Category: TV

Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special

By Sara Clemens • December 1st, 2023

“[I]t took me 19 years to listen to the commentary tracks for Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special, a show I’ve watched at least once a year for the past 35.”

Exploits Feature

Magnum, P.I. vs. Miami Vice

By Stu Horvath • November 1st, 2023

We all know Jessica Fletcher is the greatest TV detective of the ’80s, but who is the runner up?

title card for The People You're Paying to be In Shorts, with Michael Jordan holding back some tears front and center and many images of basketball players in various stages of jump and throw behind him

The People You’re Paying To Be in Shorts: Dorktown on the 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats

By Van Dennis • October 17th, 2023

Dorktown’s strengths are on full display here yet again: surprisingly little footage of actual people on the court, a superb soundtrack, and a completely honest appreciation of the men in the titular shorts whose job(s) it is to go out and get their asses handed to them.

A closeup shot of Hannah, holding her hand up to the camera and with a slight look of concern or fear

A Plague of Denial: The Haunting of One’s Mind

By Brea Shanice • October 10th, 2023

How would this version of A Turn of the Screw live up to all the others? I can say without a doubt that I have found a new favorite adaptation.

Mind Palaces

A still from The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart showing a a close-up on a blonde boy wearing a Batman Halloween mask in front of a blue summer sky.

A Secret Third Thing

By Maddi Chilton • September 27th, 2023

The Venture Bros. premiered in 2004. Seven seasons later, it finally gets its finale, or what amounts to one.

I Played It, Like, Twice

It’s Time to Raise the Curtain on the The Muppet Show Game

By Orrin Grey • September 7th, 2023

The game itself is a relic of a time when board games were something very different than they are today.

Self-Insert

Mafia

By Amanda Hudgins • September 5th, 2023

KinnPorsche is probably the best example of the mafia alternative universe aesthetic. Everyone is beautiful and darkly dressed and prone to drinking and smoking in dark rooms.

Noah's Beat Box

How I Learned to Stop Hating and Love Vanderpump Rules

By Noah Springer • August 11th, 2023

“The Beat Box” is rebranding to “Noah’s Beat Box.”

A screenshot from the trailer for season 1 of Yellowjackets with a mysterious grouping of fur-clad people gathered around a fire and a skull

Yellowjackets and the Erotics of Eating your Friends

By Sara Khan • July 25th, 2023

Maybe we know who we are when we’re hungry, and we’re afraid of who we’d be if we weren’t.

Here's the Thing

A publicity still from Ted Lasso featuring the title character, a mustachioed caucasian man with kind eyes, a sharp v-neck jumper and neatly parted hair.

Ted Lasso’s Third Season

By Rob Rich • July 14th, 2023

While season three may not be focusing on Ted and his magic, it does still carry the original spirit of what came before it.

Exploits Feature

Deadliest Catch

By David Shimomura • July 3rd, 2023

The crabs must flow.

Exploits Feature

Succession

By Sara Clemens • June 1st, 2023

Fuck off.

Mind Palaces

A scene from Dune shows the silhouette of a man looking out across a vast expanse of organized troops in a desert landscape.

Honor Among Adaptations

By Maddi Chilton • May 4th, 2023

A faithful adaptation can be satisfying, but an unfaithful adaptation can be invigorating.

Screenshot from the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, featuring Kansas City rebellion leader Kathleen addressing some imprisoned collaborated with a wry and unsettling smile on her face

The Last of Us on HBO

By Amanda Hudgins • April 11th, 2023

The Last of Us is not the greatest story in video games.

Exploits Feature

Formula 1: Drive to Survive

By Amanda Hudgins • April 3rd, 2023

I don’t care about Formula 1. One of my favorite shows is the Netflix F1 series Drive to Survive.

Feature Excerpt

Hope and Sacrifice in Andor

By Kiernan Elam • March 21st, 2023

Andor paints a clear and lucid picture of the absolute power authoritarians can wield over people and how cruel fascism must be in order to preserve that power.

A crayon drawing of a red Formula 1 style car

Bahrain Recap and Onto Saudi Arabia!

By David Shimomura • March 16th, 2023

The cars went ZOOM and this weekend they’ll do it again!

Learner’s Permit: Anatomy of a Race Weekend

By David Shimomura • March 16th, 2023

What is a “race weekend” anyway?

Exploits Feature

Reservation Dogs

By Stu Horvath • March 1st, 2023

You watch this show yet, shitass?

F1winnable

Welcome to F1winnable!

By David Shimomura • February 28th, 2023

It begins.

Past Presence

The main characters of the TV show Normal People cuddle in an autumnal field.

Being So Normal

By Emily Price • February 28th, 2023

Sally Rooney books are basically Victorian novels in millennial form, Middlemarch if Dorothea and Lydgate had cell phones and email.

Mind Palaces

A close-up of the World Cup trophy shining on the field of a massive stadium.

Athletic Feats of Narrative

By Maddi Chilton • January 31st, 2023

Experiencing a story as it happens, one where an ending hasn’t been decided – that is what gives sports their fun and their nerve.

Exploits Feature

The Peripheral

By Sara Clemens • October 31st, 2022

Two eras, some twisty time shenanigans and virtual reality collide in a TV adaptation of William Gibson’s novel.

Rookie of the Year

In a still from the television show Madam Secretary, the title character sits at a desk in a Washington D.C. office, wearing a slightly exasperated smile.

Living the American Stream

By Matt Marrone • October 6th, 2022

America is beautiful – at least at night, without checking social media, as it streams on Netflix.

Here's the Thing

Fozzie Bear, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Gonzo of The Muppets smile for a group photo.

I Was Wrong About the Muppets

By Rob Rich • September 15th, 2022

A while back Rob posited that the ABC’s The Muppets was criminally underrated, but a recent rewatch has changed his tune somewhat.

Past Presence

A striking black and white image of spreading plant roots.

Rehearsal

By Emily Price • September 2nd, 2022

The Rehearsal has been called manipulative, sociopathic and dangerous by people on the internet. All of these are obviously exaggerations and misnomers.

Exploits Feature

The Rehearsal

By Yussef Cole • September 1st, 2022

“In trying to control your life, you wind up creating fiction.”

Eyeing Elsewhere

A chef in a fast-casual Chicago restaurant kitchen, screaming intensely while simultaneously cooking.

Just Above the Noise

By Phillip Russell • August 31st, 2022

The Bear is a show about the traumas that our previous workplaces, managers and family members imprint on us and the struggles we face not only in trying to overcome them, but to break the chain.

Nonhuman Meditations

NOS-4-A2, a robot character from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command tv show, extends bat-like wings made of energy from his back.

Do Robots Feast on Electric Sheep?

By Alyssa Wejebe • July 8th, 2022

Alyssa looks back on robotic energy vampire NOS-4-A2 from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

Rookie of the Year

In a still from the television show You, a young man stands close behind a blonde woman reading a book, staring at her intently.

You & Me

By Matt Marrone • June 3rd, 2022

Matt gets a little too close to You.

Gingy's Corner

two horses facing off against each other. image from IMDB.

Body Image and Self-Loathing in Centaurworld

By Gingy Gibson • May 23rd, 2022

Or, How Horse Learned to Stop Fearing and Love Her Bod

No Accounting for Taste

In a still from Evangelion: 3.0+1.0, a dark-haired boy stares longingly in front of a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds.

Everything Old is New Again. And Then Some

By Adam Boffa • April 12th, 2022

Thanks to one weird trick, the reboot has gotten a new lease on life.

Rookie of the Year

In a still from The Sopranos, four Italian men in well-tailored suits stare down the camera.

Why They Say My Last Name on the Sopranos

By Matt Marrone • March 3rd, 2022

The reason they say “Marone” instead of “Madone” on The Sopranos is actually an untold story – one that dates back to when Matt was an intern on the show.

Past Presence

A sidewalk view of a New York City street from underneath construction scaffolding. The plywood walls covering the facade of the building are graffiti'd. It is a dreary day.

Telling It Slant

By Emily Price • February 25th, 2022

A rumination on the second season of How To with John Wilson and how sometimes the best way to talk about one thing is to focus on another.

Here's the Thing

Four Old West men sit at a poker table, eyeing each other suspiciously.

I Miss The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

By Rob Rich • February 11th, 2022

Rob reminisces about one of his favorite TV shows that was gone all too soon (like they always are).

HBO’s “Ballers” Analysis – Do Sports Players Earn That Much Money In Real Life

By Alan Smithee • January 26th, 2022

HBO’s Ballers showcased the glamourous lives that Footballers get to live in their peak times, and well, it did raise eyebrows. It is possible that every parent that watched the show would not have a problem if their kids decide to nurse an NFL dream. Right from the start for the first season, It was all about expensive cars, impressive yachts, customized diamond jewelry, and the zero- sorrow life that sports players enjoy. If the show is anything to go by in terms of how real athletes live, it is understandable why top athletes do not have any problem spending

Eyeing Elsewhere

A master chocolatier stands behind a kitchen workstation lecturing to contestants on the reality show "School of Chocolate."

A Different Reality

By Phillip Russell • January 26th, 2022

Unlike more standard reality television fare, School of Chocolate shows there is drama to be found in the struggles of learning new things.

Feature Excerpt

Children of the Night

By Alma Roda-Gil • January 20th, 2022

Vampires, blood libel and Midnight Mass.

The Heavy Pour

I Know You Are but What Am I?

By Sara Clemens • January 10th, 2022

Little Sara sends a message to an old pal.

Best of 2021

A TV screen showing nothing but static snow.

The Best TV Shows of 2021

By Team Unwinnable • December 30th, 2021

So 2021 ended with our having to once again (maybe?) stay anchored to our homes by our couches. We could be doing a lot worse than this year’s TV offerings.