Volver (directed by Pedro Almodóvar): Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar has a thing for lushness. He saturates his movies with rich colors, explosive patterns, larger-than-life characters and don't get us started on his fascination with star Penélope Cruz's bosom. For an openly gay filmmaker, Almodóvar really does relish that contemplative over-head down-the-shirt shot. While women and their relationships has often been a central theme in Almodóvar's previous work (in All About My Mother and Women On......

Later today, as you're stumbling to the next bar, when you pass the little kids and somewhat bigger ones who have the middle-age spread wearing taped-up spectacles and wizard hats, you'll know that you have entered the Harry Potter Zone. The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is being released tonight at midnight, and as there is nothing that the media likes better than getting quotes from kids, don't expect to escape unscathed.......

A few weeks ago, the NY Times Magazine ran a great excerpt of Steven Berlin Johnson's new book, Everything Bad is Good For You, which proposes that society has not been dumbed down by TV recently; in fact, if anything, TV watchers have become more skilled at juggling multiple storylines and ideas while watching shows like The Sopranos, Lost, Alias, E.R. or Twin Peaks, offering up the suggestion that a lot of TV drama has......

The new fall TV season has started, and it's almost as if Gothamist didn't notice. We can't say for sure if it's that we're used to the hundreds of cable channels that are catered to our whims, our love for DVDs, or spending too much time blogging, but the new fall season just seems like a formality. Seinfeld came on in the midseason, as did Twin Peaks; Melrose Place was the first big summer premiere......

Tonight is one of the final episodes of Angel, the much beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff. These days, when not getting sucked into some other demon hole or something, Angel has been beat up by The O.C. or The West Wing in the ratings. Variety TV editor Michael Schneider has been getting lots of "Save Angel" mail from the dedicated Angels fans (photo, above):They came from all over the globe: Oklahoma, Ireland, Australia,......

The Fox cartoon, The Family Guy, which ran from 1999-2002, will be coming back. According to the Post, production on new episodes will start very soon. Fox is reviving the series because the DVDs have been selling extremely well. When the new shows will air or what channel (Fox, Cartoon Network, both?) they will air on is to be determined. The Family Guy is shown on the Cartoon Network at 11PM and 2AM during Adult......

On that April 8, 1990, ABC aired the moody two-hour pilot episode of Twin Peaks. Groundbreaking, though few network dramas have taken advantage of David Lynch and Mark Frost's approach to narrative, Twin Peaks aired for only one and a half seasons but has peppered the cultural consciousness with a number of phrases and allusions as it was like Peyton Place on crack. Dancing midgets, one eyed wives, ladies with logs, a sheriff named Harry......

Check out the Lego versions of the Harry Potter characters! LEGO HARRY POTTER They also have Star Wars, and they did have Spiderman when I went to Toys R Us this past summer. Now, if only they would do a Lego version of Twin Peaks.......