A well-reasoned and engaging—if ultimately unchallenging—summary of the best television has to offer.
What should we watch?
Prominent TV critics Sepinwall (The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers, and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever, 2012, etc.) and Seitz (The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2015, etc.) assemble a canon of the 100 greatest (American, narrative fiction) TV shows of all time. After an introductory chapter exhaustingly detailing their selection process—their attempt to definitively rank such classics as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and The Simpsons devolves into a Talmud-like complex tangle of historical, social, aesthetic, and personal considerations—the authors present their choices in a series of essays that concisely and insightfully identify each show’s distinctive virtues and place in the history of the medium. There is little here to inspire much argument; the authors’ choices are largely buttressed by conventional wisdom and critical consensus, though an emphasis on contemporary programming may raise a few eyebrows. Superlative lists—e.g., “Best Mustaches,” “Best Houses,” “Most Important Hairstyles,” “Most Awesome and/or Ridiculous Names”—add little to the reading experience, as they chiefly consist of titles presented without further comment, but appendices covering limited series and TV movies provide useful supplementary material. Only shows with completed runs were eligible: a chapter on currently produced shows that bear watching for future inclusion evidences the authors’ good taste (Broad City, Transparent), but again, their selections will ruffle no feathers. Perhaps the book’s most engaging chapter, “A Certain Regard,” which gathers programs not pantheon-worthy but liked by the authors “for some strange reason or another,” suggests a more interesting direction: critics at the top of their craft going out on a limb rather than affirming the commonly accepted classics.
A well-reasoned and engaging—if ultimately unchallenging—summary of the best television has to offer.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4555-8819-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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