Ken Tucker's Watching TV

Rihanna on ‘20/20′ re Chris Brown: ‘He said, ‘You hate me, don’t you?’ I lied and said, ‘No.”

Ken Tucker — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:20:28 +0000

In a tremendously moving and articulate interview with 20/20, Rihanna gave her first full-length statements about her assault by Chris Brown in February. Describing the beating she suffered in a car with Brown, the singer said that when he beat her, “He had no soul in his eyes… It was almost like he had nothing

Jon Stewart maps out the path to Glenn Beck’s appendix via the health-care bill

Ken Tucker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:51:58 +0000

You could say it’s shooting fish in a barrel, Jon Stewart tracking the growing size and monster reputation of the health-care bill, tying it, so to speak, to Glenn Beck’s recent appendicitis attack, as contrasted with the fulminating Beck has done about big, bad government health-care reform: Still, it’s a very good joke. By the way: Don’t

‘Supernatural’ review: ‘Changing Channels’: Sam and Dean spoofed ‘Grey’s,’ ‘CSI,’ and a sitcom

Ken Tucker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:15:51 +0000

Supernatural may be surrounded by heavy-duty time-period competition — Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, The Office, Fringe — but it just keeps doing its demon-ganking thing, and this week’s episode, called “Changing Channels,” managed to beat a few of those competitors at their own game. We were told Sam and Dean are dealing with a familiar foe: (WARNING:

Carl Ballantine, an ‘amazing’ comedy magician and ‘McHale’s Navy’ co-star, has died

Ken Tucker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:18:15 +0000

Carl Ballantine, a wonderfully clever magician and comic actor, has died at age 92. Ballantine was known to 1960s sitcom-watchers as Lester Gruber on McHale’s Navy, which starred Ernest Borgnine. But well before that, Ballantine made his reputation as a unique magician in nightclubs and on TV talk shows. He was one of the first magicians to

Ian McKellen a ‘Prisoner’ of ‘The View’ this morning: Attacks, mistakes, and ‘Mag-NETTO’

Ken Tucker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:45:58 +0000

Poor Ian McKellen. He went on The View this morning to promote his new Prisoner miniseries, but the gals had other things on their minds. Whoopi wanted to know whether he was going to be “coming back in Harry Potter?” Whoops: He politely informed her he was in The Lord of the Rings. Understandable mistake —

Yes, there is a new ‘Fringe’ episode tonight. Here’s why you should watch it.

Ken Tucker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:58:25 +0000

The World Series is over (pause; sob; Phillies fan here). But there is a silver lining: A new episode of Fringe will air tonight. Entitled “Earthling,” the hour will give you lots of new background on the life of boss-man Broyles. (Small spoiler: he keeps a storage unit. And we see his ex-wife. That’s two spoilers,

‘South Park’ last night: Trying to make ‘The F Word’ okay, and beating up Emmanuel Lewis

Ken Tucker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:12:18 +0000

South Park tried to teach us a lesson last night, and lesson-teaching is something a TV show should usually try to avoid, because it usually makes for lousy storytelling. That proved to be the case for South Park. Stan and his pals were irritated by a motorcycle gang that kept roaring around town, and drowning out

‘Friday Night Lights’ recap: ‘Hey, Tim Riggins who used to be a Panther!’

Ken Tucker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:36:03 +0000

So much is happening already in the new fourth season of Friday Night Lights, I’m going to organize this recap by bullet points. The usual SPOILER ALERT pertains. • Coach Eric may be struggling to tame his East Dillon Lions, but through some dubiously ethic’d redistricting loophole, he secured the services of a primo West Dillon

‘Modern Family’: ‘Who Da Manny?’

Ken Tucker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:38:55 +0000

We’ve come to like Modern Family so quickly because the new sitcom has so quickly made its characters vivid and distinctive. Oh, and funny. Little Manny, as played with uncommon adroitness by Rico Rodriguez, has been established in previous episodes as a precocious, articulate kid who can hold a mature, advice-filled conversation with, for example,

Instant verdict, please: What did you think of the first episode of ‘V’?

Ken Tucker — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:05:01 +0000

Okay, if you’re reading this, chances are you watched the premiere of V. Here’s my B+ review to read, so you know where I stand. In brief: I liked it, I thought it had a lot of clever things to say about media cynicism and human-race optimism, I thought Elizabeth Mitchell was terse-tough good and Scott