US TV

Preview: The Last Resort (ABC) 1×1

In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC. Starts September 27th
In the UK: Not yet acquired

You’ll have seen the scenario before, in films like Crimson Tide: a nuclear submarine receives the order to fire its missiles at the enemy. Will the captain have the guts to nuke the target? Will he chicken out? Or has it really all been a big mistake and war hasn’t actually been declared? It’s usually that last one.

Having not read much of the publicity material around The Last Resort, I assumed that this was going to be Crimson Tride all over again. But lo and behold, here we have something new and interesting. For now.

The Last Resort, featuring the ever-interesting Andre Braugher (last seen being wasted by House, Miami Medical and Men of a Certain Age), comes from the pen of Shawn Ryan, who can usually be relied to turn in something both interesting and manly (cf The Shield, Chicago Code, Terriers). Here, the crew of a nuclear submarine are given a suspicious order to fire nuclear missiles at Pakistan. And when the captain (Braugher) questions the order, he’s first relieved of command and then shot at… by a US ship, which goes on to nuke Pakistan itself in supposed retaliation for shooting the submarine.

So, in another interesting twist, the submarine heads off for the Caribbean and declares itself an independent nation, ready to stop the war between the US and Pakistan. And if anyone comes after them… well, there’s a silo of nuclear missiles waiting for them, too.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Preview: The Last Resort (ABC) 1×1”

Film

Google will now calculate an actor’s Bacon number for you

Kevin Bacon

Everyone knows about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon by now. In case you’re not everyone, here’s how it works. The theory is that everyone in the world (well, actors at least) is separated by no more than six other actors from Kevin Bacon. The number of degrees of separation of that actor from Kevin Bacon gives you that actor’s ‘Bacon number’. So if the actor is in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 1; if the actor appears in a movie with someone who’s been in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 2; and so on.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon has become a party game for film nerds but now Google has ruined it for everyone who has a smartphone. All you now have to do is type “Bacon number” followed by the actor’s name and Google will not only tell you the Bacon number of that person, it’ll also tell you how it worked out that number.

As a test, I typed in the names of some this ere blog’s favourite actors. Here are their Bacon numbers according to Google – turns out they’re all twos, apart from Audrey Fleurot:

  • Ali Larter: 2
    Ali Larter and Bruce McGill appeared in Obsessed
    Bruce McGill and Kevin Bacon appeared in National Lampoon’s Animal House
  • Joanna Page: 2
    Joanna Page and January Jones appeared in Love Actually
    January Jones and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class
  • David Tennant: 2
    David Tennant and James McAvoy appeared in Bright Young Things
    James McAvoy and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class.
  • Richard Armitage: 2
    Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood appeared in The Hobbit: Part 1
    Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon appeared in Beyond All Boundaries.
  • Amber Heard: 2
    Amber Heard and Emma Stone appeared in Zombieland
    Emma Stone and Kevin Bacon appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
  • Scarlett Johansson: 2
    Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray appeared in Lost in Translation
    Bill Murray and Kevin Bacon appeared in Wild Things.
  • Audrey Fleurot: 3
    Audrey Fleurot and Omar Sy appeared in Intouchables
    Omar Sy and Robert De Niro appeared in Micmacs
    Robert De Niro and Kevin Bacon appeared in Sleepers.

Give it a try with some of your favourites and let us know the answers below.

Some of the best and most famous US audition tapes, including Hugh Laurie as House

Almost every actor has to audition to get a role in a TV show – unless they’re really, really famous. Audition tapes allow producers to see what the actor would like in the role and although most audition tapes remain private, a few have escaped onto YouTube. Flavorwire has put together a collection of the best, including Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner as Arya and Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones, Seth Rogen as Ken Miller in Freaks and Geeks and Lea Michele as Rachel Berry in Glee, but I’ve put a few of them below as well:

Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad

Josh Holloway as Sawyer in Lost

Hugh Laurie as House

Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl

Cougar Town is back and here’s a song to prove it

ABC, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it wasn’t going to renew Cougar Town for a fourth season. However, TBS, normally reliably unfunny and witless, decided to buck the trend and pick up Cougar Town itself.

The show will be returning on January 8th and here’s the cast singing a song to prove it. There’s a few cameos in there, including one of the cast of Community, but also a couple of other notable people…

Thursday’s “US The Bridge, Heathers TV show, Krister Henriksson in the West End and a Donald Glover comedy” news

Film

Trailers

  • Trailer for The Oranges with Hugh Laurie, Allison Janney and Oliver Platt

Theatre

  • Wallander‘s Krister Henriksson to star in and co-direct West End production of Doktor Glas

Canadian TV

US TV

New US TV shows