Posts Tagged ‘drama’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “At Any Price”

With the notable exception of Friday Night Lights, Hollywood has rarely even attempted a serious depiction of life in the American heartland in recent years.  More often, the center of the country is a setting for stories of ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Thanks For Sharing”

Stuart Blumberg’s first film as a director (his screenwriting credits include The Kids Are All Right), THANKS FOR SHARING, never quite manages to solve its own central problem:  how to make a sensitive and funny (and not...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “The Company You Keep”

As soon as Robert Redford had enough clout to start generating his own movies, he began starring in and often producing some of the best politically-themed films of the 1970s, including The Candidate, Three Days of the Condor�...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Breaking Bad”

  Visually, this season of BREAKING BAD has been typified by shots of Walter White’s looming, shaven, gleaming skull.  A bald pate may not have received this much loving camera attention since Brando’s in Apoc...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “The Newsroom”

Here’s what Aaron Sorkin’s THE NEWSROOM is, for better and very often for worse:  a deadly serious, indeed doggedly self-righteous, primer on how news should be reported and, by extension, how America should be gov...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Bunheads”

  It helps if you think of BUNHEADS as a CG special effects spectacle, except in this case the CG special effects and spectacle are all in the sound of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s dialogue.  Either you love herrapid-f...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Political Animals”

  POLITICAL ANIMALS remained uncompelling to the very end, which is remarkable when you consider that its final episode threw in, among other things, the (apparent) death of the President of the United States.  The show ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Boss”

    BOSS:  Friday 10PM on Starz WHERE WE WERE:  In a state of depression.  By the end of last season, Chicago Mayor Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer) had systematically murdered, driven away, destroyed and/or humiliated an...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON PREMIERE REVIEW: “Hell On Wheels”

  HELL ON WHEELS – Sunday 9PM on AMC WHERE WE WERE:  Building the transcontinental railroad.  Our antihero, former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon, joined the Union Pacific Railroad’s march to the west on...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Dallas”

  The title of tonight’s season finale of DALLAS was “Revelations,” but really it had only one reveal worthy of a SPOILER ALERT, and even that one was increasingly guessable as the hour went on, for anyon...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S SUNDAY SCRIPTED CABLE SCORECARD – 7/29/12

  Several networks opted not even to try and compete with Sunday’s Olympics coverage, and the effect of the games on the shows that remained was mixed. HBO:  TRUE BLOOD didn’t miss an artery, as its craziest s...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: “The Killing” Is Mortally Wounded

  Not many people will mourn THE KILLING.  AMC’s serialized mystery saga began with a great head of steam, and seemed poised to become the network’s next big show, but it became increasingly frustrating to wat...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S PILOT + 4 REVIEW: “The Newsroom”

  We’re at the halfway point in Season 1 of THE NEWSROOM (so, yay!), and Aaron Sorkin celebrated by firing almost his entire writing staff.  (In a delightfully self-referential touch that TMI Magazine would apprecia...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S PILOT + 1 REVIEW: “Political Animals”

  POLITICAL ANIMALS: Sunday 10PM on USA A lot can happen between the creation of a TV pilot in the spring and the production of episodes for the regular season: a writing/producing team is hired, audience focus groups weig...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED EARLY SUNDAY CABLE RATINGS – 6/15/12

  BREAKING BAD kicked off its 5th season in fine style for AMC last night, recording the show’s most-watched episode (2.9M viewers, up 14% from the Season 4 premiere), and what should be a 1.4 in the 18-49 demo, a wh...
by Mitch Salem