OK so the Oscars are this weekend. Even though the writers' strike is over, the prediction is that this will be a ho-hum (excuse me?) Oscars. First of all, the majority of the films presented for consideration are real downers, secondly, because of the strike, many potential presenters thought that the awards ceremony would be canceled or drastically cut back so they made other plans and are now not available to present at the show.......

OK so the Oscars a week from Sunday are what we're building up to but as an enthusiastic follower of Dexter on Showtime, I'm intrigued to see how it will translate to its network debut on CBS at 10:00pm this Sunday. At first I was concerned that the end result would be a heavily edited, several minutes shorter, vapid and empty shell of its former glory. Not so according to my Showtime contact. Evidently when......

Because it's Sunday and because I want to make it to the line before Our Commander-In-Chief, it's time for a little editorializing about TV. The WGA strike that will be ending soon has shed a light on how vulnerable TV (and LA) is to disagreements about how this industry should function. While movies have always benefited, unworthily (Meet The Spartans anyone?), as art that exists at a level separate from commercialization, TV has always been......

As Reuters mentioned yesterday, CBS is going to broadcast the entire first season of Dexter starting in February. The network is also considering borrowing Weeds from its sister network Showtime. Other networks are considering similar reshuffling of shows from their cable-only partners. It took me a day or so (I know I'm slow) to dwell on this. Initially I was very pleased that more people will have the opportunity to see this gem of a......

A couple things on tonight but Saturday's a wasteland, go play in the sand or snow. Sunday is finale-city, check it out below. Have a great weekend. Tonight 7:00pm Attack of the Show G4 - Totally rad 1987 edition tonight!! (Repeats at 11pm) 9:00pm The Next Great American Band FOX - Because I know some of y'all watch this. 9:00pm Friday the 13th IFC - Uncut! 10:00pm The Soup E! - Listed mainly because it......

Here's the mix: Download or listen to the mix above which contains the songs and their related articles below: - Spoon "Infinite Pet" for show review by Staci Goodner - No Age "Everybody's Down" for a story/show review by Joshua Pressman - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Tell Me" for a CD review by tomdog - MIA "Galang" for a show review by Joey Maloney - Cake "War Pigs" cuz they play on 11/30 at......

The WGA and the producers are back at the negotiating table, hopefully they will catch the breaks that they need so that the collapse of Western civilization is averted. In a desperate attempt to avoid family time over the holiday, I managed to watch season one of Showtime's Dexter and my optimism for the future of mankind was restored. I missed Dexter when it premiered last year but was happy to cover the zany stunts......

Although it might be "understood that Hollywood sells Californication", the boys who wear tube socks on their magic johnsons are headed to court to argue that you can't just steal it. Showtime has found itself on a little roll with "Weeds", "Dexter", and now the sexy/dickish David Duchovny series "Californication", but someone forgot to ask the Red Hot Chili Peppers if it was kosher to use their word for the show. The Hollywood Reporter's......

Grab a beer friends, we survived the week. I still got hours of junk Tivo'd that I'm supposed to watch but on the calendar it says it's Friday and that's a great thing. Late night TV is super busy tonight, check it out: a free Paris Hilton, Michael Douglas, Seth Myers, Jenny McCarthy. Also, LeBron James is on SNL tomorrow - have a great weekend. 5:00pm-11:00pm Body Switcharoo Marathon TCM - A rock block of......

There's a big ugly smelly fountain of blood in front of the Kodak Theatre on the sidewalk of the Hollywood & Highland strip mall. No, Elmo didn't finally get his, Showtime has figured out a way to get LAist off the couch and onto the Red Line. Even though our friends at Bostonist and Phillyist had pics, we saw that our pal Defamer didn't so we pushed aside the bong water pipe, dug around......

Holy jeebus my eyeballs are gonna fall out. There's about a 1/2 dozen series premieres and a 1/2 dozen season premieres tonight. Unfortnately the only new thing calling my name is the Bionic Woman (9:00pm NBC) but that's based on junior high school fantasies and not what I've seen so far of this show. Prime time offers such an overabundance of mediocrity I'm tempted to head off to TCM at 8:00pm and watch the......

Yeah, yeah, I know. Serenity is not exactly "new" to DVD this week, but I don't care. This just-released collector's edition is the best DVD available today so do yourself a favor and check out Joss Whedon's underrated sci-fi flick (and marvel at the wonder that is Summer Glau). The tenth season of South Park is one of the best in years. Chef, how could you join the Super Adventure Club? I never thought......

Yesterday thousands of people participated in the weekend long Big Sunday event: Community service erupted across Southern California during a Big Sunday volunteer weekend billed as the largest volunteer give-back in the nation. "Normally, I'd be in bed with my wife, asleep," Dexter Conner, 28, of Toluca Lake said while raking soil to create a "hidden garden" in North Hollywood. "I'm just trying to help out when I can." And help out they did......

Remember the college application question that asked if you could have dinner with anyone – who would it be? The standard answers included Jesus, grandparents, Abe Lincoln, etc. But we skipped that question and chose another because we couldn’t think of anyone interesting enough, at age 17 anyway, to keep our attention span during the dinner hour. But now we’re older and wiser, living in LA and addicted to the TV shows constantly stored......