If you’re not hooked yet on “Downton Abbey” we highly recommend it. It’s a very soapy drama set in the early 20th century in England as the old way for life for the aristocracy is slowly starting to crumble. The show is excellent, and we recommend starting from the beginning.
Those of view who haven’t started watching or aren’t caught up should probably avoid watching the trailer as it contains some serious spoilers about the ending of Season 3. The rest of you can take a look to see what’s next for Mary.
HBO’s “True Blood” started out as a great show, as the vampire stories and cable TV sex scenes made it one of the hottest shows on television. But the show has slipped over the years, even if it still commands a decent audience. HBO has announced that next year’s seventh season will be its last, and frankly the show lost it long ago. It used to be a regular on Bullz-Eye.com’s TV Power Rankings but this year was left off again.
Yes, there are bad guys, but most of them are so cliched and cardboard as to be laughable. Case in point is good ol’ boy Louisiana Governor Burrell, the main force behind getting the hungry, marauding vampires off the street and into the camps.
He’s a jokey, hokey cliche. The only true villain, former preacher’s wife/governor’s girlfriend Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp), is truly bad. But she’s so bad, so campy, so over-the-top cliched, she’s entertaining. But she’s not too scary. She’s no Russell Edgington, though she’s quite fun to watch.
We love Anna Camp and were thrilled to see her character come back, but she’s just not enough to carry the show.
Molly Lambert also chimed in about how the fairies were the last straw. She appreciated the eye candy and all the sex scenes but the idiotic stories got to her.
So we’ll see what happens in the final season. We know there will be plenty of sensual sex scenes to keep many viewers interested, but we can’t expect much more than that.
“Breaking Bad” is back tonight, and we’ll see how creator Vince Gilligan decides to wrap things up. Here’s an in-depth look at the issue of how to conclude a great television series.
ESPN seems to cover every major sport these days, with soccer being the fastest growing part of the portfolio. It’s amazing how much impact ESPN can have when they “bless” a sport. With poker, we saw a huge explosion in popularity over the past 15 years, and the amount of poker on television certainly fueled that growth, with ESPN being a huge part of that. Viewers will be reminded of that now that the World Series of Poker is around the corner, and ESPN will have plenty of coverage across its various channels. The WSOP poker buzz takes the game to another level, and every sport/game needs a signature event to take the excitement to another level, but poker on TV has become much more than just an annual circus around this event.
Poker on television has grown for years, though the shenanigans by the feds has at times thrown some cold water on the poker boom. That hasn’t done much to slow down all of the various television outlets desperate for entertainment content, so finding a poker game on TV usually hasn’t been that difficult. But the uncertainty surrounding the federal regulatory climate has had an some impact on the game. It’s always a buzz kill when big name sites get into a fight with the feds.
Now things are heating up again, as recent court decisions have basically given a green light to the states to set up their own regulatory frameworks. Unfortunately the dysfunction in Washington has made it impossible to get uniform rules throughout the country, but state actions are reinvigorating the poker movement.
Meanwhile, the television big wigs are paying attention, and we’re going to see another big push into poker content. Showtime will air the 2009 documentary “All In – The Poker Movie” about how poker became part of the mainstream culture in the US. This will be the TV premiere of this film. More TV shows like “Queens are Wild,” , a new reality show from NBC Universal is another example. It will follow four female poker players around the world. Babes and poker – we agree that’s probably a winning formula!
The quaint notion of just three channels – not to mention a TV where you actually had to stand up, walk over to the set and turn the dial – seems like it was so long ago.
Now, with the advent of the Internet and being able to watch TV from your desktop or laptop computer, or even your mobile phone, there are many more ways to watch your favorite shows and even shows and entertainment from other countries. Whether you look across the Pacific to Asia and Japan for entertainment, or you scan the Atlantic and look at what Europe has to offer, there are so many different choices for television networks.
When people think of foreign television networks, the Univision or Telemundo names come to mind from Mexico or even CTV or the CBC in Canada. With the United States’ growing Hispanic population, Univision has become a popular network in this country, with levels of viewership it did not have even five years ago. Univision’s “telenovelas”, or Spanish-language soap operas, have become so popular they even outrank NBC programming on some nights (or that of the CW, the former Paramount/WB network now owned by Viacom/CBS).
Univision’s prime market for international sales happens to be the United States, thanks in part to a 56 percent growth in the Hispanic population to 50 million residents. Univision’s research indicates the 18-49 market is growing thanks in large part to that Hispanic population. In the most recent upfront figures available, which reflect advertiser purchases for commercial time, Univision booked $1.8 billion in upfront ad sales in 2011.
CBC and CTV offer shows that can be seen here, but both networks offer original content exclusive to Canada but possibly syndicated to the USA later like the crime shows “Rookie Blue” and “Flashpoint”. Program sales internationally for CBC are handled through Content Television, while CTV’s program lineup consists of plenty of American fare like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Big Bang Theory”.
Head overseas to Europe and you may see the familiar logo of Thames Television, which became famous in this country through repeats of “The Benny Hill Show” in the 1970s and 1980s. It went out of business as a British network in 1992, but it still serves as a program producer through Fremantle Media. Or you may even see the true British Broadcasting Corporation on the air or its counterpart in this country, BBC America. BBC America syndicates the current version of “Doctor Who” to this country. BBC spends $3 billion per year on content, some of which is shown on BBC America and the rest can be seen on British TV stations.
With a tap of the computer keys, you can access other channels. Satellite TV services such as Hunan/Qinghai ($200 million in ad revenue in 2012) and Shenzhen in China offer original programming and knock-offs of such popular USA shows as “The Voice”. However, one of China’s shows, “Celebrity Splash”, was such a hit in that country that it was copied to the United States.
The possibilities are endless. Through “rundfunks”, or networks, you could watch German television programs.
Nippon Hoso Kyokai is a Japanese version of America’s Public Broadcasting Service, so you may be able to see serious programming in a nation loaded with satellite technology and escapist programs.
With Khalijia, you could watch Arabic movies or other live TV shows originating from Arab nations. Khalijia is part of the Rotana group of network channels, owned in part by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and mostly by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Khalijia was founded in 1987 and operates one of the largest TV networks and ad sales operations in the region and owns the largest Arabic film library. It has also built the leading record label in the Middle East, managing many of the most popular artists in the region and controlling the biggest Arabic music catalog.
A look around the television world shows how much times have changed. We have gone from the Big Three to the Big Four in America (with the addition of Fox in 1986), cable channels have exploded from dozens to hundreds, and numerous worldwide satellite services have proliferated.
This easily means you could watch an Arabic network from your own American home and make yourself comfortable. Or you might tune in to an old movie from another country with subtitles.
The possibilities are endless in this new world of television. See for yourself just how much the global reach has affected us.
