BLOGS
While it still hasn't been made official, it's safe to assume that this weekend's Mick Jagger-hosted season finale of Saturday Night Live marked the last time that Kristen Wiig will appear in Studio 8H... as an ensemble player at least. (We suspect she'll be back as a host somewhere down the line.) After all, considering that teary send-off to the tune of "Ruby Tuesday" it'll be strange if she returns in the fall. And although Andy Samberg (who may also be leaving) didn't get quite as obvious a farewell, his season-ending Digital Short -- which sequelized the skit that got launched the whole franchise seven years ago, "Lazy Sunday" -- suggested that it was a wrap for him as well. The only question mark now is Jason Sudeikis, another supposedly departing cast member who barely appeared in any sketches at all. While we wait for the formal announcement about casting changes, here are the episode's most memorable send-offs.
Bran Stark, Tomb Raider and other revelations from last night's Game of Thrones episode, "The Prince of Winterfell."
I'm one of the few people who isn't horribly annoyed by Hannah as a character or Lena Dunham as an actress, so the fact that she was front and center in this episode didn't bother me -- especially since it meant we got to see her parents again. (Raise your hand if you thought there'd be more exploration of her dad allegedly being gay!) What I didn't like about "The Return," however, is that the quality of its writing felt more like a student film -- especially in its pacing -- and that I instantly compared it to last year's dark comedy Young Adult. I know it's my own fault, but when you're writing about an unhappy and sexually frustrated young female writer coming back to her hometown from the big city with hopes to confront a few demons, it's hard not to draw a few comparisons. Unfortunately for Dunham, she's no Charlize Theron (to say the least) and so indulging in a proverbial trip home wasn't as powerful as it was supposed to be.
The upfronts are over. Time to start speculating about Glee's future again!
In what was truly a breath of fresh air after several weeks of upfronts madness, yesterday's USA Network presentation at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall -- the final event of the season -- didn't feature a single word from any executive. It's a long-standing tradition at the cabler to have their stars do the talking, which means a minimum amount of industry speak... and way more scripted banter. Since USA has acquired the syndication rights to Modern Family, the highlight of the evening was a digital short of series co-creator Steven Levitan standing in front of the Pritchett-Delgado house saying how excited he was to be part of the USA family, only to have Ed O'Neill, in character as Jay, come out and angrily demand, "Hey, get the fuck out of my driveway!" It was followed with the Modern Family framed-moment title song , where the casts of each USA original series held up a little frame until the final shot ended on the Modern Family theme final still. Another highlight, especially to WWE fans, was the announcement that in honor of Monday Night Raw's 1,000th episode, the series will now be expanded to three hours every week.
Grown adults should not chomp on gum during business meetings, or ride skateboards to their dates.
Let's all take a moment and breath a deep sigh of relief that last night's triple dose of Community won't be the last we see of the series outside of DVD viewing parties and its inevitable syndication run on Comedy Central. To the relief of many and the surprise of a few, NBC has renewed the series for one more 13-episode season, slated to air on Fridays in the fall. Naturally, we'd be happier with a full-season pick up, but an additional 286 minutes at Greendale is better than none at all.
Based solely on the trailers and descriptions and scant amount of additional footage we saw during this week's network upfront presentations, here are the new shows that have piqued our interested for next season. Though since Ringer actually topped our list at this time last year, we're going to hold off planning our viewing schedules until we've had a chance to screen the full pilots.
Looks like The CW is heading back to the '80s...
You've got to hand it to The CW: they know how to really keep an upfront moving. From kicking it off with a performance by Flo Rida to just jumping right in to a preview of their most interesting new series, Arrow, it flew by faster than any other network presentation this week. Sure, they spent time discussing social media and whatnot, but it was all broken up by on-stage appearances by the very beautiful people who are on their shows. And hey, most of their upcoming shows look watchable, if not legitimately entertaining, and since they're recycling a ton of their talent (and in some cases, characters), we feel like we know these programs already.
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