We Are in the Golden Age of Freak TV

TV Tattle

We are in the golden age of freak TV

TV show creators are doing whatever it takes to stand out, resulting is an influx of oddballs on television, says Logan Hill. He adds: “Not long ago, orgiastic, homicidal weirdos could only live in art-house indie films, adult fiction, or pop music — but, recently the old homes of the Cleavers, the Bradys, and the Huxtables have been gentrified by turn-of-the-century coke-fiend surgeons, lady prisoners, blood-drenched sorority girls, and a sexually perverted celebrity horse named Bojack Horseman.”


Watch Bryan Cranston cry on Inside the Actor’s Studio while discussing an emotional Breaking Bad scene

Cranston says he saw his daughter in Krysten Ritter’s face in the episode where her junkie character dies.


Disney’s cable channels lost 7 million subscribers in the past 2 years

That includes ESPN, which dropped from 95 million subscribers in 2013 to 93 million subscribers.


Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead are looking like daytime soap operas these days

Bringing back characters from the dead is the domain of soap operas like Days of Our Lives, not prestige cable dramas.


Fox launches an Empire online store

The store is open just in time for holiday shopping.


Frank Gifford suffered from the concussion-connected brain disease CTE

Gifford’s family donated the former Monday Night Football and NFL star’s brain to science, and it was discovered he had the brain diseases linked to head trauma common in football. PLUS: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell responds by defending the league’s health and safety efforts.


Bob’s Burgers has had the perfect Thanksgiving episodes

The Fox comedy is actually does holiday episodes very well, but it really shines for Thanksgiving because of its emphasis on love and family.


Bones producer sues Fox, claiming he was stiffed out of profits

Barry Josephson is accusing Fox of “underreporting” revenue from European license fees and “misclassifying” profits from product-placement deals.


Destination America’s 5-hour Thanksgiving Day train ride broadcast aims to bore

“What we are trying for is the single-most-boring show ever on TV,” says Discovery exec Henry Schleiff of Railroad Alaska: Real-Time Train Ride, airing all-day Thursday.


Amy Poehler is getting a Hollywood Walk of Fame star

A ceremony on Hollywood Blvd. honoring the former SNL and Parks and Rec is scheduled for Dec. 3.


Presenting 10 shows you can binge-watch with the family on Thanksgiving Weekend

From The Flash to Brooklyn Nine-Nine.


Adam Sandler releases a new version of the Chanukah Song

The fourth version of Sandler’s SNL classic includes references to Jared Fogle and Harry Potter.


Here’s a list of every Marvel TV character who could and should show up in Captain America: Civil War

Daredevil and Luke Cage, but no Jessica Jones?


Marvel’s Jessica Jones is more about relapse and addiction than it is about superheroes

“When you strip away the patina of super strength, mind control, and a**-kicking,” says Alex Abad-Santos, “Jessica Jones is full of stories about addicts and the addictions that haunt them, often with no resolution at all. The show forces us to live with the unfair idea that we can’t entirely “fix” addiction even if it’s self-inflicted, and that there’s always a chance it will hurt us again.” PLUS: Jessica Jones shows why TV tells better superhero stories than film, Jessica is our first post-Gamergate thriller, here are 20 Marvel “firsts” from the Netflix series, Jessica Jones is groundbreaking in how it deals with rape, it provides a realistic, cathartic narrative for survivors, why is Jessica Jones showcasing the Firefox browser?, the show is a complex portrait of a woman undone, here are all of Jessica Jones’ connections to the Marvel universe, the lesbian storyline is fabulous yet frustrating, it’s a show about trauma that doesn’t skip over the complexity of PTSD, and Jessica’s leather jacket is the perfect superhero uniform for her.