Posts with tag Showtime
Posted Jul 7th 2008 11:03PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(
S01E04) This episode of
Secret Diary of a Call Girl had everything I've been wanting in this show: Intriguing tidbits about the adventures of a London prostitute, well-delivered quips and situations ripe with comedy, and insight into why we should like / care about the other side of Belle ... Hannah.
All elements came together so seamlessly that I'm already wanting to see what happens next Monday night. (Yes, I have the screeners, but I try to watch only one a week so I keep those viewers seeing the show for the first time. I actually haven't seen Episode 1-05 yet.)
My review of tonight's
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is after the jump.
Continue reading Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Episode 1-04
Posted Jul 5th 2008 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free
How much of
Swingtown is real and how much is pure fiction? According to Mike Kelley,
Swingtown's creator,
there are elements in the show that come right from his childhood memories of growing up on the North Shore, a trendy suburb of Chicago. But the sex and the swinging? That's mostly creative license.
So were there really sex parties and swinging in the Kelley home? "You know, it comes from imagination, for the most part."
Inspired by 1976, the era of women's liberation, disco-dancing, the end of the Vietnam War, and sexual freedom thanks to the pill and no AIDS, Kelley balances the fantastic elements with nostalgia.
Continue reading What's really real in Swingtown?
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 2:05PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Entourage, WGA Strike, Reality-Free
Have you been jonesing for the entourage from
Entourage? Do you need a little Ari Gold to get your blood flowing? Well, new shows aren't coming back until September (thanks to the writers' strike), but HBO is giving fans a chance to enjoy the most recent shows starting tomorrow, July 4th. Every Friday at 10 p.m. (ET) on, HBO will replay season 3: part 2, and season 4.
That's good to know -- especially in these dog days of summer TV -- but if you want to know what's going to happen next, read on. Both Jerry Ferarra and Kevin Connolly, Turtle and E, got a little chatty with
OK! magazine's Oliver Coleman.
If you don't want to know how things are going to unfold in season five, don't read after the jump.
Continue reading Turtle and E spill the beans about Entourage
Posted Jun 30th 2008 11:04PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(
S0E03) "If you ask them first, 90% of them will say 'No.' But hey, once it's up there..." -- Belle
Ahh, the pitfalls of being a London call girl. I'll have to remember Belle's trick for when I'm stuck with a marathon runner and I'm on someone else's clock. That someone else is Ashok. We met Belle's
very first client tonight. I already hope we see more of him.
My review of
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is after the jump.
Continue reading Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Episode 1-03
Posted Jun 30th 2008 9:40PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
Remember back in February when we told you that Edie Falco was signed for a
new dark situation comedy from Showtime about a harried nurse?
Well, they've started filming the show in New York and given it a tentative title,
Nurse Jackie. What's more, the cast surrounding Edie includes some familiar faces.
Nurse Jackie will have a boyfriend and he will be played by Paul Schulze. The name may not be familiar, but the face sure is. Paul was Father Phil on
The Sopranos, the priest who spent a lot of time with Carmella and had her thinking they were going to replay
The Thornebirds.
On this Showtime series, he's Eddie and he works in the hospital in the pharmacy. That's important because reportedly Edie's character has a problem with drugs.
What's this, she's a female
House? Could she be popping Vicodin as prodigiously as he does? Could anyone?
Continue reading More info on Edie Falco's new Showtime series
Posted Jun 30th 2008 3:05PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Casting, Reality-Free
Rod Lurie is no stranger to writing strong female characters. In film, he wrote and directed
The Contender, with Joan Allen as a woman who was being considered for the Vice Presidency of the United States.
Then with
Commander in Chief on ABC, he made Geena Davis the President and actually showed her in action -- until the show was canceled.
Lurie's working on another female-driven drama now for Showtime, but this time it's not about politics.
Hillary Jones is the name of the show and the character, a police detective working vice in Los Angeles during the week, but moonlighting as a hooker in Nevada during the weekend.
She's not breaking the law, though, because prostitution -- as you and I know from the movies -- is legal there.
Continue reading Rod Lurie creates new femme series for Showtime
Posted Jun 26th 2008 6:02PM by Brett Love
Filed under: OpEd, Cable/Satellite, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, So You Think You Can Dance
I'm going to hazard the guess that if you are a regular visitor to TV Squad that you, like me, probably watch more television than the average bear. Partly out of good old fashioned curiosity, and partly because I'm paying for all of those channels so I might as well use them, I make it a point to cover as much of my cable TV package as I can when time allows. Doing so, you end up finding some odd and interesting things. After the jump, five things I've learned from my cable TV over the last week or so.
Continue reading Things I learned from my cable TV
Posted Jun 24th 2008 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
To some people, George Clooney's affable good nature and sincerity comes off as smug over-confidence. I fall into the former rather than the latter category.
I think George is ambitious and grateful to be working in the business. I think he remembers
the years of struggling to become a star -- those years on
The Facts of Life and
Riptide and
E/R (the Elliott Gould sitcom, not the Emmy award-winning NBC medical drama).
Failures like
Leatherheads have to keep him humble. Anyway, his efforts to expand as an actor and director and producer strike me as someone who is wisely not resting on his laurels. That said, today it was reported that
Clooney's production company, Smoke House, is behind a new pilot for Showtime called The Fall of Bob. Continue reading Clooney gets The Fall of Bob on Showtime
Posted Jun 24th 2008 7:39AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(
S01E02) "Sometimes I get
paid to do the things I've always wanted to do." -- Belle
Like have sex with old Scottish men who have a penchant for horses? No, wait, that was
last week. This week Belle went to an exclusive adult party (think
Eyes Wide Shut, but not as creepy) and meet her favorite author. She also got to wear a black wig (think
Chicago) and some feathers around her neck (think Big Bird).
Check out my review of
Secret Diary of a Call Girl after the jump. I promise, no more references.
Continue reading Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Episode 1-02
Posted Jun 23rd 2008 10:02AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: TV on DVD, Contests and Giveaways, Weeds, Reality-Free
The giveaways continue today! Not only are we giving away some
Futurama DVDs, but we've got five copies of
Weeds - Season Three on DVD for five lucky, random commenters. The DVD is already available in stores.
To enter, simply leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, June 27 simply telling us why you'd like to own this DVD set. As always, we'll randomly choose five winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
- To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating why you'd like to own Weeds - Season Three on DVD.
- The comment must be left before June 27, 2008 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
- You may enter only once.
- Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
- Five winners will receive Weeds - Season Three DVD set (valued at $39.98).
- Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
Click
here for complete Official Rules.
Posted Jun 18th 2008 6:43PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Weeds, Reality-Free
Weeds began it's fourth season Monday night on Showtime and showrunner
Jenji Kohan told E! Online that she's thinking about doing a Weeds spin-off. The possible spin-off would focus on Conrad's story and take place in a pot club. Kohan explains that it was time to split up Nancy and Conrad but she still felt like Conrad's story was compelling: "I love those characters; I just think those relationships wore themselves out, and I wanted to be true to where the characters were. Truthfully, Heylia and Nancy had nothing more to say to each other. Conrad and Nancy weren't going to be the loves of each other's lives, so it was time to move on."
As for the style of the spin-off, Jenji Kohan has a good idea of what she wants the show to look like. "I'd shoot it sort of fake reality-show style. It could be pretty like
The Hills!," she says. While
The Hills is indeed a "pretty" show, I think comparing the
Weeds spin-off to
The Hills is a downgrade for me. I'm just going to pretend it didn't happen.
Posted Jun 18th 2008 8:40AM by Erin Martell
Filed under: Ratings, Weeds, Reality-Free
The fourth season of
Weeds began on Monday night, and the comedy's season premiere
earned Showtime record ratings. With 1.3 million viewers,
"Mother Thinks the Birds are After Her" is officially the most-watched season premiere of any Showtime series to date.
Weeds broke the record formerly held by the season two premiere of
Dexter, which had one million viewers.
Showtime's
Secret Diary of a Call Girl also brought in a significant audience. The drama earned 949,000 viewers, setting a record for the highest-rated series premiere on the cable network.
The L Word's series premiere was the previous record-holder.
Continue reading Weeds premiere sets ratings record for Showtime
Posted Jun 16th 2008 11:33PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E01) Right after
Weeds, we got our first look at Showtime's new original comedy series
Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The half-hour show stars Billie Piper as Belle du Jour, a high-class London call girl. Tonight we got to meet Belle, who is Hannah the legal secretary by day, her agent Stephanie, her best friend Ben and a few of her clients.
We also got to hear Belle's rules: keep her two lives completely separate and stay in control. (There were others but those were the important ones.)
Then we got to see Belle break said rules.
Continue reading Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Episode 1- 01 (series premiere)
Posted Jun 13th 2008 11:03AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Reality-Free
Showtime has a new original comedy series premiering next week called
Secret Diary of a Call Girl. I watched five of the eight half-hour episodes slated for season one (Showtime has ordered eight more for next year). In fact, I watched four episodes in one sitting. That should give you an idea of how much I enjoyed the show. It's easy to watch, well-acted, and the subject matter is well...interesting to say the least.
Take an early look at
Secret Diary of a Call Girl after the jump.
Continue reading Secret Diary of a Call Girl -- An early look
Posted Jun 5th 2008 6:23PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Dexter, Casting, Cane, Reality-Free
Cane may be gone from the landscape of fictional South Florida, but the actor who starred in that CBS drama seems bound to remain in the Miami area.
Emmy-winner Jimmy Smits will be joining the cast of Showtime's Dexter in the new season.Dexter, which stars Michael C. Hall as a serial killer who murders those he feels deserve to die and remains under the radar thanks to his job as a blood-splatter expert in the Miami Police department, was a breakout hit for Showtime. CBS aired slightly-altered episodes of the twisted crime drama earlier this year, in part of fill the schedule holes created by the writers' strike -- and, ironically, the failure of shows like
Cane.Continue reading Jimmy Smits joins Dexter
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