The Voice Judges Cover Each Other’s Songs
Posted on September 30, 2015 at 8:00 am
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Ever Wanted to Talk Back to a TV Ad?
Posted on September 28, 2015 at 3:30 pm
Have you ever wanted to let an advertiser know what you thought of the commercial? Or just checked out the actor or theme music? Ispot.tv is a great site with commercials and background info, with comments from viewers on what they like and don’t like.
The BBC Will Launch Its Own Streaming Service
Posted on September 25, 2015 at 2:24 pm
If you’re a Masterpiece Theatre/BBC in America fan, prepare for greatness. The BBC is going to start its own channel for streaming video in 2016. According to the Atlantic:
The archives the BBC (affectionately called “The Beeb” in the U.K.) could offer up are staggering to contemplate. The network has offered original TV programming since 1929, starting only three years after the invention of the television, and it’s impossible to summarize its greatest hits. Yes, there’s many a famed costume drama in its vaults, along with legendary sitcoms and sketch shows. There are some of the earliest and most influential pieces of science fiction, and gritty real-life dramas. Highlights might include Andrew Davies’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, or Monty Python’s Flying Circus, or Ricky Gervais’s The Office, or the 12 glorious episodes of Fawlty Towers, or the epic masterpiece of social storytelling that is Peter Flannery’s Our Friends in the North.
Black-ish Starts the New Season with the N-Word
Posted on September 24, 2015 at 12:56 pm
I loved the first season of “Black-ish” and am delighted that the first episode of its sophomore season is, if anything, even better. The youngest son in the family, Jack Johnson (Miles Brown), gets in trouble for using the n-word in a school talent show when he performs the Kanye West song “Gold Digger.” (Note that when “Glee” did the song they wisely left that word out.) As the entire auditorium gasps, Jack’s twin sister (Marsai Martin) says she begged him to do the radio edited version. Jack is expelled, due to the “zero tolerance” policy urged on the school by his mother, Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross). And this gives everyone on the show, white and black and biracial, senior citizen and teenager, to talk about the word and who should or should not use it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5jzerG092EThe day before the show aired, Barris admitted to Vulture that he was “terrified” about releasing the episode, but he thinks it’s the right time for our country to have this discussion.
Why did you decide to do an entire show about this word but we never hear it? In every instance, you bleeped it.
It was an easier entry point. Hearing it is a little bit hard. The bleep in a weird way makes you hear it even louder. But it still allows you to get into the drama and the comedy of the scene without making you feel ostracized. You’re still hearing it as loud, if not louder, than ever before. That was the biggest thing — not to have a barrier to the comedic entry point.
It was impressive how you packed in all these points of view and how conflicted people are and how charged the issue is, depending on who you are. How hard was it to balance all of that since you’re doing a sitcom and don’t have a lot of time?
We really wanted to make it like a documentary — a moment in a family’s life that would just start a conversation. That’s what we try to do for the show in general — just start a conversation. In a Norman Lear–esque kind of way, we try to show the different points of views on different topics because that’s what a family is. I have five kids, and people can say nature versus nurture. But it is nature! Nurture has so little to do with it. I have five kids and there are five totally different people in my house. Whenever you put a family together they may share some points of views and morals, but there are going to be differences. The other thing you get from your family is how you deal with other people’s point of view. That’s the learned behavior — how you allow yourself to exit a conversation differently from when you enter it.
Emmys 2015: The Winners and the Show
Posted on September 20, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Despite Andy Samberg’s subpar hosting (“I didn’t see ‘Olive Kitteridge,’ only half of Kitteridge” — really? The take-off on the “Mad Man” Coke commercial couldn’t come up with anything other than killing someone with an Emmy? Really?) and truly awful scripted banter for the presenters, the Emmy Awards show had some enormously satisfying moments.
But I’m beginning to think there should be a mandatory moratorium once a person or a show wins three Emmys in a row. Yes, we love Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Allison Janney, and Jon Stewart, but how about stepping aside for a year or two and letting someone else have a chance?
Biggest disappointment of the evening: Valerie Cherish should lose on Emmy night, but Lisa Kudrow should win an Emmy for playing her.
Now, on to the good news: Jon Hamm won at last for his truly magnificent performance as Don Draper in “Mad Men.” Viola Davis won for “How to Get Away With Murder.” It takes nothing away from the other nominees, who were all brilliant, to say that these awards were more than well-deserved. And Davis, in my opinion the finest actress of her generation, gave the speech of the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRwv5mJ6MpYIt was wonderful to see the multiple awards for “Transparent” and “Olive Kitteridge.” Both were passion projects of endless artistry, illuminating the universal through the very specific, precise, careful details, with richly complex characters. And it was especially satisfying to see the award go to Richard Jenkins, who has turned in decades of performances that are small miracles of heart, understanding, and meticulous observation of the human condition.
The memorial segments, both for the shows that ended and the people who died over the last year, were beautifully handled (unless you mind the spoilers from the final episodes). Better than most of the show was the commercial directed by “Selma’s” Ava DuVernay, starring Kerry Washington, Taraji P. Henson, and Mary J. Blige, having a blast listening to Apple’s “boyfriend mixtapes.”
And Tracy Morgan’s return to a standing ovation, welcoming him back following his injuries in a car crash, was moving and joyous.
List of winners:
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series: Bradley Whitford, Transparent
Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series: Reg E. Cathey, House of Cards
Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series: Margo Martindale, The Americans
Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program: Jane Lynch, Hollywood Game Night
Outstanding Structured Reality Program: Shark Tank
Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program: Deadliest Catch
Outstanding Television Movie: Bessie
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series: Allison Janney, Mom
Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series: Veep
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series, Tony Hale, Veep
Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series: Jill Soloway, Transparent
Outstanding Actor In a Comedy Series: Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent
Outstanding Actress In A Comedy Series: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Outstanding Reality Competition: The Voice
Outstanding Writing In A Limited Series/Movie: Jane Anderson, Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Series/Movie: Regina King, American Crime
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Series/Movie: Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Series/Movie: Richard Jenkins, Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Limited Series: Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Variety Sketch Series: Inside Amy Schumer
Outstanding Variety Talk Series: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Outstanding Writing In A Drama Series: Game of Thrones
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series: Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
Outstanding Directing In A Drama Series: David Nutter, Game of Thrones
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Outstanding Actor In A Drama Series: Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Outstanding Actress In A Drama Series: Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
Outstanding Comedy Series: Veep
Outstanding Drama Series: Game of Thrones