The finale was a very entertaining and sometimes moving disappointment - though a disappointment by the extremely high standards of the show. There were many things to like (spoiler alert, of course). The reptile part of my brain enjoyed watching Jesse choke the life out of Todd. It was even better . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m up to the fourth season, but I have also been watching the last half of the fifth season. Here are several thoughts, The money isn’t really about the money for hardly anybody. One of the conceits of the show is that the drug money can’t really be spent in large, visible . . . . Continue Reading »
There is this new sitcom called The Goldbergs that is set in the 1980s. The trailer doesn’t look all that funny. When I first heard that there was going to be a sitcom set in the 1980s, my first thought was that the producers would be kind of sloppy and treat the 80s as some kind of . . . . Continue Reading »
So I’m really getting into Breaking Bad from the start. It is the show about a brilliant chemist turned failed entrepreneur, turned high school teacher, turned drug lord. Walter White has a disabled (and sweet) son, his wife is pregnant with an unexpected baby. He turns fifty and finds . . . . Continue Reading »
George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel Game of Thrones is the first novel in a seven book series titled The Song of Ice and Fire which has been turned into a hit HBO show. This post is confined to the first book and will not address the show’s sleaziness, but those interested in . . . . Continue Reading »
They say different things, is what they do. The knowing say Ryan failed us with facts and policy and no showmanship. They say Biden was all showmanship, but that’s what counts. The hoi polloi say Ryan was marvelous, controlled and respectful, as he battled two opponents, not . . . . Continue Reading »
Fans of the hit TV show LOST speculated after the first couple of seasons that it was secretly a presentation of Purgatory. The buzz over this thesis grew to such large proportions that the producers had to release a letter denying the rumors. Now two years after the show is finished, . . . . Continue Reading »
On the other hand, there is media kerfuffle on the Right about Chris Hayes of MSNBC saying he has a problem with using the word, “heroes” for the dead on Memorial Day because that word ennobles war and worst of all, ennobles the current war effort. What could be worse? I . . . . Continue Reading »
Thomas Hibbs has updated his book Shows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture in light of films and TV shows of the last decade like Christopher Nolan’s movies and AMC’s Mad Men. He says Nihilism has been the reigning philosophy in Hollywood since the 1960’s. By Nihilism, . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week Ross Douthat posted a comparison of The Sopranos and The Wire . He sees the two shows in terms of psychology v. sociology, the former being the more insightful because it presents flesh and blood human beings while the latter reduces its characters to their surrounding culture in . . . . Continue Reading »
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