Mad Men
On Sunday's Mad Men, two of the show's strongest female characters decided what they were worth — in two very different ways.
Summer preview: Get scoop on the summer's must-see new shows
Let's start with the sadder (and perhaps less believable) of the two story lines. Joan (Christina Hendricks) has always been the "dynamite redhead" with whom many an adman and client would kill to spend a night. As such, Herb, the head of the dealers association, who perhaps senses Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's desperation to win the Jaguar account, demands Joan's sexual services as a way to persuade him to vote SCDP's way....
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Joshua Jackson
Only one world will survive in the Fringe season finale.
In the two-hour episode, airing on May 11, David Robert Jones (Jared Harris) will try to destroy the two universes to create a new one that he'll control. And from the looks of it in the trailer below, William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) is alive and helping him.
Fox renews Fringe for 13 episodes
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Vincent Kartheiser
This week in TV was as notable for the legends who left us as for what actually happened on TV in the last full week before the May sweeps begin (next Thursday). So let's start there, acknowledging two figures who loomed large in my formative years of being weaned on TV.
It's impossible to imagine TV without Dick Clark, the genial host and canny impresario...
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Jessica Pare
Mad Men's Season 5 premiere featured one scene everybody's talking about.
Mad Men creator on Season 5 premiere: Megan has power over Don
During a surprise 40th birthday party for Don (Jon Hamm), his new bride Megan (Jessica Pare) treated him to a sultry rendition of "Zou Bisou Bisou." A digital download of Pare's version of the song...
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Fringe, Joshua Jackson
The question of whether Peter does indeed need to find his way home — or, as some theories have suggested, he's already there — will finally be answered in this week's episode of Fringe.
With eight episodes remaining before the season finale — and hopefully not the series finale — what will Peter's journey now look like? TVGuide.com turned to executive producer Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman to get the scoop. Plus: The "X" man returns!
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Mad Men
It's been so long since Mad Men was on the air that it feels as though the show actually shot in the 1960s. We don't care to dwell on the contract negotiations that delayed it. What's important is that Don, Roger, Peggy, Pete, Joan, Betty, Lane, Sally and the rest of that impeccably groomed, highly dysfunctional crowd are back. With Season 5 premiering in a two-hour episode on March 25, TV Guide Magazine sat down with the cast — and creator Matthew Weiner — in Los Angeles to try to pry some secrets out of them and chat about why the wait was worth it.
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The Walking Dead
So much coming and going in the volatile, fragile world of fantasy/horror TV. Once again, we're bidding adieu to Fox's freaky Fringe (Friday, 9/8c) for a month.
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Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson
Olivia has been kidnapped. Peter still hasn't found a way home. And David Robert Jones is running amok in both universes.
These are just a few of the problems the Fringe crew faces in this week's new episode, "The End of All Things" — which also happens to be the final episode for nearly a month. As Peter (Joshua Jackson) attempts to recover his lost love — new timeline Olivia (Anna Torv), to be clear — he'll come face-to-face with the man who once saved his life: the mysterious Observer known as September (Michael Cerveris), who will offer up a wealth of answers as to who the Observers truly are. Here are five teases from Friday's episode to whet your appetite:
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Jasika Nicole
Finally, after four seasons of Fringe, Astrid is stepping into the spotlight when the Astrids from both universes come together.
Early in Fringe's run, Astrid's conspicuously minimal dialogue became the topic of many a wager -- with fans betting how many lines she'd have in an episode -- and even spawned a drinking game in which viewers would take a drink every time Astrid was in a scene, but never spoke a word.
"It's a great drinking game," portrayer Jasika Nicole jokes, but cautions that her juicy story line in Friday's episode won't be offering opportunities for audience inebriation. "You are going to be so sober by the end of [Friday's] episode, you might even be disappointed."
TVGuide.com caught up with Nicole to find out what's in store for the Astrids' meeting, the David Robert Jones (Jared Harris) showdown and Peter's timeline troubles...
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Carl Lumbly
This was a good week for welcoming back familiar and much-missed talent to some very good shows. Let's start with one of cable's underdogs, TNT's gritty and gripping police drama Southland, which introduced Carl Lumbly (who'll always be Dixon from Alias to me) as the squad's militaristic new captain, Brucker. "Our job just got harder," grumbles one of the grunts. Bad for him, good for Southland. Pledging to command a pro-active patrol, with Mickey D applications at the ready for those who screw up, Brucker's mantra is: "We protect! We serve! And we kick a— till we smell s---!" Yeah, he's that kind of boss.
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