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Caryn James

Where Even The Spoons Are Political: "Veep" and "Scandal" Do D.C. For TV

  • By Caryn James
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  • April 17, 2012 11:51 AM
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  • 1 Comment
Television
“We live in a culture now where it’s almost like we are used to being lied to,” Julia Louis-Dreyfuss said in a recent New York Times Magazine piece about her HBO series Veep – to which any thinking person can only respond, “ALMOST?”  (Or hope that she delivered that line with more irony than the profile made it sound.)
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More: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, HBO, Armando Iannucci, Anna Chlumsky, VEEP, Kerry Washington, Scandal, Shonda Rhimes, The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies, Alan Cumming, Matthew Perry, Television Review, Tony Goldwyn, Television

Game Change: Julianne Moore, Sarah Palin and Lamebrain Politics

  • By Caryn James
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  • March 7, 2012 8:45 AM
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  • 3 Comments
Television
Sarah Palin can whine all she wants, but no reasonable person believes that the creators of Game Change went out of their way to make her look shallow and ridiculous – she didn’t need any help with that. But the HBO film will certainly play better to people who see Palin as a blight on politics. This behind-the-scenes dramatization of her abrupt choice and disastrous campaign as John McCain’s running mate is a fast, smart and totally enjoyable tragi-comedy. Julianne Moore is an impressive Palin clone, right down to her confident walk and wave. But Game Change is also a cynical (if all too obvious) cautionary tale about the bubble-headed way elections work today. Palin just happens to be the best example we have.  
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More: Julianne Moore, Game Change, Woody Harrelson, Tina Fey, Jay Roach, Sarah Paulson, Mark Halperin, HBO, John Heilemann, Barack Obama, Television

Gervais Skewers Fame in Life's Too Short, With Tall Guest Liam Neeson

  • By Caryn James
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  • February 19, 2012 8:30 AM
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  • 1 Comment
Television
No one is smarter or funnier at tweaking celebrity than Ricky Gervais, and if you loved the inexhaustible wit of Extras as I did, you will probably also love his new HBO series Life’s Too Short, even though it doesn’t revolve around Gervais himself. Created by Davis, Gervais and his often underappreciated creative partner Stephen Merchant, the hero – or self-defeating anti-hero – is Warwick Davis, a dwarf and an actor who plays a skewed version of himself much the way Larry David does on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Davis is fine, but let’s be honest: the heart of the show is Gervais and Merchant, who in every episode meet some wildy funny star who makes a cameo appearance. This week’s guest scene is - and I am not exaggerating – one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and the unlikely comic is Liam Neeson.
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More: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Life's Too Short, Warwick Davis, Liam Neeson, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, HBO, Family Guy

Beautiful and Eloquent, "The Loving Story" Comes to HBO

  • By Caryn James
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  • February 14, 2012 8:48 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Television
The Loving Story, which I’ve been following since it was a work-in-progress, premieres on HBO tonight. To say that this documentary is about Mildred and Richard Loving, the interracial couple who were arrested and forced to leave Virginia in the 1950’s, and whose Supreme Court case finally struck down anti-miscegenation laws, doesn’t begin to suggest how beautifully the film is made.
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More: The Loving Story, HBO, Nancy Buirski, Mildred Loving, Richard Loving

Paradise Lost 3 Comes to HBO

  • By Caryn James
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  • January 10, 2012 12:06 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Television
When Paradise Lost 3  premieres on HBO on Thursday, it will be the same smart, cogent doc that was shown at the New York Film Festival last fall: the absorbing story of the West Memphis 3, who were wrongly accused of murder as teenagers and recently freed after nearly 20 years in prison. But now the film arrives shadowed by some unexpected competition: the documentary West of Memphis, produced by Peter Jackson and his wife and partner Fran Walsh. Even more interestingly, producer credits also go to Damien Echols, the West Memphis teenager had been sentenced to death, and his wife, Lorri Davis.
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More: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, West Memphis Three, Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, HBO, Peter Jackson, New York Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Damien Echols, Lorri Davis

Boardwalk Empire's Killer Season Finale (Updated)

  • By Caryn James
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  • December 12, 2011 12:06 AM
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  • 8 Comments
Television
“I adore you, Margaret, and I adore our family,” Nucky says as he finally proposes marriage in the season finale of HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Of course, he needs her to be his wife so she can’t be forced to testify against him, but still --- nothing is more important than family, especially if there’s a crime family to keep organized, alive and out of prison.
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More: Boardwalk Empire, Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Gretchen Mol, HBO, Boardwalk Empire season finale, Michael Pitt

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