TV

A sitcom about a married couple who loves each other, wants a baby, and has wacky acquaintances is hardly groundbreaking new territory for network TV. NBC's new Ryan Murphy show The New Normal is another in a long line of focused-on-the-family television fare, but with one significant twist: The married people at its center are gay men. That's interesting, sure, and I'm all for more diverse representations on the big networks, but it doesn't change the fact that this is a standard, predictable, dare I say "normal," new show.


Yawn.

Forget floral prints and puffed shoulders—what you really need to get in the back-to-school spirit is a pep talk from Academic Tim Gunn.


Academic Tim Gunn: Toward a New Tumblr Fashion Paradigm

As a 30-year-old, pop culture-loving, unmarried, short, dark-haired, bookish woman who loves to drink champagne and wear sequins, I'd have to change my name to Mindy if I wanted to fit any more squarely into The Mindy Project's target demographic. The show, which premieres September 25th but whose pilot is currently streaming on Hulu, stars creator Mindy Kaling as Mindy Lahiri, an OB/GYN who loves rom coms and fancies herself in the self-improvement montage part of life. Like its charming-yet-flawed protagonist, there are many things to love about this show (and a few things to just tolerate because, hey, it's generally likable and it's trying hard and everyone deserves a little slack now and then, right?).

It was the "real people" challenge on last night's Project Runway and you know what that means... One of the designers had to pitch a fit as though forced to make a dress for an elephant instead of a perfectly lovely working mom (although now we'd kinda like to see the designers make elephant dresses too. How cute would that be?).


I don't know—the trunk area looks cheap to me.