Drama Archives - Page 133 of 200

“American Horror Story: Asylum” promises to bring the crazy

October 1, 2012 StayTuned Staff

A quote like this could only come from talking about a show like American Horror Story. “Last year we were a sweet little family drama — albeit in which we killed off the entire family.” So says writer/producer Tim Minear of the FX series that captivated audiences with its edgy mix of scares and sex (hel-lo, Rubber Man) that got people talking about what had just happened and what could possibly come next. “This year couldn’t be more different,” Minear says. Oh, the creepiness will still be there, but instead of following the doomed Harmon family further into their afterlife […]

“The Walking Dead” brings new characters, struggles for Season 3

October 1, 2012 StayTuned Staff

It’s hard to believe now, but two years ago people weren’t sure if The Walking Dead belonged on a tony network like AMC. This was, after all, the home of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, not to mention its stable of classic Hollywood films. How would some zombie show based on a (gasp!) comic book fit in? Quite well, it turns out. The Walking Dead immediately set rating records for AMC, and fan fervor has only grown, with the Season 2 finale in March pulling in a jaw-dropping 9 million viewers. The show was also one of the biggest attractions […]

U.K. hit “Call the Midwife” ready to deliver for PBS in the States

September 30, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

Its first season has already been a smash hit in the United Kingdom — even out-rating the vaunted Downton Abbey — and the drama is already filming its second season, and working on a Christmas special (which will, of course, also go up against a Downton special). Now, expectant Americans will finally get to see what all the excitement is about as Call the Midwife makes its U.S. debut on PBS Sept. 30 at 8pm ET (check local listings). And like all the little miracles the midwives in the series deliver, the show has been worth the wait. Rather than a mere placeholder […]

“Sons of Anarchy” actor Johnny Lewis dead after alleged break-in, murder

September 27, 2012 StayTuned Staff

While Sons of Anarchy made a splash this week by killing off a major character, a real-life tragedy involving one of the series’ former cast members has emerged. TMZ reports that Johnny Lewis, who played Halfsack — a character who was killed off in Season 2 — was found dead Wednesday in the driveway of a Los Feliz, Calif., where he apparently fell to his death. Inside the home, an 81-year-old woman was found beaten to death. Lewis is believed to have been on either PCP or meth before attacking the woman. Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter tweeted about […]

“Sons of Anarchy” recap: “Laying Pipe”

September 26, 2012 StayTuned Staff

I totally thought it was going to be Chibs. Oh, by the way, SPOILER ALERT!!! But hey this is a recap, so that should go without saying. Anyway, when murmurs got loud that the new episode of Sons of Anarchy would include the death of a major character, one logically starts looking at which actors have other projects going on. That road led nowhere, so then it became a matter of deductive reasoning. It was likely to be one of the four Sons to head to prison: Jax, Opie, Tig and Chibs. Cross Jax off right away, because duh. Opie […]

HBO’s Treme Season 3 recap of premiere, Episode 1

September 24, 2012 Matthew Grimm

HBO’s Treme season 3 premiere opens at night, a redlining neighborhood, a crowd forming at an intersection, “25 months after the storm.” Struggling, cab-fare-haggling onetime bandleader and freelance trombonist Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce) joins musicians gathering to play a street memorial to a late compatriot of the city’s vibrant music scene. As they’re revving up a number, NOPD prowlers cruise up, rollers lit. Cops say there has been a noise complaint and order them to disperse. The musicians protest that this is something they should not even have to protest, that even cops should know this is how they send […]

“Treme” Season 3 preview

September 21, 2012 Matthew Grimm

Perhaps the most pointed scene in the final episode of Treme’s second season saw Young Turk Texas real estate developer Nelson Hidalgo (Jon Seda) stewing in a bar with his blue-collar cousin Arnie. Hidalgo came to New Orleans because, subscribing to a conspicuously American purview (disaster=opportunity), he sees gold in redevelopment of the Crescent City’s redlining properties and has greased certain cogs in the machine to mine it. But one of those cogs, a city councilman, has turned up under indictment, meaning all connected to him are abruptly out of favor, and all Nelson has done, he ruminates, may be […]

“Sons of Anarchy” recap: “Authority Vested”

September 18, 2012 StayTuned Staff

It’s hard to imagine topping the emotional peak from last week’s season premiere, when Tig saw his troubled daughter Dawn burned alive right in front of him. Never was there a more literal embodiment of the sins of the father being visited upon his child. This blood feud between Tig and Pope, two men who had never before met but were now responsible for killing each other’s daughters, made all that Jax and Clay business seem like a couple of pikers fighting over scraps. So consider “Vested Authority” a bit of a breather, letting the audience calm down after enduring […]

“MASH” turns 40: Our memories of “MASH”

September 17, 2012 StayTuned Staff

“Korea 1950 — a hundred years ago.” So went the first words to appear onscreen on M*A*S*H. Actually, it was only 40 years ago, but it’s still hard to believe that it’s been four decades since the pilot episode of the much-lauded and excessively watched series hit the airwaves on Sept. 17, 1972. At the time, it was simply a TV series trying to spin off of the success of the popular Robert Altman film that used the insanity of the Korean War to underscore the similar madness taking place in Vietnam. It took a while for M*A*S*H to find […]

“Boardwalk Empire” Season 3 premiere recap

September 16, 2012 Matthew Grimm

In spite of its tendency to be rendered down to facile, generally wrong cartoons to protect children’s and patriots’ delicate sensibilities, history poses a filthy canvas. Those who choose to paint on it can hew to its boring conventions, as Hollywood largely did for the first 45 years of its existence, or they can do what David Milch did with HBO’s elegiac and violent Western series Deadwood and Terrence Winter does with Boardwalk Empire, whose third season kicked off tonight on the same network: paint with the filth on the canvas and let the stark snapshot of time speak for […]