Blog Archives
The Colbert Rapport: Will He Last on CBS?
Ever since 2005, Stephen Colbert has been ruling late night television on Comedy Central. Next year he will be leaving his post after ten years to take over for David Letterman on Late Show. This is a drastic change for Colbert, whose current show is a satirical version of The O’Reilly Factor. Will his current rapport with his audience get in the way of his success as himself on CBS?
Letterman announced his departure not even two months after Jimmy had taken over for Leno. I cannot say that I was surprised that by Letterman’s retirement. Everyone knew Fallon was going to be some serious competition. Fallon is more relevant and appealing to the precious 18-49 audience. He has a social media savviness that Letterman doesn’t have. So when Letterman “unexpectedly” announced his retirement, CBS needed a host that would supersede Jimmy’s popularity. Colbert already has a large and loyal audience from his show on Comedy Central, which make him a very good choice for Late Show.
The Walking Dead’s “The Grove” Gives Viewers Another Reason to Drink This St. Patrick’s Day
With only two episodes left in this season, The Walking Dead has finally started to answer some questions that have been bugging viewers since the midseason finale. Last night’s episode focused on Tyreese, Carol, Lizzie, Mika, and Judith. On their way to Terminus, they find a home in the middle of nowhere. It seems to be the perfect place to start over; it’s secluded, has a water pump and a propane tank, puzzles, a doll, a big comfy dad chair. Basically everything is going to go back to normal, right? Of course not.
One of the first questions that last night’s episode answered was why Carol was teaching the children how to fight. To put it simply, it’s because of Sophia. Carol described her as “not having a mean bone in her body”. She wasn’t capable of killing anything, which was her downfall. Now that Carol has two surrogate daughters, she doesn’t want the same thing to happen to them. Carol can see a lot of Sophia in Mika, in that she cannot bring herself to kill people invading the prison or even a deer except she has no problem killing walkers. Lizzie, on the other hand, cannot bring herself to kill a walker, but can kill people. And animals, Lizzie kills animals too for some reason; probably because, as Mika put it, she’s not right.
Speaking of which, we also learned that Lizzie was the one feeding walkers outside of the prison. Which doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone since she has pretty much been friendly with walkers since she was introduced. So friendly, that she gets upset when anyone kills a walker. We see her have a near emotional breakdown after Mika shoots a walker right in front of them. Luckily, Mika calms her down by telling her to look at the flowers right next to her. Then she screams at Carol for putting down a walker that Lizzie was playing with. It’s hard to believe an eleven year old could hold that much crazy, but she does.
Hannibal‘s Kaiseki Leaves Us Hungry for More
Season two of Hannibal hit the ground running. Quite literally too, as the opening scene was a flash-forward of an intense fight between Hannibal and Jack Crawford. So far, we know that Hannibal is going to get figured out, and the rest of the season is going to be dedicated to seeing how that comes together. Season two started where season one had left off, Will Graham was framed for all of the horrible things that Hannibal had done and is now imprisoned. Even worse, his new psychiatrist is Dr. Chilton, who is still full of himself even after having all of his organs removed. At this time, only the audience, Will, and maybe Hannibal’s psychiatrist Bedelia Du Maurier know that Hannibal is last season’s big baddie “The Chesapeake Ripper”. It’s unclear, as of right now, what Bedelia knows, but she has made some implications that she knows too much about Hannibal.
This season is going to stray away from the first season’s formula of featuring a killer of the week. Instead, they are going to have a “big baddie” which has already been revealed to be Mason Verger, notably played by Gary Oldman in the film adaptation of Hannibal. It isn’t known exactly when Verger is going to show up, but last night introduced an unknown killer kidnapping random people based on the color of their skin. Also the feel of their skin, that was oh so creepily pointed out to the audience when the killer complimented a man’s smooth skin on the subway. Later, this man was abducted and found himself in a room of “dead” people. It’s unclear whether or not they are dead or in heroin-induced comas even though the coma thing has been done before. The last shot of the night revealed that the bodies are arranged in a way to make it look like an eye.
DirecTV and Viacom Reach an Agreement
DirecTV customers will get back the 17 Viacom channels that they lost during the 10-day standoff between the two companies. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. However, the deal gives DirecTV subscribers the ability to see Viacom programming on various electronic devices via the DirecTV Everywhere platform. It also includes an option for DirecTV to carry Viacom’s premium movie channel EPIX.
The 2012 Emmy Nominees
Earlier today, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the 2012 Emmy Awards nominees. HBO (81 nominations) and CBS (60 nominations) lead the networks in nominations. Mad Men and American Horror Story (tied with 17 nominations) were shows nominated for the most awards.
Here is list of shows nominated in the major categories:
Best Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Girls
Modern Family
30 Rock
Veep
Best Drama
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Mad Men
Is Netflix Good For TV?
Since 1997, Netflix has been a go-to for easy access to movies through the web. Expanding its content, Netflix has quickly become an easy way to watch television. The percentage of users who prefer to stream television went from 19 percent to 27 percent in the last year and it is likely to increase. This trend is not only changing the way people watch their shows, but could be good for TV in many ways.
Television is an ever evolving medium that continues to change every day. In fact, the more television that becomes available, the less necessary it is to actually watch it on a television screen. The vast number of show options makes following the intended schedule a nearly impossible task. In this respect, Netflix allows television viewers the ability to watch shows they never have they never time to see or even know about. A marathon of episodes is presented to a Netflix user in a way television does not offer.
Viacom Channels Could Go Dark On DirecTV
DirecTV is currently fighting with Viacom over their carriage agreements. If a settlement is not reached by tonight, 20 million DirecTV subscribers will lose 26 (including SD and HD) Viacom channels.
The 17 networks affected (without their corresponding HD channels) are:
- Palladia
- Centric
- Tr3s
- CMT
- Logo
- NickToons
- VH1 Classic
- TeenNick
- Nick Jr.
- Nick@Nite
- Spike
- BET
- VH1
- TV Land
- Comedy Central
- Nickelodeon
- MTV
For DirecTV’s side of the argument, check out directvpromise. Viacom’s view can be found on the company’s blog and whendirecttvdrops.
Weekly TV Update: July 2
Each week we bring you stories from around the Internet that you might have missed.
MTV has a recap of last night’s BET Awards performances. Entertainment Weekly has a full list of winners.
Dexter fans will be disappointed. Executive producer Sara Colleton confirmed that Dexter is definitely ending after season 8.
Erin Andrews leaves ESPN. She will now host her own show on Fox Sports.
If you’re still interested in The Newsroom, Vulture has a review of the latest episode.
Seth MacFarlane’s Ted topped the box office this weekend. How similar is it to Family Guy?
Weekly TV Update: June 11
Each week we bring you stories from around the Internet that you might have missed.
J.R. Ewing and family returns to television this Wednesday at 9 pm on TNT.
ABC Family’s Bunheads debuts tonight. This drama that centers around ballet dancers comes from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherma-Paladino.
Cinema Blend’s Kelly West has a treat for Suits fans. She has posted photos from her behind-the-scenes tour.
CBS asks a court to block the premiere of ABC’s The Glass House, which is a Big Brother-esque reality show. The ABC show has somewhere between 15-30 former Big Brother staffers, some who had access that show’s “bible”.
In its quest to remain relevant, Ion Television announces five new original Christmas movies for December.
Push Girls Needs to Be Pushed Off Television
Even before I started watching the Sundance Channel’s Push Girls, I knew I was going to be very critical of it. I was right. I didn’t expect it to be anything I could consider “good television”. There were parts of it that I found profoundly irritating and even offensive. The reality series, revolving around four women who use wheelchairs, opened with two episodes on Monday night. The entire goal of the show seems to be to inspire a viewer to believe that they can achieve anything in life regardless of obstacles. It is a very repetitive and uninteresting message. The message starts to sound sickening when you realize that none of the women have lives that are particularly impressive.
The tagline for the series is “If you can’t stand up, stand out.” This annoying because it tries too hard to be cute. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it was accurate for any of these women. It seems not to be. They just don’t seem that special. While their situations certainly took perseverance to overcome, it seemed that Tiphany, Angela, Mia and Auti were simply women who left me wondering why they got a show.
Wait! What's A Dial? 