USA has been on a winning streak with lightweight, middle-of-the-road dramedies, so there's no reason the cabler should give up on a formula that's clearly working, even when the series in question revolves around the intelligence forces in a post-9/11 world.
The cabler's newest addition to its stable of breezy dramas is Covert Affairs, which launches tonight with a 90-minute pilot that introduces CIA trainee Annie Walker (Coyote Ugly's Piper Perabo) as it pushes her right onto the front lines of the spy game.
Created by Matt Corman and Chris Ord, Covert Affairs seems from the very first few minutes to walk to walk in the stylish stilettos of ABC's Alias, giving Perabo's Annie a series of dangerous missions, a lukewarm cover story, and a sister (House and Big Love's Anne Dudek, wasted here) that she has to lie to in order to keep her safe.
But while Alias focused on an increasingly intricate overarching mythology, Covert Affairs wants to push in the opposite direction, ditching Rambaldi for run-of-the-mill procedural elements and giving Annie a haunted love life with a man who is definitely more than what he appears to be. There's also a lot more heavy-handed humor here, which will either make you beam with satisfaction or make you concerned about the safety of our country, given the setting.
In case you didn't already get the gist of the plot, here's the quick version: Annie Walker is a polyglot CIA trainee who is whisked out of basic training and thrust into a full flown assignment where she's required to speak Russian, wear a tight dress, and pretend to be a Washington call girl. She's assisted in her new gig by Auggie, the aforementioned blind CIA operative, with whom she shares some banter and a few drinks before the end of the episode.
Covert Affairs is a nice change of pace for USA in that it's more female-centric than any of the other USA series (other than, of course, In Plain Sight) and I think there's a nice chemistry between Perabo and Christopher Gorham, who plays blind CIA analyst Auggie Anderson. But Perabo at times seemed to be channeling Jennifer Garner in Alias, right down to the knowing and lippy pout, and I want to see her a little more at ease within the role.
I also had a difficult time believing certain aspects of the series, namely the fact that Auggie would be placed in such a visually-demanding position. Can he really use the braille-based computer system that quickly to source data? Isn't he at a severe disadvantage that he can't actually see the data on-screen? And might that not prove to be a liability at some point? I'm all for supporting the Americans with Disabilities Act but this seemed to me a bit of stretch too far. Surely, Auggie's skills could have come in handy elsewhere within the agency other than at a computer array?
As I mentioned earlier, while I adore Anne Dudek, the sister/family element of Covert Affairs felt grafted on and a bit tired to me. Every spy show tries to create this shroud of normalcy for the characters but it just felt too convenient and trite here... and likely to get very old, very fast. (Remember how painful the Will and Francie subplots got in the early seasons of Alias? Or how Francie was left with nothing to do except whine about opening her restaurant?)
Likewise, I didn't buy that Perabo's Annie--gorgeous, smart, and vivacious--would need to be fixed up by her sister Danielle in the pilot episode... or with such an obvious dud. (Had the guy been more stereotypically attractive, I would have maybe bought this a bit more easily.) There's a clear disconnect here between the way the audience perceives Perabo's character and the way that Danielle does in ways that go beyond the truth of her profession. (Danielle believes that she works at the Smithsonian but even that doesn't excuse the awfulness of her forced hook-up.)
However, I will say that I loved Peter Gallagher and Kari Matchett as sparring CIA spouses Arthur and Joan Campbell, and I hope that subsequent episodes continue to mine their relationship as a potential cautionary tale for Annie. While I have to question some of Joan's ensemble choices given her line of work (and the fact that she seems to require being perceived as a steely force to be reckoned with), I thought it an interesting angle to have the master spy succumb to feelings of jealousy and paranoia while it's Arthur himself who seems to either be very good at keeping secrets (a professional duty, after all) or is just absolutely cool as a cucumber (ditto). I'm hoping that subsequent episodes will focus more on their marriage and its inherent issues of trust and fidelity when two spies are married to both each other and their jobs.
Additionally, I'm intrigued by Eion Bailey's Ben Mercer and love that that's why Annie was pulled out of training at the Farm early in the first place... and I hope this develops into a full-blown serialized arc for the season. It more than likely will, given the clandestine string-pulling that got Annie transferred in the first place.
Before making up my mind definitively on Covert Affairs, I would be curious to see a second episode in order to determine whether there is more of a balance between the funny and the gritty, a hard line to walk in an espionage show where the protagonist is meant to be on the front line of national defense. Ultimately, I don't want Annie to be tortured or grim (or whip out a pink wig), but I also want to see her a little more centered and mature. If Covert Affairs wants to thrive, both Annie and the series itself could stand to grow up a little.
Covert Affairs premieres tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on USA.
"Appetite, a universal wolf.” - William Shakespeare
HBO's seductive vampire drama True Blood has often placed a certain emphasis on the hungers of its characters, both human and otherwise. But last night's riveting installment ("9 Crimes"), written by Kate Barnow and Elisabeth R. Finch and directed by David Petrarca, brought this underlying theme directly to the surface, exploring the way that bloodlust--in its many forms--make the characters tick and offering up a compendium of crimes, from murder and kidnapping to treason and falsifying evidence, that swirl around the denizens of Bon Temps like so much cigar smoke.
The episode also featured some very warped looks at the way that certain relationships can go off the rails, whether it was the painful breakup between Bill and Sookie (which we'll discuss at length in a bit) or the unrequited love that Alcide has for his ex-girlfriend Debbie Pelt. Not to mention the severely creepy obsession that Franklin is harboring for poor Tara, whom this week he not only tied to a toilet and gagged but then brought her across state lines with a bouquet of flowers duct-taped to her hands.
That's one series of images, coming on the heels as it does of the last episode's, uh, twisted sex scene, that I can't scrub from my mind quite yet.
So what did I think of this week's episode of True Blood? Warm up a B-positive Tru Blood and let's discuss "9 Crimes."
I wondered just how the writers of True Blood would be able to top the insanely horrific sex scene between Bill and Lorena from two weeks ago and rather than attempt to go over the top, the writers focused on the lengths that people go in the name of love. It's in that vein that Bill attempts to kill any vestiges of feeling he has for Sookie Stackhouse in an effort to cast himself further into a bleak nighttime of the soul and keep his would-be fiancee safe from harm. While it breaks Sookie's heart to hear Bill call off their relationship (and twist the knife even further as he admits that he had sex with Lorena), his efforts are rooted in a desire to protect Sookie and keep her out of Russell's clutches.
But while Bill schemes to protect Sookie--even at the cost of his own humanity--Russell has plans of his own as his man in Bon Temps, vampire investigator Franklin Mott uses Tara to learn more about Bill and about Sookie. While he's desperate to locate Sookie (even taking control of Tara's dispossessed voice to entrap her best friend), he's also searching for knowledge. Just what is the relationship between Bill and Sookie? Does Sookie's brother Jason share her telepathic abilities? Hmmm... Then there's the matter of that dossier secreted in Bill's things that was tracing Sookie's ancestry and family tree. Could it be that the true target is Sookie herself? Hmmm...
I loved the fact that Bill chose the saddest looking girl at the strip club to "procure" as Russell and Lorena's dinner that evening. (And I loved the reveal that Bill was in fact employed as a procurer for Sophie-Anne in the first place and was "on a break" while in Bon Temps.) It was telling that he sought out the one woman who had given up not only on life but on love as well, seeing it as an eternal hell from which she could not escape. Is his offering of her body to Russell and Lorena a fitting gift then? A mercy for a lost soul like his own, someone who had cast off their own humanity just as he had? Still, it's telling that the woman doesn't go quietly into the good night; she screams with all of her heart, not wanting to die.
While Bill attempts to erase Sookie from his heart, he finds that that's not as easy as he thought it would be. The fact that he twinges when he senses Sookie is in danger--and very nearby--reveals the true depths of his feelings for the telepathic waitress. He might be willing to break her heart or make her believe him to be some villain but his every instinct is still to race to Sookie's aid. But in this situation, with Russell and Lorena watching his every move, he has to put his head in front of his heart.
Sookie, meanwhile, isn't likely to do the same. She's compelled--even after being emotionally gutted by Bill's over-the-phone break-up--to find her former lover, even at the cost of her own life. To that end, she's willing to take all number of risks in search of Bill Compton, putting herself into a literal wolves' den in order to gain further intelligence about Bill's whereabouts. (She's ably assisted by Alcide's sister, who gives the small town girl one hell of a black-hued makeover into tough-as-nails were chick.)
(Aside: I'm loving the fact that the writer are very wisely playing to Anna Paquin's comedic skills. Once again this week, Sookie had a handful of corkers. It's refreshing to see her toss out some hysterical lines rather than play the straight man here.)
Fortunately, Sookie has a reluctant ally in werewolf Alcide, who has his own heartbreak to contend with: namely, one Debbie Pelt. Debbie is Alcide's ex-girlfriend, who not only walked off with his cookware but also his heart. She has shacked up with Coot, the leader of the Eff You Crew, a V-drinking were crew with ties to a centuries-old werewolf cult who has ties to, well, Russell Edgington.
Russell. We knew that Russell had a relationship with the werewolves and employed them for some of his, er, dirtier tasks, such as kidnapping Bill and bringing him to Mississippi. And we suspected that he was the "leader" that Eric and Godric were searching for in World War II. Russell, it seems, pays his followers in vampire blood (his own, in fact) and has been using this branded wolves as mercenary followers for quite a long time, breaking all manner of vampire law in order to... Well, that's not quite clear yet. What is clear is that Russell is as bad as they come and he seems to want to overthrow the vampire monarchy and take over the world. He'll willing to use whatever draconian measures necessary to this end... and now he has Bill in his grasp.
Not good.
But then again, neither is the fact that Sookie is alone in a club filled with werewolves who are forced en masse to shift into the wolf form. Not a good place to be, particularly when those weres have feasted on 2,800-year-old vampire blood.
Eric. I have to say that I'm loving the fact that we're seeing some very different sides to Eric Northman this season, between the quick-witted rapport he shares with Lafayette (and the way he swooped down from the sky to save our favorite short-order cook... and later took off via Lafayette's car window) and the protectiveness he evidenced when he came up on his child Pam being tortured by the sadistic magister.
But there was also that romantic (and provocative) dream he had of Sookie, in which he appeared outside her window in Mississippi and then noticed the saltwater scent of his skin and admitted that she could "smell his memories," conjuring up a vision of a human Eric as a child playing in the North Sea. It was a tiny moment that peeled back the layers of the vampire sheriff to reveal that a heart still beats underneath his cold skin. His dream of claiming Sookie wasn't rendered in blood but in an emotionally resonant context, one that connected his humanity to hers. (It was really a beautiful moment in an episode that was largely about the way that desire twists us around.)
I'm worried, however, about the fact that Pam and Eric have attempted to mislead the magister about the identity of just who is behind the v-supply. While Pam acted out of horror at the thought of a true death, it's Eric who goes along with her hastily concocted plan, concurring that it was Bill Compton who framed them. While it keeps the magister from staking Pam right there, it gives them precious little time to find a solution... though the duo did manage to maintain their fealty to their queen and didn't sell out Sophie-Anne. Hopefully, she sees it that way. (Bill, meanwhile, has already told Russell about the v-trade and Sophie-Anne's financial needs in the face of the Great Revelation.)
Tara. The walls are closing in for every one, even as Franklin makes his way back to Mississippi with poor Tara in his clutches. I'm extremely concerned for Tara both in a mortal sense--Franklin sinking his fangs into her neck made me tense up--but also as a character. She's been victimized so very much the past three seasons and gone to some very dark places. That she'd now be kidnapped, tied to a toilet, and made into a literal trophy girlfriend for a deranged vampire is perhaps a test one too many.
I'm hoping that Tara can find the strength to fight back, to overcome Franklin, and reassert herself. She has been through so much in her life and has always come out swinging. I want to see her snapping out of her self-destructive spiral and finding herself again. In other words: I'm concerned where this is going. Let's just hope she can break free--in more ways than one--sooner rather than later.
Jason. I loved the fact that Jason has finally gained some perspective on his own life, seeing that he's utterly replaceable when faced with a new promising Bon Temps football QB1 eager to take Jason's place in the pantheon of local sports gods. But Jason's not one to let the opportunity to go to place this young upstart in his place, urging him to take a look at just where he'll be in ten years' time, being replaced by someone younger. Rather than submit to self-pity, however, Jason continues his mission to become a cop now that Andy's been named temporary sheriff after Bud quit. He's all too willing, in fact, to blackmail Andy into making him a deputy, reminding him of the fact that he falsified evidence to cover up Eggs' murder. Will Andy buckle to Jason's demands? It certainly seems that way.
Jessica. I love that Sam--who has his own hands full with the Mickens clan--took Sookie's words literally and hired Jessica as a waitress at Merlotte's, a fact that quickly causes tension in the ranks as Arlene is used to being the only redhead at the bar. I'm glad to see Jessica get pulled closer into the center of True Blood, especially with both Sookie and Bill gone and her character currently on the outs with former boyfriend Hoyt. (It was also great to see Jessica easily fall into place as Merlotte's new server. As she put it, she might be a vampire but she's not dumb.)
However, Jessica's sudden appearance at Merlotte's happens to coincide with the arrival of a stranger in town, a man from her Bible study group who recognizes her as the missing Jessica Hamby, a situation that causes some concern for the baby vampire. Rather than kill him, Jessica opts to glamour him and make him forget that he ever saw her. Their communion is witnessed by Hoyt, who watches from afar and doesn't quite seem to understand the relevance of the scene playing out before him.
Sam. Likewise, I was glad to see that Sam didn't boot the Mickens out of town (though he had all right to) but instead attempted to solve their situation in his own way, offering Tommy an opportunity to stay with him and a way to free himself from Melinda and Joe Lee. While he's clearly still freaked out by the idea of his biological family, he does have to look after his own, as Arlene cattily reminds him. To that end, he sets Melinda and Joe Lee up with someplace to stay until they can get back on their feet (remember, Sam owns a bunch of apartments in Bon Temps, as we saw in Season One), if they don't drink or steal. Has he made an investment in his future and his family? Or will Sam's decision come back to bite him? We'll have to wait to find out.
All in all, "9 Crimes" was a sensational installment that offered up a whole slew of compelling storylines for multiple characters while keeping the action moving swiftly along. Four episodes in, Season Three of True Blood is already looking to be an extraordinarily strong season, even as the wolves continue to encircle our protagonists. I can't wait to see just happens next.
What did you think of this week's episode? Was it worth the wait? Head to the comments section to discuss, debate, and dissect "9 Crimes."
Next week on True Blood ("Trouble"), Alcide and Sookie turn to an alpha-wolf “packmaster” for advice on dealing with Russellʼs minions; Tara considers a proposal from Franklin, whoʼs completed his mission for Russell; Joe Lee breaks his promise to Sam and Tommy; Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) learns the meaning of patience from Jesus (Kevin Alejandro), his motherʼs (Alfre Woodard) orderly; Jason meets his match in the mysterious girl Crystal (Lindsay Pulsipher); an heirloom reminds Eric of his past and his ongoing thirst for vengeance.
Looking for more information about Syfy's newest drama series Haven?
Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest feature, entitled "Stephen King's Haven on Syfy: Is It the Next Twin Peaks?" where I talk to executive producers Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn as well as series lead Emily Rose about the spooky supernatural drama, based on Stephen King's novella "The Colorado Kid."
Tonight, Syfy launches two series, one returning favorite and a new offering, both of which are set in small towns that conceal the truth about their nature.
Syfy itself has had more success with its light procedurals such as Eureka and Warehouse 13 (which itself returned to the lineup earlier this week) than with the sort of doom-and-gloom of fellow original series Caprica, but that doesn't mean that the network should slide permanently over to to the sunny side of the genre. (After all, there does need to be not only a balance between light and darkness in terms of tone but also a sense that there's a variety of programming on offer at the cable network.)
However, summer might just be the perfect place for such sci-fi jocularity and off all of Syfy's series, the one that best achieves the blend of humor and action (along with a real sense of speculative fiction) is Eureka, created by Andrew Cosby and Jamie Paglia.
Eureka returns tonight with its fourth season premiere ("Founder's Day"), which is hands down the very best installment of the sci-fi series to date, offering a tale of time travel, doomed romance, potential hope, and the sort of scientific appetite that, well, founded Eureka in the first place.
It's an episode that plays around with its soapy elements (marriage proposals, breakups, and romantic entanglements of all kind) as well as the space-time continuum, and features a look at the Eureka that was, gloriously recreating the 1940s military base camp atmosphere as the modern-day residents celebrate Founder's Day... and some of them get a first-hand look at what really went down in the past.
Without giving too much away, I will say that that the episode shakes things up considerably for the characters, most especially for Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whifield), Henry Deacon (Joe Morton), Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra), and Fargo (Neil Grayston), resulting in a series of events that, well, that would be giving things away.
At the center of this mystery and its dramatic consequences is a new face to Eureka: Dr. Grant, played with superb wit and charisma by former Battlestar Galactica co-star James Callis. While he played BSG's Baltar with a combination of narcissism and self-loathing, here Callis imbues Grant with a certain rougish je ne sais quoi while making the brilliant theoretical physicist utterly appealing at the same time. Suffice it to say that the town of Eureka may never be the same after Grant crosses paths with Carter and Allison. Hmmm...
All in all, "Founder's Day" (and the following installment, which picks up the action scant seconds after the end of "Founder's Day") is a superb start to a season that promises to be Eureka's finest and a fantastic jumping-on point for viewers new to the series. It's an episode that's packed with pathos and humor and an unpredictable nature that points towards anything being possible in Eureka... and indeed probable.
Eureka – “Founder’s Day” Sneak Peek Clip
Syfy's newest series, Haven, lacks the charm and poise of Eureka. The pilot episode, which airs tonight after Eureka starts off on a strong note as FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) finds herself shuttling towards a small Maine fishing town in pursuit of a suspect... and manages to uncover both a decades-old secret about the town of Haven and a startling connection to her own mystery-shrouded past.
Written by Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, Haven has some promise but the second half of the pilot episode seems to squander it. Rather than embed some real grit and eeriness into the drama, it descends into somewhat stereotypical sci-fi trappings about supernatural abilities, mysterious storms, and easily solved crimes of the week, whereas they should be making Haven into a depository for our dreams (and nightmares) about small coastal towns, where the quirkiness (or even oddness) of the inhabitants is at odds with the idyllic nature of the place itself.
It's hard not to compare it to David Lynch and Mark Frost's seminal small town drama Twin Peaks, albeit without the terror lurking behind every patterned sofa. But while Haven needn't be as bleak or terrifying as Twin Peaks, it needs to become a little less soft and a little more threatening at times, as though the morning mist and dead of night are themselves potentially ominous symbols of coastal life for an outsider like Audrey.
A love triangle that's quickly set up between Audrey and two very unlikely suitors--local cop Nathan (Lucas Bryant) and bad boy Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour)--is an interesting angle, particularly as the romance doesn't completely intrude on the action, nor does it make Rose's Audrey Parker any less steely or inquisitive.
There's potential to be had in Haven, if the writers can find the right tone and the right balance of serialized and procedural elements. In the meantime, however, Haven might be one town you want to check out of early.
Haven – “Welcome to Haven” Sneak Peek Clip
Season Four of Eureka begins tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on Syfy, immediately followed by the series premiere of Haven at 10 pm ET/PT.
Syfy has had a lot of success of late with quirky, humorous dramedies where the science fiction often takes a backseat to the trappings of traditional drama. Think of them more as extraordinary dramas than say, purely speculative fiction.
This is particularly true with Syfy's original series Eureka and Warehouse 13, both of which return to the schedule this week with new seasons. In their own ways, both series have served to push the network further into the mainstream, fusing together the supernatural/speculative elements of the genre with mass appeal to create a new sub-genre that's heavy on the humor and light, well, in general.
While Eureka focuses on a town of super-scientists hidden in the Pacific Northwest, Warehouse 13 using somewhat similar trappings: a tiny town in the middle of nowhere hides a massive government-sponsored secret. In this case, that secret is the Warehouse itself, a depository of arcane and mysterious artifacts, each with their own abilities. It's up to the agents to safeguard these secrets, investigate mysterious phenomena, and file away any artifacts they acquire in the field.
It's the latter series that returns tonight with a new season that finds deliciously mismatched Warehouse 13 agents Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) attempting to grapple with assaults from numerous directions, while their shifty supervisor Artie (Saul Rubinek) attempts to track down the missing Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) after the events of last season's finale.
To say more than that would be give away quite a few plot points from the second season opener, "Time Will Tell," a fun installment that gives the series a global feel as Myka and Pete head to London and Artie trails Claudia to Switzerland. The chaos created by the nefarious MacPherson (Roger Rees) spills out of control here as his master plan is revealed.
Just what that is you'll have to wait to find out, but I will say that it's one hell of a bizarro mindtrip that involves a classic sci-fi author, bronze, and a potential new adversary for the gang at Warehouse 13, one that I hope sticks around all season long to make things very difficult for Myka and Eddie.
The second episode will be one that will have sci-fi fans buzzing about for some time to come, particularly as it features guest stars Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, who previously starred together in Joss Whedon's woefully short-lived Firefly. Here, the duo is involved in a series of inexplicable occurrences, one that seems to involve a vigilante battling criminals in a town beset by crime. But superheroes only exist in comic books, right? Hmmm...
Both episodes point towards why Warehouse 13 has won over viewers. It's got a slick combination of humor, heart, and frothy action that never veers too close to the darkness and keeps things humming along with a nice pace. During the hottest season of the year, that might just be the perfect television complement to a day beside the pool: it's familiar, cool, and--so long as you don't go looking for the deep end--there's no danger of drowning.
Season Two of Warehouse 13 begins tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on Syfy.
Season Six of Weeds begins next month and Showtime has issued a striking poster image for the sixth season, one that depicts Nancy, Silas, and Shane Botwin (along with Justin Kirk's Andy and Kevin Nealon's Doug) as yesteryear hoods, a la Atlantic City. (Nice touch with Shane holding onto that plot-twist-driven croquet mallet.)
A larger version of the poster can be found after the jump, along with the teaser trailer for Season Six of Weeds, just in case you missed it a few weeks back.
Season Six of Weeds kicks off on August 16th at 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime.
As the Summer Solstice has come and gone now, the hot months of summer are officially in full swing as the broadcast and cable networks bring out their slate of originals and burn-offs during the sweltering season.
While I'm sinking my teeth into quite a bit of programming this summer (including HBO's True Blood, Bravo's Top Chef, and my latest obsession, BBC America's upcoming Come Dine With Me) and catching up on some others (cough, Friday Night Lights, cough), I'm curious to know just what you are watching right now... and what you intend to watch this summer. Are you hooked on USA's dramedies? Can't wait for the return of Entourage? Trembling at the thought of more True Blood? Intrigued by Work of Art? Spooked by the thought of Syfy's Haven?
Head to the comments section to discuss what's on your season pass this summer, what's failed to click with you so far, and what new and returning television series you are most looking forward to over the next few months.
Suffering isn't just the provenance of the living within the world of True Blood. In fact, everyone--whether human, vampire, or shifter--must make their way through the world carrying their own pain and misery in their bones.
That truth--one spoken ages ago by the Buddha himself--is the underlying thread within this week's episode of True Blood ("Beautifully Broken"), written by Raelle Tucker and directed by Scott Winant, in which several characters attempt to come to grips with the sources of their suffering: anguish over a lost loved one, abandonment during childhood, and the haunting of some bitter memories better left buried.
When the Buddha wrote that life was dukkha, he didn't mean "pain" or suffering precisely (though Lafayette quotes him as saying such). Rather, he posited that life was analogous to disquietude--to interruptions--the way a potter's wheel might skip rather than turn smoothly. But the intent is the same. What we're seeing here is life, interrupted: Sookie attempting to track down Bill, Tara coming to grips with the loss of Eggs, Sam confronting his deadbeat parents.
Here, Lafeyette acknowledges the darkness that exists within his family, but it's a darkness that might well exist within them all. They've all been tainted by an association with evil, one that threatens to consume their souls if they let it. But the series instead follows the reverse, the belief that we can each of us cast out the darkness rather than become infected. We can choose the paths we walk, choose to keep our inner demons (figurative or literal) at bay.
So what did I think of this week's installment? the season opener? Sidle up to the bar, pop open a warm Tru Blood, and let's discuss "Beautifully Broken."
While the season opener set up the main thrust of the season and established some tantalizing mysteries, it's this week's episode that really pushed the momentum along, revealing some answers to some dangling riddles (just who was behind Bill's kidnapping?) and setting up some new players in a rather deadly game that's being enacted behind the scenes.
It also introduced several new characters to the mix: Denis O'Hare's regal Russell Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi; his royal consort Talbot (Theo Alexander); Lafayette's psychologically disturbed mother Ruby Jean (Alfre Woodard); her nurse Jesus (Kevin Alejandro); and enigmatic vampire Franklin Mott (James Frain), whose interest in Tara likely doesn't bode well for Merlotte's grief-afflicted bartender.
Rather than overwhelm, these new additions add further color and depth to the world of True Blood, pushing the boundaries of the action way beyond Bon Temps (just as Season Two took Sookie to Dallas) to include the kingdom of Mississippi, and the power grab that Russell is looking to enact by joining his royal house with that of Sophie-Anne.
Russell. I'll admit that I'm not only intrigued by the medieval intrigue but also by Russell himself. He's a worldly and gracious host, even when he's keeping his guest--that would be one Bill Compton, of course--at his palatial home by force. He's nothing if polished and courteous. He throws a mean dinner party, complete with four courses of blood (including a sorbet and a carbonated blood scented with citrus), all donated and cruelty-free, of course. He arranges for a "little bell" to be placed outside Bill's bedroom (itself containing a bed once belonging to the notorious Countess of Bathory, who was rumored to have bathed in virgins' blood), a room decorated with a very slick sterling silver door. Escape is not an option for Bill and Russell seems to (A) want him alive (or as alive as a vampire can be) and (B) is willing to do anything--including kidnap Sookie--in order to get Bill to agree to his desires.
Russell is after a marriage with Sophie-Anne and he wants Bill, one of the most talented young vampires in the area, to renounce his queen and pledge fealty to him. He's snatched him from his life and from his love in order to get him to take his place beside his throne. But why does Russell want to marry the insane Queen of Louisiana? That's a bit of a mystery, though it's clear that Russell is thinking several dozen steps ahead. He's looking for a major territory grab, a realigning of power within the US territories, and he's willing to engage in some Machiavellian behavior to achieve his goals.
Elsewhere, someone is snooping through the old Compton place looking for... something. It's later revealed that this someone--with his tell-tale boots--is none other than Franklin Mott, who turns up at Merlotte's and helps Tara engage in some acts of vengeance and near-ritualistic blood-letting. Just what is he looking for among Bill's papers? And just why did Bill have a file on Sookie Stackhouse? Are Bill's kidnapping and this furtive mission related? Hmmm...
The File. Then there's the matter of just what was in that file, secreted in a false bottom in a drawer in Bill's house. Besides for photographs of Sookie (including a production still from Season One), there are newspaper clippings about young Sookie (she won a spelling bee!) and a family tree depicting the Stackhouse clan, with Sookie's name circled. There's a whole lot of information in that dossier, more than the average person would have gathered at a moment's notice. A lot of care and research--not to mention some surveillance--went into assembling that file.
Which makes me wonder: Could it be that Bill's arrival at the start of Season One and his chance meeting with Sookie wasn't coincidental, after all? Was he working for Sophie-Anne even then? Something tells me that Sookie won't be too keen to learn that he sought her out intentionally. And the fact that the Comptons lived in the area was a convenient smokescreen for Bill to use in order to effect his return to Bon Temps after all of this time. Very curious.
Werewolves. Interesting too that the werewolves glimpsed in the first episode are actually working for Russell and that he seems to employ them for certain missions where he doesn't want to get his hands dirty. That runic symbol that Sookie and Jessica spotted on the corpse of the driver connects not only to Operation Werewolf but also to Eric's past...
It's a past that's of course shared with Godric, one in which the vampiric duo posed as SS officers in order to sniff out a werewolf in a French village during World War II. Eric--despite the anger of Godric--allows the were-woman to drink his blood in order to gain a valuable piece of intelligence from her. That the werewolves' master is, in fact, one of them: a vampire.
Given what we know about the werewolves' allegiance in the present-day, should we assume that they were working for Russell even then? Or do this ancient clan of weres answer to someone else? Someone even higher than the King of Mississippi on the food chain? Hmmm....
Lafayette and Tara. Once again, we're given another layer to fan-favorite Lafayette Reynolds, as we learn a bit more about where he came from and gain yet another cautionary tale for both Lafayette and Tara in the form of Ruby Jean, Lafayette's mentally ill mother. Working two "legal jobs" (and selling V on the side), Lafayette pays for her care at a live-in facility that's not exactly cheap... and then is the unwilling recipient of his mother's verbal abuse. (Telling your son that "God killed him" isn't exactly setting Ruby Jean up to win Mother of the Year, let me tell you.)
Rather than take Tara to the hospital, Lafayette instead opts to show her a vision of her potential future, taking her to see Ruby Jean in an effort to snap her out of her death-wish and get her to see that they need to keep fighting, just as they have their whole lives. Giving up means giving in to the darkness festering in their souls. But Lafayette, if anything, is a fighter, one that was born into the eternal struggle between fear and strength, between good and evil, and between madness and courage.
But Eggs' death has pushed Tara once more on a collision course with darkness. Her suicide attempt at the end of last week's episode wasn't a cry for help; it was a plea to end her suffering forever. While she's given a glimpse at the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in the form of Ruby Jean, she falls victim to her rage and her grief once more, allowing herself to succumb to the bottle and to her fists. Not helping matters is Franklin Mott, who pushes her deeper into her red zone, holding down the racist rednecks so she can wail on them even harder. This, friends, is not good.
Sam. Sam Merlotte, meanwhile, finds the family he had been so desperate to track down in Arkansas, coming face to face with the low-rent Mickenses when he ends up at the receiving end of a shotgun, courtesy of his brother Tommy. But it's his mother Melinda who welcomes him to the family and tearfully admits that she gave him up because she was worried he would be a shifter like her, though she prayed that he would be more like his father, Joe Lee.
But while his birth parents seem to embrace him with open arms (though there's something disconcerting about the look that passes briefly between Melinda and Joe Lee), Tommy's not willing to welcome Sam into his life, even going so far as to nearly get Sam killed when they're on a run together (as dogs, of course). Was it an accident? Or did Tommy engineer the situation in an effort to remove Sam altogether?
Yes, it looks like Sam learned the truest lesson of all: be careful what you wish for. Sometimes, it's better to not unearth long-buried secrets but to let them lay underground. You might not like what you find...
(Aside: I also want to say just how much I absolutely adore the unlikely "friendship" developing between Deborah Ann Woll's Jessica and Kristin Bauer van Straten's Pam. Loved their scene together in the bathroom and Jessica turning to Pam for guidance after her, er, drain-related death.)
Jason. Once again, we're seeing a direction-less Jason Stackhouse, one who even wanders over to Sookie's house to clean up in the middle of the night (and snag some of her fried chicken). But Jason might have found a new vocation when he rides along with Andy Bellefleur as the latter attempts to shut down a meth lab in the nearby neighborhood of Hotshot. Thanks to Jason, a meth cooker is caught (literally slammed to the ground by the former football player) and Jason comes face to face with...? Well, we're still not sure who that mysterious woman is, nor how she's caught up in the drug trade. But it's safe to say that she's clearly intended to be the new love interest for our horndog Jason Stackhouse this season...
Lorena. In an episode that was already filled with surprises, none managed to shock more than the appearance of Bill's maker Lorena at Russell's home... and Bill's reaction to her grand entrance as he takes the opportunity to pick up a lantern and throw it at Lorena, setting her on fire. Just... wow. I did not see that coming, nor did I expect that Bill would be able to turn the tables on his maker quite so easily. Talk about a burn...
Sookie and Eric. I loved the scenes between Sookie and Terry Bellefleur this week, as Terry chased after Sookie into the woods and then later gave her his gun, stashed in an old can in the kitchen of Merlotte's. When he asks her if she knows how to use it, her retort is pitch-perfect: "I'm not that blonde."
Likewise, Anna Paquin's Sookie gets to crack an actual joke this week, poking fun at the way that Stephen Moyer's Bill says her name (which I tend to transcribe as something like "Suggie"), in her touching scene with Jason. (And I loved the werewolf/Bigfoot/Santa dialogue from Jason, to boot.)
We got some major sparks from Eric and Sookie this week as he visits her at home to admit that he lied to her about not recognizing the Operation Werewolf rune, and we get a very sexually charged scene between the two of them out on the porch as Eric demands that Sookie invite him inside... either to protect her or sexually ravage her. (Or both.) While she finally relents when he bares his fangs, it's not Eric who actually takes down the werewolf lurking in the shadows of her home: rather, it's Sookie who fires that gun.
Despite her penchant for landing in trouble, Sookie is far more than a damsel in distress as this final scene proves. While she's got multiple suitors clamoring for the right to protect her, Sookie's taking matters into her own hands. In the dangerous environs of Bon Temps, that's a very good thing indeed.
All in all, "Beautifully Broken" was a stellar installment that picked up the baton from the season opener and gleefully ran with it. When True Blood clicks, it's an emotionally-laden rollercoaster ride in the dark heart of mankind and the opening episodes of this season point towards a sterling season that's likely to delight and torment in equal measure. I don't know about you, but I'm already hungry for next week's episode...
Next week on True Blood ("It Hurts Me Too"), Sookie heads to Jackson in the company of a werewolf; Jason is distracted from his police exams; Arlene copes with unexpected news; Franklin charms Tara; Eric gives Lafayette a gift; Bill is haunted by his past.
Last night's season premiere of True Blood ("Bad Blood"), written by Brian Buckner and directed by Daniel Minahan, kicked off the third season in style, with a riveting installment that was sexy, sultry, and dangerous all at once and which found several of the characters having to make, uh, alternate arrangements as their strategies didn't exactly pay off the way that they had intended.
That went for Sookie (Anna Paquin), who decided to accept Bill's marriage proposal, only to learn that he'd been kidnapped, to baby vamp Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and conscience-suffering Jason (Ryan Kwanten), as well as conspirators Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood).
Taking place just a few seconds after the events of the Season Two finale, "Bad Blood" found the characters reeling from those life-altering collisions of sex and violence. Sookie discovered that Bill had disappeared and was convinced that he had been taken, just as Tara (Rutina Wesley) had to contend with the death of her one true love Eggs, shot down at the hands of Jason at the end of last season.
The season opener then shows how both women attempt to cope with the loss of their lovers, as Tara turns towards the warm embrace of darkness, choosing death over life, while Sookie strives to pursue all possible leads, vowing not to rest until Bill is located again. In life and death, the cycle just keeps on turning.
So what did I think of the season opener? Sidle up to the bar, pop open a warm Tru Blood, and let's discuss "Bad Blood."
Continuing the set-up established at the start of last season, the writers--led by creator/executive producer Alan Ball--have wisely opted to begin this season in the moments following the cliffhanger, immediately pushing the audience into the action. The effect is rather like a fierce undertow, dragging the viewer right into the current, in both senses of the word. Rather than quietly ramp up the action, the viewer is plunged right into it, resulting in a terrifically charged beginning for the season.
Bill. The biggest mystery, of course, is who plucked Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) from the French restaurant where he had, just minutes earlier, proposed to Sookie. Was it Eric and Sophie-Anne? Lorena? Hmmm...
We're given an answer of sorts to that right at the very beginning, in the form of the savage F--- You Crew, who not only have poor Bill at their mercy thanks to a sterling silver chain, but who begin to drain him in the car as they head off to... Well, we're not immediately sure where they're taking Bill.
Defenseless though he might seem, Bill isn't out for the count and he takes the touring gloves cast off by Coot (Grant Bowler) and uses them to remove the silver chain binding him in place (which also acted as a nice callback to the pilot episode as well)... and then attacked his captors, managing to crash the car and escape into the night.
I thought that the sequence where Bill happens upon an old woman with an oxygen tank in the woods was absolutely lyrical and tender. While he's in need of sustenance if he hopes to survive, Bill doesn't kill Olivia but rather feeds off of her and then does something both unexpected and entirely true to his character: he leaves her happier than when he found her. In this case, he glamours her and makes her believe that her estranged son has visited her and given her a wad of cash.
It's an important moment because it underlies just how much of his humanity Bill still has. Most other vampires would have killed Olivia and walked out without a second thought. She invited him, with her crochet-covered oxygen tank, and offered him food, figuratively and literally. But after feeding on her, Bill didn't cast her into death; instead, he granted her a taste of happiness, of life.
He also learned just where he had come to: Mississippi. Which doesn't seem to make Bill too pleased to learn (he's out of Sophie-Anne's jurisdiction) and he's especially made uneasy by the howls in the distance. Bidding farewell to Olivia, he races through the forest before he's surrounded by a pack of snarling wolves.
Those wolves, of course, aren't any ordinary pack animals. They're men in wolf's clothing, werewolves... and they seem to be bound together by another mystery, one unearthed by Sookie and Jessica when they discover the remains of one of their member in the wreckage of Bill's car: Operation Werewolf. Just what does that mean? And why was one of the men branded on his neck? Hmmm...
Sookie. Sookie, of course, is looking at every possible explanation for Bill's disappearance, but she doesn't buy Kenya's suggestion that Bill stormed off after being rejected. She knows in her heart of hearts that Bill has been seized by force and her prime suspects are Eric and Lorena... even if Sheriff Bud Dearborne (William Sanderson) doesn't want to get involved. (Granted, he's right when he says that he has dead human bodies piling up at the morgue and doesn't really have the budget to go after dangerous vampires.)
After all, vampires have their own laws and their own law-enforcement. Despite the fact that she suspects he's possibly behind Bill's kidnapping, Sookie goes to see Eric and Fangtasia--and discovers him in flagrante delicto with new dancer Yvetta. But, given his role as area sheriff, Eric is duty-bound to investigate Bill's disappearance and pledges to Sookie to find him, even if it was human or vampire that took him.
An appearance from Pam the following night--to deliver the $10,000 that Eric owed Sookie (plus a little bonus)--reveals that vampires can be "called" by their makers... and Sookie realizes that Jessica might have been summoned by Bill if he was in danger. While Jessica has her own issues, she agrees to help her find Bill and together, they make their way to the scene of the car accident, where the duo discover a peculiar branding on the driver's body.
Eric. Eric, meanwhile, is in a bit of a bind. He doesn't quite know what to make of Bill's kidnapping, especially as he had given orders to an operative to seize Mr. Compton... but they were too late as they arrived at the restaurant after Bill had already been taken by someone else. Eric's concerned as Bill knows the truth about the arrangement between Eric and Queen Sophie-Anne about the V-trade in Louisiana and their complicity. If Bill shares that connection with someone, they're both in trouble, especially as the magister (Zeljko Ivanek) is already suspicious that all is not right in this little corner of the kingdom.
Sophie-Anne, however, doesn't care: She wants Eric to continue moving the V as quickly as possible as she needs to generate some quick cash to get the IRS off her back, but she's also willing to do a dash-and-run as well and sell their assets and get the hell out of the area. Something tells me that the magister won't be too thrilled with that...
The Queen sees Bill's disappearance as an opportunity. If he's the only one that knew she was supplying the vampire blood, then he should remain missing at all costs. (Or as she put it, "Let him rot.") After all, it would serve Eric's purposes as well if Bill stayed away, leaving Sookie open for the taking. But he did give his word to the telepathic waitress that he'd find her missing would-be fiance. What is a vampire to do?
(Aside: I have to say that, while I was critical of Wood's performance last year as Sophie-Anne, I found her turn in last night's season premiere to be top-notch. She was every inch the dangerously unpredictable Vampire Queen and I found myself falling in love with the fiery vampire royal, even if she is a few teacups short of a full set.)
Tara. Poor Tara struggled to come to terms with what happened to Eggs, unaware of what really occurred. Eggs wasn't, of course, shot by Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) in an act of self-defense, but rather by Jason Stackhouse, who misunderstood the scene playing out (in which Eggs confessed to Andy) and shot him in the back of his head. I thought there was something terrible and beautiful about the blood pooling on the sheet placed over Eggs' corpse. For a series that revolves around blood as vital life source, as substance and substance, it was a sad tragedy to see all that Eggs was leaking out of his lifeless body.
It's no surprise that Tara would be so distraught after discovering his body, nor that she would pick a fight with Arlene (Carrie Preston), though I did love Arlene's line about how everyone there had fallen in love with a serial killer at one time or another. (Also, I wasn't surprised at all about the fact that the cinnamon-sniffing Arlene would be pregnant again. I've been waiting for this for a while now.) Retreating with Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) and a bottle of tequila to Sookie's house, Tara is numb and distant... until Sookie comes home and confesses that she unlocked Eggs' memories and made him remember what he had done to the women whose hearts he cut out for Maryann.
Does Tara blame Sookie for Eggs' death? In that moment, perhaps, but she's also a convenient scapegoat right then, a symbol of what went wrong with Eggs. The truth might set you free, but it can also get you killed... and Eggs' self-awareness led directly to his death at the hands of Jason. Is there any hope of reconciliation between Tara and Sookie? Stay tuned.
Sadly, Lafayette can't keep vigil over Tara 24/7 (he's working two legal jobs and selling V), so he has to turn--reluctantly--to Tara's Jesus-praising mother Lettie Mae, the scariest character on True Blood in my estimation. Lettie Mae brings a local preacher over to help Tara and ends up coming on to him... while Tara takes the opportunity to lock herself in the bathroom in an effort to commit suicide.
Lafayette's arrival saves Tara's life but it's clear that she doesn't want to be saved. The darkness within her looks to consume her body and soul; the loss of Eggs--of the chance at happiness--has plunged her into a state of utter despair. And it might take more than Lafayette to save her in the end... Especially as Lafayette has been tasked by Eric and Pam to sell off his entire supply of V that very night.
Jessica. Everyone's favorite baby vamp, meanwhile, had to deal with the consequences of her recent midnight snack. Discovering flowers from Hoyt waiting for her outside the Old Compton Place, Jessica drags the body of the trucker inside the house, but he's quickly dying from blood loss and Jessica doesn't know what to do and, after hiding his body in the secret compartment, she learns that he's quietly died. An effort to turn him is futile. He's already dead and she is stuck with his corpse in her resting place.
I feel for poor Jessica. She wants nothing more than to be with the man she loves but there is no such thing as normalcy for Jessica. She might not have been a willing recruit but she has to live (heh) with the fact that she is not a mortal and therefore is prone to cravings and impulses that Hoyt (Jim Parrack) can only guess at. She has a maker who has abandoned her time and time again, rather than instruct her in the ways of their kind and has attempted to bring her into his "vegetarian" lifestyle.
It was only a matter of time before she slipped, before she gave into the hunger and attacked a human in order to drink from them. That she would agree with her victim when he calls her a "filthy whore" with his last breath is a sad indication of the psychological state right now. She wants desperately to be with Hoyt, to be a normal girl with a normal boyfriend, but she knows that that isn't the truth. She's crossed a line, taken a life, and she's not worthy of Hoyt's love, nor of his purity of spirit.
I worry about what will happen to these two this season...
Sam. Sam's journey of self-discovery, a quest to find his family roots, took him to Arkansas in search of his biological family, the Mickens. But before he reached his destination, Sam (Sam Trammell) had a potent homo-erotic dream about Bill Compton, one that was foisted on him by the fact that he tasted Bill's blood at the end of last season (in order to defeat Maryann). The scene--which took the flirtation nearly to a kiss between the two--served two purposes. One was to show the connection that now exists between the two men, forged in blood, and that it would be only natural that Sam would begin to, uh, have these subconscious feelings towards Bill now that his blood is in his system. (It echoes Sookie's erotic dreams of Eric Northman last season after she tasted his blood.) And also, it was a heightened bait-and-switch that tricked the audience (for a split-second) that Bill had ended up in Arkansas and crossed paths with Sam, given that in both reality and the dream, Bill was shirtless.
It was, however, a dream, one that Sam was all too happy to be awakened from... and he caught his first lead to tracking down the Mickens clan in the form of Tommy (Marshall Allman), who claimed not to be Tommy Mickens. Of course, the mechanic wasn't exactly a very good liar, so Sam followed him home, where he discovered a mailbox full of past-due bills addressed to his biological mother, Melinda Mickens.
Just who are the Mickenses? Will they prove to be the thing that Sam's been looking for? Or the thing he's been running from? Hmmm...
Jason. Jason, meanwhile, is haunted by what he did to Eggs, despite the fact that Andy quickly concocts a hare-brained story that shields him from criminal charges and takes the blame for Eggs' death. But while Jason might not be in any legal trouble, it's clear that he can't get the image of Eggs dying out of his head, seeing that mocking bullet hole everywhere he goes, including on the faces of the two vet students he beds. No, it seems that Jason can't quite turn his conscience off, as much as he and Andy might want him to.
Wolves. We end the episode as we began, with Bill encircled by the deadly werewolves of Operation Werewolf. While he was weakened before (thanks to the silver and blood-letting), he's fed now and is strong. But is he strong enough to take on an entire pack of wolves on his own? We'll have to wait until next week to find out...
All in all, a fantastic season opener that breathlessly set the tone and scale of the third season, delivering a series of staggering plot twists, brutal emotion, and haunting sexuality. If "Bad Blood" is any indication, we're in for a simply amazing Season Three of True Blood and the wait between episodes has not gotten any easier....
What did you think of the episode? Where do you think this season is heading? (Remember: no spoilers!) Head to the comments section to discuss.
Next week on True Blood ("Beautifully Broken"), Russell Edgington (Denis O'Hare), the Vampire King of Mississippi, concocts a plan to consolidate his power; Eric remembers his past; Sam tests the strength of his family bonds; Tara finds an ally in shady vampire Franklin Mott (James Frain).
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” - Leonardo Da Vinci
I'll admit that my expectations for Bravo's newest reality competition series Work of Art were painfully low. After all, this seems just just the sort of series for which you can easily make a snide remark about it being less exciting than watching paint dry.
But I have to say that I was extremely pleasantly surprised by Work of Art, which premieres tonight. Not only was it fast-paced and exciting, but it was slickly produced, thanks in part to the crack team at Magical Elves, which has once again worked its reality magic on this format.
Art isn't the most accessible of topics, yet the show--which is hosted by China Chow--is just that: tearing away the sort of potential pretentiousness of its subject by allowing the audience to enter the minds of some gifted artists--each coming from different media--and participate in the artistic process.
The result is a fun and engaging hour that's overflowing with quirky and memorable contestants, several of whom seem to have forgotten that they're on camera and shouldn't be making biting remarks that will come back to haunt them later on when the judges turn up and harshly criticize their own work.
But while there's definitely enough drama here to pique the attention of Project Runway or Top Chef fans, there's also something exciting about the format as well, which sees the artists get a different assignment each week. In the series premiere, it's to compose a portrait of a randomly-assigned fellow contestant, in which they must not only capture the exterior likeness of their subject but also the ethereal internal elements of what make them unique.
While other series may have had all of the contestants compose realistic portraiture paintings, Work of Art revels in the individuality of the artists in its midst, allowing them to use what ever medium they deem to be fitting. Which means that the audience gets to see examples of abstract painting, three-dimensional installation, silkscreening, photography, and more.
Ultimately, I'm on board for the season, if the premiere episode is any indication of just where the competition is heading. There are some supremely talented individuals in the mix (and a few that left me scratching my head) whose progress I'm excited to follow over the course of the season. It's the rare series that can take us inside the artist's mind but Work of Art manages to do just that... and makes it a thrilling place to be, to boot.
Work of Art premieres tonight at 11 pm ET/PT on Bravo.
Looking to set your TiVo season pass this summer before you head out on vacation? Or sticking around and wondering just what's worth watching (or at least checking out) this summer?
Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my piece entitled, "19 Reasons to Watch TV This Summer," where I break down 19 new and returning series airing during the sweltering season, including HBO's True Blood AMC's Rubicon and Mad Men, Bravo's Work of Art and Top Chef: DC, FOX's Masterchef, Syfy's Haven, USA's White Collar, TNT's Memphis Beat and Rizzoli & Isles, BBC America's Being Human, and a lot more.
Check out the gallery to read descriptions of the series and then head to the comments section to discuss just what you're most excited about this summer.
There's a term in mystery writing called a "locked room mystery." You know the sort, a crime--typically a murder--is discovered in which the deed occurred behind a locked door. Unless the killer is still in the room, there is seemingly no means of egress from this chamber, resulting in a baffling and impossible situation.
NBC's new summertime mystery-drama series Persons Unknown, from executive producers Chrisopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), Heather McQuarrie, and Remi Aubuchon, aims to be the television version of such a locked room mystery, revolving not around a singular crime but rather a central mystery: how did a group of seven strangers find themselves taken from their ordinary lives and deposited into a seemingly deserted town? And why is it impossible to leave this place?
The premise alone warrants comparisons both to Lost and to the seminal 1960s British television series The Prisoner, with its use of inescapable and remote scenery, head-scratching laws of reality/society, and the sort of disorientation experienced by the characters.
However, the comparisons end there, really. Despite the presence of creator McQuarrie, Persons Unknown isn't as groundbreaking or memorable as either series. Nor is it as clever.
Part of that, I would suspect, would come to the production model itself. Produced by Fox Television Studios as an international co-production, Persons Unknown feels a bit like a hodgepodge of elements, a shadow version of a first-run broadcast program. The writing seems a bit stilted and weak (a surprise given McQuarrie's involvement), and the performances flabby as well. (The one stand out is the always fantastic Alan Ruck, here a full head and shoulders above the rest of the cast.)
It's hard to become invested in the first hour due to these elements, despite some of the mind-bending elements contained within the series, including an unseen organization that is monitoring the kidnap victims via a series of ominous and ubiquitous video cameras that are set up all over the town (itself a sort of anachronistic place that has the local hotel at the epicenter), a Chinese restaurant that functions as the main dining establishment (just don't ask any questions), suspiciously accurate fortune cookies, and implanted devices that can sedate the victim if they get, well, antsy.
Like Lost, the series attempts to mine the characters' backstories as well. Just why was single mom Janet (Daisy Betts) plucked from her life (leaving behind a scared little girl on a public playground)? Just who is the enigmatic Joe (Jason Wiles) and what was he before he arrived in this place? What connects these individuals? The rest of the characters are made up of paper-thin archetypes--spoiled party girl, gruff solider, angry man, crazy woman--that we've seen done many times before.
Meanwhile, the producers hope to eat their cake and have too by introducing a haggard journalist named Renbe (Gerald Kyd), who is investigating Janet's disappearance and who will likely begin to uncover the truth behind the town and the people running it... that is, unless he ends up there himself. The effect is a clear attempt to offer the best of both words: the high-stakes mystery of this inexplicable town and the outside world, where other events are unfolding. The problem is that they often seem like they're occurring two different series altogether, neither of which is particularly engaging.
Ultimately, Persons Unknown manages to successfully create an aura of doom and mystery, but there's precious little else going for it as NBC burns off its thirteen episodes this summer. While there's perhaps hope for some sort of narrative resolution as a result, I'm not sure too many viewers--known or unknown--will be sticking around that long.
Persons Unknown airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on NBC.
What a weird, strange journey it's been this season on Weeds.
Between pregnancies, marriages, assassinations, overdoses, teenage STDs, and thievery, Season Five of Showtime's dark comedy Weeds has been a sometimes bizarre and uneven mix of shifting timeframes, over the top characters, and increasingly complicated inter-personal relationships. (Hell, you almost need a flowchart to keep track of the vagaries of the Nancy/Esteban/Andy/Audra storyline this season.)
Last night's season finale of Weeds ("All About My Mom"), written by series creator Jenji Kohan, looked not to shift the action elsewhere but to create a new status quo all the same that would switch up the characters, their motivations, and their state of mind.
And it did so with one hell of a croquet mallet swing.
Yes, I'm referring to that final scene in the season finale, a.k.a. the mallet swing heard round the world as the insidious Pilar (Kate del Castillo) threatened to have Nancy's "extraneous" sons Shane and Silas killed after she learned that Nancy had hired Guillermo to have her assassinated. (Note to Nancy: Pilar's probably right when she says that you shouldn't hire your enemies to kill your adversaries. It always leads to trouble.)
I half-wondered whether Nancy, in lioness-mode, would kill Pilar with her bare hands after hearing her callous threats against her beloved (if totally neglected) children but Nancy, it turns out, didn't have to do anything.
I think I actually gasped aloud when I saw that croquet mallet swing down onto Pilar's coiffured head and knock her into the pool... and then cheered when I saw that it was Shane holding the other end of the mallet. In a series overflowing with quirky characters and over the top situations, Shane has slowly become one character to root for, even as he dives into the deep end of crazy. (Holding a knife to the throat of that rich Mexican heroin fiend in last week's episode springs to mind.)
Is it strange that we can actively root for a teenage killer? You betcha but Shane also took a huge leap there not onto to the dark side but also from teenagedom to adulthood, becoming with one swing his mother's protector. Throughout the five seasons of Weeds so far, Shane has more or less been the quieter, weirder brother to Silas' more rebellious manchild. But with this action, he's developed into a compelling, complex, and dark character in his own right and I can't wait to see just where they take his character next season.
Just how will Shane react to the fact that he's seemingly killed Pilar? (After all, there was blood streaming from her head wound into the pool.) How will Esteban? Did Shane help matters for his family or make them far worse? And, most importantly, can they get away with murder?
While Shane seems hellbent on assuming a new role in the family, Celia is also looking to transform her own life... into Nancy's, that is, going so far as to assemble a team in order to form her own drug empire. While the revenge plot against Celia was fun (though it ended way too quickly thanks to Doug's big mouth), I am interested to see where this storyline goes and I like seeing these disparate characters finally united for a real purpose. Could Celia end up on top for a change? I doubt it but I think that her road to success (or failure) could be paved with comedy gold.
I'm thinking that Andy and Audra's engagement will be short-lived given the fact that Andy takes off without even thinking of his fiancee at the moment a crossbow appears. Something tells me that Audra won't take too kindly to being left on her own in an armed hostage situation.
Nancy, meanwhile, is realizing that her actions have major consequences. Esteban's anger at her using his deodorant was a nice and realistic way of showing the hold he has over her, even as she claims to love him. Nancy's learned the hard way that lovers are weak and fickle and that she can only depend on herself at the end of the day.
Let's just hope that she realizes that that there's one man in her life--Shane--who has proven he's not going anywhere and has the strength and courage to look after her.
This week's episode of True Blood ("Frenzy"), written by Alan Ball and directed by Daniel Minahan, marks the penultimate installment of the second season (though we'll have to wait two weeks for the season finale) and consequently ramped up the tension, bringing us several new alliances, the deepening of a personal vendetta, a possible romantic split, and the fragmentation of several long-standing friendships.
And, oh, a giant egg.
So just what did I think about this week's episode of True Blood? Pour yourself a Tru Blood, strap on a bandolier, gather up some feathers and yarn, and let's discuss "Frenzy."
Bon Temps has literally gone to hell, thanks to Maryann's influence and this week we finally got an answer as to why Maryann happened to stumble in the backwoods town in the first place. While it seemed as though Maryann's arrival in Bon Temps with her murderous retinue was centered around shifter Sam Merlotte, his presence in the town was purely coincidental, as we learn that Maryann herself was summoned unwittingly by Tara Thorton back in Season One when she was tricked by Miss Jeanette into believing that she was slaying her inner "demon."
While Miss Jeanette was a sham, her use of ritual was powerful enough to bring Maryann to Tara like a beacon in the night, luring her to Bon Temps via Tara's vision of her black-eyed younger self. After all, Maryann and the pig (read: Daphne) were seen by the side of the road shortly thereafter. As for Sam, his coincidental appearance amid all of this mess is a blessing in disguise for Maryann: she can get revenge against the thieving shifter and use him as a sacrifice to the god who comes. Unless, that is, she decides to use Sookie as a substitute...
Tara was a means to an end for Maryann, just as Eggs was in the last location the cannibalistic nomads traveled to. I knew that letting Tara go try and save Eggs was a terrible, terrible idea. There was certainly no guarantee that she wouldn't fall right back under Maryann's spell again (though the shuttering spell didn't quite work on her this time) and sure enough within seconds of going back to the Stackhouse place, Tara falls right back into Maryann's thrall and ends up smashing up Gran's things and building a nest for...
Well, I don't rightly know what she and Eggs are building a nest for. But there it was: a huge white egg bigger than an ostrich's. (Should we view it as ironic or fitting that Eggs himself is building a nest to house an egg?) Just what is lurking underneath that shell? I have absolutely no idea. Is it connected to Maryann's imminent sacrificial offering? Quite probably. But it freaked the hell out of me regardless. Any thoughts?
I loved the reluctant partnership between Jason Stackhouse and Andy Bellefleur, one of the most unlikely friendships ever seen on the small screen. The scene where they carbo-load before going into battle was absolutely hysterical and there was some brutal honesty in the scene where Jason acknowledged that, despite appearances, he hasn't ever had it easy in life. It's fascinating to look at Ryan Kwanten's performance here as Jason and how much he's grown as a character since we first met him at the beginning of Season One. The self-absorbed sex addict has become a Hero with a capital-H. His speech about saving his town from what it's become--and how sometimes you have to destroy something in order to save it ("it's in the Bible... or the Constitution")--is so far removed from the selfishness he's displayed in the past, yet Ball and the writers have done a remarkable job at slowly transforming him into a complex and fully realized avenger... for whom sex is just one weapon in his arsenal. He may be just as dim-witted and hormonal but clearly he means well these days.
Likewise, my favorite scene last night had to be that between Sam Trammel's Sam, Alexander Skarsgard's Eric, and Arlene's poor, neglected kids ("teacup humans") at Fangtasia. (Hell, we even got some much needed Pam in the mix as well.) The creepiness with which Eric toyed with the children ("Don't you like vampires, little girl?"), baring his fangs and making references to draining them of their blood with a playful glee was a thing to behold. Skarsgard has excelled this season at bringing Eric to the forefront of the series and at portraying him as a vengeful, quixotic, and dangerous being with an inner soulfulness. This scene brought back Eric's darker side as well as his inherent arrogance (to wit: his use of the word "tribute") but he does agree to help Sam locate information about the maenad, though once again his motivations seems to be based around his interest in Sookie.
And Eric can fly, as we learn. That sound you heard? It was thousands of True Blood fans swooning and hitting the floor as Eric leapt into the air outside Fangtasia into the dark sky.
One mystery lurking in the shadows: the identity of the father of Arlene's kids. We're told very specifically that the children have never seen him before and Arlene cut his face out of all of the pictures she has of him... but he has her name tattooed on his stomach. Could we be seeing Arlene's ex turning up at some point in the future. I definitely think so, though just who or what will he be? Hmmm....
Likewise, we're introduced to Sookie's cousin Hadley (Lindsey Haun), a consort of Queen Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood), the Yahtzee-loving Vampire Queen of Louisiana. While I suspected we'd meet her soon enough (tip-offs included that mention of her back in Season One and the use--twice, no less--of that brief mention in the "previously on" montages over the last two weeks), I never thought that she too would be caught up in the world of vampires and be quite so close to their nexus of power in Louisiana. While Hadley is startled to hear Bill and Sophie-Anne mention Sookie (the fact that Sophie-Anne knows about her at all concerns me to no end), I couldn't quite be sure whether Bill knew of Hadley's familial relationship to Sookie or not. Regardless, he's clearly intending to keep it a secret from Sookie and tells Hadley not to get in touch with Sookie. Ever.
As for Sophie-Anne herself, I thought that Wood pulled off the petulance, spite, and spoiled air required of a centuries-old vampire but lacked a certain presence on screen to warrant her role as this much-discussed royal. (It's hard not to compare her slightly predictable performance with that of the other flame-haired vamp on the series, Deborah Ann Woll's Jessica Hamby, who literally ignites the air every time she appears on camera.) I loved her day room with its faux beach backdrop and St. Tropez-style lounging but I just wanted a larger, more impressive royal presence from Wood as it felt like she was a bit swallowed up by the opulent surroundings instead of commanding it.
Loved Bill and Eric's little showdown on the steps outside Sophie-Anne's as the two continue to duel over Sookie, a battle that's more than likely to continue into next season, unless Eric is able to sway Sophie-Anne to his side of things. Which makes this viewer very, very nervous indeed.
Is it curtains for Hoyt and Jessica? It certainly looked that way after Jessica bit Maxine after losing patience with the black-eyed mother from hell but I am hoping that there is some way for the two to reconnect once all of the craziness is past. But I have to say that I am getting very worried about Hoyt; as long as he was locked up with Jessica at the Compton house, I thought they'd see the coming war through from the sidelines but with Hoyt in Bon Temps and highly susceptible to Maryann's spell, I'm worried for him. Especially now that the frenzied Maxine has unleashed not only a torrent of insults but also the truth about Hoyt's father's death. He didn't die defending his family against an intruder but took his own life. Poor, poor Hoyt.
Hoyt wasn't the only one fighting off ghosts from the past as Lafayette had to contend with the return of his post-traumatic stress disorder, triggered by Lettie Mae holding him and Sookie at gunpoint in order to free Tara. And sure enough, Lafayette was so terrified that he imagined that Lettie Mae was Eric himself come to kill him and punish him for everything he's done. But if that weren't bad enough, Lafayette quickly also falls under Maryann's frenzy at Sookie's house. I had been hoping that Eric's blood would give him some level of immunity against her spell but alas he quickly succumbs to the darkness, spurred on by his efforts to shoot Maryann... An effort that results in the unintended death of Carl when Maryann deflects the bullet.
Bill, meanwhile, may have gleaned the only way to kill the maenad: to strike her when she believes her summoning of the god who comes has succeeded, the only point in which she'll be vulnerable to attack. Sophie-Anne indicates that the only reason why Maryann is immortal is because she believes herself to be and that our ideas and beliefs not only give us power but enable us to create something out of nothing.
Whether this can in fact be turned on its head by Bill and Sookie to take down Maryann and save Bon Temps remains to be seen but I for one and going to be on pins and needles the next two weeks until True Blood's season finale.
In two weeks on the season finale of True Blood ("Beyond Here Lies Nothin'") Maryann prepares for her ultimate sacrifice, forcing Sookie to be the Maid of Honor at her bloody nuptials; Sophie-Anne warns Eric to control Bill's inquisitiveness; Jason leads Andy into battle; Hoyt struggles with Maxine's endless stream of insults; Sam places his trust, and his life, in a most unlikely ally in order to save Bon Temps and Sookie.
It was inevitable that the double-life that Jackie Peyton strove so hard to create for herself would come crashing down around her eventually.
And so it would appear to have done so on the gripping and profound season finale of Showtime's exquisite dark comedy Nurse Jackie ("Health Care and Cinema") as Jackie (Edie Falco) was startlingly slammed out of her reverie and into reality.
Written by Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem, the season finale saw Jackie's lover Eddie (Paul Schulze) find out about her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa) and cause a scene at the hospital, forcing Jackie to sink lower than we've ever seen her before. Throughout the complex and lyrical first season of this unique and beautiful series, Edie Falco has brought a rich humanity to the role of the deeply flawed Jackie Peyton, a woman who tries so hard to do right by her patients but often does more harm than good to herself and those around her.
It was only a matter of time before one of the men in Jackie's life found out about the other. I had thought that her husband Kevin would be the one to learn the truth about his wife's infidelities (the broken wedding ring should have been a clue) but I'm glad to see that Brixius and Wallem inverted that paradigm by having Jackie's secret lover Eddie learn that Jackie was married with two kids.
And it made the scenes in which Eddie furtively grilled Kevin about his marriage and life with Jackie all the more tense and twisted. I understand Eddie's frustration and hurt at learning the truth about Jackie (wouldn't you be furious?) but the ease with which he slithered into Kevin's bar and learned information about Jackie was staggering. I thought that the season would end with Eddie telling Kevin the truth but I'm pleased that we'll have to wait for this scenario until next season; it will make the anticipation for the return of Nurse Jackie all the more painfully sweet.
As for Jackie herself, it was stunning to see her hit rock bottom. Distraught over the knowledge that Eddie had been to see Kevin at the bar and is aware of her double life, Jackie rigs the Pill-o-Matix to give her multiple doses of morphine sulfate, which she then downs on the floor of the bathroom.
Jackie's used prescription drugs in the past to keep her going, to remove the pain of her busted back, to give her energy for a double-shift. She's never used drugs to escape life or seek oblivion as she did here, a game-changing move that speaks volumes about the fact that, despite her good deeds at the hospital, Jackie has truly crossed over into being a junkie.
In this altered state, we're given a glimpse into Jackie's true inner life, a fantasy world where her concept of perfection is painfully just out of reach. Floating on the waves of morphine, Jackie experiences an idealized 1950s vision of the perfect family, the perfect house, the perfect life. But she's somehow separate, removed, distant. And as she hums along to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" the perfect kicker is that in this pristine, drug-altered state, there's yet another fly in the ointment as a rat scuttles overhead in the florescent light.
Zoey (Merritt Wever) has her own cross to bear this week as she deals with her guilt over giving Nutterman (guest star Victor Garber) the wrong dose of medication and sending him into a coma. Her penance is to cast off her colorful scrubs and mope around the hospital in grey scrubs. Loved the reveal that Nutterman has woken up from his coma no worse for the wear... except for the fact that his vaunted critical judgment of films is severely altered. (Garber's line about Showgirls had me in hysterics.)
I'm hoping that Garber could return in some fashion next season as the chemistry between Nutterman and Anna Deavere Smith's Akalitus was just so great. (Hell, give Garber and Wever their own buddy comedy sitcom and I'll watch.) And I loved that absolutely no one cared that Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith) was trapped in that elevator, so long as it delayed her investigation of Zoey's involvement in Nutterman's case.
Jackie's mindgame handling of Dr. Cooper (Peter Gacinelli) was absolutely fantastic in its savagery, though I was surprised to see Cooper so willing to help Mo-Mo (Haaz Sleiman) get back at his boyfriend by kissing him on camera. Could it be that Cooper has more depth or compassion than we've believed so far?
Speaking of compassion, Jackie completely left Dr. O'Hara (Eve Best) blowing in the wind. Despite knowing that her comatose mother was set to arrive from London and that she had to admit her as a Jane Doe found in Grammercy Park, Jackie flew the coop and was nowhere to be found when Eleanor's mother turned up. I'm very worried that Jackie and Ellie's friendship might not be able to be salvaged after this twist.
But far more pressing is just what Eddie intends to do to Jackie to make her pay for cheating on him with her husband. I'm more than concerned by just how desperate Eddie might be to get back at Jackie and just how much he can destroy the life she's built for herself at the hospital and at home.
In the meantime, I'm really going to miss the darkly humorous Nurse Jackie. It's going to be a long slog until we can catch up with them again next season and I thought that the writers did a brilliant job at creating some cliffhangers to sustain our interest while also pushing the characters into some very dark places that will resonate long after the ending credits roll. While Weeds gets the hype and media coverage, it's truly Nurse Jackie that's a brand-defining and boundary-pushing series for Showtime, one that catapults the cabler into the level of prestige drama purveyor.
Nurse Jackie will return with a second season in 2010 on Showtime.
"Bacchus drowns within the bowl/Troubles that corrode the soul." - Horace
On this week's episode of True Blood ("New World in My View"), written by Kate Barnow and Elisabeth R. Finch and directed by Adam Davidson, homecoming proved to be an eye-opening experience for Sookie, Bill, and Jason, Jessica and Hoyt's relationship was tested by Maxine's mercilessness, and Andy and Sam attempted to evade the entire blood-thirsty population of Bon Temps.
The inhabitants of Bon Temps have worked themselves into a frenzy, pushed into an ecstatic state by the malevolent Maryann; their every inhibition is stripped bare, resulting in a wave of chaos overtaking the sleepy backwoods town, a darkness that cascades over the souls of every man, woman, and child and threatens to consume them from the inside out.
A vengeful god demands his sacrifice, after all, and that sacrifice just happens to be our favorite shifter Sam Merlotte. So just how did Sam manage to evade being ripped apart by maenad Maryann's frenzied followers? Lock yourself in the walk-in, turn on your chainsaw, pop open a Tru Blood, and let's discuss "New World in My View."
After the Dallas-set adventures of the Stackhouse clan, this week's episode of True Blood found Sookie (still having some Eric-oriented dreams) and Jason, and Vampire Bill returning to a Bon Temps that was barely recognizable from how they left it. And no sooner do they arrive then they're caught up in the new world order that Maryann has carved out in the town: a lawless chaos where every desire is catered to. Is it Heaven on Earth? Or are these poor people enslaved to a id-hungry madwoman who toys with them as a child might a set of dolls?
This week's episode masterfully brought about a stunning payoff to Jason Stackhouse's story this season, using the fighting skills he gained during his time with the Fellowship of the Sun to full advantage, transforming the once selfish lothario into something akin to Jason the (Non-Vampire) Slayer. I'd wondered just where his character would be taken in the last three episodes and I'm glad that the writers have chosen to follow through on this character's potential to take his story to its logical conclusion for the season. After all, he's now a lean, mean killing machine, so who better to enlist in the forces of good in Bon Temps?
Kudos to Sam to pull off a rather ingenuous disappearing act (hello, fly!), after willingly offering himself as a sacrifice in order to save Jason and Andy. Sam's modus operandi his entire life has always been to run, so to see him take a stand and accept his fate--even if it means certain death--is a major turning point for the character. Once again, Sam Trammel effortlessly pulled off a gripping portrayal of abject terror but also sublimated his fear in order to become a consummate survivor who stops running and makes a selfless gesture of friendship.
I loved Ryan Kwanten's hysterical flare-assisted impromptu appearance as the Horned God before the frenzied mob (aided ably by Andy Bellefleur with twigs), delivering a rather dim-witted (if hilarious) appearance as the god-who-comes. Definitely a highlight of the episode for me and mixed humor with terror quite effectively. Not quite sure how Andy and Jason believe that Sam escaped after being "smote," but they appear to not be asking too many questions right now.
Just why was Terry Bellefleur affected by Jason's threat that he'd shoot Arlene in the head with the nail gun? Could it be that the townspeople's consciousnesses still lurk somewhere behind those pitch-black eyes? Or was it a ruse to get Sam to come out of the walk-in?
Meanwhile, Hoyt and Jessica's relationship was severely tested by the frenzied state of bigoted Maxine Fortenberry, who is even more callously evil and overbearing under Maryann's influence. Her taunting of poor Hoyt was gutting, especially as he found himself unable to stop her verbal onslaught or quell the rising rage in Jessica, who appeared to throw Hoyt aside and sink her teeth into Maxine's neck. Jessica and Hoyt have proven themselves able to get over quite a few bumps in their romance so far but I'm terrified that this might be one encounter that neither can sweep under the rug. It's hard to give into love when your vampire girlfriend may have bitten your mother.
The look of horror on Jim Parrack's face when he sees Jessica bite Maxine underscored just how different their worlds truly are. Deborah Ann Woll's righteous indignation at how Maxine was talking to Hoyt underscores her character's innate love for Hoyt and need to protect him but we're also seeing those darker impulses within her coming to the fore. Fingers crossed that these two stick together instead of falling apart...
Loved that Bill and Sookie had to use their powers in tandem in order to save Tara from Maryann's influence and that Sookie had to dive in deeper into Tara's mind than she ever had in order to bring her friend's personality back to the surface. I thought that the "intervention" scenes were handled exceptionally well, with some real pathos and darkness here. It's a nice counterbalance to Lettie Mae's own struggles with her "demon" in Season One and a rather ironic twist that it's Lettie Mae who so quickly accepts that the thing doing and saying those horrible things wasn't Tara but something else entirely.
It won't be easy for Tara to forget about what happened and her role in this entire affair but it could be the thing that brings her and Lettie Mae something resembling a rapprochement. (It goes without saying that Rutina Wesley was sensational in this week's episode, offering up a performance that was as rough and coarse as broken glass and then shockingly damaged when she regains consciousness.)
Just what did Sookie do to Maryann? While I thought that Sookie might have had some innate weakness vis-a-vis Maryann due to her attack by the maenad earlier this season, the reverse seemed to be true, with Sookie manifesting a white glow around her hand when she forcefully touched Maryann's face. Was it an outgrowth of her telepathic abilities or a visual cue that Sookie can't be affected by Maryann's spell? Is it the key to taking down the seemingly immortal maenad? Hmmm...
As for Bill, he won't be biting Maryann again anytime soon. As soon as he grabbed her and went to sink his teeth in, I actually screamed at the television because I knew just what would happen: that Bill would be infected with her poison. The darkness that clouds the perceptions of Maryann's followers is just as black as the blood that flowed out of Daphne when she was stabbed by Eggs. It's going to take more than some glamouring and fangs to take down this juggernaut. (Loved the payoff of Bill reading that tome about Greek mythology in his flashback a few weeks back; I knew that little plant would come back in a major way!)
And help might just come from an unexpected place, namely the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, who accepts an audience with Bill Compton at her luxurious and well-guarded palace. While we're only teased with a shot of a blood-dripping pale ankle before the episode ended, this was a hell of an introduction to a shadowy and important new personage. I can't wait to see Evan Rachel Wood as Sophie-Anne next week and find out just what assistance she'll grant to Bill against Maryann. With only two episodes remaining before True Blood takes a break until next summer, something tells me that there's only more darkness ahead.
Best line of the evening: "This has to be the worst motherf---ing intervention in history." -Lafayette
What did you think of this week's episode? Just how will our motley crew band together to take down the evil Maryann? What will Sophie-Anne demand of Bill in order to help him defeat Maryann? And just what in the hell will happen next? Discuss.
Next week on True Blood ("Frenzy"), Bill turns for advice to Sophie-Anne, the Vampire Queen of Louisiana; Sookie and Lafayette find that protecting Tara from herself is more difficult than they anticipated; a desperate Sam turns to an unlikely source for assistance; Jessica tests Hoyt’s allegiance to Maxine.
HBO's seductive vampire drama series True Blood is positively overflowing with memorable and flawed characters but one of this season's most indelible and dynamic character additions is that of naughty preacher's wife Sarah Newlin, played with delicious aplomb by South Carolina native Anna Camp.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Camp earlier this week in an exclusive interview where we talked about Sarah Newlin, Camp's original audition for True Blood (for the role of Sookie, no less!), the love triangle between Sarah, Jason, and Steve, Sarah's darker side, Camp's theatre work (opposite Daniel Radcliffe in Equus), whether the Newlins are gone for good, Mad Men, and lots more.
So what are you waiting for? Toss your hair, flash your pearly whites, sharpen a stake and let's see what Anna Camp had to say about True Blood.
Televisionary: How did you get involved with True Blood? What sort of audition process did they put you through?
Anna Camp: Actually, I auditioned for Alan [Ball] for the pilot a while ago... for Sookie! (Laughs) And of course didn't get cast. Then a year later when he was looking to cast someone for Sarah, he called me up and offered me the part, which was really exciting. (Laughs) So I didn't have to audition; we just talked on the phone, so it was the best kind of audition in a way.
I just fell in love with the storyline and, being from the South originally, I had to be on this show at some point. It's just so creative and not like anything else on TV right now and I was really glad that he gave me that call.
Televisionary: How familiar were you with Charlaine Harris' novels?
Camp: I had watched the entire first season of the show and fallen in love with it. I wasn't originally acquainted with the books but I did read the first two.
Televisionary: Sarah Newlin seems to be a mass of swirling contradictions. How would you describe your character?
Camp: I think that she is discovering who she is all the time too. She comes in very strong and knowing who she is and believing in God and following her husband. Then she faces all of these situations that he's putting her through and surprising her. She's definitely taken down a journey that she didn't expect to go down. She meets Jason Stackhouse and is thrown off guard by that relationship when she's already doubting her husband and her faith.
She's faced with something that's completely the opposite of what she was brought up to believe and seeing how her husband treated Sookie and seeing he wants to cross the line into killing the vampire sympathizers, that's not something that Sarah wants to do.
She's lost and she's confused. She does believe that everything happens because God is willing it to be. She truly believes that Jason was sent here for her and that's why she's taken aback in Episode Seven when she believes that he was a spy. She's definitely confused and lost right now.
Televisionary: When you spoke to Alan initially then about coming on the series, how much of Sarah's backstory did he and the writers tell you before shooting? I was very surprised to learn about the pro-vampire stance in her past, for example.
Camp: I was actually very surprised too! (Laughs) They never really tell me anything! I found out when I got [the script] for Episode Three that that was what was driving her to be so forthright against standing up against the vampires. They didn't really tell me much. They just told me that [Sarah] was the wife of Steve Newlin. We talked about it once we got on the set that we were relatively a new couple, very young and been married for about four years. We sort of came up with a lot on the spot so I didn't really get too much backstory.
Televisionary: When I interviewed Alan a few weeks ago, we talked about the unexpected chemistry that develops between you, Ryan Kwanten, and Michael McMillian in the first few episodes of the season. Did this come as a surprise to you as well? And what was it like working with the two of them?
Camp: It was absolutely a surprise. I just think that the dynamic-- Of course, Ryan [Kwanten] is so perfectly cast; he's nothing at all like his character but he is incredible and a really great actor. And Michael McMillian as well; just great casting. I think we all just hit it off. You can't take it too seriously. You just have to have fun and really believe in your specific part.
When you get three people who are all really committed to playing their roles and you put them all in a situation like that, some magic sort of happens. We all looked forward to those scenes. It was rare that we'd all three get to be in a scene together but when we did it was really, really fun. Lots of improv, lots of keeping each other on our toes, and making jokes. We really hit it off. It was a great surprise.
Televisionary: Despite being terrifying in their fundamentalist beliefs, Sarah and Steve often provide a bit of comic relief in the series. Is comedy something you enjoy doing?
Camp: Oh, absolutely! It's one of my favorite things to do. I didn't really realize it. I grew up acting since second grade and always watched these old movies and these dramatic scenes and wanted to be a very dramatic actor. But it's just so refreshing to have fun, to truthfully have fun and play with the other actors in a really safe, fun environment where you all want the same goal and trust each other so that it's really easy to be funny.
It's also really easy to be funny when you're working with funny actors. It is something that I really love to do and I hope I get to do more of it. I love to make people laugh and it's also fun to balance that line because Sarah has some great scenes where she wasn't funny and was incredibly distraught. To be able to go from scene to scene believably, hopefully, is great and it's great that the writers gave me such diverse scenes to play.
Televisionary: One of the strengths of True Blood is that it enables the characters to exist in a range from comedy to tragedy, sometimes in the same episode.
Camp: Oh, yeah. It's so much fun for an actor to play because you never know what you're going to get. It's all about sort of balancing that [range] and it's also fun for the audience to watch and be totally surprised. A character that's surprising, that surprises from scene to scene and show to show, is the best kind of character to play.
Televisionary: So, who do you find to be more frightening then: the vampires or the Newlins?
Camp: (Laughs.) I'd say the Newlins are pretty scary. I mean, I grew up in the South and I went to church. I was never a very religious person but I knew people that really truthfully believed that God was willing them to do things: that if they got a good grade in school, that was because God said so; if they got in a car accident, God said so. When you really put that much belief into this unknown, undefinable thing, it's really scary how far you can take your beliefs and there's war going on right now because of religion and it's scary. The vampires are pretty scary too but they are also pretty charming and sexy, so... (Laughs.)
Televisionary: We last saw a extremely vengeful Sarah Newlin getting chucked on the side of the road by Jason and then she popped up on television sniping at Steve. Will the Newlins be in the last three episodes of the season?
Camp: Um.... I don't know if I can say. Sort of, not really, I don't know. I read the last three scripts and I was very surprised, I'll say that. (Laughs.) That's all I can say I think.
Televisionary: So can you give us any hints then about what Alan Ball and the writers have planned for Sarah?
Camp: I can't. I actually have no idea what their plan is. But you know what I would love to see happen? I'd love to see Sarah go to her darker side and become incredibly lost and lose all faith in God and go the exact opposite way. I'd love to see her really act out and rebel against the Fellowship of the Sun. That's what I'd write if I was a writer, but I'm not so we'll see. But I'll keep my fingers crossed that they want to have me back.
Televisionary: I was going to say that everything seems to be so hush-hush about next season, so can you tell us if you are returning for Season Three?
Camp: I've heard some rumors that Michael [McMillian] and I will be back in some aspect. I don't know to what extent and I don't honestly think that they know yet to what extent. From the last episode that we get, it's left pretty open so I am hoping that they let us come back in and cause some more trouble or do something fun and exciting. We'll see.
Televisionary: As much as I love the Newlins, I think you guys definitely need to get your comeuppance.
Camp: Don't you think? (Laughs.) I know. I would love to see us totally change heart or have them come after us. I'd love to see the Newlins either have some explosive ending or something exciting happen to them. It was sort of a build up to see them this season and then-- I don't know, you'll see!
Televisionary: You mentioned earlier that you wanted to see Sarah go to an even darker place. I'm wondering what would Sarah do if she were running the Fellowship of the Sun rather than Steve?
Camp: Oh, man! I think after being betrayed by Jason, if she took over the Fellowship of the Sun, she'd be really ruthless and out to get revenge. I think she'd go after the Stackhouses without stopping and really show how strong she can be. This season she was saying that she wanted to be the great woman behind her great man but I think it would be great to see what she could do on her own if she took over and go even crazier. Which would be an awesome job for me to portray as an actor.
Televisionary: In addition to your television work, you're also a well-known theatre actress and you appeared opposite Daniel Radcliffe in Equus last year and with Tony Shalloub in 2007's The Scene. Which medium do you find more challenging or rewarding?
Camp: Oh, my goodness. They're both incredibly, incredibly different. When I first started doing TV and film, it was a scary place. On stage you can be incredibly free because you can do so much physically and with your voice, because you're trying to reach over 1000 people in a room. And when I got [in front of] the camera, I became a little more constrained because I was worried about not being too big or not being over the top.
But then you realize it's very freeing as well because you can say something just with a glint of your eye that you could never do in the theatre because the person in the back row could never see it. So it's really rewarding with how focused and how small you can be. I'm really, really enjoying being in front of the camera these days. But theatre is hard work; there are weeks where you can't sleep, you can't eat, you walk into the same theatre every day. I had a great time in Equus but I was happy to not be naked eight shows a week and I think Dan [Radcliffe] had the same thought. They're both very different but I am finding film very rewarding at the moment.
Televisionary: On that tack, you've become known as an actress who takes risks with her roles, such as the often-nude Jill Mason in Equus. What is it that attracts you to such challenging roles?
Camp: I would rather do something that's challenging rather than something that's easy, always. I had a lot of thought; I didn't even know if I was going to do Equus because of the nudity and because of the high profile [aspect] of it. But you only live once and you have to take those risks because you'll only be a better person or actor because of it. And if you can get through it and learn something and truly challenge yourself, I think that's really the only way to live.
I think those are usually the most fun, rewarding parts to play, the ones that are more challenging and scary. I always said there's a reason why I get offered the parts I get because there's something I need to learn about myself or be challenged by in order to step away from a project and become a better actor.
Televisionary: Unlike many of the actors on True Blood, you are actually from the South. What about the Southern Gothic trappings of True Blood did you find especially appealing?
Camp: I think it's a show that does a great job balancing that comic-booky aspect with the way the Southern Belles, Sookie and Sarah and Tara and Jessica and everyone, acts. I love the Southern women and the way the gentlemen aren't really gentlemanly. It does a really great job of painting the South and is pretty truthful. I've been to Louisiana once in my life but I just love the mystique of it and the location. The relationship between the men and the women are pretty on point for the South. Bill is a very gentlemanly vampire and I think it's just mysterious and sexy.
Televisionary: Because most of your scenes this season were with Ryan and Michael--and one pivotal one with Anna [Paquin]--I'm wondering which other actors from True Blood would you like to have a scene with?
Camp: I would love to work with a vampire! I'd love to be with any of the vampires: Bill or Eric or any of them really. Jessica, I'd love to work with her. I was really sad that when the war finally happened in Episode Eight and Sarah was still out on the dirt road, you know? (Laughs.) I was like, god, it's the culmination of everything she's been fighting for but she gets sidetracked, of course, with Jason.
But to be there and have those two worlds meet, I was really jealous of Michael because I would have loved to have been there to see the two worlds come together. And to participate in the war would have been a great, fun time. So I would love to work with a vampire if I got a chance; I think that would be awesome.
Televisionary: Besides for True Blood, what are you watching on television these days?
Camp: I am watching Mad Men right now. I'm catching up on my Mad Men. I just got Season One so I've been sort of addicted to that and would love to be on that show on some point. (Laughs.) I'm watching HBO, of course: Entourage and Hung.
But Mad Men is taking over my life at the moment. This Don Draper, what is he about? He is the most mysterious man in the world! And then he turns his brother away? That was pretty upsetting but it's just like, what is going on with everybody? I think everyone is just so perfectly cast and it's just beautiful to watch. I just love the time period and I think the acting is incredible.
Televisionary: Thanks to Mad Men and True Blood, Sundays have become the most stressful night of television now.
Camp: (Laughs.) Everybody is dying to watch it but they're just like, oh my god, what is going to happen? I can't wait to see the last three episodes of True Blood. I think it's really going to blow everybody away.
True Blood's final three episodes kick off this Sunday night at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.
Our lives can best be described as the sum of all of our experiences leading up to this specific point in time.
The same was true for the three master chefs--Hubert Keller, Rick Bayless, and Michael Chiarello--facing down the gauntlet on last night's season finale of Top Chef Masters ("Top Chef Master"), in which the trio squared off against one another in a perfectly fitting final challenge.
This series is after all called Top Chef Masters, so I wanted to see what these incomparable master chefs could do when the gloves were off and there were no vending machines, microwaves, or mise-en-place relays to get through. In other words, I wanted to see what they could do with larger budgets, limitless imagination, and unfettered ambition to draw upon.
Their challenge: to prepare a four-course meal that best represented their entire careers thus far (and into the future), with each of the courses representing a specific crucial turning point in their lives. For these masters, this was the ultimate challenge, an opportunity to showcase their culinary styles, their unique history, and serve up a series of dishes that were completely personal and individual to them.
So how did this talented troika do and which one was named the winner? Let's discuss.
As I mentioned before, I thought that this challenge was entirely fitting with the message and motivation of the series. Whereas Top Chef showcases up-and-coming chefs, Top Chef Masters has given us chefs who are at the top of their game, with multiple restaurants and awards under their belts. In many cases, they are household names with clearly defined personal brands behind them.
So it made sense then that the final showdown between Keller, Chiarello, and Bayless would be one in which they would have to call upon their personal histories, the key moments in their lives that defined them as chefs, and create a series of dishes that reflected their identities at their most personal.
Each of the courses therefore would represent a very specific moment: the first course represented their first food memory; the second the moment they realized that they wanted to become a chef; the third course a reminder of when they opened their first restaurant; and the final course a glimpse into their present and future. In other words, where they are today and where they'd like to go next.
Given that this was the season finale, there was not only $100,000 on the line for charity but also some steep pressure. Joining our esteemed panel of critics for the judging were the Top Chef judges themselves--Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Padma Lakshmi--along with the five winners of the previous seasons of Top Chef: Harold Dieterle, Ilan Hall, Hung Huynh, Stephanie Izard, and Hosea Rosenberg.
Personally, I thought it was a great twist to have not only the Top Chef judges there (a nifty bit of network and brand cross-promotion, given the launch of Top Chef: Las Vegas), but also the winners of the previous cycles. Chiarello didn't quite see eye-to-eye with me on this and seemed almost insulted that these chefs would be critiquing his food as though they were beneath him, an attitude that landed him in trouble (and rubbed me the wrong way) in last week's episode.
So what did the master chefs offer up for their four-course autobiography? Here's a look, chef by chef, at the four dishes they served the judges:
Hubert Keller:
First Course: "Baekeoffe," Alsatian lamb, beef, pork, and potato stew
Second Course: salmon souffle with Royal osetra caviar and riesling sauce, served with a choucroute flan
Third Course: lamb chop with vegetable mousseline and thrice-blanched garlic, vanilla-merlot sauce served in a hollow potato
Fourth Course: Wagyu beef cheeks and celery puree with pinot noir, lemongrass and ginger sauce; pan-seared sweetbreads with Perigord truffles on scrambled eggs with spinach
It's no secret that I was rooting for Hubert Keller to win this competition. To me, he is the living embodiment of a true master chef, a visionary in every sense of the word who is not only technically adept but also inherently creative and whimsical and enjoys teaching his craft. His Baekeoffe made me drool with envy; it looked absolutely heavenly and, despite it being summer here in Los Angeles, I wanted to dive into that Le Creuset Dutch oven and eat every last morsel of that dish. It was such a personal dish to him, represented his roots, his memories, and his family so well and was such a specific regional specialty to boot.
Sadly, his salmon souffle wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as it should have been; I think the judges were more taken with the perfectly cooked salmon and the caviar and riesling sauce than with the souffle element itself. Keller's third dish with its nearly-raw stud of garlic in the lamb should have been heavenly but it was that sharpness of the garlic--surprisingly not dulled by thrice-blanching--that overwhelmed the palate. Which was sad as the lamb was cooked so beautifully, the spinach still green and verdant, and (despite Padma's distaste) the vanilla-merlot sauce sounded gorgeous. I think his Wagyu beef cheek and sweetbread duo was more on the mark and I applaud him for using cheaper cuts of meat and then cooking them efficiently and thoughtfully in order to render them smooth and supple. But would it be enough?
Michael Chiarello:
First Course: duo of gnocchi: crispy potato gnocchi with fonduta, peas, and summer truffles and ricotta gnocchi with tomato sauce
Second Course: polenta with rabbit, asparagus, wild mushrooms, grilled duck, and rabbit liver
Third Course: ginger-stuffed rouget with mango salad, fresh wasabi, and bottarga
Fourth Course: brined short ribs with five-onion cavalo nero, served with the essence of smoldering vines
I was a fan of Chiarello's until the last few episodes where his ego and arrogance completely turned me off. I believe he's a talented chef but he tends to get sidetracked by having to constantly assert his authority. Last week's "young man" comment to Dale completely undermined what he has attempted to accomplish as a master chef. I also didn't appreciate his Saveur-pointed jest in last night's finale. Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek. Or was it? Despite the laughter around the dining table, I felt that it was in poor taste. But perhaps I'm biased against Chiarello at this point.
I do think that his gnocchi looked incredible and he wisely offered up two variations on the classic Italian dish, a combination of textures and flavors that were balanced and complementary. I thought his choice of Mason jars for his serving vessel of his second course was odd until I saw that he composed these almost as one would rillettes, a decision which paid off when the judges tasted the creaminess of the polenta offset by the exquisitely prepared rabbit and duck. Third course, however, was a major misstep for Chiarello with his crispy fried rouget. Yes, the fish was cooked perfectly and scented with ginger but he didn't elevate the dish or take it in a new direction; it was so completely ripped out of the 1980s that it seemed out of place with the rest of his dishes. Finally, there was his melt-in-your-mouth short ribs with cavalo nero (a favorite of mine); I'm not sure you needed the smoldering vines there as well but they clearly added to Chiarello's overall "story" and seemed to lend itself to Chiarello's claim that in the future we will be eating with all of our senses... But don't we already do that now?
Rick Bayless:
First Course: barbecued quail with hickory house sauce, "sour slaw," and spicy watermelon salad
Second Course: ahi tuna with Oaxaca black mole, plantain tamal, and grilled nopales
Third Course: achiote-marinated cochinta pibil with sunchoke puree and crispy pigs' trotters
Fourth Course: arroz a la Tumbada with tomato-jalapeno broth, and chorizo "air"
I've grown to love Rick Bayless over the course of these ten episodes; he seems to be the polar opposite of his officious appearance as a guest judge on Top Chef a few seasons back: calm, cool under pressure, a true master in very sense of the word. These last few weeks have won me over into Bayless' camp and his passion for Mexican cuisine is evident in every dish he prepares, demonstrating his belief that the culinary tradition deserves to join that great pantheon of Italian and French cuisine.
Like Keller, Bayless pulled off a regional specialty for his first course that also defined his background as the son of a barbecue pit smoker, offering up a luscious quail with his family's hickory house sauce, a sour slaw, and a piquant watermelon salad with sprouts. It was a dish vastly different to his typical Mexican approach and spoke volumes about where he came from. His second dish, the Oaxacan black mole with ahi made me want to jump inside the television and wolf it down; the tenderness of the ahi was balanced by the sweet sharpness of the plantain and the crispy bite of the nopales (prickly pear cactus); a gorgeous and inventive dish that spoke volumes about the twenty years it took him to pull off the complicated Oaxaca black mole. Well done, Rick. The sunchoke puree of his third dish, a duo of suckling pig "cake" and crispy trotters, elevated it to spellbinding heights as it transformed a humble peasant's dish into haute cuisine. Bayless was a little let down by his final dish of arroz a la Tumbada, but that could be because the dish sat out a little too long before getting served, with the mussels drying out somewhat. I loved the use of the chorizo "air," which is a molecular gastronomy technique that Bayless doesn't usually turn to.
All in all, twelve amazing dishes from three extremely talented master chefs. But like Highlander, there can be only one. I would have been chuffed if Keller or Bayless won but I was surprised to see that the critics and judges ranked Keller in third place, bumping him right out of the competition, a mere half-star behind Chiarello. But I had a feeling that in the end the dazzling talents of Chef Rick Bayless would win out and he did manage to pull off an incredibly inventive, stirring, and beautiful selection of dishes that took us on a journey through the inner backstory of this remarkable chef.
No surprise then that Bayless walked away the ultimate winner, with $100,000 for his charity and bragging rights. I'm curious to see just what Bayless and the other chefs do next and I'm more than excited about hopefully getting to taste one of Bayless' signature dishes one day.
Do you agree with the judges? Who do you think should have won and why? Discuss.
Longtime readers know that I have an indelible love for the kooky cast of Bravo's addictive and hilarious docusoap Flipping Out, which returned last night after a far-too-long hiatus.
The season opener of Flipping Out ("Beware of Falling Houses") featured a strangely calm Jeff (well, calm for Jeff Lewis, anyway) struggling to stay afloat in the sinking real estate market by taking renovation jobs (rather than his typical speculation-based business) yet continued to expand his entourage to include another assistant (poor, doomed Rachel), clown-haired house assistant Jett, and a design intern Trace, who appears to be a mini-Jeff in the making.
And let's not forget about the aforementioned Zoila, who continues to keep Jeff on his toes with her hysterically haughty put-out attitude and who wants to find a boyfriend for herself... leading her to inadvertently flirt with a married man working on the Valley Oak property. (Meanwhile, Jeff ribbed his maid/non-sexual life partner about her need for hangers and hoarding of pillows.)
Yet this wouldn't be Flipping Out without a major blow-out from Jeff and once again it was directed at oft put-upon executive assistant Jenni, who was ill prepared for the day (she didn't have a crucial phone number with her), leading her to call the contractor at Valley Oak and asking him to look for the contact info among Jeff's belongings. A decision which then turned into a major battle royale between the duo, in which Jeff dragged up the still-biting betrayal of Jenni's now ex-husband Chris.
While Jenni should have had that number in her Blackberry or on her person (we all know how Jeff Lewis feels about precise preparation and his need for absolute privacy), I thought it was absolutely galling that he threw Chris' betrayal in her face almost a year after the incident occurred. As you might recall, Jeff's use of hidden cameras caught Chris in the act of going through Jeff's personal belongings and revealed a side of her husband that Jenni didn't know about... leading to the breakup of their marriage. That Jeff would, a year later, continue to throw this in Jenni's face as she attempts to get her life back on track and re-enter the dating scene after ten years of marriage is not only wrong, it's outright callous.
Now I'm someone who finds Jeff Lewis incredibly funny--his deadpan sense of humor is right up my alley--but even he admits that once he gets to this point in an argument, he "sees red." And that was definitely the case here. Yes, he apologized to Jenni afterward (and I'm amazed that she kept it together as well as she did) but he shouldn't have gone there in the first place. You do need to have a hide as thick as a rhino's in order to work for Jeff.
Which brings us to Rachel, Jeff's longtime friend/new office assistant, a lethal combination that is likely to bring many, many tears in the near future. Jeff is a perfectionist and a demanding boss... and has a tendency to mix friendship and business in a way that's rather like mixing dynamite and matches. Someone is bound to get hurt and I have a feeling that Rachel is not destined to stick around Jeff Lewis' office for long.
However, Jeff seems to have discovered a slight simpatico with his new male design intern Trace (whom he calls "Tracy" and "she"), who might just be as much of a perfectionist and obsessive as Jeff himself. (Witness the iPhone checkers conversation, which resulted in Trace being 15 minutes late to work.) Last season, Chris Kesslar attempted to win Jeff over and be taken under his wing only to encounter resistance from Jeff who wanted to "groom" Chris over several years. However, Trace seems to be fitting in quite nicely in the Lewis menagerie, even sharing Jeff's appetite for dry humor. Could it be that Jeff has found a protege?
All in all, a hilarious episode that points the way toward future plot developments between the cast members and loads of stress ahead for Jeff as he attempts to keep his emotions in check while working for other people. I can't wait to see just how explosive things get over the next few episodes.
Next week on Flipping Out ("Pajamas and Other Games"), Jeff attends a pajama party; new assistant Rachel struggles to keep up with Jeff's numerous and precise demands; Jeff and Ryan's friendship hits a rough patch when Jeff accuses him of not sharing clients.
Cabler TNT has announced that it has extended the run of its drama series Leverage this summer.
Leverage will air two additional installments on Wednesday, September 2nd and Wednesday, September 9th. The latter episode, which features guest star Jeri Ryan (Shark) will serve as the series' so-called "summer finale." The two additional episodes are entitled "The Ice Man Job" and "The Lost Heir Job."
The full press release from TNT, announcing the two additional episodes, can be found below.
TNT Adds Two More Episodes of Hit Series LEVERAGE to Summer Lineup
Summer Finale, Guest-Starring Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager), Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
TNT has added two episodes to the summer run of its hit series LEVERAGE, starring Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), Gina Bellman (Coupling), Christian Kane (TNT’s Into the West), Beth Riesgraf (Alvin and the Chipmunks) and Aldis Hodge (Friday Night Lights). The summer finale, guest-starring Star Trek: Voyager’s Jeri Ryan in a new recurring role as Tara, a grifter who helps the team out, will air Wednesday, Sept. 9.
The following is the schedule for the two episodes added to LEVERAGE’s summer lineup: “The Ice Man Job” – Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) Summer Finale: “The Lost Heir Job” – Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).
In LEVERAGE, Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator determined to bring down the kind of corrupt bigwigs whose neglect led to the death of his son. His highly skilled team includes Sophie Devereaux (Bellman), a grifter who uses her acting skills to corner her marks; Eliot Spencer (Kane), a “retrieval specialist” with bone-crunching fighting skills; Alec Hardison (Hodge), a gadget and technology wizard who keeps the team connected and informed; and Parker (Riesgraf), a slightly off-center thief adept at rappelling off buildings or squeezing into tight places.
LEVERAGE is executive-produced by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT’s The Librarian) and creators John Rogers (Transformers) and Chris Downey (The King of Queens). It comes to the network from Devlin’s Electric Entertainment.
TNT, one of cable’s top-rated networks, is television’s destination for drama and home to such original series as the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick; Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter; Raising the Bar, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek; Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; HawthoRNe, with Jada Pinkett Smith; and Dark Blue, starring Dylan McDermott. TNT also presents such powerful dramas as Bones, CSI: NY, Cold Case, Law & Order, Without a Trace, ER and Charmed; broadcast premiere movies; compelling primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards®; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA. TNT is available in high-definition.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
USA has been on a winning streak with lightweight, middle-of-the-road dramedies, so there's no reason the cabler should give up on a formula that's clearly working, even when the series in question revolves around the intelligence forces in a post-9/11 world.
