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Boardwalk Empire, Ep. 3.03, “Bone For Tuna”: The women take over

Boardwalk Empire, Season 3, Episode 3, “Bone For Tuna” Written by Chris Haddock Directed by Jeremy Podeswa Airs Sundays at 9pm (ET) on HBO Top moment this week: watching Bobby Cannavale and Gretchen Mol in their first scene together. It’s like watching a Great White and a cobra face off. Two entirely different but equally …

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The Olympics and American TV: 7 Factoids You May Not Know

With tonight’s Closing Ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics, another historic Summer Games comes to its end. There have been myriad history-making moments and memorable competitions, from Michael Phelps taking the record for most Olympic career medals (he has 22- the previous was 18) to Oscar Pistorius’s precedent-setting role as the first amputee to compete …

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Don’t I Know You?: 5 TV Series that World-Build with their Casts

As Avengers continues to dominate at the box office, many in Hollywood are undoubtedly hard at work trying to put their fingers on just what it is about the film that has triggered such a massive fan response. Yes, it’s well written, yes, it’s fun, and yes, it comes from a known property, but one …

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In Defense of Friday TV, or Please Stop Saying There’s a Friday Night Death Slot

As far back as the ‘60s, TV fans have complained about the Friday Night Death Slot, when it was blamed, in part, by many for the cancellation of Star Trek. Friday evening timeslots have notoriously high turnover rates and most TV people can name a few shows off the top of their head that have …

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Baseball and TV: 10 Episodes that Knock it Outta the Park

With Eastbound & Down’s series finale set to air this Sunday and the 2012 MLB season a few weeks underway, baseball is on the brain of many a sports-loving TV fan. With such a long and rich history, and such a strong place in American culture, it’s only natural for so many series to take …

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The Trouble with Women: Network TV and the Bechdel Test

Two women sit in a restaurant. As they wait for their food, they discuss current events, politics, and an interesting historical tidbit one of them recently learned. Their food arrives and the conversation moves into the more personal- one woman’s marathon training, the upcoming nuptials of a (female) family member. To the canny observer, the …

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The Trouble with Thanksgiving TV

It’s officially the Holiday Season, that latter part of every year when Americans, perhaps in a bid to combat the increasingly chilly weather, draw together with friends and family to celebrate whichever holidays are most important to them, usually starting with Thanksgiving. It’s at this time of year, right as kids start getting time off …

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TV To Be Thankful For: 2011

Thanksgiving is here (American Thanksgiving, at least), making it officially the Holiday Season. It’s a time for reflection, for pausing to appreciate those people and things we’re most grateful for, and for focusing on what’s really important in life. Television. Here are just a few of the many things I am grateful for this year. …

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Joe Schmoe and his Hot Wife Betty: A Sitcom Trope Investigated

One of the most commonly accepted clichés of American television is the family sitcom with the schlubby husband and gorgeous wife. It’s so pervasive that a quick Google search brings up this entry on the topic from TvTropes.org, which features 3,700+ words devoted to live action TV examples alone. Most TV fans look down on …

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7 Part TV Scare-athon: Because Halloween Isn’t Just for Cinephiles

It’s that time of year again- Halloween; ‘tis the season for ghouls and ghasts and spooks galore. There have been few true horror series, such as Tales from the Crypt and Masters of Horror, and for this admitted scaredy-cat, finding TV episodes to watch can be tough. Here are seven fun and spooky episodes to …

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In Defense of Melodrama, TV’s Bread and Butter

The terms “melodrama” and “melodramatic” have for a long time been pejoratives in artistic circles. A quick look at thesaurus.com brings up “artificial”, “hammy”, “overdramatic”, and “stagy” as synonyms, among others, and for many, the term is often accompanied by an eyeroll or similar indicator of contempt. As mainstream theatre transitioned from pantomime and ballet …

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Community, Ep. 3.03: “Competitive Ecology″

Community, Season 3, Episode 3: “Competitive Ecology″ Airs Thursdays, 8pm ET on NBC A common theme in sitcom television is that the characters within the world of the television show only interact with each other and never make any friends outside of their group. If they do, they are only pushed away by other members …

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You Want Answers with that Mystery?: The Series-long Arc in Genre TV

Over the years, serialized television has become increasingly more prominent. Condensed-time and arc-based series are the dramatic norm, on cable at least, with the most culturally significant and critically acclaimed series falling into this category. With television viewership dwindling, niche shows are increasingly sustainable, making cult, new-viewer-unfriendly programming less of a risk for struggling networks. …

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Trends in High School TV: Fun with Stats

I’m a nerd. I like data. Spreadsheets are fun and I have a nearly Marshall Eriksen-level affinity for charts. When I decided to look into high school-based television series for my next article, my first stop was Wikipedia and its page on high school television series (This is why I’m not an actual researcher). Initially, …

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Just the Facts: 7 TV Detectives You’d Want Working Your Case

Cop shows have been around almost as long as television itself and have run the gamut, from procedurals to sitcoms to serialized dramas. They’ve given us some of TV’s most memorable and enduring characters, not to mention some of the medium’s best performances. Yet, upon examination, disproportionately few of the detectives who grace our screens …

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