Category: TV Review

I Binge-Watched 9 Seasons of ‘Seinfeld’ to Find TV’s Funniest Joke

Hey, it’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. But still, isn’t watching something as old and out of it as SEINFELD way beyond the call of duty? (What? You remember it as great? And you still trust your brain?)

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4 characters desperately feeling to find their cool

by Steven Shehori

Few things in this life are more subjective than humor. That said, Seinfeld receives near-universal acclaim as one of television’s greatest comedies. In fact, a noted 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll crowned it the best sitcom ever. And when 60 Minutes andVanity Fair elect to join forces, you know the world of polling isn’t dicking around.

Taking these results at face value, one can’t help but wonder: if Seinfeld is TV’s funniest sitcom, what in turn is the funniest joke from TV’s funniest sitcom? And would this joke then, by sheer elimination, be the funniest line ever uttered in a situation comedy? A case could certainly be argued as such. But oh, the number of gags to sift though. read article

LB Sees Some March TV Premieres

Calvin-on-writing…And all I can say is that if I’d had any realistic hope of finding some new shows to watch regularly, it would’ve been dashed.

Yes, it’s true. My lowest expectations proved to be too high. Cases in point:

BATTLE CREEK: read article

Cara Winter sees The IT Crowd

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by Cara Winter

I know how weird this is going to sound.   Nevertheless, here it is:

Some of us don’t care about football – at all.  Like, not at all.  We aren’t excited to hear your drinking stories.  We don’t see any point in watching the Grammys.  And we’re not heading out to see Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend, or any weekend (nor did we read the book).

It can get lonely, being so outside the norm.  The mainstream is just …so… main stream. There are times when it seems as though nobody understands, and that people are just a bunch of bastards, with bad taste in everything. read article

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files 12: The Honourable Woman

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Maggie Gyllenhaal as Nessa Stein in “The Honourable Woman”

by Cara Winter

 Full disclosure:  For whatever reason, on this particular day, I felt like watching something with Jake Gyllenhaal in it. But when I typed “Gyllenhaal” into my DVR’s search engine, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s work also came up, and at the top of the list was her latest Golden Globe-winning tour-de-force, The Honourable Woman.   Intrigued by this BBC co-production starring Gyllenhaal along side more than a few British heavy weights (like Stephen Rea, Eve Best, and Lindsay Duncan), I decided to give it a whirl.

Man.  I was *not* disappointed.  (Sorry, Jake… I’ll get around to seeing whatever you’re up to, another day.)

The Honourable Woman is a six-part miniseries, written and directed by Hugo Blick (and was a co-production with BBC and SundanceTV).  Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Nessa Stein, Baroness of Tillbury, an Anglo-Israeli businesswoman who has taken over the reigns of The Stein Group, the company her late father founded many years prior.  What unfolds is the gripping, complicated, and emotional story of Nessa and her family.  It begins with the death of Nessa’s father, when she and her brother were children; then, quickly, we are in the present day, and Nessa is announcing her earnest yet misguided attempt to bridge the gap between Israel and Palestine, with Stein Group’s plan to bring high-speed internet to the West Bank.   Then, while still basking in the glow of their hopeful promise… the child of the family’s nanny Atika (played by Lubna Azabal)is kidnapped, catapulting the entire family into panic and turmoil. read article

MARC ALAN FISHMAN: WHO. WHO? WHO!

Confession: This particular TVWriter™ minion (AKA a guy sometimes known as munchman) loves Marc Alan Fishman’s attitude. And I’m not even from Chicago!

by Marc Alan Fishman

Fishman-Art-131130Yeah. I know. I’m last on the bandwagon, yet again. But that’s OK, kiddos. I found Nirvana well after Kurt Cobain passed away. As many of you would also note, I found Star Trek: The Original Series just a little over a year ago. Funny enough, that was one of my most popular columns. For all the nerd-rage that exists when we poke and prod one another about our loves, we’re also the first sub-culture to embrace noobies with the unbridled passion of 1000 angry Daleks. That’s joyful rage though, so it’s all good. A bit over a week ago, I became of a fan of Doctor Who. Whovians, take me into your bosom. Move the celery stalk first.

A bit of backstory to begin. Unshaven Comics cohort Kyle Gnepper has long been an outskirt Who-fan. Unshaven cohort Matt Wright also partook of the good Doctor upon subscribing to Netflix. My own timey-wifey has been a fan for quite some time as well. Heh. As we are all apt to do when everyone we know is in to something, we feel the latent pressure to join in the rapture. So, on occasion, I tried. And tried. And tried again. read article