James Poniewozik

4 weeks ago | nytimes.com | James Poniewozik

A TV critic looks at George Clooney's play about CBS News standing up to political pressure, even as its current ownership might succumb to it. In the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," the CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow (George Clooney) allows himself a moment of doubt, as his program "See It Now" embarks on a series of reports on the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s. "It occurs to me," he says, "that we might not get away with this one."It is a small but important line.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | James Poniewozik |Alissa Wilkinson

Times critics discuss the second season of Nathan Fielder's docu-comic series, which proposed a link between plane crashes and social discomfort and used cloned dogs, giant puppets and more to explore it. Times critics discuss the second season of Nathan Fielder's docu-comic series, which proposed a link between plane crashes and social discomfort and used cloned dogs, giant puppets and more to explore it. Credit...

1 month ago | nytimes.com | James Poniewozik

This fascinating though incomplete documentary tells Paul Reubens's story despite the subject's doubts about the project. The title of "Pee-wee as Himself," the two-part documentary that airs Friday on HBO, is a bit of a ruse, or maybe a riddle. Pee-wee Herman, the manic, bow-tied man-child, was the greatest creation of Paul Reubens, who died in 2023. But Reubens was someone else, a self whose nature was obscured, sometimes by the overshadowing fame of his alter ego, sometimes by his own choice.

1 month ago | smh.com.au | James Poniewozik

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. I know how I’m supposed to feel about artificial intelligence. Like anyone who pushes words around on a page, I worry large language models will relegate me to the junk pile. I worry smart machines will supplant artists, eliminate jobs and institute a surveillance state – if they don’t simply destroy us.

1 month ago | miamiherald.com | James Poniewozik

(Critic’s Notebook)Man walks into a bar. It’s the starting point for a million jokes. And for season after season on “Cheers,” some of the best of those were delivered by George Wendt, who died on Tuesday at age 76, as the long-suffering Norm Peterson.