Drama Archives - Page 145 of 200

First songs from NBC’s “Smash” now available on iTunes

February 3, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

NBC’s Smash — a great new drama about various Broadway types trying to bring a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe to the stage — premieres this Monday, Feb. 6 at 10pm ET. Each week, select songs (which are mostly original songs written for the series) from each episode will be made available for purchase at the iTunes store. Additionally, episode recaps, photos, video and musical performance highlights (and there are some outstandingly choreographed and performed numbers here), as well as games, songs and fan challenges from new Smash episodes, will be available at nbc.com/smash. Timed with the series’ […]

HBO renews “Luck” for 10-episode second season for 2013

January 31, 2012 Barb Oates

HBO found an immediate victory at the horse track with it’s new series Luck, which debuted this past Sunday logging a gross audience of 3.3 million viewers to date. The network renewed the series for a 10-episode second season slated to debut in January 2013. From director Michael Mann and Deadwood creator David Milch [pictured], the series is a behind-the-track look at the world of horse racing and gambling’s denizens — owners, trainers, jockeys and gamblers. The cast is led by Dustin Hoffman who plays the complex lead character Chester “Ace” Bernstein, and Nick Nolte, as weathered Kentucky horse-trainer-turned-owner Walt […]

VOD Spotlight: Ryan Gosling takes an action-packed “Drive”

January 31, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

It’s no exaggeration to say that Ryan Gosling has hit the A-list in Hollywood, not only among fans but with critics — earning a Golden Globe nomination for The Ides of March and dual nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Acting Ensemble (for Ides) and Best Actor (for Drive). With Drive, he was signed first and picked a director whose work he admired, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson), who has garnered a number of award nominations for his work on Drive. That an adrenaline-charged thriller like Drive, about a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway […]

New HBO series “Luck” goes beyond the surface of horse racing

January 29, 2012 Tom Comi

To suggest that HBO’s latest original series Luck is solely about horse racing would be similar to dismissing The Sopranos as a mob show or Boardwalk Empire as a booze epic. Sure, the backdrop involves horses and the track, but first and foremost Luck is about the characters — much like the other aforementioned HBO hits. And when your lead character is played by the great Dustin Hoffman, you know you are starting off on the right foot. Hoffman makes his television debut playing Chester “Ace” Bernstein, a wheeler and dealer who has just been released from prison. Not one […]

Kim Kardashian lands love interest role on “Drop Dead Diva”

January 27, 2012 Lori Acken

Maybe an actual angel from heaven — or at least purgatory — will finally be the one to win Kim Kardashian’s heart for good. Or least for a multiple-episode story arc. On a fictional television show. Kardashian has landed a guest-starring role on the fourth season of the Lifetime favorite Drop Dead Diva, playing Nikki, the new paramour of Jane’s adorable guardian angel, Fred (Ben Feldman, right). But the very unreal gent faces some very real romantic challenges when Nikki teams up with his former dream girl — and Jane’s bestie — Stacy (April Bowlby) in a new business venture. “I’m […]

Kiefer Sutherland brings his touch back to TV in FOX’s “Touch”

January 25, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

After eight seasons of kicking terrorist ass as Jack Bauer on FOX’s hit series 24, Kiefer Sutherland is back on the network in a new series, playing a character with a different kind of toughness, and with certainly a different sort of struggle on his hands. “My character’s fight is really with Child Services,” Sutherland told a group of reporters recently at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, “who is trying to take his son away from him.” In Touch, created by Tim Kring (Heroes), which airs in a special preview tonight (Jan. 25) at 9pm ET/PT before making […]

NBC debuts pilot for “Smash” on YouTube prior to TV airing

January 23, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

If you can’t wait until Feb. 6 to catch the debut of NBC’s new series Smash, a drama that follows the lives of a cross-section of Broadway types looking to bring a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe to the stage, you can watch it on YouTube. NBC has recently uploaded it, perhaps to build buzz, perhaps to thwart pirates. Either way, it’s a good chance to check out the show, which I found enjoyable in the episodes I’ve seen (and I’m not a Glee fan), though at this point I find it hard to see how it […]

Liam McIntyre takes on “Spartacus” role with a “Vengeance”

January 18, 2012 StayTuned Staff

By Stacey Harrison While death is dished out regularly on Spartacus — often by way of cartoonish violence and slow-motion effects shots — it hit home for the cast and crew in a very real way in September with the passing of original star Andy Whitfield. Production was nearly complete on Season 2 — dubbed Spartacus: Vengeance — with Liam McIntyre assuming the lead role, a development that had occurred with Whitfield’s blessing, when they got the tragic news. Executive producer Steven S. DeKnight said the Spartacus crew knew how gravely ill their friend was, as he fought his second […]

Elmore Leonard talks about the return of “Justified” and his new Raylan Givens novel

January 17, 2012 StayTuned Staff

By Stacey Harrison Just go ahead and call today Raylan Givens Day. The modern-day lawman with an Old West sense of justice isn’t only returning to TV screens tonight — as FX rolls out Season 3 of Justified at 10pm — he’s also back on the pages of Raylan, the new novel from Elmore Leonard. The crime fiction master introduced the character back in 1993’s Pronto, when Givens was just a neophyte U.S. marshal still prone to making mistakes. The character showed up again a couple years later in Riding the Rap, emerging from supporting role to a co-lead, and […]

VOD Spotlight: “Courageous” shows importance of fathers in children’s lives

January 17, 2012 Jeff Pfeiffer

Sherwood Pictures, the production company that created the indie film hits Facing the Giants, and Fireproof, examines the challenges fathers face in Courageous. In the film, four law enforcement officers who dedicate their lives to keeping the streets of their town free of crime are unprepared to deal with their own children who are beginning to drift away from the family. When tragedy strikes, they all must decide if they can become the fathers they strive to be. Courageous has been hailed as the Christian film company’s best movie to date — and one whose message is of utmost importance. […]