Posts Tagged ‘satire’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Succession”

  SUCCESSION:  Sunday 9PM on HBO Sometimes HBO’s loyalty to its series creators results in the last season of Game of Thrones, but it can also lead to the first season of SUCCESSION (and, to be fair, the earlier sea...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Weeds”

  WEEDS:  Sunday 10PM on Showtime   WHERE WE WERE:  After a season largely concerned with a battle for supremacy in the New York drug trade, both within and outside the family, there seemed to be a moment of compara...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Girls”

  GIRLS:  Sunday 9PM on HBO The newly Golden Globe-winning GIRLS has returned, despite all its intervening success and attention, with its messiness intact.  “Messy” is a relative term in the world of Girls,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “The Campaign”

  THE CAMPAIGN:  Not At Any Price – Abstain THE CAMPAIGN, like many a politician before it, tries to be all things to all people, and winds up delivering almost nothing. There was reason to be hopeful about The Camp...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Veep”

  VEEP:  Sunday 10PM on HBO You wouldn’t expect Armando Iannucci’s VEEP to change much from season to season, and you’d largely be right.  Notwithstanding its four-letter words and bustling cinema verit...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Bergman Island,” “True Things” & “France”

  BERGMAN ISLAND (IFC – Oct. 15):  Mia Hansen-Love’s Bergman Island asks to be poked and scrutinized in several ways.  It takes place on the island of Faro, where Ingmar Bergman filmed some of his most celebr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Episodes”

  The first season of Showtime’s EPISODES was hobbled by its own agenda, but in its much better Season 2, the series relaxed into a very solid sitcom.  The show, written throughout by Must-See-TV veterans David Cran...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Suburgatory”

  When SUBURGATORY went on the air last season, it had a clear vision:  as the title suggests, it was a light but acerbic satire about the perils of living a few too many miles from New York City, reflected through the ga...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Causeway” & “The Menu”

  CAUSEWAY (Apple – November 4):  After a decade as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, there was reason to wonder whether the Jennifer Lawrence who first came to prominence with the Sundance movie Winter’...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SERIES FINALE REVIEW: “Weeds”

  A suburbanite with money troubles gets into the drug business, gradually becoming corrupt, paranoid and power-hungry, increasingly alienated from family and former life… Not to take anything away from Breaking Bad,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Film Review: “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”

  ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES:  Watch It At Home – Fun But Overextended Silliness ANCHORMAN 2:  THE LEGEND CONTINUES runs 119 minutes, which is rather too much of a not-bad thing (the original Anchorman, in 2...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Empire of Light” & “Triangle of Sadness”

  EMPIRE OF LIGHT (Searchlight/Disney – December 9):  Sam Mendes takes the first solo screenwriting credit of his long career on Empire of Light, a personal film inspired by his youth and his mother.  The story is ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED REVIEW: SNL Weekend Update Thursday

  The political comics of America owe a heartfelt “thank you” to Mitt Romney for his “47%” bungle that became public this week.  (So do the Democrats, but that’s another story.)  Jon Stewart...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Getting On”

  HBO’s GETTING ON was generally close to unwatchable, and that’s meant as sort of a compliment.  Even in the world of pay-TV, where ratings aren’t always at the forefront of a network’s expectatio...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Sundance 2023 Reviews: “Eileen,” “Shortcomings” & “Landscape With Invisible Hand”

  EILEEN:  A dark tale of liberation, based on the novel by Ottessa Moshlegh (and adapted by Moshlegh with Luke Goebel).  Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) is an anonymous employee at a boys’ prison in a confining, wintry...
by Mitch Salem