Category: External Entertainment (Page 109 of 513)

True Blood 3.6 – Big Hat, No Cattle

Now that’s what I call an opening!

The King drags Sookie into the royal mansion as Lorena’s coming down the grand staircase, Eric and Talbot stroll in, and Bill – who’s kind of been bringing up the rear – is thrown to the floor and declared to be a traitor. Instead of giving up the ghost, though, Bill stakes the King’s bodyguard and attempts to take down His Majesty, too. It proves a laughable effort, however, as Bill is shunted upwards into the ceiling and then comes crashing down on the staircase. Ouch…but now we cue Eric, who steps in and immediately starts sucking up to the King, telling him he’d better hold on to this fine new filly he’s found himself.

Really, you can’t blame Sookie for her response: “Eric, what the fuck?”

There’s a whole lot of pissed-off people in the royal mansion: Talbot’s annoyed that the King isn’t giving him any say in what goes on in their homestead, and Lorena’s angry that Bill’s being sent to the slave quarters to be slain. I’d love to see a cat fight between Lorena and Sookie, I surely would. Lorena might want to wear Sookie’s ribcage as a hat, but I still wouldn’t count Sookie out of any such fight.

The clientele at Merlotte’s is far more discerning that I would’ve expected. Anyone asking the help how the peas are served in that place deserve whatever answer they get…or whatever they find in their peas. Obviously, there’s still some serious flirtation going on between Lafayette and Jesus, but we’ll get back to that in a moment. First, we should have a laugh at the whole Arlene / Jessica plot thread. I laughed at just about every moment those two shared tonight, whether it was Jessica’s fangs popping out when Arlene cut her finger, Arlene’s completely horrified reaction (particularly her concern that her pregnancy made for an added temptation), or – most hilariously – Arlene’s assurance that she takes garlic supplements. In the end, Jessica offered an olive branch of sorts by getting Curlers to offer up a tip before offering herself up as a snack…and, hey, nobody got killed! Looks like Jessica learned something from Pam after all…

Okay, back to the Lafayette / Jesus flirtation. Jesus talked about his past, and, amazingly Lafayette actually seemed to be falling for him, though he clearly was taken aback by the concept of taking it slow. Things looked like they were getting pretty sweet between them…and then, a little later, they suddenly weren’t. Oh, sure, they did double-team the hillbillies like they were Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman, but as soon as Jesus learned that Lafayette was a dealer, things went south in a hurry. This, of course, begs the question as to whether or not Lafayette cares enough about Jesus to consider trying to get out of the game…and if Eric will let him do so.

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Mad Men 4.1 – Ladies and Gentlemen, The Scrappy Upstarts!

“Who is Don Draper?”

Those are the first words we hear when “Mad Men” returns for its fourth season, but it’s certainly not the first time we’ve heard the question asked. This time, though, it’s coming from a journalist who’s interviewing Don and trying to wrap his head around his subject. The question, as you would expect, thoroughly flummoxes Don, but he recovers nicely, turning his instinctual expression of concern about the query into one of mild annoyance, then firing back, “What do men say when you ask that?” As it turns out, he actually is kind of annoyed by the question, though it quickly becomes evident that it’s mostly because he just plain doesn’t like talking about himself. He’s not used to being on a firing line like this one, and if he had his way, he’d clearly avoid it altogether. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be an option in this new scenario in which he finds himself. The members of this new firm have to promote both the company and themselves…and, yes, that includes you, too, Don.

Mad Men - Don Draper smoking a cigarette

In a moment of perfect timing, the interview wraps up just as Roger Sterling and Pete Campbell walk up to the table. Pete’s clearly just as obsequious as ever (“We’re grateful for your sacrifice”), and Roger, it seems, has been spending some time on a book. His memoirs…? He doesn’t clarify. He does, however, offer up a trademark zinger within the first three minutes of the episode, so it’s clear that this is, at least to a certain extent, the same old Sterling that we left at the end of Season 3. It does appear that he may be drinking a bit more, however. This is a slightly impressive accomplishment, given that his alcohol intake was rather heroic to begin with, but it’s never a good thing to use booze as a crutch, so I’d expect that we’ll see more of this development sooner than later. Is Roger on track to become this year’s Freddie Rumsen?

Mad Men - Pete Campbell and Don Draper and Roger Sterling

Don, Roger, and Pete meet with a new client: Jantzen, who – according to the stats they cite during the meeting – maintain 25% of the bathing suit market. They’ve got some concerns that need addressing, and once again, we see Don’s limited tolerance for current goings-on. You know, when a client says, “I’m getting tired of saying this today,” you’d think most people would have the tact not to respond, “Next time, just have one meeting.” They also probably wouldn’t openly mock the client’s delicate sensibilities and their position that the inherent sexiness of a bikini is somehow diminished if you simply refer to it as a two-piece bathing suit. But, then, Don didn’t get where he is in the ad game by keeping his opinions to himself, now, did he?

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Comic-con — notes written with tired feet

Comic-Con has gotten so enormous and so unfriendly to writers (and, in different ways, other folks I’m sure also) that it even nearly did in a high end reporter with gazillions of studio contacts like Anne Thompson. I’ll save my no doubt semi-cynical reflections on the thing for later, but here are just a few movie stories from the con that I have time to write about it in a very brief window.

* You might consider going from Tolkien to a ride at Disneyland a major artistic comedown, but Guillermo del Toro obviously thinks otherwise and is a huge fan of what I admit is also my favorite ride at the park. The Wrap has more, oddly enough with no mention of the mansion. Was this another event? Still nice to see that the monster-loving del Toro’s uncensored speaking style hasn’t been cleaned up by PR standards and practices.

People Guillermo del Toro

Also from “The Wrap”: Dominic Patten writes that Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” lived up to its name.

* I can’t watch the video here, but you can apparently see a now-bearded Joss Whedon personally confirm that Jeremy Renner will, indeed, play Hawkeye in “The Avengers.” Oh, and I guess that means that Whedon really is directing it, after all, official like.

* “The Green Hornet” is sounding a bit more fun to me.

* The perceptive and usually geek friendly Ms. Thompson was not personally wowed by “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” but she reports the audience at the screening she attended was. She does however have a video interview with writer-director Edgar Wright, which I haven’t had time to watch yet.

* I just had a bit of snafu/disappointment in terms of getting some good stuff for later on “Green Lantern” but the folks in Hall H had their geek buttons well pushed, it appears. (Not among them, a friend of mine here, who waited 2.5 hours in line and didn’t make it in, six people from the front of the line. He should have made it three hours.)

* An item having nothing to do with Comic-Con. According to a sexual harrassment suit, Casey Affleck appears to have a problem. I hope it’s only a legal one.

* Meanwhile, back in the real world where people pay to see movies, “Inception” is ruling the roost but sharing some of the wealth with the Angelina Jolie action vehicle, “Salt.”

Angelina Jolie in an arresting moment in

A quick note to mis Comic-Con compadres

Yes, I am now well ensconced here at Comic-Con, and I’m not breaking my planned semi-silence for some huge news scoop…well, it’s not a big scoop unless you happen to be down here and are a movie fan who enjoys freebies.  Okay, that’s everybody.

600px-MA-CAR-1

Apparently Fox really wants to promote the heck out of “Machete” — a movie which we’ve certainly covered here before (because we can hardly wait to see it). Anyhow, tonight (i.e., Thursday 7/22/10)  it’s certain to be a mob at the 5 Star Parking lot at the corner of 5th Avenue and J Street where they’ll be free tacos, yeah, you heard me free tacos, from 5-to-8 p.m. At 9:00, they’ll be showing “exclusive” footage from “Machete” on a giant screen. Then, supposedly DJs, dancers, graffiti artsits and, oh yeah, more tacos — presumably the real taqueria kind, not the Jack-in-the-Box variety — as well as “tequila and cerveza for all.” Yes,  you read that right and, of course, you have to be 21 to get into this one. The first 100 get a t-shirt, but they’re probably already there.

I was sent an official looking invite, but gmail appears to be down right at the moment, so if you feel the need to print something out, I’ll have to refer you over here.

SELF INDULGENT MOVIE/COMIC BOOK NEWS ITEM: Highly acclaimed comics creator Kurt Busiek has made a deal with Working Title films for a movie version of his award-winning, long-running series, “Astro-City.” Busiek actually stopped by the legendary booth K1 in the Small Press Area where I can sometimes be found last night to visit with my frequently plugged here Comic-Con buddy Randy Reynaldo. (He designed the logo for Randy’s Adventure Strip Digest pro-bono around the same time as “Astro-City” started I believe; he didn’t like the old one and Randy was smart enough to accept it.) As far as I noted, Busiek didn’t say a word about it. It’s always the quiet ones.

Also, some news clown/love child of Steve Doocy and Rod Burgundy on the local Fox affiliate was telling Comic-Con guests that “Ghostbusters 3” is a done deal and maybe even already in production. Well, this isn’t a case of rightwing bias leading to utterly false and defamatory news stories on the mother network. It’s just utterly false.

That’s it for now. I’ll see ya when I see ya…

Mad Men: Season 4 – A Preview

Mad Men - Don Draper in hat

God love you, Matthew Weiner.

Everyone in the free world is chomping at the bit to find out what’s going to happen when your show, “Mad Men,” returns to AMC on July 25th to kick off its 4th season, and all you’re willing to leak to the press is this nine-word description:

Don makes a mistake that jeopardizes the new agency.

Give the man credit: he’s dedicated to keeping as many surprises under wraps as he possibly can…and, as regular readers of Premium Hollywood know by now, I’m not going to be the one who breaks his trust by giving you the scoop on what happens during the season premiere. I will, however, say this: yes, I’ve seen it, and, yes, you will very much feel that it’s been worth waiting for.

If you weren’t watching “Mad Men” during its third season…well, the statute of limitations has probably expired on us giving you crap for that, but since Season 3 has been out on DVD since March 23rd, you really have no excuse for not having played catch-up by now. Still, for those of you who’ve been busy and feel as though you could do with a refresher course, I suppose we could help you out on that front.

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