Linda Holmes

The following exchange has played out over and over in the last ten days:

Point: "NBC's coverage of the Olympics stinks, because everything is tape-delayed and cut to shreds, and also the announcers are awful and they only care about American athletes, and by the time I get to watch anything, I already know what happened."

Counterpoint: "People are watching in huge numbers."

Point: "But quality."

Counterpoint: "But business."

The comedians I love most tend to be the ones whose work is funny and strange and sometimes dark, and yet shot through with a real richness of ... humanity, for lack of a better term. Tig Notaro is exactly like that, and while it's sad that she's in the news in part because she's been diagnosed with cancer, it's great to see her doing what she does in a way that seems to be meaningful to both her and everybody else. [Vulture]

We're in the final stretch — kind of — at the Television Critics Association press tour. We've now heard from all the major broadcast networks, and we've got a day of set visits and three days of cable to close things out after today's CW and Showtime presentations.

We're about a week into the Television Critics Association press tour for this summer, and so far we've heard from PBS, NBC and Fox. Still to come: ABC (today and tomorrow), CBS/Showtime/The CW (Sunday and Monday), and the rest of cable, including HBO, Discovery, BBC America, ESPN, and so on (Wednesday through Friday of next week).

So how is it looking?

At today's executive session during Fox's portion of the Television Critics Association press tour, Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly dramatically took out his phone and dialed Mariah Carey, putting her on speaker to tell the assembled journalists that she's joining American Idol as a judge.

The Emmy nominations are in, and the topline news is as unsurprising as could be: Mad Men still huge! Modern Family still huge! Downton Abbey prestigious! Not exactly a bolt from the blue.

But on to what's really important: as usual, my Emmy predictions were horrible. So, in fairness, were a lot of other people's. But hey, the best we can do is look at our mistakes, so here are the biggest things I got wrong.

Thursday morning, TV critics will report, with a little (in the case of east coast critics) or a lot (particularly in the case of west coast critics up at 5:00 in the morning) of grumpiness, who's gotten Emmy nominations. Some of my thoughts about the Emmys came out in a chat I recently had with several of my critic colleagues, graciously hosted by The Hollywood Reporter, which has posted the unedited chat.

Since Fifty Shades Of Grey is basically just Twilight with the weird psychosexual subtext made into blunt and forgettable sexual text, it's not surprising that it would occur to someone that books in the public domain could be given the same treatment. Why not just add some dirty material to Pride & Prejudice and the exploits of Sherlock Holmes? Well, for MANY REASONS, but it may happen anyway.

The idea of Johnny Depp in a Wes Anderson movie is a whole lotta stylized stuff in one place, but I'll definitely go. [Deadline via Slashfilm]

A fine piece asks the fine question of why broadcast networks seem to have completely abandoned the idea of shows about black families. [The Washington Post]

When you look at Batman with a coldly analytical eye — and he's hard to avoid these days, with The Dark Knight Rises set to come out Friday — a few things stand out as potential red flags: the secrecy, the lair, the attraction to danger, the blithe self-sacrifice, the ... cape.

It's unusual, all of it, you have to admit. Sure, he's handy to have around in an emergency, and you can't beat a fella who can be summoned with a giant light in the sky in the event you've got no cellphone reception.

But is he entirely ... well?

It's been a while since we were all at the table together, but this week, the PCHH team returns in force to talk about The Amazing Spider-Man, whether it matters whether a film is "necessary," and whether charming leads are enough to make up for certain story shortfalls, if we presume that they exist. What will happen? Who will compare Spider-Man to Hamlet? Who will call Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker "moist"? (Okay, that one is me.) There are some basic Spider-Man spoilers, but we did what we could not to blow plot points of this particular movie.