Television

TV News: HBO’s “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer”

June 8, 2013
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In Russia, the defenders of Nadia, Masha, and Katia have compared their plight to the victims of the infamous Stalinist “Show Trials” of the ’30s.

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Television Review: Christopher Guest’s Humble “Family Tree”

May 16, 2013
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The only way to sort of enjoy “Family Tree” is with modest expectations; and indeed, this is the most modest of series, as Christopher Guest cuts his molars on TV with a program which rarely tries to be more than fairly amusing, mildly ambitious, a kind of bemused apprentice work in a new medium.

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Book News: Forget the Insufferable “Mr. Selfridge” — Turn to Zola’s “The Ladies’ Paradise” Instead

April 15, 2013
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Mr. Selfridge drives me nuts because the storyline, the rise of a mercantile empire, calls for edgy  Darwinian conflict rather than paternal benevolence sprinkled with layers of powered soap opera.

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Short Fuse: Meditating on the Psychedelic Realism of “Mad Men”

April 6, 2013
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But there’s something else going on in “Mad Men,” all the more because it’s latent, unannounced, episode by episode. It’s this thing about art and advertising, and the difference, circa that era, if any.

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Fuse News: Rdio Creates Vdio, An Online Video Service

April 4, 2013
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Yesterday the folks behind Rdio.com, the online music subscription service, started unveiling Vdio, an online video rental and sales service.

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Fuse News: Buy American? Non-American Bands in American Commercials

April 3, 2013
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It was while watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament that I stumbled upon an interesting trend: non-American rock music being used in American advertising campaigns.

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TV Commentary: “American Horror Story” — The Homeland as Asylum?

January 30, 2013
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American Horror Story: Asylum didn’t skimp on the scary; there’s enough disturbing images per episode to satisfy the most discriminating taste in horror.

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Book Review: The Boston Jazz Chronicles — Indispensible History

November 19, 2012
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Richard Vacca’s The Boston Jazz Chronicles will be a foundational document that other researchers will turn to again and again as they delve into more specific niches of Boston jazz history and unearth as yet unknown artifacts of this era and its neglected body of music.

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Fuse TV Review: Netflix Keeps “Arrested Development” For the Sake of Our Sanity

August 23, 2012
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Had “Arrested Development” been aired after the recession, the series’ chances for survival would have benefited from the nation’s need for a healthy laugh at a time of monetary meltdown.

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TV Commentary: Why the SAG Awards is the Most Viewer-friendly Awards Show

January 31, 2012
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The SAG Awards have everything you want, and very little you don’t. The ceremony celebrates film and television, so it’s always star-packed, and only honors actors, so you don’t have to sit through hours of awards for Best Sound Editing.

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