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HBO’s “The Newsroom” Episode 7 recap: “5/1”

August 7, 2012 Matthew Grimm

Ep. 7: Preview Some disclosure before I recap Episode 7 of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom: I had lived in Brooklyn, NY, for 12 years as of Sept. 11, 2001, lived under the plume, share with most New Yorkers a disinclination to gab overly about it and, entitled to or not, tend to look sideways at anyone who waxes glib or maudlin about it. So when I look sideways at the The Newsroom’s glib- and maudlin-impregnated coverage of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, it should be understood that I damn well get the gravitas of the event. The borrowed […]

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7 Questions With...

7 Questions With … Betsy Rue of Cinemax’s “Femme Fatales”

August 6, 2012 StayTuned Staff

Betsy Rue gets to keep her clothes on (mostly) for her stint on Femme Fatales. Best known to audiences for her audacious nude scene in the 2009 slasher flick My Bloody Valentine, Rue has also turned up in roles on TV hits like True Blood, NCIS, The Mentalist and (believe it or not) iCarly, where she played a talent-challenged pop star. She’ll play the title character in “Libra,” the Season 2 capper for the Cinemax anthology series — airing Friday at 11pm — starring as a costumed vigilante out to exact high-heeled justice upon the bad guys of Cuesta Verde. […]

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“The Newsroom” Episode 6 recap: “Bullies”

July 31, 2012 Matthew Grimm

OK, I was wrong last week. Not wrong about the creeping patriarchal self-image Aaron Sorkin is constructing in HBO’s The Newsroom, so patriarchal that last week’s homage to the movie Rudy suggests a Sorkin remake would better be titled The Awesome Coach Who Let Rudy Play. But wrong about Olivia Munn going back to the bench with the other guys who are not as important as the show’s Four Very White People Who Might Have Sex At Some Point. Munn’s Sloan, a hot brainiac economist for some reason working at a cable news channel, moved to this week’s A-story, but […]

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TCA: “Weeds” series finale — and what’s in those smokin’ props

July 31, 2012 Lori Acken

Weeds fans, if you’ve always wondered what’s in those “joints” that the cast members smoke on-camera, here’s the deal. The official tobacco- and nicotine-free props from Honeyrose are “created from a blend of quality selected herbs including marshmallow, red clover and rose. The taste is enhanced with fruit juice.” TV writers at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour’s Showtime sessions received these “tokins of appreciation” straight from the Weeds gang, who were on hand Tuesday to discuss their eight and final season. Though Showtime’s president of entertainment David Nevins would only say that the Sept. 16 two-part series finale would […]

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Drama

TCA “Elementary” panel: Why a Big Apple Holmes and a woman Watson could work

July 31, 2012 Lori Acken

    In the upcoming CBS drama Elementary, a very modern Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) is a disgraced and traumatized former London detective who takes a gig as a NYC police consultant after he’s sprung from rehab. His Watson? A troubled former surgeon turned sober companion who’s assigned to Sherlock’s case. Also, she’s a lady. First name, Joan. Played by Lucy Liu. But before you wave your well-worn copy of “Hounds of the Baskervilles” in protest, or swear you’ll only watch Holmes on high-falutin’ networks like PBS or the BBC, Elementary’s executive producer and writer Rob Doherty says he hopes […]

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TCA: Even critics get misty-eyed in final “Fringe” panel

July 24, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

At an executive panel on Monday’s FOX day at the Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour, FOX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly addressed a question about his decision to let Fringe — which, while not a mega-hit like an American Idol, has a more-than-devoted fan base — go out with dignity in an upcoming final season, rather than just yanking it from the air. “I hoping this puts to bed the ‘ghost of Comic-Con’ sentiment,” Reilly expressed, “if you will, which is, ‘Damn you, FOX. You put these shows on and then break our hearts.’ I think, at least hopefully, we’ve […]

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“The Newsroom” Episode 5 recap: The Glass(-Steagall) Ceiling

July 23, 2012 Matthew Grimm

I found out Olivia Munn’s character’s name (Sloan) on this episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), producer of a news-show-that-tells-the-truth™ and ex of that show’s once-egomaniacal-but-now-Arthurian anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels), needs to talk economic stuff for some event but doesn’t know any economic stuff — so she asks Sloan, a hot brainiac economist for some reason working at a cable news station, to tutor her. Sloan tells her about a New Deal law called Glass-Steagall that regulated banks and “helped lead to the longest sustained period of economic growth in U.S. history, 60-year expansion of […]

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“Alphas” returns for Season 2 on Syfy tonight

July 23, 2012 StayTuned Staff

Syfy’s runaway hit Alphas returns for its second season tonight, showing what the world is like now that the existence of the Alphas team has been revealed and its members scattered. But throughout the course of the season, new threats will emerge that bring Dr. Rosen’s (David Strathairn) team of otherwise ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities back together. “Wake Up Call,” which airs tonight at 10, kicks off an action-packed season that will also include a bevy of guest stars, including Sean Astin, C. Thomas Howell, Lauren Holly, Kandyse McClure and — in a return from last season — Summer […]

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TCA: “Downton Abbey” Season 3 panel wows critics

July 22, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

PBS had the spotlight on Day 1 of the Summer 2012 Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, and while the day offered plenty of fascinating glimpses of upcoming programming offerings — from the new British acquisition Call the Midwife to the return of Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander — the final panel of the day, as expected, proved to be, as the Brits might say, the real “cracker.” It was the session for the upcoming American premiere on PBS of Season 3 of the smash hit Downton Abbey, which premieres in the States on Jan. […]