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November 30, 2007

Two-hour "Closer" makes it a merry Christmas

Why do so many of the men in my life hate the TNT crime drama "The Closer?" My fiance, and the better part of the Connecticut Post sports department, roundly mock me for my love of this show. I don't get it.
I think the show is fab, and that LAPD Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (played with seemingly bottomless gusto by Kyra Sedgwick) is one of the best female characters on TV. My fiance hates her obviously fake Southern accent. I say it's appropriate to her character, who is SUPPOSED to be larger than life.
But I digress. The point of this post is to inform you that TNT is airing a two-hour "Closer" Christmas special on Monday at 8 p.m.

In the special, Brenda finds herself solving a triple homicide and armored car robbery around the holidays. Coincidentally, one of the suspects is from Georgia (where Brenda is from) and runs back home the second he sniffs trouble. Thus Brenda and her ever-steady beau, FBI Agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney, the perfect deadpan foil to Sedgwick's nuttiness) head south to catch the criminal, and spend a little time with Brenda's parents (Barry Corbin and Frances Sternhagen). Before you know it, Bren, Fritz, mom, dad, the suspect and Brenda's cranky colleagues Lt. Flynn and Lt. Provenza (Tony Denison and GW Bailey) are in an RV heading to LA.
The ep periodically goes over the top, but is at its best when showing the toll Brenda's tough,demanding job takes on her. There are some lovely moments between Sedwick, Sternhagen and Corbin, including a genuinely moving finale.
I guess Brenda and "The Closer" aren't for everyone. But I love it, and am grateful for any extra time I get to spend with the show and its characters.

Posted by amanda on 5:20 PM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

Alternative source of comic relief

I know that many of you are going into talk-show withdrawal, what with so many late night chatfests in reruns due to the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike. Well, for those looking for a laugh, the writers of the "Late Show with David Letterman" offer an alternative. The scribes behind the show have launched the blog LateShowWritersonStrike.com, a web site full of their witty observations on the WGA strike.
And, frankly, it's significantly funnier than a lot of recent "Late Show" material.
The site includes wacky video clips, essays by the writers and a probing biography of the writer's strike mascot, Strikey (actually a pen-and-ink drawing of a circle with big eyes and enormous teeth).
The writers have posted a disclaimer on the site, stating that they know that the strike is a serious matter, and they're by no way trying to make light of its underlying issues. But, they argue, humor is a good way to cope with stressful situations.
Well said, and well done.
Check it out.

Posted by amanda on 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

Kathy Griffin prepares her handbasket

Whether you love comedienne Kathy Griffin for her scathing, irreverent wit or think that she's just another liberal celebrity pushing an agenda, there's one thing you can't deny about her: she knows exactly who she is, and makes no apologies for it.
"I know I'm going straight to hell," she declares in her new Bravo standup special. "I have my handbasket all decorated."
Count me firmly in the camp that adores Griffin and finds her hilarious. Her latest special, aptly titled "Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell" airs 9 p.m. Thursday, and beautifully showcases the performer's ruthless, foul-mouthed and surprisingly self-deprecating humor.

Her new material touches on all the Griffin trademarks: her awkward and revealing run-ins with other celebrities, her wine-swilling, blasphemous right-wing mother, and Griffins attempts to ascend the ladder of fame. The best bit comes when she re-enacts her now-infamous Creative Arts Emmy acceptance speech, in which she satirized celebs who thank Jesus when receiving an award. "No one had less to do with this award than Jesus," she famously declared. "In fact I don't even think he likes me."
Some religious groups denounced the speech, in which she also gave Jesus a fairly raunchy set of instructions and wrapped up by stating that "This award is my God now!"
In "Straight to Hell," Griffin reveals that she didn't even write the offending speech herself -- in fact, it was a friend of hers who writes for a children's show. She also not-so-shockingly says that the fall-out from the speech was "heaven," for the publicity-loving performer. Griffin even giddily displays a full-page ad taken out in USA Today by a religious theater group, speaking out against her and her speech. "I couldn't get Bravo [which airs both Griffin's specials and her Emmy-winning reality show 'Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List'] to pay for a third of this," she marvels.
She also talks at length about her repeated appearances on the ABC chatfest "The View," her stint at a roast for Larry King, and her meeting with frequent target Paula Abdul (who, it seems, handled their meeting with grace and tact).
All in all, it's an entertaining performance that will no doubt please her fans...and give her detractors more ammunition. Which, of course, is the point.

Posted by amanda on 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2007

Video games and movies -- even closer than you think

It's no secret that the link between the film industry and the video game industry is getting stronger all the time.Every time I walk into a videogame store, I see countless titles based on movies (the most unusual? A game based on the Christopher Walken ping-pong comedy "Balls of Fury"). And Hollywood responds in kind. Look at the upcoming movie based on the game "Hitman."
So why are these two forms of media so symbiotic? That's a question that's answered to some degree in the entertaining and information special "Hollywood Goes Gaming," airing 9 p.m. Monday on the cable network Starz.

The show is one of the channel's "Starz Inside" specials, and charts the impact of video games on the film industry, and vice versa. It starts with the earliest incarnation of electronic games -- the primitive-by-today's-standards "Pong," which was basically a video version of table tennis.
As graphics become more sophisticated, and games became more popular, the movie industry started taking note. Today, nearly all blockbuster films, from "Lord of the Rings" to "Transformers" have a corresponding video game. Games based on older films have also been developed, including those inspired by "Scarface," "The Godfather" and "Reservoir Dogs" (admittedly, I'm a bit curious about the last one).
Meanwhile, filmmakers have tried for decades to bring the excitement of video games to the big screen. Some have been successful (the "Tomb Raider," and "Resident Evil" series) and some have been, um, unsuccessful ("Super Mario Bros.," anyone?).
The series tells the story of the bond between movies and games with the help of multiple professionals from both worlds. Some of the funniest bits come from interviews with Uwe Boll, a filmmaker who has created a number of B-movies based on video games, including "BloodRayne."
Though his films look terrible, Boll is fervently defensive of his work -- to the point where he actually challenged his critics to boxing matches (some even took him up on the offer, as the film shows).
"Hollywood Goes Gaming" is a lot of fun, and offers a colorful view into this curious relationship.

Posted by amanda on 4:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2007

WGA strike to start on Monday

It's official: now that the Writer's Guild of America contract has expired, the guild has confirmed that it will go on strike on Monday. The guild, as many of you probably know by now, represents writers of film and television shows and had been haggling with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over such issues as residuals from DVD sales and payment for online content.
The two groups failed to come up with a mutually acceptable new contract and the guild announced Thursday that it would likely strike. Guild members met today and voted unanimously to begin a strike, the first such event in nearly 20 years. The strike will start at 12:01 a.m. Monday, according to the guild's web site (www.wgaeast.org). This is in spite of a statement posted Thursday on the alliance's web site (amptp.org), stating that they were "ready to meet and prepared to close this contract this weekend."
So what does this mean for TV viewers?

Here's a brief rundown.
-- Prepare to turn in early: Assuming that the involved parties do not meet over the weekend and settle their differences, shows such as "The Colbert Report," "The Daily Show" and "The Tonight Show" would likely be the first affected by the strike. These shows rely on topical content to fuel their monologues, thus they can't stockpile scripts in advance as primetime programs might do (more on that below). Likely, many of these shows will go into reruns. So, either brace yourself for some stale jokes on outdated issues or skip the shows all together.
-- The good news: Though primetime scripted shows on broadcast and cable TV will be affected by the strike, it will likely be a few weeks before that happens. Most series work several weeks in advance, so there will probably be enough new episodes to last until at least December. However, some of those will likely be the result of nervous producers rushing scripts into production. Did you see last night's slapped together (or so I assume) "My Name is Earl," in which the show underwhelmingly revisited last year's "Cops" gimmick? Could be a sign of things to come.
-- The bad news: If those episodes run out before the strike ends, expect to see a slew of reality shows, which will not be affected by the strike. This is good news for fans of returning reality shows, such as "American Idol." Of course, not all of the coming reality shows will be as well-known as "Idol." There are a bunch of new reality shows, just waiting to fill strike-induced gaps in the primetime schedule. And some of them sound pretty horrifying. Rumor has it that the CW is sitting on something called "Farmer Wants a Wife," in which city gals compete for the love of a young farm boy. Yeesh.
-- The upshot: If things aren't settled soon, the TV landscape could become even more barren than usual. So, my advice is to hit your area library or bookstore, join a class or, hey, spend some time with friends or loved ones.

Posted by amanda on 4:44 PM | Comments (0)