Archive: July 2009 (21-30 of 56)

Jul 20 2009 01:19 PM ET

'The Closer' tonight: The quality is slipping a bit, but welcome back, Mary McDonnell

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Categories: Television

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Tonight there’s a fresh episode of The Closer, featuring the return of guest star Mary McDonnell as a tough, by-the-book, Internal Affairs police captain who gives Kyra Sedgwick’s Brenda Johnson a hard time. McDonnell’s appearance a couple of week’s ago had crackling energy: She and Sedgwick played off well against each other, and I’m looking forward to another showdown tonight.

But in general, I think The Closer has slipped in quality a bit this year. As I wrote in my review of The Closer in Entertainment Weekly recently, the series is doing a disservice to some fine actors by increasingly becoming so silly. It’s been a shame to see the excellent G. W. Bailey turn into a clownish cop who’s spending too much time mooning over his new girlfriend and trying to impress her (fancy wardrobe; eating more healthily) rather than concentrating on cases to be solved.

Poor Jon Tenney has been reduced to just looking sheepish and sympathetic toward Brenda during the long arc concerning the poor health and recent death of their cat. I know this was a shrewd move on the part of the producers — all things cat seem to appeal to a broad audience — but it doesn’t help The Closer‘s drama. When I see a first-rate actor such as Michael Paul Chan, so effective in the short-lived 2002 Michael Mann TV series Robbery Homicide Division, barely being given enough to do on The Closer in a similar police role, I wish there was some way to beef up his role.

The Emmy-nominated Sedgwick remains excellent as Brenda. She’s gives an ego-free performance that’s always enjoyable. But she’s capable of a lot more subtlety than the scripts she’s being given these days.

In short, I like The Closer, but I wish it was better.

How about you? Agree or disagree? Will you be watching Segwick and Mary McDonnell tonight?

Jul 20 2009 02:27 AM ET

'True Blood': Jason's bathtub love; Sookie to Bill: 'You have a heart, whether it beats or not'

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Categories: Television

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This week, True Blood was all about making connections. While still in the Dallas vampire hotel (the episode took up right where last week’s left off), Sookie connected with another telepath, bellboy Barry, who is impressively terrified of the local, murderous strain of vamps and hides his power from them. Sam and Daphne connected by sharing their knowledge of each other as shape-shifters, and would later connect in another, deeper way. Tara, who tried to disconnect from Maryann, found it impossible to do so, thanks to the latter’s heebie-jeebie, mind-controlling powers. (And for what follows, here’s your spoiler alert.)

Jason, still in Fellowship of the Sun boot camp, made a connection of the flesh with Sarah Newlin, who surprised Jason in the bathtub with a little under-the-bubbles hand-love. We knew Sarah was attracted to Jason, but now it’s clear that part of her affection is inspired by annoyance with hubby Steve, who condescends to her and who wanted to show Jason his own comradely friendship by revealing the church’s vast storehouse of vampire-killing weaponry. (Liked the silver throwing stars shaped like crosses. And yes, the wooden bullets were mentioned again — who do you think will be the first vamp to take one in the heart?)

But the core of this episode, directed with swift economy by thriller veteran John Dahl (The Last Seduction, Red Rock West), was the showdown in Dallas between (on one side) Bill, Sookie, and Eric and (on the other) Stan and Isabel, “vicious, petty, vile creatures,” in Bill’s description, haughty lieutenants of the missing Godric. Sookie really showed how decisive she’s become, aware of her value to the vampires, by volunteering to infiltrate the church and read minds to find out what the Fellowship knows about Godric. (Wait: doesn’t she know she’s going to encounter Jason?) An important bit of character-history was dropped in here: Godric, we saw in flashback as Evil incarnated as a toothy boy, is Eric’s “maker,” thus Eric’s loyalty to him.

All in all, a very nicely tense yet dreamy episode. I don’t think the lovey-dovey scenes between Sookie and Bill have ever been as lushly romantic, do you? I want to hear what you think: What did you make of a subdued Lafayette asking for his old job back? Where do you think the Dallas trip is headed? And who’s the vampire woman in the final shot?

Jul 17 2009 03:42 AM ET

'Big Brother': Hey, it really WAS an exciting live-elimination!

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Categories: Television

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Well, well: after a fairly tedious week in which most of the conversation seemed to revolve around word definitions (“technotronics”?) and the multiple cameras programmed to swivel over to Laura’s breasts the moment they entered a room, this week’s live elimination show proved to be something actually approaching spontaneous excitement.

It was helped, of course, by Chima’s on-the-block speech, calling out Braden as “a racist and a misogynist [who] deserves to go home.” Julie Chen praised this as being “the most memorable speech we’ve ever heard” from someone defending herself from eviction, even though most of what Chima said was bleeped out by CBS because Braden’s slurs were not FCC-permissible, apparently.

Given the reaction of the live studio audience (yes, a live studio audience now surrounds Julie on eviction night), those must have been some mighty slurs, and it sounded as though the crowd was on Chima’s side. (From this point on: SPOILER ALERT!)

But when Braden was evicted, the audience applauded like crazy when he emerged from the house — clearly, no one had strong feelings one way or another about racist or sexist hate-speech. If that’s what it was. I can’t lip-read. What I can do is lament the fact that Ronnie became the new head-of-household. His “I run this show” spiel is becoming tired already.

Be sure to read joltin’ Josh Wolk’s Big Brother TV Watch. And what did you think of the eviction? Who are you loving or hating the most in that damp house?

Jul 17 2009 01:31 AM ET

'A Year In The Life' of J.K. Rowling: from 'Harry Potter' to 'a political fairy tale'

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Categories: Books, Television

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Just as I sat down to write this, I saw a new Variety report that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has “jumped the $100 million mark in its first 24 hours.” More millions made from the imagination from J.K. Rowling, yet if there’s one thing you came away with after watching the documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year In The Life, it’s probably something along the lines of, “Jolly good for her.”

Rowling has long seemed one of the best sorts of literary superstars: hard-working yet unafraid to express the pleasure she takes in her success; possessor of, as she said in this film, a “short fuse” but also full of sly humor when she speaks. A Year In The Life was shown in Britain in 2007, and was overseen by novelist-filmmaker James Runcie. I’m still not quite sure if I don’t believe the scenes of her typing the last words of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows weren’t re-staged for the camera crew, but even if they were, who cares? What came across was a complicated, likable person, a writer who has worked very hard and, to judge from some of the questions Runcie put to her, still does.

There’s no reason, for example, for Rowling to have to answer whether she believes in God, especially when her response is a slightly tortured, tentative, “Yeeeees,” as though she was trying to re-convert to her original faith right in front of us. But that’s one reason she’s so charming: unpretentious (with a fondess for expensive high heels), blunt (she hasn’t had any contact with her father “for a few years”), and emotional. Runcie knew what he was doing when he saved the last bit — a visit to the small apartment where she wrote the first Potter book and she began quietly weeping, saying that her life had  been “very hard” and this was the place where she turned her life around.

The bestselling author she reminds me of most is Stephen King, in the sense of being enormously popular, prolific, and wealthy, and also down-to-earth and a force for good in the popular culture. She’s generous with charity; she speaks her mind about social issues she’s passionate about (though she was careful not to attempt any proselytizing during this prime-time hour). No recluse, probably a good cook (that birthday cake she was making for one of her kids looked yummy), and at work, she said, on “a political fairy tale.” Jolly good for her. And, therefore, for us.

Did you watch? What did you think?

Jul 16 2009 02:57 PM ET

How Justin Timberlake, 'Sarah Palin,' and Joss Whedon could win Emmys: digging deeper into the nominations

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Categories: Television

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Dig beneath the top tier of Emmy nominations, and a few surprises await you. For example, Justin Timberlake could snag an Emmy for his hosting of Saturday Night Live, and for writing “Motherlover” in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics category.

And Tina Fey’s SNL version of Sarah Palin is nominated in the Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series category. (Does this mean Palin, with more time on her hands now, might attend the Emmys on Sept. 20 to bask in reflected glory?)

And lo and behold, everyone’s favorite musical, the Joss Whedon-created Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, was nominated in the (deep breath, now) Outstanding Special Class Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Programs category.

Meanwhile, actors who were shut out of nominations they deserved in the Best Actress in a Drama category received recognition in other categories: Big Love‘s Jeanne Tripplehorn was nominated for her portrayal of Jackie Onassis in the HBO movie Grey Gardens, while CCH Pounder, woefully left out for her work on The Shield, was nominated for a guest role in HBO’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Any other odd or unusual Emmy nominations you’ve noticed?

Jul 16 2009 01:17 PM ET

Emmy nominations announced: Which of your faves got snubbed, and who got nominated? (Yay, Jim Parsons!)

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Categories: Television

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The Emmy nominations yielded a few major surprises. The biggest: Family Guy got nominated in the Best Comedy category, the first prime-time animated show to do so since The Flinstones back in 1961. I’ve said a lotta critical things about Family Guy in the past, but I have to congratulate the show for this, because it helps all animated shows to reach equal status with live-action comedies. And maybe The Simpsons will finally get a nomination in this category next year.

Other pleasant surprises: the mighty Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory got nominated for best actor in a comedy, and Simon Baker was nominated in the drama category. It’s unusual for a young, mass-audience hit show like Baker’s The Mentalist to get a nomination this early on in its run, and suggests a new democracy among Emmy voters.

If the Best Comedy Actor nominees had a couple of the usual suspects (Charlie Sheen and Tony Shalhoub again? Really?), the surprise here was Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords — yes, the Emmys are finally catching up to Flight of the Conchords.

Another great bit of news: Elisabeth Moss was nominated for Mad Men, the first woman in the cast to get a Best Drama Actress nod. And keeping up the quality, no fewer than three In Treatment stars were nominated: Gabriel Byrne, Hope Davis, and Dianne Wiest.

The piece I wrote yesterday about Emmy snubs proved all too true in many cases: Among the shows shut out of the running in major categories: True Blood, The Shield, Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica and Southland. Where was Lost in the Best Actor or Best Actress category? I correctly predicted a Toni Collette (United States of Tara) nom, but why no more daring choice, such as Chuck‘s Yvonne Strahovski?

In general, though, I have to say this year’s Emmy nominations were a bit more adventurous than usual, and with Parsons and Family Guy nominated, you know the Emmy broadcast, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, is going to be a lot more surprising and fun to watch on Sept. 20.

So what do you think? What nominations make you glad? What snubs make you sad? Or mad?

A list of nominees: Emmy Awards: The 2009 nominees

Jul 15 2009 03:54 PM ET

Emmy nominations tomorrow: Who's sure to be snubbed? Who should be nominated?

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Categories: Television

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Emmy nominations are announced tomorrow, and why wait — you and I can start talking about who’s sure to get snubbed by the Academy of Arts and Sciences now. The great thing is, if we’re wrong, some of our favorite shows and actors will be rewarded with a nomination!

Near the top of my list of longshots are The Shield, True Blood, Battlestar Galactica, Eastbound & Down, and Fringe. (Let me guess: at the top of yours are Chuck and Pushing Daises, right?) Any and all of these shows deserve some Emmy affection. To stick to only the very top categories:

• Best Drama Series: If the explosive yet subtle final season of The Shield doesn’t get nominated, I’ll blow my stack in homage to Vic Mackey. Ditto Battlestar Galactica, which taught a lesson to other series on how to wrap up a series that had a complex “mythology.” There’s a trio of HBO shows I like here — Big Love, In Treatment, and True Blood. Sure To Be Snubbed: My beloved Fringe. And I’d say Blood probably won’t get much recognition until next year, when its pop-culture-exploding second season becomes eligible for consideration.

• Best Comedy Series: After you assume the certainly superb The Office, 30 Rock, and The New Adventures of Old Christine, this category could use three really fresh nominations. Sure To Be Snubbed: Better Off Ted, Eastbound & Down, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

• Best Lead Actor in a Drama: Hoo boy, I fear, given past Emmy history, an avalanche of final-season Boston Legal nominations in many categories in addition to this one. James Spader for sure, and maybe even William Shatner. Sure To Be Snubbed: Josh Holloway, who’s overdue for Lost. Ben McKenzie in Southland.

• Best Lead Actor in a Comedy: Figure Alec Baldwin, Zach Braff, and David Duchovny as locks here. Sure To Be Snubbed: Danny McBride’s heroic portrayal of a screw-up in Eastbound & Down. Jim Parsons’ dexterous excellence in The Big Bang Theory. Zachary Levi in Chuck. Jay Harrington in Better Off Ted!

• Best Lead Actress in a Drama: Sigh. The names will likely be all too familiar: Sally Field. Mariska Hargitay. Maybe Glenn Close (last year’s winner) again? I hope Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love) is included. Sure To Be Snubbed: Elisabeth Moss in Mad Men! Anna Paquin, consistently fine in True Blood. Regina King, so beguiling in Southland. Amber Tamblyn in (we need to remember this series!) The Unusuals. Evangeline Lilly in Lost. Mary McDonnell in Battlestar!

• Best Lead Actress in a Comedy: An even bigger sigh if one place is given to America Ferrera in Ugly Betty; sorry, neither the show nor her repetitive performance merits it this particular year. There’ll be a buncha Desperate Housewives, I presume. Academy members will probably pat themselves on the back and nominate Toni Collette for United States of Tara, and she certainly offers an excellent performance. But so are these: Sure To Be Snubbed: Kaitlin Olson in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Yvonne Strahovski in Chuck. Portia de Rossi in Better Off Ted!

So who have I forgotten? Who do you think deserves to be nominated, but probably won’t be?

Jul 14 2009 11:14 PM ET

Sotomayor confirmation hearings on TV: Both dramatic and squishy

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Categories: Television

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No matter how many TV shows or movies we’ve seen about government, judges, and the Supreme Court, the televised confirmation hearings of a Supreme Court nominee remains a unique spectacle. This was the second day of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s appearance before the Senate, but the first in which she was grilled by representatives of both parties.

It’s always best to turn away from the cable outlets who bring on squads of experts to dissect the hearings. (Who needs the networks touting talking-heads as the “finest panel of analysts in the country,” let alone the mostly-predictable points of view on Fox News and MSNBC?) No, it’s C-SPAN that I turn to (in this case, C-SPAN3) for the undiluted drama.

Sure, Sotomayor must avoid drama as much as possible, lest she pull a Robert Bork and implode her confirmation with strenuous opinionizing. But because prime-time TV would have us believe most members of the bar are swingin’ twentysomethings or Boston Legal-style eccentrics, she cannot avoid, simply by being a middle-aged woman engaging with middle-aged men, being a novel, compelling, unusual sight on our screens.

So far, aside from the softball questioning from Democratic senators, one theme that stands out is a class-based line of questioning that condescends to Judge Sotomayor while “complimenting” her. Sen. Jon Kyl praised her “background as a way of inspiring young people.” Sen. Charles Schumer informed her, “You have suffered discrimination in your own life.” (Her steady gaze said, “Really, Chuck? Do tell me about my own life, please.”) By far the most belittling has been Sen. Lindsay Graham, who repeatedly cut off Sotomayor in mid-sentence to ask whether the word “abortion” appears in the Constitution; to ask the mind-cloudingly meaningless, “What’s the most legitimate way for a society to change?”; and to declare, “I like you… and since I may vote for you, that oughta matter.” Graham began one verbal paragraph with the lordly, disdainful phrase, “If I gave you this robe to be on the Supreme Court… “

Ick. It almost makes you want to turn to the bloviating pundits…

Have you been watching any of the confirmation hearings on TV? What networks do you watch, and how do you think television is handling coverage of this event?

Jul 14 2009 05:06 PM ET

'Mad Men' second-season DVD is out today: Don Draper reads poetry, but he's no wimp

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Categories: DVD, Television

The second season of Mad Men is out on DVD today, with some nice featurette extras about the era in which this sleek, addictive series exists. But the element fans are going to really zero in on are the commentaries provided by a number of the show’s actors and behind-the-scenes people. Most important, of course, is Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, whose commentaries on the crucial season premiere and season-concluding episodes are fascinating on a couple of levels. First, let’s relive the great moment in which “Duck” Phillips (the magnificent Mark Moses) at once triumphs and implodes in the season climax: the takeover of ad agency Sterling Cooper and what should have been Duck’s vanquishing of our hero, Jon Hamm’s Don Draper:

In his commentary, Weiner speaks eloquently about what he calls “Duck’s downfall.” He also points out how he wove TV and radio mentions of the then-current Cuban Missile Crisis throughout that episode, which is entitled “Meditations in an Emergency,” a reference to the title of a collection of Frank O’Hara poetry that (coming full circle) Don read in the season’s first episode.

It’s engrossing to hear Weiner and actress Elizabeth Moss, who plays Peggy, do the commentary on this episode. That slightly awkward relationship between boss and employee is nicely captured. Clearly, Moss has a lot to say about how her character evolved over this season, but as often as not, she’s overridden by Weiner, who from his comments seems to oversee pretty much everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if he said he counted the cigarette butts in the ashtray to make shots match.

As I say, fascinating stuff; if you’re obsessed with Mad Men, Weiner will match your obsessiveness and more.

Are you looking forward to this DVD collection? And can you believe the new season of Mad Men finally starts next month?

Jul 14 2009 01:08 PM ET

'The State: The Complete Series' is out today on DVD, plus: Watch 'Michael and Michael Have Issues'

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Categories: DVD, Television

OK, I’ll save you from looking it up or razzing me in the comments section below: Yes, the first time I reviewed The State — whose 1993-95 entire run is out today on a chock-full DVD boxed set — I gave it a grade of C-. Yes, I was wrong. Sometimes a critic just has to own his own lack of perception; I failed you back then. I don’t know why I didn’t find the sketch below funny at the time; I do now:

Have I grovelled enough? OK. Now I can say I recently watched a lot of the hours and hours of State sketches and the astute/hilarious DVD commentaries, and I had a good time. Hardcore fans are complaining that the new The State: The Complete Series doesn’t have the original music — impossibly complicated and expensive music-permission problems prevented it — but chances are, you can get past the lack of songs by the Breeders and Marvin Gaye and still enjoy The State‘s acerbic humor. Plus, it’s fun to see Reno 911! stars like Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney in various character roles here, as well as the striking deadpan humor of Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter.

Which leads me to my next plug: Black and Showalter have a new Comedy Central series premiering tomorrow night called Michael and Michael Have Issues. The two play exaggerated (I hope) versions of themselves as petty egomaniacs, shown behind the scenes of the show we’re watching. It’s not as confusing as it sounds:

And for the record, I like Michael & Michael a lot. Their cranky attitude is impeccable, and their mock fights have the intensity of the way friends really fight, especially friends who are strained by having to work together: The show operates well as both comedy and as truth.

So: Were you a fan of The State? Does the DVD release interest you? Do you think you’ll check out Michael & Michael Have Issues?

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