I’m back from my trip to California, which gave me a chance to do a couple of interviews and meet up with the largely LA-based HitFix staff. It’s been more than a year since I came to the site. The place has grown and changed in a lot of ways since I’ve been here, and we’re in the midst of some big expansions, specifically to the TV coverage.
First of all, we’ve now added a third regular TV voice to the section in Liane Bonin Starr, whose Starr Raving blog launched last week. While Fienberg and I are not the exact same person, our sensibilities and tastes are similar enough that there’s an awful lot of kinds of television we just don’t get to – or, at times, just don’t get. So Liane’s going to be opining on some of those other corners of the TV world. Among her early posts: a look at what we’ll lose as soap operas die, a compare/contrast of “The Talk” and “The View,” and some thoughts on the return of “Celebrity Rehab” in light of the recent deaths of two past participants. Liane will also continue to recap “Top Chef,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Vampire Diaries” and a lot of other shows.
Speaking of which, a slight tweak: all of my reviews/recaps/whatever have always appeared on this blog, but anything that Dan, Liane or freelancers recapped was featured on our Monkeys as Critics blog. Now Dan’s stuff (“Idol,” “Survivor,” “Amazing Race,” etc.) will appear on his The Fien Print blog, and Liane’s recaps will be on Starr Raving. Monkeys as Critics will still exist, and be the place where the shows not covered by any of us full-time staffers (like Ryan McGee’s “Glee” and “Fringe” recaps this season) will appear.
Third, the “American Idol” fantasy league we ran this spring proved popular enough that we’re continuing the concept. We have a “So You Think You Can Dance” league starting up now, we’ll do “Project Runway” later this summer, and our plan is to do a bunch of them next season.
Me, I’m gonna keep doing what it is that I do. Things are a bit slow now, but Comic-Con and press tour will be here before you know it, and there’s enough interesting summer TV (and summer projects like the “Deadwood” and “Twin Peaks” re-visits) to keep you and me occupied.