television review

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Frasier Revival Struggles From the Outset
Frasier Revival
Didn't Quite Revive
TV REVIEW
Oct 10, 2023 9:01 AM CDT

Frasier Revival Didn't Quite Revive

Critics describe bad jokes, disappointing writing, odd character additions

(Newser) - The first two episodes of the Frasier revival from showrunners Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli will be released Thursday on Paramount+, giving audiences their first look in two decades at the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer. As expected, he followed a girlfriend to Chicago, where he became...

Netflix's The Diplomat Is an 'Intellectual Whirlwind'

Keri Russell shines as Kate Wyler, opposite a 'first-rate' Rufus Sewell

(Newser) - Five years since she last played a Russian spy in The Americans, Keri Russell is back on TV and killing it. The Diplomat , an eight-episode Netflix series from showrunner Debora Cahn (The West Wing, Homeland), finds Russell (lead actor and executive producer) on the US side as a longtime State...

Ted Lasso Gets 'Funnier, Deeper' in Season 2
Everybody Loves New
Season of Ted Lasso
TV REVIEW
Jul 23, 2021 11:15 AM CDT

Everybody Loves New Season of Ted Lasso

Jason Sudeikis and cast 'shine brighter than ever,' says one critic

(Newser) - More than 40 critics are unanimous: season two of Apple TV's Ted Lasso rocks. The first season of the show about an American football coach hired to revamp an English soccer team was a surprise hit with audiences and critics alike, prompting Emmy nominations for best comedy series and...

What Critics Are Saying About The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
Is Being Uniformly Hailed
TV REVIEW
May 14, 2021 8:28 AM CDT

The Underground Railroad Is Being Uniformly Hailed

Berry Jenkins adapts Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for Amazon Prime

(Newser) - An enslaved girl flees a Georgia cotton plantation and its brutal owner, only to be pursued by a bounty hunter spurred by his failure to catch her mother years earlier in The Underground Railroad , a 10-hour limited series debuting Friday on Amazon Prime Video. Just how good is Moonlight director...

Saved by the Bell Reboot Is Surprisingly Great
'One of the Year's Best
TV Shows' Is a Surprise
TV REVIEW
Nov 25, 2020 11:48 AM CST

'One of the Year's Best TV Shows' Is a Surprise

'LAT' critic says 'Saved by the Bell' reboot 'starts out well and just gets better'

(Newser) - Tracey Wigfield loved Saved by the Bell growing up. The show "is my Star Wars," the 30 Rock and Mindy Project writer tells Vanity Fair . But given the opportunity to reboot the series that ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993 (followed by TV movies, sequels, and reunions),...

HBO's I Know This Much Is True Is 'Relentlessly Miserable'

At least the actors deliver

(Newser) - The HBO mini-series I Know This Much Is True will have you doing double-takes as Mark Ruffalo plays not just Dominick Birdsey, a man at the center of a possibly cursed family, but also his schizophrenic twin brother Thomas, who chops off his own hand. That's just one of...

Winter Is Here With Game of Thrones Premiere
A Surprise Cameo on
Game of Thrones Premiere
THE RUNDOWN
Jul 17, 2017 6:35 AM CDT

A Surprise Cameo on Game of Thrones Premiere

We're giving you your spoiler alert for Season 7 now

(Newser) - Winter has arrived in mid-July, which in Game of Thrones-speak means that the HBO show was back on the air Sunday night—and per the Los Angeles Times , the premiere of the seventh season "belonged to [the] women." Those women being Sansa Stark, Cersei Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen,...

Gilmore Girls Revival Is Just What the Doctor Ordered

'A perfectly timed, if imperfect, slice of holiday escapism'

(Newser) - And they're back. Nine years after viewers left Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) to go their separate ways, the Gilmore Girls are enjoying a Netflix rival with A Year in the Life—four 90-minute episodes, each following the characters through a different season in a single year....

Samantha Bee Makes an Awesome Debut
Samantha Bee Makes
an Awesome Debut
TV REVIEW
Feb 9, 2016 12:29 PM CST

Samantha Bee Makes an Awesome Debut

Critics loving fresh perspective in male-dominated late night

(Newser) - Turns out, you don't need a penis or a desk to host a late-night talk show. So Samantha Bee proved with the debut of Full Frontal on TBS Monday night. The former Daily Show correspondent made her much-anticipated debut Monday with a focus on "the most deranged" election...

New X-Files Is Both 'Dreadful,' Amazing
 New X-Files Is Both 
 'Dreadful,' Amazing 
TV REVIEW
Jan 22, 2016 8:14 AM CST

New X-Files Is Both 'Dreadful,' Amazing

After messy start, 3rd episode is 'one of the best': Brian Moylan

(Newser) - Planning to tune in to the TV reboot of The X-Files this Sunday? Be warned: The first episode is "dreadful," writes Brian Moylan at the Guardian . "It all comes flooding back. Those outfits! That hair! Those cheesy graphics! You remember them fondly without necessarily wanting to go...

Why the Mad Men Finale 'Sucked'
 Why the Mad Men 
 Finale 'Sucked' 
TV REVIEW
May 18, 2015 12:13 PM CDT

Why the Mad Men Finale 'Sucked'

No Don and Sally?! Come on

(Newser) - The series finale of Mad Men aired last night, wrapping up the show's seven seasons on AMC. The overwhelming reaction on social media: division. Some loved it , some hated it , but many critics appear to be siding more with the naysayers. What they're saying:
  • Mad Men may be
...

Critics Decry New House of Cards
 Critics Decry New 
 House of Cards 
tv review
Mar 9, 2015 1:00 PM CDT

Critics Decry New House of Cards

One writer notes, in particular, its terrible depiction of DC

(Newser) - Let's just say critics are not in love with the third season of House of Cards. In a Washington Post column, Seth Masket calls the Netflix series "the worst show about American politics. Ever." He explains that many of the "lessons" the show teaches viewers are...

Transparent Is 'Best Show of the Year'

Jeffrey Tambor stars in Jill Soloway's new series

(Newser) - Critics are applauding Transparent, the new 10-episode series that's putting Amazon Prime in the spotlight. Multiple reviews call the show, which tells the story of a family whose patriarch has begun living as a woman, "transcendent": It's touching, believable, and extremely funny. Among the comments:
  • "Start
...

Late Night in Capable Hands With Seth Meyers

Critics don't find anything amazing about show, but he did just fine

(Newser) - Seth Meyers debuted as the newest Late Night host last night, and critics seem to agree: He did a fine job. There was no huge "wow" moment, but neither did he embarrass himself, and the franchise appears to be in capable hands. Some of the things reviewers are talking...

Sound of Music Live Not One of Critics' Favorite Things

Carrie Underwood no Julie Andrews, reviewers agree

(Newser) - Before last night's live production of The Sound of Music on NBC, Emma Brockes summed up everything that was certainly going to be wrong with it in the Guardian : The original, beloved though it may be, "is basically terrible: too long, too pious, too labored in its point-making....

Emmys Were a Total 'Bummer'
 Emmys Were a Total 'Bummer' 
OPINION
Sep 23, 2013 7:33 AM CDT

Emmys Were a Total 'Bummer'

No one had fun watching this show: critics

(Newser) - The reviews are in for last night's Emmy Awards, and they are not good. (Catch up on what happened here .) One big problem: The In Memoriam segments that seemed to arrive every 20 minutes or so. A sampling of the reactions:
  • The "steady stream of in-memoriam segments
...

Kris Jenner Tries, Fails to Bribe Negative Reviewer

Sends her a fancy pen with which to write a nicer review

(Newser) - No one was expecting Kris Jenner's new talk show to get good reviews ... no one except Kris Jenner, apparently. A few hours after Linda Stasi wrote a particularly scathing take on the show in the New York Post (it's "soul-sucking," and Jenner "comes across as...

Meandering, Boring Oscars 'Didn't Work'


 Meandering, 
 Boring Oscars 
 'Didn't Work' 
oscars 2013
Feb 25, 2013 9:48 AM CST

Meandering, Boring Oscars 'Didn't Work'

Seth MacFarlane showed off 'fake edginess'

(Newser) - Some critics took offense at Seth MacFarlane's Oscar jokes—but the more universal complaint was that the show dragged, perhaps even more than usual. Among the reactions:
  • "Well, that didn't work," writes Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times , calling the show "long, self-indulgent, and
...

Dan Rather: HBO's Newsroom Totally Gets It

Aaron Sorkin's show should guide CNN: David Carr

(Newser) - Early reviews slammed Aaron Sorkin's new HBO show The Newsroom; Emily Nussbaum at the New Yorker , for example, feels it "gets bad so quickly that I found my jaw dropping." But a bona fide TV news legend begs to differ. "The show gets close to...

Sorkin's Newsroom Feels a Little Preachy
 Sorkin's Newsroom 
 Feels a Little Preachy 
TV review
Jun 22, 2012 3:24 PM CDT

Sorkin's Newsroom Feels a Little Preachy

HBO show has some critics carping

(Newser) - For those who believed Aaron Sorkin could do no wrong, The Newsroom is a disappointment. Chronicling the life of a cable news station as it grapples with events from years back—the BP oil spill, for insance—it's preachy and perhaps overly optimistic, critics say.
  • In the Daily Beast
...

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