Fixing Canadian TV the NHL way
By Frank Moher
I didn’t think I had a home team in the TV broadcasters vs. TV distributors battle that has been thrust at us in recent months. Seemed like one set of mega-rich corporations pounding on another to see who’ll get to remain the fattest longest.
The nut of the dispute, in case your TV is [...]
The end of Oprah? Not likely.
By Rachel Krueger
Oprah Winfrey has announced that she is quitting while she’s ahead, and putting her immensely popular talk show to rest. For real this time. Not like in 1997, when she said she was done, but was just psyching us out. Or like in 2004, when she did it again. [...]
All Glee’d Out
By Rachel Krueger
It’s the middle of October, 2009, and I don’t think it’s too soon to ask the ultimate question: Has Fox’s “Glee” jumped the shark? Eight episodes in?
Because if the pilot seemed to be telling us anything, it was that this was a Regular school with Regular kids who lived Regular, socially striated [...]
Too funny too soon?
By Rachel Krueger
Last Thursday night, David Letterman admitted to having doinked some of his female staff, and hearts could be heard breaking all over the country. And not like they did the night previous when Nigel Barker’s wife showed her sleek, feline face on “America’s Next Top Model,” but like they do when you find [...]
In Kate’s corner
By Rachel Krueger
“Yes, hello, Kettle + 8? This is the Octo-Pot calling. Stop sucking away at my 15 minutes of fame.”
I’ve never been a fan of TLC’s “Jon and Kate Exploit Their Eight” (or whatever). Being party to their marital spats and exhausted parenting makes me feel uncomfortably like an 11th wheel. [...]
You go, girls
Reality shows: whether you love them, hate them, or feel aggressively indifferent towards them, they are rapidly overtaking sitcoms and dramedies and other such pre-written nonsense. Are they incredibly shallow? Usually. Do they make for excellent theme parties? Almost always. Are you an incredible lame-wad if you watch them alone? [...]
If not Jon Stewart, who?
Recently, Jon Stewart, host of The Comedy Network’s “The Daily Show,” has been launching hilarious barbs at CNBC for faulty financial reporting. Coming under particularly heavy fire were Jim Cramer, the rambunctious host of “Mad Money,” who has offered some blatantly bad advice, and Rick Santelli, who, in a recent video explosion, called unfortunate mortgage-holders [...]
The CRTC’s meddling ways
By Frank Moher
I like a good government intervention as much as the next failed banker, but the current CRTC meddling with the internet should send chills down the spine of anyone who uses the instrument — like, say, you.
The commissioners are looking into the question of whether or not internet service providers should have to [...]
Why is Canadian cable TV so bad?
By Frank Moher
One of the mixed pleasures of a writer’s vocation is afternoon television. With the advent of notebook computers, one can sit on the couch and do all manner of quotidian things — like writing blog posts — while CNN and NewsNet and A&E; dance across the flatscreen.
Of particularly morbid interest of late is [...]