"It's not UN-weird," says the solemn and seriously disoriented Daniel Holden (a revelatory Aden Young), who's adjusting to life outside of prison after 19 years on death row, to which he was sentenced as a teen for a murder that new evidence suggests he may not have committed. Impeccably written and acted, quietly suspenseful, almost unbearably sad in its aching poignancy, Sundance Channel's six-hour drama series Rectify explores the impact of freedom on the overwhelmed Daniel, his grateful yet apprehensive family and the hostile Georgia small town that still condemns him.
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A&E has ordered a second season of freshman drama Bates Motel, the network announced Monday.
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Usually, Richard Castle's overactive imagination is a good thing — so good that as he helps his NYPD buddies solve scores of murders, you often wonder how they'd ever get along without him. In the set-up for Castle's clever lark of a 100th episode on ABC (Monday, 10:01/9:01c), they're forced to go solo as Castle (Nathan Fillion in rare form) stews in boredom in his apartment, nursing a busted leg. Until he picks up his new birthday binoculars and goes all Jimmy Stewart-in-Rear Window, convinced he's witnessed a murder across the street, eventually drawing his beloved Beckett and intrepid daughter Alexis into the Hitchcockian-homage intrigue. The more agitated Castle gets, the more skeptical everyone else becomes, and as the twists and comically suspenseful close calls pile up, leading to yet another chewing-out by that spoilsport Capt. Gates, we're treated to an entertaining object lesson in the "seeing isn't believing" playbook. Well done, including the timely subplot involving the murder of an IRS agent which, even when chair-bound, Castle can't help inadvertently helping his friends figure out.
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Dancing with the Stars' Season 16 premiere topped Monday, leading ABC to an easy win.
The two-hour episode drew 16.8 million viewers and a 3.1 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic. It's down four-tenths from last spring's opener, but up 24 percent over the fall's low-rated All-Stars premiere. The show delivered ABC's biggest audience and second-highest rating in the time period since April, according to the network.
TV Scorecard: What's renewed? What's canceled?
Lead-out Castle (11 million, 2.2) was down a tenth from its last ...
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Psychos are enjoying a TV renaissance, with The Following's poisonously seductive Joe Carroll setting the tone for the creepy comebacks of two of the most infamous fiends in all of pop culture. In a few weeks, NBC will reintroduce audiences to the ravenously deranged Hannibal (as in Lecter), and in case that makes you think about taking a shower, you might want to reconsider, because ...
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