After a brief break to watch season four of Weeds last week, Jane After Dark is back with The Wire. I'm half-way into season three, and while there are definitely parts of this show that put me to sleep (ducking and running for cover), it's still a brilliant drama. My teenage son popped in for part of an episode, decided it was too "real," and promptly lost interest.
To help me organize my thoughts, let's take a look at a few characters: Stringer Bell. I'm really digging Idris Elba dressed up in his fancy suit, running the real estate company, working with government officials, and holding drug meetings using Robert's Rules of Order. It's fascinating that there's this whole hierarchy within the gangs that most of them respect and follow.
For my daughter's twelfth birthday, she decided to have four of her friends sleep over, and it turned out to be the same night that The Secret Life of the American Teenager season two was premiering. OK, she actually sort of planned it that way. All but one of her friends is allowed to watch the show, and she managed to talk her mom into it "just this once." I totally respect that. I write a family movie column and have kids of my own, so I'm fairly in tune with what is and isn't appropriate for various age groups.
I watched a few episodes of Secret Life last season, and while the subject matter isn't geared for little kids, it seemed OK for kids twelve and older. But this season, it seems like the show has really kicked the sex talk up several notches. Yes, I know it's a show about a teenager who gets pregnant and is forced to deal with the consequences. I'm ok with that. It shows kids that there are consequences, and that sex shouldn't be taken lightly.
There are a lot of really horrible things that have put America on the map: Jerry Springer, our ability to infuse anything edible with cheese, the fact that we're probably working on infusing something inedible with cheese.
Guns, however, shouldn't be one of them. The Second Amendment stands as one of many great testaments to the idea of freedom that our forefathers envisioned for their people. They felt a government should trust their people with great responsibility if they truly believed in the concept of freedom and democracy.
Sure, if they came to the present and saw that we primarily use that responsibility for hunting moose from helicopters and negotiating with the Domino's guy they might take it right back, but the idea is what's important.
So to celebrate one of America's latest of many birthday to come because fireworks are technically illegal in my neck of the woods, here are your TV's seven greatest guns.
NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like Life and Medium, and My Name is Earl. The fact that they're replacing these shows with not one but two medical shows, isn't exactly a confidence booster. NBC hasn't sent screeners of all their pilots yet, hence the "Part 1" in the title. But I have gotten a taste of both their comedy and drama offerings with Community, a comedy starring The Soup's Joel McHale, and Trauma, one of the aforementioned medical dramas.
Going into this, I didn't have high hopes for Trauma, and while I wanted to like Community, I had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to be the vehicle that would change Joel McHale from cute host of a basic cable show to primetime star. Now, after seeing both of them, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by one.
Apparently, there are a lot of medical emergencies in the Hamptons - deflated boobs, dying socialites, hemophiliac kids. And apparently, there is also a shortage of doctors in the area that is so bad everyone is clamoring to be attended to by a visiting doctor from out of town who has just been conveniently ostracized for having let a hospital trustee die in his care.
That's the basics of Royal Pains, USA's latest edition to its "characters welcome" line-up. Unfortunately for Doctor Hank Lawson, the physician in the center of this maelstrom of health issues, none of his patients are particularly interesting, which means I didn't care if they lived or died or if any of their wounds were healed properly. Nor did I care if the overly ambitious would-be doctor's assistant Divya got her wish that Lawson hang his shingle in the Hamptons. Or if his brother found a way to get laid.
More good news out of NBC's top drama. Wentworth Miller is guesting on Law and Order: SVU, and this time he's not going to be behind bars. The Prison Break actor will star in the September 23 premiere of Law and Order: SVU, which is kicking off its 11th season on the NBC.
Wentworth Miller's casting comes on the heels of NBC re-signing of Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni to two-year extensions as the show's mainstays, Detectives Benson and Stabler, as well as the return of Stephanie March as Alex Cabot and a four-show arc for Christine Lahti. I'd say that the powers-that-be are stacking the deck with prime talent to make sure Law and Order: SVU maintains its top quality status.
The picture above isn't from a Los Angeles street, it's from a New York City street. TNT is creating some ambitious marketing for their new cop drama Dark Blue. They're turning part of NYC's subway into "underground L.A." Included in the ad campaign will be posters, signs on staircases, even entire subway cars wrapped in pics that show the L.A. skyline. The show starts on July 15.
Generally speaking, CBS had a strong 2008, developing one bona fide hit drama -- The Mentalist -- even though shows like The Ex-List never found an audience or a critical plaudit. Ironically, I liked The Ex-List based on the screener I reviewed last summer, so go figure. Sometimes a preview can inform you about a show's potential and sometimes it's just the best it'll ever be.
CBS has shared previews for the new season and we've had a chance to take a look. There are star vehicles for Jenna Elfman, Alex O'Loughlin and Julianna Margulies, which would seem logical based on the success of Simon Baker as The Mentalist. CBS is counting on familiar, popular TV stars to win over audiences. Will the strategy work? It's probably too soon to tell.
Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton has had numerous chances to star in TV series during his successful career. It took the edgy blend of drama and humor in TNT's Leverage to lead him to sign on for the show's lead role.
Hutton stars as Nathan Ford, a former insurance investigator leading a team of thieves and con artists who balance the scales when ordinary people fall victim to corrupt politicians, authorities and corporations.
The show co-stars Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge as Ford's less than reputable teammates.
As Leverage approaches its second season premiere July 15, Hutton connected with TV Squad to share his hopes for the show.
Porn movies are well known (so I've heard) for taking film titles and making them a little bit dirtier (so I've heard). Now Hustler is taking TV shows and creating a whole series of films based (or debased) or them. I'm kind of surprised that they're allowed to use Star Trek in the title of a film, like they have with This Ain't Star Trek XXX. I guess the "this ain't" part saves them from legal problems. There's also one called Not The Cosbys.
Other shows get pornified: Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, and Hell's Kitchen, which seems like a weird choice for a porn movie that I don't want to think about. There's also something called Everybody Loves Lucy, which is really self-explanatory.
FX announced their fall premiere dates today and it turns out that they've got quite the schedule lined up for the autumn months.
With Rescue Me set to end it's 22 episode fifth season on Tuesday, September 1st, it comes as no surprise that Sons of Anarchy has been scheduled to fill the Tuesday 10PM ET time-slot starting the very next week on September 8th. The motorcycle drama's sophomore season is generating a lot of buzz ever since the announcement of Henry Rollins and Adam Arkin joining the cast.
We've talked a lot about this before, the shows we love that haven't been released on DVD for one reason or another. Now PremiumHollywood.com has chosen the 26 shows, A to Z, that they bought on the shiny little discs.
It's a great idea, though I don't understand why they call the list "cult TV" when it has shows on it like L.A. Law and Eight is Enough. Some good choices here though. I would have chosen Ed, Private Eye, Something So Right, Shannon's Deal. A lot of shows that I never thought would be released on DVD are now getting released, so every year my dream list gets smaller and smaller.
Every single review that has been written for the new drama Hung (and will ever be written) will use a joke/pun concerning the title of the show. I refuse to do that. I have a good head on my shoulders. It might be hard to do, but I think if I refrain from bad jokes I won't get the shaft from readers.
Jimmy Kimmel Live went literal with this promo for the new show. It brings back a certain celebrity we had all forgotten about...
I know Harper's Island has been panned by everyone from television critics to deranged psychopathic killers with a penchant for islands, but I don't care. For eleven weeks now, I've followed along on this silly ride, and I've been enjoying the hell out of it. It's the horror-mystery aspect of it. Sure, I'm a little disappointed that the killer (so far) isn't one of the main cast members, but I'm having fun watching the cast get taken out "one by one," as creepy-little-girl says each week in the intro.
I was always a huge fan of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None. Plus, I'm a sucker for a long-form story in television. I think this is one of those things television has over the movies. You can't take thirteen hours to tell a mystery in the theaters. That's one of the reasons I'm never as impressed with the done-in-one shows. You have this format that allows for these massively detailed long stories so why not use it? I don't care if you don't think Americans have the attention span for it; I do. And aren't you supposed to be programming for me?
Being a nerd, I'm very familiar with Jeri Ryan's career. She helped make Star Trek: Voyager watchable for a while as a self-aware Borg and recently starred in CBS' Shark alongside James Woods. But it was her work on the David Kelley shows Boston Public and Boston Legal that has me thinking she'll be a good fit for Leverage.
The actress handled Kelley's sharp dialogue like a pro, and I'm guessing she'll bring the same confidence to her role as a "smart-ass, street-wise con woman" on the second season of Leverage. Ryan has signed on for a recurring role on the TNT heist drama. Her character will be a friend of Sophie's (Gina Bellman), Leverage's sexy grifter with a bag full of tricks and foreign accents.
For my daughter's twelfth birthday, she decided to have four of her friends sleep over, and it turned out to be the same night that 
There are a lot of really horrible things that have put America on the map: Jerry Springer, our ability to infuse anything edible with cheese, the fact that we're probably working on infusing something inedible with cheese. 
NBC isn't exactly engendering a lot of goodwill among people, with their cancellations of shows like 
Apparently, there are a lot of medical emergencies in the Hamptons - deflated boobs, dying socialites, hemophiliac kids. And apparently, there is also a shortage of doctors in the area that is so bad everyone is clamoring to be attended to by a visiting doctor from out of town who has just been conveniently ostracized for having let a hospital trustee die in his care. 
More good news out of NBC's top drama. 
Generally speaking, CBS had a strong 2008, developing one bona fide hit drama -- The Mentalist -- even though shows like The Ex-List never found an audience or a critical plaudit. Ironically, I liked The Ex-List based on the screener I reviewed last summer, so go figure. Sometimes a preview can inform you about a show's potential and sometimes it's just the best it'll ever be. 
Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton has had numerous chances to star in TV series during his successful career. It took the edgy blend of drama and humor in TNT's Leverage to lead him to sign on for the show's lead role.
Porn movies are well known (so I've heard) for taking film titles and making them a little bit dirtier (so I've heard). Now Hustler is taking TV shows and creating 
FX announced their fall premiere dates today and it turns out that they've got quite the schedule lined up for the autumn months.
We've talked a lot about this before, the shows we love that haven't been released on DVD for one reason or another. Now 
I know 
Being a nerd, I'm very familiar with Jeri Ryan's career. She helped make 
Seven greatest hand cannons in TV history
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
