Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

We talk Humans on AMC with William Hurt!

June 26, 2015 Lori Acken

“The best reason to make machines more like people is to make people less like machines,” declares a scientist in AMC’s intriguing new drama Humans. Sounds kinda great, doesn’t it — genial, talking and walking Siris to do the housework and other drudgery that keeps us from the stuff we really long to do? But what if there comes a point where we create technology so sophisticated that it no longer requires us to advance and repair itself — a theory dubbed the Singularity by mathematician John von Neumann in 1958? What is the incentive to excel in school or […]

Not Shackled By Forgotten Words: CNN brings Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me to television

June 24, 2015 Lori Acken

CNN presents the television debut of the feature-film documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me Sunday at 9/8CT. Glen Campbell’s music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My parents played his LPs on the weekends and gave me change to play “Wichita Lineman” and “Gentle On My Mind” on the jukebox at the local bowling alley and supper clubs. The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour was required family viewing — and a very good time, indeed. And as I got a little older, my friends and I bellowed Campbell’s crossover hits “Southern Nights” and “Rhinestone […]

Dance Moms Season 5 episode 21 recap: Yer a regular livin’ doll

June 23, 2015 Lori Acken

Welcome back, Dance Moms nation. I am pleased to report that my screener is complete with intact persons this go ’round, so no lobotomy humor, I’m afraid. But we did get the LA version of the Welcome to Ohio sign (and a freaky caption), so that’s nice. A little bland, what with no cows and yard waste and what have you, but we’ll take what we can get. We start out with light hearted moments with the girls taking their loss in stride and congratulating Mack on her victory over Maddie last week. After playfully tussling with her little sister, Mads […]

UnREAL recap “Wife”: What happens in Napa …

June 22, 2015 Lori Acken

In an episode that belongs — Be. Longs. People — to Constance Zimmer, we find out just exactly how much Chet has taken from Quinn, just how far Adam will go for his financial independence and, quite possibly, just how little Rachel has learned from her on-set dalliance with Jeremy. But first, let’s finally let our intrepid host, Graham, get in on the Everlasting action — literally (and likely not for the first time). We open the episode with him practicing his dramatic “final ten contestants” monologue to an audience of one — a recently booted contestant hoping he’s her ticket back […]

5 Questions with Breeda Wool, who keeps the “Faith” in Lifetime’s UnREAL

June 22, 2015 Lori Acken

However tempted you might be to feel sorry for Faith, the painfully insecure, churchly tomboy virgin on Lifetime’s Monday night The Bachelor sendup UnREAL, actress Breeda Wool, who plays her, hopes you’ll take a page from “Everlasting” suitor Adam’s playbook and have a little faith in Faith. “I’m very inexperienced at dating in general,” Wool explains of her character’s fish-out-of-water nature (secrets are looming!) — which makes her a natural target for Everlasting’s pitiless producers and her fellow contestants. “My grandmother, church and little country community really pushed me to go on the show so I could blossom as a […]

Dog the Bounty Hunter on the New York prison escape: “Everybody I know has called me and said, ‘Dog, when we leaving?’”

June 18, 2015 Lori Acken

Come July 18, fans of CMT’s bounty-hunting hit Dog and Beth: On the Hunt will get to see Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman and his fugitive-chasing crew back out the trail of some of the nation’s most elusive bad guys (and girls). In the meantime, “The Dog” has been making the rounds as a sought-after commentator on the hunt for Richard Matt and David Sweat who escaped from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6 and are still on the lam. Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a> We talked candidly with Chapman about the situation — and about […]

Dance Moms Season 5 episode 20 recap: Return of the Mack (Oh My God!)

June 16, 2015 Lori Acken

Man, Tuesdays come around fast, don’t they Dance Moms nation? But we ended last week on a win, so maybe this week will finally be California sunshiney for a change? Yes? No. We don’t even make it into 3rd Street Dance before we’re comparing Abby to a big ol’ baby who doesn’t handle transition well. Well, I suppose. If the bootie fits. But anyway. And furthering my theory that Abby is a wily hostage of the DM producers and is going to make them pay but good for that, when Jill expresses surprise that she’s actually in the studio when […]

UnREAL recap episode 3 “Mother”: You feel judged, don’t you?

June 16, 2015 Lori Acken

If you hadn’t already figured it out from the get-go, this week’s episode of UnREAL — fittingly called “Mother” — cements the notion that this show is not about who ends up winning Adam’s heart. Or even the contest to, er, craft that person. It’s about whom — male, female, behind the cameras or before them — might actually emerge with their mental and physical health and at least a shred of dignity and self-respect intact. If anyone does. And how little it takes for people to be perfectly awful to one another — family, friend, vulnerable stranger — even when […]

PBS celebrates the arrival of “Go Set a Watchman” with American Masters: Harper Lee

June 12, 2015 Lori Acken

Harper Lee’s fans were stunned — and then thrilled — by recent news that a rumored early manuscript by the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird scribe was unearthed and being readied for publication. With Go Set a Watchman set for release on July 14 (and in celebration of To Kill a Mockingbird‘s 55th anniversary on July 11), PBS will present an updated edition of Mary McDonagh Murphy’s glorious documentary Harper Lee: Hey Boo, which aired on the network in 2012. American Masters: Harper Lee will premiere July 10 at 9/8CT (check your local listings to confirm the air time in your area). According to the book’s publisher, HarperCollins, Watchman takes […]

Dance Moms Season 5 episode 19 recap: I got 99 problems (but this itch ain’t one)

June 9, 2015 Lori Acken

Well that was a short-lived respite, wasn’t it Dance Moms nation? What did everyone do with their Lonely Tuesday? According to Lifetime, tonight’s is actually episode 517, but I’ve done 18 recaps even before this bugger — and not counting the specials — so if everyone could kindly just march along to the beat of my episode-count drummer so we all stay on the same parade route, I’d be grateful. We cool? Good. So anyway, ALDC L.A. starts today! Well, kind of. Everyone is in L.A. , but we’re still squatting at 3rd St. Dance. Jill says Abby is a big […]