My list of the best television dramas of all time reads like an HBO promo spot; I loved all aspects of The Wire, Six Feet Under, and The Sopranos, but since those ended (with the exception of True Blood) HBO has left me wanting more and badly. The network’s chief competition in the realm of premium cable original programming, Showtime, has tended to offer less expert, more salacious fare in the past with the exception of the deliciously quirky Weeds and The United States of Tara; the L Word, Californication, and Dexter lack the complexity of HBO’s banner shows and are more comparable to the intriguing but one-dimensional Oz. Fortunately, Showtime scores a big win with Nurse Jackie, premiering tonight on Showtime and also available online.

I actually remember seeing the video for Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” and laughing with my brother at this fat nigga rapping over Mtume’s old school classic from a Brooklyn stoop. Then I listened. And I literally let my Ready To Die tape rock til my tape popped in the summer of 1995.

Fifteen minutes into Notorious, the life story of Christopher Wallace aka Notorious B.I.G., I’d already accepted that I would be watching this movie again and again and buying the DVD. While far from perfect storytelling, this movie gave a voice to that period of hip-hop in a way…

As soon as holiday feel-good movies start appearing in theaters I become flooded with a rushed anxiety about procuring Christmas presents, spending time with family, and other standard holiday stress. Last night I caught a matinee showing of Cadillac Records and left the theater impressed by the music and acting, but with more on my to-do list than when I arrived. The film, a sex, drug, and race issue-filled journey through blues and early…

I have always enjoyed Bill Maher’s blend of politics, intellectualism, and comedy, so as soon as I heard about his new documentary Religulous I pre-ordered tickets, carefully chose my movie-going companion, and even splurged on popcorn. As a result, my Religulous experience was as close to perfect as possible. Thought provoking, thorough, informative, and side-achingly funny, this is the first film I’ve seen in a long time that I can recommend without reservation. While you may not agree with every point that Maher…

Every weekend I settle down in front of my Dish Network DVR-equipped television and instead of watching new programming I end up running old episodes of A Different World and Living Single. Lately I’ve been thinking that we’ve reached the end of the road when it comes to smart black entertainment. As much as I have hopes that BET’s new series Somebodies, which I reviewed last week, will age into something more palatable, I just got my hands on something new that makes me ultimately optimistic about…

If I were a space alien who just landed on earth I’d expect a network with the name “Black Entertainment Television” to take responsibility for rejuvenating our fractured culture and blessing our people with as much black artistic expression as resources allowed. But then there’s reality, and as much I didn’t have high expectations for the next black sitcom to hit the airwaves, BET’s Somebodies is somewhere between a step in the wrong direction and thirty tedious minutes on the sitcom treadmill.

The premise and style of Somebodies…

Any movie featuring MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” before the basic plot has even been outlined is destined to be a problem, but mostly in a good way. Tropic Thunder was just that. Continuing the lowbrow and nonsensical brand of comedy that Ben Stiller has become well-known for, Tropic Thunder is a send-up of the Hollywood movie machine that strokes moviegoers’ pre-existing perception that everyone involved in the industry is ultimately ridiculous. The tasteless early trailers for Tropic Thunder caused a stir among black folks and disability groups…

Going to the movies has become so expensive lately that I’m convinced that I’m part of an impoverished social class forced to wait for everything to come out on DVD. I’ve been wondering what all of this The Dark Knight hub-bub is about, so I dug deep down in my pockets and spent $12.50(!) to catch up with the rest of the country and tell you all about it.

I’m not a big fan of action or comic book movies, and the word “blockbuster” usually turns me off because such easy accessibility usually means that most of the…