Contributor

67 items by Joe Berkowitz

• 

  'Louie' Finale Recap: Dying Alone as the New Year Dawns | ARTICLE

  The third season of Louie got off to a rather foreboding start: Louie broke up with his girlfriend in hyper-realistic fashion before getting into a motorcycle accident. Although there were laughs throughout the season – a lot...

  September 28, 2012 10:40 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: 'The Seinfeld Curse' | ARTICLE

  People lie and steal and dick each other over all the time in real life. Since Louie is nothing if not a reflection of real life through a funhouse-mirror filter, bad things happen on the show too....

  September 21, 2012 11:30 AM ET
• 

  'X Factor' Recap: Lightning Strikes and Britney Spears Is Spooked | ARTICLE

  After all the crazy faces Britney Spears has already made during this young season of The X Factor, the one that we've all been waiting for finally arrived last night. Earlier episodes relentlessly teased the newbie judge screaming...

  September 21, 2012 11:05 AM ET
• 

  'X Factor' Recap: Judges Strike Gold in Texas | ARTICLE

  The first two episodes this season tantalized us with glimpses of police chases and ambulance callings, like a hunk of red meat dangled over the cage of a hungry lionat the zoo. It looked like we were...

  September 20, 2012 10:20 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: 'The Late Show With Louie'? | ARTICLE

  Let's get this out of the way right up top: seeing David Lynch pretend to host a talk show within the universe of Louie feels like something out of a David Lynch movie. Although Louis C.K.'s show...

  September 14, 2012 11:10 AM ET
• 

  'X Factor' Recap: Britney Spears Survives Day Two | ARTICLE

  What up, my fellow X-Facstronauts! It's Day Two of the auditions and we are immediately plunged right back into the scene at the aptly named Cow Palace arena, where a disorganized horde of San Franciscans grazes around...

  September 14, 2012 9:35 AM ET
• 

  'X Factor' Premiere Recap: Britney Spears Makes Her Debut | ARTICLE

  Greetings, X-Factoids! You can relax now, and blow out your Simon Cowell vigil candles, for your favorite $5 million talent show/freak-fest hath returned. I will be your X-Factotum again on this second season, which has already distinguished...

  September 13, 2012 11:00 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: Talk Show Hosts | ARTICLE

  What happens to the veteran comics who don't make it? Or the ones who do, but never reach the tipping point where their star goes supernova? One piece of career advice that comedians and other performers often...

  August 31, 2012 10:25 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: Desperately Seeking Louie | ARTICLE

  Although she never ends up appearing as anything more than a flashback, Parker Posey's character Liz cast a long shadow over last night's episode of Louie, a two-part meditation on not being able to find someone you've...

  August 24, 2012 11:15 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: Daddy Issues | ARTICLE

  As many episodes of Louie that have centered around the comic as a father of young girls, almost none have touched on the relationship between he and his own pater familias. We've met his mother on the...

  August 17, 2012 11:15 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: 'F**k You, or Sorry: I Don't Know Which One' | ARTICLE

  Relationships that aren't really relationships can be even messier than actual relationships. Some people drift into our lives, romantically or otherwise, and occupy an ambiguous shelf space without handy labels. As much as it helps when...

  August 10, 2012 11:45 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: Pariahs Once and Future | ARTICLE

  As children, one of our greatest universal fears is that everybody secretly hates us and might never hang out with us again. Apparently, this isn't something that goes away. Last night's Louie ditched the usual opening credits sequence...

  August 3, 2012 11:05 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: File Under 'Worst First Dates' | ARTICLE

  The sad thing about first dates is that they can only be labeled as such in retrospect, because "first" describes the start of a series. All too many first dates end up occurring within a vacuum, never...

  July 26, 2012 11:05 PM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: Louie Goes A-Wooing | ARTICLE

  Asking someone out is both exhilarating and terrifying, a dicey proposition overall. What's the worst that could happen? Ostensibly, it's just getting shot down. When that outcome actually happens, though, it's hard not to view the declined...

  July 19, 2012 11:05 PM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: I Wasn't Drowning, But I'm Glad You Saved Me | ARTICLE

  Gay sex is something that Louis C.K. has joked about being amenable to, any number of times. He's done so in ways that are thoughtful and funny and far from patronizing – a feat which partly...

  July 13, 2012 9:50 AM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: A Set-Up and a Punchline | ARTICLE

  The mechanics of a joke are fairly straightforward: first there's a set-up and then there's a punchline (and then maybe a tag after that.) When an onstage Louis C.K. starts talking about his daughter's ...

  July 5, 2012 11:05 PM ET
• 

  'Louie' Recap: The Dumbest Thing You Can Do | ARTICLE

  Any doubts about whether Louis C.K.'s justly lauded TV series would remain true to fine, filthy form in its third season were quelled immediately on Thursday night's premiere. And we do mean immediately. The very first...

  June 28, 2012 11:39 PM ET
• 

  'The Voice' Recap: Jermaine Paul Wins Season Two | ARTICLE

  "This is my childhood dream and I'm standing here now," Juliet Simms says, just before the moment of truth on The Voice. Who among us has never dreamt of standing amid giant stone-carved peace-sign hands like the...

  May 9, 2012 10:00 AM ET
• 

  'The Voice' Recap: No Problems | ARTICLE

  "The good news for us is at least our work here is done. We get to just enjoy the rest of the process and have fun," Adam Levine says near the top of the show. He's only...

  May 8, 2012 10:10 AM ET
• 

  'The Voice' Recap: Point Shaving | ARTICLE

  Last night, reality singing competition fans tuned into The Voice in droves to learn the answer to the question they've had for several weeks: why does Blake Shelton always point at his own head when he's being...

  May 2, 2012 8:50 AM ET