Television and Film

How do you teach television today? There are a lot of ways. Here’s my attempt. This week I’ll start teaching “Contemporary Television” to introduce students to the complexities and contradictions of an industry that has changed rapidly over the last 30 years — and continues to do so. There so much television, and so much [...]

This week I want to talk about a favorite American pastime that is an unusually recurrent theme in reality television. Plastic surgery!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. On the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kim Richards decides it’s time to get something done on her face. She’s just not sure what yet. But her doctor says no to everything [...]

  I have an addiction to something that most of my friends consider filth and trash. In the last decade it’s become both ubiquitous and hotly disdained. It’s widely hailed as the epitome of everything that is wrong with contemporary life. And yet I cannot stop consuming it. I have a reality TV addiction. As [...]

Let me just get this out of my system. I guess I have to get over the fact that even the homos on Girls are deplorable. [...]

Previously on How Does Adam Feel About Girls? [...]

Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk. In the very last moment of Django Unchained Hildy grabs a rifle.** The movie follows her husband, Django (Jamie Foxx), on his quest to save her. Saved, Hildy (Kerry Washington) must learn to save herself, and/or her husband. But we have to imagine that future, because Django is a movie about [...]

Why do you watch Homeland? I ask because it’s relevant. [...]

Lest I be accused of Gloomy Gusism (or, worse yet, Doubting Thomastry), [...]

Oh, Homeland. Homeland, Homeland, Homeland. [...]

Thanks to Girls Like Giants for linking. Why can’t all political television shows be like Parks and Recreation? Don’t get me wrong. Veep is nice and smart. Scandal is fun and salacious. It’s great to see those strong, sexy women make decisions, good and bad. And it’s even better to see both shows get second seasons, particularly [...]