Riz Ahmed plays a surfing instructor, who becomes Hannah Horvath’s new love interest. MARK SCHAFER/HBO The sixth and final season of Girls begins with Hannah’s very first piece getting published in the New York Times. Of course, it’s a Modern Love column, and it’s titled “Losing My Best Friend to My Ex-Boyfriend,” presumably about Jessa […]
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The Walking Dead Recap: Tips for Overthrowing Trump, Part One
Did you watch last night’s mid-season premiere of Helpful Tips for Overthrowing Trump 101 The Walking Dead? Then by all means, let’s chitty-chat about it! Lotsa spoilers and opinionated opinions after the jump! LET’S DO THIS. “I am fast, and furious! Hmm. That’s a good title for a movie, if they made movies anymore.” Courtesy […]
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Santa Clarita Diet: A Sitcom with Blood and Puke
The domestic sitcom has gotten a shakeup in recent years by circumventing its white-bread tendencies with solid network shows like Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat. But apart from these isolated isles of inventiveness, the genre’s in dire shape. The time couldn’t be riper for a skewering like the one offered by Santa Clarita Diet. […]
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Santa Clarita Diet: Netflix’s Cannibal Sitcom Needs More Bite
Family First.
Family first.
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Beware the Slenderman Review: Half of a True Crime
If you’re a true-crime freak like me, you’ll devour HBO’s Beware the Slenderman. But you probably won’t remember it. That’s because Irene Taylor Brodsky’s documentary—which examines the case of two Wisconsin 12-year-olds, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, who attempted to murder one of their classmates in 2014 as an apparent sacrifice to an invented internet […]
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As 2017 Shudders on, We May Find That Science Fiction Is Our Only Relevant Genre
THE EXPANSE A show that spares no expanse! Earlier this week, the Hollywood Theatre screened Mad Max Fury Road: Black & Chrome, George Miller’s black-and-white version of his perfect film. With its lurid oranges and teals swapped out for high-contrast blacks and whites, Black & Chrome leans toward Cormac McCarthy—a little less Fury Road and […]
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The Dark Universe of The Expanse
A Much-Needed Guide for Surviving the Future
A much-needed guide for surviving the future.
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Ian Karmel is Shooting a Pilot for Comedy Central
Hometown boy made good (and former Mercury columnist) Ian Karmel is moving up in the world! As you recall from your tear-stained sheets, Ian moved from Portland a couple years back to make his mark in Los Angeles… and make his mark he did! After a stint as a staff writer for Chelsea Lately, he […]
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The Young Pope Is, Well, Pretty Divine
HBO/Gianni Fiorito The night after the first episode aired, a co-worker asked me what I thought of The Young Pope. “I’m… not totally sure,” I said. “Uh, it’s gorgeous. But weird. Really weird.” That first episode is indeed an odd duck, simultaneously stunning and off-putting and seductive and strange. Parts of it are hilarious while […]
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Two Talk Show Farewells to Sob to As We Say Goodbye to the Obamas
“Today is the last day that Barack Obama will be our President.” As soon as Ellen said it, I felt my chest tighten as I tried to keep the liquid from spilling from my eyes and onto my keyboard. (I’M NOT READY. THIS ISN’T REAL! FOUR MORE YEARS!) “I want to personally thank him for […]
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The Coen Brothers Are Making a Western TV Show and Movie, or Something
HAIL, CAESAR! The Coens’ upcoming western TV show will be just like this, but totally different. Universal I finally started watching Fargo (the TV show) a few days ago—it seemed seasonally appropriate—and now that I’m waist-deep in it, here’s some hot goss from 2014: Fargo is so fucking good, you guys. Naturally, then, I was […]
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Fox News Reportedly Helped Bill O’Reilly Scuttle a Sexual Harassment Suit
Courtesy Fox News Bill O’Reilly, loudmouth host of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, was accused of sexual harassment by a fellow Fox employee—but network executives hushed up the accusation and settled for a six-figure fee, according to a report from the New York Times. According to the story, the incident occurred only weeks after […]