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Pilot Watch: "Life"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:15:00 PDT

The networks have announced their fall schedules, but which of the series will actually be worth watching? Throughout the summer, as I watch the pilots, I'll be posting my first impressions. A lot can change before a show makes it to air, so these aren't comprehensive reviews, just quick thoughts on how the shows look now. Today's installment: NBCs "Life."

What's it about? Charlie Crewes, a police officer who was wrongfully convicted of murder and served 12 years of a life sentence, returns to the force after being freed, at least in part because he wants to figure out who made him take the fall.

Who's in it? Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi, Adam Arkin

The good: Maybe it's because I went to school at Northwestern, home of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, but I think the topic of what the wrongfully convicted do when they re-enter normal life is fascinating fodder for a show. The pilot at least made me interested to find out how prison shaped Crewes and why he decided to return to the force despite a huge settlement that would keep him wealthy for years.

The bad: There's a whole lot of Dr. Gregory House in Crewes, but the writers haven't figured out how to draw the line between "endearingly quirky" and "downright annoying." I mostly found him grating in the pilot - not on account of Lewis, who gives a good performance, but because of the lines and stories he's given. I'm not sure why he couldn't have just been a freed cop instead of a freed cop who happens to also be a tortured, oddball genius.

Will I watch? I can't see this winning a permanent spot on my viewing schedule. Then again, just like "Journeyman," the final scene was good - if more compelling than anything else in the episode.

To watch a preview and see a gallery of photos,

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Kelsey Grammer Wins the Golden Globe For Best Actor, TV Drama

Becky Kirsch — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:37:41 PST

Kelsey Grammer is this year's Golden Globe winner for best actor in a TV drama for Boss! This is his first season of the series, and he beat out Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Jeremy Irons, and Damian Lewis. How do you feel about this win?

Announcing the 2012 Golden Globe Nominations!

Becky Kirsch — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:00:38 PST

Well, folks, we're finally getting into the heavy hitters of award season, as the 2012 Golden Globe nominees were announced this morning. As expected, award season darlings The Artist and The Descendants led the way with five nods apiece, but there are plenty of surprises here, too. George Clooney is going to have a big night, as his The Ides of March scored four nods, including one for him as a director. Ryan Gosling managed to score two nods for acting, for Crazy, Stupid, Love as well as Ides.

In the TV categories, new shows ruled as nods for New Girl, Game of Thrones, Boss, Episodes, Enlightened, and Homeland made the list - and that's not all. Zooey Deschanel scored a best actress nod, as did Mireille Enos for her work on The Killing and Laura Dern for Enlightened.

We'll be breaking down all of the surprises and snubs later today, but for now, check out the full list of nominees when you

read more. MOVIES BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA The Descendants Moneyball The Help Hugo The Ides of March War Horse BEST MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY 50/50 The Artist Bridesmaids Midnight in Paris My Week With Marilyn BEST DIRECTOR Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris George Clooney, The Ides of March Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Alexander Payne, The Descendants Martin Scorsese, Hugo BEST ACTOR, DRAMA George Clooney, The Descendants Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar Michael Fassbender, Shame Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March Brad Pitt, Moneyball BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs Viola Davis, The Help Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDY Jean Dujardin, The Artist Brendan Gleeson, The Guard Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50 Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL OR COMEDY Jodie Foster, Carnage Charlize Theron, Young Adult Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn Kate Winslet, Carnage BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn Albert Brooks, Drive Jonah Hill, Moneyball Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method Christopher Plummer, Beginners BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Bérénice Bejo, The Artist Jessica Chastain, The Help Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs Octavia Spencer, The Help Shailene Woodley, The Descendants BEST SCREENPLAY Midnight in Paris The Ides of March The Descendants Moneyball Bridesmaids BEST ANIMATED FILM The Adventures of Tintin Arthur Christmas Cars 2 Puss in Boots Rango BEST ORIGINAL SCORE The Artist W.E. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Hugo War Horse BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE The Flowers of War In the Land of Blood and Honey The Kid With a Bike A Separation The Skin I Live In BEST ORIGINAL SONG "Hello, Hello," Gnomeo and Juliet "The Keeper," Machine Gun Preacher "Lay Your Head Down," Albert Nobbs "The Living Proof," The Help "Masterpiece," W.E. TV BEST TV SERIES, DRAMA American Horror Story Boardwalk Empire Boss Game of Thrones Homeland BEST TV SERIES, COMEDY Enlightened Episodes Glee Modern Family New Girl BEST ACTOR, TV DRAMA Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad Kelsey Grammer, Boss Jeremy Irons, The Borgias Damian Lewis, Homeland BEST ACTRESS, TV DRAMA Claire Danes, Homeland Mireille Enos, The Killing Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife Callie Thorne, Necessary Roughness Madeleine Stowe, Revenge BEST ACTOR, TV COMEDY Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock David Duchovny, Californication Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory Thomas Jane, Hung Matt LeBlanc, Episodes BEST ACTRESS, TV COMEDY Laura Dern, Enlightened Zooey Deschanel, New Girl Tina Fey, 30 Rock Laura Linney, The Big C Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation BEST MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION Mildred Pierce Too Big to Fail Cinema Verite Downton Abbey The Hour BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION William Hurt, Too Big to Fail Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey Idris Elba, Luther Bill Nighy, Page Eight Dominic West, Appropriate Adult BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION Diane Lane, Cinema Verite Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey Emily Watson, Appropriate Adult Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce Romola Garai, The Hour BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINISERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce Tim Robbins, Cinema Verite Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINISERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION Jessica Lange, American Horror Story Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire Sofia Vergara, Modern Family Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey Evan Rachel Wood, Mildred Pierce

What to TiVo: Friday

BuzzSugar — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:59:00 PST

8:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (new)
9:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (new)
10:00 20/20 (new)
12:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live (repeat)

8:00 A Gifted Man (new)
9:00 CSI: NY (new)
10:00 Blue Bloods (new)
11:35 Late Show With David Letterman (repeat)
12:37 The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (new, with guest Ana Gasteyer)

8:00 Pac-12 Football Championships: UCLA at Oregon
8:00 Game of Your Life (new)
10:00 Dateline NBC (new)
11:35 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (new, with guests Hilary Swank and The Situation)
12:35 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (new, with guests Maya Rudolph and Damian Lewis)

8:00 Nikita (new)
9:00 Supernatural (new)

Showtime Picks Up Homeland For a Second Season

Shannon Vestal — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:13:47 PDT

Claire Danes will be around to pick Damian Lewis's brain for another year: Showtime has picked up its new series Homeland for a second season. The tense drama just premiered earlier this month, and the first season of the show is underway, with Danes's CIA agent character Carrie Mathison convinced that returned prisoner of war Lewis is actually a terrorist who's been turned by the enemy. With another season, she should have plenty of time to figure it out.

Photo courtesy of Showtime

Pilot Scoop: Homeland

Shannon Vestal — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:00:00 PDT

Our preview of Fall TV continues, and today we're checking out one of Showtime's new original series, Homeland, a drama that's bringing Claire Danes back to TV. Danes plays a CIA agent working for homeland security who becomes worried that a recently rescued POW is actually a spy working for Al-Qaeda.

What it's about: When a prisoner of war who has been missing for eight years suddenly turns up, agent Carrie Anderson (Danes) becomes suspicious of the circumstances because of a tip she'd received months earlier. She believes that the rescued soldier, Sgt. Nicholas Brody (played by Damian Lewis), was turned while he was imprisoned and is now a terrorist. Anderson conducts her own investigation while the series shows you both her and Brody's perspectives.

Where it works: The pilot does a great job alternating between making you believe Carrie's theory and making you doubt it. By the end of the pilot, you still don't know if Brody has been turned or not, but by seeing his experiences - including his efforts to re-assimilate into his family and his flashbacks of being tortured - you deeply sympathize with him.

Where it doesn't: The psychological mystery is the most compelling aspect of the show, so if it's solved soon, it may be less interesting as a straight highbrow political drama.

You might like this show if: You love a good conspiracy theory.

When it's on: Sundays at 10 p.m. on Showtime starting Oct. 2.

To see a preview for Homeland, just

Claire Danes Talks About Her "Dangerously Bright" Character on Homeland and Leaving Angela Chase Behind

Shannon Vestal — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:34:55 PDT

Showtime introduced new drama Homeland at the TCA, bringing out star Claire Danes to chat about her starring role as a CIA agent. Her character is convinced that a rescued prisoner of war (played by Damian Lewis) has been turned by the enemy while he was imprisoned. She, Lewis, and costar Morena Baccarin joined executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa to talk about how they'll make the terrorism-themed series compelling.

Danes said she gravitated to the role because the character of Carrie Anderson is "incredibly bright, at times dangerously bright, formidable, focused, compulsive, even myopic . . ." but that she can be very sensitive, a juxtaposition Danes finds interesting. She also mentioned one of the pitfalls of starring on a cable drama, joking that on Showtime "you get to curse a lot, you get to get naked a lot."
Lewis talked about the torture scenes his character has to endure in flashback, mentioning that he's already been beaten with a club, hung upside down, and peed on, but don't worry about him: "I don't mind too much filming that stuff, oddly." He believes that the scenes are "as real and as brutal as those things are," and that they're not for shock value, but to show the psychological state of the character. He's been broken down because "torture feeds the psychology of the piece. . . so it's important to show it." Danes joked that after Lewis films the scenes "Occasionally I'll see him at the craft service table looking very, very distressed."

To find out why the producers think the series is so relevant right now and the similarities Danes sees between Homeland and My So-Called Life, just

2011 Coachella Lineup: Kanye West, Arcade Fire, and Kings of Leon Headline

BuzzSugar — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:33:53 PST

Coachella's 2011 lineup has been announced, and when the three-day festival kicks off in April, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, and Kanye West will each headline a day. Other acts I'm excited about? The Black Keys, The Strokes, Best Coast, Cee Lo Green, The National, Sleigh Bells - just to name a few!

Coachella takes place on April 15, 16, and 17 at The Empire Polo Field in Indio, CA. Check out the full lineup when you

read more. The headliners are bolded. FRIDAY, APRIL 15: Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, Caifanes, Robyn, !!!, 12th Planet, Afrojack, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, A-Trak, Beardyman, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Boys Noize, Brandon Flowers, Brandt Brauer Frick, Breakage, Cee Lo Green, Clare Maguire, Cold Cave, Cold War Kids, Crystal Castles, Cut Copy, Emicida, Erick Morillo, Excision, Flogging Molly, Glasser, G.Q., Gypsy and the Cat, Here We Go Magic, Hurts, Interpol, Jakes, Kele, Klaxons, Kyle Hall, Magnetic Man, Marina and the Diamonds, Monarchy, Mount Kimbie, Moving Units, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nosaj Thing, OFWGKTA, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Ozomatli, Sander Kleinenberg, Sasha, Scala & Kolacny Bros., Skrillex, Sleigh Bells, Tame Impala, The Aquabats, The Drums, The Morning Benders, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Titus Andronicus, Warpaint. SATURDAY, APRIL 16: Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Mumford & Sons, Bright Eyes, Alf Alpha, Andy C, Big Audio Dynamite, Bomba Estereo, Broken Social Scene, Cage the Elephant, Chuckie, Cults, Daedelus, Delta Sprirt, DJ Hype, DJ Kentaro, DJ Marky, EE, Elbow, Electric Touch, Empire of the Sun, Erykah Badu, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Fedde Le Grand, Foals, Francis and the Lights, Freelance Whales, Gayngs, Gogol Bordello, Goth Trad, Jimmy Eat World, Joachim Garraud, Laidback Luke, Lil B’ and the Based Gods, Mariachi El Bronx, Mary Anne Hobbs, One Day as a Lion, Paul van Dyk, Phosphorescent, Raphael Saadiq, Ras G, SBTRKT, Scissor Sisters, Shpongle, Steve Angello, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, The Felice Brothers, The Henry Clay People, The Joy Formidable, The London Suede, The Kills, The Love Language, The New Pornographers, The Radio Dept., The Swell Season, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Twelves, Trampled by Turtles, Two Door Cinema Club, Wire, Yacht. SUNDAY, APRIL 17: Kanye West, The Strokes, Duran Duran, The National, PJ Harvey, Death From Above 1979, Angus and Julia Stone, Axwell, Best Coast, Caspa, Chromeo, City and Colour, CSS, Delorean, DJ Zinc, Duck Sauce, Eliza Doolittle, Ellie Goulding, Fistful of Mercy, Foster the People, Fun., Good Old War, Gord Downie, Green Velvet, HEALTH, High Contrast, Jack Beats, Jack’s Mannequin, Jenny and Johnny, Joy Orbison, Kode9, Leftfield, Lightning Bolt, Lorn, Los Bunkers, Mala, MEN, Menomena, Nas & Damian Marley, Neon Trees, New Pants, OFF!, Phantogram, Plan B, Ramadanman, Ratatat, Riva Starr, Roska, Rye Rye, She Wants Revenge, Sven Vath, Take, Terror Danjah, The Bloody Beetroots, The Presets, Thunderball, Trentemoller, Tinie Tempah, Tokimonsta, Twin Shadow, Wiz Khalifa, Yelle, Zed Bias.