How to Get Away with Murder: She’s Having My Baby!

Everyone’s present on How to Get Away with Murder for the penultimate episode of the first half of the season. Those dramatic promos (which deserve Outstanding Performance by a Voiceover Artist Who Just Can’t Even) promises us that we won’t want to miss next week’s installment, so this hour was devoted to making sure everyone was accounted for.

Sleepwalking Desperate Housewife
Just to keep us begging the producers to tell us who killed Sam, this episode distracts us with the weekly court case. It was quite refreshing to not have one of these last week, but we all have to pay our dues, right? Annalise’s newest case revolves around a real estate agent named Gretchen Thomas who doesn’t quite remember killing her housekeeper, Elka. Personally, I worry about whether I’ve turned off the coffeepot in the middle of the night, but the surveillance footage of Gretchen dragging and cleaning her housekeeper’s body is pretty damning.

Annalise puts her students in charge of interviewing Gretchen’s family, but it doesn’t seem like Gretchen has any problem going to prison. She’s resigned to idea of “paying for the sin” she’s committed even though her family supports that she would sleepwalk. What happens in the end? Gretchen’s son drops the bomb on the stand that he and Elka had a thing going on, but Michaela is the one that cracks the case. She discovers that both Gretchen’s husband and son took the same STD medication from sleeping with Elka. Gretchen’s husband killed Elka, and he set his wife up for her murder. Maaaaan. Marriages are NOT looking good in this episode.

Dalliance with Darcy
Another reason why we are DYING to find out what happened to Sam is because we finally get to see Lila speak! She’s no longer a girl on a slab or a girl on MISSING posters! She’s no longer just a drug dealer’s newest protégé, but she’s doing lines of coke with said drug dealer! Through flashbacks, Lila tells Rebecca that she met a married man, and, later in the episode, Lila regales her with details of her and Mr. Darcy banging for the first time. When Lila goes off the deep end and tries to get into Annalise’s office to expose the affair, Bonnie steps in and tells Lila that she just needs to chill. But not before one piece of information is confirmed. Whacky theory: could Lila have killed herself to frame Sam?

Anna & Sam & Bonnie & Lila
We can all agree that Sam is a total sack of crap, right? Stop lying, Sam! Annalise confronts him on whether he knew that Lila was pregnant with their love child, and he swears to his wife that he had no idea. When Bonnie tells Lila to back off, she realizes that he did know everything, and he’s a super lying sack of crap. When Bonnie tells Annalise everything, she quite literally gets on her knees in front of her asking for forgiveness without actually asking for forgiveness, and what does Annalise do? She fires Bonnie while Bonnie is still groveling on the floor. BUM BUM BUM! Perhaps Annalise didn’t want to actually hear that Sam kissed Bonnie and told her that he needed her?

Everything is Falling Into Place…
This episode finishes with setting everyone up on the night of Zee Murder. Let’s play a little recap, shall we?

Michaela meets up with her future mother-in-law to discuss the prenuptial agreement, and it does not go well. Lynn Whitfield (high eyebrows and all) plays Andre’s mother, Mary, and she basically comes right out and tells Michaela that she doesn’t want her money grubbing hands anywhere near her family money. Mary slams the paperwork on the dinner table and offers her a pen, and Michaela’s reaction is to try and slap her. Michaela storms off, and heads to Asher’s apartment. She thinks that she deserves the trophy for cracking the Gretchen Thomas case, and she snatches it out of Asher’s living room while he is out of the room.

Early in the episode, Annalise tells Wes about Lila’s pregnancy, and he immediately tells Rebecca (even though Annalise asks him not to). None of these people can keep a secret, because Rebecca turns right around and tells Nate thinking it will get the charges dropped against her when Sam is brought in. When Laurel and Frank are going at it for what seems like the 16th time in 2 episodes, they are interrupted by Frank’s girlfriend. BUM BUM BUM! Just what this series needed—another character! She storms off (there’s a lot of that in this episode I’m realizing) and meets up with Connor and Wes for a study group. The last moment of the episode? Annalise essentially having enough and sort of turning in her husband for murder. She calls the DA and makes a deal to question every person in Lila Stanguard’s life. BUM BUM BUUUUMMM!!!

In true AwardsDaily fashion, I am calling for a No Guts, No Glory prediction for Who Killed Sam/Breaking Developments in Lila’s Case. I might have to go with my previous statement that Lila tossed herself into that water tank…after you know…trying to strangle herself. More dramatic things have happened on this show, so all bets are off.

murder 2

Watch President Obama on Zach Galifianakis` Between Two Ferns

[quote_regular name=”” icon_quote=”no”]American officials are worried that 50,000 Russian troops being massed near the Ukraine border and within Crimea, the pro-Russian peninsula recently annexed by President Vladimir Putin, aren’t there for just a training exercise[/quote_regular]

Despite Russian reassurances that Moscow’s troop buildup along Ukraine’s eastern frontier is for a military exercise, its growing scale is making U.S. officials nervous about its ultimate aim.

President Barack Obama on Friday urged Russia to stop “intimidating” Ukraine and to pull its troops back to “de-escalate the situation.” He told CBS that the troop buildup may “be an effort to intimidate Ukraine, or it may be that [Russia has] additional plans.”

Pentagon officials say they believe there could be close to 50,000 Russian troops bordering the former Soviet republic and inside Crimea, recently seized and annexed by Moscow. That estimate is double earlier assessments, and means Russian President Vladimir Putin could order a lighting strike into Ukrainian territory with the forces already in place. The higher troop count was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“We continue to see the Russian military reinforce units on their side of the border with Ukraine to the south and to the east of Ukraine,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday. “They continue to reinforce and it continues to be unclear exactly what the intent there is.”

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf played down the notion that there are as many as 100,000 Russian troops now bordering Ukraine, as Olexander Motsyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., said Thursday on Capitol Hill. “I hadn’t actually seen the hundred-thousand number,” Harf said. “There are huge numbers of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. … We are concerned about Russia taking further escalatory steps with whatever number of tens of thousands of troops they have there, and have called on them not to do so.”

Washington got those assurances that the Russian troop buildup was only an exercise from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu a week ago. But no one in the U.S. government knows if Putin agrees — or if the Russian leader has changed his mind as the West has debated what level of economic and political sanctions might be imposed if Moscow takes an additional chunk of Ukraine beyond Crimea. “They made it clear that their intent was to do exercises and not to cross the border,” Kirby said. “Our expectation is they’re going to live up to that word.”

There is no plan to involve the U.S. military in what is happening in Ukraine, even if Russia takes more territory. Ukraine borders Russia, and Ukraine does not belong to NATO, where an attack on one member is deemed to be an attack on all.

“Should the Russians continue to move aggressively in that region and in the Ukraine, what does that mean—and NATO would have to respond, for example—what would that mean for the United States Army?” Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, asked the Army’s top officer Thursday.

[quote_box_avatar name=”Inna Goodman” position=”Senior Writer” avatar_img_url=”http://www.awardsdaily.com/tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/user3.jpg”]Three people have died in clashes in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday, according to medics on the site, in a development that will likely escalate Ukraine’s two-month political crisis.[/quote_box_avatar]

Quick Hit: The Affair

I suspect many viewers of Showtime’s 10-episode The Affair will consider the drama’s pacing too slow, too gradual in its revelation of the central crime – a murder where the victim’s identity was only recently revealed. But they’re missing the point.

The Affair is about many things. It’s about memory and details. It’s about recasting your history. It’s about parenting. It’s about marriage. It’s as much about money and privilege as it is about the permanent residents of Montauk, New York. The murder and the conflicting sides of the surrounding events, as with any great drama, are really the gateway to a deeper meaning.

It’s a beautiful series. One that has completely and unexpectedly knocked me off my feet.

For those not in the know, The Affair details the budding romance between Noah Solloway (Dominic West), a married author, and Alison Lockhart (Ruth Wilson), a married waitress. The widely publicized hook of the series involved telling their story from each perspective. Initially, there were only a few minor differences: Alison portrayed Noah as the aggressor in the relationship. His memory was, of course, of Alison as the sexual predator. In her version, she wore matronly frocks and made fresh-squeezed orange juice for her husband. In his version, his family life is suffocating with domineering in-laws running the show.

As the series has progressed, the dual sides have become increasingly in opposition. Episodes take on a near dreamlike state when events are told and re-told completely out of order or omitted from one version completely. We’ve also started spending an increasing amount of time in the present as a police detective conducts his interviews a la True Detective, ultimately revealing the identity of the murder victim in its most recent episode.

Viewers will take from this what they will. Again, some will be off-put by the somewhat laconic pacing, but I find it completely appropriate given the emotionally complex nature of the story. This series (thus far) paints a vast canvas of the adult experience ranging from haunting loss to gut-wrenching guilt to all-consuming lust. This isn’t Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy. This series is its own thing, a delicate flower that needs room to breathe.

The acting by West and Wilson continues to be excellent with Wilson the better of the two. As I’ve mentioned before, she has more complex role as her characteristics radically differ between the two versions. However, other actors are doing equally brilliant if less flashy work. Maura Tierney is fantastic in the smallish role of Noah’s wife, and Dawson’s Creek’s Joshua Jackson is surprisingly effective in the role of Alison’s cuckolded husband. Also memorable is Deirdre O’Connell in the amusing role of Athena, Alison’s new-age healer mother.

With five episodes under its belt, The Affair is a confident, engrossing, and mature television show. It is also something of a high wire balancing act. Given the presumed time lapse between the present day interrogations and the lush flashbacks, you have the sense that there is a great deal of story left to tell. The trouble for the show will be sustaining the gradual peaks as it dives into intimate details between the two leads. I also have concerns about stretching this story beyond a single season as it was recently renewed for a second.

But that lies in the future… The Affair as it currently stands is nothing short of brilliant.

Wilson

This Network Should Snap Up “Selfie”

The past couple of weeks, networks have been taking their axes to shows with the same crazed stumble as the killer in “Too Many Cooks.” The latest victim: “Selfie.”

But for those who watched the ABC sitcom, they know that “Selfie” was actually shaping into a loverly little show. The chemistry between the two leads (John Cho, Karen Gillan) is some of the best banter of the fall season. Plus, despite the “I hate that phrase” title, the show makes some insightful commentary on society’s dependence on technology (one episode involved Eliza stalking a co-worker’s Yelp account in order to get to know her better).

So where do we go from here? Nowadays, a TV show never really dies (case in point: “Arrested Development,” “The Comeback,” the list goes on). What networks should be clamoring to pick up this show?

First, TBS. They’re known for taking shows with shitty titles (“Cougartown”) and giving them a second life. “Selfie” would fit nicely on that network and perhaps maybe elevate it beyond Howie Mandel joke shows and the comedically tone-deaf “Ground Floor.”

Yahoo TV could also pick it up, since it’s already become a safe haven for wayward TV shows like “Community.”

Then, I had a wild idea. What if NBC picked it up? NBC, the network once known for groundbreaking comedies, now known for a Thursday-night lineup that includes an hour of “The Biggest Loser”—in a timeslot once reserved for “Friends” and whatever 8:30 show would subsequently be canceled.

What if the Peacock took a chance? If it needs anything, it needs a hit comedy. “Parks & Rec” is on its way out. The current Thursday night lineup of “Bad Judge” and “A to Z” is already defunct, since both were canceled. It would be interesting to see if a big network could recognize quality and nurture a following by stealing it from another network, kind of like the Hunger Games for TV audiences. I’m surprised more networks don’t do this, since the stigma of being canceled is almost a rallying cry now.

Of course, this won’t happen. If I had to take an actual guess, I would assume TBS would pick up “Selfie.” Not NBC, which relies on “Don’t Miss the Last 5 Minutes” in order to get people to watch “The Blacklist.” In fact, maybe “Don’t Miss the Last 5 Minutes” would be a good title for all of the network’s shows.

Jonathan Nolan bringing Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ to HBO

Though no one at HBO will confirm the story in print, the Wrap is saying “multiple individuals familiar with the project” have told them Jonathan Nolan is developing Isaac Asimov’s beloved Foundation novels into a series for the cable network.

Great. Love Asimov. Love Foundation. HBO has rarely disappointed. Jonathan Nolan though? I know I’m in the minority here, but honestly that guy should be stuck inside a five dimensional movie jail in the middle of a massive black hole for his hand in the ambitious but ultimately kind of terrible Interstellar. On the other hand, perhaps being chained to the material of an author who was the master of Big Sci-Fi Ideas will be just the thing to keep Nolan on the straight and narrow.

Ok, fine. Let’s go with that. I’m going to be optimistic here.

Asimov’s first Foundation novel began life as eight short stories in Astounding Tales Magazine between 1942 and 1950. It introduced the character Hari Seldon who was able to accurately predict the rise and fall of a galactic empire far into the future using a form of mathematics he developed called “psychohistory.”

Starz picks up ‘Evil Dead’ series. Groovy.

Ordinarily I would groan at the idea of yet another movie being turned into a TV series, but I would watch the living CRAP out of a series based on the Evil Dead franchise if it was directed by Sam Raimi and starred Bruce Campbell.

And it will. On Starz. It’ll be called Ash vs. Evil Dead and it’ll be going down in 2015.

Campbell originally dropped word on plans for Evil Dead on the small screen back at Comic-Con and it turns out he was not just whistling Dixie.

Here’s how THR describes the show (the pilot of which will be directed by Raimi and co-written by Raimi and his brother Ivan)

“Campbell reprises his role as the title character Ash, a stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last three decades avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons — personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its evil grip.”

Ok, you had me at “Campbell reprises his role.” Now, let’s head down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch!

(via: THR)

Quick Hit: The Comeback

HBOs The Comeback made its own comeback tonight after roughly 9 years off the air. The result? A mixed bag that shows some signs of life.

Starring the brilliant Lisa Kudrow as washed up actress Valerie Cherish filming a reality show during her comeback, the show was largely panned on first release but later reached cult status. That newfound acclaim is largely thanks to Entertainment Weekly’s effusive and persistent praise of the series as a polarizing, cringe-inducing comic masterpiece. I haven’t seen the original series since it first aired, but I remember it taking a few episodes before I fully appreciated its off-kilter comic sensibilities.

The latest incarnation has a similar outlook.

The premiere episode spends a lot of time either introducing or reintroducing the viewer to the beats of Valerie Cherish’s personality – too much time, in my opinion. Her constant need to control all aspects of her persona while ultimately betraying her totally repellant personality is reiterated over and over and over again. It also spends a good chunk of time setting up the driving thread for the second series: her attempt to woo Bravo’s Andy Cohen (via a brief Twitter exchange) with a new series on her life since the original Comeback. Involved in this setup is an extended sequence with a presumably real housewife of Beverly Hills, but, since I don’t watch that brand of reality show, it largely fell flat with me.

Much better is the eventual revelation that Paulie G, Valerie’s chief nemesis/head writer from the original series, has written a thinly veiled expose of his experience with Valerie called “Seeing Red.”

Incensed, Valerie threatens to sue and visits HBO’s head office with the obvious intent at staging a dramatic altercation. The greatest moment thus far happens when the producers of “Seeing Red,” probably well aware of her intents given the camera crew that follows her, offer Valerie the opportunity to read for the part based on her. Of course, they won’t admit it’s based on her for fear of being sued, but the character is named “Mallory Church.”

She initially balks at the idea, claiming she needs time to read. A producer responds, “Do you need to prepare? It’s pretty close to you.” He is immediately shushed.

Kudrow brilliantly reads through a harsh, near-complete evisceration of herself as written by Paulie G. It must be incredibly difficult to breed such contempt for a character and then shift our perception of her to one of pathos. As much as Valerie deserves this treatment (she’s so out of touch with reality that she can’t remember the names of half her crew or her agent), the scene painfully elicits the plight of middle-aged actresses in Hollywood.

There is also a funny running joke that Valerie was only able to hire a bargain basement film crew who drop boom mics, get pushed down by paparazzi, and frequently film Valerie out of focus.

You have to celebrate Kudrow in the role – partially for her brilliant performance and partially for illustrating Hollywood’s lack of respect for “actresses of a certain age.” But if you’re not into cringe comedy, then The Comeback has changed nothing for you.

They’re just as willing as ever to drag Kudrow gleefully through the muck of the Hollywood machine. Your enjoyment will all depend on your tolerance for this sort of thing.

 

The Walking Dead: The Man, the Myth, and the Mullet

The latest episode of The Walking Dead dedicates itself to the story of the survivors who left for Washington, DC. As it often does when the survivors split up, the series dedicates individual episodes to each side, leaving tiny cliffhangers each week.

The structure is what it is. I find it no more exasperating than I do the fact that the survivors split up in the first place when they clearly promised each other four weeks ago that they would remain together moving forward. This separated path tends to lead to death.

I suppose the top-heavy cast needs thinning out anyway… much like Eugene’s mullet.

At any rate, Abraham pilots his church bus full of Eugene (the supposed savior of the world) and others at an alarming rate down a backcountry road. Sure enough, the van backfires and crashes near an oncoming hoard of walkers.

Enter our long-missing heavy dosage of zombie gore.

There are a few things notable about this scene. First, we get our first glimpse of a potential back-story for Abraham and his militaristic fervor. Second, this fervor is perhaps heightened by Eugene’s complete inability to protect himself at all – fairly surprising considering nearly everyone remaining in the group is a 4-star zombie stabber by now.

On a side note, I’m not entirely sure how many people have read the comics or spoilers online (or finished the episode yet), so, if you want to remain completely pristine about the potential direction of the series, then skip this paragraph. Given that Eugene has shown absolutely no skills or craft whatsoever aside from some rudimentary survival skills and MacGyver-ish tendencies, I’m intrigued by the levels at which Abraham has gone to delude himself that the Mulleted Wonder actually singlehandedly possesses the key to saving the world from the zombie apocalypse. I can imagine that would be easier to swallow in the comics, but, as Eugene is represented in the show, it’s indeed a difficult pill to swallow.

Ok, end spoilers for those who skipped ahead.

ShadyEugene

After some late-night philosophizing between Abraham and Glenn, Eugene has quite a moment. First, he watches Abraham and Rosita have sex (they are aware he’s watching). Second, he confesses to Tara that he sabotaged the bus in hopes it would never leave the church parking lot. Now, he never actually explains fully why he did that, but… (see above spoiler paragraph).

Back in the Abraham flashback, after violently bashing in the heads of a collective of people (not walkers?), we see him approach three other survivors: a woman (Ella) and two children. They are clearly not thrilled with Abraham’s violent tendencies and blood-covered visage. Later, they wait until he falls asleep to escape him. Probably a bad choice, right?

The best scene of the episode hands-down has to be the fire truck scene in which Eugene fairly effectively proves wrong what I just claimed about him. Overjoyed at the availability of another form of transportation, Abraham hops in the cab and starts driving it away only to have it give out seconds later. What he didn’t consider was the fire truck actually served a purpose: it was blocking the door to the fire station, which contained a large horde of zombies.

The survivors start hacking away, and, shortly before becoming overrun, Eugene turns the hose on the zombies, effectively melting them away like an army of Wicked Witches of the West. The unintentionally hilarious camera angles of the zombies as the heavy stream of water blows them away provided the evening’s levity.

Later down the road, they encounter a massive farm full of hundreds of zombies. Abraham wants to plow forward, but the rest of his posse are more dubious.

This gives Abraham the chance to say the new classic line “We got a shit storm behind door A, and storm of shit behind door B.” Magnificent.

After a group argument, Eugene finally freaks out and confirms what I’ve been stepping around all recap: he’s not a scientist, and he has no idea how to stop this zombie plague. Naturally, this news goes over about as well as a whore in church. Eugene explains that he apparently knows “things,” but, if he does, then I’ve clearly forgotten them. The drive behind the lie was simply to flee to Washington, DC, where he felt existed the greatest chance at safety.

One thing he doesn’t know is the key to public relations. After informing the rest of the gang one too many times that he’s smarter than they are, Eugene is effectively beat to death by an enraged Abraham. At least it appears he’s dead. I’ll be honest and say that I’m basing this on the fact that the actor playing Eugene, Josh McDermitt, tweeted “What a wild ride – Thank you” earlier this evening. I’m thinking that means he’s off the show.

Finally, in Abraham’s flashback, we discover that zombies ultimately mauled the woman and children he’d hoped to save. Grief stricken, Abraham puts a gun in his mouth, but, before he can pull the trigger, Eugene stumbles up, chased by zombies. Abraham offs the zombies and forms a partnership with Eugene who claims to have some important work to do, thus bridging the flashbacks to the present in a remorseful way.

This was a decent episode overall and moved the plot forward quite a bit considering Eugene’s massive revelation. Granted, I’m not sure anyone watching the series was actually fooled, but you tell me. The biggest question remaining is where does this particular group of survivors go now? Do they follow through with Washington, DC? Does the show diverge from the comics?

It’s the little cliffhangers and lingering questions that the showrunners clearly understand are propelling viewers forward through the series week after week.

Either that or the massive zombie gore.

Choose your storm of shit.

AbrahamBreakingDown

Sneak Peak: Girls Season Four

HBO has released the preview for the fourth season of Girls in which Hannah (Lena Dunham) moves to Iowa to participate in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop while remaining entangled with Adam (Adam Driver).

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve made the right decision, which is a totally new sensation for me,” Dunham says while eating grapes as a snack… also a new sensation for her.

The most notable progression within her friends seems to be in Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) who appears to enter the job market with presumably varying degrees of success.

Girls returns on HBO and HBO Go on Sunday, January 11, 2015.