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Comedy

TCA: John Oliver gets HBO weekly comedy series

A John Oliver HBO comedy series — brilliant idea! The comedian will give a fresh satirical look at politics and current events in a Sunday evening comedy series coming to HBO this spring. At the Television Critics Association 2014 Winter Press Tour in Pasadena a sprightly Oliver took the stage and gave credit to The Daily Show and Jon Stewart for landing him his new gig.  “I think it was probably the main reason why I’m here now,” Oliver says. “It was a bizarre, exciting, and terrifying experience. … I set myself the achievable goal of just not destroying that […]

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Drama

Interview: Matthew McConaughey talks HBO’s True Detective

Ask Matthew McConaughey what convinced him to tackle his first ever television series, HBO’s True Detective, and he offers up two things: the sheer power of screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto’s scripts and the chance to start some drama with his longtime pal Woody Harrelson … if only onscreen. “This is the third time we’ve worked together and it’s the first time not in a comedy, which I was really excited about,” says McConaughey. “The thing about Woody and I is that personally we’re such good friends that if he starts something, I end it. If I start something, he ends it. […]

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Documentary

HBO 24/7 NHL series returns with Red Wings and Maple Leafs

HBO 24/7 NHL series returns with Red Wings and Maple Leafs: This four-part documentary series gives viewers an all-access, behind-the-scenes look at the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings leading up to the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. Premieres Saturday, Dec. 14, at 10pm ET/PT on HBO. 24/7 Red Wings/Maple Leafs: Road to the NHL Winter Classic, the latest installment of HBO’s 24/7 sports reality series, is a four-part documentary series giving viewers an all-access, behind-the-scenes look at the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings leading up to the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. The Red Wings and […]

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Documentary

HBO premieres State of Play Trophy Kids Dec. 4

HBO premieres State of Play Trophy Kids Dec. 4: State of Play features a topical sports documentary followed by a roundtable discussion of the issue with guest panelists including the filmmakers, subjects and other experts. The premiere, “Trophy Kids,” examines obsessed parents of student athletes. Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) moderates. Premieres on HBO Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 9pm ET. State of Play: Trophy Kids Press release from HBO below:   HBO SPORTS® AND FILMMAKER PETER BERG TEAM UP TO PRESENT THE INNOVATIVE NEW DOCUMENTARY SERIES STATE OF PLAY, DEBUTING DEC. 4 Emmy® Nominee Berg Executive Produces NEW YORK, Oct. […]

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Drama

Boardwalk Empire Season 4 finale recap: ‘Farewell Daddy Blues’

Give it to Terrence Winter. Even when he takes a season of Boardwalk Empire to help us truly loathe some of his characters and have us yearning for them to get theirs, he reminds us that even the violence we now expect to solve our TV problems is far from a neat clean thing. Agent Tolliver (Brian Geraghty) found that out in brutal fashion at the hands of inferiority-complex-addled Bureau of Investigation informer Eli Thompson (Shea Whigham) on last night’s Season 4 finale. Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams) came face-to-face with the cold reality of the collateral damage of such […]

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Drama

Boardwalk Empire recap Season 4, Episode 11: ‘Havre De Grace’

Earlier this season, we explored inescapable theme in HBO’s epic period series Boardwalk Empire that everything, above board or below, appears to be a grift. In 1920s America, it was the national ethos, but it presents the thorny problem, Who do you trust when you an trust no one? For AC boss Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and his African-American lieutenant Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams), this has become a particularly pressing question. For Chalky, his bullish attempt to dispatch erudite, malevolent nemesis Dr. Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright), saw the tables turned as Narcisse lined up with New York mafia boss Joe […]

Mike Tyson Undisputed Truth HBO
Documentary

Mike Tyson Undisputed Truth HBO special Nov. 16

Mike Tyson Undisputed Truth HBO special Nov. 16: Enjoy a front-row seat in this Spike Lee Joint as “Iron Mike” Tyson recounts the highs and lows of his life in his signature candid style in this concert film of his one-man Broadway stage show. Over the course of 90 minutes, Tyson opens up about his troubled youth, landmark boxing career, key influences, personal and professional controversies, prison, personal loss and, most recently, his rehabilitation and redemption, forged by sobriety and a renewed commitment to family life. Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth premieres on HBO Saturday, Nov. 16, at 8pm ET. Here […]

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Drama

Boardwalk Empire recap Season 4 episode 10 ‘White Horse Pike’

Nothing uglies up the broad tapestry of American history quite like our human rights record as pertains to ethnic minorities, even if the viler machinations of institutional racism remain dark little secrets. For a series that does naught to bleach the gross inequities of American commerce, politics and graft-riddled excesses of the 1920s, Boardwalk Empire just ventured even deeper into this still-more-draconian aspect of American realpolitik. It did so with a hinted reveal, that Chalky White’s (Michael Kenneth Williams) season-long nemesis Dr. Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright) may be more than just a bullying thug, but even worse because he undertakes his […]

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Commentary

Boardwalk Empire recap Season 4 Episode 9: ‘Marriage and Hunting’

Van Alden (Michael Shannon) began Terence Winter’s epic HBO series Boardwalk Empire as the anti-anti-hero, a stoic, pure-of-heart crusader who didn’t even entertain sexual thoughts in context of his joyless marriage. He was the intrepid T-man out to bring down the illicit empire of Atlantic City kingpin Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), the lily-white cop archetype and then some, up to the point of the fire-eyed evangelical fury in which he strangled his unbeliever (Jewish) partner – and in Shannon’s deft hands he was a seriously scary heel. Credit Winter that he has taken his time to craft Van Alden’s arduous, […]

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Drama

Boardwalk Empire Season 4 Episode 8 recap: ‘The Old Ship of Zion’

Dunn Purnsley (Erik LaRay Harvey) came to Atlantic City seeking whatever main chance the city’s rough underworld might afford him. It initially ran him afoul of the boss of the city’s African-American ward, Chalky White (Michael K. Williams). Chalky, like all men of dubious trade, saw value in Dunn’s skills and the zeal with which he employed them, but the cloud looming over all seekers of the main chance, as Chalky finally discovered on last night’s Boardwalk Empire, is that they are by nature narcissists and serving themselves will trump all commitment to anything greater, which means their course of […]