television

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• SOURCE: Hollywood Progressive
  2/28/2021
  

  Reflecting on Capitalism Through "I Care a Lot"

  by Walter G. Moss

  The new Netflix film "I Care a Lot" features a protagonist who preys on the elderly as an appointed conservator, and reflects the dangers of a social safety net entrusted to the profit motive. 

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• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  3/1/2021
  

  An Invaluable Black Public Broadcasting Archive Is Now Accessible Online

  The American Archive of Public Broadcasting is a repository of interviews and broadcast content dealing with the spectrum of African American history and political activism. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  2/17/2021
  

  The Original Shock of AIDS in “It’s a Sin”

  The British show "It's a Sin" reconstructs the emergence of AIDS in London through the story of a group of flatmates working to reconcile fear and affirmation. 

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• 2/7/2020
  

  Unforgettable Images, and Something New in TV News

  by Ron Steinman

  A month past the Capitol Riots, a veteran television news journalist observes that the coverage of the chaotic protest and breach of the Capitol relied on something new: masses of journalists and citizens (including the rioters) recording video on their phones where TV cameras couldn't operate, forming a rich and important composite of the day's events. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/29/2020
  

  The Life in "The Simpsons" Is No Longer Attainable

  In the 1990s, "The Simpsons" drew humor by putting bizarre dysfunction in the context of middle class suburban banality. Today it's the idea of homeownership paid for by a stable single income that seems outlandish.

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• SOURCE: USA Today
  12/5/2020
  

  Historians Fact-Check 'Mank': Who Really Wrote 'Citizen Kane?' And Does 'Rosebud' Have A Hidden Meaning?

  Film historians suggest the new Netflix drama overstates Frank Mankiewicz's influence over the final form of "Citizen Kane" and takes some other liberties with the facts. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/3/2020
  

  The New Comedy of American Decline

  Two new comedy series revisit the trope of the American abroad; one works because it looks critically, if humorously, at the idea of American exceptionalism. 

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• SOURCE: Labor and Working Class History Association
  11/27/2020
  

  Wishbone of The Good Lord Bird

  by Mark Lause

  "In the end, The Good Lord Bird spins a worthwhile and entertaining yarn, but each episode starts with the unfortunate and misleading words: 'All of this is true.  Most of it happened'."

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Challenging a Leader’s Legacy

  If the new Showtime documentary wishes to undermine the legacy of Ronald Reagan, one reviewer suggests it ultimately makes the 40th President more sympathetic and appealing. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/11/2020
  

  "The Crown" Takes the Shine Off Queen Elizabeth’s Reign

  In its sharp and splashy fourth season, the show finally criticizes Elizabeth for her ignorance, characterizing her as a ruler whose stubborn devotion to tradition makes her and her family out-of-touch fools caught off guard by change. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Making America Great Again, Round 1

  "The series provides a steady succession of parallels between Reagan and Donald J. Trump, none labeled as such but all difficult to miss."

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  11/10/2020
  

  Everything About Netflix’s Hillbilly Elegy Movie Is Awful (Review)

  "It strips out Vance’s sociopolitical commentary entirely, which, however you feel about the commentary, leaves the story without an all-important ingredient: a political and sociological point."

• 
• SOURCE: CBS News
  11/8/2020
  

  Ken Burns on America, Selling His First Film, PBS's Long Deadlines and More

  "I have had the privilege of spending my entire life making films about the U.S., capital U, capital S. But I've also had the privilege of making films about 'us,' the two-letter, lowercase, plural pronoun, that has a kind of intimacy and warmth to it."

• 
• SOURCE: YouTube
  11/6/2020
  

  Classic Sesame Street - Ronald Grump Builds The Grump Tower

  What happened when Oscar the Grouch signed a bad real estate contract with Ronald Grump for a two-can trash condo in Grump Tower? 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  11/3/2020
  

  Aaron Sorkin’s Inane, Liberal History Lesson

  by Charlotte Rosen

  Aaron Sorkin's Chicago 7 film strips away the radical, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist politics of the 1960s New Left to make the defendants heroic defenders of liberal democratic politics. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  10/26/2020
  

  The Mischievous Irreverence of “The Good Lord Bird”

  “The Good Lord Bird” roots for Brown, but it has no patience for hagiography. 

• 
• 10/25/2020
  

  Survivors, Apprentices, and Entrepreneurial Sharks: The Mark Burnett Reality TV Presidency

  by Daniel Horowitz

  Mark Burnett's reality TV empire has championed individualism and the myth of the entrepreneurial genius while reviving the celebrity and launching the political career of Donald Trump. Is 2020 the end of the line for both? 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/13/2020
  

  'I Was Hit and Knocked to the Ground': The True Story of the Trial of the Chicago 7

  “There are some things that I wouldn’t agree with how Sorkin has characterised certain figures in the trial, myself included. But the impact of the movie is there and I certainly endorse and support it," says Chicago 7 defendant and antiwar activist Rennie Davis.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
  10/13/2020
  

  Popular TV Characters Have Become a Part of the 2020 Campaign. Here’s Why

  by Oscar Winberg

  By the early 1970s, politics was moving to a focus on candidates over parties; New York Mayor John Lindsay sought help for his 1972 presidential bid from actor Carroll O'Connor, whose endorsement blurred the lines between the liberal O'Connor and his reactionary Archie Bunker character.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/6/2020
  

  ‘The Good Lord Bird’ Is Good TV. But Mix Art and Slavery at Your Peril

  Critic Carvell Wallace writes of the new television adaptation of James McBride's novel that trying to make entertainment out of the subject matter of slavery is an impossibility in 2020.