Category Archives: Entertainment

Vince Gilligan anticipates a polarizing finale for ‘Breaking Bad’

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This summer the critically acclaimed AMC drama Breaking Bad returns for its final stretch of eight episodes. Series creator Vince Gilligan, a master of his craft, is currently wrapping up the third-to-last episode and work on the penultimate hour is nearly underway. Denise Martin of Vulture sat down with Gilligan and just yesterday posted an informative interview that delves into the mind of the showrunner as he cautiously sprints toward the highly anticipated series finale.

When asked about the evolution of Walt’s fate: “I had this strange confidence in the beginning that I had an idea [for the ending] that was sound. But I look back at the life of the series and realize I cycled through so many possible endings, it would be disingenuous to say I had always had it figured out. It has evolved in the last five years and probably has some evolving left to do.” He added, “We try to have a surprise around every corner but inevitability as well. The opposite of surprise. It’s something that I feel should and will be an important component to the end of the series. To me, that is an interesting thing and a thing to be embraced, that feeling of ‘I think I know where this is going.'”

Will Walt be brought to justice? Gilligan won’t say for sure, but here’s what’s going on in his head right now: “I’m very cornball in my own view of the world. It just makes sense to me that bad people should get punished and good people should be rewarded. I know it doesn’t work like that in real life, but there’s always that yearning. Oddly enough, I don’t feel any real pressure to pay off the characters, morally speaking.” Continue reading Vince Gilligan anticipates a polarizing finale for ‘Breaking Bad’ →

TCA 13: Carlton Cuse talks ‘Bates Motel’, series premiere date revealed

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If you aren’t amped for the Psycho prequel series Bates Motel from Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights), you should be. Today at the launch of the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, the showrunners and some of the cast talked about A&E’s upcoming psychological thriller.

First and foremost, Cuse made it a point to say that Bates Motel is inspired by but does not serve as an homage to Hitchcock’s classic film. “We did not want to do an homage to Psycho, we wanted to take these characters and setup as inspiration,” Cuse said specifically. “We don’t really view any of [the original movie] as canon,” he added. “The idea of an homage was just not going to be engaging to me. Making the fundamental decision to make it contemporary gave us the freedom to take these characters wherever we wanted. There’s a certain amount of baggage that comes with taking on ‘Psycho’ … making it contemporary made it become liberated from the original movie.”

Mystery and intrigue line the modernized story of Norman Bates (Freddy Highmore) and his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga). “The mythology that you think is what dictates the relationship between Norma and Norman is not what it’s going to turn out to be,” tantalized Cuse. The former Lost showrunner mentioned that his new series will not feature out-of-this-world characters or scenarios. “No polar bears, no smoke monsters — just say no right off the top. There’s no supernatural elements in play. We view this as a psychological thriller.” He confirmed that the show is in fact of the serialized sort, and it will tell a contained story with a defined beginning, middle, and end. “There is an endpoint to this narrative, absolutely. … In some general form we are going to catch up with a version of [Norman] from the movie.” Additionally: “Like all the best serialized shows, whether Breaking Bad or Homeland, it’s a kind of a story that takes ten episodes to unfold. And there’s some hooks that will hopefully carry us into a second season. We’re not just solving one particular crime. There’s a number of mysteries.” Continue reading TCA 13: Carlton Cuse talks ‘Bates Motel’, series premiere date revealed →

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler ready for the Globes

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SNL pals Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are hosting the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards. If you need proof that these two are the perfect match for the awards show look no further than this video here. Well, maybe a bit further; after the break you’ll find another clip plus a promotional image that wonderfully encapsulates the kind of wild spirit the 30 Rock and Parks and Rec stars will bring to NBC on January 13, 2013 at 8PM. Review the nominees here. Continue reading Tina Fey & Amy Poehler ready for the Globes →

New ‘Revenge’ promo is rated SE: Sexy for Everyone [Update: new cast photos]

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Revenge is a beautiful thing. Don’t believe me? Watch this brand new promo that debuted New Year’s Eve between ABC’s live coverage from Times Square. Whether you’re into the ladies or the guys this 30-second spot will satisfy. In one corner you’ve got Victoria’s former lackey Ashley Davenport, the Queen of Hamptons’ daughter Charlotte Grayson, and the radiant, fearless revenger Emily Thorne. And in the other corner? The Porter brothers Jack and Declan duke it out, Emily’s right-hand man Nolan Ross, and her former fiancé Daniel Grayson go shirtless. From the thumping music to the colorful imagery, this wild commercial will try to get you excited for the second half of the addicting soap’s second season. It will succeed. They sure know how to make ’em.

Revenge returns this Sunday, January 6 at 9PM on ABC.

Update (1/4): ABC has released a bunch of new images featuring this good-looking cast of Revenge. The most notable image, however, has to be the final group shot which features Jack sitting up against a bloody chest containing who-knows-what. Take a gander in the gallery below.

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Want to know what ‘American Horror Story’ season 3 is going to be about?

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FX gave the green light for a third season of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s anthology series American Horror Story. In tonight’s episode “The Name Game,” a clue will present itself for viewers to find and interpret and this clue will shed light on what to expect in the next season. Murphy played this game with fans last year. In season 1 episode 11 “Birth” Sarah Paulson’s character Billie Dean converses with Taissa Farmiga’s Violet and mentions an evil energy generated by places like prisons and asylums. And wouldn’t you know–AHS season 2 takes place at an insane asylum. So how will things play out in tonight’s ep?

“It’s not done like it was last year,” Murphy tells EW. “It’s a different kind of clue. You really have to be quick and watch. I made sure to put it in there for the fans because I know people loved that last year, figuring it out.”

Will it come from the mouth of Paulson’s new character Lana, or perhaps someone else will spill the beans. (My money is on Pepper!) Or maybe it won’t be a verbal clue at all but instead be something mindlessly chilling in the background. Will it come wrapped inside the lyrics of a song? If you find it, share your discovery in the comment section below. When Murphy confirms it (which likely won’t be for months–he likes to give time for the fans to figure it out on their own), I’ll post the update here.

American Horror Story: Asylum airs its fourth to last episode tonight at 10PM on FX.

Update: In EW’s post-episode interview, Murphy did not comment on the specific clue hiding in “The Name Game.” However, when he was asked if next season will be lighter he responded like this:

“I mean, I don’t think anything could ever be as dark as the mental health care system in our country. I sorta feel like for the third version I want to do something that’s a little bit more “evil glamour.” Just something that’s a little bit more…one of the things that I missed this season was I really loved having that Romeo & Juliet youth story with Violet and Tate. I want something like that again and we’re doing something like that in the third season. And we’re contemplating shooting the show in a different place. We’re contemplating shooting it in a place in the country where true horror has been. We’ve got lots of delicious plans.”

Google, Twitter and Facebook mark the highlights of 2012

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Google’s annual Zeitgeist takes “an in-depth look at the “spirit of the times” as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past year.” At least that’s usually the case. This year, Google studied an aggregation of over 1.2 trillion searches that people typed into Google Search. Using sources like Google Trends and internal data tools the company was able compile lists that distinguish the most popular searched terms organized into topics like Images, Athletes, and TV Shows. The top 10 trending Searches worldwide this year were Whitney Houston, Gangnam Style, Hurricane Sandy, iPad 3, Diablo 3, Kate Middleton, Olympics 2012, Amanda Todd, Michael Clarke Duncan, and BBB12. The top 10 trending Events worldwide were Hurricane Sandy, Kate Middleton Pictures Released, Olympics 2012, SOPA Debate, Costa Concordia crash, Presidential Debate, Stratosphere Jump, Penn State Scandal, Trayvon Martin shooting, and Pussy Riots. The top 10 trending Consumer Electronics were iPad 3, Samsung Galaxy S3, iPad Mini, Nexus 7, Galaxy Note 2, Play Station, iPad 4, Microsoft Surface, Kindle Fire, and Nokia Lumia 920. Head over to Google’s Zeitgesit 2012 page to discover and explore trending topics from 55 countries all around the world. In addition to the 838 lists, Google’s created an interactive map that shows where and when some of the most popular terms spiked around the world. Watch Google’s inspirational look back at 2012 in the Zeitgeist video pasted above.

Jump after the break to find out how Twitter and Facebook are celebrating everything that went down in twenty-twelve. Continue reading Google, Twitter and Facebook mark the highlights of 2012 →

This year in viral videos, as told by YouTube’s top 10 of 2012

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From cover songs to parodies to Korean pop music, we were all captivated by what came out of the Internet this year. People watched over 4 billion hours of video a month on YouTube, so I think it’s safe to say that Google’s video portal is the leader of viral videos. Being the hardcore number crunchers they are, the G-Men have compiled a list of the top ten most watched YouTube videos of 2012 and they are:

  1. PSY – GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V 
  2. Somebody That I Used to Know – Walk off the Earth (Gotye – Cover) 
  3. KONY 2012 
  4. “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen – Feat. Justin Bieber, Selena, Ashley Tisdale & MORE! 
  5. Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney. Epic Rap Battles Of History Season 2. 
  6. A DRAMATIC SURPRISE ON A QUIET SQUARE 
  7. WHY YOU ASKING ALL THEM QUESTIONS? .. #FCHW 
  8. Dubstep Violin- Lindsey Stirling- Crystallize 
  9. Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.
  10. Felix Baumgartner’s supersonic freefall from 128k’ – Mission Highlights

You guessed it–“Gangnam Style” is the most watched video of the year. It shouldn’t come as a surprise since it overtook Justin Bieber’s “Baby” music video in November to become the most watched video of all time. It’s on its way to be the first video to reach one billion hits; as of writing this post it sits high comfortably at 994 million views.

The site recently roped in a bunch of YouTubers to star in a video that mashes up the culturally defining moments that came out of the most watched videos of the year. PSY is prominently featured along with DailyGrace, MysteryGuitarMan, DeStorm, FreddieW, Felicia Day, iJustine, JennaMarbles, EpicMealTime, and many others. It’s embedded above, so enjoy!

This year in music, as told by DJ Earworm’s mega-mashup “United State of Pop 2012”

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Like every year before it, 2012 was filled with hit songs that you couldn’t get out of your head. DJ Earworm is here to bring every single one of them back to memory with his latest “United State of Pop” mega-mashup this year titled “Shine Brighter.” The four minute track includes 25 of the most popular songs that came out this year, according to Billboard’s Hot 100 charts. Bruno Mars and Ke$ha dominate, but Earworm makes sure to sprinkle in a myriad of artists including Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj, and Taylor Swift. Click after the break to see a list of all the songs used in mix.

You can download the free track right here, and complementing it (as always) is a wonderfully constructed mashup music video that’s embedded above. Continue reading This year in music, as told by DJ Earworm’s mega-mashup “United State of Pop 2012” →

This year in movies, as told by 310 of them in seven minutes

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Gen Ip, aka @genrocks on Twitter, is back to help us celebrate our favorite cinematic experiences in 2012. This time her annual look back features “great movies that inspired us and the bad ones that made us feel better about our lives.” Her first video in 2010 mashed together 270 films, last year’s dealt with 230 of them, and her latest pieces together a whopping 310 clips. Click over to her Tumblr page to view lists of all the songs and movies used in the grand retrospective.

iTunes shares year’s top-selling songs, albums, apps & more

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At the end of the year Apple digs into its archive of music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts to share with its customers its top-selling content. Since the iTunes Store and the App Store are so prolific these days, I deem it appropriate to take a look at what we bought up from Apple’s widespread ecosystem in 2012.

In the music department, Apple lists the 20 top-selling songs and 25 top-selling albums of the year. Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” lands at #1 on the song list and rounding out the top 5 are Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Fun.’s “We Are Young,” Maroon 5’s “Payphone,” and Nicki Minaj’s “Starships.” Maroon 5 managed to land on this chart twice; “One More Night” comes in at #17. Also, Flo Rida’s hit singles “Whistle” and “Wild Ones” show their staying power securing the #9 and #10 slots, respectively. For the second consecutive year in a row, Adele’s 21 sits high as the most purchased album of the year; what follows is Taylor Swift’s Red, Mumford & Sons’ Babel, One Direction’s debut Up All Night, and Fun.’s Some Nights. The only artist to show up twice on this chart is Mumford & Sons; their 2010 effort Sigh No More keeps selling and fell in the #6 position.

In addition to these charts, Apple handpicks their own selections in a section they call “Editor’s Choice.” They named Frank Ocean Best New Artist and they had this to say about his much buzzed about release Channel ORANGE: “Deftly original, the brooding R&B outcast and Odd Future cohort spilled a can of stinging venom and vulnerability that spread worldwide.” Grizzly Bear’s Shields was awarded Best Album, Fun.’s infectious single “We Are Young” nabbed Best Song, and they enjoyed the fusion of country and gospel from The Lumineers so much to label their self-titled debut release Breakthrough Album.

The Hunger Games, Downton Abbey, Fifty Shades of Grey, Angry Birds Space, and YouTube dominated the other content categories. Click here to browse Apple’s Best of 2012 charts (the link opens in iTunes).

Bryan Fuller’s NBC ‘Munsters’ reboot ‘Mockingbird Lane’ is dead

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Since we saw it coming, I’ll be brief. Pushing Daisies creator imagined a modernized Munsters reboot starring Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily, Mason Cook as their son Eddie, Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, and Charity Wakefield as Marilyn. Ultimately network brass decided not to move forward with the making of the series called Mockingbird Lane. But instead of throwing out the expensive pilot directed by Bryan Singer, NBC aired it as a Halloween special in late October. On a Friday night at 9, a respectable 5.4 million viewers tuned in and the episode scored a 1.5/5 rating in the adults 18-49 demo. With decent ratings and additional scripts already written, those who enjoyed the sneak peek at Fuller’s vision for The Munsters hoped that NBC would give it a chance on their schedule. Today Fuller broke the bad news in a single tweet:

“I tweet with a heavy heart. NBC not moving forward with #MockingbirdLane. From producers and cast, thank you all for enthusiasm and support.”

It wasn’t meant to be. But for Bryan Fuller it’s on to the next one: he’s hard at work producing another NBC drama Hannibal that stars Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lector in the role made famous by Anthony Hopkins in the classic 1991 film Silence of the Lambs.

SpeakSonic album reviews: Wiz Khalifa, Bruno Mars & T.I.

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Wiz is back in the rap game with his latest release O.N.I.F.C. Though his commercial hip-hop marketability cannot be questioned, what can be said about the actual substance of his rhymes? Can Bruno Mars live up to his widely successful debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans with this year’s Unorthodox Jukebox? Spoiler alert: If you were impressed with his lead single “Locked Out of Heaven” you will surely enjoy the rest of the 80s synth pop-rock that flows from the talented crooner. T.I. has already proven he can perform at the top of the rap game. How does his eighth studio album Trouble Man: Heavy is the Head stack up against his previous efforts?

SpeakSonic delivers with this week’s bite-sized album reviews.