Fake TV Critic

It was a bit of a slow week 'round these parts, but I couldn't not talk about the new musical Diana , which is about to restart Broadway performances but was filmed during lockdown for Netflix. It's the most confoundingly awful thing I've seen in a long time, and I need everyone to experience its sheer idiocy with me. I'm also recapping the first episode of Peacock's YA teen soap/murder mystery On...

This week, I fell into the sinkhole that is NBC's new mystery-sci-fi-fantasy-drama La Brea , a truly bizarre (but ultimately kind of entertaining?) mashup of familiar shows ( Lost, Land of the Lost ), tropes (shady government, survivalism), and stock characters (military dad, tragically injured child, protective mom). Then I'm dipping back in to RuPaul's Drag Race UK to have an honest conversation...

It's a busy week on the pod (and the blog!). We remember actor Willie Garson, who died this week at 57 from pancreatic cancer, and talk about the kerfuffle on The View on Friday. Then it's a whole bunch of recapping and reviewing: the finale of Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers , which couldn't stick the landing; the very welcome return of Survivor (with a brief detour about the "come on in, guys" dra...

UPDATE: Sorry, there was an audio glitch so I re-edited and uploaded! If you already listened on Monday, 9/20, this is the same episode! Happy Premiere Week! The fall TV season officially kicks off tonight, but first, we have to get caught up on the news of the last week, including the untimely death of beloved SNL star Norm Macdonald; the bizarre casting and backlash of CBS's ill-informed series...

Welcome back! A new TV season is about to kickoff, so I'm easing back into the swing of things by touching on two finales that recently aired: one satisfying ( RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6 ) and one... not so much (Netflix's Clickbait ). Then I'm recapping the first episode of the new Top Chef spin-off that just began on Peacock, Top Chef Family Style . It features kids competing alongside adult...

SURPRISE! Welcome to a bonus episode of Fake TV Critic, where I couldn't shut my white mouth up about HBO's The White Lotus . The finale was last night, and it left me with a lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings and a lot of conversation to potentially be had about privilege, colonialism, heritage, belonging, and how replaceable minorities of all kinds tend to be in the eyes of the white, rich, a...

This week was a mess, y'all. A former Disney Channel star is charged with a felony against a minor and Cosby was released from prison on a technicality. But hey, Good Omens got a surprise renewal on Amazon Prime Video! The sh*tstorm continues as I recap the finale of Top Chef and the allegations of sexual harassment against Gabe Erales that broke just as he was being deemed the winner. Fortunately...

In news this week: Manifest remains dead, Supernatural won't stay dead, Mark Harmon is getting too old for a full season of NCIS , Drake Bell sexted an underage girl, and the Peabodys announced their winners. Since there's not much on TV that I'm currently watching and since it's the last episode of Pride Month, I'm just recapping both new episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 6 ! There are a...

In news this week, a Beauty and the Beast prequel series is in the works, a sitcom star of yesteryear has passed, and Barry Watson falls deeper into the Evangelical entertainment rabbit hole. Then I'm recapping the finale of Cruel Summer , which was so much better than any Freeform show has a right to be; and Drag Race Down Under , which was so much worse than any drag show has a right to be. Twit...

This week's news: Zoey's Playlist isn't so Extraodinary anymore; Seth MacFarlane's foul-mouthed Ted is coming to the small screen; and Chris Harrison's rose has wilted. For this week's recaps, I'm covering the new RHOBH spinoff on Peacock, Vanderpump Dogs , starring Lisa Vanderpump and a bunch of adorable pooches looking for fur-ever homes (I hate me too for that dad joke, don't worry); and the se...

Shang Chi is mad at Netflix, and Ryan Murphy has found his next twink muse for American Horror Stories. I'm recapping the premiere of the truly unhinged new installment in the Drag Race Extended Universe, Drag Race Espana; and then I also talk about how the Rugrats reboot on Paramount Plus is uncanny, endearing, and overall kinda bad (mostly because it has made me attempt math in my head to figure...

Drag Race: All Stars 6 is coming! We got a cast announcement and premiere date this week, along with some news on Debris , a new Marvel series on Disney+, the 2021 Tony Awards, and Bill Cosby's parole hearing. For recaps this week, I'm covering the season five finale of This Is Us , which features a semi-shocking flash forward, and the first few episodes of Amazon's new teen thriller series Panic...

I start off with brief update on upfronts week, a swift cancellation of a UK series following allegations of sexual misconduct against its star, and an absolutely bonkers story about how Law & Order: SVU and Mariska Hargitay helped save an attempted kidnapping victim's life. Then it's on to the recaps of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premiere, which is shady as all hell thanks to the editor...

Lots of renewal and cancellation news this week, including the surprise announcements that NBC will not be broadcasting the 2022 Golden Globes and Ellen's talk show is getting the boot. For this week's recaps, I watched the latest episode of The CW's Nancy Drew , which introduced us to a gay Black billionaire tech genius named Tom Swift, who may be getting his own spin-off. Then it's on to the ser...

It was a slow news week, so I took up most of the current events segment gossiping about Janet Mock's "emotionally unhinged" (as Page Six called it) speech at the Pose premiere party. And since I'm so ecstatic that Pose is back, I also recapped the season three premiere. After a long hiatus, Million Dollar Listing New York is also back on the air, and I'm discussing the new broker (the first woman...

Is a Jeopardy champion flashing white power symbols? Were the Oscars insufferable this year? Does The Duchess actually exist? It's a weird week for TV news. And for reviews, I watched the first episode of HBO Max's tragically bad (and mean as hell) new reality competition series starring Bethenny Frankel, The Big Shot with Bethenny , so that you don't have to. It's also premiere week for the long-...

Caitlyn Jenner is running for Governor of California, and no one asked for this. Other news this week: How I Met Your Mother gets a spin-off starring Hilary Duff and Below Deck gets two new franchise extensions. I'm also recapping the season finales of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and RuPaul's Drag Race (I have a lot of feelings, so this episode is long), and my recommendation for the week is a...

This episode is brought to you by two pots of coffee and blind rage. I start off the news segment this week by ripping Carole Radziwill and her casual homophobia surrounding the coming-out of The Bachelor 's Colton Underwood to shreds. I got heated, folks. And then, because Carole got me going, I decided that I would not be participating in straight culture for this episode, so I bring you recaps...

There's even more Drag Race headed our way very soon as Drag Race Down Under announces a premiere date! Also, MacGyver gets canned and Tyler Perry's Madea is set to take over TV after conquering film and stage over the past several decades. For recaps, I get into the new season of Top Chef , which is set in Portland and features approximately 313875 contestants, and Amazon Prime's new horror antho...

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah has been ARRESTED on federal fraud charges, and we never saw it coming. But the cameras might have, because it apparently happened during filming of season two, which gives us all something to look forward to. For recaps, I dive in (bad pun intended) to the latest episode of Below Deck: Sailing Yacht , featuring the most atrocious charter guests...

We lost two TV icons this week in George Segal ( The Goldbergs, Just Shoot Me ) and Jessica Walter ( Arrested Development, Archer, Dinosaurs, Amy Prentiss ), and Sharon Osbourne lost her job! This week's recaps include the stellar midseason entry of Batwoman , "Survived Much Worse," and the premiere of the Disney Plus sequel/reboot series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers , starring Lauren Graham an...

This week is full of contentious topics: Paris Hilton, Sharon Osbourne being a racist POS, and the finale of RuPaul's Drag Race UK crowning a winner that, while deserving, was not the fan favorite (or the frontrunner, statistically speaking). Plus HBO Max has released the first five episodes of its teen dramedy Generation (or Genera+ion , as it's stupidly stylized), and it's a friggin' MESS , y'al...

I'm sorry, but it was the biggest story of the week, so I had to talk about it: Meghan & Harry. I kick things off with my mostly-uninformed opinion about the Royals and that Oprah interview before recapping this rough-as-hell season of The Real Housewives of Dallas (RHOD) and the double standard that is Bravo's treatment of perceived racism. Then it's the season five premiere of The Masked Singer,...

The Golden Globes happened! And they were a problematic mess. Can they be fixed? Should they? I don't know, but I talk about it anyway. As for recaps, I watched the pilot of NBC's new alien space-trash drama Debris , and then I rant for 15 minutes about how Married at First Sight is the strangest show on television featuring the worst reality TV figure ever at its core this season (Chris, you are...

In January of 2020, The New York Times reported that complaining is good for you. I hope that's true, because there's a lot to complain about this week with the announcement of what shows are making their way to Paramount Plus and how much it'll cost you to partake in them, from the revival of Frasier to the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars . For the week's recaps, I talk about why th...