Melrose Still Fun, Still Bad

Actress returns to TV after 4-year hiatus

(NEWSER) - Melrose Place has a new resident: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz. The Hollywood Reporter names the singer-actress—who got her start on 7th Heaven—as the newest addition to the CW’s Melrose remake, playing a small-town girl who moves to LA with a secret. For original show-watchers, Ashlee’s character, Violet, is similar to Amy Locane’s Sandy. Simpson-Wentz will also polish her TV skills March 18 as a guest on CSI: NY. More»

New HBO show sparks reviewer battle at 'Mother Jones'

(NEWSER) - Two reviewers at Mother Jones have locked horns over HBO's new hipster all-female series, Girls. "Hipsters are really going to like this show," sneered Asawin Suebsaeng a few days ago. "Which is to say that it is as profoundly bland as it is unstoppably irritating." So Maya Dusenbery stood up to defend Girls , praising its "aggressively unglamorous hook-ups," honest portrayal of abortion, and "the easy intimacy of these friends": 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.