Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

The Knick Season 2 — Steven Soderbergh’s medical marvel returns to Cinemax

October 9, 2015 Lori Acken

If you’re a fan of director Steven Soderbergh’s beautifully rendered, Emmy-nominated period drama The Knick (and if you’re not, trust me, you should be), you know that no one was faring well when we left them at the end of Season 1. • RELATED: The Knick: Cinemax presents a lively look at race, sex and medicine in 1900s New York A cocaine-addled and guilt-ridden Dr. John Thackery (Golden Globe nominee Clive Owen) checked himself into a sort of turn-of-the-century rehab where the treatment du jour is the Bayer Company’s newest wonder drug — heroin. Embittered by his daughter’s death, the mortifying […]

Interview: Alfonso Ribeiro and Vin Di Bona on a new era of America’s Funniest Home Videos

October 9, 2015 Lori Acken

If new America’s Funniest Home Videos host Alfonso Ribeiro is even a little nervous about inheriting the gig from his pal Tom Bergeron, following Bergeron’s 14-year tenure with the show, well, you’d never know it by looking at him. Same goes for the show’s proud creator, Vin Di Bona, who is putting his signature series through its most dramatic (don’t worry, moms and dads. It’s not that dramatic) revamp since the show debuted to smash ratings in 1989. Standing a few feet apart at a summer ABC cocktail reception, both men attributed their serenity to one reassuring notion: America’s Funniest Home Videos — AFV for short — is and always has […]

The Bastard Executioner episode 5 recap: Piss Profit/Proffidwyr Troeth

October 6, 2015 Lori Acken

Welcome back, TBXers. Did you spend the week declaring that things be “divided into serds” or was that just me? Gaveston! Putting another deliciously nasty bastard in The Bastard Executioner! • The Bastard Executioner Season 1 recaps: Episode 1 and 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 |Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9 On the subject of Gaveston, we learn the truth about Lady Love’s startling announcement at the end of last week’s episode when she hands her bloody undergarments to Isabel and apologizes to her handmaiden for making her complicit in the deception. Ever the voice of reason, Isabel says there is time […]

The Affair Season 2 premiere recap: A Brewing Storm

October 5, 2015 Lori Acken

If you are a Maura Tierney fan (and if you aren’t, we should talk and set you right) Showtime’s The Affair Season 2 promises to be, er, a splendid affair if last night’s season premiere is any indication. Instead of adulterous couple Noah’s (Dominic West) and Alison’s (Ruth Wilson) dueling perspectives, this time we examined a stretch of time somewhere in between last season’s calamitous showdown at the Lockhart ranch and the unceremonious end to Noah and Alison’s happily ever after — from the points of view of the unfaithful dad and his beleaguered estranged wife Helen. (Tierney). • Miss the Season […]

Preview: The Jacksons Next Generation premieres tonight on Lifetime

October 2, 2015 Lori Acken

“People always want to know what it’s like to be a Jackson,” laments Tito Joe “TJ” Jackson, youngest son of The Jackson 5 favorite Tito Jackson and one of the stars of Lifetime’s new The Jacksons: Next Generation at the start of tonight’s series’ premiere. “I don’t know how to answer that, because I was never not a Jackson.” The Jacksons: Next Generation isn’t the first time we’ve seen members of pop music’s First Family on an unscripted series since Michael died in 2009. Lifetime’s sister network A&E debuted the short-lived The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty later that year and TJ’s aunt La Toya had some success with […]

Lifetime bows ‘Unauthorized’ Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210 films this month

October 2, 2015 Lori Acken

Though August’s The Unauthorized Full House Story drew only tepid ratings as Full House fans eagerly await a more genial return to clan Tanner in Netflix’s upcoming Fuller House, Lifetime has given two popular ’90s nighttime soaps the same kitschy teleflick treatment. The Unauthorized Beverly Hills, 90210 Story and The Unauthorized Melrose Place Story bow on back-t0-back Saturdays this month and feature The Simpsons‘ Dan Castellaneta as uber-producer Aaron Spelling (see below). According to the network, The Unauthorized Beverly Hills, 90210 Story “will show the roller-coaster ride of the program’s first four seasons, highlighting the drama between cast members and producers both on and off […]

When to catch reruns of O.J. Speaks and The Secret Tapes of the OJ Case

October 2, 2015 Lori Acken

Last night, sister networks A&E and LMN aired back-to-back specials that offered viewers a jaw-dropping look at O.J. Simpson’s deposition tapes from the 1997 civil suit that proved Simpson’s undoing after a criminal court found him not guilty of killing his ex-wife and her friend. If you missed them (or want to watch again), here is when to catch re-airings of O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes and The Secret Tapes of the O.J. Case: The Untold Story • The Secret Tapes of the O.J. Case: The Untold Story encores Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8pm on A&E and Monday, Oct. 5 at 8pm on LMN. • […]

The Walking Dead — Who’s Friend, Who’s Foe In (And Out Of) Alexandria In Season 6?

October 1, 2015 Lori Acken

The wait is almost over, Walking Dead-heads. And when we left the residents of Alexandria, upheaval was the order of the day. As Rick and Deanna continued to circle each other for control (and the moral mindset) of the community, loose cannon Dr. Pete slit the throat of Deanna’s docile husband and Rick shot him dead on the spot. Right in front of the newly arrived (and newly zen) Morgan, who showed up with Daryl and Aaron, all three having made chilling discoveries outside the gate. Executive producer and zombie master Greg Nicotero promises a Season 6 opener of The […]

Interview: Emmy winner Regina King on joining The Leftovers Season 2

October 1, 2015 Lori Acken

The Leftovers Season 2 premieres Sunday, Oct. 4 at 9/8CT on HBO. As Regina King waited to find out if John Ridley’s brilliant ABC anthology American Crime — which scored the actress her first Emmy — would be renewed, she received a script from a pair of equally compelling storytellers. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta hoped King would take a lead role in Season 2 of their family-centric HBO spine-tingler The Leftovers, which will further expand the story culled from Perrotta’s best-selling book. “I sat down and talked to them and they’re just so smart — and they want their actors […]

A&E airs O.J. Simpson special “O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes” tonight (video)

October 1, 2015 Lori Acken

Twenty years after O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, A&E looks back at the case, the verdict and the civil trial that finally proved the football star’s undoing. Featuring exclusive access to O.J.’s stunning deposition tapes and new interviews with folks in the know, O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes gives viewers insider access to elements of the case that courtroom cameras couldn’t capture. After the shocking verdict was rendered on Oct. 3, 1995 — ending the so-called “Trial of the Century,” which also ushered Kato Kaelin, Mark Fuhrman and the Kardashians into the pop culture lexicon — racial tensions boiled […]