Television

NBC’s recent Parks and Recreation quarantine special was a delight for a variety of reasons. Chief among them was the fact that, even though it was set during the current pandemic, it seemed to be transporting us back to the time in which the comedy originally unfolded. Few series in recent memory have been as clearly tied to a moment — and, specifically, a presidential administration — as Parks and Rec. The show’s belief in the power of government to make people’s lives better — and, more broadly, in the...

Late-night hosts across the board marked President Donald Trump’s final full day in office by recapping the insanity of the past four years and trying to parse what Trump’s legacy may be. On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert opened by recounting some of the “highlights of lowlights”: There was the “American carnage” inauguration speech, the “both sides” remarks after a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, wondering if he could trade Puerto Rico for Greenland, separating kids from their families at the border, inciting a riot at the Capitol and —...

When John Mulaney went on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month, he told the host that the Secret Service had opened up an investigation on him following jokes he made during his monologue on Saturday Night Live in February 2020. “I did a joke that was not about Donald Trump,” he explained. “The joke was about how it was a leap year and leap year had been started by Julius Caesar to correct the calendar and another thing that happened with Caesar was that he was stabbed by a bunch of senators...

Welcome to the latest episode of Too Long; Didn’t Watch, a new podcast produced by Rolling Stone and OBB Sound, presented by Google Assistant, and hosted by yours truly. In each episode, we attempt a new method of scaling Peak TV, by pairing a celebrity guest with a series they’ve never seen and showing them only the very first and very last episodes, to see if they can figure out what in the world happened in between. For this week’s episode, we welcome actor, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, pop-culture superfan, and shockingly...

Donald Trump was impeached for the second time in his presidency on Wednesday, a landmark moment in U.S. history that created many a zinger on late-night television. “I feel like I just took down my decorations from the last impeachment,” Stephen Colbert said, followed shortly after by: “It makes sense — this president loves having seconds.” Since Colbert already spent much of last week condemning the president for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol, he turned his focus on Wednesday night to the Republican lawmakers who refused to back the...

Welcome to Rolling Stone‘s weekly coverage of Disney+’s WandaVision. I reviewed the series yesterday, and have specific, spoiler-filled thoughts on the first two episodes, coming up just as we decide if gum is food… After that review published, several readers asked how much knowledge they needed of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to follow this show. Knowledge of, and affection for, Nick at Nite, I told them, would probably be way more valuable than remembering which side Wanda and Vision were on in Captain America: Civil War. Yes, Elizabeth Olsen and...

Products featured are independently selected by our editorial team and we may earn a commission from purchases made from our links; the retailer may also receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. WandaVision has finally arrived, and Avengers fans eager to see what will happen in the Marvel series, which stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision, can only watch it on one streaming service: Disney+. Ready to visit Westview for yourself? Grab the remote, find a comfortable seat and check out everything you need to...

One only needs to look at the fan reaction (some positive, much not) to last week’s news of a Sex and the City sequel series to know that bringing back an old TV property is dangerous territory. But when it works — either as a continuation of the original series, or a fresh take on a familiar title — it can be thrilling. Here are 10 of our favorites: five revivals with some or all of the original actors, and five reboots that started from scratch. 10. DuckTales (2017-2021, Disney XD/Disney)The original...

John Oliver announced Friday that Last Week Tonight will return to HBO with a new season of episodes beginning February 14th. The premiere date was revealed alongside a highlight reel from the series’ seventh season, a year-in-review of the dismal 2020 that featured multiple segments on the coronavirus and the presidential election, sewer plants, and Adam Driver. Last Week Tonight last aired just days after the presidential election, with Oliver celebrating Donald Trump’s defeat as well commenting on the president’s refusal to concede. Since that season finale aired in November,...

Saved by the Bell star Dustin Diamond, who played Screech in the popular teen series, has been hospitalized with stage 4 cancer. A rep for the actor confirmed the diagnosis to Rolling Stone, adding that Diamond checked himself into a hospital this week after feeling unwell. The type of cancer the actor is facing has not been disclosed. According to Entertainment Weekly, Diamond is undergoing treatment at a Florida hospital. “He’s undergoing chemo so he will be there at least another week and then we will figure out when he...

The Disney+ superhero series WandaVision opens with something brand-new to TV shows based on Marvel Comics characters: the Marvel Studios fanfare and logo, complete with glimpses of Iron Man and other figures from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was previously only attached to Marvel’s films. Earlier Marvel shows like Agents of SHIELD, Jessica Jones, and, Groot help us, The Inhumans were produced by a separate division of the company. Now — in part because most of those shows weren’t very good — Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is in charge...

There are many reasons And Just Like That, the forthcoming HBO Max reboot of Sex and the City, is a terrible idea. There’s the fact that the most recent installment of the franchise, Sex and the City 2, was released more than a decade ago, roughly the same time as the Eyjojakfull volcano, or eons ago in internet years. There’s the fact that Sex and the City 2 was critically reviled due to its bloated two-and-a-half-hour run time, inherent Islamophobia, and clunky screenplay featuring such sterling wordplay as “Lawrence of my labia.” And...

Issa Rae’s breakout series, Insecure, will end after its upcoming fifth season, HBO has announced. Production on the fifth season is set to begin later this month and the show will debut later this year, although an exact date has yet to be announced. “Very excited to film our fifth and final season!” Rae wrote on Twitter. “We couldn’t have told a complete story without the tremendous support of our audience and the faith of @HBO. See y’all soon!” Very excited to film our fifth and final season! We couldn’t...