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Exclusive Interview: NECESSARY ROUGHNESS star Mehcad Brooks scores

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/24/2011

Mehcad Brooks in NECESSARY ROUGHNESS - Season 1 - "Losing Your Swing" | ©2011 USA Network/Richard DuCree

In USA’s NECESSARY ROUGHNESS, Wednesdays at 10 PM, psychotherapist Dan Santino (Callie Thorne) finds herself drawn into the world of professional sports when she’s asked to treat star wide receiver Terrence “T.K.” King, played by Mehcad Brooks. NECESSARY ROUGHNESS represents some job security for the Texas-born Brooks, who played the ill-fated Eggs on Season Two of HBO’s TRUE BLOOD. He then portrayed a lawyer in ABC’s THE DEEP END, which ran for thirteen episodes, and then played both the teen version and the adult version of a high school jock turned U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in MY GENERATION, which was […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: David Strathairn leads the ALPHAS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/23/2011

David Straithairn in ALPHAS - Season 1 | ©2011 Syfy/Justin Stephens

The title of Syfy’s Monday night series ALPHAS refers to individuals who have a variety of unusual mental abilities. Dr. Lee Rosen, played by David Strathairn, is in charge of a team of five disparate Alphas. The U.S. government expects the Alphas to track down and combat others who are using their talents for destruction. Rosen tries to comfort and advise his charges, but he’s aware that he’s also manipulating them. Rosen is a complicated character, but fortunately, Syfy has Strathairn in the role. San Francisco native Strathairn (pronounced, says the actor, Strath-hairn) has an enormous film and television resume […]Read On »

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TV Review: TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY – “Immortal Sins” – Review #2

By SEAN ELLIOTT

Eve Myles in TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY | ©2011 BBC Worldwide Limited

Stars: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Alexa Havins, Kai Owen, Bill Pullman, Lauren Ambrose, Arlene Tur, Jonathan Spencer, Frederick Koehler, Jason Brooks, Tom Price, Marc Vann, William Thomas, Ciera Payton, G. Lane Hillman, Lena Kaur, Liz Jenkins, Ernie Hudson Writer: Jane Espenson Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton Network: Starz, airs Friday nights Original Telecast: August 19, 2011 The latest episode of TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY should have been titled “Redemption”. This is where things finally move forward towards our inevitable conclusion, which is odd, because it really feels like a lot of what we spent time watching in the middle doesn’t really […]Read On »

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TV Review: TRUE BLOOD – Season 4 – “Let’s Get Out of Here”

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/22/2011

Lauren Bowles, Fiona Shaw, Rutina Wesley in TRUE BLOOD - Season 4 - "Spellbound" | ©2011 HBO/John P. Johnson

Stars: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, Joe Manganiello, Carrie Preston, Deborah Ann Woll, Jim Parrack, Kristin Bauer Von Straten, Todd Lowe, Kevin Alejandro, Fiona Shaw, Lauren Bowles, Marshall Allman, Jessica Tuck, Dale Raoul, Janina Gavankar, Nondumiso Tembe, Daniel Buran Writer: Brian Buckner, series created by Alan Ball, based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels Director: Romeo Tirone Network: HBO, Sundays @ 9 PM Airdate: August 21, 2011 Last week’s episode of TRUE BLOOD, “Spellbound,” ended with all hell breaking loose. “Let’s Get Out of Here” has a similarly bloody, […]Read On »

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Interview: THE LAST CIRCUS brings in three-ring composer Roque Banos

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER

The Last Circus soundtrack | ©2011 Milan Records

With scores often bordering on the impossibly lush and melodic, Roque Banos has been composing Hollywood-worthy scores in his Spanish homeland for the better part of thirteen years. And while the likes of the cop-mocking TORRENTE series, the dance rhythms of SALOME and the swashbuckling ALATRISTE are yet to be discovered outside of foreign score cineastes’ ears, Banos’ talents have nonetheless, and thankfully reached our shores with the boiling crime sound of Ben Kingsley’s SEXY BEAST and Christian Bale’s Theremin-inspired mental breakdown in THE MACHINIST. For a composer whose work sings with thematic elegance, Banos’ scores have also graced the […]Read On »

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TV Review: TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY – “Immortal Sins” – Review #1

By ARNOLD T. BLUMBERG

John Barrowman in TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY | ©2011 BBC Worldwide Limited

Stars: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Alexa Havins, Kai Owen, Sharon Morgan, Nana Visitor, Tom Price, Daniele Favilli Writer: Jane Espenson Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton Network: Starz, airs Friday nights Original Telecast: August 19, 2011 In the seventh episode of the all-new BBC/Starz co-production of TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY, “Immortal Sins,” no good deed goes unpunished as Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) takes center stage – finally! Gwen (Eve Myles) races to deliver Jack to mysterious parties in exchange for her family, while Jack remembers a former lover and a nightmare involving his immortality back during the heyday of American immigration. Some […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: GLEE and THE GLEE PROJECT Executive Producer Dante Di Loreto puts on a show

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/21/2011

Alex, Damian, Samuel, Lindsay on THE GLEE PROJECT - Season 1 | ©2011 Oxygen/Matt Sersion

Dante Di Loreto is an executive producer on both Fox’s musical comedy/drama GLEE, returning for its third season on September 20, and its reality competition spinoff THE GLEE PROJECT, which has its season finale tonight on Oxygen. (He’s also one of the executive producers, along with GLEE/GLEE PROJECT colleagues Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, on FX’s upcoming AN AMERICAN HORROR STORY.) The winner of THE GLEE PROJECT gets a role on the GLEE series. Di Loreto talks with ASSIGNMENT X about both musical series’ – and time management. ASSIGNMENT X: Everybody who works on GLEE talks about how brutal the […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: GLEE & THE GLEE PROJECT choreographer Zach Woodlee puts on the moves

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/20/2011

The glee club performs in GLEE - Season 2 - "Blame It On the Alcohol" | ©2011 Fox/Adam Rose

GLEE is an undeniable phenomenon. It’s a hit musical comedy-drama series on Fox, now going into its third year; it’s a series of original cast worldwide live concert tours; it’s GLEE: THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE, now in theaters. All of these are choreographed by Zach Woodlee, who also serves as an on-camera mentor on Oxygen’s reality competition show THE GLEE PROJECT, which has its season finale this Sunday, with the winner getting a role on GLEE the series. Woodlee talks with ASSIGNMENT X about his GLEE-full life. ASSIGNMENT X: On the original GLEE, was there a minimal level of dance […]Read On »

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TV Review: TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY – “The Middle Men” – Review #2

By SEAN ELLIOTT 08/19/2011

Stars: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Alexa Havins, Kai Owen, Bill Pullman, Lauren Ambrose, Arlene Tur, Jonathan Spencer, Frederick Koehler, Jason Brooks, Tom Price, Marc Vann, William Thomas, Ciera Payton, G. Lane Hillman, Lena Kaur, Liz Jenkins, Ernie Hudson Writer: John Shiban Director: Guy Ferland Network: Starz, airs Friday nights Original Telecast: August 12, 2011 Now that there’s only four episodes left of the new TORCHWOOD series MIRACLE DAY, let’s discuss the evolution of Jack (John Barrowman) from a leading man into a pretty looking prop. When the first couple of episodes started, it seemed that while Jack didn’t […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: Gina Torres SUITS up for new USA series

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/18/2011

Gina Torres in SUITS - Season 1 | ©2011 USA/Frank Ockenfels

On USA’s SUITS, Thursdays at 10 and already renewed for a second season, hotshot New York lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) takes protégé Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) under his wing at the firm. Their little secret: Mike is a brilliant self-taught legal whiz who has never gone near law school, much less passed the bar. Jessica Pearson, the head of the law firm played by Gina Torres, will be much less than pleased if/when she ever finds out about this. Torres, who has often been associated with very tough women – Zoe Alleyne in FIREFLY and SERENITY, Helen Carter […]Read On »

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