‘Bunheads’ wins Summer TV gold medal (Commentary)
In the spirit of the Olympics, here are my medal picks for Summer TV 2012 (all times Central):
Animation
First episode impressions: ‘Futurama’ Season 7 (TV review)
“Futurama” (9 p.m. Central Wednesdays on Comedy Central) has been around long enough now that it’s starting to contradict its own backstories. Since most “Futurama” fans are also “Simpsons” fans, we’re accustomed to this. Notoriously — […]
On ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars,’ how in the world is Darth Maul still alive? (TV commentary)
The “Star Wars” saga has a weird tendency to tell stories out of order. Most notably, the film saga started with Episode IV. The books and comics are rife with stories that fill in the […]
First episode impressions: ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ (TV review)
“Napoleon Dynamite,” the 2004 movie, hit a sweet spot of comedy that no previous movie had even aimed for, let alone achieved. Not everyone understood why it was funny, but for those who did, it […]
Midseason TV preview: The momentum continues? (Commentary)
Fall 2011 served up so many good shows, and so few of them have been canceled, that it’s easy to overlook the midseason premieres. Yet the networks have found a few open slots. I have […]
Oh my god, they killed Otis! (and thoughts on falls to the dark side) (TV and movie commentary)
Kind of a jerk move by Shane to kill Otis on Sunday’s episode of “The Walking Dead” (8 p.m. Central Sundays on AMC), huh? But also a shocking and fascinating one, and something that could set up […]
First episode impressions: ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ Season 8 (TV review)
“Beavis and Butt-head” (9 p.m. Central Thursdays on MTV) jumped right into its eighth-season premiere on Thursday with Butt-head’s trademark “Uhhhhh-huh-huh” and Beavis’ iconic “Heh-heh-yeah-yeah-heh.” Fourteen years after the show’s original run ended, MTV skipped over […]
Flippin’ sweet! ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ and 10 other shows to watch in 2011-12 (TV commentary)
Intimidated by the list of nearly 50 new shows coming out in the fall? Never fear, I have done the hard work for you of watching the trailers for all the network offerings (and believe […]
Chewbacca and Ahsoka team up in ‘The Clone Wars?’ OK, I’ll buy it (TV commentary)
Long before the prequels started filming, George Lucas announced that R2-D2 and C-3PO would be in all six “Star Wars” films, so we had time to accept the huge coincidence that these two droids just […]
Top 10 ‘Clone Wars’ characters: No. 1 — Ziro the Hutt
TV commentary: John’s list of the 10 best “Clone Wars” characters concludes with one of George Lucas’ most amusing creations of recent years: Ziro the Hutt.