TV News

‘Homeland’ Favored by Golden Globes and the President

Over the past two days, Homeland, the freshman drama from Showtime, made the highlights of both awards season news and (sort of) presidential news.

The critically acclaimed TV series has just nabbed three nominations at the Golden Globes, including Best Drama, Best Actor (Damian Lewis), and Best Actress (Claire Danes). The show is the only drama appearing in all three categories this year, which is a testament to its excellent reception by the entertainment community.

Golden Globe Nominees Announced

The full list of nominees in the television categories of the 2012 Golden Globes has been released. Drama newcomers Game of Thrones, Boss, American Horror Story and Homeland managed to pick up nominations aside sophomore Boardwalk Empire, keeping notables including Breaking Bad off of the best series list. Best comedy saw a slightly more diversified list, although suspiciously absent are any of NBC’s critic and fan friendly half-hours: Community, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock and The Office.

Jane Fonda Joins Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom

Jane Fonda has been cast in Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO-based cable newsroom drama. According to TV Line, the multiple award-winning actress – who was married to CNN founder Ted Turner from 1991 to 2001 – will play a character somewhat similar to her ex: media mogul Leona Lansing.

Fonda is just the latest big name to join the project – originally titled More as This Story Develops and now going to series under the name Newsroom – joining Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Oliva Munn, Dev Patel and Alison Pill amongst others.

Netflix Orders Eli Roth-Directed Horror Series

Given the success of FX’s foray into the TV-horror genre with Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, it’s of no surprise that other networks also want to take a stab at the lucrative genre. There’s clearly a rabid fan-base looking for scares and thrills.

The streaming service Nextflix continues to compile an impressive line-up of original programming, as they’ve enlisted Eli Roth, the gore-hound behind the very bloody Hostel films, to helm their new horror TV seriesHelmlock Grove, which is based upon Brian McGreevy’s upcoming novel of the same name.

New Game of Thrones Teaser

During last night’s season two finale of Boardwalk Empire, a new teaser for the upcoming second season of fantasy-drama Game of Thrones was aired. At 45 seconds in length, it stands at three times longer than the first teaser that we got a few months back, but still reveals little about the new season that finished filming recently. The teaser features a voiceover from Stannis Baratheon (played by Stephen Dillane) reinforcing the facts that the season finale left us with – that he is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne and war is most certainly coming to those that oppose him. Check it out for yourself below and be sure to catch up with season one of the HBO drama before the second season hits in April.

WGA Nominees Announced

The Writers Guild of America has announced its nominees for the 2012 WGA Awards. On the drama side, the major nominees were the consistently lauded Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire and freshman thriller Homeland. Comedy saw multiple nods go to Modern Family and The Office whilst The Simpsons swept the animation category.

NBC Experiments with Grimm on Thursday

Emboldened by the response to Grimm, it seems NBC would like to capitalize on the relative success of the new fantasy series to the fullest extent possible. A couple of weeks after giving the series a full-season order, the network will be airing a brand new episode on Thursday, December 8 (in addition to the regular Friday episode) in what appears to be an attempt to attract an even bigger audience, one that is arguably not available on Friday evenings.

Grimm tells the story of Nick Buckhardt (David Giuntoli), a detective who discovers he is a Grimm, a class of people with the ability to see fairy tale creatures living among us for what they really are and entrusted with hunting “the bad ones” for generations.

FX Announces Premiere Date for Justified Season 3

Fans of FX’s Emmy winning Justified can finally start programming their  Tivos this week, as the cable channel officially announced the start  date of January 17th, 2012 for the return of the acclaimed serial,  starring Timothy Olyphant as a tough, southern-bred 19th century-style  officer for the US Marshal Service.

After the spectacular showdown in season 2’s finale between hill clans the  Crowders and the Bennetts, we can expect season 3 to hit the ground  running with Raylan (Olyphant) hell bent on foiling the plans of arch  nemesis – and some-time best friend – Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) who, after foiling the plans of his only rivals for the role, announced his  intention to crown himself king of Harlan’s underworld. So expect another  stellar turn from Goggins who, along with stars Timothy Olyphant, Margo Martindale and Jeremy Davies, was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in last year’s season.

Fox Unveils Mid-Season Schedule

Fox revealed its mid-season schedule today, with official dates for highly anticipated new shows Alcatraz and Touch now being made official. The new JJ Abrams drama Alcatraz will premiere January 16th, whilst Touch will begin officially on March 19th, with its premiere episode also being previewed in January.  The full mid-season schedule is as follows:

Louis CK to Return to Parks and Recreation

According to TVLine, Louis CK has signed up to reprise his role on the critically acclaimed NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. The actor and stand-up comedian previously had a mutli-episode arc on the show as cop Dave Sanderson throughout its second season.

A former love interest of the show’s leading lady Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), Dave left Pawnee to take a job in San Diego. The character is set to reappear in at least one early 2012 Parks episode, potentially vying for Leslie’s attention from her current love interest Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott). Louis CK currently stars in his own FX sitcom Louie, which has been picked up for a third season.