Archive for category TV
Devious Maids: TV review
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on June 5, 2013
We’re starting with a cliché. A maid murdered in the first few minutes of episode one of Devious Maids. This maid happened to be involved with the husband. Before her extravagant pool party, the wife confronts the maid about her dalliance with her husband. Minutes later the maid, in uniform of course, falls into the pool bloodying the water around her. Dead. A waiter at the party, possibly framed, gets arrested for the crime. This murder mystery will stream through the episodes.
“I’ve never met a maid who doesn’t have an accent.”
Quickly moving into other stereotypes. Latinas as maids. Jealous and scheming Latinas. Carmen [the way-too-pretty-to-be-a-maid Roselyn Sanchez, Without a Trace] took her maid job for a high-profile singer in order to advance her own singing career. Not quite sure how she intends this to happen but she’s already having trouble getting through his personal assistant. Loading up her songs on his iPod? Busted. Putting her CD on his breakfast tray. Foiled again. Rosie [Dania Ramírez] works for two overly-demanding and scheming actors. She longs to bring her son to the United States and worries about losing her visa. Marisol [Ana Ortiz, Ugly Betty] has a big secret. She’s working undercover for her own family to find out who really killed the maid. Zoila [Judy Reyes, Scrubs] works alongside her daughter Valentina [Edy Ganem] for the needy and sensitive Genevieve Delatour [(Susan Lucci, All My Children] and her cute son Remi [Drew Van Acker, Pretty Little Liars]. When she discovers her daughter’s crush on Remi, Zoila says: “Rich boys never fall in love with the help.”
“I may unclog drains for a living but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.” –Marisol
Executive produced by Eva Longoria and Marc Cherry [Desperate Housewives], the first two episodes show tremendous promise due to a talented cast and juicy storylines. It’s possible this may go the way of Desperate Housewives and just become way too far-fetched. Maybe that’s just what people want on Lifetime during the summer. It definitely feels like a Mexican telenovela. For now, despite a few cringe-worthy moments, these characters make you root for them to move beyond housework. In the meantime there’s a plethora of class and cultural differences to scour through.
Sneak peek of Devious Maids will be available in English and Spanish on myLifetime.com and the Lifetime video watch app on June 9.
Devious Maids premieres Sunday, June 23 at 10PM ET/PT on Lifetime.
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Choice Quotes: TV
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on May 31, 2013
“I’m an adult now. I work two part-time jobs. Hello.”
–Andy, Parks and Recreation
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Lifetime TV movie review: Ring of Fire
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, TV on May 27, 2013
Apart from her famous spouse Johnny Cash, June Carter led an intriguing musical life. The first 20 minutes of the movie show June’s early singing career with her mom “Mom Maybelle” [played by the talented Frances Conroy] and the Carter Family. It glosses over the years she sang with her sisters and her own vaudevillian comedic/singing act. More of June’s life pre-Johnny would’ve added depth and range to this movie. Anyone who saw Walk the Line will recognize June Carter Cash’s story — the decades-long romance between June Carter [Jewel] and Johnny Cash, particularly the rocky times when Johnny Cash struggles with his addiction to pills.
During a show at The Grand Ole Opry, June meets Johnny Cash backstage. Six years later she’s on tour with Cash and married for the second time. One night, June comes home to her race driver husband. She sends him off to bed and stays up writing “Ring of Fire” on her acoustic guitar. There’s not quite enough chemistry between Jewel and Matt Ross. It’s not palpitating as one expects. If June Carter’s driven to write a song about Johnny Cash while her husband sleeps, audiences need to see it, feel it on the screen and it’s just lacking. Also the movie doesn’t get into her first two marriages and her daughters hardly garner enough screen time for credits. Based on the book Anchored in Love: An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash by John Carter Cash, the movie focuses on June’s relationship to her son and not to her daughters from previous marriages.
Jewel sings confidently and brings tenderness to the role. She’s putting in the effort to show emotional range. There’s a particularly effective, moving scene when June finds Johnny at home extremely high with things smashed completely around him. She packs her things to leave with their son John Carter who discovers his father passed out. June holds an intervention in his hospital room. Directed by Allison Anders [Grace of My Heart], the movie’s got heart with some vibrant musical segments; it just needed to delve a bit farther in order to show more facades to June.
Ring of Fire premieres Monday, May 27, 2013, at 9 pm ET/PT on Lifetime.
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Choice Quote: Parks and Recreation
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on May 26, 2013
“I’m gonna go buy sweatpants and a Nicholas Sparks novel. I might as well lean in to it.”
–Tom, s5.ep20
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MAD MEN: the fashion
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on May 7, 2013
Megan Draper [Jessica Pare] wears the best clothes– vibrant, hip, fun and lovely. Peggy Olson [Elisabeth Moss] has stepped up her look to reflect her career advancement. More professional and flattering. Better color choices. I also like some of what Trudy [Alison Brie] wears. Costume Designer Katherine Jane Bryant does a brilliant job bringing the 60s to the small screen on Mad Men.
MEGAN:
PEGGY:
TRUDY:
THE GUYS of MAD MEN:
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Project Runway S11.Ep13: RECAP
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on April 22, 2013
Final Four– Michelle, Stanley, Patricia and Daniel have gone home to create collections. They’ll be judged on three looks from their collection. Only three will be able to show at New York Fashion Week.
–I thought Michelle definitely had the best designs and vision. I liked her color palate and lone wolf theme. I’m not sure Patricia should even BE in the Final Four. She never won any challenges! I wanted Samantha in the finals. Daniel does design some outdated looks although he’s so sweet and enthusiastic about everything. Stanley’s been the threat from the beginning in his mind and according to other designers too. He’s been so confident throughout the show. He seems to have lost some steam here. We do find out on his home visit he tried out for PR three times.
Michelle
–inspired by lone wolf
“When I looked at this, I thought there’s a lot going on. And I like it.” –Heidi Klum
“I feel like you created a universe here. I like that it goes casual to more dressy.” –Zac Posen
Daniel
–inspired by moon, Germany, sting ray
“I’ve seen this dress from you before. It just doesn’t feel that sophisticated.” –Zac Posen
“I feel that when you are going to have an all-black collection it’s going to be able the shape or the drama. I’m worried that I don’t see any color or I don’t see any shape.” –Nina Garcia
“It’s too tame. It’s not unusual and I like you. It’s not interesting enough.” –Heidi Klum
Patricia
—encompass a lot of new materials I tried to use like horse hair. I find it a celebration of silhouettes that are very festive.
“My favorite piece here is the jacket. It’s rocking. It’s awesome. I also love this blue dress. My next question is how cohesive would your collection be?” –Heidi
“The details that are very special are being overshadowed by so much.” –Nina
“I don’t think she’s ready yet. There’s a lot of ideas. She needs to clean it up.” –Nina
“To me she has the most potential because the ideas are so original. I’m looking at something that combines history craft and originality.” –Zac
“It would be so sad for the people at home to see what else she’s made. I would much rather see her show than one of the snooze boys.” –Heidi
Stanley
—”I wanted to keep my simple shapes and apply simple textures upon textures. I built a loom.”
“I think you had the same problem as Daniel. I think you didn’t have enough ideas. Where is the wow.” –Heidi
“Your looks are cohesive. There’s a lot of texture to your collection. You need to inject texture to these clothes. But that’s just in the styling.” –Nina
“This is your one opportunity to bring your vision out to the world. It is chic banal.” –Zac
“I think his clothing is impeccably made. The proportions and styling is way off. From what I’ve seen from the rest of the season, he’s way off.” –Zac
“He needs some modern pieces.” –Nina
Daniel is OUT
Michelle, Stanley and Patricia will be showing at New York Fashion Week
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Lifetime TV movie review: CALL ME CRAZY [A FIVE Film]
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on April 19, 2013
Last year executive producer Jennifer Aniston and Lifetime started the FIVE film project which brought five female directors together to direct five short films about domestic violence. This year the focus switches to mental illness with films about bipolar disorder, depression, PTSD, schizophrenia and how the illnesses affect friends, family, partners and careers. Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Bonnie Hunt, Ashley Judd and Sharon Maguire direct the films.
Lucy
Brittany Snow plays Lucy, a schizophrenic, in three of the films. In this film she suffers a breakdown during law school as she goes off her meds. She’s institutionalized and meets and befriends Bruce [Jason Ritter]. They spent quite a bit of time in group therapy and walking around on the grounds of this really nice rehab facility. Lucy’s quite shook up and doubtful about her intended career as a lawyer due to her mental health. A psychotherapist [Academy-award winner Octavia Spencer] convinces her to use her illness to her advantage. Snow’s quite talented. Very impressive and emotive in this role. Not too theatrical or flat. She’s just right. Truly convincing.
Grace
With a single mom, played by the venerable Melissa Leo, suffering from bipolar disorder her teenaged daughter [Sarah Hyland] must effectively become the parent. When her mom endures manic and depressive episodes, she hides them from her friends as it’s difficult to explain and embarrassing as a teenager to have an abnormal mom. One afternoon her mom takes her friends on a shopping spree and Grace witnesses her becoming frighteningly unhinged. Hyland and Leo have a strong connection. Director Laura Dern captures the manic and depressive episodes quite well with colors and camera movement.
Allison
When Lucy [Snow] returns home it’s to the dismay of her younger sister Allison [Sofia Vassilieva] who brought her boyfriend to meet her parents and never expected to see her sister who she considers unstable. She’s not very understanding or supportive to Lucy. Finally she says, “I’m not afraid of you. I’m afraid of becoming you.” It turns out that Allison’s been worried that she’d develop schizophrenia just like Lucy.
Eddie
Eddie [Mitch Rouse] is a comedian with depression. How could that be possible? He’s married and has plenty of friends too. Depression isn’t about one’s environmental situation. It’s about brain chemistry. Eddie’s in such despair and pain that he’s contemplating suicide. He’s become much darker than usual. Only his wife [Lea Thompson] recognizes this about him though.
Maggie
Ashley Judd directs Jennifer Hudson as a soldier returning home after repeatedly being raped by her superior officer. She’s suffering from PTSD and ends up having her son taken away from her. Lucy is back and she’s representing Maggie. When Maggie isn’t too keen on it being Lucy’s first case Lucy explains that she understands what it’s like for others not to understand about her mental health. Lucy says: “I have seen thousands of spiders running up my best friend’s face.”
There’s such a strong stigma regarding mental illness that makes it difficult for people to honestly discuss. Anyone who has a mental illness or knows someone with a mental illness will understand and recognize the struggles faced by those in the films. There’s constant maintenance and vigilance. It takes a support system and perseverance. For someone who doesn’t know someone with mental illness perhaps these short films will dispel some misconceptions.
CALL ME CRAZY airs SATURDAY, APRIL 20 on LIFETIME at 8 PM ET/PST
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STEELE INTERVIEWS: Laura Dern
Posted by Amy Steele in Film, Interview, TV on April 18, 2013
Laura Dern directed “Grace” one of the five short films which comprise CALL ME CRAZY: A Five Film. It airs on Lifetime Saturday April 18 at 8 p.m. This is the second film that Dern’s directed [her first film was a short back in the 90s]. She said she’s been contemplating directing for quite some time. Some of Dern’s films include Citizen Ruth, We Don’t Live Here Any More, Jurassic Park, Blue Velvet, Rambling Rose and October Sky. Most recently Dern starred in the fantastic series Enlightened on HBO.
Amy Steele: Hi Laura.
Laura Dern: Hey.
Amy Steele: I loved Enlightened by the way.
Laura Dern: Thank you Amy. That’s hilarious. Not that I’m saying there are any similarities, but every time I meet an Amy now I feel so close to them because I love the name so much because I love that character.
Amy Steele: So how did you prepare to direct?
Laura Dern: You know, I mentioned earlier it was really run and gun. We actually were finishing Enlightened in the middle of this, so it was a really insane time for me. It was literally a matter of days.
I got the call and they needed to start immediately. Mine was the first one up. So it was literally a matter of –I think– five days between, “hey can we send a script over” and needing to be on a set with a cast, a crew and a vision. So good news and bad news is I think I didn’t have time to even figure out what I needed to know. I just had to go for it.
I love working with actors. I’ve done it my whole life. I’ve been raised by them so I don’t have a lot of fear about that. It feels quite natural to me, I guess. I felt surprised by my awareness of where the camera should be. That seemed natural too oddly and luckily for me I had the brilliant DP, Gail Tattersall, who came and shot it. He and I were in sync about the vision as he supported me immensely.
The part that I think was hardest was just, you know, scheduling the day (time management), making sure actors had the time in something this emotional and shifting locations and all of that. Just the real producerial managing of getting your work done in a very, very short window is probably the area I learned the most from and had the most to learn about.
Amy Steele: There’s a clear difference between the manic and depressive scenes. Darker when she’s having depressive episodes and real quick scenes, brighter colors during her manic scenes when she takes the girls shopping and everything. What approach did you take for the different scenes?
Laura Dern: You know, relying on a totally brilliant actor like Melissa Leo. Really spending time talking through it before we started and spending time speaking to specialists and someone I know who has the disorder. Making sure that Melissa felt comfortable with really understanding the highs, the lows, and the in-between. You know, the medicated version which was important to me that when we did the un-medicated version, it’s not healed.
It’s all about degrees with the disorder and really trying to stay true to that, when someone comes off a manic episode like how they come down off of it. So in a very short time, there were scenes which dealt with every single one of those things, so I think it was more spending time with Melissa and making sure we knew exactly what that was and hoping to capture that in at least one take in each area so that people could really feel the differentiation.
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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: BOOK TO FILM
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, Film, TV on April 16, 2013
TV show based on Tom Perrotta’s novel The Leftovers
director/actor Peter Berg
Peter Berg will direct and executive produce an HBO show based on the Tom Perrotta’s best-selling 2011 novel The Leftovers. LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof will co-author the script with Perrotta as part of his three-year deal with Warner Bros. Television. If the show moves past development stage, Lindelof will serve as showrunner. The Leftovers centers on a group of people left behind after a mysterious world-wide disappearance. I interviewed Tom Perrotta about The Leftovers for The L Magazine in 2011.
Casting for This is Where I Leave You
Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver [GIRLS] will play siblings in This is Where I Leave You based on Jonathan Tropper’s 2010 novel about four siblings who spend a week sitting Shiva at their childhood home. Jane Fonda plays their widowed mother. Connie Britton [Nashville, Friday Night Lights] has been cast as his girlfriend.
Timothy Olyphant [Justified] plays Fey’s character’s high school sweetheart. Kathryn Hahn has been cast as Stoll’s wife. Rose Byrne will play Bateman’s love interest and Abigail Spencer his ex-wife. Ben Schwartz, best known as Jean Ralphio on Parks and Recreation, will play the family’s non-traditional rabbi.
Shawn Levy will direct This is Where I Leave You and co-produce with Paula Weinstein. Filming is expected to begin next month.
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Lifetime TV movie review: Stalkers
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on April 13, 2013
Constantly dismissed by the boys club and the judicial system’s indifference toward stalking cases, ADA Julia Winston [Jodi Lyn O’Keefe] sets out to establish a task force to track and prosecute predators before they hurt or kill their victims. A newly hired detective Diane Harkin [a bold Drea de Matteo], hiding her own domestic abuse trauma, finds herself facing similar resistance among detectives in her squad. When the two women cross paths on a case involving a woman named Jane [Lela Loren] stalked by her former lover [Mena Suvari] they join forces.
Kudos to Lifetime for showing a movie about a woman stalking another woman. There can be plenty of dangerous women out there, former lovers scorned. We’ve seen more about husbands and boyfriends in the news plenty of time, particularly using children as pawns as children for their power plays to grow stronger.
At the start of the film, someone says to Harkin’s partner [Henry Simmons]: “Your partner’s a real peach, is she always like this?” What a super sexist way to start. She rough handled the suspect and said, “Wipe that smirk off your face.” Her partner then begins a little lecture to Harkin with “Maybe your daddy wasn’t nice to you . . .”
Pretty sure women watch Lifetime films alone. Let’s not have these sexist jokes or comments in them. Not necessary. Although Lifetime films have gotten much better and attract quality casts, they’d be even stronger if screenwriters and directors were women. They’re films about women on a network for women so why not be written by and directed by women all the time. Am I asking too much?
Drea de Matteo turns in quite a solid and credible performance as Detective Harkin. Viewers aren’t immediately sure why she’s so edgy and personally motivated by the stalker case [besides being a woman] although that’s revealed soon enough. de Matteo and Suvari volley against each other exultantly. A bit more about the actual legal ramifications for this case would’ve been appreciated. The inspiration for this movie is Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers by Rhonda Saunders, a criminal prosecutor, who wrote the law on stalking in California.
STALKERS airs on Saturday night, April 13 at 8pm on Lifetime
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About Me
covering mostly music and books. focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College.
Entertainment Realm by Amy Steele is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at entertainmentrealm.comCopyright © 2009. All writing, unless otherwise noted, by Amy Steele.
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