Damian Lewis-related stories
Posted May 4th 2009 4:40PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Cancellations, Upfronts, Reality-Free

While they haven't yet made an announcement about other on-the-bubble shows, including
Medium, Law & Order, and of course,
Chuck, NBC's
Ben Silverman has confirmed that
Life has indeed been canceled.
Life is just the latest victim of the
Writers' Strike curse: ABC's
Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and
Dirty Sexy Money are among some of the other series that had their freshman seasons interrupted by the strike that began in November of 07, and won't live to see a third season.
Other second season shows, including the aforementioned
Chuck, along with ABC's
Samantha Who? and FOX's
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are currently on the bubble. The CW's
Gossip Girl is one of the few shows that premiered during the 07-08 season that is definitely going to make it to the 09-10 one.
The strike spooked the networks and advertisers, and we're obviously feeling the effects now, over a year after it ended. What it boils down to is a lot of great shows are suffering-- and Ben Silverman is a dick.
Continue reading NBC confirms: Life is dead
Posted Dec 15th 2008 5:13PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: OpEd, House, Video, Grey's Anatomy, Festivus, Chuck, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, Fringe, Life on Mars, The Mentalist
...Nine foreign AmericansWith all of the starry-eyed, out-of-work Midwesterners who litter Sunset Blvd., one would assume that our television landscape would be similarly populated with corn-fed blonds. You would, however, be wrong. In fact, there are a ton of non-Americans who have come to Hollywood to take all of our primetime show-starring jobs.
What's fun for me is watching the shows to see who does a good version of an American accent, and who needs to spend a little more time with their dialect coaches. Below are nine stars who've jumped the pond to come to the good ol' U. S. of A.
Continue reading On the 9th day of Festivus, TV gave to me... - VIDEOS
Posted Sep 30th 2008 9:01AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Life, Reality-Free

(S02E01) Ten months. That's how long its been since we've seen a fresh episode of Life. After the last episode aired in November there was nary a word about the show, save for reports of its renewal and a bit about casting changes. This left fans of the show in a bit of a tizzy. For Life wasn't just a dime-a-dozen criminal procedural, but a show with an underlying story about conspiracy and the search for justice. By the time the show ended its very short first season we were cheering Detective Charlie Crews as he was able to get a semblance of his freedom back.
Now we enter season two. And, as usual, the following question comes to mind: did it carry on the spirit of season one? Well yes, and possibly no. Click ahead to find out.
Continue reading Life: Find Your Happy Place (season premiere)
Posted Sep 11th 2008 12:04PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, HDTV, The Office, Psych, Eureka, Heroes, Reality-Free, In Plain Sight
If you were wondering just what that extra dollar buys you when you upgrade to HD in the iTunes store, you can get a free look. Our pals over at TUAW made note of a number of shows that have free episodes available, in HD. The files are large, with the HD versions clocking in at right around 1.5GB, so it will take a bit to download. Something that isn't helped by the fact that iTunes downloads the SD version as well.
I've been taking a look at them and I grabbed screenshots from Heroes, Life, and Battlestar Galactica to give you an idea of the difference in the picture. It's fairly dramatic. Those captures, and the full list of free episodes, with the iTunes links, are after the jump.
Continue reading Free HD episodes on iTunes
Posted Jul 22nd 2008 10:28PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, TCA Press Tour, Chuck, Life, Lipstick Jungle, Reality-Free

Today was the very last day of the press tour here in Beverly Hills. It was "TCA Day," with members of the association (including me) going to the Warner Brothers lot to visit the sets of
ER, Pushing Daisies, and
Chuck, where we spoke to cast members and producers (Oh, we went to the set of
America's Best Dance Crew, but let's just forget I mentioned that one). Then we bused it over to the Fox lot, where Joss Whedon showed us around the set of
Dollhouse, and the entire cast of
King of the Hill gave a table read of their 250th episode. All this fun will be in upcoming posts later this summer.
Despite some of the griping you may have seen from me, it's been lots of fun. It's just a very tiring experience. Case in point: On Monday, NBC decided to close out the press conference portion of the tour by having us sit through ten panels, five of them after lunch. Here's a wrap-up post that goes over some of what went on yesterday that I haven't already covered.
Continue reading NBC wrap-up: Slater's split personality, and Selma Blair's a wise-ass - TCA Report
Posted Nov 27th 2007 7:32AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Chuck, Life

Geeks and fruit lovers rejoice,
NBC just announced that it is ordering an extra nine episodes of two of its new series:
Chuck and
Life. What that means is that both series will have a complete first season of 22 episodes each!
About 8 million viewers tune in weekly to watch geek-turned-secret-agent Chuck Bartowski solve crimes with his two handlers and to witness Detective Crews solve cases after sering time in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Continue reading NBC gives full seasons to Life and Chuck
Posted Nov 1st 2007 10:10AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Life

(S01E06) Well, this was an interesting episode of Life. Rather than having the focus on Charlie and many of his day-to-day activities, we were treated to the life of Detective Dani Reese. I was a bit concerned about this when I saw the previews because this show is really still in its infancy and a shift in focus for just one episode can throw viewers off. However, as the episode progressed I felt more and more comfortable about the whole setup.
Continue reading Life: Powerless
Posted Oct 25th 2007 7:02AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Life

(S01E05) Suspect -- Where is Officer New Money?
Charlie Crews -- Detective New Money, actually.
Forrest Gump. As soon as they showed that feather drifting down to the ground, accompanied by that soft piano music, I immediately thought of the Tom Hank's hit of the 1990s. Then I thought that Forrest and Charlie were a little bit alike. Both have that innocence to them, but they are also quite worldly as well.
Then, a dead woman with angel wings came crashing down from the sky into a parked car (did you see the reaction of those bystanders as she crashed? Good stuff.), and the illusion abruptly ended. And so, another episode of Life comes to pass.
Continue reading Life: The Fallen Woman
Posted Oct 3rd 2007 11:02PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Life
(S01E02) I'm trying to figure out Officer Bobby Starks, former partner to Charlie Crews. We know from the snippets of documentary that are interspersed throughout an episode of Life that Starks was one of the people who turned Charlie in for the triple-murder he didn't commit. Now that Crews is out of prison I'm not sure how Bobby feels about that.
I'm sure that he's feeling guilty about turning in his former partner, and he's doing his damnedest to make Charlie feel like nothing has changed between them. Hence, the reason he invited Crews to a barbecue under the premise that his wife wanted him there (Turns out, Stark's wife wanted nothing to do with the man who left his husband without a partner for four years). But, somewhere down deep inside, I have a feeling that Starks is really unsure of Crews' innocence and is rightfully pissed that he got away with it.
Continue reading Life: Tear Asunder
Posted Sep 20th 2007 9:35AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Video, Early Looks, Episode Reviews, Life

In today's crowded world of television, procedural crime dramas are a dime a dozen. Actually, make that a nickel a dozen, since there are so many of them. Each one is slightly different than the other, but they all have pretty much the same formula: a crime is committed (on or off screen), the police go in to investigate, clues are discovered, crack forensic and computer scientists discover even more clues, the wrong person is brought in for questioning, and the real culprit is finally brought to justice two minutes before the credits roll.
Continue reading Life -- An early look - VIDEO
Posted Jul 16th 2007 7:41PM by Michael Maloney
Filed under: Programming, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, The Office, Celebrities, 30 Rock, TCA Press Tour, Casting

NBC's press tour day continued with a panel on Sunday Night Football.
When it concluded, panelists including Tiki Barber, John Madden and Al Michaels tossed out signed footballs to 10 or so lucky members of the press. Score! I caught the ball thrown to me by 2006 Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis, formerly of The Pittsburgh Steelers, now an NBC sports analyst.
In my dreams. It actually sailed over my head to a journalist behind me. "Fumble," he said as he scooped it up.
Sometimes press tour swag can be elusive.
Continue reading Free footballs and scoops from NBC's Thursday night sitcoms - TCA report
Posted May 31st 2007 4:39PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Early Looks, Upfronts
OK, so the networks have given their upfronts and they've sent out the screener DVDs. These are the pilot episodes of the new fall shows, in not-quite-completed form. Things could still change before they hit the networks this fall, but they give a good general sense of what the shows are about and what they're like.
Today Joel and I start with previews of some new NBC shows: Bionic Woman, Life, Chuck, and Journeyman. More networks and other shows coming soon!
(Photos courtesy NBC.com)
Continue reading TV Squad previews NBC's new shows
Posted Nov 3rd 2006 9:32AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities
Entertainment Weekly ran an interesting online reader's poll asking, "Who deserves more fame?"
While I'm not sure I'd wish big time, privacy-destroying fame on any of my favorite performers, there are definitely some TV actors out there who are severely underrated.
Who was included on the
EW list? Christopher Gorham,
Ugly Betty; Allison Mack,
Smallville; Sara Rue,
Less Than Perfect; Nathan Fillion,
Firefly; Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki,
Supernatural; Wendell Pierce,
The Wire; David Hyde Pierce,
Fraiser; Matthew Settle and Damian Lewis,
Band of Brothers; the cast of
Everwood; Clea DuVall and Nick Stahl,
Carnivale; Mary Lynn Rajskub and Roger Cross,
24 and Tahmoh Penikett,
Battlestar Galactica.
Continue reading Who deserves more fame?