Lord of the Films

Upstream Color Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:26:00 +0000

One of the most buzzed about films coming out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color. Structurally, Upstream Color is a big mess as it tries to combine weird sci-fi elements with a stale relationship at its core. However, the themes and the ideas that the film tries to explore almost make this film worth your while.

Upstream Color follows a woman (played by Amy Seimetz) who is attacked by a stranger and drugged. In the days after the incident she begins to realize that something is happening to her body and she soon finds herself going to a mysterious man (played by Andrew Sensenig), who does some sort of mind melding experiment with her and a pig. The woman still feels lost and eventually becomes close to a man (played by the film’s director and writer Shane Carruth) who underwent a similar incident. If that sounds crazy or doesn’t make any sense, that’s Upstream Color for you.

Shane Carruth brings up some really interesting ideas about overthrowing the establishment, and he does a fantastic job in leaving enough up to interpretation for what that establishment is. Is this film about overthrowing God (Andrew Sensenig’s mysterious man certainly seems like a God)? Is it about overthrowing capitalism (there’s a scene about a buyer not coming through and upsetting Andrew Sensenig’s mysterious man and the ending shows the pigs being much happier in control of their human avatars rather than some distant mysterious man)? Whatever you think it’s hard to deny that the last fifteen or so minutes of this film are quite good.

The problem is that the way this film gets to that point is a failure. I think most of this stems from the fact that the ideas that Carruth is going for are almost unfilmable, and the way Carruth tries to film it doesn’t work. The film’s visual style can best be described as Terrence Malick’s visual sense mixed with Danny Boyle’s kinetic energy. Unfortunately this results in visuals and ideas being passed around without anytime to let them sit in. It also doesn’t help that Carruth uses this Malickian visual sense to capture gross and unsettling images instead of majesty and wonder. Due to this there is nothing to latch onto in the film early on.

It also doesn’t help that it takes a while for the actors to get a grip of their roles. Amy Seimetz is actually a strong lead, and it’s nice to see that she might be on the verge of a major breakout (she will soon be starring in AMC’s The Killing). However, Shane Carruth is not good in his role. He is one-note and quite boring. When the film begins focusing on the relationship between Seimetz’ and Carruth’s characters, it comes to a screeching halt. Seimetz tries her hardest but the two actors have little chemistry with each other. Meanwhile, Andrew Sensenig gets very little to do (which is probably for the better as the character works better as a symbol than an actual character).

Upstream Color is ambitious but very flawed in its execution.

6/10

Mr. Selfridge: Season 1 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Considering Downton Abbey has been such a success for PBS, it would only make sense that PBS would try to capitalize on its success. So it makes sense to see a bunch of documentaries and making of specials about subject matter that can be found in Downton Abbey. It also isn’t a surprise to see the Masterpiece series (which is what Downton Abbey runs under while airing on PBS) pick up shows of a similar nature. Mr. Selfridge is clearly one of those shows. Acting like a soap opera, set in a similar time period and having a major focus on fashion, it is hard not to make comparisons with Mr. Selfridge to Downton Abbey. However, one major difference between the two is that Downton Abbey takes itself a little too seriously (resulting in a boring yet ridiculous show) while Mr. Selfridge embraces its much lighter tone to its benefit.

Mr. Selfridge follows Harry Selfridge (Jeremy Piven), an American entrepreneur, as he tries to open a department store in London. Along the way, he has to overcome marital problems and try to find a place for the woman (Aisling Flotus) he mistakenly got fired. The series is created and run by Andrew Davies and is directed by a team including Jon Jones, John Strickland, Anthony Byrne and Michael Keillor.

Mr. Selfridge isn’t a great work of art. Luckily, Andrew Davies and company know that and shoot and write it as such. It results in a fun atmosphere in which you realize that you don’t have to keep your constant attention on the show despite it still finding a way to keep your attention. The directing, character development and world building are just competent enough to make you overlook the show’s flaws, and this show does have them. Its biggest flaw is that it has trouble making characters interesting unless they are constantly interacting with the main character, Harry Selfridge. Unfortunately, there are a few storylines that runs separately from Selfridge’s that just don’t work. The other major flaw of the show is that it continues the trend of recent period shows that try to shoehorn in plotlines in which characters react to major events of the past.

Luckily, the show has a charming cast to combat its problems. Jeremy Piven is very good in a role that is in stark contrast to his most famous role, Ari Gold. Piven is able to use his charm and charisma to make this character work and the show does allow him to take the character to even further places (such as in one episode where his character goes on a drinking binge). Yet, Piven almost gets the show stolen from him by Aisling Loftus. Loftus plays one of the workers at the store and it’s with storylines involving these workers that the show normally rounds into trouble. However, Loftus is the one actress that is able to stand out from the rest as she finds a way to brighten up almost any scene. You are always looking forward to her next appearance, which can’t be said for the other worker characters. Also good in supporting roles are Frances O’Connor as Selfridge’s wife and Zoe Tapper as Selfridge’s lover.

Mr. Selfridge is a solid period piece that is able to use its charm to overcome its flaws.

8/10

2013 Critics' Choice Television Award Nominees

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

I was going to do a set of predictions for these awards but it seems they came a day early. Here are the nominees:

BEST DRAMA SERIES
-The Americans
-Breaking Bad
-Downton Abbey
-Game of Thrones
-The Good Wife
-Homeland

2 surprising snubs in House of Cards and Mad Men, but I guess something had to budge in such a crowded field. This certainly hurts the former's chances (if it can't get in here, can it really get voted for by a bunch of industry folks who might scoff at the idea of a show on Netflix) and the latter is suddenly slightly vulnerable in what will be a packed field.

BEST COMEDY SERIES
-The Big Bang Theory
-Louie
-The Middle
-New Girl
-Parks and Recreation
-Veep

This is a crazy set of nominees. The (seemingly?) 3 biggest locks for the Emmys (30 Rock, Girls and Modern Family) are nowhere to be found. I really don't see this category having much influence on the Emmys. The Middle and Parks and Recreation certainly won't get in, but this is a good sign for New Girl and Veep.

BEST MOVIE/MINISERIES
-American Horror Story: Asylum
-Behind the Candelabra
-The Crimson Petal and the White
-The Hour
-Political Animals
-Top of the Lake

BEST REALITY SERIES
-Duck Dynasty
-The Moment
-Pawn Stars
-Push Girls
-Small Town Security
-Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan

Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan is an awesome surprise.

BEST REALITY-COMPETITION SERIES
-Chopped
-Face Off
-Shark Tank
-So You Think You Can Dance
-Survivor
-The Voice

BEST TALK SHOW
-Conan
-The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
-The Ellen DeGeneres Show
-Jimmy Kimmel Live!
-Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
-Marie

Marie over The Colbert Report just goes to show you how crazy these awards can be.

BEST ANIMATED SERIES
-Adventure Time
-Archer
-Phineas and Ferb
-Regular Show
-The Simpsons
-Star Wars: The Clone Wars

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Don Cheadle, House of Lies
-Louis C.K., Louie
-Jake Johnson, New Girl
-Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
-Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation
-Jeremy Sisto, Suburgatory

No Alec Baldwin!?!? I guess these voters really didn't like 30 Rock. Emmy voters most likely won't have a similar attitude towards the show.

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
-Damian Lewis, Homeland
-Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead
-Timothy Olyphant, Justified
-Matthew Rhys, The Americans
-Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Jon Hamm is the big snub. Had Mad Men aired its entire season before these nominations were announced I think the love for that show would have been a lot greater. That won't be a problem at the Emmys.

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A MOVIE/MINISERIES
-Benedict Cumberbatch, Parade's End
-Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
-Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
-Toby Jones, The Girl
-Al Pacino, Phil Spector
-Dominic West, The Hour

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Laura Dern, Enlightened
-Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
-Lena Dunham, Girls
-Sutton Foster, Bunheads
-Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
-Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

No Tina Fey. This lack of 30 Rock love is just bizarre.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Claire Danes, Homeland
-Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel
-Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
-Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
-Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
-Keri Russell, The Americans

Downton Abbey made it into Best Drama Series so it's odd to see Michelle Dockery miss out. Also I think it would be easier for Robin Wright to make it in with these awards than the Emmys (see my House of Cards reasoning above) so her snub is not a good sign for her chances.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MOVIE/MINISERIES
-Angela Bassett, Betty & Coretta
-Romola Garai, The Hour
-Rebecca Hall, Parade's End
-Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
-Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake
-Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Max Greenfield, New Girl
-Simon Helberg, The Big Bang Theory
-Alex Karpovsky, Girls
-Adam Pally, Happy Endings
-Chris Pratt, Parks and Recreation
-Dany Pudi, Community

This is a breath of fresh air for a category that is normally dominated by the Modern Family men at the Emmys. Alex Karpovsky over the more critically acclaimed Adam Driver is weird though, and Nick Offerman being snubbed is even weirder.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Jonathan Banks, Breaking Bad
-Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones
-Michael Cudlitz, Southland
-Walton Goggins, Justified
-Noah Emmerich, The Americans
-Corey Stoll, House of Cards

This category is just awesome, and hopefully this is a feather in the cap for Jonathan Banks and Corey Stoll on their way to Emmy nominations.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOVIE/MINISERIES
-James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum
-Peter Mullan, Top of the Lake
-Zachary Quinto, American Horror Story: Asylum
-Sebastian Stan, Political Animals
-David Wenham, Top of the Lake
-Thomas M. Wright, Top of the Lake

It never occurred to me that David Wenham could get a nomination in this category (the much bigger names distracted me), but now that I see this nomination, it is certainly possible he gets an Emmy nomination.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Carly Chaikin, Suburgatory
-Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory
-Sarah Hyland, Modern Family
-Melissa Rauch, The Big Bang Theory
-Eden Sher, The Middle
-Casey Wilson, Happy Endings

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Jennifer Carpenter, Dexter
-Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
-Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
-Regina King, Southland
-Monica Potter, Parenthood
-Abigail Spencer, Rectify

Believe it or not, not many people were predicting Peter Dinklage for an Emmy nomination the year he won until the days before the actual nominations. He picked up a nomination here though. Will this start a similar trajectory for Emilia Clarke? I think so.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOVIE/MINISERIES
-Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals
-Sienna Miller, The Girl
-Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Asylum
-Lily Rabe, American Horror Story: Asylum
-Imelda Staunton, The Girl
-Alfre Woodard, Steel Magnolias

Based off of other categories, these voters loved Political Animals and Top of the Lake. So where are Carla Gugino and Holly Hunter? Also Sienna Miller will be in lead for the Emmys so that threw a wrench into this category

BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Melissa Leo, Louie
-David Lynch, Louie
-Bob Newhart, The Big Bang Theory
-Patton Oswalt, Parks and Recreation
-Molly Shannon, Enlightened
-Patrick Wilson, Girls

BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Jim Beaver, Justified
-Jane Fonda, The Newsroom
-Martha Plimpton, The Good Wife
-Carrie Preston, The Good Wife
-Diana Rigg, Game of Thrones
-Jimmy Smits, Sons of Anarchy

BEST REALITY SHOW HOST
-Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars
-Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance
-Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen/Masterchef
-RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race
-Ryan Seacrest, American Idol
-Kurt Warner, The Moment

The Office: Season 9 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:39:00 +0000

Ever since Steve Carell left the show, The Office has been a shadow of its former self (and it was even showing major signs of weakness in Carell’s final seasons). So this show would need a miracle to make its final season worthwhile. While it is evident that the cast and crew tried their hardest, there was no miracle here. The ninth season of The Office was a show that tried to clean up as much of its mess as possible only to discover that there was too much garbage to begin with.

The ninth season of The Office followed multiple plotlines around the office. The most major ones included Andy (Ed Helms) and Erin (Ellie Kemper)’s relationship falling apart after Andy leaves on a boat trip and Erin begins to fall for new employee Pete (played by Jake Lacy), Jim (John Krasinski)’s new sports marketing job putting a strain on his and Pam (Jenna Fischer)’s relationship and the continuing troubles of Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Angela (Angela Kinsey)’s problems. Greg Daniels (who shepherded the best seasons on the show before leaving to run Parks and Recreation) returned to run the final season and the directing team included such high-profile names as Bryan Cranston, John Favreau and Daniels himself.

The return of Greg Daniels brought hope that this show could be saved in time for the finale. However, that was not the case as Daniels and company found a way to make the characters of the show even more annoying. The Jim and Pam marital problems storyline was the definition of a waste of time as there was no way that the show was going to end that storyline with them breaking up. Yet the show made these two characters go back and forth multiple times just to keep the story running throughout the entire season. Also one of the saving graces of these past seasons (the Andy and Erin relationship) was completely demolished just to give one of the new characters (why were new characters being introduced in the final season?) more screen time.

Surprisingly, the show found some way to make Dwight (whose antics in previous seasons delved into insanity at multiple points) the emotional center of the show. A lot of this has to do with Rainn Wilson’s strong work throughout the course of the season, but it is amazing (and a sign of how badly written the other characters were this past season) that such a crazy character could become the heart of the show. Anytime, his character became the focus of the show (and especially towards the end of the season where he interacted with Jim more), the show actually became tolerable.

Ultimately, this show concluded with an arc that included way too much time spent on arcs that began in the later seasons and montages of clips from the first few seasons. A Steve Carell cameo was fun but it was not enough to save a show that was probably beyond saving. At its best The Office was a show that was somehow better than the series it was based off of but at its worst (like this past season) it was one of the worst shows on television.

3/10

Saturday Night Live: Season 38 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:16:00 +0000

With the last Saturday Night Live season to air during a US presidential election (season 34) being one of its best ever, season 38 had a lot to live up to. Yet it began the season in dire straights. Gone from the cast were the show’s leading lady (Kristen Wiig) and the man who pretty much created the current style of Saturday Night Live by trying to get the biggest “Youtube” moments possible (Andy Samburg). Yet the show handled these exits quite well in the early going. A solid first half gave hope that this season could be something special. It wasn’t until the show came back from the holiday break that it began to go downhill. And downhill it went.

In season 38 of Saturday Night Live the show finally made the right decision and gave Jay Pharoah (who was also upped to regular status along with Vanessa Bayer and Taran Killam) the role of Barack Obama while Jason Sudeikis portrayed Mitt Romney. New featured members of the cast included Aidy Bryant, Tim Robinson, Cecily Strong and scene-stealer Kate McKinnon. Seth Meyers returned as the show’s head writer.

The start of the season started off strong with a solid season premiere hosted by Seth MacFarlane and some big names in Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Daniel Craig, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Renner hosting later in the fall. However, it wasn’t until Martin Short’s Christmas episode that the season finally showed a memorable episode. With numerous guest appearances (including Samuel L. Jackson dropping a few f-bombs in a “What Up with That?” skit) and a lot of energy on the part of Short it was a home run. While Seth Meyers and company’s lazy writing was still a problem for the first half of the season, the hosts were normally able to overcome it.

That would not be the case with the second half. Problem signs emerged immediately with the winter premiere. Jennifer Lawrence is a talented actress and would seemingly make for a great comedic actress. Yet the show consistently put her in the worst roles possible for her winter premiere episode. The now infamous dog skit was an example of everything that was wrong with not only this episode but also the entire season. Miscasting and poor writing quickly sank this season, and it didn’t help that the show at one point had two musicians host the show in back-to-back episodes (Adam Levine showing how you can’t survive on this show by just looking good and Justin Bieber in a show that was too tightly produced and managed to allow the episode to breathe).

Sure there were some highlights in the back half of the season (Christoph Waltz nailed his episode and “Jesus Uncrossed” will be a highlight for years to come while Justin Timberlake is always great) but even a strong finale (hosted by Ben Affleck and including a grand farewell to Bill Hader and his greatest creation, Stefon) couldn’t save this season. Season 38 of Saturday Night Live will be remembered as one of its worst seasons to date and yet it did provide us with a few new skits that work effectively (“the two porn stars trying to sell a product” skit comes quickly to mind) and a very effective farewell to an all-time great cast member in Bill Hader.

6/10

Arrow: Season 1 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 19 May 2013 20:50:00 +0000

With superhero films making big money at the box office almost every weekend nowadays you would think that, that success would translate to television in some form. Oddly it has barely at all. The genres’ two biggest “success” stories were Heroes (which received both acclaim and ratings in its first season but rapidly went downhill from there) and Smallville (which had neither acclaim nor ratings but was able to survive ten seasons on the little-watched WB and CW networks). That might all change once ABC unleashes Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on us next fall but for now we are stuck with a television landscape that is barren of superhero shows save for one exception: Arrow. Arrow received decent reviews upon first airing and critical respect has ticked up a bit since. It is also in no danger of a quick cancellation thanks to airing on CW. However, this clearly isn’t a show that is going to be remembered as a saving grace of the television superhero genre. It’s barely better than some of Heroes’ most stress inducing seasons.

Arrow follows Oliver Queen (played by Stephen Amell), a billionaire playboy who is stranded on an island and presumed dead. On the island, he comes across its strange inhabitants where he learns to become a master assassin. Upon his return home, he decides to become a masked vigilante and bring those who decide to cheat in life to justice. The series is created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg while the directing team is led by David Barrett.

Arrow starts off as a decent interpretation of Green Arrow in a post The Dark Knight creative climate. Everything from the early episodes seems as if it is directed and written by a Christopher Nolan-knockoff. While this works fine for a few episodes of television, the creative team quickly realized they needed a better direction. Unfortunately, this resulted in a messy storyline that focused on Oliver’s time on the island with each new episode making that plotline more ridiculous. Instead of being able to focus on Oliver’s trials in the present we are continually reintroduced to a storyline in the past that adds twist after twist for no other reason than to shock the audience.

This is such a shame because the show actually gets a few good performances out of its cast. Stephen Amell is quite good in a role that easily could have been cheesy. Luckily, due to Amell’s normal guy approach to the character it works. Emily Bett Rickards is the other big highlight as a team member of Oliver’s that is introduced midway through the season. She finds a way to lighten up many of the storylines that tend to be a bit muddled. Yet this show also has a tendency to waste good actors too. Katie Cassidy barely gets to do anything other than be the “girlfriend”, which is a shame because she has shown she is a good actress when she gets something to do in her previous work. Meanwhile, the show never really figures out what to do with Susanna Thompson. She really could have nailed the much more villainous role that the show flirted with giving her, but the show unfortunately chickened out of that storyline.

Arrow is a disappointing adaptation of a third-rate DC character.

5/10

Hall of Fame Induction: The Empire Strikes Back

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:17:00 +0000

Star Trek Into Darkness was released into theaters this weekend. Considering the current series of films has drawn numerous comparisons to Star Wars and its director (J.J. Abrams) will be off to film the next Star Wars film now that his work with Star Trek Into Darkness is over, I think now would be the time to induct The Empire Strikes Back into my Hall of Fame.

The Empire Strikes Back

Release Date: May 21, 1980

Director: Irvin Kershner

Current Ranking in the Film Hall of Fame: 18

Academy Award Nominations: 3 (Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing)

Academy Award Wins: 2 (Best Sound Mixing, Special Achievement Award-Visual Effects)

The 5 Best Elements About This Film:

1. Other than Jaws, The Empire Strikes Back may be John Williams' finest work. If you ask what is Williams' most recognizable work and many will point to "The Imperial March", which first makes its appearance in this film. Williams' score completely owns this film, and yet it never overpowers it. Instead it only strengthens the heightened emotions of this film.

2. Surprisingly George Lucas did not direct this film. Instead Irvin Kershner did, who turns out to be the best choice. Kershner brings the action on this series to a whole new level (and it isn't eclipsed until the CGI enhanced action scenes of the prequel trilogy), and is able to get a good performance out of almost every actor he directs. However, what really makes Kershner's direction great is he is able to take a darker tone without abandoning the few humor and camp moments of the first film.

3. Despite being an acclaimed Broadway and dramatic actor, James Earl Jones' finest work comes in a performance where he doesn't even appear onscreen. James Earl Jones adds so much depth to his voice work as Darth Vader and brings him into the pantheon of all-time villains with this film. All of the character's signature moments come in this film, and all of those moments are due to James Earl Jones' iconic voice.

4. James Earl Jones' voice was also a key cog in one of the best and most iconic twists in cinematic victory. "No, I am your father" easily could have been stupid (and many films that have tried to imitate the film with a similar twist have come across as stupid), but the direction, acting (even Mark Hamill's over-the-top reaction) and writing all come together for one of cinema's greatest moments.

5. This film received a special achievement award for its visual effects, and it is easy to see why. The Battle of Hoth was one of the largest scale battles in cinema to that point in terms of effects and it is not only surprisingly effective but also one of the best sequences in the film. Then you also get the chase through the asteroid field, the amazingly crafted Cloud City and the mysterious atmosphere of Dagobah (none of which could have been pulled off without the immense amount of effects work put into it).

How I Met Your Mother: Season 8 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:41:00 +0000

How I Met Your Mother entered its eighth season as a show that clearly had its glory days behind it. Luckily, there was some hope in a midseason announcement that this would be the penultimate season of the show. Yet that was not enough to save a season that was still in stall mode for half of the season. Unlike the recently ended The Office, though, How I Met Your Mother still has its entire cast firing on all cylinders when the show is not. This time around a strong ensemble was able to bring a subpar season back up to mediocrity.

The eighth season of How I Met Your Mother followed the gang as they prepared for Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin’s (Colbie Smulders) wedding, which is of course where Ted (Josh Radnor) will finally meet the eponymous mother (who in the finale was revealed to be played by Broadway actress Cristin Milioti). The series is still run by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas while Pamela Fryman continued to be the show’s main director (directing all but one of the season’s twenty-four episodes).

Many of the problems that this show had this past season are due to things that were more on a network level than it was on a creative level. Sure nothing was working creatively but this was also clearly a show that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas imagined as lasting less than eight seasons. The show was entering the Steve Carell-less The Office stage of overstaying its welcome early on this season, and it wasn’t until CBS finally gave into the inevitability that the show’s stars would leave the show eventually and finally announced an end date for the show that glimpses of hope could be seen within the show again. Sure the Barney-Robin relationship is a mixed bag and Ted has dated more than one too many girls that isn’t the mother, but there was suddenly an opportunity for me to become invested in the characters again and the writers lived up to that opportunity.

All of this finally led up to the reveal of the mother. The reveal was (like a lot of other things that happened this season) messy and ill conceived. For some reason, Pamela Fryman filmed the scene as if they were going to reveal a big celebrity only to reveal it was little known Cristin Milioti. While Milioti is probably the perfect choice for the mother (she’s clearly talented and this could easily be her breakout performance), the way in which the reveal was filmed left viewers with a “What?” instead of the intended jaw-drop.

Still it is the cast (and not the writing or directing) that has always made this series work. Colbie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris tried harder than ever to make their pairing work and that relationship and the chemistry between the two actors is improving. Barney’s marriage to Robin will always be character assassination but Harris and Smulders are making it work somehow. Josh Radnor continues to do fine work even if this was far from his finest season, and Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan are still scene-stealers even if their importance to the plot was reduced this past season.

An end date will hopefully let How I Met Your Mother go out on a high note because the constant stalling left a huge mark on this show, especially in the first half of this past season.

6.5/10

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:38:00 +0000

While advertised as a reboot, J.J. Abrams created a new way to reinvent a failing franchise with 2009’s Star Trek. While working as a sequel to the original series and the subsequent films, Abrams also found a way to make his film completely new. While the film easily could have been confusing it turned out to be one of the better blockbusters in recent memory. Star Trek Into Darkness continues Abrams’ reboot-sequel series. While it isn’t as structurally sound as its predecessor, Star Trek Into Darkness is able to make it worth your while by allowing its talented ensemble to carry the weight of the film. While the logic may become a little sillier and the action sequences a bit repetitive, the film saves itself by allowing the characters to go to a more emotional place.

Star Trek Into Darkness follows the USS Enterprise crew as they are told to launch weapons of mass destruction of a mysterious nature at a rogue Starfleet agent (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) who is hiding in Klingon space. As the crew gets closer to their target, they learn that not everything is as it appears (especially in regards to the rogue Starfleet agent). The film is directed by J.J. Abrams and is written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof.

J.J. Abrams had a tough act to follow after the success of the first film in Abrams’ (soon to be short?) tenure as director of the Star Trek franchise. Abrams and his creative team’s solution to this problem seems to be just throwing everything that Trekkies love onto the screen. Everything that Trekkies complained was missing from the first film is present here to the point that this film acts as much as a sequel to a certain Original Series film as it does the 2009 Star Trek. Surprisingly this never seems like fan service (other than in one scene where a cameo is wasted with a bunch of exposition), and the film is even able to make two big homages in the third act seem natural.

Yet it’s not this fusion between fan service and plot that makes the film work. Through two films the Abrams Star Trek series has proven that it is presently the best franchise when it comes to character development and interaction. Chris Pine and (especially) Zachary Quinto go even further than they did in their first film with their portrayals of Kirk and Spock respectively. We are lucky to get just one well-developed character in a summer blockbuster, but with this film we get two. Supporting members such as Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Simon Pegg also get at least one moment to shine each. However, much of the promotional focus around this film has been around Benedict Cumberbatch’s mysterious villain. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get as much screen time as he probably deserved (he disappears for a large chunk of the film early on and the film doesn’t conclude his arc by the time the credits roll). However, Cumberbatch is brilliant as the character. Growling lines such as “I am better at everything than you”, Cumberbatch is able to combine the skills he deftly displays in his breakout performance as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock with a physicality that I didn’t know he would be able to pull off.

While not as good as its predecessor, Star Trek Into Darkness is a solid blockbuster that is able to find just as much room for character development as it does spectacle.

8/10

65th Primetime Emmy Predictions: Mid-May Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

BEST DRAMA SERIES
1. Downton Abbey
2. Homeland
3. Breaking Bad
4. Mad Men
5. Game of Thrones
6. House of Cards

BEST COMEDY SERIES
1. Modern Family
2. Girls
3. 30 Rock
4. The Big Bang Theory
5. Louie
6. Arrested Development

BEST MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Behind the Candelabra
2. Phil Spector
3. Top of the Lake
4. The Bible
5. American Horror Story: Asylum
6. Political Animals

BEST REALITY COMPETITION SERIES
1. The Amazing Race
2. Top Chef
3. The Voice
4. Dancing With the Stars
5. So You Think You Can Dance
6. American Idol

BEST VARIETY SERIES
1. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
2. The Colbert Report
3. Jimmy Kimmel Live
4. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
5. Saturday Night Live
6. Late Show With Davis Letterman

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
2. Louis C.K., Louie (+1)
3. Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (-1)
4. Don Cheadle, House of Lies (RE-ENTRY)
5. Matt LeBlanc, Episodes (-1)
6. Jason Bateman, Arrested Development

Don Cheadle returns to my predictions as the exposure he has received from Iron Man 3 will help a lot in getting in the heads of Emmy voters. Backlash from his win last year will hurt Jon Cryer, but he can certainly still be nominated. Jake Johnson from New Girl also remains a threat.

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Damian Lewis, Homeland
2. Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
3. Jon Hamm, Mad Men
4. Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
5. Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
6. Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra (+1)
2. Al Pacino, Phil Spector (-1)
3. Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
4. Benedict Cumberbatch, Parade's End
5. Toby Jones, The Girl

Things are looking good for Behind the Candelabra in terms of awards and critical appeal.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Lena Dunham, Girls
2. Tina Fey, 30 Rock
3. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
4. Melissa McCarthy, Mike and Molly (+1)
5. Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation (-1)
6. Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

I'm a bit worried that Amy Poehler might miss. I'm not predicting it but stranger things have happened (such as Parks and Recreation missing for Best Comedy Series last year). Zooey Deschanel remains the strong 7th contender so she would be the benefactor of a Poehler snub.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Claire Danes, Homeland
2. Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
3. Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
4. Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men (+1)
5. Kerry Washington, Scandal (-1)
6. Keri Russell, The Americans (RE-ENTRY)

With so much category placement confusion early on there has been a lot left up in the air in this category until recently. Elisabeth Moss was finally confirmed in lead so she will become the 4th lock of the category. However, Elizabeth McGovern was confirmed in supporting, which opens up a spot in this category. Expect Keri Russell's acclaimed performance on The Americans to slip in as the 6th nominee. Although, if House of Cards really catches on it will be Robin Wright garnering the nomination instead.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
2. Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals
3. Helen Mirren, Phil Spector
4. Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake
5. Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
2. Ty Burrell, Modern Family
3. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
4. Ed O'Neill, Modern Family
5. Will Arnett, Arrested Development
6. Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
2. Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
3. Sam Waterston, The Newsroom
4. Jonathan Banks, Breaking Bad
5. Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
6. Jim Carter, Downton Abbey

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Rob Lowe, Behind the Candelabra (+2)
2. James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum (-1)
3. Peter Mullan, Top of the Lake (-1)
4. Michael Gambon, Restless
5. Zachary Quinto, American Horror Story: Asylum

All of the buzz surrounding Behind the Candelabra has been saying Rob Lowe has a scene-stealing performance. That and his long history in TV should make him an instant frontrunner.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Julie Bowen, Modern Family
2. Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
3. Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory
4. Allison Williams, Girls
5. Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory
6. Zosia Mamet, Girls

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
2. Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
3. Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
4. Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
5. Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey (NEW)
6. Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones (NEW)

Elizabeth McGovern was submitted in this category instead of the lead category. That should set her up with an interesting battle for a nomination with her own co-star, Joanne Froggatt. Both actresses could score nominations (Downton Abbey did get 2 nominations in this category last year), but I just don't see it happening as of now. Instead, I think the last spot goes to Emilia Clarke, who is breaking out as a major celebrity in a similar fashion to Peter Dinklage during season 1. Others who can break in are former winner Archie Panjabi and the one contender in the category from last year's Best Drama Series winner, Morena Baccarin.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Holly Hunter, Top of the Lake (+2)
2. Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals (-1)
3. Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Asylum (-1)
4. Alfre Woodard, Steel Magnolias
5. Imelda Staunton, The Girl

The first 3 actresses are locks. After that the category really thins out. Alfre Woodard is an Emmy favorite and Imelda Staunton is a beloved character actress so I'm going with those two.

BEST DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
1. 30 Rock
2. Louie
3. Girls (+1)
4. Modern Family (-1)
5. The Office

One of the first signs of a possible upset brewing in the Best Comedy Series category is if Modern Family misses out in this category.

BEST DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
1. Breaking Bad
2. Homeland
3. House of Cards
4. The Newsroom
5. Boardwalk Empire

BEST DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Behind the Candelabra
2. Top of the Lake
3. Phil Spector
4. Parade's End (NEW)
5. The Big C: Hereafter

It seems like HBO isn't putting much support behind Mary and Martha so even with a name director in Phillip Noyce it can still miss in this category.

BEST DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SERIES
1. Saturday Night Live
2. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
3. The Colbert Report
4. Late Show With David Letterman
5. Portlandia

BEST WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
1. Modern Family
2. 30 Rock
3. Girls
4. Louie
5. The Mindy Project

BEST WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
1. Homeland (+1)
2. Mad Men (-1)
3. The Newsroom
4. Downton Abbey
5. Breaking Bad

Homeland's "Q+A" has been getting major buzz in this category while this season of Mad Men has the perception of being a bit of a disappointment early on.

BEST WRITING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Phil Spector
2. Behind the Candelabra
3. Top of the Lake
4. Parade's End
5. Political Animals

BEST WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES
1. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
2. The Colbert Report
3. Saturday Night Live
4. Jimmy Kimmel Live
5. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Community: Season 4 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

When Dan Harmon’s contract to remain as the showrunner of Community was not renewed by NBC and Sony Television it sent a wave of disappointment throughout the world of TV journalism. In its first three seasons, Community was the vision of Harmon. It was a complicated vision that was able to balance complex storylines with comedy. As such it was a vision that could not easily be replicated. Still the show went on, and for its fourth season NBC and Sony Television hired Moses Port and David Guarascio to run the show. The result was easily one of the most inconsistent and controversial seasons in television history.

The fourth season of Community follows the continuing adventures of the study group at Greendale Community College. With many of the group members coming close to finishing their time at the college, Jeff (Joe McHale) looks ahead to a life in which he can be a lawyer again. In terms of the creative team, David Guarascio and Moses Port (whose only work as showrunners previous to this was on the short-lived Aliens in America) found themselves in charge of one of the most beloved shows in recent years while Tristream Shapeero led the directing team.

With the “firing” of Dan Harmon being handled in anything but a smooth fashion, there was no way that this season was going to come out of the gate swinging. Even with a long-time writer for the show, Andy Borow, penning the season premiere, the episode (and many of the following episodes) felt like it was missing that extra something despite following the same format as previous seasons. Sure there were some highlights where it seems like Guarascio and Port recaptured Harmon’s lightning in a bottle (the Halloween-centric “Paranormal Parentage” for instance), but they were few and far between in the early goings of season four. Ultimately, the savior of season four came from a source that should have been quite obvious. While Jim Rash is mainly known as the cross-dressing Dean Pelton, he also happens to be an Academy Award-winning screenwriter. Fortunately for us, Guarascio and Port finally realized how much of an asset he could be and had him pen the antepenultimate episode of the season where Rash used a Freaky Friday premise to hit some creative and emotional highs for the series. The entire show also seemed to gain momentum from the episode as it finished the season off strong.

While the writing for the show was inconsistent as ever, the one thing that made the show easy to come back to was one of television’s most reliable ensembles. It’s really hard to single out any of the cast members as the highlight at this point as they are all equally integral to the ensemble (even Chevy Chase in a reduced role), but episodes involving alternate-personalities and body-swappings really just go to show how each and every cast member can knock an episode out of the park.

The fourth season of Community is ultimately its weakest. Dan Harmon left a huge wake behind in his absence and the season hit quite a few lows for the series. Yet even in those lows is one of the best casts on television at its center.

7/10

Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:34:00 +0000

The Hallmark Channel continued its movie series last weekend with Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story just in time for the NHL Playoffs. While the movie begins effectively as it introduces you to the life of a hockey player, it quickly loses all steam as the movie abandons character development for poorly constructed hockey game scenes.

Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story follows Gordie Howe (played by Michael Shanks), the legendary hockey player for the Detroit Red Wings, as he enters the twilight days of his career. With his two sons (played by Dylan Playfair and Andrew Herr) getting ready to start their own careers, Gordie Howe decides to jump to the newly established league, the World Hockey Association, to play with his sons and causes a wave of controversy and heated rivalries. The movie is directed by Andy Mikita (a Canadian TV director who worked on many of the Stargate series) and is written by Malcolm MacRury (a TV writer whose most prominent work is a few episodes on Deadwood).

Early on in this TV movie, Andy Mikita and Malcolm MacRury do a quite effective job of not only creating an interesting character out of Gordie Howe but also using him as a mechanism to introduce the viewer into the world of hockey. As somewhat of a newbie myself to the history of hockey I found the drama surrounding the creation of the World Hockey Association and the NHL’s response to it to be informative and interesting. Yet Mikita and MacRury never sacrifice character development in the process. Unfortunately, we then get to the part of the film where the characters begin playing games. The action in the rink is poorly shot and the character development becomes more in line with Hallmark movie quality (clichéd and almost non-existent).

Michael Shanks is a solid lead and tries his hardest to keep the movie afloat in the second half. When he fails to do so, it still doesn’t take away from the charming performance he gave in the first half of the movie. Kathleen Robertson is also good as Gordie Howe’s wife even if her importance to the plot disappears midway through. Unfortunately, the younger actors don’t fair so well. Dylan Playfair and Andrew Herr don’t leave much of an impression and Emma Grabinsky as Gordie Howe’s daughter is downright terrible (although the script gives her no help).

The above average writing and directing in the first half of Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story ultimately falters in the abysmal second half.

6.5/10

Ben-Hur Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:48:00 +0000

With countless adaptations in both film and television (including the 1959 film that ended up winning a record 11 Academy Awards), Ben-Hur has to be one of the most famous tales out there. Yet it’s really not that impressive of a story. Sure it’s large in scope and it includes an epic tale of revenge with appearances from Jesus Christ interwoven in. However, it chooses to explore spectacle instead of exploring the ideas of revenge and forgiveness. This shallow storytelling would seem to be severely exposed in a television adaptation where the budgets aren’t large enough to do spectacle on a grand scale. Yet the latest miniseries that just premiered on little-seen channel Ovation is a decent adaptation. Instead of trying to come up with a grand adaptation, the miniseries goes for a much shallower interpretation that is heavy on violence and sexuality. In other words, it knows exactly what it is.

Ben-Hur is the tale of Judah Ben Hur (The Vampire Diaries’ Joseph Morgan), a Jewish man who is betrayed by his best friend and is sent into slavery. When he escapes, Ben Hur’s long journey towards revenge includes action, romance and a few encounters with Jesus Christ (Julian Casey). The two-part miniseries is directed by Steve Shill (Emmy Ward winning director of Dexter) and is written by Alan Sharp (screenwriter of the Liam Neeson film, Rob Roy).

One of the first things you will notice about this miniseries is that it is a lot sillier than the dead serious (and most famous version of the story) 1959 film. This ends up being the miniseries’ greatest strength as it takes a story that really doesn’t have that much depth and gives it a visual style that sees the story as such. This miniseries is much more in the style of STARZ’s Spartacus series than in the epic films of old and director Steve Shill is surprisingly able to make it work. Shill is also able to mine some spectacle and scale from his seemingly small budget. While the infamous chariot scene doesn’t quite work so well, Shill shows mastery of large-scale scenes with the ship battle in the first episode. The visual effects are quite good for television and Shill finds a way to keep the tension running.

The cast is also strong even if Joseph Morgan as Ben Hur isn’t quite so effective. Morgan can’t find a way to bring some flair to the character of Ben Hur and his story of revenge never becomes particularly interesting because of it. Instead the weight of making that storyline interesting falls upon Stephen Campbell Moore. Moore’s Octavius Messala is easily the most complex character in this version of this story. While that is mostly due to the writing, Moore shows himself to be a suitable portrayer throughout Messala’s complete arc. Some of the bigger names in the cast include Emily VanCamp (in a solid performance as Esther), Hugh Bonnevile (hamming it up as Pontius Pilate) and Ray Winstone (one of the better performances in the miniseries as a Roman general). Out of the lesser-known actors Lucia Jimenez gives the strongest performance as a lover of Ben Hur.

While ultimately not as good as the 1959 film, Ben-Hur finds a way to remain fresh by showing the source material for exactly what it is.

8/10

The Bletchley Circle Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:34:00 +0000

While Downton Abbey is getting all of the attention, PBS has quietly reinforced itself as a go to place for quality dramas. Sherlock has a huge cult following and many of the other series PBS airs as part of their Masterpiece series have been able to feature actors on the verge of breaking out (Eddie Redmayne had appeared in a few programs right before his Les Miserables breakout). Recently, PBS has had such a plethora of programming that they have been airing dramas outside of their Masterpiece headline. Call the Midwife started that trend this past fall and now it has been continued by The Bletchley Circle, a 3-part series that just concluded its run this past Sunday. As a period piece The Bletchley Circle is quite effective as it realistically goes into creating a post-World War II England atmosphere. Unfortunately, The Bletchley Circle has higher ambitions. As the crime drama that it wants to be, The Bletchley Circle isn’t as effective in its struggle to create any sort of tension.

The Bletchley Circle follows four female codebreakers who decide that the police aren’t doing enough to solve a series of horrific murders against women. The series follows their investigation into finding the perpetrator. The series is created and entirely written by Guy Burt (a writer on The Borgias) while it is entirely directed by Andy De Emmoy (an acclaimed British TV director who has yet to really cross overseas with his work).

Guy Bart and Andy De Emmoy really struggled to get this show into its rhythm. Besides setting up the basic plot, nothing happens in the first episode. There is no flashy scene that pulls you in (the cold open is a dud), and there is very little in the way of character development. So the rest of the series spends time trying to catch up with its premise. It’s not until midway through the second episode (or in other words halfway through the entire series) that a sequence set on a train finally shows that this is a show with potential. Luckily, the writing and (especially) the directing improve from there (although not enough to completely save the series). While the big reveal is ultimately uninteresting the way that the aftermath of the reveal was filmed certainly is. Maybe if the show got a more experienced writer involved it would have had a chance at getting this story off of the ground faster.

The cast for this series is quite solid. The four lead actresses are of course the highlights. Special mention must be given to Anna Maxwell Martin, who is able to bring the most personality out of anyone in the cast to her determined heroine, and Sophie Rundle, who completely carries the already mentioned train sequence (which is the highlight of the series). The one downside to the cast is that the male roles are in many cases both poorly written and acted. The worst offender of this is Mark Dexter as the husband of Sophie Rundle’s character.

While too many programs already being available is the probable reason for The Bletchley Circle not appearing under the Masterpiece banner, the show certainly would have been a low tier Masterpiece program in terms of quality.

6.5/10

65th Primetime Emmy Predictions: Creative Art Emmys May Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

It has been a while since I did an update of the technical awards and other categories from the Creative Arts portion of the Primetime Emmys. What follows will be my last complete predictions update until after the official Emmy ballots are released on June 10.

BEST VARIETY SPECIAL

-Betty White's 2nd Annual 90th Birthday

-Kathy Griffin: Kennedie Center On-Hers

-The Kennedy Center Honors

-Louis C.K.: Oh My God

-Mel Brooks Strikes Back!

BEST GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

-Will Arnett, 30 Rock

-Matthew Broderick, Modern Family

-Nathan Lane, Modern Family

-James Marsden, 30 Rock

-Martin Short, Saturday Night Live

-Justin Timberlake, Saturday Night Live

BEST GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

-Andre Braugher, Law & Order: SVU

-Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife

-Walton Goggins, Sons of Anarchy

-John Noble, The Good Wife

-Matthew Perry, The Good Wife

-Jason Ritter, Parenthood

BEST GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

-Elizabeth Banks, Modern Family

-Kate Hudson, Glee

-Melissa McCarthy, Saturday Night Live

-Octavia Spencer, 30 Rock

-Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock

-Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

BEST GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

-Stockard Channing, The Good Wife

-Loretta Devine, Grey's Anatomy

-Jane Fonda, The Newsroom

-Jennifer Hudson, Smash

-Shirley MacLaine, Downton Abbey

-Martha Plimpton, The Good Wife

BEST DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

-66^th Annual Tony Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

-London 2012 Opening Ceremony

-Louis C.K.: Oh My God

BEST WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

-66^th Annual Tony Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-The Kennedy Center Honors

-Louis C.K.: Oh My God

-Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together For Autism Programs

BEST ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Bob’s Burgers

-Futurama

-The Penguins of Madagascar

-The Simpsons

-South Park

BEST ART DIRECTION FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-The Bible

-Mockingbird Lane

-Parade’s End

-Upstairs Downstairs

BEST ART DIRECTION FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES

-2 Broke Girls

-Hell’s Kitchen

-How I Met Your Mother

-Mike & Molly

-The Voice

BEST ART DIRECTION FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

-Boardwalk Empire

-Downton Abbey

-Game of Thrones

-Homeland

-Mad Men

BEST ART DIRECTION FOR VARIETY PROGRAMMING

-55^th Annual Grammy Awards

-66^th Annual Tony Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-Saturday Night Live

-The Voice

BEST CASTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

-30 Rock

-Episodes

-Girls

-Modern Family

-Nurse Jackie

BEST CASTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

-Boardwalk Empire

-Downton Abbey

-Game of Thrones

-Homeland

-The Newsroom

BEST CASTING FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-Behind the Candelabra

-The Big C: Hereafter

-Political Animals

-Steel Magnolias

BEST CHILDREN’S PROGRAM (NONFICTION)

-category predictions to be filled out in June

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

-Dancing With the Stars

-So You Think You Can Dance

-Smash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-Behind the Candelabra

-The Girl

-Political Animals

-Top of the Lake

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR REALITY PROGRAMMING

-The Amazing Race

-Project Runway

-Survivor

-Top Chef

-The Voice

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES

-2 Broke Girls

-Anger Management

-How I Met Your Mother

-Pair of Kings

-Two and a Half Men

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING

-Africa

-Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

-Mankind the Story of All of Us

-Whale Wars

-Witness

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

-Boardwalk Empire

-Breaking Bad

-Downton Abbey

-House of Cards

-Mad Men

BEST COMMERCIAL

-Budweiser

-Chrysler

-Macy’s

-Nike

-Toyota

BEST COSTUMES FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-Behind the Candelabra

-The Girl

-Parade’s End

-Upstairs Downstairs

BEST COSTUMES FOR A SERIES

-Boardwalk Empire

-The Borgias

-Downton Abbey

-Game of Thrones

-Glee

BEST CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA-ENHANCEMENT TO PROGRAM

-Conan

-Game of Thrones

-Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

BEST CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA-ORIGINAL

-Dirty Work

-Psych

-What’s Trending

BEST DIRECTING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING

-The Amazing Race

-Ethel

-Project Runway

-Top Chef

-Which Way is the Front Line From Here?: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

BEST EXCEPTIONAL MERIT IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING

-Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

-Which Way is the Front Line From Here?: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

-The World According to Dick Cheney

BEST HAIRSTYLING FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

-The Bible

-The Girl

-Phil Spector

BEST HAIRSTYLING FOR A MULTI-CAMERA PROGRAM

-Dancing With the Stars

-Saturday Night Live

-Victorious

-The Voice

BEST HAIRSTYLING FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

-The Americans

-Boardwalk Empire

-Downton Abbey

-Game of Thrones

-Mad Men

BEST HOST FOR A REALITY PROGRAM

-Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars

-Carson Daly, The Voice

-Phil Keoghan, The Amazing Race

-Jeff Probst, Survivor

-Ryan Seacrest, American Idol

BEST INFORMATIONAL PROGRAM

-category predictions to be filled out in June

BEST LIGHTING DIRECTION FOR A VARIETY SERIES

-Dancing With the Stars

-Jimmy Kimmel Live!

-Saturday Night Live

-So You Think You Can Dance

-The Voice

BEST LIGHTING DIRECTION FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

-55^th Annual Grammy Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show

-Rihanna 777

-Super Bowl Halftime Show

BEST MAKEUP FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-The Girl

-World Without End

BEST MAKEUP FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES

-The Big Bang Theory

-Dancing With the Stars

-How I Met Your Mother

-Saturday Night Live

-Victorious

BEST MAKEUP FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

-Game of Thrones

-Glee

-Mad Men

-True Blood

-Vikings

BEST MAIN TITLE DESIGN

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-Elementary

-House of Cards

-The Newsroom

-Vikings

BEST MULTI-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

-2 Broke Girls

-Anger Management

-The Big Bang Theory

-Hot in Cleveland

-How I Met Your Mother

BEST MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

-Coma

-The Girl

-Parade’s End

-Prep & Landing

-World Without End

BEST MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES

-30 Rock

-Africa

-The Borgias

-Downton Abbey

-House of Cards

BEST MUSIC DIRECTION

-The 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

-Christmas in Washington

-Great Performances

-The Kennedy Center Honors

BEST NONFICTION SERIES

-30 for 30

-Africa

-Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

-The Men Who Built America

-Witness

BEST NONFICTION SPECIAL

-Ethel

-Manhunt

-Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

-Which Way is the Front Line From Here?: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

-The World According to Dick Cheney

BEST ORIGINAL MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC

-Da Vinci’s Demons

-Elementary

-House of Cards

-Mr. Selfridge

-The Newsroom

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC AND LYRICS

-66^th Annual Tony Awards

-Community

-Family Guy

-Saturday Night Live

-Smash

BEST PICTURE EDITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING

-American Masters

-Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

-The Dust Bowl

-Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

-Which Way is the Front Line From Here?: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

BEST PICTURE EDITING FOR REALITY PROGRAMMING

-The Amazing Race

-Beyond Scared Straight

-Survivor

-Top Chef

-The Voice

BEST PICTURE EDITING FOR SHORT-FORM SEGMENTS AND SPECIALS

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-The 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

-The Colbert Report

-Jimmy Kimmel Live!

-Louis C.K.: Oh My God`

BEST PROSTHETIC MAKEUP FOR A PROGRAM

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-Game of Thrones

-Once Upon a Time

-Vikings

-The Walking Dead

BEST REALITY PROGRAM

-Antiques Roadshow

-Hoarders

-Mythbusters

-Shark Tank

-Undercover Boss

BEST SHORT-FORMAT ANIMATED PROGRAM

-Adventure Time

-Mad

-Phineas and Ferb

-Regular Show

-Robot Chicken

BEST SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

-30 Rock

-Arrested Development

-Girls

-Louie

-Modern Family

BEST SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

-Breaking Bad

-Homeland

-The Newsroom

BEST SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-Behind the Candelabra

-Coma

-Political Animals

-Top of the Lake

BEST SOUND EDITING FOR A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-The Bible

-Coma

-Last Resort

-World Without End

BEST SOUND EDITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING

-Africa

-The Amazing Race

-The Dust Bowl

-Mankind the Story of All of Us

-The Men Who Built America

BEST SOUND EDITING FOR A SERIES

-Breaking Bad

-Game of Thrones

-Homeland

-True Blood

-The Walking Dead

BEST SOUND MIXING FOR A HALF-HOUR SERIES

-30 Rock

-Modern Family

-The Office

-Parks and Recreation

-Weeds

BEST SOUND MIXING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE

-American Horror Story: Asylum

-The Bible

-Coma

-The Girl

-Political Animals

BEST SOUND MIXING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING

-Africa

-The Amazing Race

-Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

-The Dust Bowl

-Mankind the Story of All of Us

BEST SOUND MIXING FOR A ONE-HOUR SERIES

-Boardwalk Empire

-Game of Thrones

-Glee

-Homeland

-Person of Interest

BEST SOUND MIXING FOR A VARIETY PROGRAM

-55^th Annual Grammy Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-American Idol

-London 2012 Opening Ceremony

BEST SPECIAL CLASS PROGRAMS

-55^th Annual Grammy Awards

-66^th Annual Tony Awards

-70^th Annual Golden Globe Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-London 2012 Opening Ceremony

BEST SPECIAL CLASS-SHORT-FORMAT LIVE-ACTION ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS

-Childrens Hospital

-The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

-Newsreaders

-Parks and Recreation

-Web Therapy

BEST SPECIAL CLASS-SHORT-FORMAT NONFICTION PROGRAMS

-30 Rock

-DGA

-History Channel

-Jay Leno’s Garage

-Top Chef

BEST SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

-Falling Skies

-Game of Thrones

-Once Upon a Time

-Revolution

-The Walking Dead

BEST SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

-Boardwalk Empire

-The Borgias

-Hell on Wheels

-The Men Who Built America

-Vegas

BEST STUNT COORDINATION FOR A COMEDY/VARIETY SERIES

-Category predictions to be filled out in June

BEST STUNT COORDINATION FOR A DRAMA SERIES/MINISERIES/TV MOVIE

-Arrow

-Game of Thrones

-Grimm

-Southland

-Vikings

BEST TECHNICAL DIRECTION FOR A SERIES

-American Idol

-The Big Bang Theory

-Dancing With the Stars

-Jimmy Kimmel Live!

-Saturday Night Live

BEST TECHNICAL DIRECTION FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE/SPECIAL

-55^th Annual Grammy Awards

-85^th Annual Academy Awards

-London 2012: Opening Ceremony

-Super Bowl Halftime Show

BEST VOICE-OVER PERFORMANCE

-Futurama

-The Looney Tunes Show

-Robot Chicken

-The Simpsons

BEST WRITING FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING

-Africa

-American Experience

-American Masters

-Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

-The Dust Bowl

The Americans: Season 1 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:25:00 +0000

When it comes to prestigious cable channels it seems like FX is always left in the shadows of HBO. FX never even got the attention that AMC received for the brief time in which it was hailed as the heir apparent to HBO by television critics. That is a shame because it consistently provides quality programming like those other two channels. This past winter, The Americans, rather quietly debuted on FX. It brought a strong pedigree (Keri Russell in a lead role, Warrior director Gavin O’Conner directing the pilot, acclaimed character actress Margo Martindale in a heavily reoccurring role) but viewers and a place in pop culture never followed. That is a shame as The Americans is the best show to air on FX since the channel unceremoniously allowed DirectTV to scoop up Damages.

The Americans follows Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys respectively), two undercover KGB agents who pose as a married couple in the DC suburbs. As Ronald Reagan comes to power, Elizabeth and Philip find themselves in situations that seem to get more and more perilous especially with their neighbor (Noah Emmerich) being an FBI agent on the taskforce to find Russian agents. The series is run by Joe Weisberg (a former CIA agent who has done some screenwriting work on Damages and Falling Skies) and the directing team is led by Adam Arkin.

Consistency is a rare thing in television. Breaking Bad, for instance, is one of the very few shows that can consistently deliver a strong season, but every single episode of that show is in service to the overall plot meaning some episodes are more memorable than others. While The Americans certainly isn’t as good as Breaking Bad it may be the only show on television this past season to consistently deliver a strong episode. Joe Weisberg and company found the perfect mix of serialized and procedural elements for each episode (something fellow FX series Justified has always struggled with) resulting in a season of television that was always engaging.

However, the place where Weisberg and company really hit it big was with the portrayal of the main couple. At first, the decision to have Elizabeth be the “male” role and Philip be the “female” role seems gimmicky, but Weisberg found a way to make it seem natural. This resulted in what is easily the best portrayal of a marriage on television.

Of course this show couldn’t be as good as it is without the exemplary performances from its cast. Keri Russell delivers a tour-de-force performance as the stone cold Elizabeth. It is a well-written role but it requires a lot of work (a lot of physicality, the ability to portray emotions without the use of words and the ability to remain sympathetic in an irritatingly stoic performance) from Russell. She certainly delivers. While Matthew Rhys’ performance isn’t as showy as Russell’s, he remains a nice and necessary compliment to her performance. Noah Emmerich is also strong as the foil to the two leads and gets some good material around the halfway mark of the season when he begins to interact with a character played by Annet Mahendru. The other big performance in the supporting cast is from Emmy-winner Margo Martindale, who gets some big moments as the supervisor of the main characters towards the end of the season.

The Americans delivered one of the best debut seasons in recent memory. If Emmys nominations don’t follow it would be a crime.

9/10

Parks and Recreation: Season 5 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:09:00 +0000

With a season that masterfully played off of the frighteningly outrageous moments of the real-life GOP primary with its own election storyline, Parks and Recreation could only go down in quality with its fifth season. While Parks’ fifth season indeed was a let down there was still a lot to admire, and the show is definitely a long way away from losing its status as one of television’s premiere comedies, even if it couldn’t play off of the Obama-Romney election as well as it did the previous season.

The fifth season of Parks and Recreation followed Leslie Knope’s (Amy Poehler) first days in office as a Pawnee councilwoman. Other storylines that drew focus during the course of the season were Ron Swanson’s (Nick Offerman) continuing romance with Diane (played by Lucy Lawless), Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) trying to balance his work as a campaign manager in Washington DC and his relationship with Leslie, and Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) trying to figure out how she is ever going to get to be a mother. Greg Daniels left before the season started to takeover as the showrunner of The Office, which left Michael Schur as the sole showrunner of season five of Parks and Recreation. The directing team was led by Dean Holland.

With overwhelming odds working against Michael Schur and company in delivering a season that was on par with some of its predecessors, they did a pretty solid job in working against the odds. Sure, this season was ultimately disappointing as it lacked a season-long arc that was anywhere near as effective as Leslie’s election storyline and some actions by Leslie this season seemed to be a betrayal of her character (Leslie sold her soul, politically-speaking, not once but twice in order to get a bill passed this season, and this sudden reversal came out of nowhere both times). However, Schur and company were able to find some places within the show in which they could approve upon. The most prominent of these was with the use of its entire ensemble of characters. Parks and Recreation is considered to have one of the best ensembles on television, but that has just as much to do (if not more so) with the acting than the writing. In previous seasons, this shows got its biggest moments through Leslie and Ron (and sometimes the Andy-April duo). However, it seemed like the writing team took extra care this season to give everyone a solid storyline or two (including Ann, who has always been the most problematic character on the show).

The cast, of course, continues to do great work. Enough cannot be said about how great Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman are in their roles, and a weak link in this cast is nonexistent. However, some of the more surprising performances of the year were Rashida Jones (who really benefited from an actual storyline) and Jim O’Heir (who dominated his most centric episode to date in “Jerry’s Retirement”).

While not one of its more memorable seasons, season five of Parks and Recreation shows that this a series that is still going on strong.

8/10

Manhunt Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sat, 04 May 2013 21:21:00 +0000

This past winter Kathryn Bigelow’s hunt for Osama bin Laden film, Zero Dark Thirty, was receiving a lot of buzz (both for its critical acclaim and the torture controversy surrounding the film). So much so that it proved that there was only enough room for one hunt for bin Laden film on the market at the time as Manhunt (this time a documentary) made an under-the-radar debut at the Sundance Film Festival. It had its television premiere on HBO this past Wednesday. Ultimately, Manhunt is able to evade the trashiness of Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden but isn’t able to rise to the heights of Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award winning thriller.

Manhunt follows the CIA’s decades long hunt for Osama bin Laden with special focus on a group of women who focused on the man before the attacks on 9/11. The film is directed by documentarian Greg Barker.

It is difficult to not make comparisons between this film and Zero Dark Thirty. Both cover most of the same ground and even feature similar characters. However, the difference between the two is that Zero Dark Thirty is a sharply edited thriller interested in making a compelling story out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden whereas this film is a documentary interested with getting to the bottom of every single element of the hunt without having all of the information resulting in an oddly edited mess.

Manhunt is a much more wide-ranging film than it’s Oscar winning cousin as the starting point for Zero Dark Thirty is about halfway through this film. However, with a film that is very interested in talking about how Osama bin Laden was captured it never actually really shows how he was captured. The film opens with a shot of the now infamous compound in Abbottabad and explains how this film is going to show the entire process of capturing bin Laden. Yet the film pretty much wraps it up with the death of Jennifer Matthews at the hands of an Al-Qaeda triple agent in what is the film’s most horrifying and effective sequence. Missing almost completely is how the CIA was able to get to the courier and then to bin Laden.

Manhunt is a seemingly well-made documentary. However, all the CIA talking heads and ominous footage of actual terrorist attacks and propaganda can’t hide the fact that this is a film that laid out its thesis clearly and then didn’t deliver on it.

5/10

Iron Man Three Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Fri, 03 May 2013 23:52:00 +0000

The Marvel Cinematic Universe all began with the 2008 release of Iron Man (which is a film I don’t think any other in the series has eclipsed yet) and so for the beginning of the MCU’s Phase Two it just seemed right that they would turn back to the big metal guy and the lovable narcissist behind him to kick it all off. Iron Man Three (as it is written in the film) may not reach the heights of Iron Man but it is a strong conclusion to the Iron Man Trilogy.

Iron Man Three picks up with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in the aftermath of the events of The Avengers. Tony is a mess as he is suffering from PTSD from the battle with the Chitauri (the aliens from The Avengers). Matters only get worse when a scientist from his past (Guy Pearce) tries to court Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a terrorist going by the name of Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) begins to orchestrate bombings. Barely hanging in, Tony tries to find out how the Mandarin is orchestrating all of these attacks in order to stop him. The film is directed by Shane Black (who helped kick start Robert Downey Jr.’s comeback with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and is written by Black and Drew Pearce.

Kevin Feige (the mastermind producer behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe) once said in an interview that Phase Two is going to be about taking the characters we already know and putting them in different genres. While Iron Man Three is still a blockbuster action film in line with its predecessors, this is definitely a film that is a large step away from the norm for Iron Man films. Shane Black does a fantastic job in bringing a sense of freshness to the series without losing the things that make Iron Man great (funny banter masking the horrifying events that are only a step or two away from being from real life). Not only are these attributes amplified under the direction of Black (the film somehow finds a way to be the funniest and darkest of the trilogy) but they are added with the usual zaniness and crisp plotting of a Black film. Even when the plot doesn’t work (which only really happens in the third act where the film gets a bit bogged down in the Extremis plotline), Black is able to pull out all of the stops with the best action sequences in the entire trilogy (a mid-air evacuation of Air Force One and a final battle featuring multiple Iron Men are the highlights).

It has been obvious ever since he first appeared onscreen in the suit that the defining role of Robert Downey Jr.’s career would be Iron Man/Tony Stark. Here he takes his performance to the next level. Downey Jr. brings a sense of vulnerability to the role that we have never truly seen before in the character and the film’s idea to strip Tony Stark down to what he really is does wonders for Downey Jr. It is one of the best performances of his career, let alone the Iron Man series. Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, (the criminally underrated) James Badge Dale and (especially) Ben Kingsley do great work as the film’s antagonists while Don Cheadle does his best work yet in the series. The most surprising performance in the film, though, belongs to Ty Simpkins who is able to evade the problems normally associated with child performances. The one weak link of the cast turned out to be Gwyneth Paltrow, who can’t quite handle her upgraded role.

Iron Man Three concludes with an odd sense of finality. I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of Tony Stark (in fact the credits say as much), but this film is a fitting conclusion to the character if it is.

8/10

Hall of Fame Induction: Jaws

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

With the summer movie season officially beginning tonight with the release of Iron Man 3, it seemed like the right time to induct the first summer blockbuster ever into my Hall of Fame: Jaws.

Jaws

Release Date: June 20, 1975

Director: Steven Spielberg

Current Ranking in the Film Hall of Fame: 6

Academy Award Nominations: 4 (Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing)

Academy Award Wins: 3 (Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing)

The 5 Best Elements About This Film:

1. It's amazing that Steven Spielberg was almost fired during the making of this film because this is one of the best directed films in history. At its core, this film is just a monster movie but Spielberg more than makes the most of it. For those who claim that Spielberg is too safe a director to deserve the amount of respect he gets, just look to this film. It's Spielberg at his most creatively risky. The way he chose to shoot certain scenes (the attack on the boy at the beach is a master-class in thriller directing) and the way he decided to let certain scenes play out (the scene between the 3 men after dinner on the Orca is a master-class in how to direct actors) improves this film immensely.

2. When anyone thinks of Jaws the first thing that comes to mind is the "dun-dun....dun-dun....dun-dun" of John Williams iconic score. It's some of the most ingenious composing work on a film ever. However, what is really great about John Williams' score for this film is that the other tracks of the score work just as well (especially the quieter tracks during the sequences on the Orca).

3. Robert Shaw delivers one of the greatest performances ever as Quint. It's a fun and instantly memorable character. However, what really made this performance great is how expertly Shaw delivers his two big monologues. His USS Indianapolis monologue might be the more iconic one but his introductory monologue is just as great. Shaw also delivers one of the most horrifying death sequences ever. It was Shaw's blood curdling screams (not the pools of blood) that made that scene work.

4. One of the other biggest elements to Jaws' success is the Academy Award winning sound design. The key to a successful horror film is knowing just the right amount of silence to use. Jaws masters that technique and is perfectly able to counterbalance that silence with John Williams' loud score. Plus, you have to imagine a lot of ADR and other sound techniques were required to make the on-the-sea sequences work as well as they did.

5. One of the bigger criticisms (well maybe the only criticism) about this film nowadays is that Bruce (the animatronic shark used during the filmmaking process) looks fake. Yet, Spielberg and company do a fantastic job in hiding Bruce. Even on bluray the villainous shark still looks real. Why? Appearances from Bruce are kept to a minimum as the film relies on only small parts of the shark appearing on screen. When the shark does completely reveal itself, Spielberg and company still use other methods to make the shark look real. For instance, when the shark gets entangled in the shark cage, that's an actual shark and not the animatronic Bruce. The point I'm getting to is that the shark still looks real for the majority of the film and is a breath of fresh air from the constant reliance on CGI that is used nowadays.

65th Primetime Emmy Award Predictions: May Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Since the last update there have been a few major updates on the Emmy race. Those tidbits of info will be revealed in my latest round of predictions.

BEST DRAMA SERIES
1. Downton Abbey
2. Homeland
3. Mad Men
4. Breaking Bad
5. Game of Thrones
6. House of Cards (NEW)

I have been saying all along that the one thing that is stopping House of Cards from getting into the Drama Series race is a possible bias against Netflix programming (just remember how long it took for cable series to get their recognition). However, within the past week it has been quite clear that Netflix is doing everything possible to keep this show in the forefront of Emmy voters' minds (a panel about the show at the Academy HQ and a much-reported appearance by the cast at the White House Correspondents Dinner both occurred this past week). Now Netflix just needs to keep this momentum going with screeners for voters and a solid online and print FYC campaign. If that campaign at all falters watch out for The Newsroom (which seems to be getting a bigger push than even Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire from HBO).

BEST COMEDY SERIES
1. Modern Family
2. Girls
3. 30 Rock
4. The Big Bang Theory
5. Louie
6. Arrested Development

No change here but watch out for Veep if voters don't buy what Netflix is selling.

BEST MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Behind the Candelabra
2. Phil Spector
3. Top of the Lake (RE-ENTRY)
4. The Bible (-1)
5. American Horror Story: Asylum (-1)
6. Political Animals (-1)

People are still talking about Top of the Lake. While not many watched the Sundance Channel miniseries, the fact that it is sticking with these people means it should get just enough voters to vote it in for a nomination here. The top 4 in the category are in at least solid shape to get a nomination (although Top of the Lake and The Bible are not locks). However, the last 2 nomination spots can go to anything. American Horror Story: Asylum, The Girl, Parade's End, Political Animals and World Without End can all get a nomination. Not in contention anymore though are Mary and Martha (which was unceremoniously dumped with no advertising on a Saturday night by HBO revealing a lack of faith on their part) and Mr. Selfridge (which has been renewed for a second season and will now be competing in the Drama Series categories).

BEST REALITY COMPETITION SERIES
1. The Amazing Race
2. Top Chef
3. The Voice
4. Dancing With the Stars
5. So You Think You Can Dance
6. American Idol

No change here.

BEST VARIETY SERIES
1. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
2. The Colbert Report
3. Jimmy Kimmel Live
4. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
5. Saturday Night Live
6. Late Show With David Letterman

No change here.

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
2. Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
3. Louis C.K., Louie
4. Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
5. Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
6. Jason Bateman, Arrested Development

No change here.

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Damian Lewis, Homeland
2. Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
3. Jon Hamm, Mad Men
4. Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom (+1)
5. Kevin Spacey, House of Cards (-1)
6. Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire

With HBO putting most of its support behind The Newsroom, Jeff Daniels is approaching lock territory. If somebody else were to take one of the last two spots other than Spacey and Buscemi it would be either Michael C. Hall or one of the Downton Abbey men (Hugh Bonneville and Dan Stevens).

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Al Pacino, Phil Spector
2. Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
3. Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
4. Benedict Cumberbatch, Parade's End
5. Toby Jones, The Girl

Matt Damon has officially been confirmed for the lead acting category and all of the miniseries/movie acting categories have been reduced to 5 nominees so this very shallow field for Best Lead Actor in a Miniseries/Movie has at least become more interesting.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Lena Dunham, Girls
2. Tina Fey, 30 Rock
3. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
4. Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
5. Melissa McCarthy, Mike and Molly
6. Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

No Change here.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Claire Danes, Homeland
2. Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
3. Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
4. Kerry Washington, Scandal
5. Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men (RE-ENTRY)
6. Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey (-1)

This category is going to be an extremely difficult one to predict until we get confirmation that Elisabeth Moss is in fact submitting in this category.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
2. Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals
3. Helen Mirren, Phil Spector
4. Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake
5. Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter

It seems the last spot is between Linney, the Mary and Martha ladies (Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn) and Sienna Miller. Linney has major Emmy pedigree and her miniseries has a prime start date right before the end of the season where it is not so easy to be forgotten.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
2. Ty Burrell, Modern Family
3. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family (+1)
4. Ed O'Neill, Modern Family (-1)
5. Will Arnett, Arrested Development
6. Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live

It should be interesting to see which of the Arrested Development and Modern Family get in and whether enough get in to knock Bill Hader out of contention.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
2. Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
3. Sam Waterston, The Newsroom (+3)
4. Jonathan Banks, Breaking Bad (-1)
5. Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones (-1)
6. Jim Carter, Downton Abbey (NEW)

In a shocking move, Downton Abbey is not submitting Brendan Coyle for consideration. Co-star and fellow nominee Jim Carter should benefit from that but John Slattery and (hopefully) Corey Stoll could steal that final spot away.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum (+1)
2. Peter Mullan, Top of the Lake (NEW)
3. Rob Lowe, Behind the Candelabra (NEW)
4. Michael Gambon, Restless (+2)
5. Zachary Quinto, American Horror Story: Asylum (NEW)

With so many contenders and no standout (and the fact that this category was only re-established a few weeks ago), this category is going to be a hard one to predict. Mary and Martha revealed that James Wood doesn't have good enough of a performance to get in with that film despite seeming like a frontrunner for a time (although he can certainly still pull off a surprise nomination for his other miniseries, Coma). Peter Mullan has been getting some of the best notices out of anybody from Top of the Lake making him a sudden contender, while HBO thinks Rob Lowe is going to be the breakout supporting performance in Behind the Candelabra. Your guess is as good as mine with the rest of the category though.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
1. Julie Bowen, Modern Family (+1)
2. Sofia Vergara, Modern Family (-1)
3. Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory
4. Allison Williams, Girls
5. Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory
6. Zosia Mamet, Girls

It seems like it's going to be "you vote one in, you have to vote the other in too" with the Girls girls. Also, I think the fact that Kaley Cuoco has been involved in so many other television productions over the past few years would have won her enough friends to get her a nomination for a show that the Academy loves.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
1. Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
2. Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
3. Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
4. Christine Baranski, The Good Wife (+1)
5. Morena Baccarin, Homeland (+1)
6. Joanne Froggatt, Downton Abbey (NEW)

With Elisabeth Moss submitting in lead for the time being, there is a lot more intrigue put into this category. Maggie Smith, Anna Gunn and Christina Hendricks are the only locks while other names in the mix (besides the ones listed in the predictions) include former winner Archie Panjabi, Kate Mara, Emilia Clarke and the Newsroom women (Pill and Munn).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals
2. Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Asylum
3. Holly Hunter, Top of the Lake
4. Alfre Woodard, Steel Magnolias
5. Imelda Staunton, The Girl

No change here.

BEST DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
1. 30 Rock
2. Louie
3. Modern Family
4. Girls
5. The Office

BEST DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
1. Breaking Bad
2. Homeland
3. House of Cards
4. The Newsroom
5. Boardwalk Empire

BEST DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Behind the Candelabra
2. Top of the Lake
3. Phil Spector
4. Mary and Martha
5. The Big C: Hereafter

BEST DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SERIES
1. Saturday Night Live
2. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
3. The Colbert Report
4. Late Show With David Letterman
5. Portlandia

BEST WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
1. Modern Family
2. 30 Rock
3. Girls
4. Louie
5. The Mindy Project

BEST WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
1. Mad Men
2. Homeland
3. The Newsroom (+1)
4. Downton Abbey (-1)
5. Breaking Bad

BEST WRITING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE
1. Phil Spector
2. Behind the Candelabra
3. Top of the Lake (+1)
4. Parade's End (-1)
5. Political Animals

BEST WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES
1. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
2. The Colbert Report
3. Saturday Night Live
4. Jimmy Kimmel Live
5. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Mary and Martha Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Every year around this time HBO normally schedules one or two TV movies in order to get prime attention for Emmy recognition. Oddly, HBO decided to go away from that formula with its latest TV movie, Mary and Martha. It probably should have been a warning sign when HBO scheduled this movie for a random Saturday Night (instead of the Sunday or holiday nights that HBO’s late spring TV movies are set for) with little promotion at all. Upon watching this film it became obvious why it received such a muted treatment. This is a film that may have some big names in front of the camera and a solid director at the helm, but none of that can save the film from an awful script.

Mary and Martha follows Mary (played by Hilary Swank) as she gets bored with her normal life and decides to move with her son (played by Lux Haney-Jardine) to Africa. While there they decide to take a trip to Mozambique where the son is bitten by a mosquito and dies of malaria. Back in the United States, Mary decides to try and get Congress to act on malaria prevention. She finds help from Martha (played by Brenda Blethyn) whose son (played by Sam Claflin) also recently died from malaria while he was teaching at a school in Mozambique. The movie is directed by Phillip Noyce (a thriller director whose most recent film was Salt) and is written by Richard Curtis (the acclaimed screenwriter behind such films as Love Actually).

I really don’t know what happened with Richard Curtis while writing this movie, but this is clearly his worst work to date. This is Lifetime “movie of the week” level writing. The dialogue is awful and the plot quickly goes from an interesting portrayal of an important issue to a sappy and desperate cry for help. Phillip Noyce tries his best to zap some energy into the film. While the Africa sequences are nicely done, the film completely falls apart when it gets to the Congress hearing scenes where Noyce can’t combat the script and such a dreary setting.

Even the actors can’t emerge unscathed from the scripting issues. Hilary Swank (who has delivered fantastic performances in the past) can never get a read on her character, resulting in some particularly cringe-worthy scenes in the mid-section of the film. Frank Grillo delivers a solid performance as the husband of Hilary Swank’s character, but he too often is silenced by Swank’s louder performance. The two performances that actually did seem interesting in this film aren’t even given time to develop. Brenda Blethyn has one throwaway scene in the opening half of the film before her character is suddenly thrust into the main plotline while Sam Claflin (who has never shown even a glimpse of talent in either Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Snow White & the Huntsman) actually shows some promise (and gives hope that he can pull off Finnick Odair in the upcoming Hunger Games film) before he exits the film’s plot off-screen early on.

A loaded cast and a solid director are let down by a sappy and faulty script in Mary and Martha.

5/10

Vikings: Season 1 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Normally a network or cable channel’s first foray into developing a scripted series is a failure. You can’t expect a channel to get it right on the first try. However, that is not the case with the History Channel and their first scripted series ever, Vikings. It seems History Channel smartly followed the lead of AMC. AMC first aired Broken Trail, a miniseries that put their foot in the door for scripted programming, before premiering their first scripted series, Mad Men. Similarly, the History Channel aired Hatfields & McCoys last year to solid reviews and gargantuan ratings and it was right about that time when production on Vikings began. Vikings introduces itself as a series that lives up to its title. It’s a gorgeously produced series with many fight scenes and an interesting portrayal of Viking culture. However, as the series moves on, it seems something happened. The show somehow even became more confident of itself and offered us one of the best series of the season.

Vikings follows Ragnar Lodbrok (played by Travis Fimmel), an ambitious Viking who wants to travel West despite the repeated warnings from his local Earl (played by Gabriel Byrne) not to. The series is run by Michael Hirst (who was also the showrunner behind The Tudors) and is directed by Johan Renck, Ciaran Donnelly and Ken Girotti.

Michael Hirst is no beginner to the history fiction genre. However, his previous foray into television, The Tudors, was a bit of a dud. Covering such a famous figure in Henry VIII, the show seemed to be attached to certain plot elements, which resulted in a fatally incohesive pace. Even worse was that the show somehow found a way to be visually unappealing. Hirst seemed to have learned a lot from that show as Vikings doesn’t falter in these aspects. While based off of a real figure, a lot is left up to interpretation in terms of Ragnar (so much so that his motives become ambiguous to a fault at times) meaning the show can go where it wants to in terms of narrative. Hirst and company take advantage of this and take the show into some surprising places early on. “Burial of the Dead”, for instance, has enough twists and turns to feel like a series finale (let alone just the 6^th episode in a 9 episode first season). Also beneficial to the show is the fact that the directing team really exploits the Northern Ireland landscape to the best of their ability. This is one of the most visually stunning shows on television.

The cast of the show definitely isn’t the highlight, but there really isn’t a weak link within it either. Travis Fimmel is solid as the lead, but it seems he could really handle the character better if the writing made his motives clearer. Meanwhile, Katheryn Winnick benefits greatly as a female lead that the writers take time and care to develop. The standout of the cast, though, is Gabriel Byrne. Byrne is a menacing force and he handles the surprising places the writing takes his character quite well.

Vikings is one of the best new shows of the season due to a writing team that has finally learned how to take chances.

8.5/10

The 80s: The Decade That Made Us Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:02:00 +0000

National Geographic has gotten a bit ambitious with their slate of programming this past TV season. This can most be seen in the fact that they finally delved into the scripted department with two TV movies (Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden and Killing Lincoln). While these movies weren’t exactly good, they did draw in strong ratings and were able to attract some talent (Tom Hanks hosted some segments of the latter film and also narrated it). So you would think the National Geographic Channel would want to go out with a bang with their final TV event of the season. However, that thought would be completely wrong as The 80s: The Decade That Made Us turned out to be a miniseries that would seem to be more at home on MTV. The 80s: The Decade That Made Us is a poorly produced miniseries that would rather cover some of the 1980s’ biggest events in barebones terms and in the brightest light possible (as if nothing bad ever happened during the decade).

The 80s: The Decade That Made Us covers most of the major events of the 1980s in the realms of politics, entertainment, fashion and global events. All of this is interlaced with thoughts from some of the most popular people of the decade while the miniseries as a whole is narrated by Rob Lowe.

Creatively speaking this docu-miniseries is pretty bad. The program is split into a few episodes that have titles, which gives the impression that they our edited around certain subjects. However, the program just bounces around from subject to subject without any rudder guiding it. Even worse is that this program gives a basic and glamorized version of the 1980s. Just look at its segment on the AIDS epidemic. It certainly explains how bad the epidemic was, but it quickly goes out of its way to turn one event where a kid with AIDS fought against his school in order attend classes into a heroic defeat of all of the epidemic’s problems. It gives the impression that real progress was made with AIDS during this decade when in reality that didn’t happen until the early 90s.

Rob Lowe is fine as the narrator but that may be just because there are far worse problems on this program than his narration. However, the fact that this program tried to get as many celebrities as possible to comment on the program reveals The 80s: The Decade That Made Us for what it truly is: A program with a shiny cover but nothing at its core.

5/10

Remember Sunday Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan Fernand) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:48:00 +0000

Over the past decade the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie series has bounced around from network to network as ratings have spiraled towards irrelevancy. In its current form it gets a decent amount of viewers on ABC (where it has been since 2011), but most of those viewers are out of the 18-49 demo meaning it is a train wreck in the ratings. In an age where niche shows can compete on multiple cable channels and the amount of things that are considered taboo on television are quickly dwindling, it seems like the type of schmaltzy storytelling that is typical of the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies would be on its way out. The series’ latest installment, Remember Sunday, certainly isn’t going to save the series, but it does help that the movie stars capable actors in Zachary Levi and Alexis Bledel. While this isn’t a good TV movie, Levi and Bledel bring enough charm to make the movie bearable.

Remember Sunday follows a down on her luck waitress (Alexis Bledel) who meets an employee at a jewelry store clerk who suffers from memory loss after he has a brain aneurysm (Zachary Levi) and the romance that ensues between the two. The movie is directed by Jeff Bleckner (a veteran TV actor that can trace his acclaimed roots back to Hill Street Blues) and is written by Barry Morrow (the Oscar winning screenwriter behind Rain Man) and Michael Kase (a stunt performer making his writing debut).

Considering the amount of talent behind the camera I expected a bit more out of this movie creatively. For a while this movie seems as if it’s more than your typical Hallmark Hall of Fame movie as it shows that life can change for the worst in an instant. However, it quickly abandons those thoughts as it follows the typical route of any romantic film. I guess this movie can be considered better than your typical film of its ilk, but those early scenes aren’t enough to carry the entire film and with so much talent on board the movie should have strived to be better than it is.

The only part of the movie that is truly better than it should be is the cast. Alexis Bledel and (especially) Zachary Levi carry the film through some bad dialogue and the terrible clichés of the romance genre. Both actually try their hardest to create a three-dimensional character and get pretty close to doing so. Larisa Oleynik and Merritt Wever also do solid work in supporting roles.

While Remember Sunday is ultimately grounded by its Hallmark Hall of Fame roots, it gets very close in getting away from them.

6.5/10