Press Play

This is a web site built around original video essays and critical, personal writing about movies, TV, music, comics and whatever else interests its contributors. It is published by Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic for New York Magazine and overseen by editor-in-chief Kevin B. Lee.

Monthly Archives

GREY MATTERS: PERSON OF INTEREST: A Noir for the New Depression

Blogs

Person of Interest isn’t the sole new scripted television show in the Top Five because it’s a gold standard procedural mystery. Or because it’s a terrific grown-up look at living with regret that also finds time to explore post 9-11 hot topics of class and morality in the New Depression.

By Ian Grey
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April 27, 2012 8:55 AM
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3 Comments

Television

Why should the folks at AMC have all the fun tormenting us, when we could do just as good a job?

By Kevin B. Lee
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April 23, 2012 1:11 PM
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2 Comments

Television

This supposed "alternate intro" for AMC's "The Walking Dead" is a great example of how a mash-up can become a kind of stealth criticism.

By Timmy Lunsford
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April 14, 2012 7:17 PM
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5 Comments

Video

Serena Bramble weaves dozens upon dozens of clips into a jazz-like succession of motifs, mapping out the resplendent world of Mad Men.

By Serena Bramble and David Ehrenstein
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March 22, 2012 8:10 AM
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5 Comments

Video

Selecting an iconic moment for Season Two of Mad Men, we focus on the idyllic domestic world of Betty Draper and how it all falls apart within a 24-hour span.

By Deborah Lipp and Kevin B. Lee
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March 22, 2012 8:08 AM
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0 Comments

Video

Our iconic moment of Mad Men season three easily ranks as one of the most shocking of the entire series to date.

By Amanda Marcotte and Kevin B. Lee
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March 22, 2012 8:07 AM
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0 Comments

Video

There is near-unanimous consensus that 4.07: "The Suitcase" is the standout episode of Season Four of Mad Men, so we knew that our video essay on a singular moment from that season had to come from that episode.

By Serena Bramble, Deborah Lipp and Kevin B. Lee
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March 22, 2012 8:06 AM
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3 Comments

Video

Analysis of the opening credits of the first season of "The Wire," exploring how the images highlight the overall themes of each season and offer predictive snippets of future plot twists.

By Andrew Dignan, Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz
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March 11, 2012 1:40 PM
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0 Comments

Blogs

It’s been a good few years for crazy. "Homeland’s" made bipolar disorder a household ailment yet again. Sean Durkin’s "Martha Marcy May Marlene" located the goal posts between delusion and reality in its brainwashed hero’s mind and promptly moved them repeatedly (just like in real life!). And while William Friedkin’s incredibly distressing tale of mutually assured destruction, "Bug," may not have hewed to the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," its claustrophobic form of poetic, post-"Repulsion" address captured essential truths about madness a supposedly reality-based film like "A Beautiful Mind" could never touch.

By Ian Grey
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March 6, 2012 2:04 PM
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10 Comments

Television

We head into "Mad Men’s" fifth season knowing nothing about it. The on-air promos recycle moments from past seasons, and the teaser art has been cryptic even by this show’s standards: an opening-credits-styled image of a falling man that could be hawking any season, and a photo of hero Don Draper staring at two mannequins — a clothed male and a naked female* — through a dress-shop window. Matthew Weiner, who banned advance screeners after a New York Times review revealed innocuous details from the season-four premiere, has dropped a cone of silence over the production. We have no idea if Don went through with plans to wed his young secretary, Megan; if Joan had Roger’s baby; or if the new agency is still in business. We don’t even know the year in which this season takes place, which at least would prepare us for the wingspan of Roger’s lapels.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
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March 6, 2012 12:50 AM
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1 Comment

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