Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds trade bodies, but this comedy does little to switch up a familiar movie formula
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Chimpan-tastic!
As both a simian simile and a wonder of technology, this reboot is a triumph — the year’s finest action movie
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Showtime at Press Tour: The Post-24 Terror of Homeland
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqddY2sOk6U]
The 9/11 attacks happened almost ten years ago. Since then, we’ve lived through whole cycles of war and cultural change; Osama bin Laden is dead and Jack Bauer is off the air. This fall, one of 24’s producers is returning on Showtime with a terrorism thriller, Homeland, that’s very …
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The Morning After: Live Every Week Like It's Shark Week
The irony of attending the TCA TV critics’ press tour is that, between the daytime sessions is that it leaves you little time for actually watching television, between the daytime panels and the evening schmooze events. (I know, it’s a rough life. Well, it is for the talent, anyway. Last night’s CBS/CW/Showtime panel featured Sarah …
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CBS at Press Tour: Ted Danson, Child Forensic Scientist!
The big news out of CBS’s press tour had to do with the information (or lack thereof) about Ashton Kutcher’s introduction on Two and a Half Men. But there were tidbits from the various other panels, including the revelation that Ted Danson was groomed to play a CSI from his earliest years:
* “I grew up around skulls,” said Danson at …
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Test Pilot: American Horror Story
Test Pilot is a semiregular feature sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next season’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. But premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so …
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CBS Unveils Ashton Kutcher's New Character: Walden Schmidt, Man of Mystery
America, meet Walden Schmidt. At the introductory CBS session of the TCA TV critics’ press tour, CBS programming head Nina Tassler had some news about Ashton Kutcher’s new character, who will take over for Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men this fall. Tassler described Schmidt, who will be introduced in a two-part season opener, as “an …
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Which Is Worse: Much Less Breaking Bad, or Much More?
The story over AMC’s feud with the Sony studio over Breaking Bad broke while I was just getting to press tour, but for those of you who haven’t heard about it: things are getting tense between network and studio over the fifth and ostensibly final season of the show. The makers of Breaking Bad want a full season to wrap things up; …
Tuned InNews Media
MSNBC Leans Forward Into the Post-Olbermann Era, And Chris Matthews Has a Lot to Say
Keith Olbermann, former MSNBC star / bete noire, did not come up explicitly in the questioning at the MSNBC panel today at the TCA press tour. But his mutually negotiated departure earlier this year was a subtext of many of the questions addressed to news chief Phil Griffin and hosts Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Chris …
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NBC Day at Press Tour: Up All Afternoon
I arrived at the Beverly Hilton for TCA press tour in the middle of the afternoon, so I missed the first half of NBC’s day of presentations, in which we learned that The Playboy Club is actually about the empowerment of women and that new programming chief Robert Greenblatt would like to bring a little bit of the spirit of his old …
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Programming Note: Heading West
I’m en route to the TCA press tour in Los Angeles, where I’ll be operating the Tuned In west coast bureau through Saturday. Much of today will be spent in transit, but I’ll be blogging from there the rest of the week–possibly a lot some days and little other days, depending how much time I spend in sessions or writing and how much time …
Tuned InTelevision
Breaking Bad Watch: It’s Skyler’s Turn
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, stop surreptitiously watching that porn in your bed and watch last night’s Breaking Bad.
With the focus on the superlab, Gus’ business and Walt and Jesse’s status, the first couple of episodes of season four have been rather, well, male so far. The third, “Open House,” turns its attention …
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TCA Roundup: Is AMC the New HBO? Is HBO the New AMC?
The TCA TV critics’ press tour (which I will be joining next week) continued with its cable round yesterday, as critics and reporters heard from AMC, a critics’ darling that has recently taken some dings in its Teflon armor over the season finale of The Killing, ugly negotiations over Mad Men and a shakeup at hit zombie drama The …