NBC burned off the final two episodes of Prime Suspect on Sunday night. The football game was on Fox, CBS aired a rerun, you aren’t watching Desperate Housewives anymore, are you, especially when you could watch Downton Abbey? Anyway, much in the manner a criminal on an episode of Prime Suspect might dispose of two dead bodies, NBC dumped Prime Suspect with a pair of new, good episodes. READ FULL STORY »
Michael Mann is the rare director-writer-producer who has maintained simultaneous careers in feature films and television, and he’s done this since the 1970s. Mann’s TV career includes not only the major hit series and cultural avatar Miami Vice (1984-90), but also television’s first serialized drama, Crime Story (1986-88), and the first weekly series to be shot in high-definition film, Robbery Homicide Division (2002-2003).
As the premiere of the Mann-directed pilot of HBO’s Luck nears on Jan. 29, Mann spoke with me about the entire breadth of his TV career, starting at the beginning, with writing work on the anthology series Police Story, and the Aaron Spelling-produced hit Starsky and Hutch. READ FULL STORY »
Rick Perry drops out! Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife says he wanted an “open marriage,” with the woman who became his current wife! Herman Cain is climbing aboard the Colbertrain! The Obama campaign released a new ad (see below)! It turns out Rick Santorum scored a victory over Mitt Romney in Iowa! And CNN held a John Kingly debate followed by Anderson Cooperly analysis! On Thursday, things were busier in politics, and in the media covering politics, than Steven Tyler in a roomful of teenage American Idolettes. READ FULL STORY »
Justified began its new season on Tuesday night with a sweet episode titled “The Gunfighter” that demonstrated a gratifyingly renewed focus on keeping the storytelling closely aligned with the series’ source material, from novelist Elmore Leonard. And the more Justified hews to lean, Leonardian crime-story plots, the better—stronger, wittier—it becomes. READ FULL STORY »
Alcatraz premiered with back-to-back episodes on Monday night as Fox did its best to lure a large audience, trained to tune into House, to check out its newest production from producer J.J. Abrams and costarring a very prominent Lost alumnus, Jorge Garcia. Combining cop drama with supernatural elements, it has, at its best, the elements of an old Steve Ditko-drawn Strange Suspense Story tale. At its weakest, Alcatraz is a mash-up: CSI: Fringe Prison Break. READ FULL STORY »
Stephen Colbert’s super PAC has released an ad asserting that Mitt Romney “is a serial killer.” The ad, narrated by John Lithgow (himself a former serial killer on Dexter), concludes: “Stop Mitt the Ripper before he kills again.” READ FULL STORY »
The Golden Globe nominees in the best miniseries and TV-movie categories come down to two choices with two possible spoilers. Most of the awards will go to either the first season of Downton Abbey (that TV series smuggled into this country as a miniseries) or HBO’s Mildred Pierce. READ FULL STORY »
