NBC comedy does best in third season
A year ago, another season of the show “Parks and Recreation” seemed almost as guaranteed as a Kevin Federline child support payment.
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A year ago, another season of the show “Parks and Recreation” seemed almost as guaranteed as a Kevin Federline child support payment.
What’s the title of the most recently released Harry Potter book?
MTV reality shows have been the target of controversy for years, touching on many hot-button issues like teen pregnancy and partying and shooting young teens and 20-somethings into a life of largely undeserved fame. The cast of “Jersey Shore” has become internationally known, making millions by perfecting the art of working out, tanning and doing laundry, while “Teen Mom” stars are plastered on the covers of tabloids week after week. Although these “reality” shows all share some questionable values, we can’t help but love a few of their starring personalities. These are the five MTV reality stars we’re obsessing about this week. 1. Snooki (“Jersey Shore”)
People say it's tough being a kid.
Let’s not all go to Hollywood. American Idol has been a talent-finding phenomenon for the entire 10, no wait, the first seven, no, the first four seasons since its debut back in 2002.
The State newspaper stated the obvious last Wednesday when discussing the budget cuts Gov. Nikki Haley proposed in last week’s State of the State. She proposed $120 million worth of cuts to a budget hole of $830 million. Cutting the Arts Commission and SC ETV is frivolous, if not idiotic, because the savings from not funding them would be like putting 1000 men in Leonidas’ abyss from “300.” Serious people would pull an Illinois and broaden the tax rates and raise revenues in a sensible way, even if they didn’t like it. Then again, we have nutcases running our state.
The State newspaper stated the obvious last Wednesday when discussing the budget cuts Gov. Nikki Haley proposed in last week’s State of the State. She proposed $120 million worth of cuts to a budget hole of $830 million. Cutting the Arts Commission and SC ETV is frivolous, if not idiotic, because the savings from not funding them would be like putting 1000 men in Leonidas’ abyss from “300.” Serious people would pull an Illinois and broaden the tax rates and raise revenues in a sensible way, even if they didn’t like it. Then again, we have nutcases running our state.— Austin Jackson, Third-year political science student
MTV has a reputation of airing shows that deal with teen extremes.
Gov. Nikki Haley delivered an ambitious plan to fill South Carolina’s $800 million budget hole in her first State of the State address before the General Assembly Wednesday night.
For those of us who follow the race to the Academy Awards, Sunday’s 68th Annual Golden Globes ceremony came equipped with very few surprises. Despite relatively few genuine upsets in the “film” half of the ceremony, one thing remains pretty clear: “The Social Network” is a really big deal.The Facebook drama won four awards — the most of the evening — taking honors for Best Original Score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Best Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin, Best Director for David Fincher and Best Motion Picture – Drama. Essentially repeating the four wins it capped at Friday’s Critics’ Choice Awards, it’s starting to look more and more like an unstoppable steamroller barreling toward Oscar night.And while it was certainly the talk of the evening, expected frontrunners in most acting categories capped awards as well. Colin Firth won Best Actor – Drama for his stammering portrait in “The King’s Speech,” while Natalie Portman won Best Actress – Drama for her mentally unstable ballerina in “Black Swan,” and Annette Bening won Best Actress – Comedy or Musical for her depiction of a lesbian mother in “The Kids Are All Right.”“The Fighter” earned two honors in the supporting acting categories, with Christian Bale and Melissa Leo winning Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively.The television awards packed in a few more surprises. HBO’s freshman Prohibition drama “Boardwalk Empire” scored wins for Best Television Series – Drama and Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama for lead actor Steve Buscemi.Last year’s Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical winner “Glee” repeated its feat, winning the category for the second year in a row and also earning honors in both supporting acting categories — for Chris Colfer in Supporting Actor and Jane Lynch in Supporting Actress.Katey Sagal won Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama for FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” while Laura Linney won Best Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical for “The Big C,” and Jim Parsons earned Best Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical honors for “The Big Bang Theory.”The Golden Globes have understandably earned a reputation as the more laid-back counterpart to the Oscars. With alcohol provided and a crossover of television and film celebrities attending, it usually ends up with more than a few interesting moments. Ricky Gervais, reprising his role as host, certainly served up plenty of barbs, regularly prodding as he introduced speakers, occasionally to the chagrin of those on stage. For those at home, though, Gervais kept the ceremony grounded, refusing to massage egos. And while the Globes have never really had much in the way of flashy spectacle, Gervais’ interludes helped perk the three-hour ceremony up and kept the pacing as fast as could be expected.Awards pundits are now faced with the reality that “The Social Network” is going to be an awards behemoth; by beating favored British historical drama “The King’s Speech” for this prize, it seems as if the brooding drama has little competition for the Academy Award.Not that that’s a bad thing. “The Social Network” represents something very rare — smart studio-backed entertainment. Funded by Sony, it’s a bold, often daring look at contemporary culture, and its continued recognition can only send one message to studio heads: more, please.Were “The Social Network’s” model to become a paradigm, we could expect more studios to gamble on letting directors, producers and writers with serious, intelligent visions take the reigns on bigger budgets and broader accessibility.And as the box office success of “Social Network,” “Black Swan,” “The Fighter” and “True Grit” indicate, audiences are ready for more sophisticated entertainment in wider release. This year it’s not just the stuffy awards groups: The people have spoken. That’s Entertainment.
Throughout the years, television has maintained a productive relationship with the sport of boxing, from HBO documentaries to pay-per-view events. The big screen has also taken its share of jabs at the genre with films like “Raging Bull” (1980), “Rocky” (1976) and, currently, “The Fighter” (2010). FX’s new boxing drama, “Lights Out,” takes its own approach to the genre as it focuses less on the sport and more on the life of the man who steps in the ring. “Lights Out” categorizes itself along the lines of a family drama about a boxer who is forced into retirement and is dealing with problems within his family. Holt McCallany (“Men of Honor,” “Three Kings”) stars as Patrick “Lights” Leary, a heavyweight champion who has been retired for five years. His final fight ended with a knockout by Richard “Death Row” Reynolds (Billy Brown) after Leary failed to finish off his badly hurt opponent. Leary also shows symptoms of pugilistic dementia, also known as “boxer’s dementia,” which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Now, he is facing money problems, including his daughters’ private school tuitions, poor investment choices and the costs of running a boxing gym owned by his father (Stacey Keach). It leads Leary to work as a hired muscle for the shady businessman Hal Brennan (Bill Irwin). More complications arise within the family when Leary’s comeback fight with Reynolds is announced. “Lights Out” does little to glorify the sport of boxing. It focuses mainly on Leary’s midlife crisis and the hardships that force him to become involved in unlawful activities. Upcoming episodes of the drama will deal with the family’s life struggles, including the possibility of losing their house due to unpaid mortgages. Overall, those who tune into the show expecting to see a series of boxing matches may end up disappointed.“Lights Out” demonstrates a strong sense of development as the story slowly approaches the comeback point for Leary. Audiences see Leary slowly begin to make the wrong decisions in order to provide for his family. The story unfolds when his comeback match is announced, despite promising his family he would never fight again. It really helps the show that Holt McCallany is cast as “Lights” Leary. Not only does he have the obvious physique of a washed out ex-champ, he also successfully manages to stay compelling during every minute of the pilot episode. At the same time, the audience sees a man torn between the responsibilities in the family and his hurt pride as a result of the last fight of his career. Leary proves himself to be a caring man, yet he shows grim satisfaction in breaking the arm of a dentist to collect a debt.Another strong aspect of “Lights Out” comes from the universally outstanding performances from supporting cast members, despite their characters making the boxing-drama clichés within the story known. Catherine McCormack plays Leary’s wife, Theresa, who gives him an ultimatum: Either he quits fighting or he loses his family. She becomes frustrated with Leary when she learns he is scheduled for a comeback match. Pablo Schreiber stars as Leary’s brother, Johnny, who constantly mismanages his own money and finds small jobs for Leary. “Lights Out” probably won’t satisfy viewers’ expectations, and it fails to be convincing at times. But it provides plenty of gripping, gritty drama that will keep viewers interested up to the final round. The series airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
Batman-inspired series fails to break ground, undeserving of time slot With a new year comes a new superhero on NBC. “The Cape” debuted Sunday as NBC’s attempt to recreate the superhero in a fictional metropolis called Palm City.
An eight-part miniseries on the Kennedys starring Greg Kinnear as John F. Kennedy, Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy, Barry Pepper as Robert F. Kennedy and Tom Wilkinson as Joe Kennedy sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it? Well, that’s certainly what the History Channel thought when they planned to air the series, developed by “24” co-creator Joel Surnow, this spring. That is, until they saw the finished project.Last Friday a representative for the A&E television networks released a statement announcing they would cancel the miniseries in the U.S. The rep told the Hollywood Reporter, “While the film is produced and acted with the highest quality, after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand.”Fair enough. The History Channel has certainly defined its brand name on documentaries about everything from Jesus to the end of the world, but the channel has not offered much in the way of definitive, must-see entertainment. To drop the miniseries after it’s been completed and screened seems only detrimental to the overall brand of the company, especially considering “The Kennedys’s” multi-million dollar budget makes it the most expensive program the channel has funded.Even stranger is that, despite the channel’s claims that the miniseries does not reflect the level of historical accuracy they strive for, the script had been revised and approved by historical experts prior to filming.Sunday, Hollywood Reporter followed up on their story, asserting that members of the Kennedy family, including JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy, voiced displeasure with the series and pressured A&E network to cancel it.So, to think of this another way: in an era when cable television is becoming an arena for large-scale miniseries, with HBO and other premium channels largely dominating the field, the History Channel could have used “The Kennedys” as a complete game-changer, totally upping the ante on the kind of content they could provide for producers while also drawing massive ratings.The other kicker? The miniseries is still scheduled to air in Canada on March 6 and will be shown internationally, says the Hollywood Reporter.So not only does History cancel “The Kennedys,” but they only cancel it in the U.S. In a way this only adds insult to injury, and instead of the channel reaping the ratings of airing it, U.S. viewers will likely turn to Internet streams and torrents to see it anyway.Instead of taking a progressive step forward, the History Channel is taking several steps back, closeting and protecting their content behind the curtain of “historically accurate programming” without stopping to think about how to engage in a dramatic miniseries and provide different scopes and ranges of content.While doing so will certainly preserve the kind of audience already watching the History Channel, those content to tune in for hours at a time to suck down an array of documentaries with little sense of meaning or purpose, it will keep the History Channel from expanding its horizons, drawing in demographics and making a stand as one of basic cable’s best networks. That’s Entertainment.
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