Free Republic

If Americans want to see people trying to look intelligent while arguing, cable news already provides numerous showcases of Smart People Behaving Badly. At this point, 2020 seems like the awful Thanksgiving dinner-turned-shouting-match that just won’t stop. On top of a COVID lockdown-induced recession, our culture has become coarser and more vitriolic than ever. Riots and protests have broken out in dozens of cities as both political parties hurl invective at each other.So, what did NBC decide to return to the airwaves in the middle of this blazing-hot zeitgeist? A remake of an insult-filled show.It seems sadly ironic that the...

Dismissed by some critics as a needless origin story, HBO's 'Perry Mason' reboot is exactly the type of high-minded storytelling we need today. This article contains spoilers. The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. — Franz Kafka, “Before The Law” Franz Kafka hated the draconian bureaucracies...

The show thinks it's subversive and daring with its humor, but the only shock is how relentlessly dull it is, regardless of themes and imagery. For those who shudder at historical inaccuracies in biopics, stay far away from Hulu’s “The Great.” The show does not even pretend to care about historical accuracy, opening each episode with the caveat, “an occasionally true story.” The show loosely tells the story of the early days of Catherine the Great’s (Elle Fanning) marriage to Emperor Peter III of Russia (Nicholas Hoult) as she plots a coup to kill her incompetent and cruel husband to...

'Mrs. America' tries to paint Phyllis Schlafly as cold and unforgiving, but the conservative icon my grandmother and I knew was nothing of the sort. My grandmother was in a Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter with Phyllis Schlafly from 1965 to 1990. A few years before she died, I had the privilege to intern for Mrs. Schlafly. So, during quarantine, as we watched the FX series “Mrs. America” together, we became filled with growing frustration and disgust at seeing the woman we had known misrepresented and defamed. What is most striking about “Mrs. America,” however, is how little it...

In 'Little Fires Everywhere,' it’s interesting to see the '90s reflected from this distance of more than 20 years. But the identity politics is suffocating. Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington face off as the opposite kind of mom in Hulu’s new “Little Fires Everywhere,” a series based on the popular book by Celeste Ng. The two women’s lives intersect in the small, idyllic, town of Shaker, Ohio. One mother is drawn to Shaker for the good school district, while the other has been there her entire life, and her legacy comes with power and influence. While the show is about...

Just as has happened in our economy dominated by finance capitalism, feminism brought outsized benefits to a few in exchange for the suffering of many. Starring Academy Award Winner Cate Blanchett as conservative firebrand Phyllis Schlafly, Hulu series “Mrs. America” has been getting awards buzz. While the writers are too skilled to give a one-dimensional portrayal of Schlafly, nonetheless the broader agenda of the show is clear: to anathematize Schlafly, build up the feminists who opposed her, and ultimately, to push for a new Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). “Mrs. America” is effective propaganda against Schlafly and conservative ideas because it...

They don't make television comedies like they used to, and few were ever made as brilliantly as "Reno 911." They don’t make television comedies like they used to, and few were ever made as brilliantly as “Reno 911,” the jewel of Comedy Central’s glorious mid-aughts lineup. But it’s back, and better than pretty much every new comedy on air right now, despite clocking in around seven minutes an episode. In these trying times, happiness is an elusive sensation. The unbridled joy I felt one minute into the reboot’s premiere, having realized “Reno 911” is returning to us in fine form,...

Couple of TV reviews this week. First-“The Unusuals”, a cop show that should appeal to both men and women with its, eh, unusual cops, humorous storylines, and very believable scripting. Second-“Surviving Suburbia” with he who looks like the guy most likely to live in this suburbia we are to believe he despises, his hip and happening self, Bob Saget. I go into a rant about this dumb show and my rants are not to be missed. Finally an update on “The Celebrity Apprentice” of 4/5/09, viral videos, over-exposure of those Rivers people, and scripting too dumb to believe. =============== Other...