Reviews for TV
Street dancing makes its move
Review:
Ask hip-hop dancers to describe what they do and they might have a hard time. Instead, ask them to show you.There's a new school of hip-hop dance that is evolving beyond '80s-style break dancing or the moves you see on MTV. It's new enough that it has yet to form a solid identity.Step Up 2 the Streets(Touchstone Pictures, US theatrical: 14 Feb 2008, UK theatrical: 21 Mar 2008) Trailer Official...
(Continue)
Route 66: Season 1, Vol. 1
Review:
In the history of American TV, the four-season run of Route 66 was as personal a writer's creation as Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, perhaps more so. The writer was Stirling Silliphant, who co-created the show with executive producer Herbert B. Leonard and wrote about two-thirds of the episodes. (Their previous achievement was the groundbreaking cop show Naked City.) The first 15 episodes are...
(Continue)
The Zen of Screaming: Vocal Instruction for a New Breed
Review:
Tact, prudence, and self-consciousness precluded me from really testing out The Zen of Screaming in my apartment, located in a densely populated neighborhood a bit east of Hollywood. So I had to wait until I was crawling along the 405 in my car to give it a whirl, would anyone find some unrestrained wailing out of place on America's most congested freeway? Nah, I figured, and let loose with my...
(Continue)
Yes, Dear
Review:
Before I saw the pilot for CBS's new sitcom, Yes, Dear, I heard vague rumors that it was a bomb just waiting for October to go off. After watching it, I can't say that I agree.Yes, Dear is a serviceable sitcom that, like most new shows, teeter-totters between doing things well and doing things badly. Whether it will develop based on its strengths or be dragged down by its weaknesses is...
(Continue)
War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Review:
Normon Solomon is clearly a moral man. His criticism of the US government in its invasion of Iraq and the mass media's coverage of the war is driven by a stated revulsion of the self-serving motives of both. Though he doesn't use the term, Solomon is a journalist who believes in journalism as the fourth estate. Its job is above all else to check the power of government. War Made Easy brings...
(Continue)
The Xfl
Review: The history of professional football in America is a long and storied one. From the days of leather helmets and pioneering stars like Red Grange and Jim Thorpe, to the immortal images of Vince Lombardi, Joe Namath, and Walter Payton, football has been the stuff of athletic icons and cultural legends. And since World War II, the National Football League has been the official embodiment of these... (Continue)
Xena Warrior Princess: Season Three
Review:
Originally a villainess on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena (Lucy Lawless) saw the error of her ways, renounced her past, and tried to do right. She was supported in these efforts by the love of her flaxen-haired, pro-peace 'partner,' Gabrielle (Renée O'Connor).Their relationship drew lesbian fans to the show, encouraged by openly lesbian producer Liz Friedman. Cleverly, the show...
(Continue)
X-men: Evolution
Review:
It's always somewhat disheartening to watch cartoons that are obviously intended to connect with the kids. Hanna-Barbera's 'toon output from the late Sixties through the Eighties comprises a long list of programs, designed to be hip and contemporary, that never lasted more than a season and are largely remembered by those of us who grew up during that period as just plain embarrassing, from...
(Continue)
The X-files: The Complete Eighth Season
Review:
We open on a close-up of someone surrounded by goop. The camera twists around slowly, and eventually pulls back to reveal that this goopy man is our hero Mulder (David Duchovny). He squirms and gasps. The camera cuts to Scully (Gillian Anderson), waking abruptly in bed, alone. Goopy Mulder was all a dream. Or was he?And with that, Season Eight of The X-Files is off and stumbling. Yes, this is...
(Continue)
The X-files
Review:
September 10, 1993. A normal Friday evening by all accounts, except for one unexplainable event that was to change the face of television. That night, The X-Files premiered on Fox, a network that apparently came out of nowhere to challenge TV's Big Three with a programming lineup that was racier (Married with Children), more culturally relevant (In Living Color), and generally wittier (The...
(Continue)