Image Credit: Gavin Bond/NBC
You knew going into it that The Golden Globes were bound to be funny. Nearly every joke told or stunt pulled by hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler was solidly, often exceedingly, funny, from Poehler’s line “When it comes to torture I trust the woman married for three years to James Cameron” to Fey’s admonition to Taylor Swift to “stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son” — startled-looking, handsome Sam Fox, this year’s Mr. Golden Globe. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Kent Smith/Showtime Homeland
SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN THE SEASON FINALE OF HOMELAND. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Kent Smith/SHOWTIME
In a way, what this week’s Homeland was about was one of the most simple things imaginable for a complex piece of television: Allowing a love story to unfold. Which is a storytelling goal that will, I’m pretty sure, annoy nearly as many viewers as it pleases.
SPOILER ALERT: DON’T READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS WEEK’S HOMELAND. READ FULL STORY »
Below, my picks for some of the best TV shows of 2012, in handy video form.
Anyone who reads this blog regularly can probably predict a few picks. I’ll tell you in advance that I stuck to a list comprised of regularly scheduled series, no arch stunt-picks, like the Presidential election coverage or some wheezy old anti-Here Comes Honey Boo Boo rant. Upbeat, that’s my motto! READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Showtime
Wow, the internet is illuminated today with largely poor reaction to last night’s episode of Homeland. My colleague Adam Vary has done an excellent job in his EW.com recap of summarizing both the episode and the potentially objectionable plot twists. On Twitter, I made a joke — “If only Homeland was as plausible as The Walking Dead” — that was interpreted as being a slap at Homeland, when what I was really kidding was the “Homeland has become unbelievable” reaction. So I should make the case at greater than Twitter length here. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Showtime
Wanting someone who wants you, but it just can’t happen. Circumstances — marriage, family, professional responsibilities — keep you apart. Wondering what it would be like if you were together. Would the things that lend your attraction urgency — that tinge of crazy love, an edge of obsession — would those qualities become overwhelming if you spent all your time together? Does the danger that seems to sexy now inevitably lead to frustration, anger, even repulsion? READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Showtime Homeland
Image Credit: Kent Smith/Showtime
More and more frequently, when I ask friends, acquaintances, and strangers what they’re watching and enjoying on TV the most, the response is “Homeland.” And it’s often phrased in a surprised tone, as in, “You know, I didn’t think it would, but I’m really hooked on Homeland. I can’t believe… ” and then he or she will go on to describe some plot point that strikes this person as surprising.
One thing this response means is that people are marveling at how much plot development the show is giving us so early on in its second season. I think it’s safe to say that anyone who watches Homeland is sophisticated about the ways television usually doles out information, characterization, and revelations. Which is to say: more slowly than the way Homeland does it. Viewers know that, in the vast majority of other cable and network dramas, producers try to keep their audiences coming back by adding maybe one new detail per episode, dangling a new clue, often near or just after the climax of an hour. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Kent Smith/Showtime
One week since winning what seemed like every Emmy that Modern Family didn’t, Homeland began its second season on Sunday night with Claire Danes’ Carrie Mathison having, in her sister’s words, “finally gotten to a good place.” Which is spy-story code for, “soon to arrive in a bad place.”
Carrie — at the end of last season a disgraced CIA operations officer so emotionally damaged she was going One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest with electroconvulsive therapy — was shown living with her parents, employed in a teaching job, and making vegetable lasagna from veggies she herself has picked from the family garden. She seemed as close as anyone as intense and intelligent and vegetarian as Carrie can be to being happy. READ FULL STORY »
Jimmy Kimmel presided over a mostly very funny, fairly briskly paced, and quite surprising Emmy broadcast on Sunday night. It just goes to show what a great year it was for dramas that Breaking Bad could lose in so many key categories and I’m still happy… because Homeland‘s sweep of best drama, actor, actress, and what seemed like 42 other Emmys was heartily well-deserved. And the cat-nap I took during the back-to-back, too-long acceptance speeches by Jessica Lange and Tom Berenger helped sustain my viewing energy. READ FULL STORY »
