Falco Makes a Naughty, Irresistible Nurse Jackie

Actress adopted quietly; is more like Nurse Jackie than Carmela

(NEWSER) - Former Sopranos matriarch Edie Falco is back, and this time her cable series character is closer to the actress herself—a blue-collar woman who shirks appearances and works hard, Newsweek reports. But Falco isn't quite the brassy protagonist in Showtime's Nurse Jackie, either. The Long Island native is a warm, happy mother of two adopted kids. More»

Critics just happy Don Draper is back

(NEWSER) - Critics eager for the return of Mad Men weren't blown away by the first episode of the fifth season—but that doesn't mean the show has lost its magic. What they're saying:

• "I'm glad to have Mad Men back, but 'A Little Kiss' was not a great episode," writes James Poniewozik in Time . "There were moments that seemed tonally off" and "almost sitcom-like," but it's forgivable: With this show, return episodes "take their time and do a lot of table-setting."

Billy Crystal brings the same old stuff

(NEWSER) - Last night's Oscars, like its Best Picture, was a throwback to a different time in film history. And though the show may have topped last year's Anne Hathaway-James Franco fiasco, it was boring and tired throughout:

• "The whole night looked like an AARP pep rally," writes Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times . "For a town that prides itself on tinsel and titillation, the night was pretty tame." "It all looked very familiar," but that "is perhaps necessary when so few of the nominated films are."

NBC musical dazzles critics... mostly

(NEWSER) - If you watched the Super Bowl, you just might have heard of Smash, NBC's new drama about the making of a Broadway musical. It premiered last night, and critics are (mostly) giving it a standing ovation:

• The buzz has gotten so intense that the conversation isn't even about whether it'll be good. "Good? Darling, it's great!" gushes Mary McNamara of the LA Times . The creators have "managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television," an impressive, unprecedented feat.

Critics: New reality show 'upsetting,' 'uncomfortable'

(NEWSER) - Joan Rivers’ new reality show on WE, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, follows the 77-year-old comedian as she moves in with her daughter in Los Angeles. It’s as artificial as the botox Rivers extols:

• The show is “upsetting,” writes a pained Linda Stasi in the New York Post . From pushing her daughter to pose nude to giving “away all of her living room furniture,” “it's all so wrong that as much as I love her, I have to say, in this case, ‘Joan Knows Worst.’”