Showing posts with label nbc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nbc. Show all posts
Monday, July 15, 2013
Boston Marathon bombing victim update
In an iconic and affecting photo taken in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing in April, cowboy hat-wearing Carlos Arredondo rushes to push Jeff Bauman out of harm’s way in a wheelchair. While the photo showed the horrors of a city rocked by violence, it also captured the heroism and resilience that emerged from the tragedy.
Bauman lost his legs in the blast but managed to maintain an indomitable spirit. Since the bombing, he has continued his recovery and is learning to walk on new prosthetic legs. In May, he and Arredondo appeared at a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park, where Bauman threw the ceremonial first pitch.
On Wednesday, Bauman and Arredondo sat down with NBC’s Brian Williams to talk about the bond they have formed in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy. In a segment that ran on the "Today Show," the two men talked about the bombing, their newfound connection, and Bauman’s remarkably fast recovery.
“I’m stronger,” Bauman told Williams. “Way stronger. I could lift my whole body weight with these [arms], probably about 100 times if I wanted to.”
Bauman likely would not have survived the bombing if Arredondo, a Costa Rican peace activist, hadn’t come to his rescue. In the famous photo, Arredondo can be seen trying to stem the massive blood loss from Bauman’s right thigh as a first responder and volunteers wheel him to safety.
“He was the one that picked me off the ground,” said Bauman. “He said his shoulder was hurting, but he grabbed me with one hand in the chair.”
Said Arredondo, “I saw the quantity of blood on the floor, and I knew Jeff was a person who needed to go soon, very quick to the emergency room, because he lost so much blood at the time.”
Still recovering at the time of the interview, Bauman remained optimistic.
“I really want to do something great,” he told Williams. “I want to be out there. I want to just help people. That’s what I want to do.”
Source
Monday, July 9, 2012
Parks and Recreation might be filming in D.C.
Parks and Recreation wasn’t kidding about shipping Ben off to the nation’s capital in the Season 4 finale. When the show returns with its fifth season on Sept. 20, there’s a good chance Adam Scott‘s up-and-coming political strategist will literally be in Washington, D.C.Sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that the NBC comedy is looking to shoot scenes on location in D.C. for the premiere and perhaps beyond. Parks‘ leading lady Amy Poehler is also expected to make the trek, presumably so Leslie can help her beau get acclimated to his new city.
It was always Parks‘ EP Michael Schur’s intention to follow through on the finale twist that had Ben accepting a job working for a national campaign, thereby creating another obstacle for him and Leslie.
“We want to make it real,” Schur recently told TVGuide.com. “We don’t want to have it be that in the premiere all of a sudden he’s back. That would be pointless. He’s going to be gone for a while.”
An NBC rep declined to comment for this story.
Source
Friday, May 18, 2012
30 Rock will end after it's seventh season
NBC boss Robert Greenblatt officially confirmed that 30 Rock's seventh season will also be its last at the network's upfront presentation in New York City. Last week, Tina Fey's comedy was picked up for 13 episodes, along with fellow perennial bubble show Community.
So how is NBC sending off the quirky comedy?
With a one hour series finale! Yes, Greenblatt says 30 Rock will finish its 13-episode seventh and final season with a special 60-minute send-off.
"I know Tina, Alec and the rest will deliver some of their best work," Greenblatt gushed. "We think the world of Tina and hope she will be in the NBC family for years to come."
Just yesterday, Greenblatt denied that any decisions had been made about whether or not this would be the Alec Baldwin starrer's final season. "As they age, it's obviously something you look at. We haven't definitely said that with any of them yet," he said, addressing the fates of both 30 Rock and Community.
Source
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Television networks rank their favorite seasons
Many websites are doing March Madness-style brackets to declare the Best Drama Series of All-Time or the Best Sitcom Episode Ever. We’re getting into the fun, too, BUT BIGGER. This is our power rankings of the greatest seasons from nine of our favorite networks. Here’s how we did it:
1) We looked at the schedule for every season for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Showtime, AMC, FX, and Comedy Central (sorry, WB/UPN/CW!), ranging from the 1950s to the present, and chose the best overall one for each. (For network channels, we did 2011-2012; for cable, just a single year, like 2011. That’s just how they work.) We put into account not only the fact that, for example, “Cheers” was on, but whether “Cheers” was any good in that particular season.
2) We then compared the best season of each network against the best seasons of the other eight networks, to decide if, say, Showtime’s best year is better than Fox’s best year. (HINT: it’s not.)
9. Showtime
Winner: 2006 (“Brotherhood,” “Dexter,” “Huff,” “The L Word,” “Weeds,” etc.)
Runner-Up: 2011 (“The Big C,” “The Borgias,” “Californication,” “Dexter,” “Episodes,” “Homeland,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” “Shameless,” “United States of Tara,” Weeds,” etc.)
Showtime finally premiered its first HBO-level series last year in “Homeland,” and though I could be persuaded to declare 2011 the winner, based simply on the merits of that one show, I can’t forget season six of “Dexter” and season seven of “Weeds” and season one of “Episodes.” (Seasons one and four of “Shameless” and “Californication,” those were OK.) Instead, the honor goes to 2006, when Showtime’s slate included the Ice Truck Killer year of “Dexter,” season two of “Weeds” (MILFweed), and the underappreciated freshman season of “Brotherhood,” as well as “The L Word” and “Huff” (I guess).
8. ABC
Winner: 1977-1978 (“Barney Miller,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Starsky & Hutch,” “Taxi,” “What’s Happening,” etc.)
Runner-Up: 1990-1991 (“Roseanne,” “Twin Peaks,” “The Wonder Years,” etc.)
ABC has never really had an identity, or at least an all-together positive one. NBC was the blockbuster network of the 1990s which now has a number of low rated, critically beloved series; Fox was built on “The Simpsons” and the crassness that followed; and CBS revolutionized the sitcom multiple times, with “I Love Lucy” and “All In the Family” and others. As for ABC, um, it aired “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” which effectively started the reality show craze that continues today. FU*K THAT. Ditto many of its older hits, like “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “The Brady Bunch,” that are still spoken of today only due to misguided nostalgia. Also: “Cop Rock.” So you have to look deep within the network’s best season, 1977-1978, past “Apple Pie,” to see its best series, like “Barney Miller,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and, most importantly, “Taxi,” a remarkably well written ensemble sitcom. Or just choose 1990 because it had both “Twin Peaks” and “The Wonder Years,” and those shows own.
7. Comedy Central
Winner: 2004 (“Chappelle’s Show,” “Comedy Central Presents,” “Crank Yankers,” “The Daily Show,” “Drawn Together,” “Reno 911!” “South Park,” etc.)
Runner-Up: 2011 (“The Colbert Report,” “Comedy Central Presents,” “Comedy Central Roast,” “The Daily Show,” “Futurama,” “Jon Benjamin Has a Van,” “South Park,” “Ugly Americans,” “Workaholics,” etc.)
People still talk glowingly about “The Daily Show” in 2004 – rightfully so. It was the second time Jon Stewart & Co. aired under the “Indecision” banner, after the 2000 election selection, but it was the first time the show was a cultural force. It suddenly didn’t seem peculiar for TV viewers to get their news from a so-called “comedy show.” And if comedy fans weren’t discussing Stewart (and correspondents Samantha Bee, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Ed Helms) it’s likely they were quoting season two of “Chappelle’s Show” (featuring Negrodamus and Rick James) or season eight of “South Park,” which included such instant classics as “The Passion of the Jew,” "AWESOM-O,” and “Woodland Critter Christmas.”
6. Fox
Winner: 2003-2004 (“24,” “Arrested Development,” “The Bernie Mac Show,” “King of the Hill,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “The O.C.,” “The Simpsons,” “Tru Calling,” “That ‘70s Show,” and “Wonderfalls”)
Runner-Up: 1994-1995 (“Beverly Hills 90210,” “The Critic,” “Married...with Children,” "Melrose Place," “The Simpsons,” “The X-Files,” etc.)
It’s tempting to choose 1994-1995, which was when my favorite "Simpsons" season ran (six), but the rest of Fox's schedule had “The X-Files”...and not much else. (“The Critic” was stronger on ABC, and “Beverly Hills” and “Married...with Children” are more guilty pleasures than anything.) Temptation aside, 2003-2004 is the winner, mostly due to “The Simpsons” and “Arrested Development,” but also because season one of both “The O.C.” and “Wonderfalls” are great, and the schedule also had a still-exciting “24” and “King of the Hill.”
5. NBC
Winner: 2006-2007 (“30 Rock,” “ER,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Heroes,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “My Name is Earl,” The Office,” “Scrubs,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” etc.)
Runner-Up: 1991-1992 (“Cheers,” “The Cosby Show,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “L.A. Law,” “Night Court,” “Seinfeld,” etc.)
I came into this entry expecting to crown 1991-1992 the winner, because it was a good cross-section of NBC’s best from the 1980s (“Cosby Show,” “Cheers”) with their upcoming greatness from the 1990s (“Seinfeld”). But by seasons 8 and 10, “Cosby” and “Cheers” weren’t as sharp anymore, “Seinfeld” was just starting to find its footing, and the rest of NBC’s schedule wasn’t very good. So that’s I’m picking 2006-2007 (but just barely). It has both quality and quantity, including the first seasons of “Heroes,” “Friday Night Lights,” and “Studio 60," as well as comedy classics, like “30 Rock,” “The Office,” and “Scrubs.”
Though 1999-2000, with “Freaks and Geeks,” “Friends,” and “The West Wing,” is mighty good, too...
4. FX
Winner: 2011 (“American Horror Story,” “Archer,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Justified,” “The League,” “Louie,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “Wilfred,” etc.)
Runner-Up: 2010 (Most of that, plus “Terriers”)
What separates FX’s 2010 from FX’s 2011? The former had “Terriers,” the latter had “Wilfred” and “American Horror Story.” The canceled-far-too-soon “Terriers” is superior to both of those shows, so why is 2011 the winner and 2010 the runner-up? Because last year was when “Archer,” “Louie,” and “Justified” all transformed from very good shows to GREAT ones. “Louie” had an incredibly strong freshman year, but none of those episodes were nearly as impressive as “Oh Louie/Tickets” or “Duckling” – the same goes for the differences between season one of both “Archer” and “Justified” to the brilliance of episodes like “Stage Two” and “Brother’s Keeper,” both series’ highpoints, in season two. Sorry “Terriers” fans, but you’re probably used to disappointment, right?
3. AMC
Winner: 2010 (“Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” “Rubicon,” and “The Walking Dead”)
Runner-Up: 2011 (“Breaking Bad,” “Hell on Wheels,” “The Killing,” and “The Walking Dead”)
This wasn’t a tough choice. Both years have “The Walking Dead,” a solid B, B- series, but only one has “Mad Men” AND “Breaking Bad,” two of the greatest dramas ever. Plus, “Rubicon,” though it had many, overly complicated faults, was better than the shockingly boring “Hell on Wheels” and the dreary tease that is “The Killing.” (Pre-“Mad Men” AMC was LOLtastic – anyone have fond memories of “The Lot”? Or any memories?)
2. CBS
Winner: 1976-1977 (“All in the Family,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons,” “Kojak,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “M*A*S*H,” “Maude,” “Phyllis,” “Rhoda,” etc.)
Runner-Up: 1955-1956 (“Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Honeymooners,” “I Love, Lucy,” etc.)
It’s kind of sad, actually. CBS, now the home of bland comedies and unimaginative procedurals, was the ideal network for, well, decades. In the 1950s, it had “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners.” In the 1960s, “The Twilight Zone” and “The Prisoner.” In the 1970s, “All in the Family”, ”Maude," ”WKRP in Cincinnati," "The Carol Burnett Show," "Rhoda," "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show”...the list goes on and on. These were high-rated shows that changed TV as we know it, tackling topics that had never been discussed during primetime before, and I singled out the 1976-1977 season because it includes “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” one of the funniest episodes ever, from “Mary Tyler Moore.” Imagine that: hit shows worth watching. On CBS!
1. HBO
Winner: 2004 (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Da Ali G Show,” “Deadwood,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” etc.)
Runner-Up: Didn’t want to choose another “Sopranos” or ”Wire” year, so…either 1998 (“From the Earth to the Moon,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” “Oz,” “Sex and the City,” etc.) or 2011 (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Bored to Death,” “Curb,” “Enlightened,” “Game of Thrones,” “Treme,” “True Blood,” etc.)
Source
1) We looked at the schedule for every season for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Showtime, AMC, FX, and Comedy Central (sorry, WB/UPN/CW!), ranging from the 1950s to the present, and chose the best overall one for each. (For network channels, we did 2011-2012; for cable, just a single year, like 2011. That’s just how they work.) We put into account not only the fact that, for example, “Cheers” was on, but whether “Cheers” was any good in that particular season.
2) We then compared the best season of each network against the best seasons of the other eight networks, to decide if, say, Showtime’s best year is better than Fox’s best year. (HINT: it’s not.)
9. Showtime
Runner-Up: 2011 (“The Big C,” “The Borgias,” “Californication,” “Dexter,” “Episodes,” “Homeland,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” “Shameless,” “United States of Tara,” Weeds,” etc.)
Showtime finally premiered its first HBO-level series last year in “Homeland,” and though I could be persuaded to declare 2011 the winner, based simply on the merits of that one show, I can’t forget season six of “Dexter” and season seven of “Weeds” and season one of “Episodes.” (Seasons one and four of “Shameless” and “Californication,” those were OK.) Instead, the honor goes to 2006, when Showtime’s slate included the Ice Truck Killer year of “Dexter,” season two of “Weeds” (MILFweed), and the underappreciated freshman season of “Brotherhood,” as well as “The L Word” and “Huff” (I guess).
8. ABC
Runner-Up: 1990-1991 (“Roseanne,” “Twin Peaks,” “The Wonder Years,” etc.)
ABC has never really had an identity, or at least an all-together positive one. NBC was the blockbuster network of the 1990s which now has a number of low rated, critically beloved series; Fox was built on “The Simpsons” and the crassness that followed; and CBS revolutionized the sitcom multiple times, with “I Love Lucy” and “All In the Family” and others. As for ABC, um, it aired “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” which effectively started the reality show craze that continues today. FU*K THAT. Ditto many of its older hits, like “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “The Brady Bunch,” that are still spoken of today only due to misguided nostalgia. Also: “Cop Rock.” So you have to look deep within the network’s best season, 1977-1978, past “Apple Pie,” to see its best series, like “Barney Miller,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and, most importantly, “Taxi,” a remarkably well written ensemble sitcom. Or just choose 1990 because it had both “Twin Peaks” and “The Wonder Years,” and those shows own.
7. Comedy Central
Runner-Up: 2011 (“The Colbert Report,” “Comedy Central Presents,” “Comedy Central Roast,” “The Daily Show,” “Futurama,” “Jon Benjamin Has a Van,” “South Park,” “Ugly Americans,” “Workaholics,” etc.)
People still talk glowingly about “The Daily Show” in 2004 – rightfully so. It was the second time Jon Stewart & Co. aired under the “Indecision” banner, after the 2000 election selection, but it was the first time the show was a cultural force. It suddenly didn’t seem peculiar for TV viewers to get their news from a so-called “comedy show.” And if comedy fans weren’t discussing Stewart (and correspondents Samantha Bee, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Ed Helms) it’s likely they were quoting season two of “Chappelle’s Show” (featuring Negrodamus and Rick James) or season eight of “South Park,” which included such instant classics as “The Passion of the Jew,” "AWESOM-O,” and “Woodland Critter Christmas.”
6. Fox
Runner-Up: 1994-1995 (“Beverly Hills 90210,” “The Critic,” “Married...with Children,” "Melrose Place," “The Simpsons,” “The X-Files,” etc.)
It’s tempting to choose 1994-1995, which was when my favorite "Simpsons" season ran (six), but the rest of Fox's schedule had “The X-Files”...and not much else. (“The Critic” was stronger on ABC, and “Beverly Hills” and “Married...with Children” are more guilty pleasures than anything.) Temptation aside, 2003-2004 is the winner, mostly due to “The Simpsons” and “Arrested Development,” but also because season one of both “The O.C.” and “Wonderfalls” are great, and the schedule also had a still-exciting “24” and “King of the Hill.”
5. NBC
Runner-Up: 1991-1992 (“Cheers,” “The Cosby Show,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “L.A. Law,” “Night Court,” “Seinfeld,” etc.)
I came into this entry expecting to crown 1991-1992 the winner, because it was a good cross-section of NBC’s best from the 1980s (“Cosby Show,” “Cheers”) with their upcoming greatness from the 1990s (“Seinfeld”). But by seasons 8 and 10, “Cosby” and “Cheers” weren’t as sharp anymore, “Seinfeld” was just starting to find its footing, and the rest of NBC’s schedule wasn’t very good. So that’s I’m picking 2006-2007 (but just barely). It has both quality and quantity, including the first seasons of “Heroes,” “Friday Night Lights,” and “Studio 60," as well as comedy classics, like “30 Rock,” “The Office,” and “Scrubs.”
Though 1999-2000, with “Freaks and Geeks,” “Friends,” and “The West Wing,” is mighty good, too...
4. FX
Runner-Up: 2010 (Most of that, plus “Terriers”)
What separates FX’s 2010 from FX’s 2011? The former had “Terriers,” the latter had “Wilfred” and “American Horror Story.” The canceled-far-too-soon “Terriers” is superior to both of those shows, so why is 2011 the winner and 2010 the runner-up? Because last year was when “Archer,” “Louie,” and “Justified” all transformed from very good shows to GREAT ones. “Louie” had an incredibly strong freshman year, but none of those episodes were nearly as impressive as “Oh Louie/Tickets” or “Duckling” – the same goes for the differences between season one of both “Archer” and “Justified” to the brilliance of episodes like “Stage Two” and “Brother’s Keeper,” both series’ highpoints, in season two. Sorry “Terriers” fans, but you’re probably used to disappointment, right?
3. AMC
Runner-Up: 2011 (“Breaking Bad,” “Hell on Wheels,” “The Killing,” and “The Walking Dead”)
This wasn’t a tough choice. Both years have “The Walking Dead,” a solid B, B- series, but only one has “Mad Men” AND “Breaking Bad,” two of the greatest dramas ever. Plus, “Rubicon,” though it had many, overly complicated faults, was better than the shockingly boring “Hell on Wheels” and the dreary tease that is “The Killing.” (Pre-“Mad Men” AMC was LOLtastic – anyone have fond memories of “The Lot”? Or any memories?)
2. CBS
Runner-Up: 1955-1956 (“Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Honeymooners,” “I Love, Lucy,” etc.)
It’s kind of sad, actually. CBS, now the home of bland comedies and unimaginative procedurals, was the ideal network for, well, decades. In the 1950s, it had “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners.” In the 1960s, “The Twilight Zone” and “The Prisoner.” In the 1970s, “All in the Family”, ”Maude," ”WKRP in Cincinnati," "The Carol Burnett Show," "Rhoda," "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show”...the list goes on and on. These were high-rated shows that changed TV as we know it, tackling topics that had never been discussed during primetime before, and I singled out the 1976-1977 season because it includes “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” one of the funniest episodes ever, from “Mary Tyler Moore.” Imagine that: hit shows worth watching. On CBS!
1. HBO
Runner-Up: Didn’t want to choose another “Sopranos” or ”Wire” year, so…either 1998 (“From the Earth to the Moon,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” “Oz,” “Sex and the City,” etc.) or 2011 (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Bored to Death,” “Curb,” “Enlightened,” “Game of Thrones,” “Treme,” “True Blood,” etc.)
Source
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Time's Top Shows of 2011
10. Enlightened
Personal growth isn't easy, so maybe it's fitting that a series about it shouldn't be either. At first blush, Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern) is easier to gawk at than to like. A corporate executive who suffers a nervous breakdown after an affair, she has an epiphany at a pricey therapy retreat, then returns to her old life, demoted at the office, living with her mom (Dern's actual mother, Diane Ladd) and trailing passive-aggressive spirituality. At first, Amy seems so deluded and self-righteous that you want to smack her into a shivasana pose. But Enlightened, written by Mike White (The Good Girl), isn't interested in mocking easy New Age targets or valorizing Amy. Instead, it takes her journey seriously, if sometimes seriously enough to laugh at it. Subtle and gorgeously directed (by guests including Jonathan Demme, Miguel Arteta and Nicole Holofcener), it's a darkly funny, empathetic story of a flawed woman learning that sometimes a journey of a thousand miles begins with a good sharp kick in the ass. (HBO)
9. The Good Wife
One test of a good show is its ability to outlive the high-concept premise that got it on the air. The Good Wife started out as a ripped-from-the-headlines story of political wife Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), cheated on by her husband, who strikes out on her own after the scandal that humiliates her. By its third season, that hook is almost gone; what's left is not just a good drama but several good dramas at once, each of them sophisticated stories about power in various forms: There's the interoffice politics of the Gardner-Lockhart law firm, the actual politics of in-house spin savant Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) and his clients, the sexual entanglements of Alicia and her old-new flame (and boss) Will (Josh Charles) and a string of interesting stories about how technology and media have changed life, politics and the law. Oh yeah, and the most reliably intriguing courtroom cases on TV. The ability to keep growing: that's what makes a good Wife great. (CBS)
8. Community
Community is television's first Cubist sitcom. Like the still lifes of Picasso or Braque, it starts with a simple tableau: a set of friends/acquaintances/nemeses in a community-college study group. Then, episode by episode — like a painter breaking a guitar into geometric shapes — obsessive creator Dan Harmon rearranges its component parts to play with perspective and create a picture truer than real life. One week the story is built around seven alternative timelines. Another, it's a parody of My Dinner with Andre. Another, it's told entirely through flashbacks to Community episodes that were never made. It's not just invention for its own sake but a way of using the storytelling frame to show how each character in the ensemble relates to the whole. Yet Community is not some high-art experiment but hilarious, good-time entertainment; it both defies sitcom formulas and lovingly embraces them. Unfortunately, NBC has just placed the low-rated series on hiatus. It should return later next year, and it may yet be renewed. If not, what we've gotten is worth hanging in a museum. (NBC)
7. Friday Night Lights
Over five seasons of trying to get more people to watch this gem of a drama, we fans have told our friends, "It's not really about football." Now it can be told: We were lying! Well, not entirely. There was much, much more to this story of small-town Texas life than the high-school football team that was at its core (first, powerhouse West Dillon, then wrong-side-of-the-track underdog East Dillon). There was family, faith, love, money. But it all came down to applying to larger life a lesson we know from sports: there is no I in team. FNL was always sincerely about community, about the idea that every person, grownup or teenager, is part of a larger system of dependence: a town, a school, a family, a marriage. The final season of this drama came down, as you would expect, to a final dramatic game. But the real action was always just as much in the stands. (DirecTV/NBC)
6. Homeland
The best new series of the fall, Showtime's terrorism thriller came along just in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. A decade after the attacks, we've stayed safe. We've become more alert. But — as this intense psychological drama asks of its characters — what have been the trade-offs? Are we wounded? Are we traumatized? Are we, maybe, a little crazy? Homeland sets out these questions through two damaged characters who start out as adversaries but find themselves deeply linked. Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a CIA analyst, learns from a source that a U.S. soldier imprisoned in Iraq has been "turned" by terrorists. This leads her to suspect Sergeant Nick Brody (Damian Lewis), a freed POW and national hero. Is Carrie on to the perfect sleeper agent, or is she influenced by post-9/11 guilt — as well as a mood disorder she's been hiding? Brody is behaving suspiciously, but is it proof of guilt or the scars of eight years in hell? The performances are fantastic — Carrie is a throbbing nerve, Brody thrums with repressed pain — and the show is both thrilling as a mystery and an acute study of how people mourn for lost time they can never get back. (Showtime)
Personal growth isn't easy, so maybe it's fitting that a series about it shouldn't be either. At first blush, Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern) is easier to gawk at than to like. A corporate executive who suffers a nervous breakdown after an affair, she has an epiphany at a pricey therapy retreat, then returns to her old life, demoted at the office, living with her mom (Dern's actual mother, Diane Ladd) and trailing passive-aggressive spirituality. At first, Amy seems so deluded and self-righteous that you want to smack her into a shivasana pose. But Enlightened, written by Mike White (The Good Girl), isn't interested in mocking easy New Age targets or valorizing Amy. Instead, it takes her journey seriously, if sometimes seriously enough to laugh at it. Subtle and gorgeously directed (by guests including Jonathan Demme, Miguel Arteta and Nicole Holofcener), it's a darkly funny, empathetic story of a flawed woman learning that sometimes a journey of a thousand miles begins with a good sharp kick in the ass. (HBO)
9. The Good Wife
One test of a good show is its ability to outlive the high-concept premise that got it on the air. The Good Wife started out as a ripped-from-the-headlines story of political wife Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), cheated on by her husband, who strikes out on her own after the scandal that humiliates her. By its third season, that hook is almost gone; what's left is not just a good drama but several good dramas at once, each of them sophisticated stories about power in various forms: There's the interoffice politics of the Gardner-Lockhart law firm, the actual politics of in-house spin savant Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) and his clients, the sexual entanglements of Alicia and her old-new flame (and boss) Will (Josh Charles) and a string of interesting stories about how technology and media have changed life, politics and the law. Oh yeah, and the most reliably intriguing courtroom cases on TV. The ability to keep growing: that's what makes a good Wife great. (CBS)
Community is television's first Cubist sitcom. Like the still lifes of Picasso or Braque, it starts with a simple tableau: a set of friends/acquaintances/nemeses in a community-college study group. Then, episode by episode — like a painter breaking a guitar into geometric shapes — obsessive creator Dan Harmon rearranges its component parts to play with perspective and create a picture truer than real life. One week the story is built around seven alternative timelines. Another, it's a parody of My Dinner with Andre. Another, it's told entirely through flashbacks to Community episodes that were never made. It's not just invention for its own sake but a way of using the storytelling frame to show how each character in the ensemble relates to the whole. Yet Community is not some high-art experiment but hilarious, good-time entertainment; it both defies sitcom formulas and lovingly embraces them. Unfortunately, NBC has just placed the low-rated series on hiatus. It should return later next year, and it may yet be renewed. If not, what we've gotten is worth hanging in a museum. (NBC)
7. Friday Night Lights
Over five seasons of trying to get more people to watch this gem of a drama, we fans have told our friends, "It's not really about football." Now it can be told: We were lying! Well, not entirely. There was much, much more to this story of small-town Texas life than the high-school football team that was at its core (first, powerhouse West Dillon, then wrong-side-of-the-track underdog East Dillon). There was family, faith, love, money. But it all came down to applying to larger life a lesson we know from sports: there is no I in team. FNL was always sincerely about community, about the idea that every person, grownup or teenager, is part of a larger system of dependence: a town, a school, a family, a marriage. The final season of this drama came down, as you would expect, to a final dramatic game. But the real action was always just as much in the stands. (DirecTV/NBC)
6. Homeland
The best new series of the fall, Showtime's terrorism thriller came along just in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. A decade after the attacks, we've stayed safe. We've become more alert. But — as this intense psychological drama asks of its characters — what have been the trade-offs? Are we wounded? Are we traumatized? Are we, maybe, a little crazy? Homeland sets out these questions through two damaged characters who start out as adversaries but find themselves deeply linked. Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a CIA analyst, learns from a source that a U.S. soldier imprisoned in Iraq has been "turned" by terrorists. This leads her to suspect Sergeant Nick Brody (Damian Lewis), a freed POW and national hero. Is Carrie on to the perfect sleeper agent, or is she influenced by post-9/11 guilt — as well as a mood disorder she's been hiding? Brody is behaving suspiciously, but is it proof of guilt or the scars of eight years in hell? The performances are fantastic — Carrie is a throbbing nerve, Brody thrums with repressed pain — and the show is both thrilling as a mystery and an acute study of how people mourn for lost time they can never get back. (Showtime)
Monday, September 19, 2011
Michele Bachmann on Jay Leno
The Minnesota congresswoman and Republican presidential candidate came on the "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" Friday night to discuss her views. Even though she is more tolerable than usual, she is still a repulsive person whose poses misinformation as "facts."
Talking about her win in Iowa and the HPV vaccine.
Talking about the debt ceiling debacle and gay marriage.
Talking about her win in Iowa and the HPV vaccine.
Talking about the debt ceiling debacle and gay marriage.
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