Category Archives: News

‘Hawaii Five-0’ lets viewers determine the ending in this week’s episode

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This Monday CBS is airing a very unique episode of crime procedural Hawaii Five-0. Viewers will have the opportunity to choose the ending of the episode in real time. Check it: The mystery begins when the team must investigate the death of an O’ahu State University professor. His Boss, his Teaching Assistant, and a Student who he busted for cheating are all viable suspects. After each of the suspect’s motives is revealed, the network will advise viewers to vote who they think should get charged for the crime. There are two ways you can vote: go to CBS.com or hop on Twitter and use the hashtags #theBoss, #theTA, or #theStudent to voice your opinion. The votes will be tallied immediately and the most popular ending will become part of the broadcast, says CBS. And get this: separate voting will occur for East/Central and Pacific Time zone broadcasts, meaning each side of the nation may see different endings. All three endings have been shot, obviously, and CBS promises to make them all available to view on CBS.com after the broadcasts have aired.

“I’ve always felt the most fun aspect of watching a mystery is trying to figure out whodunit,” says exec producer Peter Lenkov. “Now the Hawaii Five-0 viewers will actually get the chance to tell us who they think committed the crime and we will listen. I love that our dedicated and attentive fans will actually play a part in resolving our story.”

Sounds fun, huh? The special episode titled “Kapu” (translation: “Forbidden”) airs this Monday night (1/14) at 10PM. Watch a trailer after the break. Continue reading ‘Hawaii Five-0’ lets viewers determine the ending in this week’s episode →

TV reminder: ‘Girls’ season 2 premieres tonight (1/13) at 9PM on HBO (trailers inside)

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The (mis)adventures of Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna continue when the critically acclaimed HBO series Girls from creator/executive producer/writer/star Lena Dunham returns for its second season tonight (1/13) at 9PM. The season 2 poster features Dunham up-close-and-personal with the perfect tagline “Almost getting it kind of together.” In an interview with EW Dumham said, “If you loved what we were doing last season, then we’re speaking right to you. If you hated it, then I’m afraid things aren’t going to change.”

After the break, get a taste of what’s in store and watch two trailers containing new material from the upcoming season. There you’ll also find a “Girls on Guys” featurette, or a primped Dunham conducting a fun conversation with Girls guys Adam Driver, Alex Karpovsky, Christopher Abbott, and Andrew Rannells (who is performing double duty this year working on this show and Ryan Murphy’s The New Normal).
 Continue reading TV reminder: ‘Girls’ season 2 premieres tonight (1/13) at 9PM on HBO (trailers inside) →

TCA 13: The CW’s Mark Pedowitz enjoys a “pretty good” fall, discusses the status of ‘Supernatural’ and others

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It may not be considered one of the big networks, but the Television Critics Association still allows The CW to get up and talk about its ratings performance and programming lineup. Network president Mark Pedowitz admitted, “We had a pretty good fourth quarter” noting his network’s 10 percent increase in total viewers. The net’s 18-49 and 18-34 demo numbers remained flat this fall. He blamed the Nielsen system for not fully tracking the number of viewers in the latter demo because it overlooks people tuning into shows using digital platforms. He shared that the network’s median age has risen to 41, something that NBC’s Bob Greenblatt laughed at during his TCA session. “I’d like to thank Bob for giving us a shout out for doing what we set out to do,” Pedowitz held firm. He set out for The CW to try and capture a wider audience across a younger and older generation of viewers. Now what you really want to hear about comes next; Pedowitz spent some time discussing the status of longrunning series like Supernatural, freshman shows such as Beauty and the Beast, and he also talked up new midseason entry The Carrie Diaries, a prequel to the hugely successful HBO series. It’s all after the break. Continue reading TCA 13: The CW’s Mark Pedowitz enjoys a “pretty good” fall, discusses the status of ‘Supernatural’ and others →

TCA 13: ‘Elementary’s Rob Doherty talks post-Super Bowl episode, introducing Moriarty and Irene Addler & taking a serial route

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Elementary, the CBS procedural inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of Sherlock Holmes, is the most watch new drama of the season. It’s doing so well, in fact, that the Eye has given it the plum post-Super Bowl slot this February 3. At the TCAs series creator and showrunner Rob Doherty (joined by stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu and exec producers Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman) discussed his excitement regarding this unique opportunity.

“It was a tremendous honor to get it as a first-year show,” Doherty said of the news. He said he hopes to “do our level best to keep the audience in their seats after the game.” The episode was made with potential newcomers and viewers from the beginning in mind. He understands that “It’s an incredible opportunity to expose the show to people who haven’t checked it out yet, and we took that into consideration when developing the episode.” He says the installment will tell “a story that we felt that not only was a good example of what the show could be, but also something that our viewers would have fun with.” A critic reminded him that the post-Super Bowl spot is one that pretty much guarantees the episode will attract “more people than anything you’ve ever done in your life — and if it works might result in you being set for life.” Doherty responded jokingly, “Well, now I’m stressed. Yes, I’ve felt all of those things. I mean, I’m stressed out all the time anyway. It’s hard to go from a 10 to an 11, but I did. Mostly what we felt was great excitement.” Continue reading TCA 13: ‘Elementary’s Rob Doherty talks post-Super Bowl episode, introducing Moriarty and Irene Addler & taking a serial route →

TCA 13: CBS’ Nina Tassler hopes for more ‘HIMYM’, ‘Two and a Half Men’, promotes summer schedule that includes Spielberg/King drama ‘Under the Dome’

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Today CBS was the last of the big four networks to take the stage at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler didn’t spend much time talking about her network’s ratings and overall fall performance. Everyone knows that the Eye attracts the most eyeballs in terms of total viewers. After NBC’s Bob Greenblatt gloated about ranking #1 in attracting viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic, Tassler responded with this. “I wouldn’t say there’s been much slippage [among 18-49],” she said. “We’re not a niche broadcaster. For us it’s still about getting everybody. Our advertisers are very pleased with our 25-54 numbers as well.” For the remainder of the panel, Tassler discussed the futures of long-running sitcoms How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men, she commented on the subject of violence on TV (a hot topic these days), and she announced CBS’ summer schedule which includes a mysterious drama called Under the Dome from Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. By now you should know where the bullet-points begin: after the break. Continue reading TCA 13: CBS’ Nina Tassler hopes for more ‘HIMYM’, ‘Two and a Half Men’, promotes summer schedule that includes Spielberg/King drama ‘Under the Dome’ →

2013 Oscar nods are in!

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As we inch closer to the 85th Academy Awards the nominations tallied by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were announced today. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln received the most nominations, 12 of them in fact. The period piece is up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field), Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Adapted Screenplay (Tony Kushner), Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, and Sound Mixing. Life of Pi is close behind with 11 nods including Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), and Best Adapted Screenplay (David Magee). The remaining Best Picture contenders are Amour (5 nods total), Argo (7), Beasts of the Southern Wild (4), Django Unchained (5), Les Miserables (8), Silver Linings Playbook (8), and Zero Dark Thirty (5). Daniel Day-Lewis is up against Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), and Denzel Washington (Flight) for Best Actor. Clawing for Best Actress are Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), and Naomi Watts (The Impossible). The movies up for Best Animated Feature are Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates!, Band of Misfits, and Wreck-It Ralph.

Who got snubbed? The biggest shockers are those who were not nominated for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master), and Ben Affleck (Argo; he also wasn’t nominated for Best Actor). Big acting snubs include Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) and John Hawkes (The Sessions). No technical nominations for Flight or Prometheus. Not a single nod for Rian Johnson’s Looper, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas. And blockbuster The Avengers only managed to land a single nod for Visual Effects.

Jump after the break to see all the nominations. The 85th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane, airs live Sunday, February 24 on ABC. Watch some of MacFarlane’s latest promos below.
 Continue reading 2013 Oscar nods are in! →

TCA 13: Creator Paul Scheuring aims to explore the human condition in his conspiracy thriller ‘Zero Hour’

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After watching the bizarre and slightly corny trailer for ABC’s upcoming conspiracy thriller Zero Hour, I must admit it made it sort of hard for me to recommend this midseason drama. The only elements pushing me to give it a try was that Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring is behind it and that revered actor Anthony Edwards (ER) stars. Today’s TCA panel pimping Zero Hour led by Scheuring and with some comments from Edwards has injected some much-needed confidence into me–it’s very high concept, it’s serialized to the core, and this show might just be an addicting thrill ride that educates and poses some lofty, intriguing questions about religion and history.

Briefly, Zero Hour stars Edwards as Hank Galliston, a publisher of a skeptics magazine, who has spent his career following clues, debunking myths and cracking conspiracies. But when his wife, Laila (Jacinda Barrett), is abducted from her antique clock shop by an international terrorist, Hank gets pulled into one of the most compelling mysteries in human history, stretching around the world and back centuries.

“The entire show is about the man or the woman beneath the identity,” Scheuring explained. “If you wear a Christian cross, are you automatically good? If you wear a Nazi armband, are you automatically bad? And that I think ultimately makes for more complex and interesting drama. All those different characters wear these different surface adornments, like Naziism, Christianity. But what’s the human beneath it?… I want to have a more sophisticated three-dimensional view of the characters as opposed to ‘Nazi! Bad!’ I mean, who cares?” After posing a hypothetical question ‘is the Christian God is real’ he stated, “Scientifically, that’s the question we are starting to ask as the season goes along.” (Along the same lines of he was stated earlier, he made a rather controversial statement when he said “The idea that all Nazis are bad is something we are exploring, 100 percent.”)

Scheuring shared, “There were two mandates: deliver something gigantic and make a spectacle.” Later he went on to admit, “There’s a fair amount of crazy in here.” Though critics are making comparions to the movies that star Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Scheuring was adamant, “We’re not the Da Vinci Code.” Continue reading TCA 13: Creator Paul Scheuring aims to explore the human condition in his conspiracy thriller ‘Zero Hour’ →

TCA 13: ABC’s Paul Lee comments on a so-so fall, expresses excitement for Joss Whedon’s Marvel series ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’

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Following NBC and FOX, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee took the stage at the TCA winter press tour to grade his network’s fall season and discuss the future. “We have a lot to shout about, and we also have a lot to do,” is how he kicked off the conversation.” He also said, “We were disappointed there weren’t any big breakout hits on broadcast, including ABC.” I guess he opted to ignore NBC’s Revolution when he went with that self-deprecating jab. He expressed concerns with cancelled dramas like Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue and the faltering Dancing with the Stars, but he also praised low-rated comedies Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 and shared his excitement for Joss Whedon’s Marvel series S.H.I.E.L.D. For the full scoop see the bullet-point breakdown after the break. Continue reading TCA 13: ABC’s Paul Lee comments on a so-so fall, expresses excitement for Joss Whedon’s Marvel series ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ →

TCA 13: Mitch Hurwitz reveals new storytelling format for ‘Arrested Development’ revival

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Now this is what you’ve been waiting for: more details to come out of the Arrested Development revival. Today at the TCAs series creator Mitch Hurwitz led a panel that included most of the brilliant ensemble cast–namely, Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, Jessica Walter, Alia Shawkat, and Jeffrey Tambor. David Cross and Tony Hale, unfortunately, were not present. Hurwitz is still keeping a heavy veil of secrecy on top of the plot, but he did manage  to shed some light on what viewers can expect in the new batch of episodes in terms of how they will play out.

Before we get to that, though, the most important news to come out of the panel: Arrested Development premieres on Netflix this May and all 14 episodes (the original order was 10, so this is a more-than-welcome surprise) will go live and be available on Netflix Instant streaming at once. Like installments from its original run, episodes will come in at just under 30 minutes and even though it wasn’t a requirement, curse words will be silenced with the famous Development bleep. So, still no hard date, but May is the month.

It leaked months ago that the new episodes would feature a new storytelling format, and today Hurwitz confirmed and explained the changes. “The only way we could get everyone together for what we’ll call, loosely, an anthology series, was to dedicate each episode to a different character’s point of view,” he said. “That became a fun, entertaining challenge, because we started finding out that the stories would intersect. It’s kind of an evolution of the storytelling that was necessary.” Essentially, viewers should not expect scenes that include all of the Bluths interacting with each other at once. In the old days, such scenes were typically the best ones; stuffing all the Bluths under the same roof made for some classic moments. But Hurwitz is quite confident that the new format will provide equally hilarious moments for fans to discover. “So, you’ll see a scene in one [episode], and then you’ll see a scene again from the other perspective [in another episode] where you’ll get all this new information,” he explained further. De Rossi shared an example without giving too much away. In her character Lindsay’s episode, “We had a great scene where I interpreted my mother’s tone as sarcasm,” she said. “But [we later see in someone else’s episode] she intended something entirely different.” Bateman chimed in as well. “Everybody sort of intermingles throughout each individual person’s episode. There’s plenty of the regular cast that filters through there. But it is a ‘Lindsay’ episode or a ‘Gob’ episode that we guest star in.

So much more after the break. Continue reading TCA 13: Mitch Hurwitz reveals new storytelling format for ‘Arrested Development’ revival →

TCA 13: FX’s ‘The Americans’ will have you rooting for the KGB

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FX has an intriguing drama up their sleeves ready to premiere at the end of the month. The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Russian KGB spies undercover living in Washington, D.C. married with two children set in ’80s during the Cold War. During a TCA gathering, creator Joe Weisberg said that his new series is inspired by the fairly recent real-life story about the sleeper Russian agents living in America that were exposed in 2010. “That was absolutely the inspiration for the show,” he said. “I got a call from DreamWorks TV about trying to create a TV show from that event.” The show really started coming together when Weisberg made the decision to plant the KGB spies not in modern day but rather in the 1980s, “a time when we were really enemies with that nation.”

Then executive producer Joe Fields landed this one on the audience: “It might be a little different to believe and get used to, but we want you to root for the KGB,” he said. “They’re going to try to get the Soviets to win the Cold War.” Can U.S. audiences sympathize with the KGB? “If you tried to tell a story like this about al-Qaeda now, it would be impossible no one would want to hear it,” Fields added. “I feel even the same could have been said up to ten years after the cold war ended.” The producers believe that “Enough time has passed where people are willing to look with their hearts and try to understand.”

Weisberg, a former CIA agent, will work in some of the most emotionally delicate experiences he faced during his years working for the government. “One specific thing that I never really got over in a way, is how CIA officers can’t tell their kids what they do,” he said. Even if they live abroad, they can’t tell their kid because the kid would go and blab it to all of his friends and blow their cover. Then maybe when they’re teenagers and old enough to know what mom and dad do for a living, it’s like this big day where they get sat down and told, ‘This is what we’ve kept from you your whole life: We work for the CIA.’ Sometimes, the kids are fine with finding out. Sometimes, it turns their lives into a big mess. But I’d always just found the whole idea incredibly powerful and made me want to go tell the story about the impact this has on a family.” He went on to say that “The show is about marriage, and that marriage in an allegory for international relations. And international relations are an allegory for marriage.”

The Americans will have you rooting for the KGB spies, but at the same time Weisberg and Fields do want viewers to take into consideration both sides of the coin. “These were these really competing value systems,” said Weisberg. “And there’s no question that repressive socialism failed, but unbridled consumption hasn’t exactly led to great satisfaction — and one problem is how do we express that dramatically.”

The Americans premieres Wednesday, January 30 at 10PM. Watch a trailer embedded above.

[Via THR; Deadline]

TCA 13: Preview Netflix original series ‘Hemlock Grove’ from author Brian McGreevy and Eli Roth

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Arrested Development isn’t the only Netflix original programming heading to the streaming service this year. In addition to David Fincher’s House of Cards which debuts the first of next month, a supernatural series from horror master Eli Roth is on tap for spring. Hemlock Grove, based on the 2012 novel of the same name written by Brian McGreevy, revolves around the murder of a young high school girl in Hemlock Grove, a former steel community, and centers on the bizarre collection of characters connected to it — who each have varying reasons for getting caught up in it. Roth, McGreevy, Lee Shipman, and Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica) serve as executive producers. Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgård, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, Freya Tingley, and Dougray Scott star.

At the TCAs McGreevy hyped his new series by saying that the emotional violence will play just as big a role as the physical violence on screen. “There’s no shortage of monsters on the show and they tend to fall on different varieties — like what separates a human from a monster,” he expanded. “The short answer to how supernatural the show is, is very.” He went on to describe the show like this: “This is like Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? with more people getting mauled, actually.”

Working with Netflix to bring the adaptation to life ultimately ended up being the perfect decision, McGreevy shared. He admitted that he and his team originally pitched the series to the “more conventional premium networks, but we were holding out for Netflix because they were the most exciting partners.” The levels of violence, nudity, and other risque material featured in Hemlock Grove is comparable to what viewers come to expect on premium networks like Showtime and HBO, he said.

“The architecture of Netflix’s model, when you’re writing a pilot and trying to get that sold, you approach story different than when you’re looking at essentially a 13-hour movie,” McGreevy said. “It’s novel for TV to have a beginning, middle and end when you start out and we really embraced that. It’s like a long 13-hour movie as opposed to episodic television,” Verheiden added. Shipman later revealed that the 13 episode first season deals with most everything that goes down in McGreevy’s book and that there are plans to expand on the story in additional seasons if Netflix approves.

Hemlock Grove premieres on Netflix with all the episodes available for streaming simultaneously as is the Netflix way starting April 19. Watch the trailer embedded above.

[Via THR; Deadline]

TCA 13: Creator Kevin Williamson discusses his serial killer thriller ‘The Following’

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The Following is arguably the most anticipated new drama this television season. In so many words, it’s an edgy, fast-paced thriller from Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries) that stars Kevin Bacon as an FBI agent attempting to stop a Edgar Allen Poe-obsessed jailed serial killer played by James Purefoy from recruiting a cult of followers who are committing violent acts on behalf of Purefoy’s intellectual but deadly character. Phew! At the TCAs Williamson talked up his new show for FOX, maintaining its integrity even when bombarded with questions fueled by the recent acts of violence in real life including the theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado and the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

“Who wasn’t affected by Sandy Hook? I’m still disturbed by Aurora,” Williamson shared. “I think we all worry about it. We sat in the writer’s room and we were all traumatized by it. There’s a moment where it becomes too real.” But he went on to assure the audience that The Following is, in fact, a work of fiction. It’s a story, he admits, that is influenced by previous works like The Silence of the Lambs and real-life terrors such as the Columbine incident. “I know what happens in the real world affects me,” he said. “It finds its way into what I do.” Later: “We don’t sit around and think of ways to kill people. I’m sitting around thinking of the drama…[After writing] some episodes, I’m like, ‘Wow a lot of people died this week.’ And then no one will die the next!” He noted that FOX has not asked him to fiddle with the amount of violence in the show; for now, it is what it is. Continue reading TCA 13: Creator Kevin Williamson discusses his serial killer thriller ‘The Following’ →