AmyRyan-related stories
Posted Nov 16th 2009 9:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
And so
Jane After Dark has come to the end of
The Wire. I need to watch it again to catch more than the one-eighth I caught the first time around. But after watching all five seasons, spanned over most of this year, the thing that keeps popping into my head is that the bureaucratic end of things is really no better than the drug dealer end of things.
In some ways, the drug dealers have more ethics than the suits. At least when a druggie does something that wrongs others in the system, there's no messing around. They're shot. They know they have it coming, and they step up and take it, just like Snoop did, asking if her hair looked ok before being gunned down. Just like Proposition Joe did when he closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable bullet to the head.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire, season five (part two)
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 8:03PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV Royalty, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
Ah, how good it is to get back to
The Wire. I've been steered off track by other DVDs landing on my doorstep for
Jane After Dark, so season five of
The Wire has been a while coming. One again, the show blows me away with the writing, characters, cinematography and realism. I'm just part-way into season one, but I love all of the references to everything that's happened thus far in the series, and the crew's continued attempts to bring down Marlo's organization. And, apparently, Omar is still in the game ...
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire, season five (part one)
Posted Jun 20th 2009 3:16PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV Royalty, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
As John Howard noted in the comments in
last week's Jane After Dark column, I really haven't talked much about Omar yet. I just finished season two of
The Wire, and to be honest, most of my thoughts right now revolve around the Sobotka clan.
First of all, how stupid was Ziggy? The guy's always been a live wire, and you could see the bad karma building throughout this season, with him flashing money around, showing off his Italian leather coat, and going a little bonkers with the stolen Mercedes. Things were bound to go bad for him, and they did just that when his deal with Double-G went oh so wrong.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire - Season two ends, the Sobotka clan crumbles
Posted Jun 13th 2009 2:06PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
I'm three episodes into season two of
The Wire. I tried watching it online as Usama suggested in last week's
Jane After Dark comments (thank you for that awesome site!), but decided to just buy the DVDs, because I stop and start a lot and need easy access to it. So I looked around town and found a fairly reasonably priced season two at FYE. It's new; no one seems to have any used sets, which makes me think - as you all have suggested - that no one ever gets rid of their DVDs of
The Wire. They keep them around to watch again and again. I'll probably just buy each season as I work my way through the series.
And speaking of starting and stopping,
The Wire does not get any easier to watch while doing something else at the same time. Whenever I try to do that, I end up replaying those parts again, because there's way too many subtleties to be only half-paying attention.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire season two - on the waterfront with Amy Ryan
Posted May 28th 2009 3:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Interviews, The Office, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
This morning, I had a really fun interview with Amy Ryan, who's taking a little time off after a busy couple of years. During the conversation, which mostly revolved around her fantastic guest turn on
The Office as Michael Scott's soulmate Holly Flax, I had to ask her the question most
Office fans have been wondering about since the season finale: Is she coming back?
Your guess is as good as hers. "They keep that (the plans for Holly) under wraps, if they are indeed thinking of it. There's no plan there." When I asked her if she was under contract for any episodes next season, she said she wasn't.
What is she hoping Greg Daniels and company do with Holly in the coming years? "The viewer in me, the fan of the show, hopes that they (Michael and Holly) get together. The actor in me would love to see that there's still conflict along the way. That's where it's fun."
I'll have the complete interview with Ryan next week.
Posted Jan 16th 2009 12:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: The Office, Casting, Reality-Free
There's good news for fans of Michael and Holly on
The Office, and potentially even better news. When Amy Ryan first stepped in to fill Toby's shoes as the HR rep for the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin, I wasn't sure how well she'd fit with the regular cast. The last time we got a massive infusion of new blood on the show via the branch merger, we wound up losing every one of the new cast members except for Andy (Ed Helms).
But then her wacky synergy with Michael really clicked, and suddenly I was happy for the both of them. And it was genuinely painful when she had to leave. I'm pleased to see that Greg Daniels, who steers
The Office ship, really does get it. In the release announcing
the return of Amy Ryan to The Office this season, he stated "I don't think she can blow in and out every so often. It would be too hard for [Michael] as a human being." He barely survived her leaving the first time, so it's good to see that Daniels has too much respect for the characters to just bring her in when convenient for ratings, or whatever.
Continue reading Amy Ryan bringing Holly back to Michael on The Office
Posted Dec 19th 2008 7:29PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Saturday Night Live, Festivus, The Office, Celebrities, 30 Rock, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, Mad Men, Life on Mars, The Mentalist
Since I'm still new enough at TV Squad not to exist on the "Meet the TV Squad" page, this is my first Festivus. It's nice to be able to dig deep into my heart for all of my TV wishes in hopes that some internet fairy will grant them and make the television landscape just a little bit more awesome... for me, at least.
Without further ado, here is what I want for Festivus:
- Christina Hendricks and the rest of the Mad Men cast should guest-star on more shows. Ever since I started watching Mad Men, I've noticed Hendricks popping up places. She's on an episode of Without a Trace here, an old episode of Cold Case there... I love me some Joan Holloway and Mad Men isn't returning soon enough. I loved seeing Jon Hamm host SNL, and I'm super excited about his upcoming guest stint on 30 Rock. More please!
Continue reading All Kona wants for Festivus
Posted Oct 30th 2008 11:48PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E05) [Jay couldn't be here tonight, as he's off being Jay Black somewhere.] Tonight's theme seemed to be about relationship crossroads. We had three storylines interweaving, and all of them centered on the three major hook-ups on the show. Dwight decided that the only way to come to terms with how he felt about Andy and Angela's impending nuptials was to goad Andy into a pointless feud. Michael and Holly had to deal with the fallout of David Wallace discovering that they'd become romantically involved (the hint is in the episode title), and Pam had to have quite possibly the most awkward lunch in history with Jim's brothers.
As always,
The Office manages to weave slapstick humor brilliantly with moments of raw emotion and pathos. Particularly, again, with a wonderful performance by Steve Carell. With most of the action centering on the major storylines, we didn't get much work out of the supporting cast, so it was at least good to see them having some costume fun in the cold open. Don't forget the rest of the cast, writers, we love them all!
Continue reading The Office: Employee Transfer
Posted Oct 23rd 2008 11:37PM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E04) (Warning: Spoilers ahead!) Was it just me, or did tonight's
Office feel like a sweeps episode? Look how much was crammed into it: Holly and Michael's first (and, er,
second) trip to Funkytown, the return of Roy, a possible declaration of victory in the Dwight-Andy war for Angela's affections, an ominous David Wallace realization, and (hope of hopes) Jim's assertion that he's "not that guy."
All that and it's only October. Tonight's episode was (just about) worth missing the first half of the Phillies' game for, and that's saying something...
Continue reading The Office: Crime Aid
Posted Sep 30th 2008 2:01PM by Kelly Woo
Filed under: Desperate Housewives, ER, House, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, The Office, TV Squad Lists, Casting, Reality-Free
The genius that was Amy Ryan's Holly beatboxing on
The Office last week got me thinking about other cast additions that have made shows better.
The first that came to mind was actually another Amy Ryan role -- Beadie on season two of
The Wire. It took awhile for me to get into the whole dockworkers storyline, but it was Beadie that helped me through.
If a show plans to stay on air for awhile, it needs fresh blood -- but the process of introducing new characters isn't easy (witness how reviled Maya was on
Heroes). The best new additions combine great actors with well-written characters.
Here are seven other (fairly recent) new characters that succeeded.
Continue reading Seven new characters that worked
Posted Jun 30th 2008 11:39AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: The Office, Casting, Reality-Free
In last season's finale of
The Office, sparks flew between Michael Scott and Toby's HR replacement Holly. Amy Ryan, seen for four seasons on
The Wire, brought a new dynamic to the show as Holly with her interactions with Steve Carell's Michael. "Amy gave the character of Holly an openness and matured innocence that exposed a new side of Michael," said Paul Lieberstein, who played Toby and was recently promoted to executive producer on the show. "She placed her character right on his level."
All I can say is bring on more Holly and congratulations to Toby! I guess since Lieberstein will still be so involved with the show, there's always a chance of more Toby in the future, but the beautiful Ryan will add a new dynamic to the series. While
Amy Ryan's currently only set for five or so episodes, I hope they can expand that if it works. Now that Pam is back off the market and Karen's gone, Holly represents a new amorous target for the boys of the office. And having her be the HR rep at the same time makes it all the more taboo to pursue. Which means Michael will be all over it like Dwight on
Second Life.
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