cable

UPDATE: Matt Zoller Seitz agrees with me: The Wire gets it. It’s a curious thing to watch a popular show long after it’s done. For one, there are fewer people to talk to, and the ones with whom you can will barely remember individual episodes and subtle moments. TV, and serialized TV especially, has too much [...]

Thanks to NewsforTVMajors for linking! So it’s official: the web has gone the way of TV. Deadline reported two days ago that Netflix has been bidding — and is a frontrunner — for a hot TV project with Oscar-nominated David Fincher and Oscar winner Kevin Spacey based on the British serial. While plenty of web [...]

Posted at Splice Today Pulp. If orange juice is any guide, some people want lots of it, a few want a dash of it, and the rest want none at all. The same might be said for television. Pulp juiced up ratings HBO’s True Blood and CW’s Vampire Diaries. It worked for Starz’s Spartacus too, and [...]

It’s always nice when gay progress is wrapped in a 6’2 muscle-bound package, as many viewers recently experienced when handsome actor Maxx Brawer graced the set of TBS’ sitcom Are We There Yet? in an episode that has the black gay blogosphere buzzing and that left me hopeful – but also wanting more. In “The [...]

Thanks to TheLoop21 (and MAN) for linking! Now, several weeks after the huge premiere of The Game, ratings for the show have fallen. While the numbers still look good, BET  executives might be a little concerned viewers aren’t sticking with the show. Do I like The Game? I think it’s okay. As the leading black [...]

Thanks for News for TV Majors and UWisconsin’s Antenna for linking! UPDATE 2: Please check out my popular post, “10 Web Shows BET Could Greenlight After The Game.” UPDATE: And it’s already happening. Networks are grabbing black stars. And even though The Game‘s premiere ratings have fallen substantially, NBC has picked up a comedy series [...]

If you read last week’s column on the “Top 5 Networks Who Have Sold Their Souls” you already know I have my biases. The changing nature of cable television, from hardcore niche programming to cheap programming with slightly greater appeal, has brought an onslaught of the kind of series I rarely watch: reality television. I’m [...]

UPDATE: See part II, “The Top 5 Networks Who Have Seen the Light“! One of the oft-touted benefits of cable television has been the great diversity of programming produced from an ever-growing list of networks. There’s a channel for everything! Cooking! Women! History! The truth is more complicated. As competition has grown for audiences, and [...]

Posted at SpliceToday In the penultimate episode of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Margaret Schroeder stared at herself in the mirror searching for someone recognizable. Margaret started the series a poor, meek Irish housewife with a husband who beat her and a membership in the local temperance league (the series begins right after Prohibition). But by the [...]

Full post at AfterElton. Thanks to Precious, Oprah and Tyler Perry, Lee Daniels is now becoming a household name, but black gay male directors are still almost nonexistent in Hollywood. Aside from Daniels, the list is short. Some might be aware of Paris Barclay, who works primarily in television, and more still will know Noah’s [...]