Book Review: American Rose

Written by Mark Peikert on January 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, Books

American-Rose-The-Life-and-Times-of-Gypsy-Rose-Lee

Considering how obsessed biographer Karen Abbott (Sin in the Second City) is with Gypsy Rose Lee’s flair of emphasizing the tease in striptease, it should be no surprise that Gypsy’s secrets remain at least half-buried, despite the 300-plus pages of Abbott’s strenuously titled American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose
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TV Review: Off the Map

Written by Mark Peikert on January 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

It’s almost impossible to think that creator Jenna Bans didn’t pitch her new medical dramedy, Off the Map,“Grey’s Anatomy in the jungle!” How else could one describe a show set in a South American jungle, in which the leading humanitarian in the world nevertheless finds time to keep his rippling torso in full ripple (not to mention
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TV Review: Episodes

Written by Mark Peikert on January 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

The problem with premium cable shows is that, like soap operas, they’re far more serialized than anything on basic cable or network television. From week to week, not much may happen, but when viewed in bulk, the series receive a boost in quick-paced storytelling. So when you sit down to watch Matt LeBlanc playing a
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TV Review: Bob's Burgers

Written by Mark Peikert on January 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

Fans of FX’s Archer may have trouble hearing star H. Jon Benjamin playing such a wildly different character on Fox’s new cartoon Bob’s Burgers, but they should stick around for the whole episode; Bob’s Burgersturns out to be equally as loony as that hilarious FX show, albeit in a very different way. In keeping with the rest of Fox’s
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TV Review: The Cape

Written by Mark Peikert on January 24, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

Written, directed and performed with a sometimes startling earnestness, The Cape can, at times, feel ridiculous. Comic book fans may have no qualms about swallowing their disbelief as a good cop (David Lyons) finds himself presumed dead and framed as master villain Chess, taken in and nursed to superhero power by a gang of roving circus performers/thieves.
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Living Lifetime: The Craigslist Killer

Written by Mark Peikert on January 4, 2011. Posted in Arts & Film, TV

Let me begin by saying one thing: Everything below is a reflection of the characters, not the real people involved. So don’t give me hate mail about how Megan was a victim; this Megan seems more like a willful naif who just wants to get married and bear children (as so many Lifetime heroines do).
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The Roundabout Hates You

Written by Mark Peikert on October 21, 2009. Posted in Arts & Film, Theater

Sienna Miller, despite some truly sublime film performances, is still primarily known for her outré fashion sense. Following her line of thinking in accepting a role in Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Miss Julie isn’t hard: a one-act set in 1945, in which her upper-class character dallies with a servant and runs the gamut from flirty
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