The Blog Post Where Plot Twists Go to Die

By on Mar 21, 2012 in Inanities |

Or, Everything That’s Ever Been Spoiled For Me Try as hard as I might, there’s no escaping spoilers in my role as (amateur) TV critic. As I’ve said before, I’m incapable keeping up with all the worthwhile, buzz-worthy, quality TV on the air today. And while most blogs and publications are good about preceding spoilers with warnings and burying plot reveals in the body of an article instead of leading with them, others are not so conscientious. And even with the diligent outlets, there is a statute of limitations with spoilers—at a certain point, after an arbitrary amount of time has passed, it has to be allowable to rehash and discuss major plot points without recrimination. So I don’t always blame the spoil-er for the spoiling; I just regret that it happened (unless I just don’t care). At the risk of paying the sin forward, here are all the twists...

GenreTV: “Wide Awake”

By on Mar 14, 2012 in Affiliates |

I am happy to announce that Primetimely has a new affiliate: GenreTV, a fantastic blog written by my good friend Kayti Burt which focuses mainly on that television content deemed “genre” (not your typical cop-lawyer-doctor fare, to say the least). I’m happy our two blogs are besties, especially because we can repost awesome entries from each other’s blogs. Speaking of, here’s what she had to say at the beginning of this month about Awake, an ambitious new NBC drama which I’ve been chomping at the bit to see ever since watching the preview. Warning: This trailer [embedded below] gives pretty much everything away from the first episode – though, the show is so good, it might not matter. Awake premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on NBC. Awake tells the story of Michael Britten, a man who, after getting into a horrific car accident with his family, creates two...

The Prime Times: Figure It Out Edition

By on Mar 9, 2012 in In Brief |

Here’s all the TV news you need to know (read: a dozen news items you don’t need to know but are fun anyway). A Baltimore man was arrested on a handgun charge recently, and he happens to share the same name as a notorious character on The Wire: Omar Little, Jr. FOX chose not to renew Terra Nova for a second season, but word on the street is that Netflix is interested in picking it up. Keri Russell has joined the FX pilot “The Americans,” as a KGB spy living with an arranged husband in Washington D.C. during the 1980s. Nickelodeon is bringing back 1990s game show Figure It Out, in which a panel of celebrities have to parse out the layperson-guest’s unique talent. Sigourney Weaver is set to play a divorced-First-Lady-turned-Secretary-of-State in a new series on USA entitled Political Animals. A&E is developing a series called Bates Motel, which provides...

“Glee” gets better, and “It Gets Better”

By on Mar 7, 2012 in Raves | 1 comment

It should be no surprise that Glee has fallen in the ranks of my favorite shows. What used to be appointment TV is now Hulu-days-later TV. I feel like it doesn’t have the same pizazz, the same bite, the same freshness. So imagine my surprise when I found the most recent episode, “On My Way,” to be one of the most important hours of television of this season… or maybe of any season. In the story, Karofsky—whose bullying of Kurt stemmed from his own closetedness—becomes the target of physical and cyber bullying himself, and he tries to take his own life. The students and faculty at McKinley then grapple to empathize and to process their guilt. Finally, Kurt visits Karofsky and helps him imagine a happy future—one worth living to experience. The episode aired with public service announcements from The Trevor Project, an organization whose mission is “to end...

“Mad Men” Poster Madly Dissected

By on Mar 1, 2012 in Inanities |

If I were a student at a small liberal arts school in rural Massachusetts, and my Media Studies professor asked me to analyze the newest Mad Men poster (in no fewer than 3 pages, double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman), here’s how I would totally bullshit that paper. (Disclaimer: all of the papers I wrote in college involved hours of research, much soul-searching,and extensive meta-analysis.) Here’s the poster, and below is the pretension. The female mannequin has no face, indicating how little Don Draper is concerned with his sexual partners’ identities. The male mannequin has no face, representing the flux of Don’s own personas and identities. The female mannequin’s lower sexual organ is concealed, representing society’s expectation for him to remain chaste in extramarital contexts. Don’s face is inscrutably impassive, representing the constant...