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How Netflix came back from the dead and beat HBO
With 2 million new subscribers, Netflix now boasts a bigger following than HBO. What happened? Carmel Lobello investigates:
Many attribute Netflix’s ferocious turnaround to its foray into original programming, particularly the high-profile political drama House of Cards, which debuted in February to great reviews. More original shows have followed. Hemlock Grove, a horror show by Eli Roth, debuted last Friday, and a new season of the cultishly awaited comedy series Arrested Development will launch next month. Netflix suddenly has plenty of content that you simply cannot get without subscribing, and as they say, content is king.
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“Even as Girls disappoints by implicitly endorsing the utterly toxic relationships of Hannah/Adam and Marnie/Charlie, it does something even more disappointing by putting so much emphasis on romantic relationships at all. Remember when Girls was about more than boys? What this episode lacks — and, on reflection, this season has lacked — is an emphasis on the relationships between the central four women. The episode doesn’t come close to passing the Bechdel Test, because the women don’t talk to each other at all, and it’s frustrating to watch Girls push the characters’ romantic entanglements to the forefront while it pushes the rest of their lives aside.
Hannah’s crippling O.C.D. made it impossible for her to finish the book that would represent the culmination of her personal and professional dreams — but that’s okay, because Adam is there to scoop her into his arms! Marnie and Charlie have reached their “endpoint,” even though neither of them mentions her budding singing career — but that’s okay, because Charlie’s making enough money for both of them! And Shoshanna… what does Shoshanna do again? College student? Maybe we should actually find out what she’s studying sometime.”
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Girls recap: Hannah the antihero — This week’s episode takes the series’ self-absorbed protagonist to a new low.
Girls has been laser-focused on Hannah this season, at the expense of characters like Jessa, Shoshanna, and even Adam, whose failure to show up in “Bad Friend” is particularly conspicuous after his arrest in last week’s episode. Hannah is a legitimately fascinating character — and certainly the most groundbreaking to emerge from Girls — but the show can sometimes feel as obsessed with Hannah as Hannah is obsessed with Hannah — and that’s not a good thing.
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“Random House is taking a big chance by making such a big bet on an author whose fan base is concentrated in the under-30 demographic,” which is “a group not known for its willingness to pay for content of any kind,” says Jeff Bercovici at Forbes on Lena Dunham’s $3.5 million book advance.
Photo: Desiree Navarro/Getty Images
(Source: theweek.com)
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When Girls premiered in April, it was lauded as a “once in a decade” masterpiece. Critics called the HBO comedy, about barely employed twenty-somethings living in New York City, “revolutionary” and “groundbreaking” for its frank depiction of sexuality and coming of age, and dubbed writer-director-creator-star Lena Dunham the “voice of a generation.”
Throughout its first season, the zeitgeist-capturing series sparked intense debate over race, gender, and Dunham’s polarizing lead character, Hannah. The season one finale, which aired Sunday night, found Hannah questioning her relationship while her friend Jessa spontaneously marries.
A full season later, does Girls live up to its pre-release praise?
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Microsoft wants to unify all the devices in your home network so they share content and offer supporting features.
And a new app, Xbox SmartGlass, does just that, turning your phone or tablet into a universal remote that also smartly syncs with whatever video you’re watching or game you’re playing.
It basically adds a second screen to your viewing experience, says Dan Ackerman at CNET. If you’re playing Halo 4, you can use SmartGlass to pull up real-time stats on your iPhone. If you’re watching Game of Thrones, your tablet will display maps and trivia. But will content providers exploit this technology? “So far Xbox Video and HBO Go are in, but what about other video services such as Netflix?” -
Who are the Millennials? Aside from being born in the 1980s and 1990s, they comprise a generation that continues to elude a neat definition. With the popularity of HBO’s Girls, in which Lena Dunham’s character thinks she’s the voice of this new generation (“Or at least a voice. Of a generation.”), Millennials have come under renewed focus in the media, among the literati, and in the boardrooms of marketers trying to pinpoint what this demographic wants.
A few ways Millennials are being described:
1. They’re spendthrifts…
Studies show that Millennials are more likely than their elders to spend big, “especially on new technologies,” says Julie Halpert at The Fiscal Times. These studies say Millennials are addicted to instant gratification, and view new gadgets as needs, not wants. Millennials are also “the fastest-growing demographic of those who purchase luxury goods,” says Rachel Krause at The Frisky.2. …And they’re broke
A new survey shows that 25 percent of Millennials “reported not having enough money to cover their basic needs,” a much higher percentage than older generations, says Corilyn Shropshire at Business Insider. Millennials have been hit hard by the recession, and are weighed down by ever-growing mountains of student debt. “The lack of financial savvy among Millennials could have a trickle-down effect with detrimental consequences for society,” says Hadley Malcom at USA Today.3. They’re natural entrepreneurs
Call it “Generation Sell” — Millennials are less inclined to join a commune or a movement, and would rather start a small business, says William Deresiewicz at The New York Times. Brought up in the “heroic age of dot-com entrepreneurship” that defined the 1990s, and distrustful of “large organizations, including government,” the Millennial views small business as “the idealized social form of our time.”4. They’re socialists
Looks like the “right-wing cries of ‘socialist takeover!’ may be based in more than paranoia,” says Nona Willis Aronowitz at Good. Polls show that 49 percent of Millennials “view socialism in a favorable light,” compared with 43 percent who view it unfavorably. Millennials are also the generation of Occupy Wall Street, the anti-corporate movement, and “it’s not hard to figure out why our generation isn’t so gung-ho about capitalism — it has disappointed and, in some cases, straight-up failed us.”Narcissistic, broke, and 6 other ways to describe the Millennial generation
(Source: theweek.com)
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How TV shows deal with abortion: A timeline
It’s been 40 years since Bea Arthur’s outspoken liberal Maude Findlay was the first television character to have an abortion in a 1972 episode of Maude, but televising the divisive issue still courts controversy. On Sunday night’s episode of Girls, Jemima Kirke’s free-spirited global nomad made an abortion appointment, but conflicted feelings kept her from showing up for it. Indeed, while the hot-button issue surfaces frequently on TV these days, says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, characters rarely go through with abortions.
“Four decades after Roe v. Wade, are we ever going to able to talk about abortion on television and have more to say than, ‘Maude had one?’”
Here, a history of how TV series have dealt with the issue, from Maude to Girls
