Blueprints: Emmy Nominees for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special

Jorge has been taking a look at the Emmy history for this year’s writing nominees.  

Let’s take a look at the various shows that made up the six nominees for Writing in a Limited Series, TV Movie, or Dramatic Special. Even with the longest title in the writing categories, which aim to include made-for-TV films or broadcast theater performances, all of the nominees are from a limited series with multiple episodes (even Black Mirror, where every episode is self-contained, is part of a larger anthology). Some series submitted the entirety of their episodes, while others only a single standout episode (I ignore the specific rules, but I assume it has something to do with overall series length).

Since we’re huge fans of statistics here, let's take a look the elevator pitches and Emmy history stats after the jump…

Click to read more ...

Salim Gives Thanks

By Salim Garami

What's good?

I'll tell you what's good, Thanksgiving! Particularly the concept of a holiday where we can dream of feasts like those in Tampopo or Babette's Feast or Ratatouille and dig in surrounded by those we love, whether it be family or an extended definition of family.

Now, personally... I don't think 2017 is a year I'll look back on with much fondness. And that's just on account of the pop culture I consumed, not even reckoning with the exhausting political landscape or the misconduct ingrained within the film industry that is being brought to light.

In any case, this is making me sound like THAT GUY who's at every Thanksgiving dinner and that's not the point of this post. But the context of a year that didn't feel at the top of its game means the things I'm thankful for are wonders that stand out to me and I appreciate them further. So what am I thankful for this year...

Click to read more ...

Doc Corner: David Lynch and the Allure of 'Blue Velvet Revisited'

By Glenn Dunks

The massive DOC NYC festival continues this week in New York City until the 16th, showcasing over 250 films and events. We have one more capsule collection to go up the coming days to close out the festival, but today we're entering the wonderful and strange world of David Lynch in Blue Velvet Revisited, which screens tonight at Cinepolis Chelsea at 9.30pm.

I don’t know about you, but 2017 hasn’t been the strongest year for movies in my eyes. Part of that may have to do directly with the product itself. But a more significant part is that quite literally no movie I have seen this year has had quite the gravitational pull of Twin Peaks. The return of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s classic 1990s television series was maligned by many, but found a dedicated collection of fans for whom it was 18-hours of pure Lynchian madness, the likes of which have been frustratingly missing from our lives since the magically-coiffed master packed up his lawn chair on Sunset Boulevard after trying to milk a much-deserved Oscar campaign for Laura Dern’s performance in Inland Empire in 2006. The series was, simply put, working on a whole different level to every movie I’ve seen in the last 12 months.

Lynch’s mystique is almost as famous as his film and television projects...

Click to read more ...

The Return (and Allure) of Riverdale

by Spencer Coile

Hello, fellow TV watchers. Dripping in nostalgia, season two of Riverdale returns to the CW this week (the first episode aired last night). And who says that pulp television is dead? There is no better way to celebrate the series' return than to dive into what makes Riverdale so appealing to viewers -- teens and adults alike. 

Without spoiling much, as I am sure there are plenty of people still trying to catch up on season one (available on Netflix), this season of the CW's latest foray into teen drama picks up immediately where we left off. Our teenage heroes and heorines are left scrambling to pick up the pieces of a local shooting, a deadly fire, and lots and lots of (almost) hooking up. 

This all sounds so dramatic, which it is. And that is precisely why the show works...

Click to read more ...

Happy Birthday Herzog

by Jason Adams

Film director Werner Herzog is marking three quarters of a century on this planet today - a planet that he has probably explored the weirdness hidden away at every single obscure corner of. We should cherish him while we have him, people - even if some of his more recent efforts have been iffier than most. Go see every damn one, reviews be damned.

Funnily enough last night I was reading a review of the Twin Peaks finale (no spoilers here, don't worry!) that called that series mastermind David Lynch "American pop culture's answer to Werner Herzog," and I got to thinking about these two directors in relation to each other. Besides Herzog and Lynch easily making my list of Top Five Greatest Living Film-makers I don't usually think about them in relation to each other, but it's not an invalid point.

So here, for Werner's birthday, let's latch him onto the zeitgeist's momentarily hottest art-house auteur, and list three similarities, with one glaring dissimilarity...

Click to read more ...