Tuned In
A blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik.
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TV Tonight: Ring My Bell

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 8, 2009 at 1:17 pm
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FOX

FOX

Fringe is turning out to be even more like The X-Files than I suspected when it started—structurally, anyway, in that it's breaking down between monster-of-the-week episodes, which I might enjoy but don't feel compelled to watch right away, and mythology episodes, which focus on the overarching parallel-universe storyline and which I drop everything to watch. (The parallel, so to speak, is not exact: Fringe's monster episodes are more tied to the ongoing story than The X-Files', which were usually entirely stand-alone.)

If you feel the same way, you must not miss tonight's episode, which returns William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) and delves deeper into how and why Olivia was sucked into his parallel universe, where he keeps an office high up in an undestroyed World Trade Center. The episode also has a sweet B-story for Walter (John Noble). But while Noble is rightly much praised, I'm increasingly impressed with Torv's steely performance as Olivia.

Oh, yeah: Jim and Pam are getting married tonight too. Fortunately modern science has provided DVRs and Hulu to navigate these parallel universes.

          

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South Park Watch: Shut Up, Billy Mays!

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 8, 2009 at 10:28 am
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[Update: I deleted the embedded video here because it was causing some browsers to crash, and playing unprompted on my own browser, which annoys the crap out of me. But you can see it, other clips—and the full episode—at the South Park Studios website. Apologies.]

While we're on the subject of product placement this morning, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Chipotle did not pay for their prominent role in last night's return episode of South Park. Although when you think about it, "So good you'll endure blood-stained underwear for it" does have a certain pizzazz.

The fast-food riff played out better, I thought, than the main storyline of the episode, which took off on the much-noted celebrity Summer of Death this year. This may partly be my personal bias here; of the major categories of South Park episodes, I'd rank my general preferences as follows:

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Reality Redemption for Michael Vick?

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 8, 2009 at 10:04 am
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This is really turning out to be the week of scandal comebacks. Michael Richards returned to TV on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Don Imus returned to TV on Fox Business. David Letterman—well, that one's still in progress. And now, reports the L.A. Times, Michael Vick is getting his own reality show. The Michael Vick Project (tentative title) will chronicle his comeback stint with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Of course, Vick has already returned to football after his dogfighting scandal, but media-wise, a successful reality show may be even more important to rehabilitating his image (say, to the point where he's palatable to advertisers). I'm admittedly not a sports fan, so I haven't followed his story well enough to guess if that's a realistic hope. What do the football fans out there think?

          

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The Morning After: Buy It In Bulk

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 8, 2009 at 9:13 am
11 Comments
ABC

ABC

I highly recommend everyone go read Choire Sicha's outstanding op-ed in the New York Times this morning about product placement in America, which among other notes that the film version of The Road even managed to work a plug for VitaminWater into a movie about the Apocalypse. (The Coca-Cola scene he mentions, by the way, was actually in Cormac McCarthy's novel, but who says movies can't improve on books?)

Why do I mention this? Because I have no idea whether Costco paid for its storyline in last night's Modern Family, but if not, it was one of the great freebies in recent memory.

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TV Tonight: Secret Girlfriend: Who Do You Think You Are?

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 7, 2009 at 11:34 am
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Comedy Central, like any good targeted network with a young male audience, is constantly asking itself, What do guys like? Guys like comedy. Guys like the Internet. And guys like point-of-view porn and Girls Gone Wild videos. Ahem, so I'm told.

The channel has combined these great tastes together in a fascinatingly bad comedy debuting tonight after South Park. American dudes, meet your Secret Girlfriend.

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Gourmet: A Magazine TV Show Sans Magazine

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 7, 2009 at 9:48 am
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File this under Department of Unfortunate Timing: last week I got a screener in the mail for the public-TV show Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth, a food series with Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl. On Monday, publisher Conde Nast announced that Reichl would have no magazine to edit, as it was closing the venerable food bible.

The show is still scheduled to start airing on October 17. (I've made inquiries, to no response, on the future plans for the show, but its maker WGBH still lists it.) Which raises the question—can "Gourmet" continue to exist as a virtual brand, with no actual editorial outlet to back it up?

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The Mountain Goats Ascend Mt. Colbert

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 7, 2009 at 9:28 am
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There was a collision at the intersection of Funny and Awesome last night as The Colbert Report hosted John Darnielle and his band The Mountain Goats. Darnielle's music can be haunting, disturbing and beautiful, but the last thing I'd expect it to be is topical. And yet the band's new album, The Life of the World to Come, whose songs are each titled for Bible verses, has a weird timely resonance as conservatives are writing a new version of the Bible. Here, Darnielle talks to Colbert about the band's name, and just what business Jesus had messing with the moneylenders anyway:

Later on the show, The Mountain Goats tore through a fiery version of "Psalms 40:2." You can find the entire album streaming today at the Colbert Nation website. That's my soundtrack for the day, anyway. Can I get an amen?

          

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The Morning After: Fallen Stars

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 7, 2009 at 8:35 am
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ABC

ABC

It was widely reported enough yesterday that I doubt it qualifies as a Dancing with the Stars spoiler, but avert your eyes if you want to avoid them anyway: Tom DeLay ended his Cinderella bid for the DWTS crown yesterday, citing injured feet. (Another contestant was eliminated, but I'll skip that spoiler here.)

You know well that I'm not much of a follower of DWTS, but those of you who are, do you think the casting of novelty contestants like DeLay helps or hurts the show? And yes, I know that on DWTS, they're all "novelty contestants" to an extent, but humor me here.

          

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Your Town, Too, Can Host a Bravo Show

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 6, 2009 at 1:31 pm
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This morning's e-mail brings the unsurprising word that Bravo is expanding its Real Housewives franchise, picking up its previously announced Real Housewives of D.C. for a full series order, as well as a second season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

In other Bravo news, the network officially announced there will be a seventh season of Top Chef, though it has not yet announced a location. I say they should let cities compete to host it, like the Olympics. Maybe Obama can get it back for Chicago!

Excerpts from the Housewives announcement after the jump:

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From the Comments: The Definitive Word on The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.

Posted by James Poniewozik
October 6, 2009 at 12:30 pm
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One thing I love about blogging, and my commenters, is that every once in a while a new and amazing comment will straggle in on a post I put up long ago. Over my last vacation, I posted an obscure, little-read remembrance of an obscure, little-watched kids' show from the 1970s: The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. And just now, someone posted a comment that may well qualify as the definitive scholarly work on the show. After the jump, I reproduce this comment in full, in the hope that, whenever someone in the future Googles The Kids from C.A.P.E.R., they will find this extensive and lovingly detailed post. Thanks, gilgamess1:

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