Dave's Fiction Warehouse

In which I bloviate about books, TV, movies, politics and other stuff.

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Maya and Marty

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I’m not sure why NBC’s “Maya and Marty,” NBC’s latest stab at the timeworn variety-show format, is getting crappy reviews. I’ve watched two episodes now and I’m ready to call it the best thing on network TV. Maya Rudolph and Martin Short are both gifted comics, both at their best when skewering self-absorbed celebrities. They do that a lot here. If this piece, “My New York — […]

The Liar, the Confessor, and us

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About Lance Armstrong: If you say you’re going to admit to something at a later date, isn’t that the same thing as admitting it right now? Do you really need to schedule an interview on national television to make it official? I don’t know who’s being more oily here: Armstrong for his weaselly maneuvers to manage this disgrace, or Oprah for letting him do it. Have we […]

A few small annoyances

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Because it’s Tuesday, here’s a grab-bag of stuff that I find irritating to one degree or another. Feel free to add yours. Facebook buying Instagram for $1 billion. This pisses me off because it proves again that Facebook has become the Standard Oil of this century: It no longer has to compete with competitors; it simply has to buy them. I like Instagram because it does a […]

Going downhill at Downton Abbey

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I‘m still enjoying Downton Abbey, but four episodes into Season 2 it’s beginning to seem kind of contrived. Where the first season focused mainly on interesting characters coping with the class strictures of pre-war England, this season is devolving into plot-based melodrama. Exhibit A: This ridiculous business of Bates’ vengeful ex-wife Vera, who started out as an interesting complication and now, apparently, has graduated to never-ending plot […]

A little flawed, but still a masterpiece

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While most viewers probably stayed for the thrilling finale of the Denver-Pittsburgh game last night, we switched over at the half to Downton Abbey. First we watched the last episode of Season One, and then the premiere of the highly awaited Season Two. With all due respect to Tim Tebow, I still think we made the right choice. I don’t care much about the Broncos or the […]

We all know a place like ‘Portlandia’

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The better the TV show, the longer the time between seasons. That’s the new paradigm. (Don’t you love the word “paradigm”?) The very best shows — stuff like Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey and and now Portlandia— spend more time off the air than they do on. That’s sometimes frustrating, but not surprising. The fact is, it takes a lot longer to write a good book than […]