the closer-related stories
Posted Jun 30th 2009 9:41AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E04) After an intense, heavy-duty
The Closer last week, it was probably a wise move to roll out a lighter episode. That's what this show was, a change of pace with some insight into the delicate dance that makes Fritz and Brenda's relationship work.
The decision to not work together since they're not married was news to me. But Fritz had an ulterior motive in getting Major Crimes into the case of missing person Austin Blair. The motive was not just to distract Brenda Leigh from her grief of losing Kitty, but at first that seemed to be his intent.
Continue reading The Closer: Walking Back the Cat
Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour episode of The Bachelorette, followed by a new Here Come The Newlyweds.- FOX repeats the two-hour Michael Jackson-themed episode of American Idol at 8.
- ABC Family has a new Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8, then a new Make It or Break It.
- At 9, USA has a new Monday Night RAW.
- TNT has a new episode of The Closer at 8, followed by a new Raising The Bar.
- At 10, NBC has a new Dateline.
- Bravo has a new Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List at 10.
- Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives at 10.
- Also at 10: Showtime has a new Weeds, then a new Nurse Jackie.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: Bachelorette, American Idol, Kathy Griffin, Weeds
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 10:45AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E03) If you were
Kyra Sedgwick and you were asked to choose an episode of
The Closer for Emmy consideration, this would be a strong candidate. For one thing, Ms. Sedgwick was given a really strong adversary, another likely Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series,
Battlestar Galactica's Mary McDonnell. As Captain Sharon Raydor, Force Investigation Division, McDonnell made an immediate impression.
Oh, baby, did she ever! She took over investigating the crime scene, forcing out Major Crimes. Then Brenda met Sharon and the sparks flew. Under different circumstances, these women might have been good friends. Both are forces to be reckoned with, no-nonsense types. Under these circumstances, however, they were oil and water. More on the specifics of the case after the jump.
Continue reading The Closer: Red Tape
Posted Jun 16th 2009 8:34AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E02) How could a gruesome, blood-splattered murder scene in a Lincoln Town Car leave no trail of blood outside the vehicle? Why would a kidnapper ask for the unlikely sum of $1,190,476.19 as a ransom? Who was putting the zip in Provenza's step after his hound dog attitude about love last week? All that and more was covered in the episode, and after a rather worrisome venture into the random plot devices in the Season Premiere,
The Closer was back on track with a nifty mystery.
In the midst of solving the crime, which alternated between being an abduction/kidnapping or a murder, Brenda was also caring for Kitty. If you've wondered if Brenda had a nurturing side, wonder no more. Brenda's ministering to her pussycat involved an IV drip and injections for kidney troubles. Brenda also enlisted Will as her helper in treating the pet. When it comes to Brenda, Pope still has a soft spot and she can get him to do just about anything -- and Brenda knows it, too.
Continue reading The Closer: Blood Money
Posted Jun 15th 2009 4:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour Bachelorette, followed by a new Here Come The Newlyweds.- NBC has a new, two-hour I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here at 8, then a new Dateline.
- ABC Family has the season finale of Greek at 8.
- USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 8.
- At 9, TNT has a new episode of The Closer, followed by a new Raising The Bar.
- TLC has a new Jon & Kate Plus 8 at 9.
- Also at 9: HBO has the premiere of Joe Buck Live.
- At 9:30, TCM has On The Waterfront.
- At 10, Showtime has a new Weeds, then a new Nurse Jackie.
- Bravo has a new Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List at 10.
- Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives at 10.
- There's a new 4th & Long on Spike at 10.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: Greek, RAW, Nurse Jackie, 4th and Long
Posted Jun 9th 2009 9:40AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E01) The Closer season opener was a good news, bad news situation. The good news is that the show is back for the fifth year and the ensemble is clicking along like a finely tuned watch. Although Brenda Leigh is now a "Sadie, Sadie married lady," she's still as obsessed, determined and driven to do her job as ever, so there's been no major shift in the main character, thank goodness. The bad news, however, is that the premiere episode started out like a compelling drama but soon devolved into a case laden with coincidences and leaps of faith in plotting that were beyond my jumping abilities.
The emotional impact was intense when the Priority Homicide team arrived at the crime scene to find four dead bodies, two of them pre-teen children. Flynn was hot under the collar immediately, ready to prejudge the man of the house who had opportunity and possible motive in the quadruple killing.
Continue reading The Closer: Products of Discovery (season premiere)
Posted Jun 8th 2009 4:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
WE has a Golden Girls marathon all night.- Discovery has a Mega Engineering marathon all night.
- At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour episode of The Bachelorette, followed by a new Here Come The Newlyweds.
- NBC has a new, two-hour I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here at 8, then a new Dateline.
- ABC Family has a new Greek at 8.
- Also at 8: TCM has Private Screenings: Stanley Donen at 8, then On The Town.
- At 9, TLC has a new Jon & Kate Plus 8.
- TNT has a new episode of The Closer at 9, followed by a new Raising The Bar.
- USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
- At 10, Bravo has the season premiere of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.
- Showtime has the season premiere of Weeds at 10, then the series premiere of Nurse Jackie.
- Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives at 10.
- TLC has a new Cake Boss at 10.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: Greek, The Closer, Kathy Griffin, Nurse Jackie
Posted Jun 8th 2009 3:26PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, TV Squad Polls, Reality-Free
It's amazing how many new shows are on during the summer now. Who needs the outdoors? Let us know which show you're most looking forward to watching this summer (I didn't include shows that have
already premiered, such as
Burn Notice,
So You Think You Can Dance, and
The Listener). A poll can only be so long, so if you're show isn't listed let us know in the comments.
Continue reading Which summer show are you most looking forward to?
Posted Jun 7th 2009 10:18AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd
You know, I have to tip my cap -- yes, I'm wearing one -- to
Bravo. It seems to me that everything NBC does wrong with their programming, the NBC Universal cable net Bravo does right. Case in point is this new innovation, if you want to call it that, the lost footage episode.
Suddenly, out of nowhere really, Bravo has been stretching their unscripted, reality shows by adding an extra show labeled
The Lost Footage.
The Real Housewives of New York City was the first I caught, but soon after there was
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List Lost Footage. Coming up is one on
The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Continue reading Bravo's latest find is lost footage
Posted May 25th 2009 6:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.I'm not usually a big fan of these DVD box sets that take one genre and give you a variety of various series episodes (such as the sets that have a bunch of TV westerns in them). But the
Saturday Morning Cartoon sets look like fun. The 1960s set includes
The Flintstones,
The Jetsons,
Top Cat,
Secret Squirrel,
Atom Ant, and
Quick Draw McGraw, while the 1970s set includes
Josie & The Pussycats,
Speed Buggy,
the Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour, and
Hong Kong Phooey. OK, the 60s set is much better than the 70s set. And the 70s set for some reason also includes
The Jetsons, which is odd (it ran in 1962). Still, both sets look good.
- The Closer - Season 4
- Designing Women - Season 1
- Gangland - Season 3
- Gunsmoke - Season 3, Vol. 2
- Jeeves & Wooster - Complete Series
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted May 21st 2009 3:25PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, Reality-Free
With all this news from
ABC,
CBS,
NBC,
FOX, and
The CW about their new fall schedules, we can't forget what's happening on cable.
TNT and
TBS have announced some new shows of their own. Some might say that these shows are even more promising than what the other networks have to offer this fall. In fact, one of them has me more excited than Richard Simmons in a tank top factory.
Besides returning shows like
The Closer (June 8),
Raising The Bar (June 8),
Saving Grace (June 16), and
Leverage (July 15), TNT also has the following new shows.
Continue reading Hey, TNT and TBS have new shows coming too
Posted Apr 30th 2009 9:30AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
When the networks go into summer hibernation, it's time for the cable networks to come out and play. While they've been making inroads with fall and spring original programming, most cable networks stick to the summer frame where competition is light and they put up huge numbers that NBC would envy.
TNT added a few shows to achieve a three-night schedule of original programming this summer, bringing it closer and closer to full network programming levels. And TNT knows a thing or two about massive ratings hits.
They're coupling smash hit
The Closer at 9 PM ET with
Raising the Bar at 10 on Mondays starting June 8.
Bar launched huge and secured a renewal before everyone realized what a huge steaming pile of crap it was. So now it's got the cushiest timeslot on the network to try and win back all the viewers it pissed away. Let's hope they've improved the product and
Felicityed Mark Paul-Gosselaar's hair.
Continue reading TNT putting together a network-killing summer schedule
Posted Apr 23rd 2009 4:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
On
The Closer,
Kyra Sedgwick rarely gets the chance to dance. She plays a homicide detective in Los Angeles, for goodness sake! But as the harried Brenda Leigh Johnson, the actress didn't even share a waltz with her new TV hubby Fritz after their wedding on the season finale last winter.
However, have you seen Kyra strut her stuff in this new orange juice commercial? Not only is the commercial terrific, it's a little bit of an homage to Kyra's real life husband, actor-director Kevin Bacon.
Continue reading Kyra's doing wonders for orange juice
Posted Mar 13th 2009 10:02AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Law and Order, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, 30 Rock, Pushing Daisies, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, TV Squad Ten
There's a reason why when you watch
The Mentalist, there are always subtle close ups of
Simon Baker's eyes or of his mouth when he's talking. The producers know he's hot and they know women are watching. Between him, the cast of
Friday Night Lights, and a whole other
list of DILF's, there's a lot of male eye-candy on TV right now. But what about the women? Of course television is filled with hot chicks, but who do other women like to watch?
There are certain female characters who, when you watch them, you just want to hang out with. Either you think she'd be a good friend, or exciting to have around, or maybe you just kind of want to
be her. This, my friends, is a Girl Crush. Here is my list of Top Ten TV Girl Crushes.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Girl Crushes
Posted Mar 11th 2009 1:51PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Awards, Reality-Free
The
nominations for the Saturn Awards came out and as Claude Rains in
Casablanca said, "Round up the usual suspects."
Lost lead the pack with 11 nominations, six for
Heroes, and four each for
Battlestar Galactica and
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Newbie sci-fi/horror like
Fringe and
True Blood also received nominations, as well as the outre
Dexter, Life on Mars, Jericho and
The Ghost Whisperer.
All those make sense to me. However, why did the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror films choose to nominate Bryan Cranston for
Breaking Bad and Kyra Sedgwick for
The Closer, as Best TV actor and actress, respectively?
Continue reading Strangeness in the Saturn Award nominations
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