Is ‘The Office’ making Michael into a good boss? (TV commentary)
“The Office” is five seasons old, so this is about the time you’d expect it to fall apart, but it’s as funny as ever. It’s also the time you’d expect the writers to morph Michael […]
Maybe ‘The Phantom Menace’ was ‘just a movie’ after all (Commentary)
Ten years ago today, I was waiting in a sun-drenched line at West Acres Cinema in Fargo, N.D., to buy a ticket for the midnight debut of “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” […]
5 random thoughts (Commentary)
Here are five random thoughts. 1. What does pop singer Adele mean when she asks, “Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements?” As I understand it, the British phrase “chasing pavements” […]
Maybe mountain lions aren’t so bad, or: Why this season of ‘24’ is the worst ever (TV commentary)
Can we put the Kim Bauer/mountain lion jokes to rest now? Since Jack’s daughter was briefly pursued by a big cat in Season 2, the incident has become a touchstone for critics who want to illustrate […]
5 cute little movies I want to see this summer (Commentary)
The big movies get the buzz; the little movies get the love. My previous blog entry was movies that you’ll see with a group of 10 friends; this list is movies that you’ll see by […]
5 big, obnoxious movies I want to see this summer (Commentary)
You’re going to hear lots of hype in the months ahead, but it’s sometimes hard to know which summer movies you should ignore and which you should embrace. Give your brains a rest, because I […]
Is ‘Lost’ the most overrated sci-fi show ever? (TV commentary)
The latest issue of Wizard asks “Is ‘Lost’ the greatest sci-fi show of all time?” I can answer that in two words: Um … no. I don’t know where the magazine ranked “Lost” in its top 25 […]
Need more ‘Fringe’ after Tuesday’s season finale? Try the comic books (Commentary)
The first season finale of J.J. Abrams’ “Fringe” (8 p.m. Central Tuesday on Fox, and the next day at Hulu) promises to delve deeper into the relationship between Good Mad Scientist Walter Bishop and Bad Mad Scientist […]
The new ‘Star Trek’ is actually kind of cool (Movie review)
Director J.J. Abrams makes “Star Trek” respectable again with this origin tale that sets up everything we’ve seen in six TV series — I’m including the underappreciated cartoon — and 10 movies. (Well, “Enterprise” takes place before this, but […]
Happy (day after) Mother’s Day from ‘Gossip Girl’: Brittany Snow returns to TV (Commentary)
It’s appropriate that Brittany Snow spells her name the normal way, rather than “Britney,” “Brittani” or “Britni.” The actress strikes me as an old-fashioned girl, because I first saw her as Meg Pryor in the […]