Results tagged “showtime”

As we know, last night had the excellent season finale of "Bored to Death" which we gave you a sneak peek of but it also had the finale of the multi-Emmy winning "Mad Men" on AMC. "Mad Men" generally had a great season with only a couple sleepy episodes but the finale was incredible. Maybe Don is finally free of Betty but the plight of the kids had our female viewing party members crying with most feeling that Don was much better off without "that crazy Betty". What will keep us pining for the next season is the momentum that was built up with what was ostensibly the launch of a start-up '60s-style. Summer of 2010 can't come too soon.

Halloween Weekend Edition You will have plenty of Halloween options starting tonight with CBS covering all bases with "NUMB3RS", "Medium" and "Ghost Whisperer" (fans of the last two should check out this "Spirit of Friday Night" website) but don't forget oldies but goodies like Psycho on TCM at 9pm. Tomorrow there will be Halloween fare all over the place with scary movies on IFC, TCM, and AMC which will be running Night of the Living Dead back to back from 6pm until midnight. You can always check out Martha Stewart's TV options or consider one of these "True Blood" jack-o-lantern stencils for last-minute Halloween ideas.

On Friday we talked quite a bit about tonight's premiere of the documentary "Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)" on IFC but we don't want that to totally eclipse your other options this evening: "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Bored to Death", "Californication", "Mad Men", and, of course, "Dexter". Thankfully, these are all repeated at some point during the week but with "Dexter" there is a special twist this season as avid watchers can field questions posted on the "Dexter" Facebook page or Twitter feed and answer them at "Dexter's Follow the Code".

Weekend Edition The world watches an empty balloon that could be part of a stunt to get a reality show, hmmm, that makes us think that this particularly family could easily head down the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" route - and whoops, TLC is now suing Jon Gosselin. Unless there is some kind of massive intervention, nothing will end well for anyone in that family.

What we effed up: Not Tivoing "Mad Men" so we're watching it later tonight. Not that you can spoil it for us since it will probably involve Don jumping in the sack with yet another woman, some new account or other work crisis, and Betty doing something risque. We're not saying that the show is predictable or boring because these are major plot points for almost any show and what makes "Mad Men" special is the style and delivery. Cheers.

"South Park" returns for a new season tonight and if you've got Xbox, they're launching a "South Park" game today as well. Season 13 will feature a hidden alien in each episode and if you find them all, you can enter to be a "South Park Citizen" and have your animated countenance to appear in a Season 14 episode.

Weekend Edition Why are we saying that Showtime takes Sunday night? Look at the scheduling. "Mad Men", while a darling of the critics (oursElvis included), has been even more slow-paced than usual this season and will be winding up soon. HBO has "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and the admirable "Bored To Death", but they are personality-driven comedies that almost require you to be a fan of Larry David and Jason Schwartzman, and while we are fans of theirs a comedy can't hold a stick to the visceral and compelling (and humorous in its own right) "Dexter" in the same time slot. Thank goodness for HBO OnDemand so that I can watch "Curb" and "Bored" later.

Red Carpet interviews at the Family Guy Pre-Emmy Bash at the Avalon from Thomas Attila Lewis on Vimeo.

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email.

Unless you are a basketball or baseball fan, this weekend's options are kind of slim - feel free to sift through our picks - what are you going to watch? If it's not on our list, let us know and we'll talk about it.

The Internet is abuzz today with promotion of HBO's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" to air this Sunday. Some writer's are pointing out that the show doesn't address any of the problems going on in Africa these days (AIDS, war, famine, rape, pillaging of natural resource) - instead it depicts a laid-back and idyllic place with only quaint soap opera-esque concerns.

Tonight marks the end of "Battlestar Galactica", for about 20 years until the geeks of the future resurrect it like they did the now-campy 1970s version. Some have complained that this final season swung the show onto a science-fiction track that was too science-fiction-y but the show had to return to its roots, its core, before wandering off into the cosmos.

The TV highlight of the week occurred last night with the appearance of CNBC's Jim Cramer on "The Daily Show". Jon Stewart trotted out several video clips of Cramer pontificating about how to game and mislead the markets and how rewarding it is to do so. A lot of footage was cut in order to fit the show's 1/2-hour format so if you missed the airing and/or want to see the entire interview, you can get it all at "The Daily Show".

Sunday @ 10pm features the return of AMC's incredible series, "Breaking Bad", with Bryan Cranston (pictured, right) as Walt White, the terminally-ill high school science teacher-turned meth cooker. We've been eagerly waiting for this show to resume and AMC has done a great job whetting our appetite with their sneak webisodes and other promos. Since the other stuff we like to watch on Sunday's @ 10pm are available on-demand, this is one of our prime picks of the weekend.

Tonight marks the last broadcast of Conan O'Brien on "Late Night..." and what a ride it's been. From being a virtual unknown in front of the camera, O'Brien is now a staple of late night television. O'Brien's resurrection of NBC's "Late Night" after the departure of David Letterman to CBS was not easy and the first few years were very tenuous ones for the wild haired funnyman. With support from Lorne Michaels, O'Brien was given enough time to build an audience, something almost unheard of these days.

Controversial contestant Joanna Pacitti has finally been pulled from "American Idol" after it was revealed that she had friendships with multiple executives with "Idol" co-producer 19 Entertainment. For fans of the show who couldn't believe that she had made the cut after performing poorly and fumbling lyrics to several songs during the Hollywood rounds of auditions, it will be assumed that she had moved ahead due to these personal relationships and not merit.

This December, online video viewing surged over 13%, DigitalMediaWire says:

A lot of our sport fan/fiend friends are convinced that this Sunday's Super Bowl event will be a boring blow out - "the Cardinals will win how?" is oft heard. But for a lot of media dorks, ourselves included, the Super Bowl is all about the ads. We already know that GoDaddy and PETA have had their ads denied (as must have been planned for). Adweek's Barbara Lippert analyzes past Super Bowl commercial foibles as well as a list of all expected advertisers for XLIII. On Saturday, CBS also takes a trip down memory lane with a program on the "best" commercials of years past.

Congratulations to the brave and strong-hearted mother who gave birth today to six boys and two girls weighing between 1.8 pounds and 3.4 pounds, according to the Associated Press. It all happened between 10:43 a.m. to 10:48 a.m. Yes, that's five minutes, eight babies. Apparently, this is the second time in history live octuplets have been born. Congrats, again, to the family!

This Sunday is the SAG awards and while we're excited that there (probably) won't be a strike any time soon we're even more excited to be covering the SAG awards from the red carpet to the winners. Follow our posts here on Sunday or this Twitter feed as we'll be taking photos and posting them from around 3:30pm Pacific until whenever the event wraps up.

A lot of programs return to or make their premiere on premium cable this Sunday including: "Big Love", "The L Word", "The United States of Tara", and "Secret Diary of a Call Girl". What we most eagerly anticipate is the season premiere of "Flight of the Conchords". The pair of musicians and their hapless manager, all hailing from New Zealand, might not have made a second season due to low viewership but their cult like following gave us one more. So enjoy every episode like a smooth New Zealand Merlot, savor it, because this might be their last run, on HBO at least.

What's all this about Jeremy Piven dropping out of David Mamet's Broadway play, "Speed-the-Plow" due to a high mercury count from eating too much sushi? Mamet expressed doubts about the diagnosis.

It's official, Sean Hannity is the only entity that ever existed on "Hannity and Colmes". Alan Colmes has left the show and will not be replaced but he was always treated as either invisible or a punching bag. When watching the show, it was amazing to note that Hannity would either shout Colmes down or Colmes' microphone would seem to get magically weaker. If we were naive we could hope that this is a harbinger of the death of this kind of programming but look at the political entities we are dealing with.

Don't forget to check out today's LAist interview with Academy Award-winning actor, Timothy Hutton, whose new show, "Leverage", premieres on Sunday @ 10pm on TNT.

This Sunday night at 8pm brings the premiere of "Britz" (pictured, right) on BBC America. "Britz" is a thriller featuring two young British Muslims, each pulled in different directions by personal experiences in post 9/11 Britain. This drama asks (perhaps a year or two late) whether the laws we think are making us safer, are actually putting us in greater danger.

A couple season finales happen this Sunday on HBO. Ironically, "True Blood" finishes its first season on the weekend that the film "Twilight" premieres. Somehow the hype machine has ensured that "Twilight" will be a big hit this weekend even though it is nothing more than a teen romance movie with marginal acting and poor writing. In contrast, "True Blood" has been a rollercoaster with some great character development and performances, ensuring that we will eagerly await its return.

Looks like "60 Minutes" scored the first post-election interview with President-elect Barack Obama - it will air on Sunday at 7:00pm on CBS.

Looks like HBO will buy a documentary on president-elect Barack Obama and will air it in 2009. The documentary was produced by actor Edward Norton's production company, Class 5 Films, and was bought "in the seven-figure range". A nice bet by Norton paid off evidently.

Senator Barack Obama's Wednesday night appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" scored the show's biggest audience ever. Let's see what tonight's appearance by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin does for ABC's "20/20" as well as tomorrow night's Senator John McCain cameo effect on NBC's "Saturday Night Live".

It's a Jon Hamm/"Mad Men" weekend: on Saturday, the man who plays Don Draper will be hosting "Saturday Night Live" and Sunday brings us the season finale of the mult-Emmy-winning show from AMC. Both are a must watch.