A generous sampler of my investigative reporting, TV coverage, features and criticism

Hi there! If you don't know much about what I've done or who I am, here are some pieces from recent years I’d love you to check out.

First up, here are handy links to the work I've done for Vanity Fair (where I'm a contributing editor) and to my work for Variety (where I did a lot of reporting and was chief TV critic from 2015 to 2018). For a quick "get to know Mo," I recommend checking out my VF page, which has quite a bit of my work from the past five or six years.

Other notable work I've done is listed below; most of these pieces are from the past five to eight years.

• A big feature on the revival of Twin Peaks (Not in the piece, but David  Lynch asked me about my tattoos and I just about died, but I kept it together.)
• Thoughts on grief, loss, Einstein and The Leftovers. You don’t need to have seen the show to read it. Of everything I’ve ever written, I’m most proud of this. A kind person asked me it if was painful to write. It was a cathartic joy to write. It was very hard to live.
• For Salon, a deep dive into the story of All Rise, one of the rare TV dramas with a Black female lead, and what went wrong during the two-year tenure of its showrunner. I ultimately spoke with 30 people, 18 of whom worked directly with EP/showrunner Greg Spottiswood. In the course of reporting the story, I learned of an appalling comment Spottiswood allegedly made on a Zoom call with staff last year. But this story, which is the culmination of months of work, isn’t just about one man or one comment, it’s about how the entertainment industry is still in need of major reforms; it still has a long way to go when it comes to true inclusion and matters of culture, equity, race, respect and professionalism.
• You know I am down with shows that go for broke and make me cry and get fucking weird. So the week of the 20th anniversary of its U.S. debut, I wrote a tribute/viewing guide to one of the best science-fiction shows ever, Farscape (which is now on Amazon, completely with the Peacekeeper Wars wrap-up miniseries!). This piece has intel about Farscape’s past (and possible future) from one of the show’s executive producers and a Ben Mendelsohn mention you may not have been expecting. But the important thing about this Farscape viewing guide is that I give you permission to not watch every episode. No, really, it’ll be fine! Happy Farscaping!
• I wrote a big Sunday feature on Wynonna Earp for The New York Times, a definite high point in my professional life! Even if you don’t watch the show, aren’t you intrigued by the fact that this Syfy series already has multiple conventions devoted just to it? And it’s been on for only a few seasons? I think the rip-roaring show’s history, themes and fandom come together to create an interesting saga, one that I think has value to any interested observer of the evolving TV landscape. Also there are tentacles and mustaches, what else do you want? (A couple reported Wynonna pieces from 2019 are here and here, and just for fun, here’s a 2017 review of the show.)
• A 2021 story for The Hollywood Reporter on two departures at Bull (a show previously in the news for alleged harassment of actor-producer Eliza Dushku): After investigations, showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron and cast member Freddy Rodriguez are both gone from the CBS drama. I spoke to several sources at Bull, all of whom alleged an unprofessional work environment in which it was common for Caron to berate the writing staff. A writer who worked for Caron on a previous show, Medium, had this to say about his leadership: “It was a toxic environment while I was there. And now that I have much more experience and I have been a showrunner myself, I can tell you, there are a lot of different ways to tell a writer that what they’re submitting didn’t work for you without attacking them in a cruel way.”
• You may have heard of the cult Nxivm (the one Allison Mack of Smallville was in), and, well, wow. A lot going on there. In 2020, HBO debuted The Vow, a 9-part documentary on Nxivm, and I reviewed it for the New York Times. I think the documentary is fascinating, thoughtful and highly relevant to our times.
• Hooray for the spring 2020 return of One Day at a Time, which was canceled by Netflix but, after a hue and cry from its many fans (including me), returned for a fourth season on PopTV. Here’s an in-depth feature for the New York Times on how the comeback came together.  (More NYT pieces: Gentleman Jack, Rubicon and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend [don’t miss this sidebar])
• I talked to Killjoys creator Michelle Lovretta about the show’s excellent and quietly subversive series finale. Killjoys is one of my favorite shows of the past decade, don’t sleep on its many delights. Team Awesome Force 4eva.
• The fifth season of Lucifer finally arrived on Netflix in August 2020. Yay! This show is a gem. I interviewed the showrunners, Ildy Modrovich and Joe Henderson, about where the show is going and where it’s been, and I also discussed those topics with stars Lauren German and Tom Ellis.
• I wrote about how the creative team behind HBO’s Mrs. Fletcher depicted the lead character’s internal and external transformations.
• I am an eternal superfan of HBO’s Enlightened, and I wrote about why the 2011-2013 program is  more relevant than ever and one of the best shows of the decade.
• Here is a deeply reported Vulture piece from 2019, which contains revelations about CBS, Eliza Dushku, deep-rooted patterns of toxicity and another HR investigation at a show with a history of turmoil. In an op-ed for the Hollywood Reporter, I wrote about how the work of changing abusive cultures in the industry has barely begun, and propose one possible way forward.
• Even if you know nothing about Doctor Who, this in-depth feature story should get you up to speed. For the piece, I talked to showrunner Chris Chibnall, Jodie Whittaker, a writer, a director and knowledgeable fans of the show; we discussed what it’s all about, why it works, where it has been in its 55 years and where it’s going. This piece was truly a labor of love, and I hope you enjoy it. As part of the reporting for the story, I got to do this enjoyable and enlightening interview with star Jodie Whittaker.
• After more than a year of reporting on Brad Kern, a showrunner cited by dozens of ex-employees for harassment, vindictiveness, inappropriate behavior, repeated mistreatment of a nursing mom and racist comments (among many other allegations), he was finally fired by CBS. As I said in a contemporaneous Twitter thread, “It SHOULD NOT take multiple major stories in the press to remove a toxic exec, showrunner or anyone else with power in TV. That’s not the system working: That’s a sign the system has failed its workers.”
• The culture of CBS, and entertainment-industry cultures in general, need massive, revolutionary overhauls. Abuses of power for the most part are still ignored, enabled and whitewashed. This is a reported Vulture story, with some analysis of those issues, on Brad Kern, Leslie Moonves, CBS and the changes that still feel, in too many cases, pretty far away.
• The documentary This Changes Everything is an examination of decades of sexism and the systematic exclusion of women in Hollywood. Fun stuff, right? But honestly, this film (which features Taraji P. Henson, Meryl Streep, Shonda Rhimes, Jessica Chastain and so many other amazing women) is brisk, lively and interesting, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in it (toward the end, they interview me about my reporting on this topic). This Changes Everything premiered at TIFF, had a well-regarded run on the festival circuit and got a theatrical release before arriving on Starz in late 2019. It’s now streaming on Netflix.
• Fuuuuuuuuck nooooooooooo.
• More for The Hollywood Reporter: Devilish problems behind the scenes at American Gods during its troubled second season. Toxic showrunner 101: Don’t be this guy. Also, ageism is all over Hollywood and I’m over it. Something fun: The time I met Meghan Markle, plus thoughts on women’s progress, Suits and The Crown.
• More for The New York Times: An interview with the great Ann Dowd on The Handmaid’s Tale (there’s also a mention of The Leftovers); a review/explainer of the fine true-crime series The Staircase; a review of the documentary series The Fourth Estate, which is about The New York Times; an interview with Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys about the series finale of The Americans; Jane the Virgin showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman makes it official that Season Five is the final season and talks about why that is and what she’s thinking as she and the team head into the endgame of this wonderful show.
• Podcastery! Here is an earlier visit to the Extra Hot Great podcast, where we talked about The Fourth Estate and several other shows. I nominated an episode of One Day at a Time for the TV canon and I definitely did not tear up during that segment. This one’s for the true nerds (a.k.a. my people): In a 2016 appearance on Extra Hot Great, I participated in a Star Trek TV fantasy draft and nominated a truly exceptional episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for the TV canon (It's Duet, a total banger, forever).
  • Formatting is doing weird stuff here, but don't sweat it. More bullet points follow. Most of what's below links to things I wrote between around 2013 and around 2017.
  • I’d very much like for you to check out two pieces from 2016, when a large number of LGBTQ women were killed off various TV shows, and queer TV fans and their allies registered their problems with that pattern (which was yet more evidence of TV’s tendency to resort to the Bury Your Gays cliche with astonishing frequency, especially where gay women are concerned). I wrote this piece about why the enormous wave of anger and protest over the handling of the death of Lexa on The 100 was justified. One month later, I wrote about who gets killed off on TV and how certain kinds of protagonists get to wear a “cloak of invincibility.” I owe the incredible ninjas at Autostraddle a huge debt; their research on this topic is enormously educational (read this, this  and definitely this). And let’s not forget the fine work of LGBT Fans Deserve Better.
  • I don’t have a clever segue here. But I am glad I came forward in the fall of 2017, amid the start of the Hollywood Reckoning: I was sexually assaulted by a TV executive a few years ago, and I almost left the industry because of that, and also due to the re-traumatizing experience I had when I reported him (#metoo). Why men in TV (and elsewhere) must do more to curb the sexual harassment, institutional bias and physical assault women must expend so much of their energy navigating. Also, you don’t need to be a bully to make it in Hollywood. That’s a dumb and destructive lie. Also, “I didn’t know” apologies? Nope. Men who abuse power in Hollywood – a place intensely obsessed with status, hierarchy and dominance – know exactly what they’re doing. One showrunner on what needs to change.
  • More on Hollywood’s Reckoning – and of course, this coverage should not be restricted to high-profile industries. This kind of reporting should be delve into the biases and abuses faced by every kind of worker. That said, I write about the entertainment industry, and in Hollywood, stories like this one are far too common. This story was also heartbreaking to report on. I remain awed at the sources who were brave enough to talk to me for those pieces. And I’m more convinced than ever that real, major, meaningful reforms must be made.
• Talking to Vince Gilligan and the writers of Breaking Bad on the show’s 10th anniversary. Check out the video clips in this one, there are a lot of great answers that didn’t make it into the text piece.
• How television depicts sexual violence and the aftereffects of sexual violence (spoiler alert: Pretty badly, for the most part! But things may be getting better on this front.)
• A Variety cover story I reported with Cynthia Littleton on the spiraling costs of TV episodes (I also wrote about why the money being thrown around in TV troubles me and why it annoys me when TV people take the wrong lessons from Game of Thrones.)
• This 2014 piece on Outlander’s revolutionary depiction of female (and male!) sexuality is one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. A couple years ago, executive producer Ron Moore and I talked about sex-scene cliches that we can’t stand. From 2017: I talked to the stars of Outlander and also Moore about the show’s evolution over time.

Interlude with additional context about me: I have an Instagram (these days, you can find me most frequently on Instagram Stories and Bluesky). Obviously I love TV and, as you can see from the links above, I’m still writing about it, reporting on it and even doing the occasional review, but I’m no longer reviewing TV full time, and this Vanity Fair article explains why. Another semi-random fact: I have a lot of tattoos. This is my back piece.

Before I joined Variety as chief television critic in 2015, I was the TV critic for Huffington Post. Quite a bit of that work is here. Until the fall of 2010, I was the TV critic for the Chicago Tribune. With some exceptions (I've posted some favorite pieces from that time here on this site), the links to my work there are gone now.  Not great, Bob.

Here’s a long 2007 feature on the production of Friday Night Lights. I visited the set in Austin way back in Season 1, and was moved and delighted to write about the way they shot the show and how that influenced the intimacy of its vibe. To this day, that long FNL feature is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to do. Texas Forever. 

The drama that is closest to my heart – and the show I’ve almost certainly written about more than any other – is Battlestar Galactica. Perhaps the most extensive entry into my array of final-season coverage is an in-depth, post-finale interview with executive producer Ron Moore; that piece also contains my thoughts on the finale as well as comments from actors Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. In late 2013, I interviewed Moore again, on the 10th anniversary of BSG’s debut, and you can find that conversation in both story and podcast form.  I still miss Adama and Roslin and Saul damn Tigh. So say we all.  

I wrote a ton about Breaking Bad back in the day; here are a few links to some pieces I wrote during the show’s home stretch. I’m still not over “Ozymandias.”

By the way, I used to be half of a podcast duo: Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan is over – and if you ever listened, thank you. And you can still listen, if it’s new to you. It usually consisted of Ryan McGee and I blathering about whatever shows we were into (or not into) at that moment in time. Sometimes the podcasts contain interviews with actors and TV writers. (You can search the podcast’s site for show names.) This podcast (which is also on iTunes) may just be in your wheelhouse.

In addition to the ones names above, of course there are dozens of shows I want you to try and catch up on and maybe even love. Quite a few are mentioned on my Vanity Fair page (where I contribute to various Best TV lists) and in this roster of TV Faves. A few more worth mentioning: I wrote quite a bit about Spartacus over the years – interviews and reviews and a “what to watch before you binge it on Netflix” explainer. If you think you’re too good for Spartacus and that Spartacus is something you should sneer at, think again.

Just a few other favorites that I was very obsessed with at various times:  Killjoys is my sci-fi jam; Peaky fooking Blinders; the incredible Hall of Famer Rectify; and the wonderful Happy Valley. Use JustWatch.com to find out where they live now, and that also goes for You’re the Worst, The Shield and the cult gem Mary Kills People). Get into The Americans for Lenin’s sake (comrades, that final season!!) The Returned is magnificently cry-inducing and weird; Banshee and Strike Back both had wobbly final seasons but were really worth watching before that.

Comedy got so wild and risky and great in the past decade that I wrote a big piece in 2016 about how half-hour shows are crushing it even more than drama (it’s good to live in a world in which half-hours as varied as Atlanta, One Day at a Time, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place are so consistently excellent). More raves!

But wait, there’s more! Here are a couple reported stories from my past worth noting (in part because so much in the entertainment industry is cyclical and comes back around again):

Representation of women and people of color as TV showrunners for the 2016-2017 broadcast network season and what those dire statistics mean for the pipeline of future TV creators.

Representation of women and people of color as TV directors: The amount of scripted TV episodes being made doubled and then some during the Peak TV boom, but guess who directed most of it? I bet you don’t have to guess. If you only read one or two sidebars from this 2015 story, make it the ACLU interview and/or the roundup of comments from TV directors.