Each week the TV Blog coalition — of which theTVaddict.com is proud to be apart of — highlights some of the best TV news and views from around the web. For the latest news that’s fit to print, simply click the link below.
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Review: NURSE JACKIE Is Good For What Ails You
Frankly, NURSE JACKIE shouldn’t work.
The new Showtime series is, on paper, little more than a collection of cliches. The drugged-out nurse who knows more than the uncaring doctors she works with. The gay best friend. The annoying chatterbox of a nursing student. The opening and closing voiceovers.
Despite — or perhaps, in some weird way, because of — this seemingly flawed foundation, NURSE JACKIE proves to be yet another feather in Showtime’s almost tackily-over-ornamented cap. Like THE TUDORS, DEXTER and WEEDS, this is another show built around a wildly dysfunctional central character, yet never fear, as she is completely original thanks in equal parts to brilliant writing and a “give-her-the-Emmy-now-and-stop-wasting-everyone’s-time” performance from Edie Falco.
Carmela who?
Reviewing the Women of Summer: NURSE JACKIE, WEEDS, THE CLOSER, SAVING GRACE & HAWTHORNE
By: Aleks Chan
Summer television is all about the girl. Correction: all about the cable girls. Yes, cable has found itself a reliable refuge for film actresses to find work that is ostensibly of the caliber they are used to – thus Holly Hunter as a spry, hedonistic Oklahoma City detective, Kyra Sedgwick as a master interrogator, and Mary-Louise Parker as a suburban pot dealing widow. This month Edie Falco – whose film career is outsized by the grandeur of her work on THE SOPRANOS – and Jada Pinkett Smith – wife of Will and of The Matrix trilogy – join the throes as nurses predisposed to be snappy and impassioned to help their patients.
Our attention is first turned to simply suthun’ Kyra Sedgwick on THE CLOSER (returns tonight at 9 pm est on TNT), where she plays “Depewty Cheef Brendalee Johnson,” of the LAPD. If hadn’t already been implied, her character is from the south, which somehow demands such a drawl that half of what she says can hardly be taken seriously. Twice as befuddling is how Brenda is venerated for her ability to elicit a confession that holds up in court, because the cases are so easy, a children’s program with slimmer plot workings would be more challenging. In the fifth season premiere, the humdinger of a homicide hinges on street addresses. Other plot points of the season include Brenda’s cat falling ill, Lt. Provenza (G.W. Bailey) gets a girlfriend, and Mary McDonnell guest stars as a internal affairs officer. It has thankfully scaled back Brenda’s junk food addiction (I couldn’t handle another sensuous bite into a Ho-Ho), but by a fifth season, you’d think it would’ve have progressed to something more than outline of an actual TV show.
Fall Preview 09: MELROSE PLACE
You’ve seen the commercials. You’ve heard the hype. Now there’s only one thing you want to know: Which of the new fall shows are worth watching and which should be avoided at all costs? In this continuing series, we give you the scoop on some of the most highly-anticipated shows of the season. Which will be the next GREY’S ANATOMY… and which will be the new JOEY? To kick things off, we check out The CW’s reboot of the camp classic MELROSE PLACE.
Why We’ll Watch: If there’s one thing you want from a good — not to mention potentially-great — primetime soap, it’s a killer story. MP kicks off with a great one when the body of original bad girl Sydney is found — where else? — floating in the apartment complex’s infamous pool. But never fear: Flasbacks keep her portrayer, Laura Leighton, alive and well while propelling the story forward. The great thing about this opening gambit is that it’s a payoff for fans of the original series without alienating the new, younger crowd the show is obviously courting. Talk about your win/win! Quicker than you can say “Peyton Place” we begin learning about the secret lives of the tenants-turned-suspects, including trampy PR exec Emma (with blonde bombshell Katie Cassidy stepping into the sexy stiletto heels formerly occupied by Heather Locklear’s Amanda) and troubled hunk David — played by Shaun Sipos — following in the footsteps of his bad boy dad, Michael (the devilsh-as-ever Thomas Calabro). As Ashlee Simpson-Wentz’ turn as Violet, there’s not much to say based on the pilot, although her final scene indicates there’s a lot more to the character than meets the eye.
TV Talk From Fellow TV Addicts
Each week the TV Blog coalition — of which theTVaddict.com is proud to be apart of — highlights some of the best TV news and views from around the web. For the latest news that’s fit to print, simply click the link below.
Review: ROYAL PAINS
By: Aleks Chan
Mark Feuerstein, bless him, can gravitate to his own brand of boyish affability regardless of the source material. He’s the definition of solid: as the producer of a low-rated news show in GOOD MORNING, MIAMI; as Toni Collette’s love interest in IN HER SHOES; as Sussana Thompson’s younger boyfriend on ONCE AND AGAIN; and as the Hamptons rent-a-doc on USA’s new dramedy (heavy on the “medy” part) ROYAL PAINS – the guy can’t help but be likable.
And perhaps that’s his problem. Too easily taken as “earnest,” he’s been playing the nice guy for far longer than merited. But what’s one more go, right?
A Second Opinion: Fall Shows We’re Undecided About
You’ve read his take on the most promising fall shows and least promising ones. Now, in what we promise is our final look back at the Network’s UpFront offerings comes our very own Ken Tucker in-training Aleks Chan, with a look at the shows that fall somewhere in-between.
ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE (CBS)
After the horridly ill-conceived COURTING ALEX, Jenna Elfman returns to the small screen as Billie, a San Francisco film critic who hooks up with a younger guy and – surprise – gets pregnant. Pregnancy as a premise hasn’t always worked, and the clips don’t really provide much hope that AOP will be any different, but Elfman is one deft comedienne, so if anything, it’ll be tolerable.
EASTWICK (ABC)
Also known as Charmed Lipstick Housewives and the City. Based on the John Updike novel about three women (Lindsay Price, Rebecca Romijn, and Jamie Ray Newman) who are imbued with magical powers, it looks as tawdry and superfluous as I remember CHARMED ever was – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Question of the Day: Ronald D. Moore’s VIRTUALITY Back From the Dead?
In a surprising move, FOX has quietly pushed up the premiere of VIRTUALITY, Ronald D. Moore’s two-hour movie (read: failed pilot) from July 4th to June 26. More peculiar still is that to coincide with said under-the-radar movie, an email found its way into theTVaddict.com’s inbox this morning asking if we’d be interested in interviewing any of the show’s producers/ writers/ and stars (yes please!) Begging the question: Does the one-two combo of FOX moving VIRTUALITY off of what is traditionally one of the least watched night’s of television of the year (July 4th, America’s Birthday), and the networks sudden/ unexpected need to promote the movie lend credence to the incessant rumors that VIRTUALITY is not nearly as dead as we all initially thought? Discuss.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About… GREEK Star Scott Michael Foster
GREEK stars Dilshad Vadsaria, Scott Michael Foster & the TV Addict (Middle)
Amidst the madness that was May’s season finales and the recent Network UpFronts, one of the things that unfortunately got lost in the shuffle was our recent visit to the set of GREEK. Which is why we’d like to take the opportunity to share with you today five things you probably didn’t know about everybody’s favorite Frat brother Scott Michael Foster, who plays Cappie on the hit ABC Family series GREEK.
1) He almost didn’t enroll at Cyprus Rhodes University.
As hard as it is to imagine Kappa Tau without everybody’s favorite grand puba Cappie, actor Scott Michael Foster almost didn’t enroll. “Honestly, when I was testing for the show [GREEK] I was testing for another pilot on MTV that obviously didn’t go anywhere.” explains Foster about the path not taken. “I was talking to my agent because I wanted to make sure I had at least one job. But at the same time I wanted it to be the right one and in the end I said, ‘Let’s just hold off and wait for the GREEK offer’ which came in and I have to say I’m so glad.”
A Second Opinion: Most Promising Fall Shows
By: Aleks Chan
In an effort to fill the news void between May’s season finales and September’s fall premieres comes even more filler post-Upfront analysis courtesy of our very own Ken Tucker in-training Aleks Chan, who shares his take on this fall’s most promising new shows.
COUGAR TOWN (ABC)
Sure, the whole women-of-a-certain-age bit is a bit played-out, but this one, about a recent divorcé getting back into the dating game in her 40s, is helmed by SCRUBS creator Bill Lawrence and stars an especially game Courteney Cox, who is much better served by slapstick than being icy and bitchy on her short-lived FX series DIRT.
COMMUNITY (NBC)
THE SOUP’S Joel McHale plays a smoothly operating lawyer who’s busted for having a fake degree, and is forced to attend a junior college to save his career. McHale looks like he’s breezing through another episode of his E! show, and from the looks of the trailer, the material’s just as funny as him.
GLEE (FOX)
FOX has already aired the pilot last week, and it’s leading the pack right now. Crossing my fingers that it’s not a huge case of pilotitus.