By Jim McFarlin
Published: 10/6/2010
Types: Screens, Television
What was once Felicity is now just Foolish. Keri Russell, the wispy, curly-topped beauty largely absent from your TV screens since starring as idealistic New York college student Felicity Porter in the Golden Globe-winning '90s series Felicity — one of the few legitimate hits on the old WB Net...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 9/22/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Next to the new fall series themselves — depending on the quality of the shows in question, maybe more than the programs — TV critics love discussing time slots. That's because they know television history is littered with unique, cleverly written, well-acted productions that died a quic...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 9/8/2010
Types: Screens, Television
With Wednesday's premieres of Hellcats at 9 p.m. on the CW and Terriers at 10 p.m. on FX, the 2010 fall TV season is officially off and running. Last week I was interviewed on a Raleigh, N.C., radio station for my post-Emmy Awards observations when the host (you may remember Detroit's own Joe Wade F...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 8/25/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Ted Raimi is feeling homesick, and more than a bit envious. "I'm really jealous that there's so much production going on there," the Royal Oak native says by phone from California, where he moved in 1989 and carried on the family honor by carving out a laudable career as an actor, direct...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 8/11/2010
Types: Screens, Television
A whimsical, seriocomic 13-week series about cancer? Anyone who has suffered the devastating effects of that disease or knows somebody who has (and isn't that just about everybody?) would be hard-pressed to envision malignant tumors as the stuff of prime-time chuckles. What's the old expression? &qu...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 8/4/2010
Types: Arts, Visual arts
When Nii Quarcoopome arrived in the United States in 1979 from Ghana to begin graduate studies at UCLA, the first thing he perceived — the minute he stepped off the plane — was racial tension. It hung in the air thicker than L.A. smog. "You could tell from the demeanor of the white...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 7/28/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Erin Cummings is playing a medical examiner in Detroit, which should ensure her plenty of screen time. When the actress arrives on ABC (Channel 7) Sept. 21 — as Dr. Abbey Ward in our very own prime-time cop series, Detroit 1-8-7, which began shooting in and around the city last week — sh...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 7/14/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Is anyone else totally discombobulated over these TV "summer seasons"? We used to moan there was nothing on our happy boxes this time of year but reruns. Now, an old episode of a familiar show might be a refreshing sight. The rapidly resurgent Law & Order: Criminal Intent ended its se...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 6/30/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Trend alert: This is shaping up to be a very good year for beautiful young Dearborn women of Lebanese descent. In May, Rima Fakih, an Arab-American Muslim, was crowned Miss USA. Now, University of Michigan-Dearborn junior Sahar Dika has taken a break from college to star in the 24th season of the r...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 6/16/2010
Types: Screens, Television
A week or so ago I mentioned the new TVLand summer sitcom Hot in Cleveland, with its all-star lineup of Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves (Frasier), Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) and a resurgent, ageless Betty White, and asked the critical question, "Can this series possibly be as good as it soun...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 6/2/2010
Types: Screens, Television
You've read the major headlines about the upcoming fall TV season and, as is too often the case, you wonder if the networks are being run by a tribe of chimpanzees. NBC (Channel 4 in Detroit) cancels Law & Order one season shy of setting the all-time record for prime time longevity (the late, ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 5/19/2010
Types: Screens, Television
What can you say about a new one-hour police show that: • Was created and written by Matt Nix, the executive producer behind one of my favorite current series going, USA's stylish Burn Notice; • Stars a pair of familiar, bankable names in actors Colin Hanks (Tom's son, Band of Brothers)...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 5/12/2010
Types: Screens, Television
The outcomes of TV "reality" series are almost never a matter of life or death, but here's one that comes close: What kind of backlash do you reckon NBC will receive if Donald Trump "fires" Bret Michaels from Celebrity Apprentice before the series season finale May 23? If NBC ha...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 4/21/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Certainly you've pondered the question at least once or twice: If Hollywood ever decided to do a movie on your life, who would they pick to play the lead? In the case of You Don't Know Jack, the big-ticket HBO Films biography debuting at 9 p.m. Saturday on HBO, you've got to believe that not even on...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 4/14/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Whenever the network news crews roll into Detroit to do yet another raw-nerve exposé on our besieged city, we all want to know the same things, don't we? Did they do a hatchet job on us? Were they balanced? Fair? Did they at least show some of the hints of hope around here? In this case, the...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 3/24/2010
Types: Screens, Television
I get asked the question at least twice a week. Once someone learns I'm the guy who's written that "Idiot" column (the idiot who's written that guy's column?) for Metro Times since 2005, they want to know, "So, what do you watch on TV?" TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly blare he...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 3/10/2010
Types: Screens, Television
It's an intriguing question, one certain to evoke vivid remembrances and intense emotions: If you could, and you both were currently unattached, would you want to rekindle relations with your "first love"? I posed the question on my Facebook page last week and, perhaps not surprisingly, t...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 2/24/2010
Types: Screens, Television
After the ratings glory from its Winter Olympics coverage ends next week — beating American Idol head-to-head on Wednesday Feb. 17, something no other network has been able to do for six years — NBC will come schussing out of the gate in March and head straight downhill. The programming...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 2/17/2010
Types: Culture, Spirituality
She does not see dead people, so get that Haley Joel Osment image from The Sixth Sense out of your head. When little Becky Rosen from Omaha goes to work, transforming herself into Rebecca Rosen, nationally renowned psychic medium, she says she's more likely to see "balls of energy, or waves, li...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 2/10/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., the esteemed Harvard historian, received the call on his cell phone from President Barack Obama to arrange last summer's now-infamous White House "beer summit" while sitting in the American Airlines lounge at JFK. He was waiting for his flight to interview Eva Lo...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 1/27/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Think being the centerpiece of a TV reality series sounds like a ton of fun? Having a gaggle of cameras recording your every move as if you were some kind of Kardashian appeal to your fantasies of fame? Consider the other side of the picture, as presented by vinegar-tongued comedian Eddie Griffin. ...[MORE]
By Jim McFarlin
Published: 1/13/2010
Types: Screens, Television
Every time television's favorite action figure appears ready to get out of CTU and its dizzying world of espionage, betrayal, torture and murder in the name of patriotism and blowing up big-ass stuff, they pull him back in. As the eighth season of Bauer's Hours, 24, dawns with a four-hour, two-night...[MORE]
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