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Mark Levin (above left) and Dan Bongino (above right): What do these two blowhards have in common – aside from the fact that they are both on the Fox News payroll? They have, evidently, volcanic tempers. Don’t you believe it.
If you are truly upset about something, you don’t go from red-faced outrage to — in a heartbeat, as these two do — serenity and a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile. It’s fake outrage at its finest.
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Just in case anyone still needs convincing that Florida is one creepy place, we give you the Crypt-Keeper vs. Old Scratch:
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The Meaning of “Nationalism”
I blame this debate on Bill Clinton, back when he told us “it depends upon what the meaning of the word is, is.”
I mean, since when do we allow politicians to decide the definitions of words? Is Emmanuel Macron, or Donald Trump, suddenly Merriam-Webster? Leave the definitions to the expert – your dictionary.
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The Jim Acosta Fix
Restore his press pass and let him back in. Then don’t call on the idiot – ever.
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Fox Nudes Channel?
Fox is launching a new streaming service. I don’t understand the appeal.
Unless the network’s stable of hot women plan to host new shows in the nude, isn’t it going to be just more of the same?
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“Don’t shoot the messenger”
Maybe we’ve had this backwards all along. Maybe if we did shoot the messenger, all of our problems would be solved.
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Bette Midler body-shamed Melania Trump. Which gives us another excuse to leer at our First Lady’s bare ass:
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Click for a larger view of our naked First Lady (you pig)
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Last week we complained about the lack of good (new) stuff on TV. Not this week.
Here are three shows worth watching:
Homecoming (Amazon Prime). This Julia Roberts vehicle owes a lot to ‘70s-‘80s suspense kings John Carpenter and Brian De Palma – in particular, their musical scores, which are reused in Homecoming to great effect. Roberts plays a therapist at a clinic allegedly created to help military grunts readjust to society, and Bobby Cannavale plays her overbearing boss. But something fishy is going on at the clinic, euphemistically named “Homecoming.” It’s a great concept, and the interplay between Roberts and Cannavale is both maddening and entertaining.
The only drawback? The 10-episode series should have ended with episode 7, which contains the big reveal. The last three episodes are anticlimactic. Grade: B+
The Woman in White (BBC/PBS). I can’t decide who plays the better villain, Bobby Cannavale (see above) or Riccardo Scamarcio in this period piece based on a mystery by Wilkie Collins. I’ve read the Collins book, which served as an all-encompassing “spoiler” for my viewing of this BBC adaptation. But the plot is just one reason we watch these British dramas. We watch for the settings, the atmosphere, and the performances.
The only drawback? Occasionally the writers make heroine Marian a bit too 21st century, a bit too feminist. It’s as if they don’t trust modern audiences to watch anything with 19th-century sensibilities. Grade: B+
Trapped (Amazon Prime). I’ve only seen half of this series, but I doubt that the remaining episodes will surprise me. In fact, that’s part of the appeal of this Icelandic thriller; it’s the television equivalent of the “cozy mystery” novel, in which familiarity breeds … happiness. Sometimes, that’s what you want.
Two things make Trapped stand out: burly hero Olafur Darri Olafsson as a small-town cop investigating a grisly murder, and one helluva blizzard in one helluva isolated location — a spectacular fjord. Grade: B+
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