By Drew Grant 12/06/12 12:58pm

As Seen On TV

You don't want Rick Grimes as your boyfriend (AMC)

The Walking Dead Might Actually Kill You Now

Have you noticed that in the last several years, most of the “brilliant” TV shows on AMC, Showtime and HBO star these dangerous, psychopathic anti-heroes? From Dexter to Don Draper, Nick Brody to Rick Grimes, Walter White to the ultimate don, Tony Soprano, one gets the sense that while the rest of American culture is taking one step forward on progressive women’s rights issues, our beloved TV shows are moving us two steps back.

And what’s weird is how we love these horrible men. “I’m such a Carrie” no longer refers to the ultimate Bradshaw, but the bipolar Claire Danes on Homeland … the kind of gal who falls in love with a terrorist, despite the fact that he ends up subjecting her to electro-shock therapy treatments after they have sex. And they are still in love, or something! How sexy is that, ladies?

But wait, it gets worse… Read More

By David Foxley 12/18/07 4:15pm

David Chase Testifies in Jersey Courtroom

Life imitated art in a New Jersey courtroom earlier today when David Chase, the mind behind The Sopranos, testified in the state’s federal court to defend his creative ownership of the HBO series.

Twelve years ago, it seems, he collaborated with a man named Robert Baer, a budding screenwriter and former prosecutor who set up Read More

By Max Abelson 4/20/07 5:32pm

The Afternoon Wrap: Friday

  • Forrest "Frosty" Myers' iconic Soho sculpture "The Wall" is returning to its rightful home at 599 Broadway, after a lengthy argument with the building's landlord. We mirrored the picture because it looks totally cool. [Villager]
  • Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden won't stop Bruce Ratner from starting his Atlantic Yards Read More

    • By Staff 6/05/06 7:46am

    The Sopranos: Christmas in June, and Other Delusions

    Everyone is now so intoxicated with The Sopranos (including me) that the producers think they can do anything they want with us. It’s not a good spot, for us or them.

    Last night’s season finale (which precedes a final season) offered one benediction after another, and just about every one felt unearned. The show Read More

    By Staff 4/17/06 12:46pm

    Sopranos Again

    Watching the latest episode of the Sopranos (Wow, great!), I was reminded of the art lesson I quote from Muriel Spark in a recent entry—

    Fiction is lies. And in order to do this you have got to have a very good sense of what is the truth. You can’t do the art of deception, Read More

    By Gillian Silverman 5/27/02 12:00am

    Call Me Tippi! Pregnant Pigeon Makes Me Nuts

    Spring in New York City belongs to the toddlers. I love to watch them, but I get nervous when they come too close. Their mothers make me anxious, too. For I am that most tired of clichés: the married careerist, who can’t choose between freedom and family, and therefore spends equal time reviling and desiring Read More

    By Ralph Gardner Jr. 7/30/01 12:00am

    The Crime Blotter

    Another Victim Claims a Run-in With A.J. Soprano and Friends

    Robert Iler, who plays Tony Soprano’s troubled teenage son, has been spotted again-and not on HBO. An Upper East Side mother visited the 19th Precinct on July 9 with her 15-year-old son in tow and complained that the 16-year-old actor was on the scene Read More

    By Michael M. Thomas 6/04/01 12:00am

    Like Ibsen or Dickens, Sopranos is Our Peak

    A lot of us know how Tony Soprano feels. His world seems to be coming apart. The takings-for-granted on which his life has been predicated are breaking down or are being dismantled by forces he doesn’t completely understand or, if he does, over which he seems to have lost control.

    It’s not hard to see Read More

    By Molly Haskell 5/28/01 12:00am

    Where Are the Men of My Dreams?

    Most women I know think Johnny Depp has about as much sex appeal as a China doll or a Siamese cat-too

    pretty, too passive. It’s male reviewers who’ve gone ga-ga over him as the

    hippie pusher in Blow , rhapsodizing

    over his delicate features and limp blond tresses. And of the exquisite

    transvestite prostitute he Read More