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With only about a week left until Christmas, here are a few more shows to get you into the holiday spirit.
-- Michael Buble's Christmas in New York (NBC, Dec. 17, 8pm ET)
-- Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown (CW, Dec. 17, 8pm ET)
-- I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown! (ABC, Dec. 20, 8pm ET)
-- Rudolph's Shiny New Year (ABC Family, Dec. 22, 5:30pm ET)
-- The Year Without a Santa Claus (ABC Family, Dec. 22, 7:30pm ET)
-- One Direction: The TV Special (NBC, Dec. 23, 8pm ET)
The Golden Globes nominees were revealed earlier this week, which included the following television categories and nominees:
-- Best TV Series, Drama: Downton Abbey, The Affair, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and The Good Wife
-- Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy: Orange is the New Black, Girls, Jane the Virgin, Transparent, and Silicon Valley
-- Best TV Movie or Mini-Series: Olive Kitteridge, Fargo, The Missing, True Detective, and The Normal Heart
I was glad to see The Affair and Fargo on the list, two new shows this year that provided a unique experience for viewers. I was hoping to see Outlander as well, another terrific new series. And I expect Netflix (House of Cards and Orange is the New Black) and Amazon (Transparent) will be please to see three of their shows on the nominee list as well, providing further evidence that the non-TV content providers are here to stay. The winners will be announced January 11th.
The Screen Actors Guild also revealed its nominees this week, so you may want to visit this list as well. HBO had the highest number of nominations, with 14 nominees, followed by 5 nominees each for ABC, Netflix, and Showtime. The winners will be announced January 25th.
Syfy's three-night mini-series Ascension begins Monday night (Dec. 15), a
nd it looks like the beginning of a full series if all goes well. The basic story relates to a JFK-era space mission to save the human race by sending a new Noah's ark to a distant planet. We get involved in the story about 50 years into the mission after a murder takes place. Is this CGI meets Lost in Space? Maybe, but I am hoping for more. You can find a trailer here.
One of the stars in the new series is Tricia Helfer, who you may remember as the beautiful yet treacherous cylon from Battlestar Galactica. In her former state, she is not a woman you would want on a long space mission. Hopefully, her character is a little more helpful in this series.
According to TV Guide, Syfy is thinking about the future as well:
"We're already thinking about Ascension becoming a series if
[the mini] does well," says Bill McGoldrick, Syfy's executive vice
president of original content. "We've made a huge commitment here,
creatively and financially. It would be great to get the band back
together." The set of the ship alone is a budget-buster: five stories
tall with a fully functioning elevator at its center.
However, Variety magazine does not see such a future:
In the broad strokes, it’s hard not to admire Syfy’s bet on something of
this magnitude without the sort of built-in following or name
recognition that’s normally considered a prerequisite to such a launch.
Even “Galactica,” after all, was a reboot of an existing title.
You can decide for yourself next week.
Netflix continues to offer its own content, this time in the form of the historic tale of Marco Polo. And this history you can absorb over the holidays and come away all the better because of it. While we all know the story, here is Netflix's short summary:
"Marco Polo" is an epic adventure that follows the early years of the famous explorer as he travels the exotic Silk Road to the great Kublai Khan’s court. But Marco soon finds that navigating the Khan’s world of greed, betrayal, sexual intrigue and rivalry will be his greatest challenge yet, even as he becomes a trusted companion to the Khan in his violent quest to become the Emperor of the World.
Here is the trailer if you want to see for yourself.
You may remember another version of this story back in 2007 with Ian Somerhalder in the role of Marco and Brian Dennehy playing Kubliai Khan (don't ask). It was not a great retelling, but had its moments. In this latest version it appears Netflix had more funding and better casting.
And we can expect even more original shows from Netflix in the future. Earlier this week Netflix stated it had plans to roll out as many as 20 original series or seasons of original series each year. That is a lot of new shows at a time other content providers, including the networks, cable companies, and streaming services (from Amazon to Crackle) are doing the same. Good news for viewers, but we will have to be much more discerning if we want to find time to eat and sleep.
Tomorrow night and Monday night Lifetime will broadcast a new miniseries called The Red Tent, based on the the novel of the same name by Anita Diamant. Here is how Lifetime describes the new show:
“The Red Tent” is a
sweeping tale that takes place during the times of the Old Testament,
told through the eyes of Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob. Airing
over two nights, the all-star cast includes Academy Award, Golden Globe
and Emmy nominee Minnie Driver (“Return to Zero,” “About a Boy”), Emmy
nominee Morena Baccarin (“Homeland”), Golden Globe nominee Rebecca
Ferguson (“The White Queen”), Iain Glen (“Game of Thrones”), Will Tudor
(“Game of Thrones”) and Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee
Debra Winger (“Terms of Endearment”).
The
miniseries begins with Dinah’s (Ferguson) happy childhood spent inside
the red tent where the women of her tribe gather and share the
traditions and turmoil of ancient womanhood. The film recounts the story
of Dinah’s mothers Leah (Driver), Rachel (Baccarin), Zilpah and Bilhah,
the four wives of Jacob (Glen). Dinah matures and experiences an
intense love that subsequently leads to a devastating loss, and the fate
of her family is forever changed. Winger portrays Rebecca, Jacob’s
mother while Tudor stars as Joseph, Dinah’s brother.
With the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings also coming to theaters next week, it may be a good time pull out the Bible and read along. And with so many Game of Thrones actors coming over to The Red Tent, you might just think the series will have its own share of violence, and you are not wrong. Take a look at the trailer and you will see what I mean.
You have seen him in Gotham, Terriers, and Vikings, just to name of few of the television series where he plays a key role. Donal Logue i
s the ever-present and likable actor that everyone sees yet no one seems to talk about, until now. Rolling Stone magazine had a good article on the actor titled "The Ultimate 'That Guy' Guy."
I recommend the article if you want to learn a few more facts about this talented actor, including how he started his career with the Boston punk band roadie and nowadays, with off and on work, how he maintains his own trucking company on the side.
I am not overly impressed with the script in Gotham, but that is not Donal Logue's fault. However, I recommend viewing his work in Vikings and particularly Terriers if you want to see some terrific acting (Donal even spoke about a Terrier movie in this Collider interview). His laid back style works whether he plays a warlord or a drunken detective. He deserves more recognition than he gets, but he seems to be happy with whatever comes his way.
"It's kind of like the horse, you know, the horse was good until we had the car,...The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030."
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