Linda Holmes

For the last couple of weeks, Vulture has been running a "Sitcom Smackdown," a contest between 16 sitcoms of the last 30 years to determine an eventual champion.

From the beginning, it was fairly openly a nonserious exercise in terms of determining actual quality: Murphy Brown was booted ...

While I'm on vacation, I'm stepping in quickly to drop this week's show, for which Stephen and I were lucky enough to be visited by two special guests in Glen and Trey's absence: our producer, Jess Gitner, and one of our mothers, Maggie Thompson. Because there were three generations of ...

What comes after awards season? After the Oscars, after the cold of winter begins to lift, after practically every midseason network show is yanked after fewer episodes than you have fingers? What then?

Well, what happens then is vacation, at least around here. I will be gone the week of ...

Here's how I started my review of Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, which I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival in September: "It's my position that there are films in the world the highest and greatest purpose of which is to be delightful."

Whedon's (yes) delightful ...

Last night, the 10 American Idol finalists were announced, and one thing is for sure: the five-year streak of pleasant-seeming, guitar-playing white dudes (in reverse order: Phillip Phillips, Scotty McCreery, Lee DeWyze, Kris Allen, and David Cook) is over.

Those who have lamented this streak — who often call it ...

The March issue of The Atlantic features an essay from Christopher Orr called "Why Are Romantic Comedies So Bad?"* In it, Orr asserts that romantic comedies have been "lackluster for decades." Decades. He goes on to acknowledge that "classics of the genre," in which category he includes Annie ...

If last week's Oscars-themed Pop Culture Happy Hour was unusually meaty and structured, this week's post-Oscars podcast is about as loose and goofy as we get, thanks to a lack of sleep, the awards season hangover, and the fact that panelist Stephen Thompson is elbow-deep (probably neck-deep by ...

Sundance announced its premieres yesterday, and while many are very excited about the facial hair on Ashton Kutcher, others anxiously await the return of a movie couple almost 20 years into their relationship.

PBS remixes another of its iconic shows, and this time, it's all about books.

Damian Lewis is a newly minted Emmy winner for his role as Nicholas Brody on Showtime's tense spy thriller Homeland.

A night of mostly expected winners and lackluster production made for a boring Emmys telecast.

American Idol announced its new judges, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban, and showed some new interest in actually connecting with existing music fans.

Writer David Rakoff, who has died at the age of 47, left both writing and audio appearances on shows like This American Life that illustrate a worldview that was dark, but deeply human.

Mariah Carey has been announced as the newest American Idol judge, in the wake of the departures of Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez.

Tomorrow morning are the Emmy nominations, and we've already given them way too much thought.

American Idol crowned another guy last night who's an awful lot like the guys they've been crowning for the last four seasons.

On this weekend's Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig got an emotional send-off.

HBO has released a trailer for the new drama series The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's behind-the-scenes show about cable news. Sorkin has an uneven history in television, having created two well-regarded shows, one a hit (The West Wing) and one not (Sports Night), as well as one that had a great ...

Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning have two things in common: they're guys who inspire a lot of personal loyalty from fans who have increasingly complicated relationships with NFL teams.

Kristin Chenoweth talks to Jacki Lyden on today's Weekends on All Things Considered, and if the only thing you got from the interview was Chenoweth warbling a bit of the first solo she ever did in church, it would be well worth it.

The Emmy-winning actress stars on ABC's new ...