Question:
I have a major problem with American Idol. On April 21, the bottom three consisted of the best three singers in the competition. Jennifer Hudson was Tamyra'd way too early in the game! From highest number of votes to lowest — it just doesn't make sense! When will the producers realize that America should vote people off, not on! What happens is that people watch and see great performances by the divas, assume they're safe because they're so good and vote for the others. As a result, the best singers often get the least amount of votes. It's ridiculous and should be changed. What do you think? — Stephen
Matt:
This notion came up quite frequently in many of the stories and discussions in what is undoubtedly the biggest Idol watercooler moment of the season to date. The problem with encouraging votes against the singers is that it seems to contradict the whole notion of what Idol is about: a fan phenom that, Simon's comments aside, projects the sort of positive vibe you
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Question:
I was wondering if next year is the final year of The West Wing. When the show started, they were already two years into the first term. Bartlet was then re-elected and unless they are going to totally disregard the Constitution, the show could only be on for four more years, for a total of six. Are you aware if NBC scheduled the show knowing that it had a built-in limited run? — Traci M.
Matt:
I'm not aware of any built-in end game or if The West Wing is the least bit concerned about playing out in real time. (Last week, the First Lady made a reference to being "five years in," which makes me think there's at least a couple of more seasons left in the playbook.) Seems to me what will end the run of The West Wing is a combination of plummeting ratings and quality. Given what the show has been like lately, I'd support impeachment — the sooner the better.
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Question:
Like many other loyal American Idol viewers, I found myself hugely disappointed when Jennifer Hudson, this season's most-improved contestant, was prematurely voted out of the competition. But what upsets me even more is America's overdramatic reaction to the vote. Elton John's remarks about the vote being "incredibly racist" show just how desperate people are to cry foul without actually examining the facts of the show. American Idol isn't like Survivor, where everyone gets together and decides who the week's loser is going to be. The American Idol vote hugely depends on which people care enough to pick up a phone and vote. If enough of your fans don't make it to the phone on one particular night, be it due to a tornado or an assumption that certain contestants are "safe" or just sheer laziness, unfortunately there can be flukes like what happened to Jennifer. But before someone calls American Idol racist, they should actually stop and look at who is on the show. One
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Question:
As a loyal classic-television fan, I never thought I would find a show (other than the always excellent Everybody Loves Raymond) to inspire the same emotion and admiration that series like I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie and Leave It to Beaver instilled in me. Yet when I came upon Arrested Development and saw how many stars were involved in the series (wry narrator Ron Howard and the hilarious Henry Winkler from Happy Days, adorable Jason Bateman from The Hogan Family and the indispensible Jeffrey Tambor from The Larry Sanders Show), I thought I'd give it a try. And, henceforth, I've become infatuated with this wonderful show. Since it's one of the few series to receive uniformly stellar notices this season, I would have thought many others would have latched onto Arrested Development, too. Yet I seem to be hearing the same thing over and over from people I know: They read the glowing reviews, are intrigued, watch the show and are disappointed because it did not match
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The stars, or at least the would-be stars, are back in alignment on American Idol after last week's astonishingly clueless vote sent the show's three divas (Jennifer, La Toya, Fantasia) into the bottom three, sparing the increasingly inept John Stevens and George Huff for another week. This time around, John and George deservedly landed with a thud at the bottom, and mercifully, the carrot-topped cadaver of crooning was put out of his and our misery.
For the last week, Idol was all the buzz. Were the fans racist, as Elton John publicly opined? (Not likely. Look at who's still standing.) Were the fans insane? (More likely. Look who was still standing. Or, in the case of George, bouncing.) The most reasonable explanation, it seems to me, was that the show's fans were too complacent in their knowledge that the divas were the best this season's Idol had to offer, and did
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When you're living among The Sopranos, death is the easy way out.
Just ask Christopher, Tony's hot-headed protégé. He nearly pays with his life after publicly threatening Tony, who he believes cheated with his fiancée, Adriana. "I gotta live in this world," Chris bleakly mutters, looking none too happy about it.
Meanwhile, Tony frets that anyone would believe him capable of such a transgression (which only circumstance kept him from committing). "Am I that horrible? Really?"
Yes, Tony, you are. Horribly fascinating.
In this great fifth season, The Sopranos reclaims its title as TV's most diabolically entertaining, psychologically rich and emotionally provocative drama. More than ever, the show presents mob life as a terrible trap, a spiritual dead end.
Sounds like a downer, but the characters are so full of conflicted, frustrate
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There goes the Space Needle. And the Golden Gate Bridge. And who knows how many cardboard characters. NBC's 10.5 (May 2 and 3, 9 pm/ET) is the most cornball earthquake TV-movie since NBC's The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake back in 1990. (What, is the network out of new ideas?) "Outrageous is all that we have left," says President Beau Bridges as he weighs seismic expert Kim Delaney's explosive solution to an approaching temblor that could take out the California coastline. Shamelessly stealing 24's split-screen trademark, 10.5 only musters a fraction of that thriller's suspense, despite a speedy pace and passable effects.
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Question:
I love Alias and 24, and I am usually satisfied with saying that they are both equally entertaining and thrilling. However, after April 18, I can finally say that 24 has the upper hand. Both shows were in similar positions of possibly killing off major characters, but only 24 shocked us all by actually going through with it. The death of Chappelle (Paul Schulze) was television at its very best. On the other hand, Alias is, of late, getting kind of predictable. What are your thoughts on the unshocking survival of Sloane? — Luis C.
Matt:
First off, just let me say that Ron Rifkin's excellent understated performance as Sloane more than compensates for the show's kooky, baroque plotting. Both Alias and 24 have been favorites of mine since they premiered during the same season, and for a while, it depended on which week you asked as to which was my favorite. This season has been trickier. Alias was really hurt by losing Lena Olin, by bringing aboard the ineffectual (until
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Question:
I have been as big a fan as any of 24 this season, and the show has delivered all season long so far, but having just finished watching the April 18 episode, I have to say that I think I might finally be let down by the show. There's always been a line between strong and meaningful plot twists and excessively unnecessary plot twists. I'm still in shock at the execution of Ryan Chappelle on 24 this past episode, and what's more, I'm still not sure how exactly I feel about it. Was it going too far? Was it more for shock value than a necessary plot event? Part of me wants to rank it with the helicopter blade severing a certain doctor's arm on ER earlier this season. You take a character like Chappelle, who is pretty much an insensitive jerk throughout the entire season, and suddenly put him in a position where the audience has no choice but to develop a sympathetic connection to him. He admits he has no family to speak of and no real friends, and the entire scene just
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Question:
First let me say I'm an unabashed Sopranos fan, and I love that the series takes its own sweet time as the storyline unfolds slowly over the 13 episodes. But what was the deal with the April 18 episode taking the subplot almost verbatim from an episode a few years ago? An outside acquaintance (Tim Daly/Robert Patrick) gets drawn into the high-stakes card game and gets taken for more than he can possibly repay. Christopher/Tony assumes the debt, and when it can't be satisfied, they rough the poor guy up and take almost everything the guy owns. The final kicker being taking possession of the guy's car. I love the show, but feel the series is way too young to recycle plot lines already! — Tim D.
Matt:
You have a point, but I felt the circumstances were different enough — Robert Patrick lived in the community, the father of a friend of Meadow's; whereas Tim Daly was a Hollywood burnout and rehab buddy of Christopher's — that I didn't mind much. The Sopranos is so unlike a
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