Revenge: A series best served cold

By on Aug 5, 2012 in Raves |

I shouldn’t have found Revenge enjoyable. It’s clichéd, it’s soapy, and its characters are not exactly diverse. And Revenge shouldn’t have been successful. It’s a complicated, heavily-serialized drama; and there are hardly any cops, doctors, or lawyers in sight. But if there’s one thing television has taught me, it’s that expectations and preconceptions mean squat. The story tracks the vengeance taken by Emily Thorne, (née Amanda Clark), whose father, David, was scapegoated for a terrorist-related money-laundering act by the wealthy Grayson family and later killed in prison. Years later, during her teen delinquent years, Emily learns of the framing and the coverup and enlists a Japanese sensei to show her the ways of revenge and uses the resources of a wealthy billionaire named Nolan (a former cohort of her father). After years of plotting, she...

2012 Emmys: And the nominees are…

By on Jul 27, 2012 in Tinseltown |

This year’s Emmy nominees were announced as I was basking in the sun in Playa del Carmen, Mexico (shameless gloating, I admit), but you better believe I still checked out the list as soon as I could. Here are my thoughts on this year’s selections. Once again, HBO reigns supreme with an astonishing 81 nominations across the board. Just like HBO’s old motto touts, it’s not TV; nay, I’d argue that it’s super-TV. Camera operator Hector Ramirez and producer Sheila Nevins have earned the most lifetime Emmy nominations as of this year with 68 and 59 noms, respectively. If Mad Men wins for Outstanding Drama Series this year, it will have won that award five times—surpassing Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and The West Wing for the record. Modern Family is the most-nominated comedy this year with 14 noms, Mad Men is the most-nominated drama with 17, American...

Bricking Bad

By on Jul 13, 2012 in Fandom |

Simultaneously reaching new levels of inappropriateness and awesomeness, some Michelangelo of Legos (or, more accurately, some friend of a Reddit user) has used the innocent construction blocks to recreate Walter White’s underground meth lab from Breaking Bad.  And then some other Reddit user brilliantly dubbed it “Bricking Bad.”  More photos of the creations are below, but first, are some other TV locations I’d love to see in Lego form: The Swan (i.e. the Hatch) from Lost The Pie Hole from Pushing Daisies Murder House from American Horror Story The Sterling Cooper Draper Price offices from Mad Men Merlotte’s from True Blood The West Wing… from… um, The West Wing

An Open Letter to Ryan Murphy

By on Jul 11, 2012 in Inner Monologues | 3 comments

Dear Ryan Murphy, First off, I love your work.  I loved Nip/Tuck, I was fascinated by the pilot for Pretty/Handsome, and I remain haunted by American Horror Story.  But my partner and I are of two minds when it comes to The Glee Project.  You see, we do like it—it’s an addictive show with formidable talent and fun challenges—but the concept confuses us.  Are you looking for talented youngsters who can sing, dance, and act?  Or are you looking for inspiration? When The Glee Project premiered last summer, our impression was that you and the other producers of Glee would be searching amongst relative unknowns for fresh talent—people who can sing, dance, and act.  Once it premiered, however, it became clear that you were looking for inspirational stories amongst the contestants, hoping to write the contestant’s personal histories into the show.  (You’d say things like,...

The Prime Times: Next Season’s Guest Stars Edition

By on Jun 25, 2012 in In Brief |

This installment of the Prime Times is all about the cool guest stars we’ll all get to see on our favorite shows… in a few months’ time. Sorry for the blue balls, folks. With the seventh-season premiere a torturous three months away, Showtime has released a teaser-trailerfocusing on the fallout from last season’s “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with a knife” finale. More details are surfacing about the second season of FX’s creepfest American Horror Story. Now we know that Jessica Lange will play a nun and administrator (presumably in the 1960s-era East Coast insane asylum, which was previously announced as the season’s setting). And filling out the cast are Adam Levine and James Cromwell. ER reunion ho! Maura Tierney will recur on the next season of The Good Wife, sharing the screen once again with Julianna Margulies. According to Deadline, Tierney will play “a...