Matt Schimkowitz

Matt Schimkowitz is an entertainment writer at Yahoo Entertainment and The A.V. Club who treats film, television, and pop culture as objects for close, often comedic, cultural scrutiny. He focuses on what audiences find funny, familiar, or unsettling in franchises and genre stories, and he uses conversational formats, critical reappraisals, and production deep dives to connect those works to broader trends in comedy and fandom. His coverage centers on comedy, sequels, and horror-adjacent genre pieces, with a consistent interest in how long-running properties evolve and how viewers’ attachments shape their afterlives.

Crosstalk: Is 2026 the start of a comedy comeback?

In Yahoo Entertainment’s Crosstalk feature, Schimkowitz joins senior TV editor Erik Adams to examine whether 2026 marks a genuine rebound for screen comedy. The conversation looks at the state of film and television laughs and zeroes in on “hyper-specific joke craft” as a way to repair what they describe as our collective funny bone, signaling his attention to the mechanics of humor as much as to hits and misses.

That analytical focus on comedy runs through his Staff Picks work, where he highlights a “comedy as off-putting as it is funny” and uncorks the latest sequel in a fictional film franchise, balancing tonal description with an eye for how oddball projects land with audiences. In another Staff Picks entry, he praises Steve Coogan’s modern portrayal of Alan Partridge alongside a “rescued sci-fi wonder,” pairing a well-known comedic persona with a lesser-seen genre title to show how contemporary television can revive or reframe familiar characters and concepts.

Across these pieces, he writes less about casting announcements or ratings and more about the feel of the jokes, the rhythm of a performance, and what those choices say about where comedy is heading.

AVQ&A: What's a series that you just can't quit?

Schimkowitz uses interactive formats like AVQ&A to probe the emotional and habitual pull of long-running franchises. In one AVQ&A, he asks readers to name the series they “just can’t quit,” foregrounding the way fandom persists through uneven seasons, disappointing entries, or shifting creative teams. A companion AVQ&A invites people to define their “pop culture valentine to the world,” turning individual affection for films, shows, and characters into a lens on how entertainment becomes part of personal identity.

His August film preview streamlines the usual calendar rundown into five releases he deems most worth viewers’ time, a curatorial approach that favors argument and prioritization over exhaustive listing.

That same sensibility underpins his piece on the cultural reappraisal of Jim Carrey’s turn as the Grinch, where he explores how shifting critical attitudes and audience nostalgia intersect with the logic of sequels and franchise extension. In coverage like “Resident Evil leaves the door open for more traditional…” he tracks how a storied property’s latest installment positions itself within the broader arc of survival horror and franchise expectations, focusing on what doors are being opened for future storytelling rather than just summarizing plot.

His article on “The House Of David” closing up shop similarly marks the end of a television run, emphasizing the lifecycle of series and how final acts fit into the narrative of a show’s existence. Together, these pieces show a writer who is especially interested in the durability of franchises and the emotional frameworks that keep viewers connected to them.

Spider-Man 2's hospital horror show

Schimkowitz’s deep-dive features often center on specific sequences or subgenres, using granular detail to connect production choices to larger trends. In his article on Spider-Man 2’s hospital “horror show,” he traces how the Doc Ock scene evolved from a test shoot designed to jump-start visual effects development into a standout moment of comic-book body horror, treating behind-the-scenes process as key to the sequence’s impact.

He extends that genre-conscious perspective in his writing on the contemporary zombie boom, arguing that current projects should learn from the documentary Black Zombie and its exploration of voodoo origins, colonial histories, and representation. At The A.V.

Club, he covers pieces like the Guitar Center “Open For Ed Sheeran” contest, taking a wry look at corporate music promotions and the cultural reception they provoke. His Watch This recommendation of YouTuber Elephant Graveyard’s video essay on Joe Rogan applies Adam Curtis’ HyperNormalisation framework to the “Joe Rogan universe,” signaling his comfort moving between mainstream entertainment and dense, theory-driven internet culture.

He has also been quoted in coverage of Guy Fieri, describing the restaurateur as a “political Rorschach test” whose public image invites conflicting readings of his politics, a formulation that mirrors the way he treats pop figures as screens for audience projection. Across his film and TV portfolio, including work collected on his own site, his reporting and criticism cross Hollywood blockbusters, genre documentaries, YouTube analysis, and reality-adjacent personalities, united by an interest in how production, reception, and politics collide in popular media.