AMC’s watershed, Mad Men, winner of multiple “best dramatic series” Emmys is about to wrap up its last season. This show has been so good, especially in the first seasons, that it has a set a bar for itself that is almost impossible to reach year after year. Those first seasons were remarkable in their art…
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Columbia House Record Club
This past week it was announced that you could no longer buy 11 albums for one penny as Columbia House – the most famous of the “record clubs” of the 1970’s – finally called it quits. More lament for this aging baby boomer. Several weeks ago I shared similar sentiments about how the modern-day versions of what…
Orphan Black
Summer is a bit of a bummer for people like me whose daily thrill is watching an hour of high quality TV. Summer traditionally is a bit of desert for series that can be considered part of TV’s now over-a-decade-old Renaissance. Summer series like Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” – well produced and interesting – simply don’t…
Chef – Film Review
Movie buffs know Jon Favreau. His answering machine antics in Swingers (1996) is one of THE memorable movie scenes of all time. He also wrote that movie. Since then he’s become a recognizable face to most casual movie goers appearing in dozens of mostly non-staring roles. Arguably his greatest success has come from behind the camera. He directed…
What to Binge – 2015
With so many truly great series coming to their conclusions in the past two years, the big question for those of us living lives of quiet desperation that require at least one hour a day of high-quality video entertainment is… what to watch? The fall “first season” is over and now we are into TV’s “second season.”…
Wrecking Crew – Edited
Denny Tedesco, son of studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, has made the best film ever about the Los Angeles studio scene in the 1960s and 1970s. It is called the The Wrecking Crew and will be released in selected theaters and available for streaming March 13. This release comes after many years of limited showings due to music royalty issues…
Mad Men – Final Season
AMC’s watershed, Mad Men, winner of multiple “best dramatic series” Emmys, is about to enter its last season(s). Mad Men will follow the precedent set by sister show Breaking Bad, stretching the word “final” limits by splitting the last set of 20 episodes across two years. This series has been so good, especially in the…
Game of Thrones –
HBO’s Game of Thrones returns this weekend. As fans follow the saga of the Starks and Lannisters heading into a four-decade-long winter, one wonders whether there will there be a moment as startling as the “red wedding” of season 3? And what about Calesi and her dragons? Season 4 may prove to be Throne’s most…
Napster – Film Review
Napster was incredible. Ask anyone who remembers. Peer-to-peer file sharing – a simple and brilliant idea flawlessly executed – gained tens of millions of fans in the span of months and simultaneously took down an industry. More than a decade later, that industry still feels Napster’s ripples. Two guys under 20. Some venture money. Silicon…