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5 Questions With...

5 Questions With … Emmy Rossum of “Shameless”

Showtime’s Shameless is currently airing its sixth season, and the Gallagher clan is as messed up as ever. At the end of Season 5, Emmy Rossum’s character, Fiona, was a newlywed — and newly dumped — who had confessed her unrequited love to her boss. In addition to those issues, she has to contend with the exploits of her deadbeat dad, Frank (played by William H. Macy). Rossum revealed that she stores up a lot of emotion before her character unleashes one of her signature tirades against Frank, saying, “I feel like I save up everything that happens in my […]

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TCA

#TCA16: Showtime announces “Shameless” Season 7 renewal

Showtime made several announcements regarding its new and returning series at the 2016 TCA Winter Press Tour: House of Lies Season 5 premieres April 10. House of Lies is currently filming an episode of the new season in Havana, Cuba, the first time an American scripted series will be shot in the country since the U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic relations last summer. Season 3 of Penny Dreadful premieres May 1. Patti LuPone returns as a series regular in the new role of Dr. Seward, an American therapist. Wes Studi joins as a series regular as Kaetenay, an intense, enigmatic Native […]

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Comedy

Shameless Season 6, Premiere recap: “I Only Miss Her When I’m Breathing”

Shameless is back, yay! Will it be as good as seasons past? Let’s dive in and see with the Shameless Season 6 premiere recap: “I Only Miss Her When I’m Breathing” Frank: Still mourning the loss of Bianca, we find him passed out at her grave. The nice crypt keeper tries to kick him out, but Frank is blabbing on about Bianca. The cemetery worker in turn expresses sympathy for Frank’s loss and tells him that his daughter would want him to move on. Frank explains that she wasn’t his daughter, but was the light of his life, his sun, […]

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Drama

The Affair Season 2 finale recap: One for all …

WARNING: If you have not watched The Affair Season 2 finale and do not want to know who killed Scott Lockhart, do not ready any further. I’m serious. Not … another … word. That said, no matter which of the likely suspects you had your cash on (unless it was Whitney. Whitney doesn’t drive, people!), odds are good you’re, at least in part, correct. Depending, I guess, on whose version of events you believe. Only one, however, exonerates Noah. We  open in the present, where Detective Jeffries has returned to the scene of the crime — the roadside spot with […]

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Binge Watching

Why I Should Binge “Dexter”

WHAT IS Dexter ABOUT? Who is in it? Why is it binge-worthy? Must-sees That line was so great A dark, intense and often-twisted mystery/crime drama series inspired by Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first in a series of novels by author Jeff Lindsay. The story revolves around a character named Dexter Morgan, a forensics expert and blood-splatter specialist who works for the Miami police department. Dexter is a twisted, psychologically damaged individual – and, as it turns out, a vigilante serial killer who metes out justice by tracking down and killing murderers or other heinous individuals who have managed to slip […]

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Drama

The Affair Season 2 episode 11 recap: This much is true…

With just one episode left in The Affair Season 2 (and a third season newly confirmed by Showtime), Montauk returns to the forefront of the story. Cole and Luisa seek Cherry’s approval and a place to marry. Alison realizes there is no place like home. And Noah realizes she doesn’t mean a New York City high-rise. But we begin in the courtroom, where Cole is on the stand. The prosecution asks him to recount the night Noah threatened to kill Scotty for knocking Whitney up, and Gottlief does his best to admit get the guy to admit he hates his former […]

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Drama

The Affair season 2 episode 10 recap: Daddy issues

With just two episodes of The Affair Season 2 to go, the past and the present are converging, with Scotty Lockhart’s death still squarely in the middle. We open episode 10 in the now, as Noah, Alison and Gottlief pull up to the courthouse for Noah’s trial to find a media circus looming. Helen walks by with Dr. Vic (really, Helen? He’s hot, but ew!). Gottlief tells Noah and Alison to follow him and not talk to anyone. Then it’s time for Noah’s perspective on a day a year after last week’s events, when we left him stranded in the hurricane the night […]

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Drama

The Affair Season 2 episode 9 recap: Reckoning — or when it rains, it pours

On this week’s The Affair, we spend a 24-hour (or thereabouts) stretch with all four of our main characters as a hurricane bears down on New York, lending extra drama to the myriad bad decisions that abound. The Lockhart case doesn’t really factor in at all. It’s just four people and the choices they make … and what it might say about them. 1 p.m. After a quick look at Alison cleaning her fridge, we begin with Helen, who is in a wine bar, waiting for a Tinder date. Deciding he isn’t about to show, she gets her check and does […]

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Documentary

Showtime’s “Spymasters” goes inside Langley

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has long been shrouded in secrecy and controversy, with much of what average people know about it gleaned from probably-not-entirely-accurate movies and TV shows. In recent years, concerns about the government spying not only on our enemies but also on our allies — and even on citizens — have put groups like the CIA into the spotlight more and more. The new Showtime documentary Spymasters — CIA in the Crosshairs looks to shed further light on the organization. The film, narrated by Homeland star Mandy Patinkin, was written by Chris Whipple, who also wrote the […]

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Drama

Recap: The Affair Season 2 episode 8 — From the mouths of babes

This far into Season 2 of Showtime’s The Affair, I have to admit, I’m a little done with episodes that attempt to pass off wildly different versions of the same events as the mysterious workings of two separate minds. While this episode was intriguing — bringing Noah and Helen together for the most substantial amount of time since he bolted for the writers cabin — I gave up on figuring out how to meld the two versions into a probable truth. We learned some not-so-surprising stuff about Whitney in the front end of Helen’s parcel. After that: There was a book signing. Helen was there. Noah […]