Welcome to our list of the best TV show pilots of all time. Pilots are the episodes that hook us. Some shows have gone on to be wildly successful with lousy pilots. Some shows have failed despite terrific pilots. And then some shows launch with a killer pilot and go on to be a successful …
Cinematography discussion in TV criticism can be all too rare. It lends the perception that TV is all about story and acting, when really there are a number of creative television auteurs who devote careful cinematic craft to shot composition, what’s in the frame, and what is out. David Simon, creator of The Wire, is …
Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, The Wire is regarded by many, as the greatest television show ever made. The American crime drama set and produced in and around Baltimore, started out as a straight-up police procedural about cops surveilling drug dealers in the inner city. In subsequent seasons, …
Deadline reported Wednesday that HBO has officially greenlit Show Me a Hero, a six-hour miniseries from David Simon (co-creator of The Wire). The miniseries will star Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII) and Catherine Keener (Captain Phillips, Being John Malkovich). Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) is set to direct. The …
God’s Pocket Written by John Slattery and Alex Metcalf Directed by John Slattery USA, 2014 Whatever its initial intentions were, it’s now impossible to watch John Slattery’s feature directorial debut God’s Pocket without feeling intensely depressed due to the presence of its leading actor, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. It’s not his last film overall–that’ll …
Bethlehem Written by Ali Wakad and Yuval Adler Directed by Yuval Adler Israel, 2013 The final shot of the new Israeli film Bethlehem, one of last year’s nominees for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, depicts two characters lying or sitting on the ground in a deserted field, a car behind them; in the distance, there’s …
Dedicated television viewers know that there will always be shows that everyone wants you to watch, either it’s a cult show, a show that ended way before it’s time, or seems to grab everyone’s attention but yours. However many viewers find themselves stumbling upon these shows either years later or late into a shows run. …
The Spectacular Now Directed by James Ponsoldt Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber USA, 2013 The teenage genre is an infinite well Hollywood enjoys returning to, even if such repetition can frequently wind up creating some of the most inherently false-seeming films. We like watching movies about teenagers so we can be nostalgic …
Fruitvale Station is a series of vignettes searching in vain for connective tissue. Its anchor is the excellent young actor Michael B. Jordan, and while he and the other performers in this dramatization of a harrowing recent tragedy are all solid, the final product is still a bit too scattered to make an impact, despite the moment-to-moment resonance.
If Calvin and Hobbes, those most delightful and beloved comic-strip characters, made a monster movie out of one of their fever-dream playtime japes, it would probably look a great deal like Pacific Rim. The sweaty, breathless determination with which the film’s main concept plays out, as well as how frequently it aims to top itself, is both charming and a mild hindrance. (Cartoonist Bill Watterson was able to get away with such boyhood tomfoolery because he was working with a much shorter amount of space and time.) Co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro has broken free of his almost quaint, homemade style in Pacific Rim, delivering, in many ways, the ultimate summer movie, for good and ill.
When Homicide: Life on the Street premiered in January 1993 after the Super Bowl, it leaped into a different world than the standard hour-long dramas. There were a few exceptions like Hill Street Blues that provided an inspiration, but Creators Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana were entering uncharted territory. The cast lacks the typical pretty …
Dredd 3D Directed by Pete Travis Written by Alex Garland United Kingdom, 2012 For any filmmaker, extending as far back to the 1920s, there may be no potential future that isn’t steeped in grim imagery. Directors and writers like to expand on the way the world operates today, or concoct wild fantasy environments, but their …
Boss Season 2, Episode 3: “Ablution” Written by Angelina Burnett Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter Airs Fridays at 9pm (ET) on Starz Having ironed out some of its stylistic creases already this season, Boss returns, thematically focused and strong, this week, and the moves “Ablution” makes serve its equally focused title well. Spring is here …
The Awakening Directed by Nick Murphy Written by Stephen Volk and Nick Murphy United Kingdom, 2011 The horror genre goes through phases, often flooding the marketplace with outrageous rip-offs of a good concept. In the 21st century, horror has been mostly found-footage or torture porn, all the time. It’s not often that something without excessive …
Cop shows have been around almost as long as television itself and have run the gamut, from procedurals to sitcoms to serialized dramas. They’ve given us some of TV’s most memorable and enduring characters, not to mention some of the medium’s best performances. Yet, upon examination, disproportionately few of the detectives who grace our screens …