A really cool, movie-style trailer for the new season is out, and this one really gives us a good look at what's coming up this year. It's classic 24 all right (and I'll be recapping it in May), but I'm hearing rumors about Chloe being the villain this year, which better not be true, especially after what they did to Tony Almeida in season 7. I'd be pretty pissed if that was the case, but I'm betting it's not- I mean, they wouldn't want to lose Mary-Lynn Rasjkub just in case 24 gets re-booted as a whole, right?
Stephen Colbert to Succeed David Letterman
Well, that was fast. Turns out my first instinct was correct, as CBS wasted no time (less than a week) in announcing Stephen Colbert to take over The Late Show from Dave when he retires in 2015. No date has been announced yet, but The Colbert Report is expected to cease production after this year, along with retiring the "Stephen Colbert" character that has made lampooning ultra right-wing Republicans his bread and butter for the last nine years. Even though I love Colbert dearly (as you know he's my number one favorite late night host), I'm actually of mixed feelings about this. Retiring the Colbert character is going to be a huge loss, in my opinion, since there's been no one sharper or better or more spot on in his political satire (not even Jon Stewart). I'm going to be be very sad to see that go and it's hard for me to even imagine a monologue or jokes that he'll be doing when not in character. What's this show going to look like anyway? Colbert Report fans will certainly not be tuning in to the same kind of thing they've been used to. Stephen's great at the showman-type stuff like singing, dancing, spoofs, and he's terrific with celebrities (I think he's actually going to be a really good interviewer), but where he excelled and was truly special was the political angle- the last thing The Colbert Report was was neutral, or just another generic late night talk show. I hope he's got something a little more clever up his sleeve planned for this move- because I'll definitely be watching, but it will be really unfortunate to see an incredibly intelligent, pointed, opinionated and hilarious satirist dumbed down to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
FIRST LOOK: "Fargo"
This 5-minute video takes you behind the scenes with the cast and crew of the new Fargo miniseries, and boy does it look good. Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton explain why they got on board and writer Noah Hawley tells us how it finally got turned into a series, years after it was first pitched as one for NBC. The show premieres April 15th in Justified's time slot and I can't wait to see how this turns out. The idea is that this is a straight one and done miniseries, and if not, then at least an anthology one, with a new cast and story every year:
RECAP: Justified 5x13 "Restitution"
Well, Justified wrapped up its fifth season in very satisfying fashion tonight. After what most considered an uneven run this year, I thought the first 4-5 episodes were really good, with a lull in the middle, but these last three especially have been vintage Justified, and with the way things ended tonight, I can't wait for the show to come back for its swan song next year.
We pick up where we left off, with the marshals talking over what Raylan just pulled off with the judge now trying Kendall as an adult for Art's attempted murder. Wendy and Darryl are pretty pissed off, with Darryl coming out swinging, charging up to Raylan and making threats, challenging him to fight him and not his family. He tries to take Wendy with him but Raylan insists they're still holding her, so that Darryl will leave and Tim can follow him. Darryl storms off and Raylan again tries to convince Wendy that he's the one who shot Art, but Wendy's still in denial. Darryl has a fit outside in his car when he sees that Tim is sitting across the street watching him. He confronts him and Tim makes sure he knows that he'll be on his tail all night, which will be easy for him since he's had lots of practice with stakeouts in Afghanistan.
Boyd comes back to the bar and hears a noise, which leads to him finding Jimmy tied up and beaten by the mexicans, who've got a gun on him and one on Boyd too. Boyd can't think of any way out of this (for the moment) and puts his gun down, but then, and very sadly, they shoot poor Jimmy in the heart and he dies. Boyd cries out and is pretty broken up about it (aww- I kinda am, too), while the mexicans tell him he's got til noon to get them Darryl Crowe. So now they've got Boyd trapped, with the heroin on the table so they know he's lied to them. Boyd cleverly replaces Raylan's name on his phone with Darryl's and makes a show of sending texts to try to get "Darryl" to come meet him.
Raylan is talking to Kendall now and tells him the new deal about trying him as an adult, where he'll get 40 years in a federal penitentiary. Kendall looks petrified and it looks like maybe Raylan will crack him pretty quick after all. In the prison yard, Ava is now abandoned by her followers (her reign seems to have lasted one day) including her new curly haired friend Nikki, and so she goes directly up to the psycho bitch Gretchen to confront her then and there. She challenges her to fight and then gets up on a lunch table and declares to everyone that she didn't snitch and in fact it was Gretchen who sold out her own girl to get her alone and isolated. She spills about the arrangement Boyd has with Gretchen's brother before the guards take her down, but it looks like she's saved herself (some time at least).
Raylan brings Kendall the cocoa from the vending machine he likes, and continues to try to work on him so that he confesses. He uncuffs the kid and spills his own story about the first time he killed something- which was a, pig that Art forced him to gut. It's obviously not a lie, as Raylan has these stories laid out in his back pocket for good use, and it seems to work on Kendall, who's interested in what happened, and looking more and more terrified at the idea of the prison sentence he's facing. He mentions killing a gator in Florida, but after Raylan's horror story and when questioned again about Art's shooting, he sticks to his guns, although it's obvious from his behavior now that he's lying. Probably because he's afraid of Darryl at least as much or more. Raylan goes to talk to Wendy, who was listening behind the glass and she's now convinced he didn't do it either. She asks what to do and Raylan tells her to wear a wire, which she balks at but then agrees to because there's really no choice.
Darryl meanwhile runs a red light to get rid of Tim, and it works, as Tim gets taken out by another car, and back at the bar Boyd tries to convince Alberto's two cronies to kill Alberto and team up with him, promising them partnerships and a trip to Vegas (lol). When Alberto comes back in the room the two goons tell him about Boyd's offer and crack up, as this is one time where Boyd's silver tongue fails to make the sale. Alberto tells him he's now got 15 minutes so he'd better try something else. Darryl makes it back to Audrey's and gets a call from Wendy, who lies and tells him the marshals were faking Kendall's charge and she's now going to sue them and get their payday, since nothing else has worked. Darryl reluctantly agrees to meet her at the bar but looks a bit suspicious as he hangs up. Rachel asks Raylan what's going on, but Raylan is totally keeping her in the dark on his plan, while he notices the weird texts he's been getting from Boyd who's purposely calling him Darryl in them.
As Jimmy's body is packed up by the mexicans, Alberto tries to threaten Boyd with how he learned to skin animals (and other things) from his father, but Boyd basically mouths off to him and says to just do it already, since he's living in misery anyway. Alberto just about does when Raylan (as Darryl) finally texts him back, wanting to meet at Ava's old country house. Just in the nick of time. By the way, where does Boyd live now? At the bar? At the prison, Nikki is pals with Ava again, but warns her that Gretchen's not going to back off and she's going to kill her sooner or later. Ava's response to this is to walk over to Gretchen's gang and slam her lunch tray against the face of a Nazi crony, starting a big fight with all the inmates.
At Ava's house, Alberto questions him about her when he sees her picture while Boyd just looks depressed (I guess Ava dumping him has erased any concern he had for her welfare), but then a car pulls up to the house. The mexicans go outside to see that it's Rachel and Tim (who's completely uninjured from that car crash I guess), who pull guns on the crew while Alberto threatens Boyd for trapping them. He then goes out to face the marshals and basically invites them to shoot, since their own boss will kill them if they don't deliver anyway. They start firing and a shootout ensues, with Tim and Rachel taking them down as one of the guys (the one who shot Jimmy) races back inside to kill Boyd but he manages to pull off an awesome shot while handcuffed and kills him instead. As Tim and Rachel let Boyd go (while he brags about his impossible shooting skills), Rachel comes up to him and promises they're going to take him down eventually, but he brushes that off and leaves, managing yet again to luck his way out of a bad situation.
Ava is now in solitary as Rowena the nurse comes in to fix her dislocated shoulder again, and basically tells her that she's got two options- either spend 5 years in solitary or be ready to fight every single day that she's stuck in prison. Great. Ava looks bummed as she contemplates her future. Wendy now meets Darryl at Audrey's, where she proceeds to tell him she knows he shot Art and made Kendall take the fall. He denies it but she starts a big fight about all the things he's done to their family, which makes him defensive, yelling at her for being a bad mother and claiming he did it all for them. Wendy starts to cry and apologize, telling him she understands and getting him to the place where he admits he did it, but only for the family, and because he thought Kendall going to juvie wouldn't be such a big deal. Wendy nods and then pulls out her phone, thanking him for giving him what she needed. Darryl is furious, but she's unafraid, even as he comes close, threatening to kill her. She pulls a gun out and aims squarely at his crotch, telling him she'll do it in a heartbeat. But then of course, Raylan walks in and pulls his own gun, saying he's got her covered, but Darryl lunges at Wendy and she shoots him point blank. He doesn't go down at first and comes at her again, so she pulls the trigger once more. Raylan finally tells her to put the gun down (took your time there, buddy) and kneels down as he watches Darryl twitch and die, telling him he told him he was going to make him wish he'd killed him earlier.
At the hospital, Art is now awake and Raylan comes in to find him talking again with his wife, Tim and Rachel. The other marshals take off and Art mentions to Raylan that he got him that Florida transfer the day after Raylan told him to do it. Raylan looks startled and fairly disappointed, but Art asks if Raylan killed Darryl and he says that he didn't, but he's dead anyway. The two men seem to have made some kind of peace with that, as Raylan quietly leaves the room and then talks to Winona over skype, who can hardly believe he's finally moving to Florida. He says it's all being finalized and will only take a few weeks, and now he actually looks happy to see his daughter, as the baby giggles at him over the screen. Vasquez and Rachel call him into Art's office to tell him they're going after Boyd once and for all for vast criminal conspiracy and they want his help, which Raylan is only too thrilled to offer. Looks like Florida might wait a little bit longer after all.
Boyd is back at Ava's house, trying to fix the porch when he gets the call from Ava's lawyer that all charges have been dropped and she's being released. He doesn't get it, but Ava is in fact being signed out of the prison (thank god for that) and he talks to her over the phone as she tells him she's coming home right away. Ava and Boyd then reunite, but things between them are awkward and when Boyd asks what happens now, she just says she wants to take a bath and to have some time alone. Boyd has go meet Duffy anyway, and so Ava walks into the house looking a bit ambivalent, much like Boyd. Boyd goes to meet Duffy (who evidently got his trailer back) and Catherine Hale, who both want to recruit him for some new business dealings. Boyd's not into it though, and gives Duffy the heroin, saying he wants to lay low. Duffy tells him that Catherine used to run her husband's business and was a lot more involved in his affairs than anyone knew. Boyd still isn't jazzed about it, but Catherine then says to him that she's heard he was a lot better at robbing banks than he was at shipping heroin, which brings that familiar smile to Boyd's face.
Now, in the last scene of the season, Ava goes to meet Raylan on the bridge to Harlan, where it turns out (and i guessed this the minute she was released) that she's been flipped, and Raylan got her sprung on the condition that she report back to him on all Boyd's dealings and function as the marshal's spy. He says if she doesn't play ball he'll put her back in prison, and Ava agree to this but says she's scared. Raylan promises her she'll be fine as he walks back to his car while the song "You'll Never Get Out of Harlan Alive" plays us out. Well, that's a wrap, folks. And it's quite the set-up for next season, with things looking to conclude with a massive Boyd vs. Raylan showdown, with Ava smack in the middle. My guess is that she'll never turn on Boyd and only lasts maybe 2-3 episodes before they get back together and she works with him against the feds somehow. But as for the series, it may have been an uneven season, but I truly love the show and the last few were as good as it's ever been. Bring on the final season, guys! I'm excited to see if anyone will indeed, make it out of Harlan alive.
PROMO: "The Normal Heart"
A new promo for HBO's The Normal Heart, airing May 25th. Looks good so far, although with Ryan Murphy behind it (creator and showrunner of Glee and Nip/Tuck) I'm skeptical as a rule. Mark Ruffalo on the other hand, is nearly always trustworthy, so I'll give it a chance for him. Fun fact about this movie- apparently Julia Roberts' cameraman husband Danny Moder, is the one working on this, so you wonder if she got him the job or vice versa.
RECAP: SNL 4/05 "Anna Kendrick"
Another mediocre episode of SNL, albeit one with some high energy and effort, thanks to all the singing. Anna Kendrick gives a good performance as host, and she tries hard, but the writing is just really bad.
COLD OPEN: A strange choice for the opening, as Kate is the CEO of GM, evading questions before Congress about the recent recall. It's not that funny, so a bad sign to start the night.
MONOLOGUE: It's been a while since they did a straight musical opening monologue, so Anna Kendrick comes out, mentions her musical theater background and leads the entire cast in a song set to the opening from Beauty and the Beast (which makes me feel old, due to the implication that 90's Disney movies are old time classics now- yikes). It's kinda fun though.
FOX & FRIENDS: Another skit that hasn't made an appearance in a while- too bad when they bring it back it's so unfunny. It should be easy to make fun of the idiots on this show, and while they do a good job of showing how stupid they are, there are just no punchlines to this premise anymore.
DONGS: A pre-taped bit with a bunch of the girls singing about "dongs" all over the world- i guess it's nice to let the girls be raunchy for once, but again, I didn't actually laugh at this sketch. Some people will probably like it, since it's essentially a digital short.
LITTLE MERMAID: Continuing a Disney theme designed to make twentysomethings feel ancient, this one has Anna as the mermaid and Aidy as Ursula (whose impression sucks by the way), and the joke is that this Ariel can't sing. She keeps doing auto-tuned and rap songs while Flounder (Bobby) and Sebastian (Jay) stare in embarrassment. It's not too bad, but it goes on way too long.
FLIRTY: Ugh- every time Kyle does a pre-taped bit I cringe in anticipation, and unfortunately I'm always right to do so. This time he and Vanessa are awkward flirters in the same apartment building who can't quite get together. It pretty much sucks from beginning to end. I'm starting to hate anything this guy does.
PHARRELL: Since I liked so few of the skits tonight, I'm posting Pharell doing "Happy," because that's the one thing that can brighten anybody's mood. Am I right?
WEEKEND UPDATE: Thankfully, Colin and Cecily's jokes are better this week and they actually made an attempt to interact with each other, but Colin Jost is still about as exciting as watching paint dry. I'm convinced Cecily must love him though because he makes her look like the pro. Kate comes on as her crazy Angela Merkel and Bobby makes an okay appearance as George R.R. Martin, but Brooks Whelan is terrible, again trying to sell himself as a comic personality (is he using his stand-up persona maybe?) I think he might be gone by next year, because he's made one of the lesser impressions of the new people and he's obviously desperate.
LES JEUNES DE PARIS: Yet another one that hasn't shown up in at least a year. The french cafe and stereotypes are back in a skit that gives everyone a chance to dance again. It's all right this time, one of the better ones of the night.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON: This is actually a skit that I used to like, but now it's just gotten old, as Jay once again does his pissed off principal and Kenan his pissed off coach, but it's wearing pretty thin at this point. Anna is fine as a zoo employee terrorized by the students on a field trip, but the best I can say about it is that it's not painful.
BIG JOE: Meh. Mediocre bit set in the Old West, with Taran as Big Joe, the tall guy with a bone disease who can't lift the rocks off a trapped Bobby. It's fairly lame, no laughs in this one either.
AUDITIONS: This one's better, with a grinning Pharell joining Taran and Kenan looking for a new backup singer. Anna and Vanessa are sisters who try out, with Anna as a good singer and Vanessa a horrible one, but Pharell's into them both. I liked the way Kenan and Taran make fun of Pharell's infamous hat.
NCAA TOURNEY: Last bit of the night is an ad for the best of the white guys in the NCAA tournament- it's kinda funny and mercifully short.
So, I'd give tonight a C. There was a lot of energy put into the music and dancing bits, and the second half of the show was an improvement on the first half, but the writing remains horrible and I'm still waiting for some better jokes for god's sake. It feels so much like they're phoning it in lately. Seth Rogen returns next week and let's hope he brings some of his own material with him, because these guys are seriously flailing.
Twenty Years Ago Today...
April 5th marks the twentieth anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. To mark the occasion as a fellow Washingtonian, here's where he gave his most haunting performance. Nirvana's rendition of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" was the last song on the set list from their amazing MTV Unplugged concert in 1993, which was played repeatedly after his death:
TRAILER #2: "Orphan Black" Season 2
Yay, it's almost here! My most anticipated returning show of the year is Orphan Black, whose premiere date inches ever closer, with April 19th now just two weeks away. The new trailer promises more action and more clones, what else could you ask for?
PROMO: "In the Flesh" Season 2
You've probably never heard of it, but there's a zombie series on the BBC that's miles better than The Walking Dead, and it's coming back for its second season on May 10th. I was skeptical that any show or movie could do anything different with zombies by now (let's face it, the subject is totally overdone) but this one is actually pretty good. It's a post-apocalyptic world where you have to live among the undead, which has essentially become a treatable disease so that families can get their loved ones back- but of course they're somewhat altered, with their new appetites, sleep disorders and other, ahem, "symptoms" affecting how they function. It should be easy to catch up with this one, since the first season only consisted of three episodes last year (seriously, I know BBC shows are different, but three episodes, really?), but what little was aired was a pretty interesting show. Check it out.
David Letterman to Hang it Up in 2015
It's been a long time coming, but the great David Letterman has announced he plans to retire sometime next year, after 33 years in late night television. He made the announcement tonight on his show to his studio audience, which promptly gave him a standing ovation, as the inimitable late night host's stepping down will mark the end of an era, the last with ties to Johnny Carson's Tonight Show influence. Dave was a disciple of Carson, who remained his idol forever, but he himself was the defining comic voice of a new generation and an influence on every single current voice in late night, from Jon Stewart to Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. He remained the best at what he did (and still does, at least until 2015), and the only talk show host who can conduct a decent interview, in my opinion, with everyone from celebrities to politicians. His years on NBC with his original Late Night show from 1982 to 1993 were inspired, weird, freshly original comedic anarchy that really didn't have much to do with Johnny Carson's traditional style and were an invention all his own, one that will likely never be repeated. Here's his retirement announcement, airing tonight:
Of course now, the questions will swirl over who will take over the show, with the most popular names at the moment being Stephen Colbert, Craig Ferguson and even Conan O'Brien (who would really be poetic justice, once again taking over from Dave in his return to network tv, but it seems unlikely to happen at the moment). It'd be nice if CBS were to at least consider a woman, but seeing as the most likely choice there is someone like Chelsea Handler (ugh) I'd honestly take almost anyone else. I'd actually love to see how Colbert would handle a late night show where he'd have to be himself and not his character- something tells me he'd be great in that slot.
