[Televisionary]

The season finale of The Good Wife was full of dramatic bombshells. I talk to creators Robert and Michelle King about rebooting the show, the start of a ‘civil war,’ Alicia and Kalinda’s dynamic, and what’s next. WARNING: Spoilers galore. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " The Good Wife Creators Tell All," an exclusive Season 4 postmortem interview with The Good Wife husband-and-wife creators Robert and Michelle King, in which we discuss the Alicia (Julianna Margulies)/Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) dynamic (or lack thereof), what really happened between Kalinda and Nick (Marc Warren), the year of Cary (Matt Czuchry), Robyn Burdine (Jess Weixler), and much more. (Seriously, it's a long interview and I had to cut a lot for space.) With two simple words (“I’m in”) the fantastic fourth season of CBS legal drama The Good Wife came to a staggering conclusion on Sunday evening with the revelation that Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), Illinois’s n

British murder mystery Broadchurch , heading to the U.S. later this year on BBC America, is a worthy successor to Forbrydelsen . My take on ITV’s tantalizing thriller, which wraps up tonight in the U.K. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Broadchurch : This British Murder Mystery Will Be Your Next Television Obsession," in which I review ITV's sensational murder mystery Broadchurch , which stars David Tennant and Olivia Colman and which will head Stateside later this year on BBC America. Not to be missed! The British have an insatiable appetite for crime fiction, whether it appears in print or on television screens. Putting aside the twee tea cozy mysteries of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, however, these thrillers are not only taut but also bleak depictions of the psychological fallout from murder: tracing, as novelist Ruth Rendell has done so well in her work, how crime affects not just the victim, but also those left behind

Netflix will today offer all 13 episodes of its latest original series, Eli Roth’s horror drama Hemlock Grove . My take on how Netflix has stumbled with this poisonous fare. At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Hemlock Grove : Netflix’s Latest Original Show Is Scary Bad," in which I review Netflix's newest original series, Hemlock Grove , which is not only nonsensical and almost unwatchable, but also could signal a misstep for the streaming video platform. (A sample quote: "Roman’s mother, Olivia, played by Famke Janssen as though she is channeling Madeleine Stowe’s Victoria Grayson through a hazy, upside-down kaleidoscope, is some sort of supernatural creature as well, her darkness symbolized by her haughty indifference, cut-glass English accent, and penchant for wearing black lingerie.") Netflix has recently had a rather simple mandate: to fund their own original series under the auspices of well-known creative talent and use their stream

Sundance Channel’s ‘Rectify,’ which begins on Monday, is a weighty meditation on crime, punishment, beauty, and solitude. It is also insanely riveting television. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Sundance Channel’s Rectify is the Best New Show of 2013," in which I review Sundance Channel's Rectify , which begins Monday and which I name the best new show of 2013: "With Rectify , McKinnon creates a world of light and darkness, and of heaven and hell, one that exerts a powerful gravity from which it is impossible to escape." Sundance Channel, the indie-centric network that is closely aligned with corporate sibling AMC, is quickly ascending to a place of prominence in an increasingly fragmented television landscape. For the longest time, the network was identifiable as the home of independent films, repeats of Lisa Kudrow’s short-lived HBO mockumentary The Comeback , and some forgettable reality fare. It lacked a cohesive programming i

Windy sex scenes! Dumpster diving! Imaginary mommy meltdowns! Or as it says at the site: "A conflicted Jace Lacob and a hooked Anna Klassen debate the merits and flaws of A&E’s Psycho prequel, Bates Motel ." Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Great Bates Motel Debate: Sex Scenes, Mother Issues & Implausible Twists," in which Anna Klassen and I debate the merits and flaws of A&E's Bates Mote , which was recently renewed for a second season and approaches Season One's halfway point tonight. A&E’s Bates Motel , the Psycho prequel overseen by Carlton Cuse ( Lost ) and Kerry Ehrin ( Friday Night Lights ), hasn’t just attracted an audience—4.5 million viewers tuned into the pilot. It has already been renewed for a second season of Oedipal strife between Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his overbearing mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), set against the backdrop of a seemingly idyllic Pacific Northwest logging town th

Hawaii, hell, and heart attacks! Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner discusses Sunday’s sixth-season opener (‘The Doorway’), Don’s quest for paradise, Betty’s transformation, and more. Warning: spoilers abound! Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Mad Men Season Premiere: Matthew Weiner on the ‘The Doorway,' and More," in which I talk to Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner about the sixth season opener ("The Doorway") and some of the themes, questions, and characters within. “Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.” Mad Men ’s sixth season started with a bang, with the season opener (”The Doorway”) offering us a look into the psyche of Don Draper (Jon Hamm), flitting between a doorman’s near brush with death, the weight of mortality, and the bliss of paradise, in this case the hot, white light of Hawaii. Throughout the two-hour opener, a jumping-off point for issues of

Can’t remember what happened to Don, Peggy, and Joan? Ahead of its sixth season premiere on Sunday, I bring you up to speed on what happened last season on AMC’s Mad Men . Plus, read our review of the Season Six premiere . Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Mad Men Returns: A Recap of Season Five," in which I round up all of the important plot points of Season Five of Mad Men in order to get you ready for Sunday's premiere. Season Six of Mad Men begins Sunday evening at 9 p.m. with a stellar two-hour premiere, 10 long months since we last traveled back in time with AMC’s devastatingly elegant period drama. In that time, your brain may have erased precious details about what happened to Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in the dentist’s chair, whether he and “Zou Bisou Bisou” chanteuse Megan (Jessica Paré) repaired their marriage or ended it, and just what Joan (Christina Hendricks) did in order to secure herself a seat at the partners’ table. What ha

Netflix has finally announced a launch date for Season 4 of Arrested Development , the beloved cult comedy which the streaming platform has brought back to life. Over at The Daily Beast, I've got a brief post up, " Arrested Development Finally Gets a Release Date," about the fact that Netflix has finally announced the launch of Season Four of Arrested Development . (Thank god.) Back up the stair car, there’s no need to be blue: Netflix has finally announced a return date for Arrested Development. Mitch Hurwitz’s oddball comedy, which aired on Fox between 2003 and 2006 and revolved around the Bluth clan of Orange County, was resurrected last year by the streaming video provider, which announced today that it will release the fourth season of Arrested Development to subscribers on Sunday, May 26. (That’s right, you can mark your calendars now: May 26 will be the day that the Internet will break in half.) All 15 episodes of Arrested Development will be available

Mad Men ’s Don Draper returns for his penultimate season on AMC Sunday—and he’s as down in the dumps as ever. I write about the dark mood hovering over the show’s brilliant sixth season. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Mad Men Season 6 Review: Triumphant, Lyrical, and Way Existential," in which I review the fantastic sixth season premiere of AMC's Mad Men , which returns on Sunday at 9 p.m. for its penultimate season: "Don isn’t so much a person as a reflection, a shadow, the wet ring left on a bar by a glass of Scotch." Spoilers are funny things. It’s tricky enough to write about a show without delving into the plot mechanics, and even more so when you can’t even touch upon certain aspects of the plot in even a cursory way. But that’s always been the case with AMC’s Mad Men , which returns for its sixth—and penultimate—season on Sunday at 9 p.m. Creator Matthew Weiner wants to ensure that even the most quotidian of details a

Food Network’s Chopped returns for its fifteenth season. I write about why sea cucumbers, speculoos, and lacinato kale--on the surface, ingredients which many of us have never heard of--matter. At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Chopped : Why I’m Obsessed with Food Network’s Reality Competition Show," in which I I write about my insatiable obsession with Food Network's Chopped , and how the competition show brings a deeper and richer awareness of food and culinary diversity to the public at large. When the Food Network, the culinary-themed cable network available in approximately 99 million American homes and 150 countries around the globe, launched Chopped in 2009, no one could have imagined the eventual impact the show would have. And by no one, I mean me. I was initially less than enthusiastic about Chopped—a culinary competition show featuring four chefs squaring off by cooking an appetizer, entrée, and dessert from various mystery basket

HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones returns Sunday for a third season. Can’t remember the difference between a wight and a white walker? Jace Lacob's glossary explains all! (Plus, read our advance review of Season 3 .) At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Game of Thrones Season 3 for Dummies," the third in an ongoing series that each year brings you up to speed (and reminds you of what you may have forgotten) about the people, places, and recurring motifs from the immersive HBO drama (and George R. R. Martin's massive A Song of Ice and Fire novel series), which returns Sunday, March 31. In its riveting second season, Game of Thrones —based on George R.R. Martin’s behemoth A Song of Ice and Fire series and adapted by executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss—brought the war for the Iron Throne to a staggering climax with the amazing Battle of the Blackwater, a hugely dramatic set piece that found the naval forces of Stannis Barathe

Based on a 1,000-page novel, the third season of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ is the best—and most complex—one we’ve seen yet. In this week's issue of Newsweek (and online at The Daily Beast), you can read my latest feature, "Here Be Dragons: Season 3 of HBO's Game of Thrones Reviewed," in which I review the first four episodes of Season 3 of HBO's Game of Thrones , which might just be the best season yet. When it launched in 2011, HBO’s fantasy drama Game of Thrones quickly became part of the global collective consciousness, an often brutally violent and staggeringly beautiful series that offered viewers an immersive television experience. Based on the gargantuan bestselling novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones depicts the bloody and vicious battle for control of the Iron Throne in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a fictional world that bears a resemblance to medieval Europe ... if Europe had once been the home of magic,

She’s wielded a skillet, a rifle, and—in last night’s episode of Justified —nearly ignited a man. Joelle Carter talks to me about the evolution of Ava Crowder, empowerment, and last night's explosive episode of the FX drama. One choice quote: “We wanted to see them on top of a mountain before the fall,” said Carter. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Most Badass Woman on TV," in which I sit down with Joelle Carter to talk about playing Ava Crowder, empowerment, and more. FX’s Justified, based on characters created by novelist Elmore Leonard, revolves around criminals and lawmen who collide in a never-ending bloody battle. Unfolding largely in the backwoods of modern-day Harlan County, Kentucky, the show is grounded in a rough-and-tumble man’s world, one containing a very specific code of honor among the hairy-chested set. It’s a show about how we often stumble upon the path of darkness, how violence defines our worldview, how a gun can re

Season 3 of beloved British costume drama Downton Abbey has broken a number of ratings records, becoming the highest-rated PBS drama of all time, according to PBS. Plus, Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton reacts to the day-and-date broadcast issue. At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Downton Abbey Breaks Records," in which I talk to Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton about the same-day broadcast issue and whether the show will be affected by the departure of Dan Stevens. 24 million viewers tuned in to watch the third season of Downton Abbey. Just think about that for a second: 24 million viewers. In an age of increasingly fragmented television viewing, those numbers are even more staggering when you compare those figures next to say, a recent episode of NBC's Smash, which garnered roughly a tenth of that audience. Those numbers are huge for broadcast and cable, but considering that they're associated with a costume dram

How to choose from the slew of content about to hit the airwaves? From miniseries (Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake ) to returning favorites ( Game of Thrones ) and new offerings ( Rectify ), I makes my picks for what's worth watching on television this spring. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Bates Motel : 15 Shows Worth Watching This Spring," in which I offer up 15 television shows to check out in the coming months, from the tried-and-true to those off the beaten path. With the promise of warmer weather just around the corner, a slew of new and returning television shows are hitting the airwaves. HBO welcomes back Game of Thrones on March 31, AMC travels back in time for another season of Mad Men on April 7, and Sundance Channel offers two spellbinding new original dramas: Top of the Lake , a mystery series from co-creator Jane Campion, and Rectify , a searing drama that looks at what life is like after being rele

A missing girl. A shocking crime. A town full of secrets. Welcome to Top of the Lake , from creators Jane Campion and Gerard Lee. At the Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Gone Girl: Inside ‘Top of the Lake,’ Jane Campion’s Haunting New Thriller," for which I sit down with Jane Campion ( The Piano ), Elisabeth Moss ( Mad Men ), Holly Hunter ( Saving Grace ), and Gerard Lee ( Sweetie ) to discuss Top of the Lake , Campion's haunting and spellbinding new thriller, which launches on Monday evening on the Sundance Channel. Jane Campion is missing. The Oscar-nominated director of such films as The Piano and Bright Star is in Los Angeles for a quick stop before the Sundance Film Festival, where her seven-part mystery drama, Top of the Lake, will be screened in its entirety over one day. We’re scheduled to meet for a drink at the Polo Lounge in the historic Beverly Hills Hotel, but Campion has vanished from the hotel, and publicists can’t locate her. Consider

This week’s episode of Girls graphically depicted the results of a male character’s climax. Why the scene has outraged some, and why it’s a watershed moment for the HBO comedy. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Girls Gets Graphic," in which I write about Girls , viewer responses, graphic content, and why THAT scene from this week's episode was a watershed moment for the Lena Dunham comedy. HBO’s Girls has always been a lightning rod for critical reaction, whether it be allegations of nepotism, privilege, or racism. It’s impossible to imagine a week going by without someone, somewhere, having an adverse reaction to the Lena Dunham-created comedy. And that’s okay: art is meant to trigger emotional responses. I’d far rather watch a television show that stirred up feelings within its viewers—that challenged them to watch something complicated and often uncomfortable—than a show whose main goal was simply to please the most people, across all

Last year, Revenge was a thrill-a-minute vengeance fantasy but now, in its second season, it’s a convoluted mess. My take on the show’s head-scratching fall from grace. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, " Revenge : What Went Wrong with ABC’s Once-Daring Thriller?" In it, I ponder just what went wrong with ABC's Revenge that caused its shocking second-season drop in quality. What a difference a year makes, particularly in the life of a serialized television narrative. At this time last year, ABC’s Revenge —Mike Kelley’s modern-day retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo , set among the Hamptons polo set—was a dazzling vengeance fantasy, reveling in its dark nature and the even darker journey of Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp), a woman scorned who was out for payback against the wealthy clan who destroyed her life and shattered her family. It functioned on several levels and tapped into the zeitgeist of 2012; it could be seen

Her two previous Doctor Who characters all look alike... and they've all died. Jace Lacob rounds up five facts about new Doctor Who companion Jenna-Louise Coleman. At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Five Facts About the New Doctor Who Companion, Jenna-Louise Coleman," in which I round up five facts about the new Doctor Who companion, Jenna-Louise Coleman, who joins Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor when the show returns to BBC America and BBC One on March 30. Clara... who? The Doctor—the centuries old time-traveler whose 11th incarnation is played by Matt Smith—has had his fair share of companions over the last 50 years, but the Time Lord is about to get yet another in the form of 26-year-old British actress Jenna-Louise Coleman, who steps into the TARDIS officially when Doctor Who's seventh season returns for its back half on March 30. Coleman has turned up on Doctor Who twice already in the past year, playing very different characters w

The story of crime novelist Michael Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife Kathleen in 2001, takes yet another strange turn as he gets his shot at an appeal and a possible overturn of his guilty verdict, captured in the two-part sequel to the riveting documentary The Staircase . Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade offers his take on Peterson’s story and the possibility of justice finally being served. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read a feature that I had a hand in bringing to life, "At the Bottom of The Staircase ," in which Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the director of Sundance's addictive documentary series The Staircase , writes about Michael Peterson, the owl theory, justice, and more. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade is an Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker and the director of the riveting 2004 documentary The Staircase (a.k.a. Soupçons), currently airing on Sundance Channel. The eight-hour cinema verité series recounts the serpentine trial of crime novelist Mic