Joshua Alston

Back in March, David stood ready to slay Goliath, and almost no one was there to witness it. That was when NBC debuted Kings, a modern retelling of the biblical underdog story.

  The ShieldBy far, 2009's most gobsmacking oversight. The final season of The Shield featured some of the most compelling performances we've seen all year, and the series finale was among the best ever.

The HBO vampire series leaves me cold, and it's not because of all the dead bodies

New York people, as a rule, are not Los Angeles people, or vice versa. For instance, no one in the history of L.A. has ever yelled "I'm walking here!" while navigating a busy intersection (because no one in L.A.

I watched the Michael Jackson memorial service, and feel comfortable assuming that not only was it the kind of funeral Jackson would have wanted, it was also the kind of funeral anyone would want.

As is the case with any news story that elbows all the others out of the way, the media coverage of Michael Jackson's death has begun to spawn a backlash.

It's impossible to discuss Michael Jackson's legacy without talking about his music videos, those ostentatious short films that elevated the music-video form a little more with every new entry.

He might have died a sudden death, but Jackson leaves us with a music legacy for the ages.

In "Impossible to Tell," former poet laureate Robert Pinsky refers to "the rude, full-scale joke, impossible to tell in writing." Hung, a new HBO dramedy, is that kind of rude, full-scale joke.

Considering all the effort put into shrouding Barack Obama in swarthy otherness during the election, it's a wonder that one biographical factoid went without much scrutiny.

With all the chatter and speculation and general hullabaloo surrounding Conan O'Brien's debut on NBC's , it was pretty easy to lose sight of an important detail: this ain't Conan's first rodeo.

Edie Falco doesn't mind that people still see her as Carmela Soprano, the matriarch of television's most influential family drama. She just doesn't want to be seen as one of those mothers.

By Joshua AlstonBy day's end, we'll have a complete picture of what the broadcast television schedules will look like for fall. The CW, the final network to announce its fall slate, will likely confirm today what's been reported in the Hollywood trades for weeks—Privileged is out, and the Gossip Girl spinoff is probably not happening.

A time will come when May's most anticipated competition isn't the NBA playoffs, the Kentucky Derby or the American Idol finale. Instead, we'll be swept up in spelling-bee mania.

"This is a football training camp. I don't wanna hear any of that s--t about a reality show." — Michael Irvin, three-time Super Bowl champ I hate to break it to him, but "this"—Irvin's new reality competition show 4th and Long—is a reality show.

They say there's no fool like an old fool, but to let pop culture tell the story, it's the singing fool who has the most egg on his face. There's Greg Gregson (Chris Lilley), the deluded high school drama teacher in Summer Heights High; his forebear Corky St.

When a thief stole my laptop, I was determined to get it back. Oh yeah, and seek a little electronic revenge along the way.

By Joshua Alston Tonight is the live finale of MTV's "Making the Band 4," and if you haven't been watching this season, let me quickly catch you up. There's an R&B singing group called Day26, which was assembled by Sean "Diddy" Combs after a lengthy audition process.

by Joshua AlstonAfter Sarah's brave admission that she digs "Greek," "Lipstick Jungle" and "The Hills," I got to thinking about why smart people make foolish television choices.

by Joshua Alston If you're like me, you have fond memories of being 15. Life was fun and carefree, and there was a seemingly endless road ahead of you that promised adventure, romance and success.

Gay- and lesbian-rights activists have been waiting for a soundtrack with sufficient snarl. But no more.

by Joshua Alston Everyone has their pop culture blind spots, and "ER" has always been one of mine. Prior to the two-hour finale, I'd never seen a single episode of NBCs epochal medical drama.

  So here we are again at the end of another season of "Damages," and I'm writing up a litany of suggestions. At the end of the first season of FX's sprawling puzzle of a legal thriller, I made a modest proposition: make it a limited series.

If you take your comedy as seriously as your politics, the 'SNL' alum's new sitcom is for you.

HBO's Mormon polygamy drama, "Big Love," has long been one of those shows that seem to exist theoretically. It's the opposite of a show like "Mad Men" or "Gossip Girl," which are far more talked about than they are actually watched; "Big Love" is a show talked about so little that, until it returns from hiatus, it's easy to forget that people watch it.

You have a friend who is evangelical about "The Wire," who asks you once every two weeks if you were a fan, browbeats you into watching if you weren't, commiserates with you if you were, about how the best television show ever was snuffed out too soon because people were too stupid to appreciate it.

In 'Detective Agency,' Africa never looked so good.

By Joshua Alston Confession: I've never understood scripted reality shows like "Laguna Beach," "The Hills" and, more recently, "The City," MTVs half-plotted, half-improvised dramas about vapid, attractive people.

 Why is there a pink teddy bear floating in Walt's swimming pool? And what happened to its eye? Those are among the pressing questions teased in an enigmatic scene in the premiere that will be addressed in Season 2 of AMC's Emmy-winning drama Breaking Bad.

Scoff if you must, but Orem, Utah, loves MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Really.