• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Houston First
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    We'll miss ya

    TV highlights: 30 Rock goes to comedy heaven, plus premieres of The Americans, Do No Harm

    Aleksander Chan
    Katie Stroh
    Jan 30, 2013 | 9:25 am

    In this week's roundup of what's worth seeing on TV (and what's not), Felicity returns, Liz Lemon says goodbye and a doctor has a split personality.

    The Americans (Premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. on FX)

    There’s perhaps no more promising mid-season pilot this year than FX’s The Americans, which heralds Keri Russell’s return to television as one half of an undercover KGB sleeper spy couple masquerading as white-bread suburban parents (aliases Peter and Elizabeth Jennings) in the 1980s.

    Russell, whose scarily intense performance as a ruthless Soviet hardliner is the standout of the show’s first hour, is joined by Matthew Rhys as her less-fanatical husband, who finds himself more in love with the American way of life every day.

    Although The Americans is a period piece, it doesn’t throw its era in audiences’ faces, other than a delightful '80s soundtrack.

    The couple’s situation — an outwardly idyllic, cushy suburban life with their two oblivious, all-American children — is complicated by Reagan's recent election and the recent arrival of their new neighbor, affable yet suspicious counterintelligence officer Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich).

    Peter and Elizabeth, whose arranged marriage hinges on their mutual Soviet mission, have an immediately complex, fraught and electric relationship — not an easy task for a first episode of television.

    Although The Americans is a period piece, it doesn’t throw its era in audiences’ faces, other than a delightful '80s soundtrack featuring Fleetwood Mac and Phil Collins, as well as a truly fantastic pair of mom jeans worn by Russell. The pilot, though sedately paced, ends on a thrillingly tense final scene, foreshadowing an exciting season of espionage to fill the Homeland-sized hole in our hearts.— Katie Stroh

    Do No Harm (Premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. on NBC)

    In this modern day Jekyll and Hyde story, Rescue Me’s Steven Pasquale does the same smoothy exasperation that won Natalie Portman an Oscar: for half the day, his character, Dr. Jason Cole, is a super skilled, super compassionate surgeon thisclose to finally turning his flirtatious relationship with his co-worker (Law & Order’s Alana De La Garza) into something more. That is if his menacing, violent alter ego, Ian Price, doesn’t get in the way.

    After his special drug cocktail to keep Ian at bay stops working, Jason is forced to figure out how to contend with his dual personality. The stakes are maddeningly, frustratingly low here: a plot tailor-made to tell stories about identity and the different roles we take on to face life (like in Showtime’s late, great United States of Tara) are blithely set aside for a humdrum medical procedural.

    The show makes a racket about Ian’s druglord dealings and his ex-wife stalking, but insists on keeping things tidy. Could it at least, then, have a little more fun with its premise? Because so far, the title is fitting: Do No Harm is harmless, and I don’t think that’s the point.— Aleksander Chan

    30 Rock (Series finale airs Thursday at 7 p.m. on NBC)

    Tina Fey’s genre-busting sitcom airs its one-hour series finale Thursday night at 7 p.m. To honor its passage into Great Comedy heaven, we remember our favorite episodes of the show’s seven seasons.

    “Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001” (2009)

    To honor its passage into Great Comedy heaven, we remember our favorite episodes of the show’s seven seasons.

    “Dealbreakers” isn’t a particularly significant episode in 30 Rock’s evolution: sure, Liz Lemon lands herself a talk show, but, as in so many others, the status quo is restored by the end of the episode and life at TGS resumes as usual.

    What “Dealbreakers” is significant for, however, is how it packs in so many ingredients of what makes 30 Rock good into one delicious 20-minute stew of hilarity: fan-favorite bit players like the vengeful gay network executive Devon Banks (Will Arnett), Tracy’s Real Housewife of Atlanta clone of a wife Angie (Sherri Shepherd) and diabolical Ho Chi Minh City School of Medicine-educated Dr. Spaceman (Chris Parnell) all make appearances.

    Tracy Jordan brings the term "EGOT" into the popular vernacular; and most of all, Liz Lemon is at her best — schizophrenic, singing about ham, failing to wave like a human being and crying out of her mouth. — KS

    “Sandwich Day” (2008)

    Years before Anne-Marie Slaughter started writing essays about whether women can have it all, Liz Lemon demanded that she could. 30 Rock had an uncanny ability to tap into the cultural discourse and see it as the sitcom it really was. That reflexivity hit a personal comedic high point when Liz, chasing down her love interest before he flies away to Cleveland (the Cleve!), is nearly bungled by her sandwich’s container of dipping sauce, which is too large to pass through airport security.

    In one go, Tina Fey inhales a sub sandwich as she struggles to yelp, “I can have it all!” Only on 30 Rock would the debate about women’s progress be so perfectly captured by a single sight gag. Can women have it all? To Fey, having it all is like stuffing a whole sandwich in your mouth — totally doable, but kind of messy. — AC

    The cast of 30 Rock says farewell.

    unspecified
    news/entertainment
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.

    This week's hot headlines

    Houston ramen shop's shutter leads our most-read stories of the week

    Stephanie Allmon Merry
    Nov 29, 2025 | 11:00 am
    Ninja Ramen sign
    Courtesy of Ninja Ramen
    Ninja Ramen will close at the end of December.

    Editor's note: The long Thanksgiving weekend is a perfect time to catch up on the week's headlines. Our most-read stories include news of a popular ramen shop's shutter, a Netflix foodie star coming to town, a roundup of holiday pop-up bars, and more. Need weekend plans? Our Weekend Event Planner can help.

    1. Houston ramen shop known for Asian whisky will shutter after 11 years. A ramen shop that’s been a favorite of Houston hospitality workers will soon serve its final bowl of noodles. Ninja Ramen will close at the end of December, owners Christopher Huang tells CultureMap.

    2. Beard Award-winning chef and family dish on their new Houston restaurant. On this week’s episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” James Beard Award-winning chef Hugo Ortega, his wife and business partner Tracy Vaught, and their daughter Sophia Ortega join CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss H-Town Restaurant Group.

    3. Netflix foodie Phil Rosenthal brings tasty Texas tour to Houston. Somebody give Phil Rosenthal a few Houston lunch suggestions. The sitcom writer-turned-food personality just announced a whirlwind tour through Texas, including a stop at Houston's 713 Music Hall on January 24, 2026.

    emilia's havana holiday pop-up bar Emilia's Havana offers a retro spin on the holiday bar, with the 1950s-inspired speakeasy decked out in tinsel and trees. Photo by Hasan Yousef

    4. 14 holiday pop-up bars serving over-the-top festive cheer in Houston. There’s so much more to a holiday bar pop-up than tossing a candy cane in a cocktail. We want shimmer, we want lights, we want tinsel — and Houston’s restaurants and bars are more than happy to impress. Here’s where to find the city’s most joyful holiday transformations.

    5. Emotional night uplifts mental health at UTHealth Houston's $1.8M gala. At a time when mental health is finally getting its long-overdue moment in the spotlight, more than 200 supporters gathered at the Thompson Hotel for UTHealth Houston’s 2025 Mission in Action gala — an evening as elegant as it was emotionally resonant.

    closingscelebritiesholidaysbarsgalashot-headlines
    news/entertainment
    Loading...