Slam Dunk

Barkley scores, networks sweep up, and more media picks

May 9, 2006

TELEVISION: Titles like Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America (tonight on ABC, in case you were wondering) are a sure sign that May sweeps season is upon us, as are the week's umpteen finales. Most notable are NBC's farewells—The Office and My Name Is Earl till next season, The West Wing forever. But the week's best TV may well be Brit comedy series The Thick of It, in which Chris Langham, above, plays the David Brent of mid-level government hacks. Catch it Friday night on BBC America.

DVD: Steven Spielberg's Munich, with its hulking Eric Bana performance, was one of last year's most overlooked films. Same goes for Terrence Malick's The New World. Put both in your Netflix queue, though clear your schedule first—they're loooong. Also out this week: the first two seasons of The Facts of Life (i.e., before Clooney ruined it).

MUSIC: Recording as Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse and Goodie Mob's Cee-Lo drop St. Elsewhere. Despite the duo's short-of-clever moniker, they quickly prove they're hip-hop's most innovative pairing since Mos Def and Talib Kweli formed Black Star. From Here to Eternity: The Live Bootleg Box Set, also out today, is the ultimate collection from glam gods the New York Dolls.

BOOKS: Douglas Brinkley surveys the hell wreaked upon his hometown in The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, while Aussie Peter Carey unveils his art-heist novel Theft. Another essential read is Guests of the Ayatollah, in which Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden investigates the failed attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages in 1980 (check out The Atlantic's interactive excerpt here).

MOVIES: Poseidon is Hollywood's latest unnecessary remake—although it's nice to see Richard Dreyfuss back out on the water (and nice to see Emmy Rossum anywhere). Speaking of upside-down boats, Bilbao Guggenheim architect Frank Gehry gets yet another helping of praise, this time via Sydney Pollack's new doc, Sketches of Frank Gehry. We should also note that it's now safe to sneak into M:I:3 without looking like a pawn in Tom Cruise's publicity push.

WEB: Napster is looking to recapture past glory by revisiting an old premise: free music. But before you start clearing space on your hard drive, know that "free" ain't what it used to be—users get up to five complimentary streams of a song, but downloads cost 99¢. Somewhere, Lars Ulrich is smiling. Absolutely gratis is the rockin' trailer for Glastonbury, which celebrates 30 years of the world's coolest music festival (sorry, Coachella). Stay tuned for info on a U.S. release.