Posts Tagged ‘history’
 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Copper”

  Throughout its first season, COPPER has almost never been as vivid as it seemed like it should be.  The show’s premise and auspices were promising:  the lead producers were Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, who apa...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED FINALE REVIEW: “Hatfields & McCoys”

    HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, already a blockbuster hit, kept its best and most compelling hours for last.  Although the conclusion of the 6-hour tale, directed throughout by Kevin Reynolds and with this installment wr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Zero Dark Thirty”

  ZERO DARK THIRTY:  Worth A Ticket – The Year’s Most Gripping Thriller Is True You already know how ZERO DARK THIRTY ends.  You knew how All the President’s Men ended, too, and Apollo 13 and Titanic. ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED REVIEW: “Hatfields & McCoys” Episode 1

    Even as the scripted drama business on the broadcast networks subsides into increasing irrelevance, new players arise who want to take part.  Dramas may not be cost-effective in the way that they once were, but t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Vikings”

  History Channel has been on quite a streak in its last two seasons.  Its first foray into scripted television, the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, was a surprise smash hit, as was this year’s follow-up The Bibl...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 
by Mitch Salem
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THE SKED: “Hatfields & McCoys” Keep Shooting

  History Channel, which just entered the world of scripted television 2 days ago, now owns the #1 and #2 scripted programs in the history of basic cable, as the 2d installment of HATFIELDS & MCCOYS barely declined fro...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE CONSPIRATOR: Court In Session

> Watch It At Home:  Scrupulously accurate, to a fault. In an era that so recently gave us “The Kennedys,” possibly the worst piece of pop culture history ever produced for American television, it seems downrig...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Lawless”

  LAWLESS:  Watch It At Home – A Moonshine War To Make You Long for “Boardwalk Empire” Director John Hillcoat specializes in stark, emotionally distanced pulp, and if that sounds like a contradiction in ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Django Unchained”

  DJANGO UNCHAINED – Worth A Ticket – Pre-Civil War American History 101 With Professor Tarantino Quentin Tarantino is, when you think about it, the most successful avant-garde filmmaker in Hollywood.  His tri...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “The Sapphires”

  With The Silver-Linings Playbook and now Wayne Blair’s THE SAPPHIRES, Harvey Weinstein may have the feel-good part of the coming awards season locked down.  This slight but charming true story (or at least R...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

The Sked: Cable Ratings May 22-28

On the cable front this past seven days, only the NBA could stop History’s rampaging Hatfield & McCoys.  On Monday night, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals (Boston Celtics at Miami Heat) averaged a 4.1 rating ...
by Mitch Metcalf
 

 

 

THE BIJOU @ TIFF: “Albert Nobbs”

> Rodrigo Garcia’s film ALBERT NOBBS (he shares auteurship with Glenn Close, who served as screenwriter with John Banville and Gabriella Prekop and as a producer as well as star) caters to what used to be called the James...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “J. Edgar”

    J. EDGAR:  Watch It At Home – Brokeback Hoover   It’s a little unexpected that of all the films Clint Eastwood has directed, his new biography J. EDGAR most resembles The Bridges of Madison Count...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Hyde Park on Hudson”

  To address the very specific elephant in HYDE PARK ON HUDSON‘s room:  it’s no King’s Speech.  It’s hard to avoid the comparison, because the two movies have a clear overlap, Hyde Park being t...
by Mitch Salem