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TV: Glee:"Hairography"
Even the best TV shows occasionally find themselves wandering into a terrible storyline or two. Every so often, Landry is killing a man, the Earps are hanging out in Deadwood, or Kim Bauer is threatened by a cougar. In some ways, it's easy to make a ...
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Drama
Deadwood
TV: Modern Family:"Fizbo"
My best birthday party ever was when I was six or seven years old. My mother and grandmother transformed our entire basement into the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz , completed with handpainted yellow brick road. I will never give my kids a ...
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Other
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:Week Five results
Oh, it's seriously on -- now that the couples are doing two dances, and simultaneously are about to break up! I won't miss the terminal cuteness of Mollee and Nathan (the couple that gave me the sugar diabetes), and I'm going to be hoping for a ...
TV: Sons of Anarchy:"Culling"
"Culling," the penultimate episode of this season of Sons , opens with the members of SAMCRO circling the wagons and getting ready for the rain. It's an exciting sequence, not so much because of any tension from what we actually see--everything goes ...
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Other
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:The top 12 perform
“For a choreographer the dancers are the paint…. You used your paint really smart and really beautifully.” —Adam Shankman, wise sage.
Too often there’s a disconnect between the choreography and the dancers executing that choreography on So You Think ...
TV: V:"It's Only The Beginning"
So, uh, remember all that stuff I said last week dismissing the cable news interpretation that the V lizard aliens=Obama? Well, maybe not. The final episode of V that we get this year kinda gave the viewer something to think about, as well as ...
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Other
TV: The Big Bang Theory:"The Vengeance Formulation"
"The Vengeance Formulation" might be my favorite Big Bang Theory so far this season. It didn't have any single plotline that was as sustained in hilarity as last week's Sheldon and Penny extravaganza, but both plotlines were warmly funny, both ...
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Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
TV: Heroes:"Thanksgiving"
Nothing advances the story in Heroes like the time between episodes—at least it feels that way, especially when the characters begin each one by explaining what's gone down in the interim and what's about to happen next. It must be amazing to be ...
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Sci-Fi
Heroes
TV: House:"Ignorance Is Bliss"
The previews for this week's episode, "Ignorance Is Bliss," had me nervous. Of everything that frustrates me about what House has become, the one thing I'm least able to tolerate is the back-and-forth between House and Cuddy--for reasons that I've ...
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Drama
House
TV: How I Met Your Mother:"Slapsgiving 2: Revenge Of The Slap"
You're setting yourself up for failure if you bill your Thanksgiving episode as a sequel to one of the most beloved episodes of the series. And for most of tonight's "Slapsgiving 2: Port of Call New Orleans," the failure is real. It's all delayed ...
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Comedy
Revenge
Lily Tomlin
Ted Danson
TV: The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad:"Pranks and Greens"/"A Brown Thanksgiving"/"Jerome Is the New Black"/"My Morning Straitjacket"
It was an evening of odd characters wandering into the lives of our favorite Fox animated characters, of new mentors and crazy friends. It was also an evening of half-hearted social messages, occasional holiday references and assorted speeches about ...
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Animation
Jack Black
Family Guy
The Cleveland Show
The Simpsons
Blair Brown
TV: Dexter:"Hungry Man"
So, listen, Dexter fans. That episode was a big step up from the last couple of go nowhere bore fests, but that final twist was completely ludicrous. When some of you were saying in comments how obvious it was that the reporter was behind the ...
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Drama
Dexter
TV: Other Shows:"Metalocalypse: Dethhealth"
Hi ho, regular jackoffs! If you're reading this, you're probably one of the people who's asked us to do regular coverage of Brendon Small & Tommy Blacha's totally metal animated sitcom Metalocalypse . We're not quite there yet, but we figured that ...
TV: The Venture Bros.:"Self-Medication"
The "let's begin in the middle of a standard-seeming action sequence" opening is a much-loved Venture Bros. standard by now, and "Self-Medication" goes at it with the gusto you'd expect. The doc is being menaced by the Monarch and his floating ...
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Other
TV: Curb Your Enthusiasm:"Seinfeld"
"We don't do endings like that. It's all bullshit. What couples get together at the end?"
I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but I'm pretty sure Larry David made the universe fold in on itself tonight. More specifically, he made the Curb universe and ...
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Other
Larry David
Jerry Seinfeld
TV: Other Shows:Sit Down, Shut Up: "High School Musical Musical"
Because I used to cover the Fox Sunday Animation block—which Todd VanDerWerff has been doing quite splendidly—my DVR is still set to record all the shows. And even though I had read the news that episodes of Sit Down, Shut Up were going to be burned ...
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Other
High School Musical
Alisen Down
Sit Down, Shut Up
TV: Saturday Night Live:Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Dave Matthews Band
Best episode ever?
Of the season, I mean. I had a feeling ahead of time that Joseph Gordon-Levitt could pull off a good show--I liked him on 3rd Rock from the Sun and if, as a kid, he could be funny next to French Stewart (and I guess, John ...
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Comedy
Dave Matthews Band
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
John Lithgow
Saturday Night Live
Make 'Em Laugh
TV: Community:"Environmental Science"
As it wraps up its appearances in November sweeps, Community is really on a roll. That's, by my count, four straight really good episodes, with at least three of them being all-time keepers (especially last week's terrific half hour). The series ...
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Comedy
Community
TV: 30 Rock:"Sun Tea"
Hello, 30 Rockers ! My name is Steve, and I’ll be covering the show tonight for The T.V. Club. I realize coming here and getting me rather than Nathan Rabin is like tuning in to Pardon The Interruption for the entertaining repartee of Tony ...
TV: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:"The D.E.N.N.I.S. System"
“The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” was a little lighter on laughs than last week but had an amusingly intricate plot (something that’s rare for Sunny ), and a fantastic, disgusting denouement (something that’s very common, but always very welcome). Best of ...
TV: Fringe:“August”
Because I work at home, by myself, I spend some portion of each day roaming around the house talking and/or singing in a funny voice. I also spend some portion of each day locked inside my head, in pained reflection, recalling something stupid I said ...
TV: Supernatural:"Abandon All Hope"
Hey, remember Ellen and Jo, the only two non-dead recurring non-evil female characters on the show? Remember how they disappeared for a while, but then came back for this season, and it was like, we're gonna be fighting against Lucifer, so we gotta ...
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Sci-Fi
Hope Davis
Supernatural
TV: Project Runway:"Finale: Part 2"
Will Carol-Hannah stop puking in time to make it to Bryant Park? Will Irina slaughter a couple of minks at the last minute to up the luxe factor of her upscale loungewear collection? Will Althea develop a design aesthetic besides "eh wear"? Can this ...
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Other
TV: The Office:"Shareholder Meeting"
Hello, Office ianados! Nathan Rabin, well-selling author and man about town, is off leading the lifestyle of a jet-setting ne'er-do-well, so it again falls to me to recap this week's escapades at the possibly insolvent Dunder-Mifflin. This episode ...
TV: FlashForward:"Believe"
Maybe we should only be watching FlashForward in the odd-numbered episodes because after last week's complete snore, "Believe" was quite possibly the show's finest hour yet. It probably doesn't quite deserve an A-, but I believe in using these ...
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Sci-Fi
Flash Forward
TV: Parks and Recreation:"Hunting Trip"
A few weeks back, Leonard Pierce was covering this show for TV Club and made note that the Fred Armisen episode lacked the strength of Parks & Rec 's supporting cast. Tonight we saw the other end of the spectrum. Even though every single cast member ...
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Comedy
Fred Armisen
TV: Project Runway:"Finale: Part 2"
Will Carol-Hannah stop puking in time to make it to Bryant Park? Will Irina slaughter a couple of minks at the last minute to up the luxe factor of her upscale loungewear collection? Will Althea develop a design aesthetic besides "eh wear"? Can this ...
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Other
TV: Glee:"Ballad"
For all of the Glee commentary running rampant on the Internet, there's been surprisingly little analysis of the show as an actual musical. Sure, there's lots of writing about how exciting the show's musical sequences are or the song choices or how ...
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Comedy
Glee
TV: Top Chef:"Culinary Olympics"
Looks like Robin got out at the right time.
With the competition thinned to what I think most would (or should) agree are the best final five chefs in the show’s history, Top Chef morphed into another, more exciting season tonight. To torture a ...
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Reality
Robin Tunney
Top Chef
TV: South Park:Pee
Ironic racism is a hard line to walk. (Say, isn’t that a Lyle Lovett song?) Doing it right requires a satirical finesse that even our finest comic minds haven’t always pulled off—and when they try, they usually get pissy little blogs written about ...
TV: Friday Night Lights:"A Sort Of Homecoming"
If Friday Night Lights has an unofficial theme song it’s the Daniel Johnston-penned “Devil Town.” “Devil Town” opened and closed the first season and served, in a version sung by Tony Lucca, as the soundtrack to the third season’s promo clips. But ...
TV: Modern Family:"Great Expectations"
There's one thing that "Great Expectations" gets exactly right. Anniversary presents given by spouses to each other suffer from an inevitable asymmetry. In my marriage, Noel plays the role of Phil, thinking up interesting and extravagant gift ...
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Other
Edward Norton
Wentworth Miller
TV: America's Next Top Model:"America's Next Top Model Is..."
Aww. Poor Cornpone Laura. From castratin' bulls to crumple-face crying on the CW because she came in second on America's Next Top Participant At Capetown Fashion Week . And even though she should have known Bloody Eyeball would best her—after all, ...
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Other
The CW Television Network
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:Week 4 Results
You know you're in the doldrums of any talent competition when the stress of staying out of the bottom group, while still performing esoteric tasks not of one's own choosing, combine in a mostly workmanlike, lackluster performance show. For the most ...
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Other
TV: Sons of Anarchy:"Service"
I always get nervous when things work out. Something about a resolved conflict, about people with every reason to hate each other finding some common ground--well, it's nifty, don't get me wrong, but it's almost like everybody walks away from the ...
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Other
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:The top 14 perform
Some nights the judges on SYTYCD latch onto an idea and it influences the critiques throughout the entire episode, and tonight’s theme was definitely “growth” (with the baby-picture montages to match). Nearly every couple got a comment—mostly from ...
TV: V:"A Bright New Day"
Halfway through tonight’s episode of V , I was all fired-up and ready to slam it on the AV Club for the third week running when a funny thing happened – the plot started advancing. There were some honest-to-goodness twists! The resistance gained a ...
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Other
TV: Other Shows:Chef Academy - "Coming to America"
I'm pretty sure Bravo's new show, Chef Academy , just blends elements of every other show they have on their network until it ends up with something that feels vaguely like a television show. There's one of the housewives from Real Housewives (OK, ...
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Reality
Bravo
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Top Chef
TV: The Big Bang Theory:"The Adhesive Duck Deficiency"
"The Adhesive Duck Deficiency" has everything I love about The Big Bang Theory and everything I find enervating about it so close to each other that it almost serves as a perfect object lesson about what makes individual episodes of the show work or ...
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Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
TV: Gossip Girl:"The Last Days Of Disco Stick"
The other day, the fiancée and I were talking about how Abed Nadir, the possibly Asperger’s-addled mega-geek Danny Pudi plays on Community , is one of our favorite new television characters. And as glad as I was to have another trusted, entertaining ...
TV: Heroes:"Brother's Keeper"
Much like a guy who owns a boat named after himself, Heroes regularly keeps itself at bay. It writes itself into corners, then finds itself in another corner trying to get out of that first corner; before it knows what's happening, there's all these ...
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Sci-Fi
Heroes
TV: House:"Teamwork"
It's never a good sign when a show starts forcing conflicts without adequate justification. Drama should come naturally from established character interactions--external forces obviously come into play, but at its core, conflict is all about people ...
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Drama
House
Chevy Chase
TV: How I Met Your Mother:"The Playbook"
Last week's episode proved rather divisive, didn't it? For the record, I'm generally against makeup-based comedy. But the tone was so spirited, the action so light on its feet, and the overall effect so genial that I quite enjoyed "Rough Patch."
I ...
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Other
Robin Tunney
TV: Dexter:"Road Kill"
"Road Kill" is as close a look as Dexter has ever given us at another character through Dexter's eyes. It's an unblinking glimpse into the dark heart of Arthur Mitchell, and while it's still not quite Dexter at its best, there's a solid quality to ...
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Drama
Dexter
Arthur
TV: The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad:"The Devil Wears Nada"/"Ladies' Night"/"Quagmire's Baby"/"Shallow Vows"
Fully three of the four animated shows tonight dealt with marital problems between the series' central husband and wife duo. This ended up making Family Guy a weird oasis, even if the episode of that tonight had its own problems. I realize all ...
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Animation
Family Guy
The Cleveland Show
The Simpsons
TV: The Venture Bros.:"Revenge Society"
I got to interview Jackson Publick last May to promote the release of the third season of Venture Bros. on DVD and Blu-Ray--and yeah, it was pretty freakin' sweet. Nice guy, really smart, and very polite about my mumble-mouthed interrogatives. (It ...
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Other
TV: Curb Your Enthusiasm:"The Table Read"
It's taken six episodes, a muffin top life preserver, a few rousing renditions of "Officer Krupke," and one dead black swan, but Larry and Jerry have finally gotten their Seinfeld non-reunion reunion off the ground. There's a set! (It looks pretty ...
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Other
Jerry Seinfeld
TV: Other Shows:The Prisoner
There's a desert. A man wakes up in it. Another man has a grenade. "Be seeing you." He's scared. Someone orders a wrap, because that's all there is. Ian McKellen is interesting, and well dressed. "There is no New York, only the Village." Are those the ...
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Other
The Prisoner
Ian McKellen
TV: Saturday Night Live:"January Jones/Black Eyed Peas"
There is a maddening paradox to this year’s spectacularly underachieving season of Saturday Night Live. The show is full of funny, talented, dynamic young performers. I like just about everyone in the current incarnation of the Not Ready For Prime ...
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Comedy
Jack Black
Saturday Night Live
Prime Time
Fred Armisen
Andy Samberg
TV: FlashForward:"Playing Cards with Coyote"
I don't know what this says about me, exactly, but Ricky Jay is one of my favorite actors. He pretty much plays the same guy in everything he's in, but I love that guy. He tells long-winded stories about the secret history of things in his every ...
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