Category: Actors (Page 165 of 343)

How “The Office” has kept the Jim/Pam romance fresh

May 13, 2009 /

Brian Lowry of Variety lauds the fact that the writers of “The Office” have kept the Jim/Pam dynamic from going stale.

Much of the credit goes to the writers and performers involved, and it’s a testament to their talents that Pam and Jim have recently enjoyed a relatively stable, even happy relationship — despite her impulsive decision to join boss Michael (Steve Carell) in his stand-alone business endeavor — without sending that key aspect of the show toppling into disarray.

In most instances — and “The Office” hasn’t been immune to this — taking the romantic plunge has subsequently required erecting some arbitrary impediment to again pull the same characters apart, usually with varying degrees of credibility. Mindful of the fact that happy couples are hardly the fixings for good drama (and can be equally challenging in comedy), writers thus find themselves dismantling romances that they have meticulously labored to inspire the audience to root for — as evidenced by the visceral thrill of the “Office” second-season finale, when Jim finally let Pam know how he felt about her.

Lowry mentions “Moonlighting” and “Cheers” as shows that suffered after the two leads finally got together, but doesn’t go into much detail about how “The Office” has been able to avoid the usually inevitable staleness.

To me, “The Office” is much more than Jim and Pam. I don’t know that you can say the same thing about “Cheers” (Sam/Diane) and certainly not “Moonlighting” (David/Maddie). “Cheers” featured a strong supporting cast, but Sam and Diane were still the central figures. On “The Office,” one could argue that Michael Scott is the main lead. Jim and Pam are up there, but the whole show doesn’t revolve around them. Once they got together, the writers deftly transitioned the more romantic storylines over to Michael, who continues to struggle to find companionship in his life. By doing this, the writers are able to check back with Jim and Pam from time to time and highlight the best (and funniest) things about being in a secure, committed relationship, while continuing to mine Michael’s love life — as well as the whole Dwight-Angela-Andy love triangle — for consistent laughs.

The bottom line is that, at heart, “The Office” is an ensemble comedy, and by spreading around the wealth, the writers can spread around the risk. If handled correctly, this characteristic can make a show “jump the shark”-proof (or at least “jump the shark”-resistant), which is one reason “The Office” has been so strong for so long.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, The Office, TV Comedies

Is Kiefer Sutherland starting to think that he’s actually Jack Bauer?

May 8, 2009 /

The “24” star is in trouble with the law again after a run-in at a gala.

The 24 star has been accused of head-butting a famous fashion designer at a gala in New York City.

According to reports, Sutherland allegedly delivered the forehead-to-forehead blow (seriously, a headbutt?) to fashion designer Jack McCollough on Monday night. Sutherland’s action was said to be in response to McCollough bumping into actress Brooke Shields and not apologizing for the incident.

What really happened that night is still unclear. Reps for Shields have said nothing happened to the actress, and McCollough’s reps allege Sutherland was drunk. Sutherland’s camp says the fashion designer rudely bumped into Shields.

Maybe Jack Bauer can go around headbutting people when the safety of the United States is on the line, but it’s uncalled for at a gala. (Unless, of course, the fashion designer he headbutted had information crucial to the safety of the United States.)

24, Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, Gossip, News

Great Actors: Callie Thorne

May 7, 2009 /

A couple of years ago, when I wrote a post entitled “Bad Actors: Tina DiJoseph,” which was dedicated to the “Medium” actress who plays Lynn DiNovi, a few readers (mostly her friends and family) said I was “negative” and “cruel,” but I just call ’em like I see ’em.

And when I watched this week’s episode of “Rescue Me,” I saw one of the best performances I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve admired Callie Thorne’s work on the show since the start, and now that her (wonderfully nutty) character, Sheila, is no longer dating and/or sleeping with Tommy Gavin, she hasn’t gotten as much screen time over the past couple of seasons, and the show has suffered because of it. (Don’t get me wrong — this season has been great, but there was a stretch there when I was wondering if the creators had a plan to wrap things up.)

Anyway, on this week’s episode, appropriately titled “Sheila,” Thorne is a tour de force. Her first scene is with her son, Damien (played by Michael Zegen), and the two are having lunch in a restaurant discussing Damien’s decision to become a fireman instead of finishing his studies at NYU. Sheila is understandably concerned and frustrated with this decision, and she hides those emotions for a while under the guise of “new Sheila.” But when Damien insists that Tommy guide him through the academy (instead of Mike the Probie), she flips out and goes on a minute-long rant about how spoiled and ungrateful he is.

Later on, she’s at the firehouse and runs into Tommy. She starts off by not speaking to him (because she’s angry about his failure to tell her about the news footage that proved that her husband died in the second tower, not the first), but with Tommy being Tommy the two start to argue. She goes off on him for being a closed-off prick and punctuates the scene by kneeing him in the balls.

Finally — and this scene is really the kicker — Sheila does an interview for a French journalist about what was going through her mind on 9/11. The revelation that her husband died in the second tower almost has a calming effect on her, and she dives into a four-minute monologue that is as touching, emotional and well-acted as any four minutes that I’ve seen in a long time.

For the first few seasons, I was rooting for Tommy and Sheila to end up together, mainly because I wanted to see her character find happiness, but now I hope she finds it somewhere else. It’s clear that Tommy just isn’t loyal or dependable enough for her, and her story arc this season has been about her exploration into why she is (or was?) so obsessed with him. Yes, Sheila has her flaws — after all, she drugged and (pretty much) raped Tommy and almost killed him in the house fire — but, hey, she just has a lot of love to give, right?

Unfortunately, the episode isn’t up on Hulu yet, but it’s an Emmy worthy performance, so catch it if you can.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Rescue Me, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

A Chat with “Harper’s Island” Victim #5

May 4, 2009 /

So who remembered to tune in to the show on Saturday night this week? If you were confused on Thursday night when you flipped over to CBS after “30 Rock” to find something other than “Harper’s Island,” then you must not have gotten the briefing about the network’s decision to give up on the series on Thursday nights and movie it into one of their Saturday night death slots. It’s not exactly as optimistic a move as the official CBS press release on the matter would have you believe, but as this week’s victim observes, it’s at least going to prove to be an interesting experiment, particularly if the show’s DVR / TiVo ratings stay strong nonetheless.

Speaking of that victim, let’s check in with the poor soul and see how they feel about the way they met their demise, which was, in its own way, as surprising as anything we’ve seen thus far on the series.

Continue reading »

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, Harper's Island, Interviews, TV, TV Dramas

How TiVo revolutionized the way we watch TV

April 29, 2009 /

The idea was pure genius. Provide customers with a set-top box that could record analog video from any source onto a hard drive for easy access and instant viewing. Prior to DVRs, the main way to record television was a little thing called the Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) which used VHS tapes. (I’m mentioning this for any of the tweens out there who may not know life without TiVo.) Recording to tape was nice in the mid-80’s, but once huge hard drives came down in price, it became feasible to turn a computer into a recording device. No more hunting around for that certain show, no more (usually, anyway) missing episodes when the network changes the schedule, and no more fast-forwarding through the commercials and being faced with the decision of whether or not to rewind back to the end of the commercial break so as not to miss first 30 seconds or a minute of the show.

I bought my first TiVo sometime in 2000 or 2001, but the company had been in existence since 1998. My first box worked with my cable box. It wasn’t the most elegant option, but it got the job done. Changing channels was a bitch, but I never did much channel surfing anyway. I would miss the occasional episode because my TiVo’s infrared commander didn’t properly change the channel on the cable box, but with TiVo’s “season pass” feature, I caught a lot of episodes that I might have otherwise missed. I loved it so much, I even bought a second TiVo so that I could record two things at once.

With the advent of HD, TiVo ran into something of a roadblock. Once I went HD, I pretty much had to go with the cable company’s version of the DVR, nicknamed the “MOXI.” The TiVo HD was just too pricey at the time. The MOXI had an okay setup, but I loathed cable company’s advertisements that made it seemed like they invented the DVR. (Give me a break.) Anyway, with the MOXI, I could record two HD shows at once, but I still kept a TiVo so that I could record a third show at the same time if need be.

Once the TiVo HD became affordable — again, we’re talking about huge capacity hard drives falling in price — I got rid of Time Warner’s DVR (no longer the MOXI, I was forced to switch), which had a ridiculously poor interface. I had a couple of cable cards installed by Time Warner, and bang — I had a box that could record two HD programs at once.

As time continues to wear on, TiVo has added more and more features to its software. I can now use my TiVo to listen to the music library on my computer (granted, not in a very elegant way), watch video that I downloaded from the internet, stream (older or indie) movies from my Netflix queue and rent new release movies (in HD!) from Amazon Video.

By zipping through the commercials and being able to easily and instantly queue up the show I want to watch, I’m able to watch more television in less time. And, ultimately, that’s what TiVo is all about.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Movies, TV

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