TRAILER: "Bloodline"

Netflix's new series premiering (or dropping, as all 13 episodes come out at once) on March 20th, grabs my attention because of its cast, and because it's from the creators of Damages, which I loved and thought was always a terrific and very underrated show all the way through its run. Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, Lina Cardellini, Sam Shepard and Ben Mendelsohn star in this one, which is apparently going to be structured similar to how Damages was, with flashbacks and flashforwards of a mystery adding up to a whole by the season's end. The trailer itself doesn't necessarily look that great, but with the talent involved, I'll definitely be trying this one out.

'Black-ish' and 'How to Get Away With Murder' Top the NAACP Awards in TV

I didn't realize the NAACP gave out so many TV awards, but apparently they go all in for it, giving out everything from writing to directing, even voice over performance. ABC was the big winner here, with both Black-ish and How to Get Away With Murder dominating in their respective categories.

Outstanding Comedy Series: Black-ish
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series: Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series: Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Laurence Fishburne, Black-ish
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Yara Shahidi, Black-ish
Outstanding Drama Series: How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series: Shemar Moore, Criminal Minds
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series: Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Joe Morton, Scandal
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Khandi Alexander, Scandal
Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Blair Underwood, The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special: Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding News/ Information (Series or Special): Unsung
Outstanding Talk Series: Steve Harvey
Outstanding Reality Series: Iyanla: Fix My Life
Outstanding Variety (Series or Special): Oprah’s Master Class
Outstanding Children’s Program: Doc McStuffins
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance: Loretta Devine, Doc McStuffins
Outstanding Performance by a Youth in a Youth/Children’s Program (Series or Special): Fatima Ptacek, Dora and Friends: Into The City!
Outstanding Host: Steve Harvey, Steve Harvey
Outstanding Documentary (Television): Bad Boys
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series: Orange is the New Black
Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series: How to Get Away with Murder
Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Television): A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series: Parks and Recreation
Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series: House of Cards
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television): Gun Hill

PROMO: "Silicon Valley" Season 2

Even though it's a very dude-oriented show, I thought the first season of Mike Judge's Silicon Valley was pretty funny, and it got better as it went along, which is promising for the second season. Here's a tease for Season 2, which premieres on April 12th (same night as Game of Thrones and Veep). TJ Miller is still the scene-stealer, as you can see.

TEASER: "Daredevil" Season 1

The first teaser for Netflix's Daredevil series actually has a lot going for it. What I was curious about was whether or not Marvel would embrace the freedom being on Netflix allows for their content, in ways that ABC and the strictly PG-13 movies do not. That is to say, whether or not they'd allow for some actual, darker, maybe more violent and/or sexual content to seep through here. And it looks like it might, which would be a good thing, at least to help some of their material differ in having a more adult appeal (which many comic books often do, even if the movies wouldn't have you believe that). The whole first season drops on April 10th.

RECAP: SNL 1/31 "J.K. Simmons"

Ok, so tonight was basically an inoffensively unfunny SNL episode, which is a lot easier to sit through than on their worst days. I'll take it.

COLD OPEN: Super Bowl jokes! Kenan and Jay are Seahawk stars Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman, who are hosting their own talk show. I gotta say, as a resident of the Pacific Northwest, it's just cool that we're getting all this attention now (although there is a dig at Seattle fans only being fans since 2013- not cool, man. This town's been desperate for a good sports team for decades, trust me). Anyway, Taran plays the awkward white boy Pete Carroll, and the opening is mostly boring.

MONOLOGUE: J.K. Simmons comes out to do a spoof of his movie Whiplash, which I can guarantee about 99% of this audience (in the studio and at home) has not seen. I don't even know if they get these jokes, where he yells at people on the drums, except Leslie, who yells back at him. Couldn't have happened in the movie of course, because the movie was too afraid to put any female students in his class.

SUPER BOWL ACTIVITY PACK: An ad for a Super Bowl party where J.K. give his dimwitted wife a condescending pack of puzzles and games to play while the guys watch the game. It's a decent jab at those kinds of commercials.

MISS TRASH: J.K. hosts a beauty pageant where the contestants are competing for Miss Trash USA. It's too forgettable to bother with- no big laughs.

CINEMA CLASSICS: An alternate ending to Casablanca with J.K. as Rick and Kate as Ilsa. This is just a chance for Kate to do her Ingrid Bergman impression, as Ilsa really wants to get on that plane- Kate's pretty funny here, so I like it.

TEACHER SNOW DAY: A rap video about teachers taking over the school on a snow day and bringing the house down. There are some people who really like these videos- I never laugh at them, but they're not bad, just not laugh out loud funny.

UPDATE: Michael is still flubbing his lines- dude, you have got to get that down. There's a couple of decent jokes tonight, but they bring back Cecily's one-dimensional movie woman character, who I hate. I can't stand most of Cecily's Update characters, I never understand why anyone likes them. On the bright side, Taran's Jebediah Atkinson is back to diss the Grammy nominees! I do love me some Jebediah.

PUSHPIN: Ugh. Worst sketch of the night. Bobby is the annoying push pin on J.K.'s computer who harasses him as he tries to write a letter on Word. Bobby is really annoying here though and this bit is way too long.

THE JAY-Z STORY: Mike O'Brien does a video about Jay-Z's life, where he plays Jay-Z and a bunch of other white guys are rappers he meets on the way. Weird, like most of Mike's humor, although I guess it's a little bit amusing in that way.

CAREER DAY: Last random, odd sketch of the night has J.K. explaining to his son's class on Career Day his job as a Japanese "messy boy" who eats like a pig in front of Japanese women for their amusement. Yeah- very weird, but J.K. kind of sells it as a totally committed salesman.

So, that's it for tonight- nothing great, but nothing totally awful, a couple of funny little bits...I'll give it a C+. J.K. Simmons was pretty game and professional, even though I still wonder how many people know who he is. Next up, it's the big SNL 40th anniversary special taking place on Sunday, February 15th. This is where we'll get lots of cameos from many former cast members, including, drumroll please....Eddie Murphy! Yup, that's right everyone, Eddie Murphy will be coming back for the first time since he left the show in 1984- just for that I'm sure the special will grab a bunch of eyeballs. I for one hope he revives Buckwheat, but that's probably too much to hope for. I'll be recapping as usual, so see you then!

TRAILER: "Game of Thrones" Season 5

Game of Thrones is coming back! This show has always been remarkably consistent, with no one season any better or worse than the other, at least in my opinion. In that sense it's probably the most dependable show on TV, and if you don't like it by now you never will. It premieres April 12th on HBO.

RECAP: SNL 1/24 "Blake Shelton"

Sorry I was so late on this recap everyone! But, it looks like I didn't miss much, as this turned out to be just another, generically dreadful episode, although Blake Shelton did about as well as he could, given that he's not an actor or anything.

COLD OPEN: We start off immediately with technical problems, as we can't hear anything but the audience for the first minute or so, but eventually we get a spoof of A Few Good Men with reporters yelling at Taran's Tom Brady over the "deflategate" scandal. Meh. Go Seahawks! That's all I have to say about this.

MONOLOGUE: Blake Shelton comes out and sings of course, doing a Hee-Haw bit about country jokes. Eh- I don't like this either. It falls flat despite Blake's efforts.

FARM HUNK: Premise starts off promising, with Blake spoofing the Bachelor and all the girls as idiot contestants, but it goes on way, way, WAY too long, and amazingly none of the jokes about the girls are funny at all. That should have been a softball right down the middle, shouldn't it?

WISHING BOOT: This is a music video with Kate, Aidy and Blake singing a country song, but it's not funny. Although I'm not quite sure it's supposed to be either- it actually sounds like a real country song, so maybe that was the angle of it. Which makes it boring.

FAMILY FEUD: Kenan's Steve Harvey hosts Celebrity Family Feud, with the contestants doing impressions of the American Idol versus The Voice judges, but they all suck today. Taran's Adam Levine is best, but Kenan's one-liners are terrible.

UPDATE: A really bad one, with many of Colin and Michael's State of the Union/football jokes going over like total duds, to an audience who's just not having it. A new character comes on in the form of Bobby as Michael's friend "Riblet" from high school who wants to steal his job, and then his ex-girlfriend. Didn't work for me though- did you guys laugh at that? I do have to say I'd prefer to see Riblet anchor Update over Michael Che. Pete also comes in with another stand-up bit about gay anxiety, but it's just okay. Man, this show is struggling.

PAROLE BOARD: Kenan does a Shawshank spoof of Morgan Freeman's last speech about redemption, but he's a cannibal who doesn't want to stop eating people. This one's okay, I guess. Not painful, but not hilarious either.

MORNING SHOW: Another Blake singing sketch (we've seen quite a bit of that tonight) as he's hired to sing a tribute song to an old man's dead wife- it turns out to be a roast. This one is mildly funny, and probably a better sketch of the night.

MAGIC SHOW: Blake heckle's Taran's magic show and begs for him to give him the power to "go down on himself." Okay, so that was maybe a bit chuckle-worthy, only because Blake really kind of went for it with the enthusiasm there.

So this was a very bad episode, but Blake tried and I kind of feel some sympathy for hosts who aren't actors or comedians. But the writing wasn't there, although the worst stuff was at the top of the show and got less painful in the second half. I still have to give it a D, because nothing made me laugh tonight. Next week it's J.K. Simmons- I sort of have to wonder if they're struggling to get guests right now- no offense to him, but is there anyone who watches this show that knows J.K. Simmons by name? See you next time!

'Orange is the New Black' and 'Downton Abbey' Win at SAG

Okay, so true to form. I did horribly on my TV predictions tonight (the only one I got was William H. Macy for Shameless), but I actually couldn't be happier about it because something finally took down Modern Family, and it was the very deserving, very populated cast of Orange is the New Black! Wasn't it awesome to see all those diverse women on stage? On another note, Matthew McConaughey has officially been shut out of any awards for True Detective, which no one would have predicted back when the show aired. And I'm not quite sure how Downton Abbey keeps winning in Drama ensemble- that's a real mystery, frankly.

DRAMA ENSEMBLE: Downton Abbey
DRAMA ACTOR: Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
DRAMA ACTRESS: Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
COMEDY ENSEMBLE: Orange is the New Black
COMEDY ACTRESS: Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black
COMEDY ACTOR: William H. Macy, Shameless
MOVIE/MINI ACTOR: Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart
MOVIE/MINI ACTRESS: Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge

PGA-TV Winners Include 'Orange is the New Black,' 'Tonight Show,' 'Breaking Bad'

The TV side of the Producers Guild tonight was less exciting than over on the movie side, but I am happy about the win for Orange is the New Black! Ick for the Tonight Show (I cannot stand the phony, sycophantic Jimmy Fallon in that seat), and yawn on Breaking Bad (I don't know what kind of eligibility window they have for it to win a year and a half after it aired).

Live Entertainment in Talk TV - The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Competition TV - The Voice
Episodic Comedy TV - Orange is the New Black
Non-Fictional TV - Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Children's TV Program - Sesame Street
Sports Program - Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
Digital Series - Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Longform TV - Fargo
Episodic Drama TV - Breaking Bad

2015 SAG-TV Predictions

Okay, so I almost always bomb out on these SAG TV predictions- I know they generally like veteran actors and long-running shows (this is the complete opposite of the Golden Globes that way), but I'll go ahead and give this my best shot anyway.

TV MOVIE/MINI ACTRESS

• Ellen Burstyn, Flowers in the Attic
  
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Honourable Woman
  
• Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge
  
• Julia Roberts, The Normal Heart
  
• Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful
  

Oh, boy. Quite a few veteran actresses in here. Hmm- I think I'm going to pick Cicely Tyson for this one. Frances McDormand could win too, but since Tyson is in her 80's and SAG is a much more diverse guild than any other, I think she makes sense as a winner.

TV MOVIE/MINI ACTOR

• Adrien Brody, Houdini
  
• Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
  
• Richard Jenkins, Olive Kitteridge
  
• Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart
  
• Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo
  

I'm going to say Cumberbatch takes this, because he hasn't won a SAG yet, and the show was inexplicably resurgent this year at the Emmys. Maybe that indicated something. It could also go to Globe winner Billy Bob, maybe veteran Jenkins. But I'll just stick with the Sherlock vote.

TV COMEDY ACTRESS

• Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black
  
• Julie Bowen, Modern Family
  
• Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
  
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
  
• Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
  

I guess Julia again? I don't know if/when we'll get to the point where there's fatigue for her and that show yet, after winning so many awards for it for quite a few years in a row. But I don't see support rallying around the other options here, so I guess it's Julia by default.

TV COMEDY ACTOR

• Ty Burrell, Modern Family
  
• Louis C.K., Louie
  
• William H. Macy, Shameless
  
• Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
  
• Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
  

God, what a boring category this is. All these shows are long running by now, so I can't decide who gets that veteran vote. Ty Burrell won it last year, so I guess he's always a threat. For some reason I also think Macy has a shot now, since they moved his show to comedy and he still hasn't been recognized for it yet. I think I'm going to go with him.

TV COMEDY ENSEMBLE

• The Big Bang Theory
  
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
  
• Modern Family
  
• Orange is the New Black
  
• Veep
  

Modern Family wins this over and over again, and they had a good season last year. I'd like to see Orange take it, but it's probably just safer to stick with Modern Family once more.

TV DRAMA ACTRESS

• Claire Danes, Homeland
  
• Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder
  
• Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
  
• Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
  
• Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
  
• Robin Wright, House of Cards
  

I'm thinking Viola Davis for this one. She's a longtime character actress, she moved over to TV, it's a hit. But frankly, Maggie Smith could take this as well- she's won it before and they never stop loving her. And Emmy winner Margulies is a real possibility, since The Good Wife also had a great season. Huh. I think I've talked myself into Margulies now. I'll go with her.

TV DRAMA ACTOR

• Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
  
• Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
  
• Woody Harrelson, True Detective
  
• Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
  
• Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
  

Funnily enough, everyone predicted that McConaughey would take every TV award for True Detective, and he's been shut out for both the Emmy and the Golden Globe. This is his last chance to win anything for it, and I'm kinda wondering now if people are just over him in general. Wouldn't it be cool to see Woody Harrelson win this? He's a longtime TV vet. I'm going to go with it- this is my wild card pick.

TV DRAMA ENSEMBLE

• Boardwalk Empire
  
• Downton Abbey
  
• Game of Thrones
  
• Homeland
  
• House of Cards
  

I really have no clue on this one- Downton Abbey won a couple of years ago out of nowhere, I guess because they hadn't rewarded it yet. Going by that logic, maybe it's Game of Thrones' turn? Or is the show too genre-y for even SAG? I'd love to see Boardwalk take it for the last season, but that won in its first. I'm honestly aiming in the dark here, but I'm going to just say that it is Game of Thrones' turn to win- I suppose House of Cards is the next most likely choice.