Lori Acken, Author at StayTuned Magazine

‘The Son’: Pierce Brosnan Saddles Up for AMC’s Sweeping Drama

March 28, 2017 Lori Acken

Pierce Brosnan sits across from me at a bistro table in the Southern California sunshine. He wears an impeccably tailored, steel gray suit that complements his salt-and-pepper hair. His blue eyes gleam. That voice — Brosnan doesn’t just answer questions, he orates. And all I (and most likely all the other diners stealing glances at the actor) can think is Bond. James Bond. That may soon change to McCullough. Eli McCullough. Brosnan plays the wily Texas rancher and oilman in AMC’s new period drama The Son — his first starring role in series television since Remington Steele made the debonair […]

‘The Kennedys After Camelot’ on REELZ: We Talk with Stars Katie Holmes and Matthew Perry

March 27, 2017 Lori Acken

In 2011, REELZ took a mighty chance on The Kennedys, an unvarnished, ambitious and star-packed Canadian miniseries about America’s de facto royal family. Assailed before it even hit the airwaves and rejected by both History and Showtime, The Kennedys made its U.S. debut on the little-known network that April, earning solid ratings, four Emmy wins and another six Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. Six years later, The Kennedys gets a two-night sequel called The Kennedys — After Camelot. After Camelot is based on a J. Randy Taraborrelli bestseller — this time encompassing an expansive time frame “from Robert […]

Into The Badlands: What’s Up With Your Favorites As AMC’s Martial Arts Spectacle Returns

March 5, 2017 Lori Acken

Expect a six-month time jump when AMC’s eye-popping martial arts fantasy Into the Badlands debuts its second season this month. “We like the idea of letting people settle into their new places and allowing the world to recover a little bit from the events of the end of Season 1,” explains Alfred Gough, who created the show with his longtime producing partner Miles Millar. “We see our characters scattered across the Badlands and into other areas as well and we also introduce new characters. For us, this season was all about expanding the world.” Gough and Millar reveal where you’ll […]

‘Underground’ on WGN America: The Railroad Gets Real In Season 2

March 2, 2017 Lori Acken

WGN America’s acclaimed civil rights series Underground is about to teach you more about the heart and soul of Harriet Tubman than you ever learned in history class. In the final scene of Season 1, the famed abolitionist and humanitarian — played by Under the Dome’s Aisha Hinds — encountered Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s escaped slave Rosalee, who’d been separated from her love, Noah (Hidden Figures‘ Aldis Hodge). This season Tubman is a fully realized force in the fractured world of the Macon 7, their allies and enemies. Embodying the civil rights icon, says Hinds, “elevated me in my spiritual life, it […]

‘When We Rise’: ABC’s Civil Rights Mini is Moving and Timely

February 21, 2017 Lori Acken

If you thought San Francisco in the ’70s was still about hippies and Haight-Ashbury, ABC’s powerful new miniseries When We Rise is an eye-opener. As the Haight fell into squalor, the city’s reputation as a haven for outsiders lingered, drawing a new faction of young people to the area — men and women who would change America in ways not even they could imagine. Their stories are told in When We Rise, a stirring, four-night miniseries from Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Rise weaves together the harrowing, hopeful journeys of real pioneering members of an evolving U.S. civil rights movement: […]

Humans on AMC: We Have 5 Questions For Carrie-Anne Moss!

February 10, 2017 Lori Acken

AMC’s spine-tingling artificial intelligence drama Humans returns for Season 2 on Feb. 13 with Niska (Emily Berrington), Mia (Gemma Chan) and the rest of their synth family scattered, the Hawkins family fractured, and new additions to the cast. Among them — The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss as Dr. Athena Morrow. Morrow, a brilliant A.I. scientist, sees opportunity to advance her own ideals in an employment offer from Elon Musk-type tech renegade Milo Khoury, played by fellow new addition Marshall Allman (Nashville’s Sam Palladio signs on, too).“She lives and breathes her work,” Moss tells Channel Guide of her intense character. “She isn’t […]

Imposters: Inbar Lavi Plays a Sexy Con In Bravo’s New Scripted Series

February 5, 2017 Lori Acken

Do you ever truly know the one you’re with? Well-known adage. Timeworn plot point that threatens cliché. Still, each of us feels those nervous flickers now and then (oh, yes you do), and thus, duplicity remains irresistible to storytellers, moviegoers and TV watchers alike. And probably will till the end of time. After serving us a tasty, comic dose of that via its current dramedy Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, Bravo tries its hand at spine-tingling drama with the new original series Imposters. Produced and penned by GGTD’s Paul Adelstein and Mozart in the Jungle’s Adam Brooks, the pulse-pounder stars The […]

Katie Couric talks National Geographic Channel’s moving Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric

February 3, 2017 Lori Acken

Any kid would be lucky to have a mom like Vanessa Ford. For Ford’s five-year-old daughter Ellie, it’s very literally a life-changer. Warm and outgoing, with a wide smile and infectious laugh, Vanessa — a Washington D.C. science teacher and mom of two — sits across from me in a Pasadena hotel suite. On her right is Ron Ford Jr., Ellie’s dad and Vanessa’s equally engaging husband, who goes by JR. On her left is longtime TV journalist Katie Couric. And we’re gathered to talk about Ellie and the more than 1.4 million Americans like her who are opening the nation’s eyes to new ideas […]

The Walking Dead: Will Carol Join The Fight? We Ask Melissa McBride!

February 1, 2017 Lori Acken

Take heart, Carol fans! We have a promise that we’ll see much more of our favorite little born-again pacifist in the cottage by The Kingdom, straight from Melissa McBride, who plays her. When The Walking Dead Season 7 returns Feb. 12, the rest of the Grimes Gang has reunited to gather ranks for the war on Negan — and while McBride couldn’t tell us if she joins in, she had much to say about the determining factors. Carol’s need for solitude is a hotly debated topic. What’s your take? Melissa McBride: When I think of where she’s come from, with a […]

Bill Paxton Tells Us How Training Day on CBS Differs From the Thriller

January 31, 2017 Lori Acken

Tune in to CBS’ Training Day update and by the first commercial break, you’ll know this for sure: Bill Paxton is having the time of his life. No surprise, given the series’ pedigree; it’s executive produced by action master Jerry Bruckheimer and director Antoine Fuqua, who guided Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke to Oscar nominations (Washington won Best Actor) in the 2001 crime thriller from which the series is culled. Paxton stars as Detective Frank Rourke, head of the LAPD’s Special Investigation Section, in the drama, which picks up 15 years after Washington’s dirty Detective Alonzo Harris went down in […]