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You are here: Home / Archives for TV & Movies / Television

Television

The West Wing in 2020

by John Cole|  December 30, 202011:55 pm| 85 Comments

This post is in: Television

I’m trying to watch the West Wing again, which I used to love, but it is just so detached from our current reality that it seems like science fiction.

The West Wing in 2020Post + Comments (85)

Crown Jewel (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  November 22, 20201:17 pm| 145 Comments

This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads, Television

This guy is good:

A little treat for fans of #TheCrown!

Bad TV Impressions: The Crown Season 4#TheCrownSeason4 #impressions #comedy pic.twitter.com/ZLd0rWWTob

— Kieran Hodgson (@KieranCHodgson) November 20, 2020

I’ve already binge-watched Season 4, which was pretty good, IMO. The mister and I also just finished up The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix — highly recommended. (It’s about chess, not royalty.)

Did a grocery run earlier to lay in supplies for a two-person Thanksgiving. I’m making Ina’s turkey roulade, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie. Plus extra stuffing and fresh cranberry sauce. It will be way too much.

It’s dark and cloudy today. The forecast calls for rain, but it’s just clouds and mist so far. The weather will likely deter us from taking a boat ride, but we did yesterday and saw this pretty anhinga in a tree:

Crown Jewel (Open Thread)

That’s all I’ve got. Open thread!

Crown Jewel (Open Thread)Post + Comments (145)

I Remember When She Was Just a Wee Lass

by John Cole|  October 30, 20209:57 pm| 24 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Readership Capture, Television

Look who is going to be on TDS tonight:

Don't miss @DesiLydic's special tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg featuring @ewarren, @rtraister, @katekendell and Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady). Tonight at 11/10c on Comedy Central! pic.twitter.com/pgpUnivYzk

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 30, 2020

They grow up so fast.

I Remember When She Was Just a Wee LassPost + Comments (24)

Dubious Conversion Open Thread: Tucker Carlson, Jedi Master of the CYA Corps

by Anne Laurie|  March 19, 202010:52 pm| 105 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Television, Assholes

Tucker Carlson calls for Senator Burr to resign and await prosecution for insider trading if he cannot provide a reasonable explanation for his actions. He goes on to say it appears that Senator Burr betrayed his country in a time of crisis pic.twitter.com/q7yJa5wjuA

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) March 20, 2020

He plays a bigoted thug to perfection on TV, but either Mr. Carlson isn’t quite as dumb as he acts, or he’s at least smart enough to hire competent advisors. Lo, a Damascus moment for one of the richest ‘conservatives’ on Fox News!

Tucker Carlson apparently flew to Mar-a-Lago to personally lobby Trump and his aides to take the coronavirus more seriously and to stop seeing everything though a political lens https://t.co/XO50HpH4qc

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) March 17, 2020

Though it’s hard to believe, Fox News host Tucker Carlson made his very first visit to Mar-a-Lago only a week and a half ago. The resort was hosting a birthday party for former Fox host Kimberly Guilfoyle, also attended by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, and Donald Trump Jr.,—but Carlson wasn’t there for the party. He didn’t even know about it, he says. Instead he’d come with an urgent message for the president. He was there to pull Donald Trump aside and speak frankly about the dangers of the coronavirus epidemic, the gravity of which had not yet fully registered with Trump or his White House.

For his troubles, Carlson was actually exposed to the coronavirus, along with Senators Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott, all of whom had been in the room with infected Brazilian officials attending the party…

Tucker Carlson started talking more extensively about the virus on his Fox News show on February 3, spurred, he says, by harrowing reports emerging from China. Trump, it seems, was the last to know. A White House adviser arranged for Carlson to meet with Trump so the TV personality could, in essence, penetrate Trump’s bubble. They talked for two hours. The oncoming pandemic, Carlson told him, was an existential threat to the nation. To translate it into Trumpian language, an existential threat to his reelection. Mike Pence joined at one point. Carlson won’t discuss the president’s reaction on the record, but suffice it to say that Trump’s denial went on for another week while the pandemic ballooned and right-wing allies—many of them on Fox News—suggested the virus was a liberal hoax and members of Congress, as recently as three days ago, told people to continue going out in public as if nothing was happening.

I’ve known Tucker Carlson for 20 years, since before his infamous Jon Stewart debate on CNN in 2004 and before his paleoconservative tendencies—he was always sympathetic to Pat Buchanan—found their moment in the election of Donald J. Trump, reanimating his career. Carlson has always been one of the most intelligent and reliably savage observers of Washington—even more so off camera. A canny TV diplomat, he won’t say Trump is terrified, weak, politically doomed, in deep denial and surrounded by toadies and mediocrities. But what he does say is enough to make you realize we’re entering uncharted territory…

A sample of the ensuing tonguebath:

We’re at the point where conservative media and right-wing politicians take their cues from Trump and from the White House. Tell me when you decided that maybe something had gone out of whack.

So a lot of Trump voters believe that all news about Trump is designed to hurt Trump. And they’re absolutely right about that. It’s been monomaniacal, the coverage of Trump. So when the moment came, when there was something that ultimately really didn’t have anything to do with Trump, which is the emergence of a weird new virus from Eastern China, they were trained to believe that all coverage was designed to hurt Trump. Because that’s been true. So it was very hard to convince a lot of those news consumers that this was fundamentally not a political story.

show full post on front page

Everyone in America has been praying for three years to see all stories through the lens of political advantage, period. And so this isn’t fundamentally political. I mean, it’s affected, of course, by politics and the decisions that elected leaders make. But in the end it’s a story about health and economics. Do you know what I mean?

I do. But I also see that Trump’s political worldview, which 35 to 40% of the country believes, says they should distrust elites and institutions. And we now are in a situation where we need both. We need public trust, we need leadership, and we need faith in institutions to hold up. And now it’s not there.

No, no, we don’t. Now, let’s be wise here. We don’t need faith in institutions to hold up, listen to yourself. We need institutions to behave wisely. That’s what we need. And faith is restored when people make wise decisions. That’s the truth.

The truth is people distrust institutions because they’ve hollowed out the economy and made a mess of the country. Now, that’s just true. Trump has been an imperfect vessel for those sentiments. But the sentiments are rooted in reality, and there’s nobody who looks at America 2020 or 2019 who can say that people in charge have done a good job, ’cause they haven’t, they just haven’t, period. So at a time of crisis, you need people to make wise, prudent, selfless decisions. That’s what you need. And you need the institutions to earn the trust of the population…

When you say institutions have failed, I would include the Trump administration in with that.

Well I don’t think anybody thinks the government is going to save you. I really don’t. I don’t think there’s anybody who thinks that…

Nobody with a grain of sense would fall for that crap, of course. Enter the Cosplay Socialists!

unless you write for the intercept.

— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) March 18, 2020

“That a cable-news host used his outsize influence for a positive purpose is something to be grateful for. But that he had such influence to begin with is nothing short of insane.” https://t.co/93nGB1zG2Y

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 19, 2020


Margaret Sullivan, who has always refused to play the idiot for the Media Villagers:

… Was Trump’s turnaround all Carlson’s doing? Of course not.

With the world turned upside down and Americans dying, Trump would have been forced to reckon with the disaster eventually. But the talk-show host did seem to get through to Trump in a way that no one else could, which is completely consistent with what we know about this president.

Trump has always placed far too much emphasis on what he sees on television, especially on Fox, which functions as his inspiration and megaphone. Sean Hannity is a close friend and adviser, who once got a slap on the wrist from Fox brass by appearing with Trump at a rally….

All of which is well beyond unseemly. It would be shocking except that we’ve all grown inured to it in this norm-shattering era of reality-TV star as president…

Honorable mention to Fox ‘newsman’ Sean Hannity:

Hannity blasts the media for their coverage of coronavirus while claiming he's "always taken coronavirus seriously" and "never called the virus hoax."

9 days ago, he said people were faking concern over the virus and trying to "bludgeon Trump with this new hoax" pic.twitter.com/jQ1dyiW4r3

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 19, 2020

Dubious Conversion Open Thread: Tucker Carlson, Jedi Master of the CYA CorpsPost + Comments (105)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Diversions

by Anne Laurie|  March 7, 20207:24 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: Music, Nature & Respite, Open Threads, Television

I suspect lead singer Natalie Maines would have been more than happy for this not to be true, but: Impeccable timing for the new single!

There are a half-dozen serious, weighty posts waiting to be written, but after this week I’m tired.

What are y’all doing as a respite from politics, at this point in time?

Spousal Unit & I both really enjoyed the first two seasons of Death in Paradise, every episode a sprightly Christie-style stand-alone mystery. I’m having trouble getting into the unlovely third-season replacement for the central character, but the rest of the cast is still sharp, and I console myself that the blemish in question eventually gets replaced in his turn…

Saturday Morning Open Thread: DiversionsPost + Comments (116)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Let This Be A Good Omen

by Anne Laurie|  January 18, 20205:54 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election 2020, Open Threads, Television, Warren for President 2020

Hillary Clinton: “Try to vote for the person you think is most likely to win because at the end of the day that is what will matter. And not just the popular vote, but the electoral college too.” https://t.co/QhhGevxfoT

— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) January 17, 2020

… Clinton appeared at the press tour in support of the Hulu four-part documentary series “Hillary,” which details the former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State’s time on the 2016 Presidential campaign trail through never-before-seen footage. The series also features interviews with Bill and Chelsea Clinton, as well as friends and journalists.

She fielded a range of questions from the audience, including what she feels the most important message of the series will ultimately be.

“I think the most important message is we are…in a real struggle with a form of politics that is incredibly negative, exclusive, mean-spirited, and its going to be up to every voter, not only people who vote in Democratic primaries to recognize that this is no ordinary time,” she said. “This is an election that will have such profound impact so take your vote seriously. And for the Democratic voters, try to vote for the person you think is most likely to win because at the end of the day that is what will matter. And not just the popular vote, but the electoral college too.”…

“It wasn’t so long ago that we actually had a President that we didn’t have to worry every morning when we woke up about what was going to happen that day, or what crazy tweet would threaten war or some other awful outcome,” she said.

“You can disagree with the facts, but there are facts,” she continued. “You can choose not to vaccinate your children but there are facts. You can choose not to believe in climate change, but there are facts. And somehow we’ve got to shoulder that responsibility not only at a political leadership level but literally at the citizen, activist, concerned human being level.”

 
Elsewhere, the end of the beginning.…

Voting in the 2020 election has begun / someday this war will be over. https://t.co/R1w2tR02Z0

— laura olin (@lauraolin) January 17, 2020

A few hearty Minnesotans spent the night in an RV outside the Minneapolis Early Voting Center Thursday night so they could cast the first votes in the nation at 8am for Elizabeth @ewarren @DaviSense @jared_mollenkof @toreyvanoot story https://t.co/hwwBTB4ECs pic.twitter.com/sogOXN2dsk

— Glen Stubbe (@gspphoto) January 17, 2020

Voting begins in Minnesota’s first presidential primary since 1992 https://t.co/hwwBTB4ECs

— Glen Stubbe (@gspphoto) January 17, 2020

… The deadline for voting is still over a month away. But the chance to participate in the state’s first presidential primary since 1992 — and cast a ballot before first-in-the-nation contests have their say — was enough to motivate some voters to brave frigid temperatures and a looming snowstorm to show support for their candidate of choice.

“We can’t afford to wait,” said Sean Duckworth, a Joe Biden supporter who attended an early vote rally for a range of Democratic candidates in Ramsey County. “We need change now, and he’s the person who is best able to do it, so I’m here to vote for him.”

Votes in Minnesota won’t be counted until after the polls close March 3. And some other states, including New Hampshire, have already started accepting absentee ballots for voters who can’t make it out on Election Day. But Minnesota’s election calendar and early voting laws mean the state can “confidently say we’ll be the first state in the country to open up the presidential contest to all eligible voters,” said Secretary of State Steve Simon…

“There’s some kind of special magic to the idea of getting to be one of the first people to cast your vote,” said Mitchell Walstad, a Warren supporter. “I thought it would be kind of fun, to go make a tweet out of it … and have an opportunity to show my support and do it in a loud fashion.”

In Duluth, City Council Member Arik Forsman joined a handful of Klobuchar supporters who showed up at City Hall right as early primary voting opened Friday morning.

“I think she has a really great track record in Minnesota of bridging that rural/urban divide,” Forsman said.

In South St. Paul, two local officials showed up at the polling place early Friday to not only cast ballots for the primary but to symbolically mark the city’s legacy as the first place in the U.S. where women voted after the 19th Amendment went into effect in 1920, officials said…

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Let This Be A Good OmenPost + Comments (116)

Interesting Read: “The Real Donald Trump Is a Character on TV”

by Anne Laurie|  September 10, 20198:30 pm| 132 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Hail to the Hairpiece, Television, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

"The institution of the office is not changing Donald Trump, because he is already in the sway of another institution." That other institution is TV. https://t.co/OwImP85c9V Recommended.

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 6, 2019

Not sure I could bear to read a whole book on this topic, but NYTimes TV critic James Poniewozik makes a good argument here:

… Try to understand Donald Trump as a person with psychology and strategy and motivation, and you will inevitably spiral into confusion and covfefe. The key is to remember that Donald Trump is not a person. He’s a TV character.

I mean, O.K., there is an actual person named Donald John Trump, with a human body and a childhood and formative experiences that theoretically a biographer or therapist might usefully delve into someday… But that Donald Trump is of limited significance to America and the world. The “Donald Trump” who got elected president, who has strutted and fretted across the small screen since the 1980s, is a decades-long media performance. To understand him, you need to approach him less like a psychologist and more like a TV critic.

He was born in 1946, at the same time that American broadcast TV was being born. He grew up with it. His father, Fred, had one of the first color TV sets in Jamaica Estates… TV was his soul mate. It was like him. It was packed with the razzle-dazzle and action and violence that captivated him. He dreamed of going to Hollywood, then he shelved those dreams in favor of his father’s business and vowed, according to the book “TrumpNation” by Timothy O’Brien, to “put show business into real estate.”

As TV evolved from the homogeneous three-network mass medium of the mid-20th century to the polarized zillion-channel era of cable-news fisticuffs and reality shocker-tainment, he evolved with it. In the 1980s, he built a media profile as an insouciant, high-living apex predator. In 1990, he described his yacht and gilded buildings to Playboy as “Props for the show … The show is ‘Trump’ and it is sold-out performances everywhere.”

He syndicated that show to Oprah, Letterman, NBC, WrestleMania and Fox News. Everything he achieved, he achieved by using TV as a magnifying glass, to make himself appear bigger than he was.

He was able to do this because he thought like a TV camera. He knew what TV wanted, what stimulated its nerve endings. In his campaign rallies, he would tell The Washington Post, he knew just what to say “to keep the red light on”: that is, the light on a TV camera that showed that it was running, that you mattered. Bomb the [redacted] out of them! I’d like to punch him in the face! The red light radiated its approval. Cable news aired the rallies start to finish. For all practical purposes, he and the camera shared the same brain…

If you want to understand what President Trump will do in any situation, then, it’s more helpful to ask: What would TV do? What does TV want?

show full post on front page

It wants conflict. It wants excitement. If there is something that can blow up, it should blow up. It wants a fight. It wants more. It is always eating and never full…

Reality TV encourages “getting real.” On MTV’s progressive, diverse “Real World,” the phrase implied that people in the show were more authentic than characters on scripted TV — or even than real people in your own life, who were socially conditioned to “be polite.” But “getting real” would also resonate with a rising conservative notion: that political correctness kept people from saying what was really on their minds.

Being real is not the same thing as being honest. To be real is to be the most entertaining, provocative form of yourself. It is to say what you want, without caring whether your words are kind or responsible — or true — but only whether you want to say them. It is to foreground the parts of your personality (aggression, cockiness, prejudice) that will focus the red light on you, and unleash them like weapons…

Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” boardroom closed for business on Feb. 16, 2015, precisely four months before he announced his successful campaign for president. And also, it never closed. It expanded. It broke the fourth wall. We live inside it now.

Now, Mr. Trump re-creates the boardroom’s helter-skelter atmosphere every time he opens his mouth or his Twitter app. In place of the essentially dead White House press briefing, he walks out to the lawn in the morning and reporters gaggle around him like “Apprentice” contestants awaiting the day’s task. He rails and complains and establishes the plot points for that day’s episode: Greenland! Jews! “I am the chosen one!”

Then cable news spends morning to midnight happily masticating the fresh batch of outrages before memory-wiping itself to prepare for tomorrow’s episode. Maybe this sounds like a TV critic’s overextended metaphor, but it’s also the president’s: As The Times has reported, before taking office, he told aides to think of every day as “an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.”…

His character shorthand is “Donald Trump, Fighter Guy Who Wins.” Plop him in front of a camera with an infant orphaned in a mass murder, and he does not have it in his performer’s tool kit to do anything other than smile unnervingly and give a fat thumbs-up…

Sidebar: Speaking of entirely media-born characters, when’s the last time we heard from *this* chick?

On Fox, Michelle Malkin blames "global financiers … from the United Nations to the Vatican" for "colluding to undermine American sovereignty" and "sabotaging our will" to enforce immigration law. This is basically the conspiracy theory that inspired the Tree of Life massacre. pic.twitter.com/x0pcH1Fkjm

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 9, 2019

If the best the Media Village Idiots can muster now is past-their-prime, second-tier Racist Babes — helloooo, Sarah Palin! — I’m thinking (hoping) maybe this particular ‘reality show’ is heading for cancellation.

Interesting Read: “The Real Donald Trump Is a Character on TV”Post + Comments (132)

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