Category: media

“In case the recent slew of Emmy nominations didn’t make the point, the parties at this week’s television critics tour sure did: Cable is no longer the poor stepchild of broadcast, but a bona fide Hollywood contender.”

“As cable dramas continue to score critical acclaim, Emmy nominations and loyal audiences, the programmers face new challenges. Audiences are primed to expect greatness — a tall order.”

“Transgender actors are for the most part left to watch from the sidelines. It doesn’t help that in some people’s minds being a drag queen and having a transgender identity are the same thing.”

“Yet the conservatism of Thomas and Friends is not the conservatism of America. … The Thomas series glories instead in true ‘white man’s burden’ style British imperialism. Our hero, Thomas, and his friends jockey for positions just below that of the bullying aristocrat Sir Topham Hatt but never seek to rise to his level.”

“Net loss of £122m in three months to the end of June reflects impact of PlayStation cyber attack and Japanese earthquake.”

“Contrary to what many people believe, recent research shows that moderate pornography consumption does not make users more aggressive, promote sexism or harm relationships. If anything, some researchers suggest, exposure to pornography might make some people less likely to commit sexual crimes.”

“Films use Nazis as bad guys for good reason: They were bad guys. But all too often, genocidal Germans act as cartoon crutches for storytellers looking to pit good against incontrovertible evil … [as] cover for gratuitous violence, or as shortcuts to creating a sense of persecution among the movie’s protagonists.”

On the whole, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1979 remake of the 1931 Hollywood movie The Champ didn’t get much respect. (Its Rotten Tomatoes rating is 38%.) But the film’s final scene “has become a must-see in psychology laboratories around the world when scientists want to make people sad.”

Piracy is on the downswing. Now that we all know what a great legal online video service looks like, people are going to move away from getting stuff the illegal way.

“Imax Corp. stock plummeted more than 11% after an analyst raised concerns that the company’s digital and large-format screens don’t have as much box-office mojo as previously believed.”