Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwartzbaum -- The Worst Critic Alive?

Possibly. I generally don't make note of reviewers to like or dislike their reviews. I agree, disagree or fall somewhere in between. However, Lisa has certainly made her criticisms well-known to me. I have been a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly from almost its inception. Owen Gleiberman was the main movie critic then and I'm not sure when Schwartzbaum began reviewing, but it was just an occasional one. Then it started to grow to the point where she reviewed stuff in every issue and the ratio went from 4-1 (Owen-Lisa) to gradually, 3-2 and then in the last year or so, equal footing. But I've noticed in the last few issues that Schwartzbaum appears to be the lead critic now. Frankly, I can not fathom why. I've lost count of how many letters I've read blasting Schwartzbaum. In an issue not too long ago, Schwartzbaum responded to the 'Ask a Critic' column with a rebuke to a letter-writer "[so and so], no I am not the worst critic alive." My immediate thought was "YES, YOU ARE!" She's pretentious, over-the-top, at times undecipherable, throws words and phrases together that appear thrown together just because she thinks it makes her look smart (it doesn't) and is just plain annoying. I used to play a game of seeing if I could tell if it was an OG review or an LS -- occasionally it was different reviewer. I couldn't differentiate Gleiberman from guest reviews, but I pretty much nailed every time it was Schwartzbaum because of her affected, vainglorious and grandiloquent prose (that there was my copying Schwartzbaum's "style"). And now that she seems to be EW's lead movie critic, I rarely read their movie reviews anymore because I can't stand to read that woman's idiocy put to paper. Ugh!

Am I the only one with this unnatural loathing for this movie critic?

Does the promo department think Jason Dohring has cooties?

I really do wonder. A new batch of promotional stills were released from Veronica Mars and what do you know? No Logan. So in other words, we have had stills from eight episodes so far and of those eight, we got stills featuring Logan in only two episodes (and unlike everyone else but KB/EC, he's in every episode). And that's not even mentioning the show promotion. One shot from the TV ad (see icon), one promotional shot, one with KB and the cast shot. That's it. KB has a zillion (understandable), Ryan Hansen, Tina Majorino have 4-5. Michael Muhney and Julie Gonzalo have 5-6. Chris Lowell has 6-7. Jason, Enrico Colantoni, Percy Daggs III and Francis Capra all have one. What? Because of their plethora of promo from their stint on UPN? Excuse me while I laugh. The thing is except for Enrico -- and I love him, but they're supposedly trying to sell this show to young adults, therefore the lack of Enrico is understandable if still not annoying -- Jason is the only one in all episodes. Jason is the one in the TV ads. Jason is the romantic hearthrob of the show. So can anyone explain why on God's green earth, there is so very little promotion done with him?!?!??!? This is so, so, so, so, sooooooooooooooo annoying. I swear that if they do another promo shoot for the second arc and we still get so little of him I'm gonna scream.

Monday Night TV

Discussion about tonight's episodes behind the cut.

( Heroes and why I'm no longer enamored. )

( Studio60, thoughts on the two-parter, Nevada. )

( An unusually just okay How I Met Your Mother. )

( The Class - Aha! Marjorie )

( Everybody Hates Chris )

Blame the direction ... not the actor (Save the Dohring!)

I wrote some of this in response to buffyx's post here and decided to expound upon my thoughts. Although it was about Veronica's characterization, I found my way talking about the perception by the writers (namely Rob Thomas) and how that affected other characters ... which, of course, led to Logan.

( Read on ... )

3.07 VM Thoughts (Not happy)

( I just couldn't get past my dislike of Veronica's attitude and anything having to do with Piz to enjoy this episode. )