Posts tagged Showtime
101 Ways To Make TV Better: Enough With The Non-Ending Endings!
Dec 21st
Did you watch the finale of Homeland this week on Showtime? And if so – did you feel the same way I did?
Yep, after sitting through the 90-minute season finale (the 30 minutes of which were excruciatingly slow – and to be honest, pretty boring) Homeland wrapped up its first season with one of the most unsatisfying endings in recent memory.
Sergeant Brody (Damian Lewis) was revealed to be a terrorist and was all set to assassinate the slimy Vice President when he changed his mind at the last minute, following a tearful phone call from his daughter Dana. Unfortunately since Brody didn’t carry out his attack, no-one actually knows he’s a terrorist and Carrie (Claire Danes) has been left looking like a psycho stalker, submitting herself for electro-shock therapy in an effort to sort out her confused state of mind. Brody meanwhile is a hero, with top level security access. Happy times, eh! Even Jack Bauer at least got to save the day before enduring his own share of indignities and tortures.
Here’s the thing – there was lots that WAS right with the Homeland season finale. After that painfully slow start the suspense really started to kick in, as rogue More >
First Look: House Of Lies
Nov 12th
We all know art imitates life – and it looks like we’re going to be seeing a lot of shows in the coming months that use the current financial crisis as a backdrop.
Hot on the heels of ABC’s hit Revenge (rich people behaving badly) comes House Of Lies – the new Showtime series that’s about the ’1% sticking it to the 1%’
Based on a book by Matthew Kihn titled House Of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch And Then Tell You The Time, Lies features a team of consultants who’ll go to any lengths to get their clients the information they need.
Leading the pack is Don Cheadle, another acclaimed actor heading to the small screen (and we wonder why movies suck so bad!) Then there’s Kristen Bell, a talented actress who in my opinion hasn’t quite found her career making role yet. Bell plays a ‘razor sharp, Ivy League graduate who works with Cheadle’. Cue plenty of snappy banter!
All sounds great on paper – but am I the only person who thinks this trailer really sucks. I didn’t laugh, or even smile, once – the characters seemed totally obnoxious – and I didn’t even find the show clever / More >
Richard Recommends: Homeland
Nov 9th
Wow – time for ANOTHER Richard Recommends!
It just goes to show how good this Fall season has been on the TV front…
This time last year I was struggling to find anything I could recommend in what was one of the most dismal Fall seasons ever. But over the last few weeks I’ve found myself singing the praises of Ringer, Revenge, American Horror Story, Suburgatory and now Homeland, Showtime’s compelling terrorism thriller that’s become another of my Sunday night addictions…
I’m really enjoying the show but firstly there are a couple of things I need to get out of the way as a qualification for my thumbs up.
Ratings Roundup: 5th November 2011
Nov 5th
Winners and Losers From The Last 7 Days
WINNERS
REVENGE: Revenge is certainly proving sweet for ABC who’ve finally found a hit 10pm drama after a whole heap of misfires (The Whole Truth, Off The Map, Eastwick).
Revenge is still not a monster hit but anyone who knows anything about the TV industry can see when a phenomenon is brewing. Chat rooms and comment boards are filled with fans raving about the show, magazines are catching on (there’s a nice piece in this week’s Entertainment Weekly) and the show’s ratings are slowly inching up week by week.
This week’s episode of the Hamptons set soap opera pulled in 8.58 million viewers and a 3.0 18-49 share, Revenge’s highest demo score since the opening episode. And given that the show is getting better and better – and is fairly easy to pick up – I wouldn’t be surprised to see Revenge climbing above the 10 million mark in the very near future. Is the soap opera officially back?
First Look: Homeland
Apr 13th
Okay so we don’t have 24 anymore (until the just announced movie in 2012!) – but check out Homeland, the similarly themed drama coming coming soon to Showtime.
Instead of Jack Bauer we have Carrie Anderson, a brilliant CIA officer played by Claire Danes. Carrie’s convinced that Scott Brody (Damian Lewis), a recently rescued US prisoner of war, is actually part of a terrorist plot to cause destruction on American soil. Of course proving her theory is another story with even Carrie’s boss and mentor Saul (Mandy Patinkin) doubting her evidence…
So will Carrie go all Jack Bauer on us and save the world… I have a feeling she will!
Great to see Claire Dane back on our screens again following her triumphant turn in Temple Grandin. Honestly you have to wonder why any actress would even bother with the movies these days when TV offers up juicy parts like these for the likes of Danes, Kate Winslet (loving Mildred Pierce by the way), Glenn Close and many others. With dreck like Arthur, Hop and Sucker Punch clogging up cinemas at the moment TV really is the place for great drama…
So what do you make of Homeland? Will you be watching?
More >
First Look: Nurse Jackie – Season 3
Feb 26th
The wait is almost over… check out the trailer for the latest season of the Showtime smash, Nurse Jackie.
I came to the Jackie party rather late, assuming the show would just be another hospital drama or just more Scrubs style zaniness. But after zipping through the first two seasons last year I have to confess I freaking love Nurse Jackie!
The writing is superb, the characters so well defined, the acting terrific… nursing student Zoey cracks me up every time she appears, I adore fabulous Brit doctor O’Hara and I really like how the writers broke out hospital administrator Gloria in season 2 and made her so much more than just an overbearing bureaucrat.
Of course the last series ended badly for Jackie herself with the web of lies she’s constructed beginning to crash down around her… husband Kevin and O’Hara know about her painkiller addiction and tried to stage an intervention – but Kevin still doesn’t know about her long running affair with Eddie the pharmacist who’s now ended up as one of his best friends! Will this be the season he finally finds out?
It’s just such a great show – and for any of you out there who haven’t caught More >
FIRST LOOK: SHAMELESS
Dec 8th
Doing the rounds today – here’s the trailer for Shameless, the US version of the long running, award winning and very edgy Brit TV series, coming soon to Showtime.
I’ve never see the UK show but I certainly know its reputation – and it doesn’t look like Showtime have cleaned it up too much. Thank goodness it’s airing on pay cable rather than network TV!
Shameless stars William H Macy (bizarrely given second billing in the trailer BEHIND Emmy Rossum) as Frank Gallagher, a single father of 6 children who spends his days drunk while his kids fend for themselves. And the kids certainly find themselves in plenty of trouble as you’ll see from the trailer – petty crime, sex, blow jobs and sleeping with married men (and that’s his teenage SON!) It’s certainly not the Disney Channel.
Joan Cusack will also be recurring on the show, starring as an agrophobic Chicago housewife who strikes up a friendship with Frank (a role originally played by Allison Janney before she dropped out to join Matthew Perry in his upcoming ABC sitcom, Mr Sunshine). I sense awards – and a fair bit of controversy!
So are you intrigued by the trailer? Start sending over your thoughts…
More >
Okay this looks good!
Check out Matt Le Blanc, crawling from the wreckage that was Joey, in Showtime’s new inside Hollywood comedy series, Episodes.
The new show centers on a British couple (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) who produce a critically acclaimed TV series and then proceed to sell the rights to an unscrupulous Hollywood producer. Before they know it, the remake has been Americanized and recast with Matt Le Blanc, playing himself, as the lead actor… and then it all goes downhill from there!
This is the first trailer for the show and I have to say I’m definitely intrigued… I laughed out loud a couple of times, although I have to say the editing is really choppy and the ending fell flat. But there’s certainly promise to the concept. In fact Episodes is very reminscent of Lisa Kudrow’s own Hollywood spoof, The Comeback, a show that’s actually getting a second lease of life on the Sundance channel next year.
The big challenge of course is going to be keeping the show fresh once the initial gags wear off… I mean how long can Matt keep making Joey jokes…
Still Episodes comes from a great pedigree since it’s created by David Crane, co-creator of More >
DEXTER ACTION FIGURE CONTROVERSY!
Sep 5th
Uh-oh looks like Dexter is causing trouble again!
Yep, Showtime‘s hit serial killer series is in hot water after Toys R Us started selling a range of Dexter action figure collectibles in stores across America (where they’re selling out!) Below is a news report about the story with lots of ‘concerned parents’ having their say!
Now I’m not a parent (for those discussions head to our sister site Good Enough Mother) and I sort of agree with what the parents are saying… BUT!!!
1) If the toy is displayed on a high shelf in a ‘collectible section’ of the store and clearly marked ages 18 and up that feels kind of appropriate to me. It’s not like the figure is on a shelf next to Barbies and Bratz.
2) Am I the only one who feels a bit of hypocrisy here… it’s okay for kids to play with GI Joes and violent video games – but Dexter is suddenly a step too far…?
3) How many kids are really going to be into Dexter? The show airs on Showtime and is clearly not kiddie fare… will young children really care when there are far more heavily advertised toys in store.
4) As a kid I grew up More >
COMING SOON: THE BIG C
Aug 10th
When Does It Start: Monday 16th August at 10.30pm / 9.30c on Showtime
In A Nutshell: Schoolteacher Cathy discovers she has terminal cancer. It’s a comedy.
What’s It About: Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney) has always lived life by the rules – playing the perfect housewife, stifling her opinions and being the sensible and grounded one for all those around her, including her immature husband Paul (Oliver Platt) and irresponsible brother Sean. But when Cathy receives a tragic diagnosis from the doctor she decides to use it as the impetus to turn her life around – letting her ‘freak flag fly’ and saying exactly what she thinks…
