Since Rescue Me is such an assiduously irreverent show, I feel free to say that it ended its season trying to get us to both care for and laugh at one of its least appealing characters, young Damien (poor Michael Zegen), whom someone described last night as Tommy’s “brain-damaged godson.”
Then again, picking a least-likable character in Rescue Me these days is a real horse-race, since to my way of thinking you’d have also have to consider the shrill tantrum-thrower READ FULL STORY »
To anyone who placed bets based on my Emmy Awards choices for “who will win,” I offer a half-apology: of the 12 categories on my ballot yesterday, I was correct in only six. I foresaw the victories of Modern Family, Jane Lynch, Jon Stewart, Edie Falco, Jim Parsons, and Temple Grandin.
But I — and you — have a lot to be happy about anyway:
• How great that Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston won acting awards for my favorite TV series of the year thus far, Breaking Bad.
• How wonderful that quality triumphed over READ FULL STORY »
Each week, I’ve been making Emmy predictions in various categories. I thought I’d put them all in one post here, so you can use it to compare your guesses with mine, or use it to win friendly competitions, or just to have a good laugh on me. Remember, these are the ones I think are going to win, not necessarily the shows/people I think should win. Please feel free to supply your own ballot in the Comments section below. Let’s check back in tomorrow morning and we’ll see how I, and you, fared, shall we?
Best drama Lost
Best comedy Modern Family
Lead actor, drama Kyle Chandler
Lead actor, comedy Jim Parsons
Lead actress, drama Julianna READ FULL STORY »
If you are engaged in a little friendly competition with your friends about who’ll take home two of the biggest prizes during this Sunday’s Emmy awards, you’ve come to the right place. I think I’ve figured out who’s going to win. See if you agree with me.
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad
Dexter
The Good Wife
Lost
Mad Men
True Blood
Will win Lost. I think READ FULL STORY »
Burn Notice wrapped up its summer season a bit of a cheat: The promised showdown between Michael and Jesse was more like a prolonging of their You burned me! spat, and this was one hour in which the client-of-the-week subplot was less entertaining than READ FULL STORY »
Not as magisterially furious or as precisely organized as Spike Lee’s previous Hurricane Katrina documentary When The Levees Broke, the director’s new one, If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, is nevertheless an extraordinary piece of work. Lee possesses the gift of transforming polemic into art. The cold facts of the ongoing devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina are given human warmth in interviews with displaced New Orleans residents and footage of the region.
The first half of If God Is Willing aired last night on HBO; the second half can be seen tonight. It includes about an hour dealing with a more recent, blow for New Orleans and vicinity: the British Petroleum oil spill. Tune in, perhaps, for Brad Pitt’s fulmination against the oil company (Pitt, a New Orleans homeowner, has helped the region with his Make It Right organization), but stick around for the painful, brave testimony and eloquence of many of your fellow citizens.
Both parts of If God Is Willing will repeat for the rest of the month and into September.
I don’t think there’s ever been a more obvious Mad Men episode than the one that aired last night, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword,” which deployed many time-period cultural cliches without freshening them with the series’ typical sprinkling of post-modern pixie dust. But that doesn’t mean the hour itself was cliched or tired; indeed, I am liking the new sitcommy side of Mad Men at least as much as the wonderful wrist-slitting side that appears whenever the blonde hair of either Sally or Betty glows onto the TV screen.
One thing that’s always held me at arm’s length from Mad Men is creator Matthew Weiner’s READ FULL STORY »
