An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.
True Blood stars do a Depeche Mode video
Look, it’s all the stars of HBO’s vampire show True Blood in a video for the always cheery Depeche Mode’s song ‘Corrupt’
[via]
US TV
Monday’s UK CBS news
Doctor Who
- Guess who’s been spotted on set [spoiler?]
Film
- So much Disney news
- James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn to star in Robert Redford’s Lincoln assassination movie The Conspirator
- East is East to get a sequel: West is West
- Gabriel Macht, Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt join Ed Zwick romcom Love and Other Drugs
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan joins Red Dawn remake
- Arnie, Bruce Willis and Sly Stallone shoot a scene together for The Expendables
British TV
- STV defends dropping ITV1 dramas
- CBS to launch six channels in the UK
- Product placement to be allowed in British TV shows
US TV
- Trailer for Hanks/Spielberg’s HBO mini-series The Pacific
- Julian Sands to play middle-aged Jor-El on Smallville
- Vampire Diaries gets largest ever ratings for a CW premiere
- ABC orders pilots of 18 Years, a sitcom from Samantha Who?‘s Don Todd and a remake of Gavin & Stacey
- TBS renews My Boys
- ABC Family orders 10 more episodes of 10 Things I Hate About You, cancels Ruby and the Rockits
- Eric McCormack gets a sitcom pilot
US TV
Review: The Vampire Diaries 1×1
In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, The CW
In the UK: Acquired by ITV2
I am not a tweenie. I am not a teenager. I am definitely not a teenage girl.
So The Vampire Diaries is not aimed at me. It is not my show. So when I describe it as “very bad”, you might be tempted to think the problem is with me. That I don’t get it.
You might be right, but I do love my Gossip Girl and Privileged and a whole host of other programmes that aren’t aimed at me either. I can spot quality, I think, even in this area.
And I can spot a lack of it, too. Because, you see, The Vampire Diaries is very bad. Not supremely awful, but enough to make you almost want to take your own life rather than watch it.
Leverage homages Ocean’s 11
TNT’s Leverage is of course basically an attempt to do a slightly less cool, funnier version of Ocean’s 11 for the small screen. So it was heartening to see last week’s episode, The Ice Man Job, homage Ocean’s 11 in an oblique sort of way – by taking the piss out of Don Cheadle’s accent.
At first, I thought it was just one of those typically bad British accents that US TV occasionally puts out – not as much as it used to, mind – confident in the knowledge that few people will care or even notice (cf Burn Notice). But as various characters started to take the piss, it became obvious that in fact, it was deliberately bad. Anyway, see/hear for yourselves: it’s a laugh.
Oh, and I’ve followed that with a clip of the character, Hardison, speaking in his normal Texan accent, just for comparison. And because it contains Rob’s GBE list member, Beth Riesgraf, at her best.
Friday’s “no more imports?” news
Film
- Jeff Bridges to star in Coen Brothers remake of True Grit?
- Sam Trammell to star with Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Laura Linney in Details
- Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman to reunite for Hancock 2
- Warner Bros pulls out of He-Man film
- Timothy Dalton joins Toy Story 3
Theatre
- Peter Davison and Jill Halfpenny join Legally Blonde: The Musical
British TV
- Royal wedding to be backdrop to BBC2 drama set in Wales
- Derren Brown to front C4 web series debunking psychics
- Mad Men and Heroes could be dropped in cost-cutting exercise by Beeb
Canadian TV
- The Saint to be remade with Dougray Scott by Brightlight Pictures
German TV
- William Hurt and Ethan Hawke to star in Moby Dick
US TV
- Maura Tierney drops out of Parenthood