Pages tagged “showtime”

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Shameless Review: "Father’s Day" (Episode 2.05)

Under the category of “things we don’t really notice” is the set and costume design for a television series. In this, Shameless does impeccable work. From an upscale garden wedding to the dried vomit on Frank’s shirt, the show’s backdrop and fashion sense serve as the perfect palette for the Gallagher family’s never-dull lifestyle.  read more

Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan to Star in Showtime's Masters of Sex

Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan are set to star in Showtime’s Master of Sex, which is a look into the lives of William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Masters and Johnson researched human sexuality in the 1960s and helped liberate many of the attitudes towards sex.  read more

HBO Renews Luck After Only One Episode

It looks like 1.1 million viewers was enough for HBO to renew Luck for a second season. The horse racing drama, which focuses on the seedy underbelly of the gambling world, premiered this past Sunday nearly a month after the premium cable network presented a sneak peak of the pilot episode.  read more

Shameless Review: "A Beautiful Mess" (Episode 2.04)

Comedy thrives on the unexpected, those times when every day life collides with sudden change. And Shameless thrives on such changes. Fiona’s (Emmy Rossum) adulterous moment with a high school dream, albeit a completely unsatisfactory coupling, is not what we’ve come to expect from Fiona. Being the “rock” of the Gallagher family, her street sense of ethics is usually commendable. Payback for her digression has now come to bite in the form of a vengeful wife whose constant harassment of Fiona begins to take its toll.  read more

Shameless Review: "I’ll Light a Candle for You Everyday" (Episode 2.03)

This week’s treatise focuses on morality and mortality, and the ethics of both. After an elderly friend passes away Debbie becomes obsessed with death, and its euphemisms: “basted the formaldehyde turkey, living impaired”. As with all the Gallaghers, she learns to deal with life’s tragedies pretty much on her own.  read more

House of Lies Review: "Microphallus" (Episode 1.03)

“Microphallus” destroys the meager goodwill House of Lies earned from last week’s slight improvement. It’s an ugly, sordid, crass, cynical and entirely unlikable half-hour. The only two scenes that didn’t make me cringe involve characters angrily (and perceptively) telling the lead character off. That doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season....  read more

Shameless Review: "Summer Loving" (Episode 2.02)

More than a score of running sub plots could muddy up an hour long cable series but Shameless’ creators weave them all into a cohesive story, dodging between the comedic and the tragic. An adept cast and some slick editing have a lot to do with it.  read more

House of Lies Review: "Amsterdam" (Episode 1.02)

I still feel dirty from last week’s House of Lies. Beyond the gratuitous nudity and sit-com coincidences, the biggest problem with the pilot was its immense self-satisfaction. I’m sure nobody without confidence has ever sold a show to a network, but even with a great cast and a timely hook that first episode felt overly proud of itself. Maybe it’s an intentional reflection of how vital image is to the show’s obscenely expensive management consultants, but the pilot was insufferably smug. This slightly more relaxed second episode is an improvement, but for a show with such a charismatic cast, House...  read more

Shameless Review: "Summertime" (Episode 2.01)

“Jesus, you really don’t remember what happened last year? Pay some fucking attention this time.”—Frank (William H. Macy), opening Season Two of Shameless....  read more

House of Lies Review: "The Gods of Dangerous Financial Instruments" (Episode 1.01)

House of Lies wants to be as smart and smooth as its characters but comes off like a pay cable Three's Company, with unlikely coincidences, comical mix-ups and a fixation on sex. It plays down to 99% populism while salivating over the riches of the 1%. It's a smug half-hour made bearable by a strong cast and a willingness to address the economic issues that most shows (other than "Work It") ignore. It handles those issues so cynically that many might be offended, but how many pay cable protagonists are admirable or respectable, anyway?  read more