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) →

TV teaser: ‘Game of Thrones’ season 3

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Don’t expect to see any new footage from the third season of HBO’s fantasy series in this recently released teaser for Game of Thrones. Still, it is intriguing nonetheless. It features the three-eyed raven from Bran’s dreams flying over a modern cityscape. Pretty sure this has nothing to do what unfolds in the story. I haven’t read the books but I don’t think we’ll be seeing the Starks and the Lannisters discovering a portal to 2013. “Their world returns to ours” is what the promo is trying to say, meaning we will be transporting to Westeros soon when the series returns March 31. Allow “The Rains of Castamere” to soothe your soul and click play above.

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’ →

On the scene: Celebrating ‘Fringe’ at the Paley Center for Media (pictures inside)

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On Wednesday night I attended Fringe Benefits, a special screening, panel, reception, and gallery exhibit hosted by the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles. The event celebrated the cult sci-fi series Fringe which airs its third-to-last episode tonight (the final two episodes air back-to-back next Friday). As a fan of the show from the day the pilot aired in 2008, this was a very special occasion for me to attend. What better way to celebrate five phenomenal seasons of such a memorable, mind-bending show than with an intimate group of similarly passionate fans. Entertainment Weekly senior writer Jeff Jensen was on hand to introduce the screening of episode 511 “The Boy Must Live” and afterwards he moderated a Q&A panel that included star Lance Reddick (Phillip Broyles) and showrunner Joel “J.H.” Wyman.

“The Boy Must Live” airs tonight at 9PM on FOX, so I certainly won’t spoil anything for you. I will say, however, that this episode is one of the most revelatory in the show’s history as it answers many Observer-related questions. Walter (played by the talented John Noble) volunteers to take a plunge into the famous water tank to relive the memories transfered to him by the child Observer in an attempt to locate September (played by a touching Michael Cerveris). In many ways the episode is humorous; dialogue from Walter and Olivia forced the audience (and myself included) to erupt in laughter more than once during the screening. And at the same time the installment is incredibly touching; Walter and Peter share a tear-inducing moment early on in the episode. Questions are answers, emotional connections are made, and the ball is officially rolling toward next week’s big finale.

After the screening Jensen moderated a candid Q&A session with Reddick and Wyman. Below I share with you my attempt at scrupulous note-taking that took place during the entertaining back-and-forth. Continue reading On the scene: Celebrating ‘Fringe’ at the Paley Center for Media (pictures inside) →

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: Melissa Rosenberg teases a satisfying run for ‘Red Widow’ with lots of potential for more

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In my humble opinion, unlike Zero Hour‘s trailer the one for Red Widow bodes well for the upcoming ABC drama from Melissa Rosenberg (Dexter, the Twilight saga) and starring Radha Mitchell. The show revolves around Mitchell’s character Marta Walraven, a stay-at-home mom who gets tangled up in a bloody and dangerous tale involving her husband’s death and organized crime. Specifically, she must assume the role of her organized crime husband Franklin after he is assassinated in a drug-related incident.

At the TCAs Rosenberg made it a point that if you tune in you will get answers to some of the series’ big questions that are introduced inside the string of the first season’s eight episodes. “Having learned from The Killing, we are answering the questions of who killed Franklin and where is the coke.” (If you didn’t know, there was a huge backlash when AMC’s The Killing failed to reveal the season’s murderer in the finale.) “The question of how Marta is going to get herself out of this is a series-long question. And each effort will lead to the continuing story line,” Rosenberg expanded.

Red Widow is based on the 2010 Dutch series Penoza. After a successful run, Penoza (which was originally deemed an eight episode mini-series) received an order for more episodes but its writers had killed off many the characters and so they had a harder time reinstating the show. Rosenberg is more than aware of this and said, “By the end of the season, we’ll have a satisfying answer to the season, but I’m not giving anybody up. I’m not killing everyone, and I’m not letting anyone off the hook. Some people die, but not all of them. For me, it’s all about building characters and relationships you can cling to for five or seven years.”

Rosenberg envisions Mitchell’s Marta to eventually transform into a dark, deeply flawed antiheroine. She said the character is inspired by such flawed characters as Breaking Bad‘s Walter White and Dexter‘s Dexter Morgan. “She could go as bad as Walter White,” she said. “We don’t go that far in the [first season], but there is definitely room to evolve.” Mitchell compared her character to Luc Besson’s creation in La Femme Nikita by describing Marta as “a character under duress. I always thought the character was iconic, and a kind of character I wanted to explore if I had one more character in my career.”

Red Widow premieres Sunday, March 3 at 9PM.

[Via Deadline; THR]

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]