The POV structure they’ve used this season made it hard for Meg to appear more than she has, and for the most part, the show has been much better for not having to keep cutting back to the Hudson Valley to see what the non-Jardenites have been up to. (I’m not sure Tommy is a great character, but he was really… Read more

I think Game of Thrones has definitely had an influence, as has Walking Dead. We’re seeing more horror, and more fantasy; would Bastard Executioner have even been a thing without GoT? But you’re right that viewer fragmentation makes it harder for one show to be as imitated as those two were (or as Friends was in the… Read more

I frankly wish there were more mass appeal shows that I had things to write about. I do occasionally recap Big Bang Theory, which is my wife’s favorite show and one I often enjoy (just not nearly as much as her), and until Peak TV got too overwhelming, I used to keep up with a handful of network procedurals, but… Read more

The new epilogue of the book (#shamelessplug) talks a lot about where I think things stand with the Golden Age. For now, at least, it seems that everyone has decided that serialized dramas are the killer app to get through this strange new unbundled world, so I’d expect to see lots more of those in the near future.
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I’m terrible at Emmy prognostication, but if Fargo gets nudged (as I think it’s going to be) into the drama categories by the rule changes, I’d be a little worried, in that FX has a much better track awards record with miniseries than it does with dramas (and, outside of Louie, has no comedy track record at all).
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I’m only recapping a handful of shows this fall, and of them, Leftovers is the most fun, not only because I love the show so much, but because it does such crazy and different things every week. Fargo, which I also love a ton, has turned out to be enormously difficult to recap for some reason, where I keep putting it… Read more

Yes, Fargo season 2 has that mixture of great characterization, drama, and plain fun that I loved about Justified.
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The Rapaport season of Justified was only last year, so that’s close. Landry Clarke: Serial Killer is probably the worst all time, not only because it seemed so out of step with what the show had been doing before, but because the show went back to being great almost immediately after that season wrapped. Usually,… Read more

Tacky? Yes. Comfortable? Absolutely.
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Matt and I have mentioned it a few times. It’s about a year away from publication (the manuscript isn’t even due to the publisher for a few more days), so you’ve got time to set the cash aside.
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We’re 3000 miles away from each other most nights, and Todd’s busy writing kick-ass criticism, so I would guess not.
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I like that phrase a lot, though some viewers have accused me of trying to make it happen like it’s fetch. We’re definitely at a point where it’s no longer possible for me to keep up with every show I find interesting. And I just can’t see how the economics of this much original content is sustainable. But I also am… Read more

The Wire/The Sopranos in a tie, then Breaking Bad, then Lost, then the bus.
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I’m usually anti-resurrections, because whatever spark was there the first time rarely gets recaptured years later, even if all of the same people are still involved. That said, if Ted Griffin and Shawn Ryan can con Netflix into making another Terriers season, sign me the hell up.
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You made it further than I did. This is an Emperor’s New Clothes kind of show. I mostly enjoyed the first season because Spacey was having fun, but the writing is terrible and the whole show is so empty and full of itself.
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A year ago, I wasn’t the only guy raving about Leftovers, but I was one of only a few. It’s rare that I find myself as significantly out of lockstep (hating vs. loving, rather than liking vs. loving) from the critical hivemind. I remember Fox had this sitcom called Titus that I think only Diane Werts and I liked, but… Read more

I revisited the entire first season for reviewing this summer on the blog. If anything, a lot of it was better than I remembered.
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It’s not really a revolutionary show, in that it came midway through FX’s rise to power and wasn’t breaking new ground in terms of structure, tone, or character. It was just (season 5 excepted) really well-done, and — in contrast to many, but not all, of the Great Dramas of our time — a whole lotta fun. I’d put it… Read more

Fargo season 2 is super fun and has tons of great characters, True Detective had those two spectacular performances, both have great direction that calls attention to itself without distracting from the writing... I’ve got to see the last two Fargos, and it’s an apples-to-oranges kind of thing, but I might ultimately… Read more

Never feel sorry for liking what you like. I only felt genuine, sustained enjoyment for the show circa season 2 or so (whenever it was that Martin Landau first showed up), but if it entertained you, that’s just fine.
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