...and we just live in it. Seriously, has any female comedian ever dominated the zeitgeist the way Tina Fey is doing right now? (Certainly almost no men have done so either.) Fey isn't just starring in the Emmy-winning 30 Rock Season 2 ($39.98; Universal), the way Roseanne and Mary Tyler...

When a play like Michael Weller's Fifty Words (at MCC in New York City through October 25) dissects a relationship, it's hard not to take sides. A married couple, two lovers, indeed a relationship of any kind that gets put through the wringer is invariably going to draw you...

George Clooney is such a savvy, old school Hollywood star that even the movies he makes that don't quite work just seem to add to his stature. The Good German was a fascinating exercise in classic Hollywood movie-making. Burn After Reading and Intolerable Cruelty might not be consistent, but they...

Mandy Patinkin is a wonderful actor I'd never seen perform live. So it was a treat to check out the Classic Stage Company's new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest last week. This vital Off Broadway venue regularly attracts big names for short runs in their intimate space and obviously...

Here are some questions I have about this week's releases:

Why didn't Will on "Will & Grace" ever get married? Will & Grace: The Complete Series Collection ($249.98; Lionsgate) is a great chance to see this acclaimed sitcom in a new light. The elaborate boxed set includes all eight seasons...

You can talk about plot twists and dumb storylines and internal strife. But I can tell you the main problem with Grey's Anatomy Season Four ($59.99; ABC Studios) -- that problem is Private Practice First Season ($39.99; ABC Studios). (That comes out on Tuesday, September 16.) It never fails. Someone...

Every TV season, you're lucky if even one new show is worth watching. And when you do commit to a new show, chances are the flair and originality of the pilot is soon lost in the grind of delivering episodes week after week. But last season, not one but two...

You know it's coming. Whatever happens in November, a TV movie and/or feature film about the life of Barack Obama will be made. So who should play Obama? The Daily Show -- in a mock biography of Obama -- suggested one of the actors from the old sitcom What's...

I'm a huge gymanstics fan, so beyond the excitement of the women -- who always get tons of press coverage -- it was great to see the men do so well, especially after injuries sidelined the Hamm brothers. Raj Bhavsar -- who deserved to be on the team outright --...

Okay, The Wire's fifth and final season is now out on DVD ($59.99; HBO) and you've heard all the rave reviews. So what are you waiting for? If you're a fan of intelligent, hard-hitting dramas with complex storylines and compelling characters, you simply must take the time to watch The...

Oh, if only Casablanca were in color! If only Charlie Chaplin's City Lights had spoken dialogue! If only Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood were in 3-D! If any of those sentences make any sense to you, then you may be delighted to hear that the TV series Star...

Central Park is the perfect setting for a revival of that instant time capsule of a musical, Hair. Central Park was the setting for a Be-In and it doesn't take long to get into the right hippie dippie mood: some audience members show up for the free show wearing...

Martin Scorsese has directed one of the best concert films of all time. Unfortunately, it's most definitely NOT Rolling Stones: Shine A Light ($34.99; Paramount and only $5 more for the BluRay). It so easily typifies all that is wrong with most concert films (and especially rock concert films), you...

Reading news stories about politics that bungle the facts and repeat partisan talking points as if they're reasonable charges can be frustrating enough. But when you read media coverage of something truly unimportant -- like entertainment -- it can be truly maddening. Maybe it's because so much coverage of movies,...

With The Dark Knight shredding one box office record after another and even casual fans talking about second weekend box office drops ("Hey, 60% for a front-loaded spectacle like Iron Man is not bad!"), it's easy to forget that some movies can still slip under the radar, pile up money...

Here's the truth about The Dark Knight's record-breaking box office. The only surprise would have been if the latest Batman movie DIDN'T have a massive opening weekend. Almost no other franchise in US movie history can claim the opening weekend hysteria generated by Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader. Not...

"Jumping the shark" is pop culture slang forever associated with Happy Days. But no show jumped that shark more shockingly and with more unbridled disdain for its audience than Dallas, the primetime soap opera that revitalized a genre and remains one of the most successful TV shows of all time....

Why are movies about the Iraq War so difficult to make? That's easy -- all war movies are difficult to make, especially when the war is on-going and the support for the war is murky at best. World War II was easy -- movies like Mrs. Miniver were meant to...

Director Wong Kar Wai is clearly one of the coolest directors in the world. He delivered a string of distinctive movies (like Chungking Express, As Tears Go By and Fallen Angels) capped by one of my favorite movies of the decade, 2000's brilliant, sexy, evocative In The Mood For Love....

Why do critics -- like Ben Brantley from the New York Times -- spend a month in London going to the theater? Because they can, of course. Happily, so can you. Or rather, it's a lot easier than spending a month in New York going to the theater. I'm...