Category: media

“‘Dangerous’ is the word that comes to my mind because these are movies that refuse to settle down or behave properly. They do their own thing.”

“Can a TV show save lives? Can cisgender actor Jeffrey Tambor be enough of a first stepping stone for transwomen who’ve waited forever for any kind of representation? Could a transphobe somewhere see this show and feel something shift?”

“New shows have a high failure rate and some of these programs still feel a bit too much like one long ethnic joke. But there’s also a sense of a page turning in network TV. Finally some networks have realized they can get good ratings and lots of attention by airing series that look more like America.”

“The continuing stream of statements underscores that the merger review is a free-for-all grandstanding opportunity for companies, orgs and individuals with all manner of agendas. The frustration with the situation is evident in the tone of Comcast’s lengthy replies to critics of the deal that would unite the nation’s two largest cable operators.”

“In the first instalment of Talking TV, … Tom Brook reports on how television has been at the vanguard of changing perceptions of gay people – especially in the US where the proliferation of gay and lesbian TV characters has arguably created a climate more receptive to the idea of gay marriage.” (video)

“It is extortion when Comcast fails to provide its own customers the broadband speed they’ve paid for unless Netflix also pays a ransom.”

“In Hollywood, at least when I was making films there, there were people in the studios that actually had personalities. You could distinguish one from the other. And now, I don’t see that at all. … I just want to do what I do. And I don’t even get scripts from Hollywood. I don’t even ask for scripts anymore because I kind of know what they’re going to be.”

“Revealing … dramatic plot twists and turns of hit television shows used to be considered a social faux pas. Today,” according to a study for Netflix conducted by a cultural anthropologist, “the motivation for spoiling a show for someone else now is about more than just watching TV, he said. It is about the politics of daily life.”

“The readers and commentators are correct to protest this story. Intended to be in praise of Ms. Rhimes, it delivered that message in a condescending way that was – at best – astonishingly tone-deaf and out of touch.” (includes responses from the Culture Editor and the article’s writer, TV critic Alessandra Stanley)

“In the review, I referenced a painful and insidious stereotype solely in order to praise Ms. Rhimes and her shows for traveling so far from it. … I didn’t think Times readers would take the opening sentence literally because I so often write arch, provocative ledes that are then undercut or mitigated by the paragraphs that follow.”