'The Office' - 'Garden Party': The host with the most
A beloved recurring character returns, but is Andy carrying enough of the comic load as the new boss?
Mose (Mike Schur) made a triumphant return to "The Office."
A review of last night's "The Office" coming up just as soon as I tell you about the Goat Package...
'Parks and Recreation' - 'Pawnee Rangers': Treat yo'self!
Leslie and Ron compete against each other, and Donna and Tom take Ben shopping
Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) and Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) have a "Parks and Recreation" rivalry.
A review of tonight's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I Google those rat tumors...
'Community' - 'Remedial Chaos Theory': Crisis on infinite Jeffs
The study group lives out 7 different timelines in season 3's best episode to date
Abed (Danny Pudi) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) on "Community."
A review of tonight's "Community" coming up just as soon as I refill the toilet olives...
Preview: 'Community' tells 7 stories in one with 'Remedial Chaos Theory'
Tonight's episode manages to showcase most of the things that are great about the series
Donald Glover in a scene from tonight's "Community."
It's still very early in the TV season, but there seems to be a rising tide of concern among "Community" fans on two different fronts: 1)That the ratings so far this fall have been down notably over a year ago, and 2)That the season's first 3 episodes haven't wowed many of you, and in fact have left many concerned about the creative state of the show.
The Morning Round-Up: 'Up All Night,' 'Suburgatory,' 'Modern Family' & 'Happy Endings'
Another quick tour through the Wednesday night comedies
Casey Wilson and Megan Mullally on "Happy Endings."
Last week's morning round-up post was well-received, and it seems like doing that from time to time gives me a chance to touch on shows which I would otherwise not have the time or material to devote full posts to. Today, I'm going to stick with the Wednesday comedies I watched last night, with brief thoughts on, in order, "Up All Night," "Suburgatory," "Modern Family" and "Happy Endings," coming up just as soon as I have a Master's in "gotcher nose!"...
Review: AMC's 'The Walking Dead' returns strong for season 2
Episodes produced before Frank Darabont's departure work very well
- Critic's Rating B+
- Readers' Rating B
There's lot for "The Walking Dead" survivors to be scared about in season 2.
When last we left Rick Grimes, the weary hero of AMC's zombie apocalypse drama "The Walking Dead," he and his friends and family had just escaped the exploding headquarters for the Centers for Disease Control, not long after learning that the odds of a cure for the zombie plague were somewhere between slim and none. Rick and company hit the road, uncertain of what to do next, or even if the fight to stay alive was still worth it.
'American Horror Story' - 'Home Invasion': No, seriously. Get out of the house!
The Harmon women get some unwanted visitors, while Ben faces his past
Ben (Dylan McDermott) goes shirtless again on "American Horror Story."
Your reaction to the "American Horror Story" pilot was, on the whole, more positive than my initial review. And the show unsurprisingly had a solid debut in the ratings, much stronger than anything FX saw from either "Terriers" (sigh...) or "Lights Out" (double-sigh...). How's everybody feeling after episode two? Dylan McDermott was slightly more clothed, the editing was slightly less frenzied, and the events of the hour were such that no sane person would ever spend another second living in that house, but lots of time to go in the series.
I doubt I'll be doing these talkback posts past next week's episode (since that would require me to watch additional episodes), but I'm curious what the temperature in the room is on the show at this moment. How do you feel after "Home Invasion"?
HBO renews 'Boardwalk Empire' for season 3
Prohibition-era mob drama won 8 Emmys last month
Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) won't be going anywhere for a while now that HBO has renewed "Boardwalk Empire."
Last fall, HBO ordered a second season of "Boardwalk Empire" only days after the first-ever episode had aired. This fall, HBO execs made Steve Buscemi, Terence Winter and company sweat it out just a bit more, announcing the third season renewal three weeks into season 2.
“Following a triumphant first season, I was eager to see what Terry Winter, Martin Scorsese and the rest of their stellar team had in store, and they continue to surpass our highest expectations,” HBO president Michael Lombardo said in a statement. “The response from the media and our viewers has been extremely gratifying.”
Ratings for the new season have been down from the season 1 averages - especially when you factor in the 4+ million people who watched the Martin Scorsese-directed series premiere - but ratings (whether for the Sunday at 9 airing alone, or combined numbers across all platforms, including On Demand and HBO Go) have never been the driver for these kinds of decisions at HBO. They're not dependent on advertising, so raw viewership numbers matter less than harder-to-quantify issues like how a particular show represents the channel's brand.
"Boardwalk" isn't cheap, and it wasn't the dominant Emmy force some were expecting before it premiered. (It won 8 Emmys last month, but 7 of those were in technical categories, and Scorsese's win for directing was practically pre-ordained from the moment the show was announced.) But it's a strong show with a lot of praise from the critics (including this one), and coming in at a shade below 3 million viewers for the most recent Sunday airing (before all the other timeslots and platforms are factored in) isn't bad at all, particularly after HBO saw the miniscule numbers for its two Monday comedy premieres this week, with "Bored to Death" drawing 240,000 viewers and "Enlightened" only 210,000.
Here come two words for you: Why I love 'Midnight Run'
Significantly more than two words on your humble critic's favorite movie
Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro in "Midnight Run."
If you've been following me for even a short amount of time, you probably know that "Midnight Run" is my favorite movie - not the best movie I've ever seen, but the one that gives me the most enjoyment, time after time, year after year. I quote one of Charles Grodin's lines as the sign-off to each week's podcast, use the soundtrack's cover image as my avatar on most social media, will frequently reference it in my writing, and even wrote a long post on it a few years ago on the old blog.
But after seeing it in a movie theater not long after it was released back in the summer of '88(*), I'd only ever watched it on home video, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, occasionally with my indulgent wife. A couple of weeks ago, though, my friend Steve told me that the 92nd Street Y Tribeca was not only screening the movie, but following it up with a Grodin Q&A, and even though this was in the heart of my busiest time of the year, work-wise, I couldn't resist going, for both the movie and The Duke.
'Sons of Anarchy' - 'With an X': The blame game
Juice gets deeper into trouble, while Clay makes a troubling decision
Tig (Kim Coates) has a family reunion on "Sons of Anarchy."
A review of tonight's "Sons of Anarchy" coming up just as soon as I recommend getting knocked up and kidnapped...
About This Blog
All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Must WatchThe Walking Dead
The undead return for season two. -
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Season two has its last episode tonight. -
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Kelsey Grammer's new show premieres this evening. -
Must WatchOnce Upon a Time
Jennifer Morrison stars in this new ABC fairytale series. -
Must WatchBeavis & Butt-Head
They're back in a whole new series. -
Must WatchChuck
The fifth--and final--season starts tonight.
