Category Archive

Watch Downton Abbey: Sybil and Tom on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.  

Spoiler alert, as always. Downton has become a strange little show, moving at a fast pace with short scenes, and yet not seeming to go anywhere.  There's seems to be more foreshadowing than actual plot.  But it's still fun to watch — don't ask me why. So we had a scene where Mary was again frosty to Matthew.  Hard to … Read More

In 2009, Kodak announced that it would stop producing its iconic Kodachrome film after nearly 75 years in production. Famed photographer Steve McCurry (the man who photographed the Afghan Girl for National Geographic — on Kodachrome!) asked to be given the last roll of Kodachrome off the assembly line. Kodak agreed. Then National Geographic followed McCurry as he shot those last 36 exposures. You can see them here.

Spoiler alert, as always. It's strange why some stories pop up, and are resolved the following week, while other stories seem to linger on interminably. In fact, some plots don't even last a week.  They planted something in Bates' prison bed — this could be a turn of events that effects the whole rest of the season, you think.  Nope. … Read More

Not many surprises.  A tough competitive year in most categories. With 12 nominations total, director Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” led this year’s pack, unusually full of films that have reached a broad mainstream audience. “Life of Pi” came in with 11 nominations; “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Les Miserables” received eight. Performance by an actor in a leading roleBradley Cooper in “Silver Linings … Read More

The American Dialect Society picked hashtag as the word of the year for 2012. The dictionary folks at Merriam-Webster chose capitalism and socialism, based on the number of lookups those words got during the year. The team at Oxford American Dictionaries chose GIF. But we English-speakers are not the only ones with this fetish for word of the year pronouncements. Here are some of the word of the year choices … Read More

Apparently, the Downton folks live in a world where all the money comes from the women, and the men invest it badly while keeping the women out of the loop.  And the women are fine with that. Lord Grantham's wealth comes from Cora, and he's lost that wealth now (Downton-in-trouble alarm!) and Matthew has some wealth coming from Lavinia's dad, … Read More

Yeah.  Spoliers, probably. The writers of Showtime's Homeland had a hit on their hands with Season One.  It was a unique show with clever plot twists and great acting.  And the question was: how do you follow up a hit season like that? Well, having watched Season Two of Homeland, I have the answer: you don't. Season Two had a real … Read More

Really?  For this?