The National Pastime: Is This the End of Baseball Tonight?

There was a time when I thought ESPN's Baseball Tonight was like the L O S T of the all-sports network. It was the definition of niche show -- 30 minutes of the latest baseball highlights, coupled with insightful commentary from likable talking heads. For any person who is a baseball fan, this was appointment viewing, especially since, over the years, Sportscenter has gone away from showing more than 15 seconds of highlights from any given game.

And then something happened: I started losing interest. Last year, stalwart Harold Reynolds was fired because he allegedly sexually harassed an ESPN employee. Along with former Phillies star John Kruk (who looked like he was going to eat himself off the borders of my 42 inch television screen) and former Reds star Jeff Brantley (who looked like he was seconds away from starting a bar fight), Reynolds was part of the group of solid major leaguers who brought their specific brand of baseball knowledge to the telecast.

To replace Reynolds, ESPN tried a number of former players, none of whom could equal Reynolds mix of smarts, wardrobe and unintentional comedy. Then Brantley left to go work on the Reds telecasts. Reeling, it seemed like ESPN decided to give former Mets GM Steve Phillips a much larger role on the program.

This was a mistake.

The Problems HBO Faces in a Post-Sopranos World

I don't mean to make this an entire blog dedicated to writing about HBO. Far from it. But since the only thing on network TV this summer is reruns and bad reality shows staring David Hasselhoff, HBO is really the only place for original programming that exists. And no, I'm not counting FX. I couldn't find FX on my Time Warner cable box with a GPS, a road map and a piece of paper that listed the exact channel number that FX appeared on. So I apologize to Eddie Izzard and Denis Leary, but seriously, move out of the sticks fellas.

That means I'm left with HBO. And right now, HBO, you have a problem. A big fucking problem. I can see why Chris Albrecht was driven to alcohol. He must have gotten a look at the new Sunday night lineup.

The two hour block of programming that airs on Sunday now is, for lack of a better and stronger phrase, fucking terrible.

Hug It Out, Lady Friend?: What Has Entourage Done to Ari Gold?

If you're like me, you are still experiencing that post-Sopranos hangover. You've watched the series finale multiple times this week, finding new nuggets and scenes to laugh at, like A.J. saying: "I am depressed! I'm supposed to go around looking for piles of leaves?!" You're convinced that the finale is a work of pure genius, easily one of the best series cappers in television history, and you are having a hard time believing that was the last new episode of the show you'll ever watch.

If you're like me, well, you are a nerd.

But you're also asking yourself what on earth you're going to do now? The ending of The Sopranos, felt like the ending of The Graduate to me. I have that "What now?" look on my face. What have we gotten to ourselves into by entering a world without Tony and Carmela?

What's next?

Well fear not, because this weekend, HBO brings back Entourage!

Ugh.

Don't Stop: The Series Finale of The Sopranos Recapped

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I’ll bet there is not a person on earth who thought that when The Sopranos premiered eight years ago, the last words in the history of one of the most ground-breaking shows ever to appear on television would be sung by Steve Perry.

Wouldn’t you know it though, that’s exactly how the series wrapped up: with the strains of Journey’s nostalgic "Don’t Stop Believin'" blasting on the soundtrack over Tony, Carmela and A.J. eating onion rings and waiting for failed parallel parker Meadow to come into Holston’s Ice Cream parlor.

To say that most fans of The Sopranos probably despised this finale is an understatement. I can only imagine the vitriol, hatred and scathing talkbacks I’m going to be reading over the next week, month and year about how the show just, well, ended. If I was David Chase, I’d be looking over both shoulders when I leave the house in the morning.

Please Go Away: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is Terrible

Poor Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. What started out as the most talked about television show on the planet before it premiered last fall, is now faced with ending its one and only season with a whimper in the place where television shows go to die: Summer. To give you an idea of how emasculating this is, imagine if the 2007 New York Yankees, stumbling and bumbling to perhaps their first missed post-season since 1995, not only didn't make the playoffs but were then forced to go compete in the Winter League. It's insult added to injury.

I Am Queens Boulevard: Entourage Recapped

There are moments when I’m watching Entourage that fill me with embarrassment. It’s an embarrassment for the actors, an embarrassment for the writers and hell, even an embarrassment for me. And in this “season finale”—I’m still not sure how HBO can call it a “season finale” when the new season starts a mere two weeks from now, but I digress—that embarrassing moment occurred in the final minutes of the episode.

Vince, Eric, Drama and Turtle were on the balcony of Vince’s posh hotel room toasting, well, how incredibly awesome they are and how great it is going to be for them to finally film Vince’s passion project, Medellin. And as Vince went all Rhonda Byrne on us, saying everything was going to be okay for our heroes because the universe wills it as such, Drama decided to rattle off some ridiculous toast in Spanish that managed to include “Medellin,” “friendship,” and “Columbian pussy.”

This is the stuff Emmy’s are made of.

Death Choo-Choo-Chooses Bobby Bacala: The Penultimate Episode of The Sopranos Recapped

As the Sopranos barrels towards its final moment, like one of the late Bobby Bacala’s model trains heading for a Paper Mache tunnel, it should come as no surprise, that the body count has reached epic proportions. To get an idea what I’m talking about, think the last reel of The Departed combined with the last reel of Saving Private Ryan.

Christopher, suffocated.

Bobby Bacala, shot about seventy times.

Silvio Dante, not expected to regain consciousness after multiple gun shot wounds.

And you know what? After six years of watching these characters do disgraceful, criminal and downright amoral things, their fates are well deserved. To quote Tom Hanks, they have earned it.

The Pitch

Christopher Rosen is a freelance entertainment writer living in New York. He writes regularly for the New York Observer and Movieline and has been featured multiple times as a contributor to the New York Times and New York Magazine.

Christopher was also a panelist in a Paley Center discussion about LOST prior to the start of its fifth season and appeared on Fox News to debate the merits of Where the Wild Things Are.

And yes, he does own a too-big-for-the-room 42-inch television set (see the blueprint across the page for reference).

You can contact him here.