An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.
US TV
Look! It’s that Breaking Bad terrarium you’ve always wanted
Where are you going to put it?
US TV
Friday’s “Damian Lewis in Vicar of Dibley, Veronica Mars movie gets go-ahead and Martin Clunes joins Strike Back” news
Film
- Veronica Mars film raises $2m on Kickstarter, gets go-ahead for 2014 release
Film casting
- Vincent D’Onofrio joins The Judge
UK TV
- Domino’s funding online football-themed sitcom [subscription required]
- Damian Lewis to appear in Comic Relief Vicar of Dibley sketch
- Martin Clunes, Robson Green, Dougray Scott and Milauna Jackson join Strike Back
- Netflix acquires third season of The Killing (US)
US TV
New US TV shows
- New trailer for NBC’s Hannibal [US only]
New US TV show casting
- Sean Astin to co-star in CBS’s Surgeon General
- Al Madrigal joins NBC’s About A Boy, Rossif Sutherland to play Nostradamus on The CW’s Reign, Brenda Koo joins Fox’s Delirium
- Christopher Meloni joins Fox’s I Suck At Girls
- Kathleen Robertson and Taye Diggs to star in TNT’s Murder In The First
- Adam Rodriguez joins CBS’s Reckless…
- …as does Gregory Harrison, plus casting on ABC’s Westside and NBC’s Undateable
- Mandy Moore joins CBS’s The Advocates
- Fox’s The List swaps roles, Hilarie Burton joins
- Ginger Gonzaga replaces Mercedes Masohn on ABC’s Mixology
- Casting on NBC’s The Blacklist and AMC’s Halt & Catch Fire
- Casting on Fox’s Boomerang, and The CW’s The Selection and Company Town
Thursday’s “An Avengers stage show, a Kick Ass 2 trailer, Kristin Davis returns to TV and other Doctor Who producer leaves” news
Doctor Who
- Caroline Skinner steps down as exec producer
Film casting
- Jared Harris joins Pompeii
- Leslie Mann joins The Other Woman
Trailers
- Trailer for Kick Ass 2 [NSFW]
Theater
- The Avengers: the stage show?
New US TV shows
US TV casting
- Jonathan Del Arco promoted on Major Crimes, Colton Haynes promoted on Arrow
- John Stamos to recur on Necessary Roughness
- Ken Jeong to guest star on Sullivan and Son
- Dylan O’Brien to guest on New Girl
New US TV shows
- Comedy Central green lights: Broad City
New US TV show casting
- Kristin Davis joins CBS’s Bad Teacher
- Ewen Bremner joins Showtime’s The Vatican
- Jane Kaczmarek to play Gavin’s mum in Fox’s Gavin & Stacey remake Friends & Family + other pilot casting
- Adam Goldberg joins ABC’s Divorce: A Love Story, Diego Klattenhoff joins NBC’s The Blacklist + other pilot casting
- Dermot Mulroney joins NBC spy drama
- Majandro Delfino moves from ABC’s Keep Calm and Karey On to CBS’s Friends With Better Lives, Nicky Whelan joins TBS’s Do It Yourself
- Daija Owens joins NBC’s Brenda Forever
- Casting on ABC’s Westside and Fox’s Two Wrongs
- Casting on ABC’s Bad Management
Wednesday’s “Karl Urban goes back to TV, Alfred Molina goes back to comedy and Sherlock goes for a 4th season” news
Film
- Sony to adapt 70s sitcom Good Times
Film casting
- Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore to reunite for romcom
Canadian TV
- Hugh Dillon to guest on Continuum
UK TV
- Sherlock confirmed for a fourth season
- BBC4 acquires Arne Dahl and Inspector Da Luca
- Monday ratings
US TV
- Sunday’s cable ratings
- Monday’s ratings
- Monday’s cable ratings: Dallas hits season high
- Ratings: NBC drops to third place for 2012-2013
US TV casting
- Marion Ross to guest on The Middle
New US TV shows
- Sundance orders The Descendants [subscription required]
- TBS developing Clipsters, Showtime working on servants comedy
New US TV show casting
- James Spader to star in NBC’s The Blacklist
- Karl Urban and Minka Kelly to star in Fox’s Human
- Kristen Schaal to replace Mandy Moore on ABC’s Pulling remake
- Louise Lombard to star in The CW’s The Selection
- Tom Berenger to star in Fox’s Gang Related
- Ann Cusack joins NBC’s Girlfriend in a Coma, John Billingsley joins CBS’s Intelligence
- Alfred Molina to star in NBC’s Assistance
- Kate Walsh to star in NBC’s Bad Judge?
- Skeet Ulrich to star in CBS’s Anatomy of Violence
- Kristoffer Polaha joins CBS’s Backstrom, Kelly Hu joins The CW’s The 100
- Jason Jones joins ABC’s Divorce: A Love Story, Ryan Eggold joins NBC’s The Blacklist, Anna Wood joins CBS’s Reckless + other pilot casting
- Stephen Lang to star in ABC’s Reckless (yes, there are two of them)
- Christina Cole to star in CBS’s Second Sight, Kerry Bishe joins AMC’s Halt & Catch Fire
- Michael Huisman to star in NBC’s The Sixth Gun
- Stella Maeve to star in The CW’s Company Town, Heather Lind to star in AMC’s Turn
- Casting on NBC’s Holding Patterns, Believe and Rand Ravich drama
- Casting on The CW’s Reign and The 100
US TV
Mini-review: Golden Boy 1×1 (CBS)
In the US: Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS
Not really worth a full-on review, since it’s so perfectly generic, I could recycle practically any other review I’ve ever written of a CBS cop drama and it would say more or less the same thing.
The basic idea is that the Robert Kennedy-alike Walter William Clark Jr (Theo James, who could see dead people in Sky Living’s horror show Bedlam) will become the youngest police commissioner in New York City history seven years from now, and when he’s interviewed about how he got to the top so quickly, we see in flashback the events that transpired along the way.
And it’s incredibly, incredibly generic. We have the slobby black partner a couple of years from retirement (Chi McBridge) and the ambitious backstabbing detective who’s intent on sabotaging Clark Jr’s obviously inevitable career trajectory (Kevin Alejandro from Southland). We have a token female detective who’s somewhere on the moral spectrum between those two. We have a wayward sister for our hero to look after.
All of which might be excusable if there were decent plots. But for a Golden Boy, he ain’t half stupid. There is literally no obvious insight that he can’t make, no obvious act of backstabbing that he won’t miss. The show should more probably be called Earnest Boy, because this isn’t a political animal like Robert Kennedy in the making (which someone who rose that quickly up the career ladder would really need to be).
So although, as with all CBS dramas, it is competently made, has a decent degree of verisimilitude and looks great, ignore it.