News

Uzo Aduba who plays Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on Netflix’s acclaimed series Orange is the New Black has a piece in the current Hollywood Reporter reminding Emmy of its dismal track record when it comes to diversity of its awards.

“‘The last series with a non-white cast to win the comedy Emmy was The Cosby Show in 1985. The last woman of color to take the comedy actress prize was Isabel Sanford (The Jeffersons) in 1981.”

It’s not a rant or a scold so much as a helpful reminder that television is slowly but surely diversifying and it’s time for Emmy to keep up.

Speaking of her own show, Aduba says:

“Working on our show often feels like that moment when Dorothy’s house lands in Oz, she opens the door and suddenly a mix of colors floods the screen. She didn’t realize what she’d been missing.”

Check it out.

Meanwhile, Season 2 of Orange is the New Black lands in its entirety on Netflix on June 6.

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You can applaud the Broadcast Television Journalists Association for one thing: they aren’t afraid to try new things. Unlike their Oscar-obsessed brothers (the Broadcast Film Critics Association who nearly perfectly predicted the Oscars earlier this winter), they aren’t obsessed with completely matching the Emmy Awards. Of course, comparing the Oscar season to the Emmy season is akin to comparing oranges to Cadillacs.

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The Broadcast Television Journalists Association announced the nominees this morning for their 4th annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards. The Big Bang Theory (CBS), Fargo (FX), The Good Wife (CBS), Masters of Sex (Showtime) and The Normal Heart (HBO) lead all other nominees with five nominations each.

It’s fantastic that Masters of Sex got a little love after not registering with the TCA’s yesterday. I’d be a lot more pissed off about the knee jerk nominations for The Big Bang Theory if they hadn’t also nominated the hilarious Broad City (Comedy Central). Again though, Girls could only manage a Best Guest Performer nod. Did everyone else just see an entirely different season of Girls this year than I did?

Additional love for The Americans (Matthew Rhys of course, but also right on for Keri Russell) and Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black (yes, those are the two drums I’m going to be beating this season. Get used to it).

Also, once again, Mad Men gets kicked to the curb.

Anyway, check out all the nominees after the jump. The awards themselves will be broadcast live (on the East Coast) 6/19 on The CW at 8 pm.

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The Television Critics Association announced their awards nominations earlier today. Thrilled to see 4 nominations for True Detective, but it’s regrettable (yet not too surprising) that Woody Harrelson is not among them. Also glad to see last year’s Individual Achievement winner Tatiana Maslany being recognized once again for her wonderful work in Orphan Black and another nomination for Matthew Rhys of The Americans as well. In those two cases at least, the TCAs are way out front of the stodgy Emmy awards

Veep and Louie are terrific choices, but no Girls and do we really still need to be giving The Big Bang Theory awards? A nod for Mads Mikkelsen’s work in Hannibal would also have been nice, but I’m not sure who I’d have thrown out of the Individual Achievement in Drama category. Zero love for Mad Men which is disappointing considering it just turned in a top shelf half-season. Check out all the nominees after the jump

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Ok Emmy, I’m giving you the chance to get on the Matthew Rhys bandwagon before it’s too late and you end up looking like a dumbass as usual. The thing is, you should’ve acknowledged him last year in the debut season of The Americans, but I realize there’s so much great TV now it’s hard to keep up with what’s what… oh, wait… keeping up with what’s what is your job? Oh yeah, it is and you blew it last year. Well, it’s not too late to correct that mistake this year.

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HBO announced recently that it is officially reviving its early 2000s reality show Project Greenlight. Executive produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the series first aired on HBO in late 2001 (later moving to Bravo for its third season) and initially provided a single screenplay contest winner the opportunity to direct his/her own work. Subsequent seasons split the contest into two categories, writing and directing, with camera crews capturing the filmmaking process as undertaken by inexperienced filmmakers. This move seemed to stem from the challenges experienced by first season winner Pete Jones as he struggled to bring his vision to screen. Continue reading…

First of all, congratulations to television for offering a larger venue for more amazing female performances than one generally finds in movies, but shame on Emmy for repeatedly failing when it comes to nominations. The fact Tatiana Maslany, the star of BBC America’s Orphan Black was ignored last year despite playing multiple yet subtly distinct roles is a massive black mark on a group of awards that all too often rewards the safe and familiar while filing to recognize the new and interesting.

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The Wrap reports that The Killing will air its final season on August 1. They will air all six episodes. This is the final season.

The Killing is one of the better mysteries on television. It was always depressing to me that it couldn’t find an audience. The lead Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is a complicated, damaged woman struggling to free herself of her past as she puts everything on the line to catch a killer. Dark, moody, involving, The Killing is mesmerizing. The show digs deep into the characters – so much so that it’s much more like a British production, or Danish in this case, wherein story and character matter more than the kinds of things American television offers on their detective shows – primarily sexual deviancy and/or redemption. The Killing has always been more difficult and complicated than that. Too bad we can’t have nice things.

Good news for people who don’t subscribe to HBO, but bad news for Netflix.

Beginning May 21, Amazon Prime will start streaming a pant load of HBO shows, movies and specials. Every episode of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome and Six Feet Under, Eastbound & Down, Enlightened, Flight of the Concords and Oz; selected seasons of current shows Boardwalk Empire, Treme and True Blood; HBO minis Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific and Parade’s End; many HBO movies and documentaries including Game Change; and a bunch of HBO comedy specials from the likes of Louis CK and others.

While early seasons of Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will eventually also land on Amazon Prime, there are no current plans for HBO’s uber-popular Game of Thrones.

HBO shows have long been available to stream on Amazon and elsewhere, but they always cost at least a dollar more per episode than anyone else’s shows. This is the first time these shows will be available to stream at will for Amazon Prime subscribers.

(via Press Release)

No specifics have yet been added but if Stephen Colbert takes over Letterman as a straight shooter – that is, someone who makes the occasional political joke then gives giant blow jobs to studios for promotion’s sake – what a shame, what a loss. To me, Colbert is the only sane voice on the airwaves and he does this through 100% satire. What is not known is whether he will take over as his TV persona or as himself.

Sure, you can’t punish someone’s successful rise by hoping they stay exactly where they are. This is his life, after all. He doesn’t owe us anything. But here’s the thing: he does good work. That matters. But if he is to drop the Colbert persona he’s cultivated so carefully and beautifully for years it will be a wash. To this fan anyway.

It’s such a smart show. Who else but Colbert could have, or would have had such a vibrant, memorable interview with Jane Goodall? His entire career has been made on his persona. He is not audience-tested otherwise, which makes me think he will have to continue as his fake persona — perhaps a tiny bit of both. Here’s hoping.