"Television is a goddamned amusement park."
FOX briefly interrupted your 24-gasm tonight to give you a taste of their upcoming DC series Gotham which traces the origins of Batman, Cat Woman, Riddler, Joker, Penguin et al. while apparently adding in a few new wrinkles.
I’m not sure the network can be trusted to do this right, and if they do to keep it on the air, but OK, the trailer has my attention. Check it out after the jump
AMC’s Turn continues to downplay the major events of the American Revolution, focusing instead on the delicate details of the war’s supporting history. The human element is on display here, illustrating the evolution of America’s first spy ring and not the bloody battles somewhat foreshadowed in the series pilot. It’s an honorable intent, but I hope not one that robs this worthy series of viewers.
HBO announced recently that it is officially reviving its early 2000s reality show Project Greenlight. Executive produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the series first aired on HBO in late 2001 (later moving to Bravo for its third season) and initially provided a single screenplay contest winner the opportunity to direct his/her own work. Subsequent seasons split the contest into two categories, writing and directing, with camera crews capturing the filmmaking process as undertaken by inexperienced filmmakers. This move seemed to stem from the challenges experienced by first season winner Pete Jones as he struggled to bring his vision to screen. Continue reading “HBO Jumps in the Way Back Machine”
“You thought there was going to be a big creative crisis and we’d pull you off the bench but in fact we’ve been doing just fine.” – Bertram Cooper to Don Draper in last night’s Mad Men
I’d been wondering since the end of last week’s episode how long Don would last under the new restrictions placed on him as conditions to his surprise return to work and, as it appears everyone at Sterling Cooper & Partners plans to make it as difficult on Don as possible, I would not have been surprised had he not made it to the end of the latest episode as a member of the firm. Anyway, I think there is still a hole in my head from the laser beams Don was shooting out of his eyes at Peggy during a key scene in last night’s show. Continue reading “Recapping Mad Men: The Monolith (spoilers)”
First of all, congratulations to television for offering a larger venue for more amazing female performances than one generally finds in movies, but shame on Emmy for repeatedly failing when it comes to nominations. The fact Tatiana Maslany, the star of BBC America’s Orphan Black was ignored last year despite playing multiple yet subtly distinct roles is a massive black mark on a group of awards that all too often rewards the safe and familiar while filing to recognize the new and interesting.
Continue reading “Dear Emmy – Four Words: Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany”
Season 2, Episode 9: The Box
Bates Motel finally hit a season high last night, bringing Norman’s budding sexuality and barely repressed aggression into the foreground and giving us an eagerly anticipated look into what happened the night English teacher Blaire Watson was murdered. The hour was a fascinating deep-dive into the mythos of Norman Bates that echoes the original Psycho.
Also good news: the central and supporting characters finally worked together in the service of the same story rather than constantly fighting against each other for screen time and our interest. It also helped that we saw one supporting character’s end.
Mediate breaks down all the different important stories Al Jazeera America squeezed into the 14 minute space rival network CNN devoted to it’s ongoing obsession with the missing Malaysian airliner yesterday. Check it out and be angry.
There was a time when broadcasting news was the responsibility of every network in exchange for their free use of the public airwaves. It technically still is. The networks have to devote a certain amount of their broadcast day to “news,” but over the years the definition of that word has changed dramatically. These days, even on channels supposedly devoted to the cause, news is just fact-based entertainment. Drama and attention getting headlines win out over thoughtful analysis of difficult to digest but vital information. Why talk about the ins and outs of policy debates in Washington when you can glue your audience to the tube with breathless speculation on a missing airplane?
Turn, so far, continues to march in the right direction for a fledging dramatic series. Rather than peaking early and plummeting in quality (CBS’s Hostages, I’m talking to you), it has taken its time to gradually escalate tension chapter by chapter.
The show isn’t revolutionary (ahem) in that manner, but it’s a good sign that the audience lies in capable hands.
Sunday’s episode began in the Setauket cemetery with Abe Woodhull and family standing over the grave of his dead brother, Thomas. The scene cleverly established the central conflict of the episode – the proposal by Major Hewlett to dig up tombstones and use as protection of the Setauket garrison’s canons – while reinforcing the dramatic interaction between Abe and his father, Richard.
At the onset of the “Glitter Ball” episode, Courtney Act claimed that in a journal she had predicted the top five. Now either Courtney Act is clairvoyant (a good drag name: Claire Voyant) or she, too, had quickly realized the talent this year wasn’t as stellar as other seasons. (We want to see a copy of this alleged journal and whether it doesn’t say “Courtney Act” over and over again.)
As if the queens weren’t considered puppets enough, RuPaul asked the contestants to drag up puppet versions of each other in a good old-fashioned bitchfest. Like the “Reading is Fundamental” mini-challenge, this game allowed the queens to let off some steam…aaaaand create some tense moments for the producers. Adore Delano did a freakishly good BenDeLaCreme voice (perhaps she could just be a DeLa impersonator after her sorry-ass gets kicked off the show). It was surprising that Courtney Act didn’t sing her way through this one, even though she got the Darienne Lake puppet. BenDeLaCreme’s take of Bianca del Rio was hilarious, though. DeLa attached huge, white nails to her puppet’s mouth to look like Bianca’s pristine smile. She made Bianca bitch about being perfect and screamed the entire time. Perfection. It was reminiscent of Boney the puppet from Nickelodeon’s “Weinerville.” Surely, the producers of Avenue Q will be in touch.
Continue reading “Last Night on RuPaul’s Drag Race: Glitter Ball”
Game of Thrones came back last night after “the episode” wherein Jaime raped Cersei. As expected, she put him right in his place after what he did to her, her pain clear on her face, her order for him to seek out and kill Sansa plainly clear. But the show continues to want us to like Jaime, as he then sends out Brienne to find and protect Sansa.
Rather than go over the show’s plot, which no one is going to read unless they saw the episode already, I’ll point you to the New York Times’ recap, which is far more detailed than I could write.
I’d rather address a call to boycott the show by a reader. When pigs fly I would call for a boycott. Why aren’t you standing up for rape, the reader asked. My answer, in short, because A) it’s a TV show and that is the choice of the artists to dictate how that goes. We are entitled to our opinions on what occurred. But to call for a boycott is to dictate how a show must deliver that content and to me that’s akin to fascism of a kind. So, no. B) calling for a boycott of Game of Thrones does not address whatsoever real world rape, either rape culture or rape, sexual violence, sexual exploitation or any of the real world problems that occur with extreme regularity all over the world every second of the day. I would be ashamed to put my fear and concerned on that one scene in Game of Thrones and shame on anyone else who does.
Continue reading “Recapping Game of Thrones and Political Correctness Insanity Continues”
