Television

There is a scene in Star Trek Into Darkness (this isn't really a spoiler, BTW) in which Alice Eve, for no good reason, strips down to her underwear. It's a particularly glaring bit of male gaze that stands out a mile in the movie as being incredibly gratuitous. Okay, Kirk does take his top off as well… but it's when he's in bed with two alien women, and this is in a movie where women get to do surprisingly little and with few very in positions of power. Writer Damon Lindelof has already apologised on Twitter… …but JJ Abrams has just been on Conan O'Brien's show and tried to apologise, too. He also tried to make up for it a little by bringing along a deleted scene of Benedict Cumberbatch in the shower.

Film Time Cop reboot planned Trailers Trailer for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon, with Scarlett Johansson Trailer for We're The Millers, with Jennifer Aniston, Ed Helms, Jason Sudeikis et al Trailer for Delivery Man with Vince Vaughn Canadian TV CBC green lights The Best Laid Plans, renews Cracked, Republic Of Doyle, Murdoch Mysteries… …and Crossing Lines UK TV BBC3 renews: In The Flesh BBC to charge Sky for content? Tuesday ratings US TV Tuesday's ratings US TV casting Billy Baldwin to recur on Copper Emma Roberts join American Horror Story Rumer Willis to guest on Pretty Little Liars Casting on Homeland New US TV shows CBS green lights: Bad Teacher FX green lights: The Comedians, with Billy Crystal USA green lights: Divide & Conquer New US TV show casting Logan Marshall-Green to star in Cinemax's Quarry

Yeah, Kris was in a bad spot coming in last on iTunes. I wasn’t terribly surprised about Josiah either.

I’ve become Ren , I like it Read the full article...

You have Judith Hill way too high on your list. She’s only made the top 5 on Itunes once and that was a distant fifth place during top 12 week. While the producers, coaches and recappers like yourself are obviously very high on her, it also very obvious that the voting and buying public are, at best, lukewarm towards her so she shouldn’t be ranked Read the full article...

Thanks to LB for the heads up and to imayfan·for the video. Videos rolled into 1

Few movies have launched themselves into the pop culture lexicon with as much force and unapologetic brashness as The Hangover did in 2009. Offensive, hilarious and endlessly quotable (“Not at the table, Carlos.”), the movie shifted the already rising careers of its three stars – Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis – into overdrive and turned director Todd Phillips into a celebrity himself. With a concept not much more complicated than Dude, Where’s My Car?, Phillips used the most basic of story structures to allow his actors to flex their comedic talent. The inevitable sequel, The Hangover Part II, was rushed into theaters and the resulting product bore this fact out. Essentially the entire plot was re-hashed with only a change of location serving as new ground. Now, Phillips has completed his trilogy with The Hangover Part III which doesn’t come close to matching the original film in terms of pure hilarity and inventiveness, but at least makes audiences temporarily forget that Part II ever happened. While the character of Alan (Galifianakis) was an unexpected pot of comedy gold in the first movie, his overexposure detracted from his appeal in the sequel. Now, Alan is center stage as the movie focuses mainly on his growth as a person after the death of his father (Jeffrey Tambor). Phil (Cooper), Stu (Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) agree to accompany Alan to a sort of life rehab center called New Horizons which is located in Arizona. Alan is reluctant at first, but with the support of the Wolfpack he acquiesces and agrees to go willingly. On the way, the guys are ambushed by Marshall (John Goodman), a scary, drug kingpin-looking dude with a short temper and penchant for 70s-style sunglasses. It turns out, Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) recently escaped from a prison in Thailand and made off with $21 million in gold bars that belonged to Marshall. Since the Wolfpack set in motion a series of events that led to Chow stealing his gold, Marshall figures they should be responsible for recovering his money. He takes Doug hostage as collateral and tells Phil, Stu and Alan they have three days to find Chow and his money or he’ll kill Doug. Credit must be given to Phillips for a number of reasons. First, he (smartly) refuses to play the the-guys-get-drugged-and-don’t-remember-anything-and-have-to-follow-the-clues card he’s played twice before. Instead, he and co-writer Craig Mazin fashion an original story for the characters that feels much more organic than what we saw in Part II. Secondly, over the course of these three films, Phillips has matured as a filmmaker, both technically and emotionally, and Part III hints that he may be capable of much more as a director. In the first film, Phillips essentially just let the camera roll and allowed the actors to improvise in order to come up with the funniest lines. Now, though, he is experimenting with various camera movements to heighten emotion or tension, adding a bit more weight to the movie. He also includes several beautifully composed shots of the Arizona desert and Chow’s Mexican villa that show he does in fact have a sense of how to expand a movie’s scope. It’s possible we could see something completely different from Phillips in just a few years’ time. Of course, the real joy of any Hangover movie is Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis. Cooper is much more playful than he has been in the past, mostly because Phil has finally stopped questioning Alan’s peculiarities. Helms’ high-pitched screech is on full display again, but his real charm comes in the moments of utter despair that wash over Stu’s face again and again throughout the movie. While the Alan character is essentially just Galifianakis being Galifianakis, that shouldn’t underemphasize the difficultly of giving what is always one of the best comedic performances in any year. Phillips tries to give Alan a more well-rounded story in Part III – including an uncomfortable flirtation with a pawn shop owner played by Melissa McCar

Thanks to magnutude for the heads up.

This week’s episode of Defiance, “Brothers in Arms,” was written by Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer and directed by Andy Wolk. This episode did a good job of fleshing out more of Nolan (Grant Bowler) and Irisa’s (Stephanie Leonidas) past in particular and the world of Defiance in the post-apocalyptic world in general. The show pretty consistently excels at teasing out exposition without feeling like they’re doing it, which is not an easy task. One of the on-going story threads is what exactly is the artifact that Quentin (Justin Rain) and Rafe (Graham Greene) found among Luke’s (Wesley French) things. It’s obviously tied to the past as Quentin’s “digging” into the past has uncovered. If it was buried during the 1811 earthquake, that would indicate that aliens were on earth a lot longer than the Pale Wars. Perhaps scouting for the Votans? Or is this yet a different alien race who may post a threat to Votans and humas alike? I’m not completely sold on Luke appearing to Quentin. Is this a factor of Quentin’s psyche/guilt over his brother’s death or an effect of the artifact? It would seem to be a function of the artifact protecting itself. Fionnula Flanagan gives her usual wonderful performance as Nicky. She’s gone from the nurturing matriarch to scary, schemer seamlessly. Rafe warns Quentin that Nicky is dangerous, and reminds him that Luke was killed with the artifact on him and that it endangers their whole family because it links them all to the Volge attack. Rafe clearly has a realistic sense of the power politics at play, and I wonder going forward if the Tarrs are going to have a really difficult time getting rid of him as they plan to do. I was sad to see the death of Mr. Birch (Steven McCarthy), however. I wonder who will show up to scheme with Nicky now – and if she’ll retaliate against the McCawleys or Quentin. This could set up an interesting dynamic going forward if the McCawleys have come under the protection of the Tarrs through the marriage of Alak (Jesse Rath) and Christie (Nicole Munoz). Speaking of whom – did anyone else miss Alak’s radio station this week? I was really hoping that would become a more integral motif. There doesn’t seem to be any progress in the relationship of the other young couple on the show: Tommy (Dewshane Williams) and Irisa. Tommy is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters, and I love watching the subtle touches Leonidas brings to Irisa. Tommy schooling her on the niceties of responding to an invitation is a great scene. It does make me wonder a bit about Nolan’s upbringing. Obviously, she grew up in a rough and tumble world, but I wonder if he didn’t also safeguard some of her heritage by not making her adhere too closely to human mores. I also loved the scene in the bar when she is first re-introduced to Uncle Eddie (Rob Stewart). She pulls away and then physically removes herself to watch warily from across the bar. Her watching over Nolan as he sleeps is also an animal-like response. Interestingly her “instincts” let her see that Eddie may not be who Nolan thinks he is – at least not entirely. They give her greater insight into his motivations. Her reactions are consistent in an other-worldly, alien kind of way, yet her “alien-ness” is still quite different from that we see in the other races, like the Castithans and Indogene which are also both showcased in this episode. We get some insight into the Pale Wars when Pol Madis (Daniel Kash) suggests that he recognizes Doc Yewll (Trenna Keating). Madis was the weapons designer and he implies that Yewll may have been his biological equivalent. Madis refers to some mysterious Biotyne Project and insists that Yewll was the head of it. Keating is brilliant at being able to emote fear in that scene and irritation when Eddie and Nolan come to interrogate her while wearing such extensive makeup. I’m looking forward to more of Yewll’s backstory. The “Pilot” intimated that there were things in her past that she was ashamed of,