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TV Review: HOMELAND – Season 1 – “Pilot” – Series Premiere

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 10/03/2011

Claire Danes in HOMELAND - Season 1 | ©2011 Showtime/Ronen Akerman

Stars: Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Mandy Patinkin, Morena Baccarin Writers: Howard Gordon & Alex Ganza, developed for American television by Howard Gordon & Alex Ganza, based on the series HATUFIM created by Gideon Raff Director: Michael Cuesta Network: Showtime, Sundays @ 10 PM Original Telecast: October 2, 2011 Based on what can be determined from its pilot episode, Showtime’s new series HOMELAND is exactly the sort of paranoid, tense, twisty serialized thriller that threatened to vanish for good when 24 went off the air. Good news – Howard Gordon & Alex Ganza, both 24 veterans, are at the helm here, […]Read On »

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TV Review: CASTLE – Season 4 – “Heroes and Villains”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 09/27/2011

A trip to the comic book store in CASTLE - Season 4 - "Heroes and Villains" | ©2011 ABC/Adam Taylor

Stars: Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan, Molly Quinn, Tamala Jones, Seamus Deaver, Jon Huertas Writer: Andrew W. Marlowe, David Amann Director: Jeff Bleckner Network: ABC, Monday nights, 10 p.m. Original Telecast: September 26, 2011 This is your classic CASTLE episode – a little flirting between Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Becket (Stana Katic), a family issue with Castle’s daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn), and his mom Martha (Susan Sullivan) doing something weird that oddly complements the case that Castle and Beckett are working. Fair warning – the opening scenes are pretty gross. The victim – a complete no-goodnik name Tyler Faris (James Ferris) – […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: NCIS star Pauley Perrette talks tech and more

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 09/21/2011

Pauley Perrette in NCIS - Season 8 - "Tell-All" | ©2011 CBS/Adam Rose

Pauley Perrette just started her ninth season as crime lab tech extraordinaire Abby Sciuto on NCIS, and while at CBS’s North Hollywood studios after a press event regarding the TV industry’s use of Twitter, she says she disliked the concept of online social networking until she found out how it could be used. “This women and children’s shelter in Sylmar that is very close to my heart was closing,” says Perrette. “We knew [it would take] one million six [to keep it open]. Literally, we take people off the downtown streets of L.A. and put them in this beautiful place. […]Read On »

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TV Review: CASTLE – Season 4 Premiere – “Rise”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 09/20/2011

Stana Katic in CASTLE - Season 4 - "Rise" | ©2011 ABC/Karen Neal

Stars: Stana Katic, Nathan Fillion, Jon Huertas, Seamus Deaver, Molly Quinn, Susan Sullivan Writer: Andrew W. Marlowe Director: Rob Bowman Network: ABC, airs Monday nights Original Telecast: September 19, 2011 When last we left Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) during the Season 3 finale of CASTLE, she’d been shot – presumably by the same cabal behind her mother’s death – with Castle holding her and telling her he loves her. So, obviously, she survives. We knew that going in – although kudos to writer Andrew Marlowe (who created the series) and director Rob Bowman for granting us just a little […]Read On »

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The Ten Things We Want to See on CASTLE Season 4

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 09/19/2011

Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion in CASTLE - Season 3 - "To Love and Die in L.A." | ©2010 ABC/Adam Larkey

Tonight we find out if Beckett (Stana Katic) is going to survive the gun shot she took in the final minutes of the Season Three finale of the sometimes dramatic, sometimes funny detective whodunnit series CASTLE featuring author Richard “Rick” Castle (Nathan Fillion) solving crimes with his lady cop inspiration Detective Kate Beckett. Okay, it’s a gimme that Beckett is going to pull through – kinda hard to continue the series if she didn’t. But there was Castle’s declaration of love as he held her in his arms as she slowly passed out. And that kind of got us here […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: CASTLE Season 4 scoop from executive producer Laurie Zaks

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/26/2011

Nathan Fillion in CASTLE - Season 4 | ©2011 ABC/Bob D'Amico

Over three seasons of ABC’s CASTLE – which returns for its fourth season on Monday, September 19 – we’ve seen Nathan Fillion’s wealthy, best-selling mystery novelist Rick Castle fall for Stana Katic’s Kate Beckett, the dedicated NYPD homicide detective Castle follows around. Initially, Castle’s ride-alongs were for research, but by now everybody recognizes there’s a greater investment there than just getting the facts right. In Season Three, Beckett got a lead on the cold case murder of her own mother, which unveiled a conspiracy involving Beckett’s police captain, Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Roy Montgomery.Montgomery died heroically, protecting Beckett, but at his funeral, […]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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Exclusive Interview: Eric Balfour finds safety in Syfy’s HAVEN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/12/2011

Eric Balfour in HAVEN - Season 2 - "The Trial of Audrey Parker" | ©2011 Syfy/Chris Reardon

Based very loosely on Stephen King’s novella THE COLORADO KID, Syfy’s series HAVEN is now airing its second season Friday nights at 10 PM. The title enclave is a small town in coastal Maine where most of the residents are a bit more than human. FBI Special Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) came to Haven in the first episode to investigate a murder, but has stayed on to look into various strange events, including the town’s ties to her own past. One of the few people Audrey meets who doesn’t seem to have some sort of supernatural ability is Eric […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: FALLING SKIES actor Will Patton isn’t skittish about the Skitters

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 07/10/2011

Will Patton in FALLING SKIES - Season 1 | ©2011 TNT/Frank Ockenfels

In TNT’s new series FALLING SKIES, the survivors of an alien invasion of Earth band together to fight the marauding extraterrestrials. Sometimes, dealing with fellow humans can be almost as challenging as battling the ETs, as evidenced by the interactions between teacher-turned-freedom fighter Tom Mason, played by Noah Wyle, and experienced soldier Captain Dan Weaver, played by Will Patton. The South Carolina-born Patton has appeared in a huge amount of feature films and television series, including NO WAY OUT, 24, THE CLIENT, VR.5, REMEMBER THE TITANS and THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, as well as many stage roles. In person, the actor […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: COVERT AFFAIRS star Sendhil Ramamurthy becomes a different hero

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 06/28/2011

Sendhil Ramamurthy in COVERT AFFAIRS - Season 1 - "Around the Sun" | ©2011 USA Network/Steve Wilkie

On USA’s COVERT AFFAIRS, now in its second season Tuesdays at 10 PM, Piper Perabo stars as Annie Walker, a relatively new CIA operative. One of her coworkers is more experienced espionage worker Jai Wilcox, played by Sendhil Ramamuthy. The Chicago native was already part of the NBC/Universal family due to his four years as Dr. Mohinder Suresh on HEROES, where his character was dealing with a lot of daddy issues even before he started to get scaly and super-strong. COVERT AFFAIRS allows Ramamurthy to do a number of things that HEROES did not – for starters, he gets to […]Read On »