THE BIJOU BIZ: Comedies Under Budget Pressure But Digital Distribution May Help
> An interesting story in today’s Los Angeles Times online looks at the business of making comedies these days. The article points out that while DVD revenue has collapsed for the comedy genre (all genres are down b...
THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Breaking In”
> WHERE WE WERE: Contra Security, a wacky high-tech firm run by the extravagantly enigmatic Oz (Christian Slater). Contra tests the security measures of its clients by cracking them wide open, staging mock break-ins...
THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Monte Carlo”
MONTE CARLO: Watch It At Home – The Usual Tourist Stops Beware the credit “Screen Story by.” It means that whatever the original source material for a movie may have been, it’s essentia...
THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “The Big C”
The problem with making a show about someone dying of cancer is that no one really wants to watch a show about someone dying of cancer. Viewers will roll along with the dark and disturbing, but by and large they draw the line...
THE SKED REVIEW: SNL Weekend Update Thursday
The political comics of America owe a heartfelt “thank you” to Mitt Romney for his “47%” bungle that became public this week. (So do the Democrats, but that’s another story.) Jon Stewart...
THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Nurse Jackie”
NURSE JACKIE: Sunday 9PM on Showtime NURSE JACKIE had a strong, dramatic season last year that may have been its best. But the ratings weren’t anything to speak of (a 0.2-0.3 in 18-49s, and fewer than a million...
LIMITED RELEASE: “Henry’s Crime”
> Watch It At Home: Petty larceny. Sometimes casting can be too good: Keanu Reeves playing a guy who pretty much sleepwalks through his own life is practically redundant. His whole style, from the very start o...
THE SKED: Emmy Odds – Theirs and Ours: Comedy
> With the help of some online bookmaking sites, we have the latest “official” odds for tonight’s Emmy Awards. Let’s take a look about what they say about the conventional wisdom, and make some adj...
THE SKED: NBC Picks Up An Old “Friend”
> NBC has jumped the gun on this year’s Upfront season, and ordered 13 episodes of the Matthew Perry single-camera comedy Go On for its 2012/13 primetime schedule. In addition to starring Perry, the show is written ...
THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Jack & Jill”
JACK AND JILL: Not At Any Price – 2 Adam Sandlers is 2 Too Many Does anyone really expect an Adam Sandler movie to be good anymore? Seriously, if you put aside his occasional relatively serious effort...
THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Weeds”
WEEDS: Sunday 10PM on Showtime WHERE WE WERE: After a season largely concerned with a battle for supremacy in the New York drug trade, both within and outside the family, there seemed to be a moment of compara...
THE SKED PILOT REPORT: CBS’s “2 Broke Girls”
> Disclaimer: Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall. Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot. So these critiques sh...
THE SKED REVIEW: “Enlightened”
> ENLIGHTENED – Mondays 9:30PM on HBO – If Nothing Else Is On… As a writer, Mike White is drawn to stories of delusion. Even though their tones (and commerciality) are widely divergent, his screenplays f...