TV’s House continues to puzzle
I have a love/hate relationship with House, MD, which is really reflective of the main character himself, who seems to vacillate between being mind-numbingly irritating and absolutely delightful....
Category: TV
Upstairs, Downstairs struggles to find a direction
The new version of 1970s UK favourite Upstairs, Downstairs has crossed the pond to PBS' Masterpiece Theatre, and something about this reboot lacks the spark of the original or the similar Downton...
Women and the Work/Life Balance Problem Onscreen
ABC's rocky pilot episode of Body of Proof recently highlighted an ongoing problem television dramas seem to struggle with: the accurate depiction of work/life balance for women. As women in society...
Grey’s Anatomy, gay parents and non traditional families on TV
Last week's Grey's Anatomy ended with a cliffhanger this viewer predicted at the very moment we saw Callie and Arizona in a car; crunching noises and the show's classic fade to white, warning that...
Exploitation, an American Experience: The PBS Triangle Fire documentary
This Friday marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, one of the worst industrial accidents in the history of the United States. PBS recently explored the Triangle Fire in a...
Secret Millionaire: The Fairy Godmother Fantasies of the Ruling Class
The promotionals for ABC's version of Secret Millionaire, yet another UK show being remade in the United States (as well as Australia), promise viewers a series where people with pots of money will...
Comic Masculinity: The Three Faces of Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen has three faces. Not a day goes by without the publication of several new articles analyzing Sheen's increasingly bizarre exploits (including, of course, this one) but, strangely, they...
TV’s Castle gets serious… and loses its way
ABC's Castle wrapped up March sweeps with a two-parter episode to lure viewers in, perhaps with the goal of combating a ratings slip. It seemed to work; 8.99 million viewers tuned in for 'Setup' and...
The Borgias come to TV: The allure of the rich behaving badly
Hold on to your hats on 3 April, because the Borgias are coming to prime time. Showtime announces that 'The Borgias will be a complex, unvarnished portrait of one of history’s most intriguing and...
The after school special goes primetime: Glee and disability
Glee is back on the airwaves this week with a double whammy of episodes, after an all-too-short hiatus. The musical hit, and its spin off merchandise, appears to be taking the world by storm, judging...