Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actor Dylan Baker (The Good Wife) has joined the cast of the six-episode USA Network drama Political Animals that centers on Elaine Barrish (Sigourney Weaver), a divorced former first lady and current Secretary of State, who is struggling to keep her family together while simultaneously dealing with the crises of the State Department. Baker will recur as Vice President Fred Collier, supporting President Paul Garcetti (Adrian Pasdar). The series will debut on July 15 at 10 PM. (Philiana Ng at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Matthew Lillard (Scream and Scooby Doo franchise) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Leverage where he will play Gabe Erickson, a corrupt businessman who has successfully evaded jail until Nate and Co. find him. Leverage will be back with its new season starting on July 15 on TNT. (Megan Masters at TV Line)

TELEVISION PICK UP NEWS

NBC has given a series order for the J.J. Abrams/Eric Kripke drama called Revolution (the title may change to Blackout, but that has not been confirmed yet) that will star David Lyons (The Cape), Billy Burke (Twilight) and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad and Once Upon a Time) [among others] is story set in a world where all energy sources have mysteriously disappeared. (Jenna Mullins at E! Online)

TNT has given the green light to the new drama called Monday Mornings (formerly known as Chelsea General) from David E. Kelley that will be set at the fictional Chelsea General Hospital in Portland. The 10-episode first season will follow the lives of doctors as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. The cast includes Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2), Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica), Jennifer Finnigan (Better With You), Bill Irwin (CSI), Keong Sim (Glee), Sarayu Rao (Lions for Lambs), and Emily Swallow (Southland). The series is set to premiere in summer 2013. (TV By the Numbers)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Singer-Actor Andre 3000 (aka Andre Benjamin) is developing and is set to star in a feature biopic about rock star Jimi Hendrix. The project is titled All Is By My Side and will focus on Hendrix’s period in England over 1966 and 1967 when he worked on his debut album. (IFC and First Showing)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Watch Now: Bearded Ben Affleck Goes Retro in New Argo Trailer

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actress Judy Greer will be making a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of Royal Pains where she will play a professional matchmaker named Veronica Sullivan who seeks treatment from Hank Med for a heart condition, and ends up making Hank (Mark Feuerstein) and Divya (Reshma Shetty) reevaluate their own romantic lives. Royal Pains is back on the USA Network starting on June 6. (Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

Actor James Cromwell will join the cast of American Horror Story, playing Dr. Arden, a foil to the new character to be portrayed by returning cast member Jessica Lange, who will be Arden’s boss at a mental institution. (Joyce Eng at TV Guide)

Lifetime has renewed The Client List for a second season. (TVDoneWright.com)

TV SHOW TRAILER

Watch Now: Teen Wolf Season Two Trailer Promises More Scares, Romance and Monsters

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

The online series Aim High will be back online with a second season, starring Jackson Rathbone (from the Twilight Saga franchise) as government operative Nick Green. Aim High tells the story of a young man leading a double life – juggling his studies by day and serving as a government operative by night. The entire first season can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/aimhighseries. (Warner Bros. Digital Distribution)

CONDOLENCES

Actor George Lindsey, best known for his role as Goober on The Andy Griffith Show passed away yesterday after battling an undisclosed illness. He was 83. (E! Online)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here are the box office estimates for the top 10 movies from this past weekend courtesy of Deadline:

1. Marvel’s The Avengers – 200 million
2. Think Like A Man – 8 million
3. The Hunger Games – 5.7 million
4. Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D – 5.4 million
5. The Lucky One – 5.4 million
6. The Five-Year Engagement -5.2 million
7. The Raven – 2.6 million
8. Safe – 2.5 million
9. Chimpanzee – 2.3 million
10. The Three Stooges – 1.8 million

Actor John Hawkes (Deadwood and Winter’s Bone) has joined the cast of the independent film called Too Late that follows the tangled relationship between a troubled private investigator (Hawkes) and the missing woman he’s hired to help find. The cast includes Rider Strong (Boy Meets World), Natalie Zea (Justified) and Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse and Being Human) [among others]. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Q&A SECTION (with Matt Roush at TV Guide)

Question: I really enjoyed your review of BBC’s brilliant Sherlock and its amazing cast. It’s so satisfying to see a show where everything delivers on all levels and the audience isn’t taken for granted and are treated as proper mystery and Conan Doyle aficionados. Do you think the show has a chance for any Emmy nods, especially in the acting category? Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were at their absolute best with such true and emotional performances. I know it’s hip to be a Downton Abbey fan, but Sherlock is so much more fulfilling, mentally and visually (I could also stare at Cumberbatch’s face for the whole 90 minutes of the show!). I do hope I hear some Sherlock Emmy nominations come July.

On another note, is CBS really going ahead with its own version of modern-day Sherlock with Elementary? Is this a definite pick-up? I know both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu are fine actors, but the Sherlock comparisons are going to be persistent. It has already ruined the Sherlock movies directed by Guy Ritchie for me. The only Sherlock and Watson are, in my mind, Cumberbatch and Freeman. What do you think? — Sonal

Matt Roush: Hard to predict with the Emmys, but now that Downton Abbey is putting itself in the drama series race (as opposed to movie-miniseries), that would seem to open the door for Sherlock to get more notice. (The highest-profile nomination last year, well-deserved, was for Steven Moffat’s writing.) Cumberbatch and Freeman couldn’t be more delightful, and this season the work by Lara Pulver (as Irene Adler) and Andrew Scott (Moriarty) are worth celebrating as well — and for those following the series, this Sunday’s episode (“The Hounds of Baskerville”) features an enjoyable turn by Being Human’s Russell Tovey, whose fear of creatures in the woods is rather ironic given his past employment. Regarding CBS’ Elementary: No word yet on whether it will be picked up or not — this network tends to keep these decisions under wraps until very close to the upfront announcement, which will be next Wednesday — but I agree it may be difficult to embrace this show on its own merits unless it’s as well executed as this version (which would be a small miracle). To be fair, though, CBS tends to operate on such a mass scale I doubt they’re worrying too much about the BBC/PBS adaptation impacting their pilot one way or another. It does seem awfully superfluous, though.

Question: In response to the talk recently in your column about the endgame of Once Upon a Time: Isn’t it a bit early to be talking about that? The show is still new, and I’m still thoroughly enjoying it on a regular basis, so I don’t really find myself itching for Regina to be taken down just yet. I trust that the writers have some kind of plan here, and I’m perfectly happy to enjoy the ride for the time being. I think it’s also a mistake to assume the show is over when the curse is broken; remember how everyone initially thought Lost would be over when they got off the island? Lost was always extremely successful at taking the story in a new direction when the viewers least expected it, and I’m sure the Once writers learned a thing or two from their time on that show.

Off the top of my head, I wonder what breaking the curse even means. If/when everyone becomes aware of their previous lives, what happens if some of them like this life better, or don’t want to leave? What about Emma and Henry, who don’t really have a place in the fairy-tale world? Even for those who do want to return to their old life, it probably won’t be that easy to snap their fingers and go right back to the way things were before the curse happened. Let’s just let this sort itself out. I’m going to be watching the show next year no matter what they do, and that’s what matters here. They’ve entertained me this year and I see no reason to doubt their ability to do so next year. — Jake

Matt Roush: Of course it’s too early in a successful new show’s freshman season to be too worried about the ultimate end game, and your desire to just go along with the ride for now is the best option. But it’s fair game to acknowledge the growing pains of any show’s first season, which for me with Once involves many things involving Storybrooke, in part because most of the characters are only living half-lives there, as opposed to the richly realized revisionist doings back in fairy-tale land. Once Upon a Time is especially well suited to reinvent itself when the time comes, depending on what happens with this curse. (Which doesn’t necessarily have to be the last curse, especially if we go back to a world of magic.)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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