By the time it had crystallized into its final three-man lineup, Nirvana had absorbed the full spectrum of upstart rock: the Minneapolis sound of the Replacements and Hüsker Dü, the Boston post-punk Pixies' surf pop, Bad Brains' D.C. hardcore and so on.
But the influenced would become the influential: Sometime during the one-term George H.W. Bush presidency, Nirvana's relatively small discography would be refracted into a legacy that continues today. Six years after his death, Rolling Stone named Cobain its Artist of the Decade.
It takes a village: HBO's 'Casual Vacancy' reveals the empty promises behind Britain's social welfare system.
The quietly disturbing drama, based on a novel by "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, shows the telltale signs of its authorship, even with no boy wizards about. Rowling's reliable go-to types are in place: Bumbling do-gooders. Abusive 1-percenters. Formidable old biddies.
Read MoreScientology's theater of the surreal: HBO documentary 'Going Clear' puts the church's practices under a microscope.
Why would these seemingly thoughtful, intelligent people sign a billion-year contract to work for pennies a day? Why would these clear-eyed Americans cut off their families, divorce their spouses and leave their children based on the work of a science fiction novelist?
Read MoreThe delicious Cookie recipe of 'Empire': Mix business savvy, fashion flash and fearlessness to get TV's most delicious heroine.
"Empire" is a glorious, over-the-top mess, a "King Lear" soap opera with silly dialogue, pretty people, backstabbing galore and a soundtrack by Timbaland. It would be a tedious exercise instead of a guilty pleasure without Taraji P. Henson as Cookie, equal parts everywoman and Mama Bear in a mink coat, greeting rivals with a "Hey, Boo Boo Kitty!"
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Cheat wave: Frustration, sorrow and sex simmer in 'The Affair," Showtime's drama about two sides of a summer fling gone wrong.
"The Affair" begs to be compared to Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," that Japanese cinematic classic told from four conflicting viewpoints. But it's more fun to think of Showtime's new drama as a 10-hour rendition of "Summer Lovin' " from "Grease."
Read MoreSoderbergh's surgical strike: Oscar-winning director serves up 'The Knick,' a period drama about surgeons unafraid to play God.
New York's Knickerbocker Hospital offers the most advanced medical care 1900 has to offer.
As soon as the doctor emerges from the opium den, catches a horse-drawn cab and finds the last usable vein in his toe for his cocaine injection, surgery can begin.
"The Knick," a 10-part TV drama from Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, inverts the formula that has served most feel-good medical shows so well. Patients at the Knick, especially those who go under the knife, die as a rule and survive as surprise.
"The Strain": How FX's latest drama gets mired in its own gore.
As its evil creatures take form in the first four episodes, "The Strain" starts to resemble a regrettable late-night trip to Taco Bell. The show has slightly rearranged most of pop culture's vampire, zombie and bio-disaster tropes, sprinkled the creation with pico de gallo and called it something new. Would you like a side order of swarming rats with your Quesarito?
Read MoreBack behind bars: Netflix's 'Orange Is the New Black' digs deeper into its varied array of female prisoners in Season 2.
Sometime during her month in solitary confinement, Piper Chapman crosses over.
In the second season of "Orange Is the New Black," the bisexual blond Brooklynite becomes more like her fellow inmates than the people she left behind.
Teenage Wasteland: Why Arya Stark and Sally Draper rule Sunday night TV
One girl came of age in a mystical, surreal time that never really happened, the other in a decade that feels that way now. To the young and female, even those born into privilege, injustice waits behind every door, and the adults are always putting their hypocrisy on display.
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'True Detective' season finale: We may never know why Rust never sleeps.
The show, set to end its story after eight hourlong segments, has been analyzed at "Breaking Bad" levels of delightful, annoying geekdom, making it the latest frustrating, intricate TV drama turned social experiment.
Sunday nights have a lot of shows like that, because Monday mornings go down easier with a round of "Did you watch? Are you caught up?" My work friends, bless their hearts, maintain a spoiler-free zone - within reason. Don't be saving the "Game of Thrones" finale for four days, that's just rude.
A new player at the 'Cards' table: The actress behind Iraq veteran Jacqueline Sharp relished the chance to explore women in politics.
Before Frank Underwood can start haunting the West Wing on this season of "House of Cards," he needs to fill his old job as House majority whip. Preferably with someone useful.
Frank's choice - though he won't be publicly backing her - is Jacqueline Sharp, a third-termer from California with a military background and a spine of steel. She's photogenic, popular, way too green and she knows it.
"You chose me for a reason," she tells him after he suggests she take on the job of keeping House Democrats in line. "I'd like to know what it is."
A vote for vice: In its new season, 'House of Cards' and its compelling villain are still powerful, and a bit too smug.
Netflix drops an entire season of its acclaimed political drama on Friday, another 13 hours of "Mr. Macbeth Goes to Washington." Spacey has lost none of his smarmy magnetism as the cartoonish villain of David Fincher's fun house version of present-day Washington, D.C.
Read MoreOn the eve of its 50th anniversary special, I seek out the help of an expert to immerse myself in the world of 'Doctor Who.'
I knew nothing of Doctor Who until two weeks ago.
Well, that's not strictly correct. I knew it involved time travel. I have a vague memory of college friends watching a curly-haired, bug-eyed guy in a freakishly long scarf scramble over piles of gravel. I knew the fabric of my British TV knowledge had a giant hole that needed to be mended.
Fifty shades of 'Bridget' replay: 50-something Bridget Jones doesn't have much new to say in her latest diary entries.
Author Helen Fielding's late-'90s everywoman was a London-dwelling hot mess prone to girdle mishaps. Fielding constructed her novel from diary entries detailing Bridget's wildly wobbling weight, alcohol intake, cigarettes smoked and insecure sexual daydreams. But an acerbic wit always slipped out between bites of chocolate croissant.
Read More'Masters of Sex": New Showtime series is a funny, heartbreaking look at Masters and Johnson's revolutionary work.
Welsh actor Michael Sheen specializes in conveying lust, rage and grief through a veil of restraint, and the scripts let him reveal Masters' secrets slowly and deliberately. After his daily discussions of arousal and orgasms, he goes home to a house straight out of a vintage Ajax commercial.
Read MoreCriminal Element: The end is near for 'Breaking Bad,' and it all boils down to not-so-basic chemistry.
Walter White treats the world like his personal chemistry set, but when he needed a street name for his criminal alter ego, he turned to physics.
He has relished his menacing nickname. During one of "Breaking Bad's" spaghetti Western-style desert showdowns, he made sure his reputation had preceded him.
"Say my name," he commanded his new business partner, who wearily replied, "Heisenberg."
A dying man of a dying breed: The final eight episodes of 'Breaking Bad' mark the end of an era of great bad guys.
Because the shows built around them usually win over critics, large audiences or both, sympathetic sinners are approaching maximum saturation. Even for repeat visitors to pop culture's darkest corners, somewhere between the pervasive misogyny on "House of Cards" and the Southie rage-aholics on "Ray Donovan," enough sociopaths in silk shirts already.
A tale of two mousy Margarets: Maggie Jordan from HBO's 'The Newsroom' could learn some lessons from Peggy Olson on AMC's 'Mad Men.'
Clearly, what Maggie needs is an intervention from another TV workplace heroine who started out meek, learned hard lessons and pulled herself up by the pantyhose: Peggy Olson.
"Mad Men's" secretary-turned-copywriter was in a bad place after her first season, too, and Maggie, "The Newsroom's" assistant-turned-producer, could benefit from her experience. Here's what Margaret "I Am the Person You Need to Impress" Olson might tell Margaret "How Come Nobody's Yelling at Me" Jordan:
Under siege on TV: Women face a barrage of sexual violence
The sheer number of rape tropes clogging the TV listings begs for scrutiny. Are these stories just honest attempts to depict a harsh reality, a result of lazy showrunners pushing the "edgy" button, or cynical pandering to a misogynistic audience?
Read MoreWhen mob mentality tramples justice: 'The Central Park Five' revisits the case of teens wrongly convicted of a high-profile assault.
"The Central Park Five," documentarian Ken Burns' collaboration with his daughter, Sarah, and her husband, takes us back to the ugly racial reality of New York City in the late '80s, the days of crack and "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz, when no one felt safe.
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