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Giggity! The fall television season is is picking up steam and I’m loving every minute of it!
The folks at FX/Sons of Anarchy are bright, they start up early in the season and get that Tuesday 10pm slot on lockdown. But now we’re getting peppered with season and series premieres and I’m getting DVR capacity anxiety already. Here’s why:
Tonight, we’ve got Jake Gooberballs (okay, Gyllenhaal) on Inside the Actor’s Studio (Bravo, 8pm EST). I do realize that it’s not scripted television, but it’s about scripted movies and television so I think I get a pass. I’m always excited to see what ridiculously personal information James Lipton can extract from these actors under the premise of it “contributing to their process.”
Later this evening we have a replay of the season finale of Elementary, the spicy rethinking of Sherlock Holmes. At the end of season two we left off with the dramatic discovery of the nefarious nemesis, Moriarty, which is worth watching again tonight to get you ready for the season premiere a nest Thursday. This show has a gritty edge that propels it to the top of my list for hour-long crime dramas. The casting of a male Holmes and a female Watson, and his past heroin addiction that brought them together, boosts the banter and tension between this iconic pair. Word has it that the sometimes charming, sometimes repulsive, always interesting, Rhys Ifans will be joining the show as a recurring character. He’ll definitely spice up CBS’s London set kick-off to season three.
My DVR is all queued up to capture the constant drama on Starz, The White Queen. The not-so-mini-series airs on Saturday nights and believe it or not I sometimes have a life on the weekends, so off to the DVR with this tasty piece of historical fiction. If you look up the War of the Roses (Yorks and Lancasters, not the Douglas/Turner flick from 1989–which is also worth a visit) you can see the dry version of how it all turns out, but why not get a little scandal, backstabbing, sex, and witchcraft with your dose of history? This 10 part series combines the plot lines from three of Philippa Gregory‘s novels, into one tight, fast-paced single season series.
Then come Monday, Rick and Kate are back in the perennial winner, Castle. This show and its lead characters thus far seem to have beaten the Moonlighting curse, and still prove to be compelling after the “will they or won’t they” question gets answered with, “Oh yes, they did.” The constant swapping of traditional gender role behavior continues to make the viewer wonder how these to will carry on as a bonafide couple…and possibly husband and wife?
This week I watched Fox’s Sleepy Hollow and I’m not yet fully sold. The actor playing Ichabod Crane is wonderfully cast and veritably portrays an anachronistic fellow who’s equally believable (in unbelievable circumstances) as being both awkward and adroit. The female lead is what’s holding back the love. I can see her acting. Good actors, you can’t see them acting and the Abby character is acting like someone trying to play a cop. The pilot episode definitely finished strong, with enough demonic, apocalyptic heebie-jeebies in the last moments to make me want to check out episode two.
All this doesn’t even take into consideration the comedies, oh the comedies! But that’s for another day.
-BB
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In honor of Throwback Thursday and my earlier reference, I’m recommending you check out War of the Roses (1989). Watch as a simple dissolution of marriage escalates into a darkly hilarious catastrophe. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner collaborate again after teaming in Romancing the Stone (1984) and The Jewel of the Nile (1985). Their familiarity pays off with impeccable timing delivering rapid fire below-the-belt blows. (And no, that’s not a pun, you perv.)
Hollywood Fodder 
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