Yes, children, it's Christmas, and time once again to gather 'round the flat panel display and join in the holiday cheer as privileged hipsters receive luxury cars as surprise presents... this year's version of the decade-long series of Lexus holiday commercials that feature the lucky, the well-to-do and the model-beautiful as they get what naturally comes to them -- high-end automobiles decorated with over-sized bows...

2011

Dec

THE MODERN LIFE: WELL LIVED, WELL DESIGNED By Eric Gould

One of the many successes of AMC's much-honored Mad Men is its art direction. And now here's a documentary about two American designers who directly shaped the postwar modernism that's such an integral, sexy part of that series...

2011

Dec

DECADES LATER, A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER STILL GETS UNDER THE SKIN By Eric Gould

"The Singing Detective" might not conjure a picture of holiday cheer, but still, it's an essential gift of TV Worth Giving, and certainly one Worth Getting. If you have a quality TV collector on your list who somehow, by some gross omission, doesn't have it as part of his or her home video library, here's your chance. You can give a milestone work of television art, and one that will keep giving, and keep rewarding, with each repeated viewing...

2011

Nov

OY! TO THE WORLD: CELEBRATING THE 'HEBREW HAMMER' By Eric Gould

No one covers holiday programming like TVWW, and by that, we mean Hanukkah, too. Case in point: we remind you of Shalom TV's annual roll-out of The Hebrew Hammer. It ushers in the annual Festival of Lights with a "Blaxploitation" parody sending up every Jewish cultural stereotype possible in irreverent Airplane style -- from the almighty Jewish Guilt to the meddling Jewish mother...

2011

Nov

THE MANY FACES OF WOODY ALLEN By Eric Gould

Coming up on PBS Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. ET, Nov. 20-21 (check local listings), are four hours of actors, writers and critics lining up to pay homage to one of the true auteurs of our time -- one who somehow was able to muse on life's great metaphysical mysteries while slipping on a giant banana peel, or dressed as a Hassidic Rabbi...

2011

Nov

SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY By Eric Gould

Once the sacred territory of horror and slasher films, hefty servings of fetishized blood and guts are now regular television fare in plentiful supply on Sunday night. And every other night of the week, for that matter -- but somehow Sunday, with its massive audience and its collection of daringly dark drama series, gets the lion's share...

2011

Nov

'HELL ON WHEELS' GOES FULL STEAM BACK TO THE AMERICAN WEST By Eric Gould

Hollywood's John Wayne westerns gave us a tidy-looking old west with meticulously pressed costumes, freshly shorn hair and brightly lit saloons. With portraits like Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) and HBO's Deadwood (2004), we got a more physical feel for the time and place -- muddy streets, scraggly beards and bad teeth...

2011

Nov

'FABRIC OF THE COSMOS' IS NO SIMPLE CLOTH By Eric Gould

The British scientist J.B.S. Haldane famously mused on the universe, and has since been quoted as many times as there are stars in the sky. In 1927, he wrote, "...Now my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we 'can' suppose." Meaning, we're simply not even capable -- yet -- of imagining what we need to know...

2011

Oct

A HALLOWEEN MASTER OF DISGUISE By Eric Gould

It's Halloween, and since it's the time of year for the utterly icky and strange, there's no better occasion to flip through the archives for a show that introduces us to a spineless, pale Cephalopoda with large, smart-looking eyes that shifts shape, and that can also attack with an eight-armed face...

2011

Oct

DUMBER AND DUMBERER: MTV'S 'BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD' ARE BACK, HEH-HEH! By Eric Gould

Watching MTV's new reboot of Beavis and Butt-Head (premiering Thursday at 10 p.m. ET), you get the same feeling you had when the series premiered in 1993 -- why in the world am I wasting time on these idiots? I mean, serious idiots. And when Butt-Head reprises his role as couch-bound commentator of MTV videos and shows, it strikes you: You're watching these dopes watch TV...

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