Television

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Review: Taking Woodstock

Ang Lee sums up the counterculture in style
If there ever was a way to inject fresh interest into events that most people born after the baby boom couldn't care less about, it's to involve Eugene Levy and a shame-to-fame plot line made for reality television.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 25, 2009

West coasting

Is Project Runway walking in circles?
As I watched this season's 16 Project Runway hopefuls squinting into the setting sun during their champagne reception atop the Title Guarantee Building in Los Angeles, it was hard not to view the scene as a sad little metaphor for the state of the show. What's supposed to feel like the beginning of something new sure looks a lot more like the end of something old.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | August 26, 2009

Our Don Drapers, Ourselves

The Mad Men mystique
This Sunday is the premiere of the third season of Mad Men (AMC, 10 pm), the Emmy-winning show that made fans of good television have to figure out where AMC was on their basic-cable schedules.
By GUSTAVO TURNER | August 12, 2009

Our Don Drapers, Ourselves

Review: Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

The woman behind the big heart
The Goldbergs debuted in 1929 as radio's first domestic sit-com; it moved to TV in 1949. As part of her series on Jewish heroes, Aviva Kempner ( The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg ) spotlights the show's star, Gertrude Berg, who few realized was its writer/producer.
By BETSY SHERMAN | August 04, 2009

Review: The Cove

Secret dolphin slaughter revealed
There's something at stake here, and it's not just the conscience of Ric O'Barry, who as the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s television show Flipper feels responsible for the planet's porpoise fetish.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 04, 2009

Elvis Presley | From Elvis in Memphis

RCA/Legacy
Elvis Presley temporarily avoided the obvious (and, one could argue, tragic) destiny of a washed-up parody with The '68 Comeback Special , a TV show that lifted the retaining wall of nodding yes men and lucrative movie contracts to reveal a mythic force continuing to pulse.
By ZETH LUNDY | July 28, 2009

Review: Afghan Star

Moving, chilling
The Russians couldn't conquer Afghanistan, and to this point neither have the Americans, but it seems a televised singing-competition has.
By LANCE GOULD | July 28, 2009

Review: The Ugly Truth

Not so much ugly as bland
The biting revelation promised by the title of Robert Luketic's fluff never bares its teeth.
By TOM MEEK | July 22, 2009

The Search for America's Biggest A-Hole

Grossest casting couch in History Dept.
This week in Boston, Spike TV held auditions for its new sub-low-culture program, America's Biggest Asshole . You're right — all reality show tryouts are essentially auditions for America's Biggest Asshole, but this one is transparently egregious, as if the NHL re-named hockey "Kill the Man with the Puck."
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 15, 2009

Interview: Russell T Davies

Davies on atheism, American TV, and five decades of Doctor Who
"I certainly knew from Queer as Folk that gay male stories attract a lot of women viewers."
By ROB TURBOVSKY | July 24, 2009

Boys' life

Hung and Entourage measure success
The premise for HBO's new half-hour comedy Hung (Sundays at 10 pm) is so over-the-top as to be cringe-worthy: high school basketball coach Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), divorced and broke, starts whoring himself to ladies on the basis of his giant schlong. I know: ugh.
By JON GARELICK | July 14, 2009

Sarah Palin, Inc.

The biggest brand name in conservative politics is about to enter the burgeoning right-wing marketplace — and she's perfect for it. Ka-ching!
Confused commenters have no clue as to the opportunities that await Palin — because few understand the extraordinary, multi-billion-dollar marketplace that has developed for movement conservatives.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 17, 2009

Cirque du Dieu

Arundel Barn's Godspell
Charisma, daring, showmanship, whimsy — these are just a few of the character qualities expected under any given Big Top. But they might be just as at home in the discovery and passing on of religious ideas, as a teacher delivers and seekers explore the possible tenets of spirituality.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | July 01, 2009

Local news blues

With layoffs, plummeting revenue, and dwindling viewership, TV news departments are getting desperate.
There has been plenty of hand-wringing, in these parts, over the decline of the local broadsheet. The Providence Journal is the paper of record, after all, the agenda setter. And the agenda is decidedly thinner these days.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2009

Living Colour, Michael Madsen, and Rhody's new media

Rhode Island has seen its share of media strife in recent years.
The travails of the Providence Journal are the stuff of coffee house and talk radio chatter. And the troubles afflicting the local newscast fill the pages of this week's Phoenix .
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2009

Review: Imagine That

Forces you to follow its eponymous directive
Eddie Murphy proves he doesn't need a fat suit to play soft in Karey Kirkpatrick's surprisingly nuanced family comedy.
By ALICIA POTTER | June 10, 2009

Photos: American Idol Season 9 Auditions in Boston

June 12-14 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough
Thousands of American Idol hopefuls lined up very early outside the Gillette Stadium to register and secure an audition for the show.
By MATT TEUTEN | June 16, 2009

Interview: Kathy Griffin

D Girl
"I think Ryan Seacrest and Oprah will finally be together, and it will be like one of those great '70s cover-up movies and I'm playing the body."
By JIM SULLIVAN | June 11, 2009

Female Trouble

A shocking dearth of Republican female pols should have the party in a panic. So why doesn't it care?
Conventional political wisdom says that for a party to oppose a woman — or a women's issue — it's best to send out a female spokesperson.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | June 03, 2009

Mixed messages

Letters to the Boston editor, May 29, 2009
I’ve always thought it bizarre that an aggressively conservative, Republican-channeling TV network such as Fox would be so enthusiastic about featuring sex (and other sensationalism), but I guess they know their audience.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | May 27, 2009

Dale Bozzio sentenced to jail

Feline Trouble
Two months after being convicted of animal cruelty, new-wave pop icon Dale Bozzio feels trapped in her own personal witch trial.
By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | May 27, 2009

Going Mental

Fox's new psych-doc drama
Fox's new drama Mental (Thursdays at 9 pm on Fox) is House with a thoroughly likable doctor at its center, but it won't have half the shelf life of its predecessor.
By DAVID KRONKE | May 27, 2009

Odd couples

The Lyric's Grey Gardens; Trinity's Shapeshifter
The East Hampton Board of Health would doubtless approve Grey Gardens: The Musical , since it comes minus the crapping cats, feral raccoons, and piles of garbage that form the supporting cast and unsanitary milieu of the famed documentary on which it's based.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 12, 2009

World gone Wong

Chinese-born biochemical-engineer-turned-comic Joe Wong has conquered Letterman. You're next.
"I'm an immigrant," says Joe Wong. "And I used to drive this used car with a lot of bumper stickers that are impossible to peel off. One of them said, 'If you don't speak English, go home.' And I didn't notice it for two years."
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | April 29, 2009

[ART] Juxtaposition

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