Tag: Lisa Edelstein

• May 21, 2012

  Goodbye, House: Ranking the seasons of House

  

  With House airing its series finale this evening, I thought it was time to bust out a list or two. I love House and I love lists. It seems only fitting. First up, one of the lists I “do best”: ranking the seasons. Obviously, the finale could have some influence on the placement of season…
• March 29, 2012

  Chitchat: Checking in with The Good Wife

  

  I talk television with a lot of people. Friends, family, other critics on Twitter, vagrants on the street. I just love talking about TV. Because I don’t have the time and resources to do a podcast like I used to in college, I’m going to sort of replicate that experience in textual form in a…
• December 5, 2011

  TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 20 — Be More Like Lost, Walking Dead

  

  In the new episode of the podcast, I’m joined by The A.V. Club’s Zack Handlen for a discussion about the “mehs” of House season eight and the highs and lows of The Walking Dead season two. You can pre-order Zack’s new book on Amazon and also don’t forget to subscribe to the pod on iTunes.
• October 18, 2011

  TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 12 — Thematic Analysis of Social Decorum and Legal Procedures 300

  

  In this episode of the podcast, my buddy Noel Kirkpatrick from Monsters of Television joins me for a lengthy discussion of the opening four episodes of Community and The Good Wife‘s respective third seasons. Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, if you’d like.
• October 4, 2011

  Season Premiere review — House, “Twenty Vicodin”

  House is pretty much out of ideas at this point. The series spent the majority of last season focusing on the House-Cuddy relationship, a decision that made half the audience swoon and the other half vomit. I was somewhere in the middle on Huddy, but it always sort of felt like if the series was…
• September 6, 2011

  Fall Television “Preview”: Four series with problems to solve

  

  With September upon us, the fall television season is just around the corner. At random times over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting some preview-like pieces about what is to come over the next few months. Just like last year, I haven’t seen any of the season’s new series – no pilots or anything.…
• June 27, 2011

  2011 Dream Emmy Ballot: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

  

  It’s that time again, folks. The Emmy nominations will be announced on July 14, which means I have almost an entire month to flood this space with hopes, dreams and predictions about what could happen come nomination time. To kick things off, I’ll be bringing back the Dream Emmy Ballot. It’s something I did last…
• May 31, 2011

  2010-2011 season wrap: House

  With the 2010-2011 television season officially over, I’ll be taking some time over the next week or so to look back on how some of television’s best fared this season. General thoughts: End dates are not normal in television and most series limp towards the finish line. This is often more true for series with procedural…
• May 24, 2011

  Season Finale — House, “Moving On”

  For a season finale, “Moving On” is not an entirely exciting episode. In fact, this episode includes one of the season’s most obvious commitments to a medical case. At various points of the episode, I found myself just slightly bored with the proceedings. But despite all of that, “Moving On” is exactly what House ends as…
• May 17, 2011

  House, “After Hours”

  When heading into a season finale, there’s always a danger of ramping things up too much. The desire to make everything seem MORE IMPORTANT and MORE URGENT is always there, especially for drama series, but it doesn’t always work in the context of the episodes that came before it. Histrionics for histrionics sake is never, ever a…
• May 5, 2011

  #TVFail Entry 2: House, “Simple Explanation”

  

  The accused: House, “Simple Explanation” (Season 5, Episode 20) The crime: Presenting a terribly manipulative version of the “Very Special Episode” gimmick. Television’s failures are supposed to be obvious. From the overhyped non-starters that flop from the very beginning (hello, FlashForward, Lone Star) to the much-discussed clumsy conclusions of series we were convinced had it all planned…
• May 3, 2011

  House, “Changes”

  There’s a weird thing going on. I think I’m the biggest critical supporter of House left. I’m not really sure how this happening, especially when I spent a good portion of the last two seasons thinking that the series should be cancelled. I’d like to think I have mostly high standards. Maybe I do, maybe…
• April 19, 2011

  House, “Last Temptation”

  Thirteen’s back, so naturally that means Masters has to leave! Okay, that might not be the exact logistical explanation for the transition between last week’s very good episode of House and this only-okay episode of House, but it does seem a bit obvious that this series refuses to have two female characters on the team.…
• April 12, 2011

  The TVS List: Three broadcast series that need to be canceled

  

  Note: I’m hopefully going to have more time to write things here over the next few months, so I’ll be trying to bring back the weekly list feature. Trying. Anyway, here’s the beginning of that attempt. It’s spring, which means it is the time of year that everyone takes to the internet to stump for…
• April 12, 2011

  House, “The Dig”

  I’m willing to face the consequences of this statement: I actually like Thirteen. I know that many House fans have hated her from the beginning because she was more or less replacing fan favorite Cameron, and I can see their point of view. The way that Cameron was shoved not-so-gently off the stage so that…