What I Learned After Watching Eyes Wide Shut 100 Times

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1663 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Yes, 100 times. In 1994, Stanley Kubrick sent the screenwriter Frederic Raphael a novella about a doctor who embarks on a dark odyssey of the soul after learning that his wife has fantasized about fucking another man. The story took place in Hapsburg Vienna; Kubrick wanted to know if Raphael could adapt it into a screenplay set in contemporary New York. As Raphael later recalled in an essay for The New Yorker, he was initially skeptical. [Read More]

What Revolution Can Learn From Game of Thrones, Lost, and The Walking Dead

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  418 words  |  Elina Uphoff

REVOLUTION – “Pilot” Episode 101 – Pictured: Billy Burke as Miles There were three good things in last night’s Revolution premiere: the disaster porn, the sword-fighting, and the last five seconds. (And if you work at NBC, a fourth good part: the ratings.) Put another way, “the part like The Walking Dead,” “the part like Game of Thrones,” and “the part like Lost.” Proceed with caution, Revolution. The good news is that a show grafted together from Walking Dead, GoT, and Lost DNA has promise. [Read More]

What to Remember Before the Seventh, Potentially Final Season of Pretty Little Liars

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  847 words  |  Elina Uphoff

Maybe call the Rosewood Police Department? Nah. The seventh season of Pretty Little Liars premieres Tuesday evening on Freeform, and it seems highly likely — although not officially confirmed — that this season will indeed be its last hurrah. Dubbed the “season of homecomings” by showrunner I. Marlene King, the premiere will immediately pick up where we last saw our five Liars. And yet, despite the fact that the sixth-season finale aired only three months ago, the fast-paced and tumultuous exploits of the Rosewood Five can be quite easy to forget. [Read More]

What We Do in the Shadows Recap: Hello, My Name is Sally Rhubarb

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1135 words  |  Sherie Connelly

What We Do in the Shadows Local News Season 5 Episode 5 Editor’s Rating 3 stars *** «Previous Next» « PreviousEpisode NextEpisode » What We Do in the Shadows Local News Season 5 Episode 5 Editor’s Rating 3 stars *** «Previous Next» « PreviousEpisode NextEpisode » Aside from personal injury lawyers who advertise on the subway, news anchors are the best kind of local celebrity: Ubiquitous. [Read More]

Whatll It Be? At FOOD, the End of the World As We Know It.

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1417 words  |  Elina Uphoff

Thirteen years ago, in a church in Edinburgh, I saw a show that I still think about. Two nonspeaking office-drone clowns attempted to go about the day at their bleak, dingy corporate workplace. But there were tendrils slowly curling out of the watercooler, and a very alive-looking weasel kept appearing between the filing cabinets. Eventually, the clowns, played by Charlotte Ford and Geoff Sobelle, were no match for the invasion of living taxidermy that gradually took over the stage. [Read More]

Whats the Deal With Aryas Dagger on Game of Thrones?

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  615 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Arya sure you don’t remember that dagger? This story was originally published in August 2017. It’s been updated to reflect what happened on Game of Thrones in “The Long Night.” Game of Thrones never makes things easy. You’ve already had to spend years remembering which beard guy is which, whose ancestors swore what kind of oaths to whom, and who has Valyrian steel. And now, at the climax of the epic battle in “The Long Night,” your joy that Arya killed the freaking Night King with her magic dagger may also be mixed with a tiny bit of confusion: Wait, what’s the deal with that dagger? [Read More]

When Black People Appear on Seinfeld

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  9 minutes  |  1884 words  |  Zora Stowers

Season 4, episode 12, “The Airport”: Elaine throws a tantrum when a Black flight attendant prevents her from sneaking into first class. White sitcoms have of late united, disavowing the misbegotten race play of television’s recent past. Contrary to prior negligence, shows such as Scrubs and 30 Rock have pulled episodes featuring blackface from streaming platforms as a way of making amends. Even episodes like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s “Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth,” which cracks wise about the absurdities of racial performance, got the ax. [Read More]

Where You Going With That Mask I Found? Celebrating Scott Weilands Quest for Front-man Reinventio

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1161 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Scott Weiland was a great shape-shifter, a reminder that theater and fashion contribute to the whole of rock music as much as anything purely musical does. He died Thursday night in the midst of his fourth decade as a rock front-man, starting with his proto–Stone Temple Pilots project, Mighty Joe Young, to his latest reinvention, leading the glam-rock troubadours the Wildabouts. With Stone Temple Pilots, he sold more than 14 million copies of five LPs between 1992 and 2001. [Read More]

Whered You Go, Bernadette? Nowhere, Damn It

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  940 words  |  Sherie Connelly

There’s no sense of mystery or danger or surprise in this film. Despite partially taking place in Antarctica, you don’t feel as if you’re at the edge of the world. On the basis of his new film, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Richard Linklater wouldn’t be much good at what TV writers call “breaking” a story — i.e., turning a premise into a blueprint, a series of firm narrative beats. [Read More]

Which Ryan Murphy Show Is This Hot White Guy In?

 Posted on June 11, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1105 words  |  Janel Helmers

It’s no secret that Ryan Murphy has a rotating troupe of actors he often employs — he’s basically paid for Sarah Paulson’s agent’s house several times over. What we sometimes forget is that his shows also feature more hot, oft-shirtless white guys than the Altoids float in a Pride parade. There are so many, in fact, that it’s hard to remember exactly which bombshell with a six-pack was in which of his projects. [Read More]