Email Author Joy Press

2005 Stories by Joy Press

• Pew and Cry

  published December 27, 2005

  Ever since our president clinched the last election, media liberals on both coasts have been bracing for a full-fledged coup de culture staged by... More >>

• Coupla Appalachian Boys Sitting Around Talking

  published December 27, 2005

  In a three-year span spread across three compelling episodes, two sweet teenagers from backwater Kentucky come of age. Boys trying so damn hard to... More >>

• Remote Patrol

  published December 27, 2005

  IN JUSTICE Fridays at 9 on ABC Kyle MacLachlan hasn't had much TV luck since Twin Peaks, so I'm hoping this midseason... More >>

• Screen Gems

  published December 13, 2005

  TV used to be the most dependable thing in our American lives. Series debuted in the fall, summer meant reruns, old ladies could set the clock by... More >>

• The Year in TV: Honorable Mentions

  published December 13, 2005

  DO NOT GO GENTLE: Six Feet Under died the way it lived, with an emotionally messy, hugely poignant bang. It bowed out before it lost... More >>

• The Year in TV: Stinkers

  published December 13, 2005

  Although the reality TV juggernaut has finally slowed, the format continues to plumb fresh nadirs. VH1's CELEBRITY FIT CLUB combined the... More >>

• Docs Without Borders

  published November 29, 2005

  "I like to go to the front line on drugs," a young girl clad in green beret and camouflage gear declares defiantly to the camera. "When I'm on... More >>

• Rip Those Hems! Stab Those Backs! Fur Flies in Couture de Force

  published November 29, 2005

  Burned-out as I am on reality TV, I can't resist season two of Project Runway. It's no less cutthroat than any of those other reality... More >>

• Remote Patrol

  published November 29, 2005

  Seoul Train December 13 at 10 on Channel 13 Mixing hidden-camera footage and passionate interviews, Seoul Train follows... More >>

• Table for Twelve

  published November 22, 2005

  Hardly anyone I know has a real coffee table, or at least not the kind of low, elegant slab you see in shelter magazines, which looks specifically... More >>

• Sleeping Duty

  published November 15, 2005

  Everything we know about sleeper cells is wrong, if we're to believe this 10-part miniseries. There's nothing inert or sleepy about the fictional... More >>

• Jiggle Belles: Anderson's Busty Bimbo Bibliophile Jiggles All the Way

  published November 15, 2005

  The title suggests that the only thing Pamela Anderson has going for her is sex appeal, and that people will only watch this series to catch a... More >>

• screens

  published November 15, 2005

  Voyage of the Courtesans November 23 at 8 on Channel 13 This episode of PBS's juicy Secrets of the Dead series casts... More >>

• Girls Just Want to Have Fun

  published November 8, 2005

  MoDo is everywhere: looking sultry on the cover of New York, posing in slinky stockings and red heels inside the Times magazine, and... More >>

• New Slang: Savan Takes Aim at Media-Minted Zing

  published November 8, 2005

  Leslie Savan has always been one of my favorite sniffer dogs, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. For many years, she used her ... More >>

• The Show I Hate to Love

  published November 8, 2005

  The pleasure centers of my brain tell me Lost is one of the most effervescent, enjoyable series on TV right now. The analytic half of my... More >>

• The Katrina Bunch: A Storm Lifts Two Anchors and Drops Them in a Sunnier Spot

  published November 8, 2005

  Like 9-11, Katrina was tagged as a consciousness-altering moment for Americans. It woke us up to the nation's racial rift—for about 10... More >>

• Remote Patrol

  published November 8, 2005

  Homewreckers Sundays at 9:30 on MTV MTV has created a raft of prank shows over the last few years, but this is the politest riff... More >>

• Black Power Rangers

  published October 25, 2005

  Huey Freeman has a dream. The 10-year-old hero of Boondocks—a new animated series based on the popular comic strip—fantasizes... More >>

• I, Doofus: The History Men Who Changed Rome

  published October 25, 2005

  I initially dismissed Rome as an I, Claudius wannabe, but it quickly sucked me in with its combo of extravagant soap and... More >>

• Remote Patrol

  published October 25, 2005

  Call it visual spinach, but PBS remains the one network that devotes itself with gusto to unsexy issues other networks only cover in soundbites.... More >>

• Notes on Girl Power

  published October 18, 2005

  September 23, 1997 From the moment do-me feminism was coined (by a male Esquire writer) in 1994, it was inevitable that a... More >>

• Extra-Ordinary Rendition

  published September 20, 2005

  HBO's Sunday-night pairing of Curb Your Enthusiasm with Extras, the new series written by and starring The Office's Ricky... More >>

• Movin' On Down: Two New Comedies Offer Black and White Views of Underclass Life

  published September 20, 2005

  The one form of bigotry that's okay with coastal-state liberals is looking down on rednecks from the heartland. For some reason it's always been... More >>

• Remote Patrol

  published September 20, 2005

  Twins Fridays at 8:30 on WB I can't decide if this is a smart show masquerading as a dumb one or vice versa. Either way, this... More >>