Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron
This was another wrenching week in our nation's history when sudden tragedy galvanizes the country's attention, and all eyes (often fueled nowadays by social media) turn to TV for the latest developments — for better or sometimes worse, given the get-it-first-and-maybe-even-right nature of the 24/7 news cycle. We'll never forget those images of horror and heroism issuing from Boston, such is the nature of the medium and the immediacy of the message.
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Wendell Pierce
Money makes the world go 'round, but on the third season of HBO's Treme, it just makes life in post-Katrina New Orleans that much harder.
"The first season you saw the people come back," co-creator David Simon tells TVGuide.com. "The second season, the problems began to come back. And this third season, some money and some opportunity starts to present itself. But in this country, nothing is free and nothing is without strings. Everything is a hard choice."
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Charlie Sheen
It's something of a crying shame that the new comedy getting the most attention tonight (buzz-wise, though certainly not critically), and which almost certainly will attract the widest audience (of morbidly curious rubber-neckers, but who's counting) is by far the least worthy of attention or respect.
We're talking, of course, about Anger Management, bowing on FX with back-to-back episodes (9/8c) following a 12-hour marathon of Two and a Half Men repeats (starting at 9 am/8c) selected — so we're told — by Charlie Sheen himself.
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Rebirth
Most everyone remembers where they were 10 years ago on September 11, as we watched the horrific images and stories unfold. A decade later, many will gather in front of the TV again to watch, remember, reflect — and the broadcast and cable networks are offering a wide range of specials to put the tragedy in perspective.
But there's plenty else happening on TV this weekend. Here's my take on some of the more notable highlights, including the major 9/11 programming:
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Eva La Rue
Eva La Rue has joined the growing list of All My Children alumni returning to the ABC soap before it goes off the air in September.
Earlier this week, the show announced that it had also snagged star Josh Duhamel (Las Vegas, Transformers). He'll be back for at least one episode in August, reprising the role of Leo du Pres, who died in 2003. Thorsten Kaye (Zach Slater) and Cady McClain (Dixie Cooney Martin), both of whom play characters who are now deceased, will also return.
La Rue, who currently stars in CBS' CSI: Miami, will be back for several episodes beginning in July.
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Josh Duhamel
Josh Duhamel is returning to his TV roots: The Transformers star will appear on All My Children before the soap goes off the air for good, TVGuide.com has confirmed.
Duhamel got his start on the ABC soap, playing Leo du Pres, a con artist who apparently died in 2003, though his body was...
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Melissa Leo
Melissa Leo spent many weekends during the early part of this year staying in fancy hotel suites and accepting awards in ballrooms full of her fellow actors — no doubt the high point in her career.
Meanwhile, during the week, on the set of HBO's Treme, she slipped back into the skin of civil liberties lawyer Toni Bernette, a character no doubt at her lowest point following the post-Hurricane Katrina depression and eventual suicide of her husband, Creighton (John Goodman).
The beat goes on: Treme settles in for the "long haul" of Season 2
"Going back to Toni grounded me," Leo told TVGuide.com....
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Wendell Pierce
In an early episode of Treme's second season, a disc jockey asks one of the show's musician characters how his new album is selling. "Selling?" the musician replies in almost disbelief. "It's jazz, man."
The dialogue is a perfect metaphor for the HBO drama, whose co-creators, The Wire's David Simon and Eric Overmyer, have always favored atmosphere and character over plot. Like that incredulous musician, Simon is more concerned with art than television ratings, because he says it's the...
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Matt Smith and Karen Gillan
Supernatural (Friday, 9/8c, The CW)
Winchesters, meet Colt! As in: the real Samuel Colt, whose infamous demon-destroying gun has loomed large throughout Supernatural's mythology. This week, Dean gets to play cowboy — Sam is less thrilled — when Castiel sends the brothers back in time to the Wild West to get some guidance from the proverbial horse's mouth. Speaking of weapons, over on Fox's Fringe in the same time period, an apocalyptic scenario is triggered when Walternate revs up the doomsday device "over there," in hopes of rocking our (and specifically Peter's) world.
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Evan Rachel Wood and Kate Winslet
It's the kind of role an actress would kill for — it won Joan Crawford a 1945 Oscar and is likely to reap Emmy and other honors for Kate Winslet — but I wish I could say HBO's deluxe but draggy miniseries redo of Mildred Pierce was to die for.
"From now on, honey, you're fast." So says a jaded neighbor lady (newly minted Oscar winner Melissa Leo) to Mildred, left by her failure of a husband to raise two girls alone in the Depression, as the unhappy Mrs. Pierce considers taking her hubby's lumpy business partner as a lover.
Mildred begs to differ. She's desperate, but not...
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