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Why renewing “Parks And Recreation” may not be the best move for either NBC...
News broke today that NBC would be renewing “Parks And Recreation” for a seventh season. It’s a piece of news that’s somewhat surprising: “Parks” has never been high in the ratings, and it’s been...
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Who Moved My TV Character’s Cheese: Why we respond to strongly to vocational...
Last night’s “Saturday Night Live” parody of “Scandal” was simultaneously funny and instructive. As a fan of both shows, I had reservations when the sketch started: recent “SNL” parodies of programs...
View ArticleThe “Community” Renewal, or, Introduction To Starting Over
The renewal of “Community” means everything. And the renewal of “Community” means nothing. Both statements are polar opposites of one another, yet utterly true at the same time. Instead of a cat inside...
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Dear Internet: Forgive Damon Lindelof, and Forgive Yourselves
The title really says it all. To be clear up front: I’m talking to those that forced Lindelof to leave Twitter, those that bitterly complained about “Lost” with every tweet he delivered, those that...
View ArticleAll Art Was Not Made For You
It’s 2015, yet we still need to disabuse some of the notion that not all art is made for them. I’m writing in this in the wake of James Poniewozik’s excellent piece today about the “Not For Me” moment...
View ArticleThe difference between joy and relief in the modern TV landscape
Savoring is the new binging. Well, it would be if I were Emperor Of Pop Culture. But since that position doesn’t exist, and since I probably wouldn’t have the savvy or martial forces to capture such a...
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The Heart Over The Head
Part of why I stopped writing so many episodic recaps was functional: The pace at which I was writing them outstripped my desire to keep doing them. But part of it was also due to that fact that I...
View ArticlePlot versus story, redux
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: When it comes to TV, plot is not important. That thought rang out while watching the fourth episode of this season of “Orange Is The New Black” the other...
View ArticleIn Which Ryan Once Again Talks About How We Talk About TV
So let’s talk about the state of TV, and the state of talking about TV. You could put together an excellent year-end “Best Of” list consisting of nothing but shows that aired new episodes between...
View ArticleWhy it might be time to kill the post-mortem
At the end of the “Hannibal” series finale, I tweeted that it was a perfect end to that show. I don’t think it was a perfect finale, and I thought overall Season 3 was the weakest of all the seasons to...
View ArticleWhen the parts are greater than the sum
What do you do when you love a core aspect of a television show, but aren’t sure you actually are enjoying the show as a whole? It’s something I’ve wrestled with over the past few months with several...
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The myth of “true crime”: “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson”...
About halfway through the upcoming season of “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” a lawyer for one side of the case utters these words to his colleagues: “Jurors go with the narrative...
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How “Fresh Off The Boat” highlights the potential power of Peak TV
Part of what makes television so beloved is its familiarity. Until the last 20 years or so, shows more or less thrived on repetition. To a great extent, that precept is still 100% true: Large numbers...
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