Episodes: Errata
Hey, we've got a correction: When I said in Monday's newsletter with no equivocation that Master of None wouldn't be eligible for the Emmys this year, it turns out that's not true! I can't yet confirm if the show will
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Episodes: Common lengths for TV seasons, ranked
One of the big debates we're having in the TV world right now is how many episodes is too many episodes. More and more networks are going to 10 episodes, with a few hanging on at 12 or 13. And the broadcast networks continue to make as many
Episodes: By implication
My natural inclination as a critic is to try to hook whatever I'm watching up to some larger emotional world outside of the film. This has gotten me in trouble before, when I've either left out a couple of the steps in my thought process or
Episodes: Every song on Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen, ranked
A couple of weeks ago, a meme was floating around Facebook that asked what were 10 albums you loved as a teenager. And while I thought about participating, I quickly realized that my musical habits – which roughly involve fixating on one album for seemingly years at a time, then abruptly
Episodes: Tomorrow belongs to me
Late in her life, I got to know my biological grandmother. She had immigrated to the United States in the 1950s but grew up in Nazi Germany. When World War II ended, she was just about to leave high school. Her family lived in a rural corner of Germany, far
Episodes: Little Gidding
(The first class we had after Sept. 11, my British Literature professor read us a long section from T.S. Eliot's "Little Gidding," part of the Four Quartets, and I often turn to it when I'm feeling uncertain. Eliot was kind of a git,
Episodes: Downfall
Buried in the middle of Lindsay Ellis's terrific dissection of the musical Rent is a particularly trenchant observation for this particular moment in time. (If you don't watch everything Ellis makes, you should. She's brilliant.) Ellis talks about how hard it is to create
Episodes: 2016 in review
I have, since 1991 became 1992, felt a kind of keen sadness as December 31 rolls over into January 1. Some of this is realizing my favorite part of the year – roughly October 1 through January 1 – is over. Some of it is the leavetaking that accompanies the end of
Episodes: The last Christmas
The way you knew my grandparents' house was close, in the dark, on a cold Christmas night, was when you reached the bottom of the long, snowy hill, your headlights would flash across a single spot of red, reflective tape, then catch the ghost of a cardboard cutout in
Episodes: War Stars
Writing on the internet means never quite knowing when you'll get swept up into the middle of a whole bunch of people taking something you've written the wrong way. Sometimes, they're completely justified. Sometimes, it's a difference of opinion. And sometimes, they&
Episodes: 5 first-season shows that didn't make my top TV list but I have high hopes for
There was a lot of good TV in 2016, and a lot of that good TV was new TV. Naturally, some of those new shows either made my top TV list or just missed it (and, no, I won't tell you which show was which). But there were
Episodes: 5 shows I love that (probably) won't be on my year-end best TV list
It's "best of" season, and you know what that means: Lots and lots of exasperated groans from TV critics about how there's too much good TV on. And it's true! There's a lot of good TV right now, so much