Television
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Thompson on Hollywood1 commentlike0tweet0
WATCH: Gory Clip from Netflix's 'Hemlock Grove' Shows Werewolf Transformation
Gore alert! It should come as no surprise, coming from gorehound Eli Roth ("Grindhouse," "Hostel") that the latest clip from Netflix's next original series "Hemlock Grove" is not for the faint of heart. The whole horror series is likely to be as eagerly gross as this scene. Produced by Roth, "Hemlo...
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Participant Media Launches New Cable Network, 'Pivot,' with a Social Conscience and HitRECord Joe
Everybody loves cable these days. Wednesday at an Upfront presentation at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design, Jeff Skoll's Participant Media, which backs entertainment that accelerates social change (“Lincoln,” “The Help,” “An Inconvenient Truth”) announced the August 1 launch of its new cable net...
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Caryn James1 commentlike6tweet3
Al Pacino, 'Phil Spector,' and Media Justice
The gigantic frizzed-out wig on Al Pacino's head might be enough to make you curious about Phil Spector, the new HBO drama written and directed by David Mamet. In a multitude of wigs as conspicuously creepy as the actual Spector's, Pacino plays the fantastically successful music produ...
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VIDEO ESSAY: Gliding Over All: The Cinematography of BREAKING BAD, Season 3
Dave Bunting Jr.’s video essay on Season 3 of "Breaking Bad" opens with time-lapse landscapes, which are de rigueur establishing shots in TV these days. Here, though, they are uniquely awe-inspiring, in part for their exotic nature, and in part for how they seem to breathe life into everything.
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Why FX’s THE AMERICANS May Feature the Most Compelling Romance on TV
Though it is as flush with moral ambiguity as its predecessors, Joe Weisberg’s creation offers an altogether different breed of protagonist. What separates "The Americans" is its foregrounding of the simplest device in the history of narrative: love. In effect, The Americans is an extended remarriag...
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Justin Timberlake Takes Starry SNL to Season Ratings High (VIDEO)
The opening monologue of Justin Timberlake's fifth turn hosting SNL started with the premise that the multi-talented charmer was now inducted into the "five-timers club" for people that have hosted the show on five or more occasions (linked below).
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Caryn James0 commentslike9tweet2
Justin Timberlake's All-Star, All-Good SNL (Video)
Justin Timberlake was totally aware of the high expectations for his hosting gig on SNL - "Thank you, Internet," he said during the monologue - but there was no need to worry. He was so on, he even gave just the right sly, I-know-it's-hokey reading to the line "Five Timers Club" when ...
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Caryn James2 commentslike3tweet2
Stephen Colbert Asks James Franco, 'Are You a Fraud?'
James Franco has taken on one of his most mainstream roles in the new Disney film, 'Oz the Great and Powerful'; nothing is more mainstream than Disney. (You can read my review here.) But his entire career still has the shape of wide-ranging performance art -- and with a lot more focus, Step...
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Caryn James1 commentlike2tweet8
Watch Justin Timberlake's 'SNL' Promo
I don't believe in jinxes, so I'll flat-out say that nothing is a safer bet for fantastic television than Justin Timberlake hosting 'Saturday Night Live'. He's back this week, and even his promos are better than SNL's usually are (better than some of the sketches lately.)
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Caryn James0 commentslike9tweet10
Review: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Stoppard and HBO's Dreamy 'Parade's End'
In Part 3 of HBO’s lyrical, nuanced, romantic and tough-minded World War I era series, Parade’s End, the aloof Sylvia Tietjens says of her aristocratic husband, “Christopher is the last decent man in England. How dare they put their knives into him – he’s mine.&rdq...
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