Category: media

“Over a decade into its life, reality TV is here to stay. The genre that the networks politely refer to as “alternative programming” is not a passing trend, even while its ratings have cooled significantly in recent years. Just like sitcoms, dramas, game shows, and talk shows, it’s a TV staple — the American cheese next to the ketchup, milk, and eggs.”

“The U.S. has American Idol. Britain has The X Factor. Malaysia, one of the world’s more progressive Muslim nations, has something rather different – a televised search for the country’s most eligible young religious leader. … Instead of a record contract or a million-dollar prize, though, the last imam standing wins a scholarship to the al-Madinah University in Saudi Arabia, a job leading prayers at a Kuala Lumpur mosque and an expense-paid trip to Mecca to perform the Haj pilgrimage.”

“Cheating on homework, being mortified by clothes or haircuts, running away from home, discovering the cruelties of the working world, feeling the stirrings of interest in the opposite sex: [Leave It to] Beaver covered those and dozens of other topics that later turned up in Family Affair, The Wonder Years, The Bernie Mac Show, Hannah Montana and everywhere else, and will turn up again in whatever family series comes next.”

“India’s Bollywood cinema, known for its exuberant song-and-dance sequences and romantic plots, is to explore new territory with a satire on Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. … The farce follows a storyline in which [a] reporter makes a video with a bin Laden look-alike and becomes the centre of a major White House investigation.”

“Australians wasted no time cashing in on the shock ouster of Kevin Rudd as prime minister, businesses launching a series of cheeky adverts to run alongside stories about the party coup.”

“The Cove, an Oscar-winning film about a dolphin-hunting village in Japan, will be shown in the country from next month, despite pressure from nationalist groups that caused several theaters to cancel screenings.”

A.O. Scott: “How do you do something that hasn’t quite been done before, and how do you make it work, so that the audience is thrilled, surprised and entertained? … [P]erhaps more than anything else, it is the pursuit of more, bigger and better action effects that has driven Hollywood’s frenetic, headlong, exhausting history of innovation.”

“The approval of Netflix, which has more than 14 million subscribers, follows that of Time Warner Inc., publisher of more than 20 U.S. magazines including Sports Illustrated and People. The Postal Service, which says eliminating Saturday delivery would save $3 billion a year, wants to reduce the service to five days a week.”

“In your living room, the broadcast age is over. Remote controls, VCRs, DVRs, on-demand cable, videogame consoles, Netflix, and the Internet killed it. But at the gas pump, broadcast lives on in its purest, most potent form, like an ostensibly slain slasher movie villain who’s come back from the dead, stronger than ever. It is an awesome thing to behold.”

“[I]t is time to acknowledge the Renaissance masters of our time. Pixar and other studios at the forefront of digital animation and effects are dealing with something very comparable to the problems solved by artists in 15th-century Italy.”