31 actors and actresses who were in Law & Order and Orange is the New Black, too

Law & Order in all its various guises has been going on for decades. By now, pretty much every actor and actress in the US must have worked in it or Criminal Intent or Special Victims Unit at some point.

In fact, despite Orange Is The New Black only having run on Netflix for two seasons, all 31 of the core cast members have appeared in Law & Order at some point. And here’s a video to prove it.

That should give Toby something to think about…

[via]

The Weekly Play

The Wednesday Play: The Cherry Orchard (1962/1981)

Chekov’s last play was The Cherry Orchard, a typically cheery little number in which an aristocratic Russian woman (Madame Lyubov Andreievna Ranevskaya) and her family return to their family estate – which includes a large cherry orchard – just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. The family is given several options to save the estate, but essentially does nothing, resulting in it sale to a serf and the demise of the orchard, in an allegory for the futility of the Russian aristocracy’s early 20th century attempts to preserve its status.

The great thing about plays, of course, is not only can they be re-staged time after time, the same actors can come back to them at later stages of their lives, offering different interpretations, perhaps even of different characters. For example, in a televised version of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1962 production, Dame Judi Dench played Anya, Madame Ranevskaya’s daughter, alongside John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Dorothy Tutin. And in 1981 BBC production, she played Madame Ranevskaya herself, alongside Bill Paterson and Timothy Spall. And you can watch them both below to compare and contrast. As always, if you like them, buy them on DVD.

Iranian Modern Family turns out not to be very modern

Believe it or not, there is an Iranian version of Modern Family. No, really, it’s true. It’s not official – in fact, it’s decidely unlicensed, but you can do the math on the relationship between copyright, Iran and the US – yet Haft Sang/Seven Stones, which airs on the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, not only has a very similar set-up also borrows a lot of the original’s scripts, although some have been changed so that men and women aren’t alone together unless they’re married.

For your delectation, here’s a video that compares them, side by side. However, before you watch, do you want to have a guess which big change has been made so that two of the characters aren’t identikit copies of the originals? Shouldn’t take you long…

[via]

Constantine
US TV

Preview: Constantine 1×1 (NBC)


In the US: Fridays, 10/9c, NBC. Starts October 24

I was remarking only yesterday how DC comics and adaptations in other media now have something of a reputation for gloomy grittiness. When did this start, you might wonder, given how light and breezy the 1980s Superman and 1990s Batman movies were (yes, they were. Don’t argue)? Some might argue it was Denny O’Neil’s Batman strips. Others might point to the mid-80s decision by DC to try to appeal more to adults than children with its comics, which led to ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’. 

But it probably began with a strand of DC comic-writing that began in the 80s and blossomed in the 90s with DC’s ‘Vertigo’ imprint, which was intended for ‘mature readers’. Many of Vertigo’s creations are still with us: Shade the Changing Man, Animal Man and Doom Patrol still crop up in DC Comics, although most people haven’t heard of them. They will almost certainly have heard of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman – indeed, it’s the creation that introduced the world to Gaiman and even now, movie producers are trying to come up with a way to adapt it that can feature Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The other Vertigo character of note is John Constantine. Not truly a Vertigo original – Alan Moore created Constantine as an escort for another future Vertigo character, Swamp Thing, during that mid-80s ‘Crisis’ – it was nevertheless Vertigo and writer Jamie Delano who turned Constantine from a chain-smoking, trenchcoat-wearing, petty London street thug and Sting-lookalike with a certain knowledge of the occult into one of DC’s most popular, authentic and powerful characters in Hellblazer. Since then, Constantine has gone on to fight demons, devils and angels in his own comic, Constantine, as well as heading Justice League Dark. He’s even appeared in a movie of his own, played by no lesser and no less an inappropriate actor than Keanu Reeves:

Now NBC, which scored something of a critical, if not ratings success with ‘elegant horror’ show Hannibal, is trying to branch out into more conventional horror with its own version of John Constantine. Vastly more faithful visually and culturally than the movie, and drawing considerably on Delano’s Hellblazer run for its plot, NBC’s Constantine is nevertheless a horror show exemplified by the fact that its bad boy protagonist isn’t allowed to smoke on network TV in case it sends the wrong message.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Preview: Constantine 1×1 (NBC)”

US TV

Review: The Leftovers 1×1 (HBO/Sky Atlantic)


In the US: Sundays, 10pm, HBO
In the UK: Aquired by Sky Atlantic. Will air in September

TV is filled with death. For many shows, it’s their staple. What would 24 or Banshee be without their epic body counts? Would everyone love Game of Thrones as much were it not for its regular game of ‘Guess who’s going to pop their clogs this season’? Probably not.

In the real world, though, death generally isn’t quite as desirable, even if it is inevitable. The effects of someone’s death are almost always huge, traumatic and life-changing for those who know them. Religion can provide some comfort for the bereaved. It can even provide some answers as to why death happens at all. TV shows that remember this are few and far between.

So in many ways, The Leftovers is unusual and innovative. Adapted by Tom Perrotta, Lost‘s Damon Lindelof and Friday Night Lights’ Peter Berg from Perrotta’s book of the same name, it takes the Christian concept of the Rapture – in which the true believers in Jesus are taken up into the sky to be with God, leaving behind everyone to be judged before Jesus’s second coming – and gives it a slight twist. What if 2% of the world’s population just vanished, leaving everyone else behind, with no explanation for their departure? What would those remaining behind do? How would they feel? And without angels coming down to explain everything and given that some of that 2% include some very bad people indeed, not just the blessed – I mean, Gary Busey was one of those who disappeared. Gary Busey – could people even be sure it was God and not aliens or some bizarre space-time accident that caused the disappearance?

The answer to this existential dilemma, it appears, is be largely miserable, dull and nihilistic. Strangely, in fact, it seems like the animals have a better idea about what’s going on than the humans do.

Here’s a trailer. If you’re in the US, though, you can watch the whole of the first episode over on Yahoo.

Continue reading “Review: The Leftovers 1×1 (HBO/Sky Atlantic)”