Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

Timeless: Past Meets WTF-uture In NBC’s Time-Travel Adventure

October 1, 2016 Lori Acken

Timeless NBC Premieres: Oct. 3 Airs: Mondays at 10pm Who’s In It? Goran Visnjic, Malcolm Barrett, Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Sakina Jaffrey, Paterson Joseph What’s It All About? Time travel melded with snappy history lessons, plenty of action, loads of creativity and smart laughs. Plus — and this is a big plus — time machines that look like giant Mike Wazowski eyeballs that fly by spinning their inner lids. And it’s from The Shield’s Shawn Ryan and Supernatural’s Eric Kripke. We’ve all said it: “If I could turn back time, I’d … ” Whatever your “after the ‘I’d’” is, NBC’s […]

Westworld: HBO’s Star-Packed Series Updates Crichton’s 1973 Chiller

September 30, 2016 Lori Acken

Westworld premieres Sunday, Oct. 2 at 9/8CT on HBO What if — for a day or a week — the world was yours to control? Someone giving you grief? Waste them without consequence. That lovely lady right there at the bar? Yours for the taking, no questions asked. The drinks flow freely, you win every game and nobody cares if you’re a workaday schlub fending off a midlife meltdown. But what if you were the irritant, that pretty woman, another someone in your unfettered path? And what if, one day, you realized that your moment-by-moment existence is no more than a construct […]

Conviction: Hayley Atwell Plays a Bad Girl Doing Good

September 30, 2016 Lori Acken

Conviction ABC Premieres: Oct. 3 Airs: Mondays at 10pm Who’s In It? Hayley Atwell, Eddie Cahill, Emily Kinney, Merrin Dungey, Shawn Ashmore, Manny Montana ABC bolsters its stable of engrossing dramas featuring brilliant but flawed heroines and their spunky teams of helpers with this addictive charmer, that also serves as a solid whodunit. Captain America’s Atwell plays Hayes Morrison, a reckless, rapier-wit former first daughter who has become a brilliant lawyer and professor despite her taste for trouble. When Hayes’ latest adventures (see also: cocaine and a dab of ill-advised seduction) land her in the pokey yet again — at the […]

Secrets and Lies Season 2: Who’s in Det. Cornell’s crosshairs this time?

September 24, 2016 Lori Acken

Secrets and Lies Sunday, Sept. 25 ABC, 9/8CT It’s been a long wait for Juliette Lewis’ Detective Andrea Cornell to return to the job, but she’s finally back on the job, with a killer new case and another troubled-but-handsome prime suspect. When the wife of Eric Warner (The Following‘s Michael Ealy ), heir to a lucrative private equity firm, is found dead at the very party announcing Eric’s rise to the top, Cornell must unravel the secrets of the Warner family and their intimates, and find out just how close to home Kate Warner’s (Jordana Brewster) killer might be. Meet […]

MacGyver on CBS: The Gadget Guy Is Back For a New Generation

September 22, 2016 Lori Acken

MacGyver CBS Premieres: Friday, Sept. 23 at 8/7CT Who’s In It? Lucas Till, George Eads, Sandrine Holt, Justin Hires Mac’s back! The cult-favorite series that ran from 1985-1992 and made Richard Dean Anderson a star gets a fun and pulse-pounding update from Hawaii Five-0’s Peter M. Lenkov and the Saw movie series mastermind James Wan, in his first TV project. Lucas Till — the X-Men films’ Havok — plays a 20-something Angus MacGyver, Department of External Services agent and, yes, massively creative problem solver, with beloved CSI star George Eads taking over as his sidekick Jack Dalton. “For the most part, […]

Return to Shondaland! What to Expect From Grey’s, HTGAWM (VIDEO)

September 22, 2016 Lori Acken

Tonight marks the return of a kinda-sorta version of ABC’s “TGIT” lineup — formerly an “all Shondaland, all the time” evening that marked a must-see, deliciously soapy fest for fans of Shonda Rhimes’ signature brand of storytelling. With Scandal Season 6 pushed to midseason to accommodate pregnant star Kerry Washington, ABC opted to sandwich the new Josh Berman-Mark Geragos mash-up (yes, really) Notorious between Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away With Murder, hoping fans of the evening’s brilliant but flawed heroines and their spunky teams of helpers won’t notice this gang’s not from Shonda. Or will, but won’t mind. Or won’t mind enough to change […]

What’s Next for AGT’s The Clairvoyants? Broadway!

September 20, 2016 Lori Acken

You don’t need to be a mind-reader to predict that something terrific was on the horizon for America’s Got Talent runner-up “The Clairvoyants,” bested only by 12-year-old, ukulele strumming singer-songwriter Grace VanderWaal in last week’s AGT finale. The telepathic duo (and real-life couple) made up of Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass — the combined reason AGT fans will forever look at jelly bird eggs and think “chelly beans” — announced today that they will lead the latest cast of The Illusionists — Turn Of The Century when the production returns to Broadway with an all-new show this holiday season. Though the Austrian pair, along with balletic Ukrainian juggler Viktor […]

Designated Survivor: Kiefer Sutherland gets presidential in ABC’s new thriller

September 15, 2016 Lori Acken

Designated Survivor ABC Premieres: Sept. 21 Airs: Wednesdays at 10pm Who’s In It? Kiefer Sutherland, Natascha McElhone, Kal Penn, Maggie Q, Virginia Madsen, Italia Ricci, Adan Canto, Kevin McNally We didn’t think the glasses that Kiefer Sutherland’s Tom Kirkman sports in Wednesday’s premiere episode of the highly anticipated ABC conspiracy thriller Designated Survivor are merely a fashion statement. Coke-bottle-lensed and nerdy not-quite-chic, they render Sutherland — so imposing as 24’s Jack Bauer — one degree shy of LBJ. You know, that other accidental president? Which is what Kirkman — newly demoted HUD secretary and the country’s “designated survivor” (yes, it’s a […]

5 Questions With Jacki Weaver of “Sister Cities” On Lifetime

September 13, 2016 Lori Acken

Death is the launching point of the heartfelt, star-packed film Sister Cities which premieres Saturday on Lifetime, but its story is very much about how we choose to live our lives — and who we choose to let in or keep out. Originating as a critically acclaimed stage production penned by Colette Freedman (who adapted her own work for the film’s screenplay and spent time on set with the actors), Sister Cities follows four wildly disparate adult sisters, each with a different dad and named for a locale. There’s aspiring judge Carolina (Castle’s Stana Katic), sensitive author Austin (The Good Wife’s […]

Adam Richman talks Secret Eats, savvy travel and why the play’s the thing

September 9, 2016 Lori Acken

Adam Richman amassed an international legion of fans thanks to a spate of food-centric Travel Channel series that made the most of his warmth, wit and willingness to try anything once if it looked semi-tasty. And though his current outing Secret Eats — he’s the star and producer — sees the former Man Vs. Food favorite traveling the globe in search of cultural adventures and authentic noshes, Richman offers me a list of other irons in his fire. “I had produced this play called Stalking the Bogeyman in New York, and we were nominated for an Outer Critics Circle award for best American play,” […]