Television
TV
Girls ... With Children
Once you pop out a kid, it’s hard to fit into pop culture
May 7th, 2013
I started thinking about moms in American pop culture, ironically, while watching an episode of Girls. Specifically, it was the scene in which two of the series’ (platonic, female) twenty-something protagonists bond by way of a shared bath. My first thought was, I have never casually bathed with a friend while discussing my relationship problems. My second was, I would literally pay someone if they could guarantee me a bath that no one else would try to climb into. You see, I have a toddler. He is there when I bathe. He is there when I pee. He is always there, like another limb that just happens to lurch around independently of the rest of my body. And he has changed everything. Read more »
Showstopper
Open letter to Travel Channel: Green-light Civillico series
April 16th, 2013
Dearest, darling Travel Channel execs: Make a decision—the right one. Grant our own Jeff Civillico, afternoon-show headliner at the Quad, his TV show. Read more »
Real Steel Cage Match
Local radio host calls the robo-shots for SyFy's Robot Combat League
April 9th, 2013
When, inevitably, Skynet comes on-line and the robot apocalypse begins, you’ll be able to trace it back ——as you can with so many terrible decisions—to Las Vegas. Read more »
Television
'Vegas' Faces Renewal Roulette
Place your tele-bet as we assess the show's first season—and its chances to survive for another
April 2nd, 2013
Fortunes in network television being as tied to numbers (the ratings variety) as any spin of the wheel or deal of the cards in this town, the fate of CBS’ freshman drama Vegas—starring Dennis Quaid doing a fictionalized take on ex-Clark County Sheriff Ralph Lamb—is a pair of airborne dice about to skid across the green felt. Read more »
Television
Freakshow Co-Star and Las Vegas Native is One Glassy Lassy
March 12th, 2013
You know what they say about a girl who can swallow three swords at once, don’t you? That she has an almost cavalier disregard for her own safety. What did you think we were going to say?While you may spend upward of 80 percent of your day trying to keep pointy things out of your neck, Las Vegan Brianna Belladonna, 29, shows it’s nearly so simple a child could do it. (Parents: Try it on your kids. We’re sure it’ll work out fine.) Read more »
Television
AMC Documents the Odd and Sometimes Curious Characters of the Venice Beach Freakshow
March 12th, 2013
AMC’s latest foray into the people-with-exceedingly-weird-jobs reality subgenre is Freakshow—which should be familiar to those who experienced the short-lived Freaks at O’Sheas. While it’s a milieu that should lend itself to breezy high camp, it sometimes feels like spackle in the network’s schedule around The Walking Dead airings while we all wait for a new season of Mad Men. Read more »
Our Greatest Tough Guy Goes Prime Time
Legendary Sheriff Ralph Lamb returns to the neon as the inspiration for Vegas, television’s latest fling with Sin City
September 6th, 2012
Hollywood can’t keep its horny paws off our town. Las Vegas, it seems, is forever irresistible, which explains why we’ve dated nearly every television network, sashaying over the airwaves in one series or another. Read more »
A&E Fall Preview
TV & Movies
August 23rd, 2012
In fashion, some color is always being touted as “the new black.” Maybe it’s red or pink or (shudder) chartreuse. But every few years, editors are finally forced to admit that black is the new black. Or the old black. Whatever. The point is, everything old is new again—which could be a great slogan for this fall’s crop of new TV shows and movies. Read more »
Television
Broadway Baby
The country’s currently crazy for TV musicals, but can Smash sustain the momentum?
March 1st, 2012
Television has a freakish Darwinian way of mutating and adapting to meet audience demands. We’ve had music-variety shows, music-video channels, reality-star searches hinging on pitch-perfect live performances, and a certain, um, “gleeful” scripted dramedy about high schoolers bursting into Top 40 song at the slightest provocation. And now we have come full circle with Smash, NBC’s pedigreed drama about the makings of a Broadway show Read more »
