Behind the 8-ball

September 25th, 2009 | by | tv shows

Sep
25

The Soloist premiere - Paramount Studios

I have not had a chance to watch Flash Forward or this week’s Supernatural yet. I will see them before the weekend’s out and muse upon them in this spot. I know you can’t wait.

Meanwhile, here’s a tidbit of news for you: Stephen Root will have a “multiepisode arc” on 24‘s Season 8, according to Backstage. He’ll play Ben Prady, “an officer of the Department of Corrections looking into a parolee gone missing.”

Well, that can’t be good. You’ll recognize Root from
Office Space (Milton) or as the nerdy accountant vampire who sold his blood to Lafayette in Season 1 of True Blood. Even if you don’t recognize his face, if you watched King of the Hill, you’ve heard his voice a zillion times, in Bill.

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Nice: HBO renews its summer slate

August 3rd, 2009 | by | entourage, hung, true blood

Aug
03

Let’s hug it out, bitches – in a congratulatory kinda way: Entourage, Hung and True Blood each are getting another season.

So said HBO today, according to Backstage.

For those who are counting, that means Season 7 for Entourage, Season 3 for True Blood and Season 2 for Hung. All well-deserved.

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Let’s face it, the Entourage boys are fun. How could you not be happy for Turtle that he’s dating an honest-to-goodness Hollywood starlet? And how could you not be touched by Turtle’s deep-seated friendship with Johnny Drama that he was even willing to ask Jamie-Lynn to do a makeout scene with Johnny on his TV show?

I was even feeling badly for Vince that he’s all alone, kinda. And E that he’s bored at his work. Though his little girlfriend was totally right – why was he bothering with that when he doesn’t have to? Especially when it isn’t really working out.

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As for Hung, well, that show is a winner. It’s not what I expected, except it is exactly what I expected – something funny and whimsical and smart from HBO. HBO has rarely disappointed. And even when it’s not quite hit (John From Cincinnati), it’s still been … interesting.

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True Blood: Nothing But the Blood

June 18th, 2009 | by | true blood

Jun
18

And there was, indeed, plenty of blood in Sunday’s season premiere of the closest thing to porn aired on Sunday nights.

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Look, I enjoy True Blood a lot. But, man, do they love showin’ the sex. And now Sookie’s totally a fangbanger. I think she enjoyed the love bites more than the sex. Though, in her defense, she wouldn’t let just any vampire bit her. She’s a one-vamp woman.

But this is what I find interesting about the show: It’s become a metaphor for civil rights and is playing that card heavily.

The coming showdown between the vampires and their supporters and those who believe vampires are all that is evil should make for rather compelling television.

Jason Stackhouse is an idiot and easily swayed and has never liked hte vampires anyhow. He liked ingesting their blood, sure. But the actual vampires? His better nature threatened to rear its head more than once, but he always got sucked back into being an idiot.

I’m quite late in posting my review on Sunday’s ep, I know, so I’m not going to go on at length.

Suffice it to say that it’s returned strong as ever, with the love, the intrigue and the mystery – Ensign Ro is a witch? She had sex with Sookie’s boss back in the day?

The freakiest part is the dungeon Lafayette is stuck in. First, I just wanna say I’m SO glad he’s not dead. Unfortunately, I have a feeling he’s not gonna be the same Lafayette by the time he gets outta there. Obviously, these are vampires who are keeping food in the basement, but what the hell? They’re gonna get in so much trouble.

Honestly, I usually get a little tired of the shows where it seems little more than a veiled excuse to show relatively hardcore sex. But True Blood has such good acting and fun side plots that I’m sticking around for season 2. The premiere gave me no reason to change my mind.

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