Results tagged “johnleonard”

Tonight, Gothamist will definitely be watching Tabloid Wars, the reality show that follows the innerworkings of the Daily News. While the reviews have noted it's perhaps more mild than we'd want it, we're excited to see the city beat reporters in action. New York magazine's John Leonard wrote in his review, "By the end of the second hour, you will probably decide, as I did, that the tireless Kerry Burke is our hero, not only because he sounds public-school instead of preppy and always talks to strangers with respect, but because he hates celebrity stories."

of making" because, hey, it's a $30,000 dress. But this week's issue has a story about missing Pabst Blue Ribbon in Brooklyn - something for the very struggling masses - as well as a story making a deal with a grandma to have her help out with the deposit on a Brooklyn brownstone - who wouldn't agree to have a baby quickly and live with your grandmother for a hunk of Park Slope real estae? And then there is New York's "Cultural Elite" section, where they name their favorite New Yorkers and various entertainment offerings in TV, music, movies, etc. - which is amusing to see, if only to learn that TV critic John Leonard loves Mary Louise Parker a hell of a lot and that Jack White is good theater. So, next week, we expect not to relate so much.

While it's all about the season premieres this month, there's one season finale tonight that we're excited about. Gothamist has really gotten into watching Rescue Me, catching up on this season by watching the first season DVD, and we've been loving it. Rescue Me is profane, racist, questionable, hilarious, sweet and tragic, with characters that seem like real people and less like stereotypes networks revert to because that'll make advertisers happy (probably why it's on FX). And it's shot in New York; Gothamist remembers reading how Denis Leary paid a Mr. Softee truck driver to stop playing the song...only to have more Mr. Softee trucks come to the location, looking for some easy money. The second season finale is at 10PM on FX and looks to be distressing and disturbing; we originally thought it'd be dark to counterbalance watching The Gilmore Girls, but New York magazine's John Leonard says that season premiere (tonight at 8PM on the WB) is "angry and sad."

Variety's Todd McCarthy: "Fully capturing the grandeur, extravagance, urgency, poetry and humor of the produced play, the savvy veteran director [Nichols]has brought out an elemental dimension of emotional melodrama that makes the piece compulsive screen fare without subtracting one bit from its status as great theater."

British import spy show MI-5 premieres tonight on A&E. The L.A. Times says the new tenor of the world, with global politics and international terrorism, helped usher the show to U.S. shores. Quite frankly, Gothamist is excited. It has spies, British accents, and some gratuitous violence. New York's John Leonard thinks MI-5 is more interesting than the Agency [Who even watched that? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?] because "they don’t really care if we like them." Even more of an allure for MI-5: Assholes who don't care what we think. It airs at 9PM, with another repeat at 10PM, but at 10PM, we're watching Queer Eye - no Thursday night condensed half hour version on NBC post Will and Grace for us, unless we really need a pick-me-up.