Archive for category TV
Lifetime TV Movie review: The Hunt for the I-5 Killer
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on September 28, 2011
“We got a serial killer working the I-5 Corridor.”
The Hunt for the I-5 Killer is based on the true-story of an exhaustive one-year search for the suspect who murdered and sexually assaulted dozens of women on the 1-5 highway through California, Washington and Oregon. John Corbett plays a Oregon state police detective who first makes connection that the suspect might be a serial killer. Sara Canning plays a woman who, along with her friend/co-worker, was attacked. She survived but her friend did not.
Gun in hand and late at night, the hooded Caucasian suspect gruesomely attacked women who worked or lived along the I-5 Highway. Often he forced them to perform sex acts at gunpoint. He shoots them and takes off. He even tied up a mother and her teen daughter and raped the daughter, then shot them both dead.
The film’s suspenseful with its punchy editing of the serial killer aspect of the film. Shots of driving down highway to shots of crimes against women. Corbett commands his role. As he’s been in the past [Northern Exposure, Sex and the City], he’s warm and strong and determined. Everything someone wants from a protective figure looking for a solution. The Hunt for the I-5 Killer shows how detectives in three states worked together to catch this misogynist killer.
The Hunt for the I-5 Killer premieres Sunday, October 2 8pm ET/PT on Lifetime
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Project Runway All Stars [no Heidi, no Tim but there’ll be Isaac Mizrahi!]
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on August 10, 2011
The All Star Designers
Austin Scarlett [New York] – Season One, Fourth Place – known for eccentric ball gowns and ability to produce glamorous fashions under tight deadlines, including a gown made entirely out of corn husks.
Kara Janx [New York] – Season Two, Fourth Place –known for her signature wrap dress
Elisa Jimenez [New York] – Season Four, 10th Place – known for marking her clothes with spit, rather than a fabric pencil.
Rami Kashou [Los Angeles] – Season Four, Runner-up – known for his signature Grecian-style draping look
Sweet P/Kathleen Vaughn [Pasadena, CA] – Season Four, Fifth Place – known for her club-influenced garments and retro pieces
Jerell Scott [New York] – Season Five, Fourth Place – known for creating stunning and opulent designs
Kenley Collins [Brooklyn] – Season Five, Second Runner-up –known for her vintage, flapper-inspired looks.
Gordana Gehlhausen [San Diego] – Season Six, Fourth Place –showcased her signature knit and crochet wear.
Anthony Williams [Atlanta] – Season Seven, Fifth Place – Known for his competitive spirit and aesthetic for bold and striking colors and sequins
Mila Hermanovski [Los Angeles] – Season Seven, Second Runner-up –she chose to show a black and white collection inspired by shadows at Bryant Park.
April Johnston [Savannah, Georgia] – Season Eight, Fifth Place –known for her dark textures and grunge-inspired pieces.
Michael Costello [Palm Springs] – Season Eight, Fourth Place –known for and his draping style and being one of the designers without any formal training
Mondo Guerra [Denver] – Season Eight, Runner-up –revealed his HIV positive status on the show
Prizes include:
–an exclusive designer’s boutique in select Neiman Marcus stores and on NeimanMarcus.com
— $100,000 dollars in technology and office space to help grow their business from HP and Intel
— $100,000 cash from L’Oreal Paris
–a feature spread in Marie Claire, for which he or she will serve as a guest editor for one year
–a sewing and embroidery studio provided by Brother International
Judges: designers Isaac Mizrahi and Georgina Chapman
Host: supermodel Angela Lindvall
Mentor: Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles
Project Runway All Stars will premiere later this year on Lifetime.
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Lifetime TV Movie review: Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on July 17, 2011
Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story stars the lovely Poppy Montgomery as author J.K. Rowling. This television movie rolls out as a fairytale with plenty of magical moments like a Harry Potter novel. All I knew about J.K. Rowling is that she’d been on the dole and now she’s a billionaire. In a three-year span she went from being a UK Welfare mother to being one of the richest people in the UK. This is an unauthorized biopic based on an unauthorized biography and I’m not sure if there’s anything particularly scandalous. Perhaps just that Rowling wasn’t as bad off or on the dole for all that long before achieving success as a writer. Most writers never achieve that level of fame and fortune.
Joanne Rowling grew up in Scotland. As a child she made up and even wrote down stories to entertain her sister and herself. She grew more and more interested in writing but her parents discouraged her from pursuing a writing degree at university. Her mother told her to write but to do so in her free time. Reasonable advice. After college she jumped around to a few different jobs in London and then moved to Portugal to teach English after her mother died from an MS-related illness. She married a Portuguese journalist and they had a child. He drank and became abusive. Rowling finally left him and moved back to Scotland where she had no choice but to collect state money while she looked for work. Rowling’s sister encouraged her to finish the Harry Potter book she’d started in Portugal. She didn’t seem to be out of work long. After she found an agent, she landed a teaching gig. After a year or so, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone found a publisher.
Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story portrays the mercurial publishing industry quite well. It’s a fickle business. Rowling needed to go by J.K. so she wouldn’t alienate boys who didn’t want to read books by women. Many publishing companies steer clear of children’s books. It’s a tough market. Rowling dreamed of being a writer for so long and finally she was a published writer with astronomical fortune. Poppy does a wonderful job bringing the enigmatic writer to life.
Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story premieres Monday 18 July at 8 pm ET/PT on Lifetime
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tv review: Roseanne’s Nuts
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on July 10, 2011
“I was a big deal in Hollywood. After a while, I started thinking it was all bullshit and that I was addicted to bullshit.”
–Roseanne
Roseanne Barr returns to TV in the docu-series Roseanne’s Nuts. She looks fabulous. Calm and happy. Her longtime musician boyfriend Johnny is super cute and they are funny together. Johnny sent Roseanne a message and they wrote each other and talked on the phone for a year before meeting. They’ve been together eight years. Roseanne decided to move from Los Angeles to Hawaii. She bought a macadamia nut farm and intends to live off the land, so to speak. 2,000 macadamia nut trees stand on the farm. In the first episode, wild pigs wreak havoc for the couple. Roseanne doesn’t want to hurt or kill them. “I want to outsmart it,” she explains. Her son and a few island friends have other ideas and Roseanne has to decide what’s best for her own non-meat-eating self. Roseanne’s Nuts looks like a promising show.
Roseanne’s Nuts premieres on Lifetime at 9pm ET/PT on Lifetime.
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Spectacle: Elvis Costello with . . . S2: review
Posted by Amy Steele in DVD, Music, TV on June 22, 2011
The Emmy-nominated Spectacle: Elvis Costello with . . . finds talented singer/songwriter Elvis Costello querying various musicians about the craft. He then performs with them or collaborates on various songs of his own as well as their songs or a mish-mash of both. S2 includes guests The Edge, Bono, Neko Case, Ron Sexsmith, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett and Bruce Springsteen. As an interviewer, Costello is affable, comfortable and an astute listener. Most talk is of production and admiration between Costello and whomever his guest happens to be. In Episode 4, Mary-Louise Parker interviews Costello. Apparently she’s a music writer according to Costello’s intro of the Emmy and Tony-award winner. “You made so many uncool things cool,” gushes Parker. “All my learning was just from listening,” Costello remarks. He also says he doesn’t read much or read much literature (only history) because “there’s too much music to hear.”
The two-disc set includes behind-the-scenes documentary and four bonus songs from Elvis and The Imposters.
Studio: SpyBox Pictures
Running time: 350 minutes
Release Date: June 7, 2011
PR: MVD visual
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Lifetime TV Movie review: Nora Roberts’ Carnal Innocence
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on June 13, 2011
If there’s a pretty girl, Tucker can’t be far behind.
–Josie Longstreet
World-renowned violinist Caroline Waverley [Burn Notice’s Gabrielle Anwar] takes a break from her current tour and returns to her grandmother’s house in Innocence, Miss. where she spent many summers in her youth. Of course with a name like Innocence, you know bad things will happen. Caroline runs into charming yet arrogant ladies’ man Tucker Longstreet [Something Borrowed’s Colin Egglesfield], a member of one of the town’s most prominent and wealthy families. The next day, Caroline discovers a body on her property. It turns out that Tucker had an affair with the deceased woman, Etta Lou. They were seen fighting in the diner the day before. Etta Lou slapped him and said she was pregnant. When the FBI comes to town, Tucker’s the center of the investigation as someone murdered two women he dated. It looks suspicious though he claims his innocence. Caroline falls for Tucker and becomes entangled in the mystery surrounding him and the Longstreet family. Etta Lou’s father comes after Tucker with a shotgun [while he’s at Caroline’s] and other bizarre events ensue.
Nora Roberts’ Carnal Innocence brims with violence through fisticuffs and gunfire and knives. I figured out the killer 27 minutes into the TV movie but there still were a few twists after that. The Southern setting allows for high drama. A great creepy soundtrack provides additional suspense. Egglesfield turns in a winning performance as the charismatic and mysterious Tucker. There seemed too much an age difference between Egglesfield and Anwar, so I wasn’t pleased with that pairing. All in all, Nora Roberts’ Carnal Innocence is a solid television thriller for a Monday night in June.
Nora Roberts’ Carnal Innocence premieres Monday, June 13 at 8pm ET/PT
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STEELE INTERVIEWS: Catherine Bell
Posted by Amy Steele in Interview, TV on June 4, 2011
Why the military let a computer tech wiz like you go, I’ll never know.
–Abby’s husband Nick [Anthony Michael Hall]
Catherine Bell stars in Lifetime’s Last Man Standing as Abby Collins. She’s happily married to a local veterinarian [Hall] with a daughter. Nearly seven years before, she served in the Marine Corps Black Ops in Afghanistan as Lt. Abby Spencer. Her unit’s assignment to protect an Afghan chemist who would testify against Al Qaeda went terribly wrong and somebody “sold the guy out.”
Abby receives a photo of her unit of three with a note on the back: “You know what happens to the last man standing.” Then another unit mate, Jeremy Davis [Mekhi Phifer] calls to inform her that the other unit member, Sam Pratt, committed suicide. She starts having flashbacks. As Abby tells her husband that with only three in the unit, they got close. Shockingly, someone kidnaps Abby’s husband and insists she follow orders or he’ll be executed. Last Man Standing proves to be an exciting thriller with a surprise twist at the end.
Bell produced the film and her husband, Adam Beason co-wrote the script with Jolene Rice.
I spoke to Catherine Bell on Thursday.
Amy Steele: What do you like about Lt. Spencer?
Catherine Bell: Lt. Spencer is buried in her past and I really love that there’s this woman who has this beautiful, simple soccer mom life and this entire hidden event that you know nothing about until a former member of her unit dies and her husband gets kidnapped. Her former skill-set kicks in and she’s got to do everything she can to get him back and keep their daughter safe. I love it. Doing action heroes and action movies and doing my own stunts. It’s really one of my favorite things to do. I had a blast.
Amy Steele: How is it to go from playing an Army wife to playing a former Marine?
Catherine Bell: To me the best thing about acting is mixing it up. Going from playing a wife who started off being abused by her son and going through all this emotional stuff and then going into full on action mode and special ops, secret agent stuff. Maybe next I’ll be able to do a period piece or something completely different.
Amy Steele: How does being a producer change your connection to a project?
Catherine Bell: I’m always going to be connected to any project I’m doing as an actor because I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it. Being a producer, especially on something like this where we really created it from the ground up, that’s just a whole other level. Definitely even more passion and even more connection to it.
Last Man Standing premieres Monday, June 6 at 8 pm PT/ET on Lifetime Television.
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DVD review: Identity
Posted by Amy Steele in DVD, TV on May 3, 2011
When people believe something, especially stupid people, it’s hard to get them to change their minds.
–John Bloom [Aidan Gillen]
Scotland Yard has recently established a specialty task force focusing on identity theft. Detective Superintendent Martha Lawson [Keeley Hawes–MI-5] leads The Identity Unit and she’s joined by former undercover officer John Bloom [Aidan Gillen–The Wire], IT specialist Tessa [Holly Aird], easy-going José [Elyes Gabel] and the ever skeptical Anthony [Shaun Parkes– The Inspector Lynley Mysteries]. The detectives are all intriguing, diverse characters.
Every episode delves into the intricate complex reasons why someone would steal another’s identity—greed, revenge, jealousy. In one episode, a woman murders someone she befriends abroad and assumes her identity. She suffered brain damage and wants those who hurt her to pay. In another episode, someone leaks the identity of a woman in witness protection. When her son gets snatched while Bloom is offsite dealing with a personal matter, members of the team question his loyalties.
Identity also focuses on some of the central members of the team. As the head of this unit, Martha Lawson [Hawes] faces the challenge of being taken seriously by her superiors and managing the egos and personality clashes of her team. DI John Bloom [Gillen] has a darker, enigmatic past. His girlfriend’s connected to the Turkish mafia and he utilizes rogue tactics such as stabbing a man in the leg so that his daughter talks. Cool editing, a stellar cast and crisp, twisted plots fuel this British television series.
Starring: Keely Hawes, Aidan Gillen, Shaun Parkes, Elyes Gabel, Holly Aird
Studio: Acorn Media
Rating: Not Rated
Running time: 279 minutes
Release Date: May 3, 2011
PR: Acorn Media
purchase at Amazon: Identity
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Amanda de Cadenet interview program The Conversation coming to LIFETIME
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on April 28, 2011
Lifetime Television plans to air The Conversation, hosted by British television personality and renowned photographer Amanda de Cadenet and co-produced by de Cadenet and Demi Moore.
The Conversation will feature interviews with internationally famous women, as well as lesser-known figures, and include topics universal to women. During the hour-long program de Cadenet will speak with her interview subjects about a wide variety of topics including: sexuality; body image; career and finances; politics; relationships and human rights.
Lifetime has ordered eight episodes of The Conversation.
de Cadenet said, “The Conversation came from the many questions I was asking the women in my own life, whilst trying to manage being a mother to three kids and wife to my husband, maintain a career and not lose myself in all of it. Every woman should have access to the information and solutions we talk about on this show. The Conversation will open the doors on the universal language of women and allow them to do that.”
Amanda de Cadenet began her career at age of 14 as the host of the U.K. television shows, The Word and Breakfast. After becoming one of the U.K.’s best known personalities, she eventually decided that her true place was behind the camera and began taking pictures. She is the youngest woman to shoot a Vogue magazine cover. In 2005, she released her first book of photographs, Rare Birds.
ABOUT LIFETIME TELEVISION
Lifetime Television, the number one rated women’s network, is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Lifetime Television®, Lifetime Movie Network®, Lifetime Real Women® and Lifetime Digital™ (which includes myLifetime.com, LMN.tv, Lifetime Games, Roiworld.com, DressUpChallenge.com, MothersClick.com and LifetimeMoms.com) are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A&E Television Networks, LLC. A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBC Universal.
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Lifetime TV Movie review: Committed
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on April 13, 2011
Celeste: I’m a doctor. I came here to work with you.
Dr. Quilley: I’m sure you’ll find the work fulfilling but you can’t leave.
In this generally creepy and rather sensational movie, Dr. Celeste DuPont [Andrea Roth] arrives at the prestigious Milburn Institute thinking she’s going to be working with criminally insane patients but she’s quickly told that she’s a patient herself. She fails several escape attempts and begins to experience strange visions or dreams [she keeps seeing herself locked in a cage]. Reality and imagination blur. One morning she finds all her clothes slashed. She begins to question her sanity or whether she’s being tricked into staying at the facility. It’s a strange concept to be locked in and told you have no control over when you can leave. Despite being a patient in the facility, she’s asked to consult with Dr. Desmond Moore [Richard Burgi] and events spin even further out of control. Celeste dines with other doctors instead of patients but she’s analyzed and also has been asked to analyze others. Andrea Roth [Rescue Me, Blue Bloods] plays part sleuth/part psychiatrist in a convincingly conflicted manner. While some parts of Committed are rather preposterous, it’s quite a good TV thriller to fill your Sunday evening.
Committed premieres Sunday, April 17 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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