Television

James Spader Joins The Office!

After
months of speculation over who would take the place of Steve Carell’s
Michael Scott on NBC’s long-running British comedy remake The Office, the wait is finally over. Today NBC has announced that James Spader has signed on as a regular cast member – the new boss around town. 

Spader, widely known for his roles in shows such as Boston Legal along
with countless films, joins the cast of the flagship series after a
relatively short period as a front runner for the role. He, along with many other famous faces,
appeared in the seventh season finale of the show (Carell’s final
episode), but was not widely reported as being in talks for the role
until recently.

The Walking Dead Casting News

With production in full swing for the
second season of AMC’s breakout hit, The Walking Dead, new
characters are being cast. These roles also confirm for fans of the
ongoing comic series that Rick Grimes and his ragtag band of
survivors would be heading into familiar territory, which was
welcomed news to those that were itching for more storylines from the
comics.

Veteran actor Scott Wilson (In Cold
Blood) has been cast as Hershel Greene, owner of the farm Rick’s
group comes across while on the road. With forty-five years of
acting experience under his belt, Wilson should be a good addition to
the cast. Hershel is a man determined to protect his family, while
at the same time struggling to accept the cold realities of the world
he now lives in. Grabbing the role of Hershel’s daughter, Maggie,
was Lauren Cohan (Supernatural).
The character is a rebellious, free spirit, with an acidic tongue
and sarcastic wit.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Preview

With less than two weeks until the
fourth season of Breaking Bad begins, fans are chomping at the
bit for the return of the series. AMC recently released a trailer
for the newest installment of one of television’s most acclaimed
shows. Though mostly a “tease” featuring footage and audio from
previous episodes, the preview still helped remind fans of the dark
atmosphere and dire consequences facing most of the characters.

Falling Skies – Grace

“Grace”
was a much better episode than last week’s “Prisoner of War,” but being
already the fourth of the season’s thirteen episodes, it definitely
made me wonder about the series’ prospects of renewal. Ideally, at this
stage I should be engrossed with the twists and turns of the story
instead of coldly considering the threat of cancellation. The show
certainly has potential — as seen with the very acceptable ratings so
far — but unless it picks up some momentum, it runs the risk of losing
some of those who have invested in it until now.

True Blood – You Smell Like Dinner

After last week’s season opener introduced us to a wealth of new information as far as Bon Temps and the canon of True Blood goes, this week’s “You Smell Like Dinner”, followed suit. Continuing to fill in the gaps of Sookie’s missing year as well as fleshing out the present day story line to a thoroughly interesting point, Sunday’s True Blood just about perfectly set up the remainder of the season, leaving several avenues for it to follow (Or not, if it follows the books). The episode essentially revolved around two main themes: Sookie (as always) and the vampires. Sookie’s plot points largely center around the vampires as well, so at its core, it was a fang-packed week. Following on from last week’s unfinished plot threads, Jason remained a captive of were-panther Crystal’s family, and Eric had laid a claim to Sookie. 

Jason’s story wasn’t touched upon nearly as much as I’d have liked, especially given how the episode opened, but in essence – Crystal is once again hooked on V thanks to her abusive boyfriend and they’re failing to have a child. Needing to carry on the were-panther bloodline, their plan is to turn Jason into one of them and then he and Crystal can be together in every sense of the word. By the culmination of the episode, Jason appears to have been turned, and as a result, one would imagine that another bizarre sex scene involving Jason Stackhouse is soon to appear on screen. 

Louie – Bummer/Blueberries

Sometimes an episode of Louie is disturbing, sometimes they are very disturbing, and sometimes they are like “Bummer/Blueberries” and make you question your own sanity. That is not to say this episode wasn’t without laughs, as Louis C.K. always finds a way to squeeze comedy out of unexpected places. Still, this episode wasn’t exactly overflowing with mirth, but the beauty of Louie is that there’s always something more to watch for than just the jokes.

Wilfred – Trust

If the first episode of Wilfred pointed out everything the series is doing right, its follow-up did just the opposite. “Trust” wasn’t all bad, but a dependency on unrefined humor brought it down quite a bit. As did Jenna remaining a flat character despite having a larger role in the episode. Whatever the cause, the second episode of this new series just wasn’t that funny.

While the writers have shown that they can do vulgar comedy well, there has been just as many times when they fell short. All their attempts at elevating toilet humor in “Trust” were unfortunately amongst the latter. At times coming closer to engendering groans than they did laughs. One fart joke is really too many and they’ve already done several, none of them particularly humorous. Wilfred’s general crassness also lacked the wit shown at times last week to make his obscene remarks come off as anything but juvenile. It’s not a major problem, but if the series doesn’t maintain a subtler touch on the broad humor the show could decline rapidly.