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…
Originally published April 2012 – right on this one too. After a bit of a hiatus, 4-times-in-a-row “best dramatic series” winner Mad Men has returned to AMC. Within five episodes this show has put nearly every other dramatic series to shame with its seemingly boundless creativity and enormous entertainment value. Adult themes, unpredictable plot twists,…
Originally published July 2011 – looks like I got this right! Game of Thrones, HBO’s latest original series, is simply the most fantastic series to come from HBO yet! Unpredictable, visually stunning, intelligent with its depiction of morality, GOT is also at times utterly shocking. The violence, completely justifiable and necessary to the storytelling, was at…
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 the sister show Breaking Bad, stretching the limits of the word “final” by splitting the last set of 20 episodes across two years. This series has been so good,…
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…
Disney’s non-Pixar-animated track record has been a bit spotty in recent years. The studio, who invented full-length feature animation for the masses, had a tremendous renaissance in the late 1980’s beginning with the Little Mermaid. Beauty and the Beast and Lion King (among others) followed – offering delicious, wonderfully told stories with equally beautiful songs….