NET | 8PM | 8:30PM | 9PM | 9:30PM | 10PM | 10:30PM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Dancing with the Stars | Castle | ||||
CBS | 2 Broke Girls | The Millers | Scorpion | NCIS: Los Angeles | ||
CW | The Originals | Jane the Virgin | ||||
FOX | Gotham | Sleepy Hollow | ||||
NBC | The Voice | The Blacklist | ||||
MISC | American Dad (TBS) | Independent Lens (PBS) |
Archives for November 2014
We Shine the Spotlight on THE NEWSROOM Star John Gallagher Jr.
John Gallagher Jr. is one of the most exceptional, humble, and sensational actors of our time, and you’ve probably never even heard of him. Hopefully, that’s all about to change. Gallagher isn’t just a one-stop shop for talent; his skills range from Broadway, to film, to music, and beyond. His boyish charm and gritty roles set him apart from other young actors working today. His attention to detail and ability to attack any role he takes on and make it completely original is astounding. His most notable work, Jim Harper on THE NEWSROOM is by far his best yet. From the first episode I (and I’m sure many others) wanted to know anything and everything about Jim.
There are many moments throughout the shows run where I though Gallagher shines, but there was one scene during the shows freshman season where I was completely in awe. It’s a small scene; Maggie (Alison Pill) is standing outside of a restaurant when she see’s a SEX AND THE CITY tour bus stopped out front. She shouts a couple things up at the bus until an embarrassed and confused Jim stands up from his seat. I adore that scene for a number of reasons but the main one being, we weren’t supposed to fall for this character. He’s dating Maggie’s best friend, Lisa (Kelen Coleman) and has secretly fallen for Maggie. In that moment I didn’t care who he was with, who’s heart he was about to break, all I thought was “I hope this character gets his happy ending.”
In Short Term 12 he gave the kids the perfect blend of tough caretaker and compassionate father figure. Gallagher’s work opposite Brie Larson in that film was breathtaking and something more people should be aware of.
In his latest venture, he’s tackling music. He’s performed on Broadway stages in the past and now hopes to show us a new side to him. Music is a big part of his life and a big part of how he was raised. It’s safe to say his album will be a true testament to the spectacular artist he is.
I caught up with the gifted actor about his work on the acclaimed indie film, Short Term 12, the final season of the THE NEWSROOM, and what’s next with his music career. [Read more…]
On TV Tonight: Sunday November 9, 2014
NET | 8PM | 8:30PM | 9PM | 9:30PM | 10PM | 10:30PM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Once Upon a Time | Resurrection | Revenge | |||
CBS | Madam Secretary | The Good Wife | CSI | |||
FOX | The Simpsons | Brooklyn Nine | Family Guy | Mulaney | ||
HBO | The Newsroom | The Comeback | Getting On | |||
NBC | Football Night in America | Sunday Night Football: Bears at Packers | ||||
MISC | A Cookie Cutter Christmas (Hallmark) | The Walking Dead (AMC) | ||||
SHO | Homeland | The Affair |
BONES Redux: Our Top 5 Moments From “The Lost Love in the Foreign Land”
This week’s Bones relationship problems don’t focus on our happy main couple. Instead, it’s the Arastoo and Cam show. Here are your top five Bones moments!
Arastoo
Here we go. It’s the when/if we talk about marriage discussion between Arastoo and Cam, prompted by his mom sending Cam a recipe for a traditional wedding dish. Cam is more than relieved when she gets a message about a dead body.
The other drama involves Brennan approving his dissertation subject, which is based on something Brennan had spoken about. When Cam acts like Arastoo’s mommy and pressures Brennan to let him know if she approved it or not, Brennan says she didn’t. Who didn’t see that coming a mile away? I hope nobody.
So Mommy Cam decides to go see Dr. Brennan, who says she wants a trailblazer, not a sycophant. She also rightly calls out Cam for speaking for Arastoo and how she may feel an underling’s poor performance reflects badly on her. Zing. Brennan-1, Cam-0. Cam slinks away.
Then Brennan lets it slip to Arastoo that Mommy Cam went to Brennan about his dissertation. He is so not pleased about that. He immediately lets Brennan know he did not ask Cam to do that. She informs him she wants him to be more original, and he says he trusts her, which is why he asked her to be his mentor. All in all, he’s being way more adult about this than Cam is treating him.
Cam also gets her ass handed to her by Arastoo, who says she doesn’t have respect for, or faith in, him. This brings him full-circle to the whole “if” marriage thing, because like he was going to let that slide. He says it’s not Brennan he can’t deal with, it’s her. OUCH.
With all of the horribleness of the episode, of course this ended okay. He decides to do his research on forensic methods to prove human rights atrocities. Brennan approved it. Arastoo apologizes for pressuring her into marriage, and she invites him over for the wedding dish.
2. Corpse of the week!
This week, we have a corpse discovered by eco-herders who use goats instead of plows. They eat everything but the person, so that’s helpful, but the clothes are fair game. That means some nice goat poop for Hodgins to sift through. Also, though they wouldn’t eat the body, the goats did manage to trample all over it. There is a funny bit where Aubrey has to chase a goat that got the victim’s watch.
The victim has some missing toes and is malnourished with osteoporosis, even though she’s too young to have the disease. Also, all of the bling she had on her was a man’s. The first assumption is that she’s a thief. Nice to just judge her right away, guys. Why don’t you wait for, I don’t know, evidence before you put labels on the poor, malnourished dead woman?
The first assumption for cause of death is sexual assault, but Cam can’t find any evidence of it.
Min-Yung also has cave disease, which I guess means she has bat guano in her lungs, which leads once again to poop and Hodgins getting to use the term “bat cave.” That info, plus the bus stop, leads them to where she was living.
The goat pooped a bunch of pieces of photo paper that Angela was able to salvage. She got five matches, but Brennan is able to identify which one it is.
Min-Yung lost her toes going over snow and mountains to be with Sung. So sad.
The murder weapon turns out to be a cuticle pusher.
3. The suspects!
Sandra Zins: Okay, so maybe they weren’t far off. Turns out that fancy watch belonged to a rich woman, Sandra Zins, and that rich woman recognizes the dead woman as Theresa. Sandra speaks Chinese, due to her spending a bunch of time in East Asia, working for an international relief agency. She’s not upset about the stolen watch. She just says she would have given Theresa the money if she’d asked for it. And she’s more than happy to do the funeral arrangements. She also tells them the agency where she found Theresa. Sunny Helpers.
Jeremy Walford: Former teacher. Victor leads them to him. He apparently hit on Min-Yung, but she’d told Victor not to do anything. Since the cause of death is at first ruled sexual assault, this guy goes to the top of the list. He’s a registered sex offender who got the boot from his teaching job for fooling around with his Asian female students. A prince of a guy.
Once he’s brought in, at first he’s insistent about how good he is and to ask his court-appointed psychologist. Then he cops to getting insistent enough with Min-Yung that she had to physically push him away. He does give one piece of useful information. What bus she would take to go home toward Highlandtown. But when he asks if that’s enough not to get him locked up, Aubrey tells him it isn’t.
Victor Lee, owner of Sunny Helpers. He says Theresa had worked there for three months. He just found out about the stealing situation. He and Theresa were from a poverty-stricken village called Yanbian. He just found out about the stealing but never got to confront her. He calls her Min-Yung and says she had so little money, she didn’t have a permanent place to stay, so he couldn’t contact her.
Once they figure out where Min-Yung lives, they go to the remote place. There’s a lot of weird noises before Victor opens the door. He tries to say the noises are the creaky house, but then there’s coughing. When Booth locates a door located on the floor, he opens it to find a bunch of women beneath the house. Welcome to Sunny Helpers, the slave edition. Needless to say, Booth has to restrain himself from killing Victor and instead just throws him up a wall with a hand to his throat.
Andy Dolmar represents Victor. He’s a sleazebag, but a high-priced sleazebag Booth is convinced is paid for by someone else. Victor maintains his innocence, but he’s still going to jail.
Sung Dae Park, the man in the poop photo. He’s wanted in Yanbian for the murder of Min-Yung’s father. He works construction, and they find him at his job. But…
He is shocked as hell to find out “his” Min-Yung is in the states. He admits to killing her father, but only because he sold her to a man in the village. He witnessed the dad beating her. He came to the states to make a new life for them, but the men who brought him over took everything. They were both trafficked.
He’s devastated when Booth confirms it’s Min-Yung who’s dead, and he blames himself. Alex has to put him in the system. If they don’t find Min-Yung’s killer, Sung will be blamed for it.
Human Trafficking.
Holy moly, what the heck is going on here? Now we’ve got a chocolate/peanut butter issue when State Department Official Alex Radziwill becomes involved, since this is a human trafficking case. So Booth makes him promise not to get his human trafficking all over his homicide case, and vice-versa, but it’s immediately rescinded when Aubrey gets upset that the women might be locked up in a holding facility. Alex tries to placate him with how the women might get asylum and wants Booth to get the whole questioning thing over with, so he can do his job. The good thing is, Alex has provided a translator.
Someone named Chao-xing, but in the states she’s known as Tammy, speaks for the group, since the rest of them are too freaked out and beaten down to do it.
When Booth asks Tammy who hit her and Min-Yung, she looks at Victor all fearful, and they get him the heck outta there. Once he’s gone, Tammy is a lot more forthcoming. She tells them Victor threatened her daughter, Yena, and her entire family, in order to keep her in line. Victor wouldn’t let her call home, and she says she wants to speak with her daughter. That’s when the entire group comes forward with pictures of family members they want to talk to as well.
Both Sung’s construction company and Sunny Helpers used the same recruiters. The company that owns them both is a company called Common Reach. Which is run by Sandra Zins. Whoops!
She’s also, coincidentally, represented by Andy Dolmar. After Alex brings in a whole file folder filled with proof of her human trafficking, and they slap the handcuffs on her, the proper Englishwoman falls totally apart.
She may be a trafficker, but she didn’t murder Min-Yung. Oh, this is so sad. It was Tammy, who worked in a nail salon. Victor found out Min-Yung was sneaking out, and he threatened everyone that if she did it again, he would punish everyone’s families. Min-Yung said she wouldn’t stop, so Tammy felt like she was protecting her daughter by killing Min-Yung.
He had them so brainwashed, they would have believed anything he said. A tragedy all the way around.
Aubrey
Aubrey is taught a little lesson in humility. At first he’s all gung-ho to get the positive press about taking down a pedophile like Jeremy, but after he sees those women, he realizes he was being “ass like,” because he was looking at other people’s pain for what it could do for his own career. Lesson learned, kid. Now go do your job.
All’s well that ends well. Brennan reminds Booth that without the death of Min-Yung, all of those women would have remained slaves. And while Booth can relate to Tammy’s reasons for killing Min-Yung, Brennan can relate to her search for Sung and how she almost missed her opportunity to live her life with Booth. In the end, they dance together, safe in each other’s arms and thankful for what they have.
shomi Review: Why We’re Not Buying What Rogers and Shaw are Selling (At Least Not Yet!)
This week, Rogers and Shaw teamed up to launch shomi, their attempt to unseat Netflix as Canada’s go-to for streaming television and video entertainment. At launch, Rogers boasts that shomi has more than 12,000 hours of telvision and movie content. And while this TV Addict is inclined to agree with David Purdy (SVP, Product Management Video & Content) who proudly proclaimed that the service “combines binge-worthy television shows and Hollywood hits,” whether or not one should ‘shomi the money’ (See what we did there!), is another question entirely. And quite frankly, one that we’ve been struggling to answer all week. But before we get into the downside of shomi’s launch, let us start with the positive shall we.
As advertised, shomi has done an admirable job of replicating the Netflix experience by offering up a colourful collection of popular television shows and movies available across all devices. By combining catalogues from parent companies Rogers and Shaw, there is quite something for TV Addicts of all ages. What’s more, in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the incumbent, shomi has cleverly hired actual human beings to curate collections such as “Comic Con Hangover,” “The Art of War” and “Gretzky has the Ball” to name a few. Also of note, their “shomi later” and “shomi history” features, the former of which allows viewers to create a playlist of must-sees to watch later with the latter allowing users to see their viewing history and continue watching shows they may have stopped part-way through.
Content wise, shomi has plenty of binge-worthy television shows and a handful of popular movies. And while we’re not going to complain about any service that makes available such TV Addict favorites like THE WEST WING, BUNHEADS, JANE THE VIRGIN, ALIAS, PART DOWN and many more we’d list by name if the service would allow us to log in*, the majority of the shows aren’t exclusive to the service and are also available on Netflix. Which brings me to the first of our two serious issues with shomi.
* Since shomi is technically launching in “beta,” we are going to gloss over the plethora of technical difficulties it seems to have launched with. Including but not limited to… the fact that it hasn’t been able to remember where we stopped watching Notting Hill, a somewhat sluggish interface and a serious unreliability when it comes to logging in and out of the service.
The single biggest issue we have with shomi is that it is completely devoid of original content.** And while the service gets point for launching with plenty of kids content, quality television shows and movies we love (“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy…”), there is no must-see show akin to Netflix’s HOUSE OF CARDS, or Netflix’s ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK or Netflix… well, you get the idea! Look, if we were one of the increasingly large number of Canadians cutting the cable cord, it would be a different story. But since we still pay for cable (You’re welcome Rogers), subscribe to Netflix and don’t have kids to entertain 24/7 (Sorry Mom!) we simply can’t justify recommending a service that offers very little we don’t already have access to. We also won’t tout a service that is only available to a handful of Canadians, which brings us two issue number two.
** shomi recently announced plans to launch an original Canadian drama to be produces in partnership with Rogers and, curiously enough, rival network Netflix.
WIth shomi’s launch leaving Bell customers out in the cold, I’m once again left with the unsettling feeling that parent companies Rogers and Shaw care more about the bottom line then they do building an amazing product. When will Rogers, Shaw and Bell learn that GREAT companies like Amazon, Apple and Netflix release products that put their customers first while companies more interested in serving shareholders release a product with strings attached***. Suffice it so say, if there is any truth to the saying “you only get one chance to make a good first impresesion” shomi failed spectacularly so. Worse still, launching shomi as an exclusive for Rogers and Shaw customers all but guarantees that when Bell releases their currently-in-delveopment “Project Latte” it will be exclusive to their customers. Thus, continuing the petty and small-minded pattern of Canadian cable conglomeretes doing nothhing but infuritating hard-working and honest customers for choosing one service over the other. But I digress.
*** Strings like tacky upsells upon sign up that offer shomi to Rogers customers free of charge, but only if one agrees to sign up for far pricier tier of internet service.
The bottom line is, that despite the fact that we will not commit to spending $8.99 per month for shomi until they expand their offerings and produce original and compelling content that we can’t see anywhere else, we approve of their service and look forward to checking back with them once they drop the “beta.” If for no other reason than competition is not only good for customers, but something we’re sorely lacking up here in Hollywood North.
Breaking TV News: AMC Announces a Fifth and Final Season of HELL ON WHEELS
Press Release: AMC today announced that “Hell on Wheels” will be returning for a fifth and final season of 14 episodes on AMC. Seven new episodes will air next summer, with the final seven episodes of the series following in the summer of 2016. The Western period drama opened up a new night of original programming for AMC on Saturday and in its current season is delivering an average of 3.4 million viewers on the most challenging night of the week for television.
“With season five of ‘Hell on Wheels,’ we are proud to bring our trans-continental journey to conclusion for the large, loyal audience that has traveled with Cullen Bohannon and his crew for so many years,” said AMC President Charlie Collier. “We look forward to appropriately honoring ‘Hell on Wheels’ in this final season. Enormous thanks to the terrific writers, cast and crew for all they have achieved and for all that lies ahead in the Wild West.” [Read more…]
GENERAL HOSPITAL! GREY’S ANATOMY! SVU! THE WALKING DEAD! REVENGE! The TV Addict Week in Rewind
Most Prophetic Letter: The residents of UTOPIA were told that the social experiment was “about to change forever.” Sure enough, two days after the episode aired, Fox’s reality show was axed.
Cruelest Stunt: The Discovery Channel is planning to air a special in which a man is EATEN ALIVE by a snake. Given that a camera can easily see the inside of any creature in a much safer, more humane way, this is the sort of crap that any network — let alone one supposedly dedicated to education and science — should be ashamed of.
Twistiest Twist: GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Ava revealed that babynapper Nina’s mad mama, Madeline, had actually paid her to seduce Silas all those years ago.
Biggest Shock: Out of the blue, fans of THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL found out that Kim Matula — whose Hope has pretty much been at the center of the show for the past two years — is exiting the canvas and had already taped her final episode.
Most-Made Joke: Practically every outlet covering the election-night results referred to AMERICAN IDOL runner-up Clay Aiken’s failed campaign as him coming in second again. Including, as of now, us.
Least Shocking Shock, Part I: Did anyone watching GREY’S ANATOMY not figure out that Geena Davis’ Dr. Herman was dying before she made her dramatic pronouncement? Anyone? Bueller? [Read more…]
GREY’S ANATOMY Recap: “Don’t Let’s Start”
Season 11 | Episode 6 | “Don’t Let’s Start” | Aired Nov 6, 2014
Oh, how I’ve missed you GREY’S, how I’ve missed you. After a week of absence this week’s episode was a biggie. For starters, April’s (Sarah Drew) mom was in town and went shopping with Jackson (Jesse Williams) for the baby’s nursery. April got into a fight with her mom about controlling everything about the baby and Jackson took over and ran the errands with her mom, and surprisingly enjoyed it.
Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) is now living at the hospital since her split from Callie. (Sarah Ramirez) She worked with Dr. Herman (Geena Davis) on a surgery and she terrorized Arizona the entire time. She made her nervous and confused, later explaining to her that the reason she is so hard on her is because she has an inoperable brain tumor and has six months to live. She is so hard on her because she wants Arizona to be her when she’s gone.
Jo’s (Camilla Luddington) case hit home this week. Her patient lived in her car and when she was robbed didn’t just lose her car, she lost everything. Alex (Justin Chambers) sees that this case was tough for her, she expresses how she doesn’t want to lose her bed, prompting him to say, “I’m not going anywhere I swear to God, except home with you.”
Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Maggie (Kelly McCreary) don’t hate each other, which is good. Sure, they still refer to each other as “Doctor Grey and Doctor Pierce, but at least they aren’t gunning for each other. They chatted about Ellis’ (Kate Burton) journals and Meredith even invited her over for dinner. Of course Maggie didn’t make it to dinner though because her and Webber had an awkward encounter outside of Derek and Meredith’s house. Maggie told Webber that she didn’t want him to be her father, she already ahs one. She wanted Webber to be honest with her and he wasn’t.
Most obnoxious character of the season: Derek Shepherd. First he tortures Meredith about how she convinced him not to take the job for the white house and how he has to give up his dream for her. In next week’s episode it seems as though he is sabotaging his sisters (Caterina Scorsone) job at the hospital. Can’t he just give it a rest? He is great with Maggie; I’ll give him that.
Best line: “And Zola needs more black people in the family because I’m running out of ways to braid her hair and Bailey won’t show me any more.” – Derek Shepherd
Best awkward conversation: Maggie: “I brought wine.” Richard: “I’m an alcoholic.”
WHITE COLLAR Recap: Live Free or Die
Season 6 | Episode 1 | “Borrowed Time” | Aired Nov 6, 2014
“They’e promised you freedom before. What makes you think they’ll deliver?” – Mozzie
“Who says that’s all I’m after?” – Neal
“White Collar” is on borrowed time. Literally.
People like Neal Caffrey always wind up “behind bars or dead,” and in the show’s final episodes, the (reformed?) conman will attempt to defy the odds, with no loose ends going untied.
With Peter and Mozzie’s help, Neal will infiltrate and incriminate the Pink Panthers – an elusive group of white collar thieves who have stolen billions in diamonds and other valuables over the last 20 years – in exchange for his freedom. (Easy peasy, right?)
But first, a brief summation of what went down in last night’s premiere. [Read more…]
TWO AND A HALF MEN Recap: The Ol’ Balls and Chain
Season 12 | Episode 2 | “A Chic Bar in Ibiza” | Aired Nov 6, 2014
Walden Schmidt is ready to be a father, even if that means marrying Alan Harper.
In “A Chic Bar in Ibiza,” Mr. and Mr. Harper-Schmidt said “I do,” but not before one last lovers’ spat. The wedding was almost called off when Walden asked Alan to sign a pre-nup, insulting his bridezilla-to-be and threatening his chance to adopt a child.
Luckily, when a man loves a woman another man, he can’t keep his mind on nothin’ else. After talking it out with their mothers, the two agreed that their fight was nonsensical, and Alan agreed to Walden’s request. [Read more…]