James Poniewozik
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poniewozik.bsky.social
James Poniewozik
@poniewozik.bsky.social
I wish that we could lose this crowd
On a related note, I’m finally reading The Power Broker, and this is quite an interesting time to be doing that
Since congestion pricing began one year ago, about 11% of the vehicles that once entered Manhattan’s central business district daily have disappeared. This may not seem like a lot, but it has changed the lives of many. Here’s how. trib.al/xSygqCm
January 6, 2026 at 1:16 AM
Don't love the number of credible guesses I could personally make for this blind item (all of them from directors whose other movies I love!)
I watched two recent movies this weekend from two reliably interesting directors, both of which were depressingly bad and both of which reeked of “I need a financeable project pronto” and I can only conclude: We have a dire national shortage of tenable unproduced screenplays
January 5, 2026 at 4:06 PM
You want to say, "Don't they realize the lyrics say..." but THE LYRICS ARE IN THE CLIP
Trump posts footage of the Maduro raid set to "Fortunate Son" -- a protest song about the Vietnam War draft
January 3, 2026 at 9:02 PM
“I watched it literally like I was watching a television show.” wwnorton.com/books/978163...
January 3, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Curating my Bluesky feed to get the perfect ratio of people saying everyone needs to get off X to people reposting screenshots from X
January 2, 2026 at 9:57 PM
In 2026, CBS gets rid of the guy who made fun of "truthiness" as a late-night host and installs a guy who promises to deliver it as news anchor. www.cbsnews.com/news/tony-do...
January 2, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Small point here but the "Nancy and Jonathan in room filling up with weird wormhole paint" subplot looked like a trap The Penguin would have thrown Batman and Robin into in the old Adam West series
I don’t think I’ve ever muttered “WTF” to myself as much as I have watching S5 of “Stranger Things.” There wasn’t ever a grand master plan: they just scrambled as they went along.
December 30, 2025 at 5:25 PM
In the Watching newsletter, @ezwrites.bsky.social recommends Best Medicine, whose title is a sly pun (Josh Charles plays Dr. Martin Medicine, who is the superior member of his family, the "best Medicine" as it were) static.nytimes.com/email-conten...
Watching: A charming fish-out-of-water comedy
static.nytimes.com
December 29, 2025 at 9:44 PM
IMHO most revivals are best left unrevived and I'll judge this one by the actual episodes so who knows. BUT I will say that for all the zaniness MITM had an actual dark, sad streak and I'm curious if the aged-up version leans into that at all www.youtube.com/watch?v=63VT...
Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair | Official Teaser | Hulu
YouTube video by Hulu
www.youtube.com
December 29, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Pity today's children who missed the golden age of novelty songs about network TV shows www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD7X...
The Afternoon Delights - General Hospi-Tale 1981
YouTube video by Bhamdave52
www.youtube.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Hanukkah dinner got delayed, but hoo boy were these pickle latkes worth waiting for cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1027...
December 29, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Happy Feast of the Seven Fishes to all those who celebrate
December 25, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Reposted by James Poniewozik
The Ghost of Christmas Future Perfect: “You will have been visited by me.”
December 24, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Same
December 23, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Look, I always enjoy the Knives Out movies, but in case you thought the first two were too subtle at cueing where your moral sympathies should lie, the new one features *a literal whited sepulchre*
December 22, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by James Poniewozik
Was just on with the great Brian Lehrer and made a point about the TPUSA conflict that I'm not going to write up in full when I'm trying to be off but:

It's fundamentally a debate about whether the right has a consistent moral core. 1/
December 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Forgot to post this over the weekend but: Come for the TV recommendations, stay for me absolutely eating it on the first third of the quiz podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Sunday Special: The Best TV of 2025
Podcast Episode · The Daily · 12/21/2025 · 1h 1m
podcasts.apple.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Anyway, if your timeline could use a bit of a cleanse, please enjoy some panettone French toast cubes
December 22, 2025 at 3:21 PM
This is like some “High school newspaper adviser kills story that would annoy the principal” shit. Embarrassing
The fix is in
CBS News abruptly removed a segment from “60 Minutes” that was to feature the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a “brutal” prison in El Salvador. Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting.
December 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The fix is in
CBS News abruptly removed a segment from “60 Minutes” that was to feature the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a “brutal” prison in El Salvador. Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting.
’60 Minutes’ Pulls Segment on Venezuelans Deported by Trump Administration, Drawing Criticism
Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting from Sunday’s edition of the show.
nyti.ms
December 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Who else remembers that this show existed
December 21, 2025 at 8:15 PM
I'm at the combination
I’m currently outside of the Kennedy Center:
December 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Anyway w/r/t to that thread on The Pitt, I think the show (which I love!) is a flashpoint for a broader argument in TV: Should the medium's new business & technologicial structure be constrained to preserve narrative formats and customs that only exist because of a previous business/tech structure
December 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
One reason I cannot get wholly on board with "Streamers should be releasing their shows one episode per week like The Pitt, in order to preserve the cultural conversation" is that I am gladly bingeing the Pitt s2 screeners I got and I am sure I am not alone among TV critics in this
December 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by James Poniewozik
PLURIBUS is the most finely crafted piece of television art I've ever fallen asleep watching three times.

My review, for @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2042...
In “Pluribus,” Groupthink Spells the End of Art
Vince Gilligan’s new show imagines a world devoid of any kind of aesthetic experience that isn’t blandly generalizable.
newrepublic.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM