John’s “The Paper” (episodes 1-4) review, Brainerd Dispatch, May 8, 2008
‘The Paper’ review
‘Scream’ and ‘Dead of Summer’ make Tuesday nights great again (TV review)
For the first time since “Gilmore Girls” and “Veronica Mars” aired back-to-back nearly a decade ago, Tuesday night has become appointment-TV night again. A couple of unlikely shows have propped up Tuesday night’s status: “Scream” (10 p.m. Eastern on MTV) and “Dead of Summer” (9 p.m. Eastern on Freeform). Whereas other nights have a decent show here and there (such as Wednesday’s “Penn & Teller: Fool Us”), Tuesday is the only night that currently gets me excited to come home from work and fire up my DVR.
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First episode impressions: ‘Scream: The TV Series’ Season 2 (Review)
“Scream: The TV Series” (11 p.m. Eastern Mondays on MTV) gradually got better over the course of its first season, and with the second-season premiere, it is now rewarding people who stuck with the series. It’s not great TV, but it is now good, solid, fun TV.
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2015: The summer of horror TV (Commentary)
Entertainment trends are a funny thing. Horror movie releases have slowed to a trickle, whereas a decade ago there was a new one in theaters every week. But horror TV shows were rare then, whereas today, the boob tube is covered with them. Even though horror is still scarier on the big screen for obvious reasons, TV is making a strong case as a home for horror in 2015 — some of the best horror TV ever made, actually.
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First episode impressions: ‘Scream: The TV Series’ (Review)
“Scream: The TV Series” (9 p.m. Tuesdays on MTV) knows what it wants to be. As is the tradition in this increasingly meta franchise, the format of the series is explained by one of the characters: Noah (John Karna), this show’s answer to Randy (Jamie Kennedy) from the 1996 movie.
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First episode impressions: ‘Awkward.’ Season 2 (TV review)
There’s a certain coldness to all the characters on “Awkward” (9:30 p.m. Central Thursdays on MTV), which had its Season 2 premiere last week. Even after watching them all of last season, they still seem like pointed stereotypes more so than fully developed characters.
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First episode impressions: ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ Season 8 (TV review)
“Beavis and Butt-head” (9 p.m. Central Thursdays on MTV) jumped right into its eighth-season premiere on Thursday with Butt-head’s trademark “Uhhhhh-huh-huh” and Beavis’ iconic “Heh-heh-yeah-yeah-heh.” Fourteen years after the show’s original run ended, MTV skipped over the awkward introductory “Don’t try this at home, kids” (which I assume was mandated by the network back in the day) and cut right to the idiot duo’s chuckles and the theme song.
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First episode impressions: ‘Awkward.’ (TV review)
Lots of TV shows have shown the awkwardness of high school, those moments where if the poor kid only had a “How to Navigate High School” handbook, he or she would’ve been fine. “Awkward.” (10 p.m. Central Tuesdays on MTV) is the first show I can think of that actually does provide a guide of sorts.
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First episode impressions: ‘Teen Wolf’ (TV review)
The aspect of the new “Teen Wolf” (8 p.m. Central Mondays on MTV) series that has gotten the most criticism is that Scott (Tyler Posey), the wolf-boy in this version, plays lacrosse, whereas Michael J. Fox played basketball in the 1985 movie.
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