“There are only three things certain in this world,” said Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show last night. “Death, taxes, and Jay Leno at 11:30 on NBC.”
Jay Leno was smitten by the working-mom charms of Kate Gosselin on last night’s Tonight Show. “People give you grief,” said Leno. “But READ FULL STORY »
Fringe is becoming ever more adroit at blending its mythology with its paranormal cases. This week’s episode, called “White Tulip,” began with guest star Peter Weller entering READ FULL STORY »
Typically terrific Modern Family last night, but the scenes in which Mitchell tried to impress a possible new boss (all praise to Justin Kirk), were almost too good — awfully squirm-inducing.
As Cam babbled nervously and bumped into the furniture, I could feel READ FULL STORY »
It sounds simple, by South Park standards: The 200th episode was about a class-action lawsuit by 200 celebrities defamed by the show — er, the town of South Park. They were led by Tom Cruise, who demanded to see READ FULL STORY »
Last week, Vincent D’Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, and Eric Bogosian were ushered out of Law & Order: Criminal Intent with all the finesse of a bouncer at a cheap nightclub. In a lumpy hour that forced D’Onofrio’s Goren and Erbe’s Eames to READ FULL STORY »
After weeks of being mentioned but not seen, we finally met Raylan’s father, Arlo, last night. As played with a sere twang by Raymond J. Barry, Arlo was as laconic and prone to fast action as his son, but with the charm of Raylan necessarily shaved off by age and experience, much of it in jail. In other words, he was a tough old buzzard.
Justified continued its winning ways by having Tim Olyphant’s U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens working two cases — staking out a house that he’s pretty sure contains a fugitive, and dealing with his dad, out of jail and ornery. We’ve heard enough references to the latter in previous episodes to know only that Raylan pretends he doesn’t care about his father, is abashed that the old man is a repeat offender, and that jail is, to Raylan’s way of thinking, the best place for Daddy to remain seen-and-not-heard-from. So an Arlo set free is both a civil and an emotional burden.
As usual with Justified, no one is completely innocent in any situation. That little weasel Perkins may run drugs and rough up Raylan’s stepmother, but stepmom Helen (Linda Gehringer) lied to Raylan about the rent Perkins was paying (she said he hadn’t; he had). True to Givens form, Arlo didn’t talk much about this situation. He just grabbed a bat and whaled away at a couple of Perkins’ big thugs in the middle of a diner. This was highly satisfying, as was the later scene in which Raylan used a bat himself.
After a few episodes in which it looked as though Justified might be more of a stand-alone, episodic drama than many of FX’s other drama series, this one revealed how deep the show can go when it comes to character. We clearly have a lot more to explore about Raylan’s cool surface demeanor and inner simmering boil, and about that graveyard with headstones of most members of the Givens family.
A couple of final observations:
• I have to admit, as charming as Joelle Carter’s Ava can be in her romantic byplay with Raylan, Natalie Zea really brings an electric crackle to every too-brief scene as Raylan’s ex Winona. More of her, please.
• It was good to see Brent Sexton — from NBC’s late. lamented Damian Lewis show Life — pop up as a cop here.
I could not resist trying the KFC Double Down. I like junk food, even if I balance it out by eating a lot of broccoli-and-quinoa dinners. But you show me a new sandwich with bacon, cheese, and mayo-mystery-sauce wedged between two pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and that is a challenge I am ready to tackle.
Much the way the remaining American Idol contestants accepted the challenge of performing Elvis Presley songs. Insert your own grilled-peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, late-period Elvis jokes here. Me, I respect Elvis in his prime the way I respect McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese: brilliant American inventiveness.
Don’t worry, this isn’t me dumping on Idol, and the eminent Michael Slezak gives you the full measure of his Idol expertise here.
No, I’m just writing about an experience you do all the time, but that critics don’t often write about: eating while watching TV.
So I sped home with my KFC Double Down in time to see Adam Lambert exhort the singers to provide viewers with what Elvis did: something “to listen to, look at, and feel.” I think Lambert is truly terrific. He gets it.
Unlike Presley, however, who was too polite to do such a thing, Lambert can also play the music critic with acuity. He told Andrew Garcia his rehearsal version of “Hound Dog” was “boring.” (It was.) In assessing Lee DeWyze, Lambert pointed to the area of the face and said, “there’s nothing going on there” — i.e., that Lee is inexpressive. (He is.)
I was so happy watching Lambert offer cogent, good-humored analysis that I started eating without thinking much about what I was consuming. (You know the feeling. Looking down at the empty bowl of potato chips during a Glee commercial break and wondering, where the hell did the chips all go?) Then I chewed and swallowed with concentration on the food.
The Double Down tasted… heavy, with grease. But not without a certain spicy charm. The KFC formula (I bought the “original,” not the “grilled”) combined with the bacon, cheese, and mayo for a nice tang. If I’d eaten a crisper piece of bacon placed on a single, thinner piece of KFC chicken, I think I actually would have said it was really fun. Unhealthy on a regular basis, but fun. Something like listening to badly but spiritedly performed music.
I’m not going to make the Double Down part of my regular snacking. It’s back to the broccoli and quinoa for me. Similarly, I’ll be watching Modern Family instead of Idol tomorrow night.
Have you tried the Double Down? Did you watch Idol? You didn’t by any chance combine the two, did you?
For Idol coverage: ‘American Idol’ brings back Adam Lambert for Elvis night
In some great news for the fantastic new series Treme, HBO has announced it has committed to a second season of the show. This, after only airing the debut episode of the first season this past Sunday.
In making the announcement, Michael Lombardo, president of HBO Programming, said, “I can’t think of another show that is more emblematic of what we aspire to be as a network than Treme. In the tradition of The Wire, David Simon and Eric Overmeyer have embarked on an exploration of the soul of one of the world’s most unique cities through the lives of an exquisitely crafted cast of characters.”
This is exhilarating to hear. What with Treme and HBO’s announced development of the George R.R. Martin fantasy series Game of Thrones, things are looking pretty creative in the hour-long business over at HBO.
What do you think?
With the news that Conan O’Brien will start a show on TBS in November, there are going to be a lot of people dubious about his decision and scoffing at his new chosen network. Here’s why you shouldn’t.
1. Conan will get a big audience. I mean by comparison. From the moment he premieres, given the outreach of basic cable combined with TBS’ easy-to-locate position on most cable systems, O’Brien will immediately draw more viewers than READ FULL STORY »
Evidently hating Jon Gosselin can even inspire good (well, relatively good) dancing. During last night’s Dancing With the Stars rehearsal segment with Kate Gosselin and Tony Dovolani, Kate broke down in tears about her current legal tussle with Jon over the custody rights to her fame-making eight children. In an attempt to get her to focus on her dancing, Tony said READ FULL STORY »
