IDWID: It do what it do

Okay, so DNA testing has confirmed that Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby, CNN is reporting. Whoop-de-friggin’-do. Can this story please die now? Can we resume our lame and tabloid-free existences already? Read the rest of this entry »

In case you didn’t hear, the season premiere of “The Sopranos” aired Sunday on HBO. I’m not sure how you couldn’t have heard, since the media isn’t going to let you forget about the final season of the endlessly hyped series.

“The Sopranos” is a great show. That’s beside the point. My point here is to ask why this season of “The Sopranos” is being called “Season Six, Part II.” Read the rest of this entry »

This season of “24″ started strongly, with a first half-dozen shows that were fairly gripping: all-too-realistic suicide bus bombings, America under siege and bordering on full-scale mayhem, talk of harsh crackdowns on specifically targeted segments of the population … and then that nuclear bomb went of in an L.A. suburb. The show had my attention.

But where can a counterterrorism series writer go after a nuke blows up? This season has gradually become a wandering mess in search of purpose and direction, with less-than-satisfying characterization and a plot arc that barely resembles an arc and seems more like a random smattering of events chasing around this season’s MacGuffin, the Remaining Suitcase Nukes. The writers are throwing a ton of material at us and hoping something sticks. Some of it has worked; a lot of it hasn’t. Read the rest of this entry »