Marc Hirsh

Tweaks, Retooling, And When To Give Up: A Tale Of Two Singing Shows

Marc Hirsh — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:25:20 +0000

As The Voice returns to NBC this week for its fourth season, viewers are seeing two new, if quite familiar, faces as Shakira and Usher occupy the coaches' seats vacated by Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green. Its talent-show rival over on Fox, The X Factor, will also see two new judges when (if?

A Farewell Salute To 'Ben & Kate,' A Show About Friends Who Are Actually Friends

Marc Hirsh — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:21:25 +0000

Whether this week's announcements that both ABC's Don't Trust The B- In Apt. 23 and Fox's Ben & Kate are being yanked from the schedules mark the beginning of the Great Sitcom Massacre of 2013 remains to be seen. It almost certainly means the end of two strong shows whose casts were clearly having a blast making them.

In the case of Ben & Kate, it also means that television's current comedy slate is losing one of its rare shows where everyone likes everyone else.

Eliza Rickman: A Cockeyed Pop Song

Marc Hirsh — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:03:00 +0000

Eliza Rickman's "Pretty Little Head" is simple yet intricate, a contradiction which helps give it the feel of a nursery rhyme that's just starting to teeter off the rails. Except for the bridge, it's built entirely around two chords, a minor/relative-major pair that trade off inexorably in two-bar cycles without regard to differentiating between the verse and the chorus.

There's little mistaking the latter, though.

Long-Term Investments On Shaky Stocks: 'New Girl' And 'Smash' End Their Seasons

Marc Hirsh — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:06:00 +0000

As the networks are currently rolling out their plans for the future courtesy of their upfronts, it just so happens that they're also winding down the current season of shows, the ones that they touted last year at this very time. It's a good time for television viewers to reevaluate the investments we've made in the shows we bought into at the beginning of the season.

Television watching is ultimately an act of faith.

NBC Renews And Reduces Its Thursday-Night Comedies, And That's A Good Thing

Marc Hirsh — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:57:00 +0000

Everybody settle down.

News came in late yesterday that NBC was confirming that next season would be 30 Rock's last — and that that show, Community and (unconfirmed as of this morning) Parks and Recreation would all receive short

James Cameron And Getting Trapped Inside Your Most Successful Creation

Marc Hirsh — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:50:00 +0000

Earlier this week, James Cameron made a rather bold statement in the New York Times, effectively swearing off any and all non-documentary filmmaking that doesn't take place within the fictional world he invented in 2009's Avatar.

10 Things I Hate About 'American Idol' (Besides The Singing And The Judging)

Marc Hirsh — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:29:00 +0000

Ryan Seacrest's double/triple/quadruple fakeouts. Our host used to screw with the contestants by teasing the results before throwing to a guest performance or commercial. Now he gives those results using sentences so convoluted, with so many double-backs and twist-arounds, that you need a white board to diagram them and unpack their actual meaning. Frustrating the singers, yes. Confusing them entirely, no.

That half-hidden, slightly elevated lip-ramp at the front of the stage. Someone's going to wipe out on it, I just know it.

Maurice Sendak, 'Really Rosie' and The Intelligence Of Children

Marc Hirsh — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:12:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWR3iqjvt9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TsuFpIisA4

The Tyrrany Of Character: Will The Real Sacha Baron Cohen Please Stand Up?

Marc Hirsh — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:19:00 +0000

If you've had an eye on pop culture recently, chances are you've seen Admiral General Aladeen, the subject of Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming movie The Dictator.

You might have seen him on this weekend's Saturday Night Live, trading quips with Seth Meyers (and prisoner Martin Scorsese!).

Perhaps you came across his recent interviews with Larry King, Matt Lauer and the Grace Woodroofe's "Transformer" kicks in with a guttural lurch, the groan of the guitars and the clatter of the drums bulldozing everything in their path before the singer's rippling alto steps into the rubble. The effect is akin to Fiona Apple fronting The Stooges, so it seems inevitable that she'll eventually match the tenor of her band and start howling.

Only she never does.