Marc Hirsh

Tweaks, Retooling, And When To Give Up: A Tale Of Two Singing Shows

Marc Hirsh — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:37:00 +0000

As The Voice returns to NBC this week for its fourth season, viewers are seeing two new, if quite familiar, faces as Shakira and Usher occupy the coaches' seats vacated by Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green. Its talent-show rival over on Fox, The X Factor, will also see two new judges when (if?

A Farewell Salute To 'Ben & Kate,' A Show About Friends Who Are Actually Friends

Marc Hirsh — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:32:00 +0000

Whether this week's announcements that both ABC's Don't Trust The B- In Apt. 23 and Fox's Ben & Kate are being yanked from the schedules mark the beginning of the Great Sitcom Massacre of 2013 remains to be seen. It almost certainly means the end of two strong shows whose casts were clearly having a blast making them.

In the case of Ben & Kate, it also means that television's current comedy slate is losing one of its rare shows where everyone likes everyone else.

It's Who You Know: Predicting How 'The Newsroom' Will Get Its Next Scoop

Marc Hirsh — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:07:00 +0000

If there's one thing that HBO's The Newsroom is especially good at, it's portraying journalists who aren't especially good at journalism.

Well, maybe that's not fair.

Sam Phillips And Trying To Describe The Indescribable Wow

Marc Hirsh — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:42:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mIsrWxot3g

The Perfect Listen: Fiona Apple As A Lesson In Irrational Music Rituals

Marc Hirsh — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:32:00 +0000

On June 19, a week and a half ago, Fiona Apple released a brand new album, her first in seven years. The entire album had been available for streaming by NPR Music for a week and a half by then. Three days later, my copy arrived in the mail. It hasn't left my desk since.

I still haven't listened to it.

Mind you, I've been looking forward to The Idler Wheel... more than maybe any other album this year.

Eliza Rickman: A Cockeyed Pop Song

Marc Hirsh — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:03:00 +0000

Eliza Rickman's "Pretty Little Head" is simple yet intricate, a contradiction which helps give it the feel of a nursery rhyme that's just starting to teeter off the rails. Except for the bridge, it's built entirely around two chords, a minor/relative-major pair that trade off inexorably in two-bar cycles without regard to differentiating between the verse and the chorus.

There's little mistaking the latter, though.

Long-Term Investments On Shaky Stocks: 'New Girl' And 'Smash' End Their Seasons

Marc Hirsh — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:06:00 +0000

As the networks are currently rolling out their plans for the future courtesy of their upfronts, it just so happens that they're also winding down the current season of shows, the ones that they touted last year at this very time. It's a good time for television viewers to reevaluate the investments we've made in the shows we bought into at the beginning of the season.

Television watching is ultimately an act of faith.

10 Things I Hate About 'American Idol' (Besides The Singing And The Judging)

Marc Hirsh — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Ryan Seacrest's double/triple/quadruple fakeouts. Our host used to screw with the contestants by teasing the results before throwing to a guest performance or commercial. Now he gives those results using sentences so convoluted, with so many double-backs and twist-arounds, that you need a white board to diagram them and unpack their actual meaning. Frustrating the singers, yes. Confusing them entirely, no.

That half-hidden, slightly elevated lip-ramp at the front of the stage. Someone's going to wipe out on it, I just know it.

Maurice Sendak, 'Really Rosie' and The Intelligence Of Children

Marc Hirsh — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:12:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWR3iqjvt9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TsuFpIisA4

The Tyranny Of Character: Will The Real Sacha Baron Cohen Please Stand Up?

Marc Hirsh — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:13:00 +0000

If you've had an eye on pop culture recently, chances are you've seen Admiral General Aladeen, the subject of Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming movie The Dictator.

You might have seen him on this weekend's Saturday Night Live, trading quips with Seth Meyers (and prisoner Martin Scorsese!).

Perhaps you came across his recent interviews with Larry King, Matt Lauer and the