film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
In what other ways, beyond breaking the fourth wall, could TV do something different? Or is stuff like this simply too arty for mainstream TV audiences? Why isn’t there room, on a hundred-plus channels, for something more arty?
The Emmy Awards for excellence in American television were handed out last night, and one of the biggest winners wasn’t American at all: Downton Abbey…
Is “quality” now something that only a niche audience found on cable wants? What happened in less than 20 years, since the early 1990s, to so significantly alter the television landscape? And will things ever go back to the way they were?
Either people are actually very excited about HBO’s programming — such as Boardwalk Empire — coming to the U.K. on an official, this-is-HBO basis, or else Sky just wants people to be excited.
Plus: the shocking number of British actors who have not been in a Harry Potter movie; is Wikileaks’ Julian Assange being persecuted?; we don’t need no stinkin’ objectivity in journalism; and more.
Plus: the deaths of Stephen J. Cannell, Sally Menke, Gloria Stuart, and Tony Curtis; Armond White is at it again (and so are his adversaries); Chris Noth thinks critics killed Sex and the City; and on and on…
