Question: Not only do I think Damages was the best new show to air this summer, I now have to say it is the best show on television! I usually can't stand it when shows do flashbacks, then revert to real time and go back and forward again. But Damages does it so well, and that device makes its stories all the more compelling. Here's my question, though: Will Damages be back for a second season? I ask because they have killed off so many of their major players; will enough cast members be left to do a second season, and if so, what storyline could they possibly come up with next? Glenn Close's performance is out-of-the-park superb. Most times Patty is cold, calculating, vindictive, cruel (remember the doggie?) and downright nasty. (Didn't we all love it when Ellen told her off and even again last week when she declined to come back to the firm?) That makes it all the more compelling when we see even the slightest humanity or compassion from her. She is riveting. Also, I've been a fan of ...
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Jerry Bruckheimer by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
Jerry "Prolific Producer" Bruckheimer, he of CSI, Cold Case, Without a Trace and Amazing Race fame (and that's just TV), has secured a pilot order from longtime landing pad CBS for an untitled drama revolving around freelance treasure hunters, the Reporter reports. Ethan Reiff, who is penning the series with his Sleeper Cell cocreator Cyrus Voris, pegs it as an "A-class network version of an archaeology adventure show," and one grounded in (arti)facts by expert consultants. "It's not Indiana Jones for television," he says. "It's more grounded, more contemporary."
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Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Question: I feel like Christmas came early this year, courtesy of Showtime and the season finales of their magnificent series Dexter and Sleeper Cell. While I fully expected the Dexter finale to feature edge-of-your-seat plot twists and the show's signature dark humor, I was unprepared for the emotional tour de force it delivered. Michael C. Hall and everyone involved with Dexter deserve major praise for making such a complex and damaged character absolutely compelling. As for Sleeper Cell: American Terror, I couldn't help feeling that the dramatic impact of the inevitable Darwyn-Farik confrontation was somewhat diluted by delaying it until the very end of this season, but I like that they left the outcome unresolved. Please tell me that there will be at least one more season of both series? Thank you!
Answer: Figured I'd start off on a positive note, in keeping with my "Happy New Year" mood this week. Where Showtime is concerned, a second season of Dexter is a slam dunk. It's the
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Question: You were right about The O.C. Ryan and Taylor are my new addiction. Tell me they're not doomed!
Answer: I don't know about doomed, but things certainly will get more complicated when Taylor's French hubby Henri Michel (Sleeper Cell's Henri Lubatti) shows up to reclaim his wife and makes a startling revelation that could drive Ryan away for good.
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Oded Fehr, Sleeper Cell: American Terror
If you think that Islamic extremist Faris Al-Farik, whose terror network's scheme to wreak explosive havoc on Los Angeles was foiled during the first season of Showtime's acclaimed Sleeper Cell, is down for the count, think again. Premiering Sunday at 9 pm/ET, and airing for eight consecutive nights, Sleeper Cell: American Terror finds Farik in U.S. captivity, but no less a force to be reckoned with. All the while, FBI agent Darwyn Al-Sayeed gets sucked into going undercover with another deadly cell. TVGuide.com asked Farik's portrayer, the compelling Oded Fehr, for a preview.
TVGuide.com: Were you concerned at all about the fate of Farik at the end of last season?Oded Fehr: Really, I didn't know where we were going. I didn't even know whether we'd have a second season.
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How provocative is Showtime these days? From the absorbing crime-family saga Brotherhood to the subversive Weeds and the twisted Dexter, the network is on a bold, exhilarating roll. It’s not the next HBO. It’s the new FX.
For more evidence, strap yourselves in for eight straight nights of unnervingly topical suspense in Sleeper Cell: American Terror, a sequel to last year’s miniseries thriller. Reminiscent of 24 but about a dozen times more realistic (though dramatically more uneven), this takes you inside a terrorist network while showing Muslims from multiple angles: progressive, extremist, with even a gay subplot.
Our returning hero is Darwyn (the charismatic Michael Ealy), a Muslim FBI agent drawn back into an undercover assignment to lead a fractio
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Showtime will debut Season 2 of Sleeper Cell: American Terror, starring Oded Fehr and Michael Ealy, on Dec. 10. That same day, all eight episodes will be made available on Showtime On Demand.... Oxygen has ordered a second season of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, which will be expanded to an hourlong series, premiering in January and preceded by the holiday special Christmas with the Dickinsons. (Sample dialogue: "Aunt Ruby, can you pass the Botox?")
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Question: You made a comment recently about Showtime series' poor ratings. I became a subscriber last year after reading about their new shows (Weeds, Sleeper Cell, Masters of Horror) and instantly became a fan of Showtime. So why are the ratings so bad? TV critics seem to like these series, and I'm sure Showtime has quite a few subscribers, though not as many as HBO. Is it because Showtime has yet to find that mainstream, smash-hit series? Do you think Dexter could be that show?
Answer: If there's any justice, Dexter will be Showtime's equivalent of FX's Nip/Tuck, a show so bold, bizarre and shocking, yet so riveting and original that it will generate buzz while polarizing the audience, many of whom will be unable to stomach the premise. (Dexter, played by Six Feet Under's Michael C. Hall, is a serial killer who targets only bad guys, though he's completely amoral and has to fake human emotion during his day job as a forensic blood-spatter analyst in Miami.) It's a wild show, for sure,
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Question: Is this the end of the HBO dynasty? I mean, HBO really set the standard for cable programming by having a small lineup of great shows and showcasing them one or two at a time (a formula that FX is using quite successfully). Now I'm wondering if it has fallen asleep at the wheel. While Showtime and FX are preparing shows such as Rescue Me, The Shield, Weeds and Sleeper Cell, HBO seems to be canceling a show every other month. Am I paranoid, or does the channel have some sort of master plan that no one knows about? Because if my math is correct, by the year 2008 The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome and The Wire will all be gone.
Answer: I think it's fair to say that HBO is in a slump, and with more franchises nearing the ends of their runs, the network does need to step up and create another breakout show or two. I love Entourage, but it seems to lack the cultural oomph of Sex and the City — and I'm sorry, but Big Love is not the sort of show to build a network night around. Even wit ...
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As long as Lost and Brokeback Mountain won the big awards, which they did, anything else that happened at the historically random (and often, randomly hilarious) Golden Globes was gravy to me.
What I love about the Golden Globes as a TV show is the rare opportunity to see movie and TV stars — or, in the case of Felicity Huffman, one and the same — share the spotlight. After all, where would a multinominated movie star and director like George Clooney be without TV having made him what he is? And then there's Geena Davis, resplendent in red and accepting her Commander in Chief Globe with a hilarious mock anecdote of how inspiring her presidential role is to some little girl she made up. She has gone from TV to movies (and an
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