Robert Abele

What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear

Robert Abele
When I stopped the remote on ESPN2 for the U.S. Paintball Championships from Miami, Florida, I was expecting something akin to a jittery war film: aggressive dudes with guns, lots of shooting and ducking, the occasional “I’m hit! I’m hit!,” and perhaps a sobbing, downed grunt in the arms of......

TiVo Top 10

Robert Abele
I could easily fill this list with returning shows that continued to entertain us with quality TV — Deadwood, Veronica Mars, The Daily Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Ted Koppel’s last year at Nightline — but that would leave out all the new programs that grabbed my attention in 2005......
''Look out or youll get burned.'' Davis Charlotte to Paul Henreid in Now

Vamp to Camp

Robert Abele
First you’re another sloe-eyed vamp Then someone’s mother Then you’re camp. No truer lines were ever written about the life of a woman in show business than this Stephen Sondheim lyric for the Follies showstopper “I’m Still Here.” It’s become a cabaret staple for seen-it-all singers and could have been......

Global Warning

Robert Abele
I hope I’m not a bad person for turning off HBO’s global-warming scare-umentary Too Hot Not to Handle after 20 minutes, but there were times I wanted to leave the theater during Alien, too. I couldn’t take the impending horror. Executive producer Laurie David may very well be the Irwin......

London Calling

Robert Abele
My sister’s home in London has Sky, Rupert Murdoch’s zillion-channel TV service, which for me, an admittedly indecisive pop-culture consumer, means that I start out watching with a kid-in-a-candy-shop feeling but inevitably sink into get-me-out-of-this-friggin’-clothing-store-’cause-nothing-looks-right anxiety. Still, a few moments from my British surfing stood out: Stephen Fry’s impress-me trivia-panel......
InvenTORI: Tori Spelling as herself and Jeanetta Arnette as manager ''Ruthie Rose.''

Desperation Nation

Robert Abele
I have a sneaking suspicion that Tori Spelling thinks the generous helpings of self-deprecating humor in her new VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous — starring her as her — make the show critic-proof. Maybe she figures the blood sport of Tori-bashing — about her looks, her talent, her love life, her......
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American Idol 1.0

Robert Abele
The slack, perverse beauty of Liza Minnelli’s performance style in her heyday — that coursing vibrato shaking out of her body, those strutting gams and pinwheel-eyelashed orbs, the love-me-love-you intensity invested in every song — is the thrilling revelation that comes from watching Liza With a “Z” in its restored,......
Chef in happier days

Good Night, Sweet Chef

Robert Abele
Somehow, some way, by making Chef into a brainwashed pedophile mauled to death by animals, Trey Parker and Matt Stone gave Isaac Hayes an unexpectedly moving, fantastically heartfelt sendoff. The 10th-season premiere of South Park on Comedy Central Wednesday night, called “The Return of Chef,” was an extraordinary half-hour of......
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Dry and On the Rocks

Robert Abele
British comedy fans can rejoice in a crop of new imports debuting in the U.S. The shows are by turns nostalgic, broad, outrageous and chilly, but they’re all still indicative of a television culture that cherishes a richer, less obvious kind of laugh. BBC America has a weekday late-night block......

Veronica Marred?

Robert Abele
Last week, UPN’s Veronica Mars featured a plot about gay high school students being blackmailed, and also a weird distraction in the form of guest star Kristin Cavallari. The only reason this Laguna Beach reality siren was found roaming the halls of Neptune High is that she was host of......