on for a decade yet was still shocking when it came to its fruition.  Nevertheless, the show found time to include innumerable music numbers, some of them saluting […]

  Mick Jagger isn’t exactly known for his comedy stylings.  But the man knows a little bit about performing, and he was an extremely game host for tonight’s 37th season finale of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.  He didn’t have much to do, though, with the night’s highlights. The highest of those was the sweet, teary farewell […]