If you live in the United States, you’ll have to wait until January to see Downton Abbey Season 5, but the UK September premiere has a trailer for your enjoyment.
Amazon is hard at work trying to duplicate the original programming success of rival streaming service Netflix. After mixed results from its initial 10 pilots earlier this year, Amazon commissioned 10 more in March with 4 that wound up making the final cut. The pickups included cop-drama Bosch based on the Michael Connelly novels featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch; the mystery-drama The After from X-Files creator Chris Carter; and the dark half-hour comedy drama Transparent starring Jeffrey Tambor as a divorced parent who reveals to his family he is transitioning as a woman. Amazon has released a trailer for Transparent and given all 10 episodes of the show a release date of September 26.
In addition to Tambor, Transparent co-stars Judith Light (Who’s the Boss?) as Tambor’s ex-wife and Gabby Hoffman (Uncle Buck, HBO’s Girls), Amy Landecker (A Serious Man) and Jay Duplass (The Mindy Project and co-director of Jeff Who Lives at Home) as Tambor’s grown children.
With a punny title like Transparent, it’s easy to fear the worst about this show, but the on-screen talent involved and the fact the show was created by Jill Soloway who wrote four seasons of HBO’s Six Feet Under and was the showrunner on Showtime’s Diablo Cody show The United States of Tara inspires confidence.
The Transparent pilot which carefully and respectfully walks the line between comedy and drama while serving up realistic and relatable human emotions is still available for free at Amazon.
I’m not a hard core Doctor Who nerd. I’m more what you’d call a tourist. In fact I took a long break between David Tenant and Matt Smith and I’m currently getting caught up on the last few Smith episodes. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to Peter Capaldi’s turn as The Doctor. I’ve been a fan of the actor since Local Hero way back in 1983. Also, it would be pretty funny if he brought some of his Malcolm Tucker character from In the Loop to the more genial universe of Doctor Who. Ok, that will never happe n.
Anyway, the 13th incarnation of Doctor Who premieres on BBC America August 23, 2014. Check out a glimpse of the Doctor and his companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) in the teaser after the jump
With Stephen Colbert stepping away from his Colbert Report persona to take over for Letterman soon, there’s an impending vacuum of caustic (and utterly necessary) satire and criticism of the news media on TV. While it hasn’t quite hit its stride yet, the HBO weekly ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ appears ready to help fill the void. A couple of weeks ago, Oliver rather beautifully tore into the FCC and the debacle over Net Neutrality. This week he tackles the essentially unregulated dietary supplement industry and one of its head cheerleaders, Dr. Oz. I know it sounds kind of dull, but it’s pretty funny. Also: tap-dancing Steve Buscemi. Check it out after the jump.
FOX briefly interrupted your 24-gasm tonight to give you a taste of their upcoming DC series Gotham which traces the origins of Batman, Cat Woman, Riddler, Joker, Penguin et al. while apparently adding in a few new wrinkles.
I’m not sure the network can be trusted to do this right, and if they do to keep it on the air, but OK, the trailer has my attention. Check it out after the jump
I’m still a little ambivalent about Stephen Colbert taking over for David Letterman on Late Night… er I mean The Late Show. On one hand, he’s a great choice and a supremely talented comedian with a decent knack for interviewing guests. On the other hand, as the host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, he’s the strongest voice of satire on the air we have. Colbert has already said he plans to do The Late Show as himself rather than the character he plays on The Report. The question is whether the same sharp satire will make the transition.
I hope it does.
“Who would’ve thought a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstanding?” – Stephen Colbert on Twitter
A truly brilliant satirist never blinks. Even when a bunch of mouthy dumbasses miss out on the joke and marshal the full weight and power of Twitter to rail and rattle against the perceived wrong, the brilliant satirist is thrilled because this indeed makes the joke even better.
I’m not sure which is funnier, the fact Chelsea Handler absolutely served talking sack of potatoes Piers Morgan his tiny balls on a paper plate, or that his own network CNN rather gleefully blogged it. This guy can’t get off my TV fast enough.
Check out the clip after the jump.