Call me greedy, but when I get a little taste of good news, I can't help wanting more. Which is why, on a morning when NBC pleasantly surprises me with an early-renewal notice for the hilarious 30 Rock and the classy Peabody Awards lists among this year's honorees NBC's other best freshman show, the tremendously moving and appealing Friday Night Lights, I can't help but think the fates are aligning to give us a second season of this small-town gridiron drama as well. C'mon, NBC. Do the right thing. You know you want to.Here's how the Peabodys described Friday Night Lights in its citation: "No dramatic series, broadcast or cable, is more grounded in contemporary American reality than this clear-eyed serial about the hopes, dreams, livelihoods and egos intertwined with the fate of high-school football in a Texas town." Pretty nice, huh?Only two episodes left to go, tonight and next Wednesday. Regardless of how the Panthers play in the state championship, this show has proven itself to...
read more
Question: The final Prime Suspect has been shown here in London, and it was sensational. There was a bit of swearing in it, which added to the show. Do you think, though, that the swearing will be edited or dubbed over on the U.S. version? It would be a shame, as the swearing is used rarely and at the right moment to cause impact. The FCC and Parents Television Council don't seem to understand that sometimes sex and swearing increase the dramatic quality of a TV show. Can you imagine Tony Soprano using the word "friggin'" all the time? It just wouldn't ring true.
Answer: There were, according to WGBH, "a few small edits to bring the program into our usual length and editorial standards." But never fear. The integrity of this brilliant program shines through, at least judging from the review copy I saw. (I'm not sure if the edits were in that version; I didn't notice any gratuitously foul language, but then, I wasn't looking for it and don't always notice it.) As I noted in my review of
read more
Question: How is the Emmy chosen for best actress in a miniseries? Does the actress submit a certain block of time? Or do the voters watch the entire miniseries? I am hoping Gillian Anderson wins.
Answer: I'm assuming that those who volunteer to judge this category are sent the entire movie or miniseries and are expected to watch the entire performance. Anything less would be unfair. But since you asked, I hope that the length of Bleak House (considerably longer than any of the other nominated movies and minis) doesn't work against Gillian Anderson. Right now, this category seems a toss-up to me between her and Elizabeth I's Helen Mirren. (If I were voting, I'd go your way. Mirren was magnificent, as always, but Anderson was a revelation, and that performance still haunts me eight months after I saw it.) ...
read more
All hail Queen Helen of Mirren! This sublime actress (Prime Suspect), who radiates sensuality and sharp wit in every role, hits a dazzling career high in Elizabeth I (Saturday, April 22, and Monday, April 24, at 8 pm/ET on HBO) as one of history's greatest characters.
This never-married monarch is a woman of mercurial emotions, as wily and waspish as she is needy. "I am made of cruel passions, and when the time is right, will so act on them as to astonish the world," she declares. Then amends herself: "I have love and compassion, too. And as I punish, so can I yearn."
Does she ever. By turns of the busy plot, this Elizabeth burns with desire, bristles with ambition, explodes in petulant anger, giggles in girlish delight and weeps in despair. Mirren is magnificent as she mo
read more
