Television
Summer TV Season Launches with HBO's Murdoch-esque Succession
Didn't get that beach body prepared? That's okay-grab some popcorn and hit the couch.
The Americans Was a Show About Marriage, the Cold War, And Why Politics Is the Worst Way to Engage With Another Human Being
In this brilliant spy thriller, the personal and the political are always intertwined-but they are not always inseparable.
How To Understand The Americans Finale: Q&A with Show Creators Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields
One of the best, most-political and most-personal TV shows ever just ended. What did it all mean?
Liberals Killed Roseanne. Conservatives Crushed the NFL Protests. Everybody Happy Now?
Why ABC cancelling the show after Roseanne Barr's racist remark about Valerie Jarrett might not be a great thing.
Roseanne's Racist Tweet Leads Almost Immediately to Show's Cancellation
The show navigated a fascinating complicated world of ideological diversity. Its star was not so adept.
PBS Lets Vets Themselves Describe Life Inside the War Machine
Documentaries for Memorial Day focus on the troops' experiences.
Westworld Review: 'Shogun World' Is a Video Game, and Maeve Is Leveling Up
"Akane No Mai" is about video game characters, and who's really in control.
HBO's Dishonest Obama Documentary Is Fantasy Foreign Policy Puffery
Lots of administration official log-rolling in The Final Year, but little actual analysis
Westworld Season Two Is a Parable About Corporate Data Collection
The HBO series turns Facebook and Twitter into a theme park filled with sex, violence, and robots.
Welcome to the Pot Resistance, Chuck Schumer!: Podcast
Reason editors share notes on the end of the political war against marijuana, plus the latest on Trump/Russia and the "undocumented" Andrew Cuomo.
Westworld's Season 2 Premiere Was a Subtle Salute to Video Game Side Quests
"Cheap thrills, surprises? It's not enough."
After All This Time, Barbie Still Draws Some Feminists' Ire
Tiny Shoulders tackles a culture war going back decades.
No Scandals in This HBO Elvis Documentary, Just Music
The Searcher focuses almost entirely on Presley as artist.
This Just In: The Simpsons Is Still On the Air
Friday A/V Club: Feeling nostalgic for a show that technically is still around
The Simpsons Admitted Apu Is Problematic, Just Not the Way People Wanted
Lisa and Marge tackle political correctness and The Problem with Apu.
Beware Censorship by Proxy
Prodding private companies into self-censorship is a dangerous government tradition.
Killing Eve Offers Up an Exciting, Hilarious James Bond Gender Bend
Also, the Smithsonian Channel presents another Waco siege documentary.
5 Things Everyone's Getting Wrong About Sinclair Broadcast Group
The company that brought you that wince-inducing "fake news" promo is not a "monopoly," and cracking down on it will not defend the free press.
Experts Agree That Massively Popular Roseanne Reboot Shouldn't Be Popular at All
The only proper popular entertainments are those that conform with my politics, don't you know?
Operation Odessa Turns '90s Drug War into a Black Comedy
The best part: It's a documentary.
State Kills Anti-Porn Bill After Discovering More About Its Backer, Free Speech Win for FX's Feud, FISA Warrants Under Scrutiny: Reason Roundup
And President Trump is mad at Amazon for...ruining the postal service?
How To Think About The Americans' Final Season: Podcast
Exclusive Q&A with show creator Joe Weisberg and executive producer Joel Fields.
How Will The Americans' Final Season End? Q&A With the Creators Behind the Cold War Spy Drama
Executive Producers Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields discuss their critically acclaimed show, ideology, and how technology is ushering in the golden era of television.
Roseanne Returns to Television, Older but Not Necessarily Wiser
Meanwhile a new miniseries on AMC builds a horror mystery out of a failed Arctic expedition.
Arthur Miller's Daughter Humanizes Playwright in New Documentary
Some controversial behavior connected to the Communist Party gets played down.
Will and Grace Botches the Gay Wedding Cake Fight
Nobody has the right to force bakers to print speech they hate. The debate is over what counts as speech.
Two New Sitcoms High on Concepts; Unfortunately Less So on Laughs
Life Sentence and Champions have interesting ideas, lackluster execution.
The Men Who Saw Bin Laden Coming
Hulu adapts The Looming Tower into a 10-hour miniseries.
Netflix Loves the '90s in New Teen Comedy Everything Sucks!
Generational coming-of-age storytelling conventions endure.
When an Echo Chamber Gets Worked Up About Echo Chambers
Researchers cast more doubt on the "filter bubble" narrative.
CNN's Patty Hearst Docuseries Shows Surprising Depth
Jeffrey Toobin's book on the kidnapped heiress was a mess. This telling is much better.
That Time the LaRouchies Won Two Primaries in Illinois
Friday A/V Club: Before there was Arthur Jones, there was Mark Fairchild.
Showtime Documentary Highlights Drug War's Futility
The Trade offers access to cartels, addicts, and cops alike.
Farewell to Nicholas von Hoffman, the Newsman Who Got Fired for Comparing Nixon to a Dead Mouse
Friday A/V Club: Columnist, broadcaster, and critic of concentrated power
This Boring British Cops Clone May Show the Future of American Mass Surveillance
Mass surveillance is up and running on Britain's roads. Will ours be next?
The XFL Was a Flop, But It Made the NFL Better
Failures can be fodder for improving other products. Creative destruction needs bad ideas as much as good ones.
Wormwood's Bad Trip Peddles CIA Conspiracies
The facts don't add up in re-enactment of famous LSD death of Frank Olson.
Soderbergh's Messy Mosaic Jumps from App to HBO
Sharon Stone stars in a sometimes-confounding noir thriller.
Why This Is TV's Golden Age!: Podcast
How streaming video has blown apart, and improved, television as we know it.
Electric Dreams Is a Sci Fi Anthology Series That Warns Against Safe Spaces
The show, based on the work of Philip K. Dick, is like Black Mirror but if people were sometimes good.
The Handmaid's Tale Author Margaret Atwood Accused of Crimes Against Feminism for Defending Due Process
Atwood: "In times of extremes, extremists win. Their ideology becomes a religion."
The Chi Inverts The Wire to Excellent Effect
New Showtime drama portrays drug and gang wars through the eyes of bystanders' lives.
Black-ish Spinoff Grown-ish Really More of a Rip-off
Cliché-addled college sitcom lacks any sort of originality.
