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☆ Review: On ‘Killing It,’ It’s Dog (and Snake and Gator) Eat Dog
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

(If you didn’t watch it — and the show’s undeserved lack of buzz suggests you didn’t — stream it before starting the new one. It’s 10 quick episodes, and you’ll want to be up to speed on the serialized story.) Craig has started his saw palmetto farm with Jillian, only to see the first crop threatened by another invasive swamp thing, the giant African land snail. The struggle to save the farm deepens the partnership between Craig, softhearted but realistic, and Jillian, the persistent Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder. “Killing It” shares a low-rent vibe with series like the late, raunchy “Florida Girls,” whose Melanie Field steals scenes as Craig and Jillian’s domineering assistant, Shayla.

Persons: Craig, Jillian, Dot, Marie Jones, Jackie, larcenous Boones, ”, Melanie Field, Shayla Organizations: palmetto, Cricket Locations: horning, Florida

☆ I Loved ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse’ Enough to Marry It
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Pee-wee’s Playhouse” premiered on CBS in 1986, the year I graduated from high school, which means I was probably too old for it. Or maybe too young. (Among them was a young Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis, wielding an animated lasso.) The overstuffed set, with its midcentury candy palette and zigzag angles, looked like a B-52s album you could live inside. Pee-wee the character was a parody — a high-on-Pixy-Stix exaggeration of the clean-cut kids’ hosts of the 1950s, a Howdy Doody who brought himself to life.

Persons: ”, Herman, Paul Reubens, Laurence Fishburne, Cowboy Curtis, Howdy Doody Organizations: CBS

☆ ‘How To With John Wilson’ Loves All of You Weirdos
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The final season premiere of the docu-essay series “How To With John Wilson” opens, like many of its episodes, with a problem. Wilson, whose self-help ruminations began airing on HBO in 2020, has a home plumbing emergency that sends him on a search for New York City’s elusive public bathrooms. But the episode, “How to Find a Public Restroom,” is about more than the lengths New Yorkers will go to for relief. Wilson talks to cabdrivers who resort to peeing in empty water bottles for lack of accessible facilities. Wilson builds out his story like a complex system of plumbing.

Persons: John Wilson ”, Wilson, ruminations, Botox, cabdrivers Organizations: HBO, York, Brooklyn -, Hudson Yards Locations: Brooklyn, Brooklyn - Queens

☆ Review: ‘Minx’ Returns, Confident and Fully Exposed
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But this was almost the end of something for “Minx.” HBO Max, which ran the first season in 2022, canceled the show as the second was finishing production, leaving fans holding an empty brown wrapper. Season 1, in which Joyce started Minx with the low-rent pornographer Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson), was a rough ride; its raunchy pop history and sitcommy odd-couple high jinks didn’t completely mesh. But I’d rather watch a show that does an exciting thing inconsistently than one that does a dull thing well. The eight new episodes don’t entirely clean up its freewheeling mess, but they make up for it in verve and enthusiasm. “Minx” is a racy, smart snapshot, and you just have to accept certain blemishes unretouched.

Persons: ” Joyce Prigger, Ophelia Lovibond, “, HBO Max, Joyce, Minx, Doug Renetti, Jake Johnson Organizations: HBO, Starz, verve Locations: America

☆ We Are All Background Actors
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In Hollywood, the cool kids have joined the picket line. I mean no offense, as a writer, to the screenwriters who have been on strike against film and TV studios for over two months. The cleverest picket sign joke is no match for the attention-focusing power of Margot Robbie or Matt Damon. SAG-AFTRA, the union representing TV and film actors, joined the writers in a walkout over how Hollywood divvies up the cash in the streaming era and how humans can thrive in the artificial-intelligence era. But for all the focus that a few boldface names will get in this strike, I invite you to consider a term that has come up a lot in the current negotiations: “Background actors.”You probably don’t think much about background actors.

Persons: Margot Robbie, Matt Damon, ”, You’re Organizations: Hollywood, SAG Locations: Gotham, Normandy

☆ The Twitter Watch Party Is Over
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Like foil-tray frozen meals, which were used by airlines before Swanson branded them as “TV dinners,” Twitter was not initially invented to be an adjunct to the tube. It made the entire world into an improv “Mystery Science Theater.”There were, of course, many Twitters existing in parallel: Politics Twitter, Sports Twitter, Black Twitter, Weird Twitter. But Twitter and TV went together like extreme weather and marine predators. When the first sets were rolled out as curiosities in the 1940s, spectators gathered in bars to watch boxing matches. Twitter made the watch party global.

Persons: ” Organizations: Swanson, Twitter, Science, Sports Twitter

☆ ‘The Bear’ and a Chaotic Vision of Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Business leaders are resorting to desperate measures to entice workers back to the office, my colleague Emma Goldberg reported recently. “It’s been three years of scattershot plans for returning to in-person work — summoning people in, not really meaning it, everybody pretty much working wherever they pleased,” she wrote. One idea I haven’t seen floated is to offer screenings of the series “The Bear,” whose second season was released in June on Hulu. When it debuted last year, “The Bear” was praised for its authenticity, for depicting the chaos of a real restaurant kitchen. Hands are burned, fingers slashed; the pace of the prep rush turns the kitchen staff into sweating, shouting bodies, meat cooking meat.” Hardly a convincing argument for in-person work.

Persons: Emma Goldberg, “ It’s, ”, “, Will inducements, Salesforce, James Beard, ” James Poniewozik, begrudgingly Organizations: Hulu, The Locations: Chicagoland, The Times, The

☆ ‘The Bear’ Returns and More: The Week in Reporter Reads
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In Season 2, some things remain the same: the kitchen language (“Corner!” “Hands!” “Yes, Chef!”), the toothsome shots of food, the dad-rock soundtrack. But “The Bear” is no longer a war story that takes place in a kitchen. It is now a sports story that takes place in a kitchen. Poniewozik says that not just because the book “Leading With the Heart” by the basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has a surprisingly totemic role. ◆ ◆ ◆Written and narrated by Elisabeth Egan

Persons: James Poniewozik, Poniewozik, Mike Krzyzewski, Berzatto, Jeremy Allen White, Michael, Jon Bernthal, ◆, Elisabeth Egan Organizations: New York Times Locations: Chicago

This is a 90-minute movie that doesn’t have the bonkers ideas, imagery or attitude to justify the five-plus hours it asks us to pay. But you know, that first episode seemed like it was really up to and onto something. We’re taken inside the hothouse of American celebrity to watch as it wilts beneath the California sun. An important joke is that the horror filmmaker Eli Roth is here, jittering in a small, pretty decent part. And dramaturgically speaking — to quote Jeremy Strong, an actor I’d rather be watching on Sunday nights — “The Idol” is curiously inert.

Persons: WESLEY MORRIS I’m, Jim, it’s, Eli Roth, Tedros Tedros, Lolita ”, Jocelyn, LINDSAY ZOLADZ, I’m, Jeremy Strong, I’d, can’t, Rachel Sennott, Marnie Michaels, plopped, Joy Randolph Organizations: wilts

☆ Review: ‘The Bear’ Changes Course(s)
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It suggests that there’s a better way of playing this game. “The Bear” has no illusions about that, but it is also unashamed to see a value in it. But there’s also taking care, learning discipline, doing things the hard way because it’s the right way. Try again, try again. It’s unsparing, but it comes with the belief that you can do better because you are better.

Persons: Ted Lasso ”, Carmy, queasy, Abby Elliott, there’s, Marcus, it’s, Joel McHale, It’s Organizations: Sydney

☆ Review: ‘I’m a Virgo’ Goes Big
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Boots Riley doesn’t aim small. In his magnificently batty TV series, “I’m a Virgo,” which arrives on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, the screen may be smaller. “People are always afraid,” his aunt says, “and you are a 13-foot-tall Black man.”As he approaches adulthood, the walls and door frames of the house can’t take the arrangement much longer. Neither can Cootie, who longs to see a world that he’s experienced only through TV commercials and comic books. He sneaks out, makes friends with some young neighbors — they take him on a joyride, Cootie squatting on the car as if it were a skateboard — and meets the world.

Persons: Boots Riley, batty, That’s, Jharrel Jerome, Carmen Ejogo, Mike Epps, ”, “, — Organizations: Amazon Prime, Oakland

☆ Pat Sajak Was the Center of the Wheel
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Regis Philbin, on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” was the loud, flashy host of a loud, flashy giveaway. And Pat Sajak, who announced on Monday that he would retire as the host of “Wheel of Fortune” after next season? Pat Sajak was … just there. There is nothing on Earth so still as the center of a spinning wheel. For over four decades, since taking over from Chuck Woolery, Sajak has been at that spot, joshing with Vanna White, heaving the wheel on final spins, wincing at Bankrupts and tethering exuberant winners.

Persons: Regis Philbin, ”, Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak, Chuck Woolery, Sajak, Vanna White Organizations: Television Locations: Bankrupts

☆ ‘Based on a True Story’ Review: Only Murders on the TV
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“The great American art form isn’t music or film or television,” says a podcast host in “Based on a True Story,” a new dark comedy on Peacock. “The great American art form is murder. Forget the surfeit of murder podcasts that “Based on a True Story” satirizes, however fitfully. “Based on True Story” is not even the first TV comedy about a fictional murder podcast. (Steve Martin and Martin Short would like a word.)

Persons: ”, “, Steve Martin, Martin, Craig Rosenberg, Kaley, Nathan, Chris Messina, sleuths, Matt, Tom Bateman, Peacock, it’s Locations: Los Angeles

☆ The Paranoid Style in Tucker Carlson’s Home Office
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Fox has ideology, of course (which has cycled through different flavors of conservatism over the decades), but it also has an aesthetic. Fox News is designed to look like it is broadcasting from the top of the world; “Tucker on Twitter” looks not unlike something livestreamed after the apocalypse. Carlson could be different; Fox News has yet to recover in the prime-time ratings from his sudden departure. But Carlson, for all his anti-elite posturing, is wholly a creature of legacy TV, having hosted shows on Fox, CNN and MSNBC. They say you’re wrong, you’re crazy, you’re a racist.

Persons: Fox, “ Tucker, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck —, Carlson, ”, Facebook proselytizer Organizations: Fox News, Twitter, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, Facebook Locations: Maine, Russia, Ukrainian

☆ In ‘Succession,’ the Very Rich Are Very, Very Different
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Meanwhile, the smaller TV audiences of the cable and streaming age have allowed “Succession” to thrive as a more specific and more niche entertainment. “Succession” can afford to be a rarefied, decadent pleasure, like an ortolan, the deep-fried songbird, eaten whole, that was featured in a memorable Season 1 meal. “Dallas,” like its followers from “Dynasty” through “Empire,” was in the populist soap-opera tradition of letting the audience delight in the woes of rich people. “Succession” has its crowd-pleasing and universal elements too. At root, the series’s family themes are talk-show simple: Hurt people hurt people.

☆ In ‘Succession,’ Democracy Goes Up in Smoke
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Succession” is predictable in the best way. It simply sets up conditions, gives characters motivations, then lets them act in their interests. For America, it’s the choice between remaining a country where elections are won with ballots or becoming one where they’re won with torches. Roman, who has always vibed with Mencken’s edgelord energy, sees no reason not to get on the good side of a history-smashing win. This had to be a rough episode for Team Roman, the “Succession” fans who love his broken-toy impishness and “Clockwork Orange” banter.

☆ TV’s War With the Robots Is Already Here
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Davis.” With the Writers Guild of America strike, that premise has broken the fourth wall. The robots are here, and the humans are racing to defend against them, or to ally with them. In essence, writers are asking the studios for guardrails against being replaced by A.I., having their work used to train A.I. The big-ticket items in the strike involve, broadly, how the streaming model has disrupted the ways TV writers have made a living. And when it comes to distinguishing features, the ability to conjure imaginary worlds is simply sexier than the opposable thumb.

☆ Charles III Was Crowned King. But Can He Ever Be the Star?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Charles has never been the star of his own life. He’s been the king for months now; he’s been an international figure for decades. Each piece of royal hardware presented to him during his installation — orb, bejeweled sword, robes upon robes — seemed to add psychic poundage. Maybe the most peculiarly apt element of the ceremony came when Charles was ritually anointed behind a screen of lavishly embroidered panels. On the BBC, a panel discussed the challenges and perils of entering a carriage while trailing yards’ worth of luxurious fabric.

☆ Jerry Springer, American Ringmaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

There is a point there: Springer, especially in the early years of his show, seemed to engage with his guests, however outrageous. Even trash TV operates on moral assumptions — “The Jerry Springer Show” accepts that being a candidate for “The Jerry Springer Show” is not a badge of honor — but programs like Springer’s gave the audience permission to enjoy the grotesquerie. But his show also demonstrated that TV populists, like all populists, aren’t just reflecting broad, unmediated reality. Springer didn’t invent the trashification of TV and pop culture. (The early, issues-oriented incarnation of “Springer” didn’t do well in the ratings.)

☆ ‘Mrs. Davis’ Review: Algorithm and Blues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The pilot introduces Simone (Betty Gilpin), a sister in a remote Nevada convent who has a sideline exposing dishonest magicians. Besides leaving her time for her hobby, convent life lets her avoid the reach of an omniscient A.I. Davis” in America, “Mum” in Britain, “Madonna” in Italy and so on — has not given up on Simone. Simone, Mrs. Davis believes deep in her code, is the one person equipped to carry out a mission: to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Simone agrees, hoping the quest will be a means to Mrs. Davis’s unplugging.

☆ Everybody Knows What Fox News Is Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the days went on, Fox was placed in the nightmare situation of having to pierce the bubble and report the news: That Mr. Biden had been legally elected. Fox leaders watched the gains of conservative rivals like Newsmax and saw the audience’s interest in election-theft fantasies building. All this, trial or no trial, makes clear what Fox News really is. Seen this way, the Dominion case wasn’t so much about Fox telling its audience what to believe. It was about the audience telling Fox what Fox needed to believe — or at least, what it needed to give the appearance of not not believing.

☆ The Price of Bitcoin Mining and More: The Week in Reporter Reads
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Winter Storm Uri had knocked out power plants across Texas, leaving tens of thousands of homes in icy darkness. Their operations can create costs — including higher electricity bills and enormous carbon pollution — for everyone around them, most of whom have nothing to do with Bitcoin. Until June 2021, most Bitcoin mining was in China. Then it drove out Bitcoin operations, at least for a time, citing their power use among other reasons. The United States quickly became the industry’s global leader.

LOS ANGELES, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The 2013 video game “The Last of Us” was a hit with critics and players thanks to a powerful narrative. Ten years later, that story is headed to television on HBO in what the industry hopes is a harbinger for artfully adapting video games to TV and film. The PlayStation game won numerous awards, including “Game of the Year” at the 17th Annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit (DICE), which honors video game industry professionals. The TV series has received glowing reviews from critics, garnering a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes. "It shouldn’t be surprising that a drama based on a video game can have heart.

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