Virginia Madsen is Cheryl West, a loyal wife and mother who happens to be married to a career criminal called Wolf West (actor David James Elliott). This puts a crimp in their social life and their four kids futures may even be in jeopardy if they can't spring dad from prison soon. A New Zealand television series titled Outrageous Fortune is the origin for this fun and fast moving American TV comedy drama. Cheryl West has four children, a set of twins named Cal and Logan plus two younger daughters Heather and Hope. They have each participated in some "shady behavior" until Wolf land in prison for a five year sentence. Mom, Cheryl, decides they must all become honest citizens in spite of good old dad's interference from inside jail. What will that do to their image? Virginia Madsen (as Cheryl West) has been in Sideways & The Astronaut Farmer is sister to actor Michael Madsen. David James Elliott starred in Jag for 10 years before joining CSI: NY in 2010 and in between he played Wolfgang "Wolf" West. The children were played by Patrick Flueger (playing both twin boys), Leven Rambin as Heather West, and Vanessa Marano as Hope West.

With a wide assortment of talent including John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, Alan Thicke, and Zach Galifianakis showing up as guests and plenty of satirical humor and special effects with editing tricks included this show is one to definitely catch whenever possible. The creators of Awesome Show, Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker also control the reins on this fun show, which is often surrealistic, satirical, and always entertaining. Watch for the faux-commercials for they are bizarre and often poke fun at the industry. It has been described as a nightmare version (as seen by us the audience) of the television industry itself. Wareheim and Heidecker's previous offering to television, Tom Goes to the Mayor, provides several of the comedy skits as well as repeat characters borrowed from their original show. A news channel correspondent, played by John C. Reilly, and "Weird Al" Yankovic, who's gravelly voice add humor to skits like the "Uncle Muscles Hour" and it's all done in fun"¦ truly hilarious!

Wilfred is a dog. Wilfred is a man in a dog suit. Either or both may be true but one thing for certain is the story idea and the concept just seems to work for this dark comedy. The Aussie actor Jason Gann (Rats and Cats, Kenny) is Wilfred the eponymous dog whose owner Sarah (played by Cindy Waddingham from I Love You Too and Lowdown) along with her boyfriend Adam (award winner Adam Zwar from Lowdown, The Wedding Party), who looks at Wilfred and sees him as a man who just happens to wear a dog suit. The idea came from an original and award winning short film written by Jason Gann and Adam Zwar. A very popular and AFI award winning television program in Australia which aired there in 2007 and again in 2010, Wilfred is now airing in the U.S. Editor Debbie Lee told them "Go as far as you want with it, the more bent the better" and so they did. This TV program based upon a short film has its silly moments but overall is funny and entertaining due to good acting and writing from its young stars.

Just as we all began to wonder whether or not William H. Macy ever would land a role as juicy and delicious as playing Felicity Huffman's real-life husband, he scored arguably the greatest part of his entire career, starring as Frank Gallagher on Showtime's gritty new "Shameless." Frank drinks. Frank drinks shamelessly, intrepidly, relentlessly, recklessly and irretrievably while his six motherless children learn to fend for themselves on Chicago's unforgiving south side, "back of the stockyards," as they say, although the cattle have long-since gone. In the first episode, a properly burly Chicago police officer deposits Frank on his entryway floor, noting his incontinence and suggesting, "I wouldn't put him anywhere near a carpet until his pants dry." This ain't no Wisteria Lane. Adapted from its British companion, the American version of "Shameless" fulfils producer John Wells's long-standing desire "to make a television show where familial love, juicy cursing, casual sex and drug use, bluntly put humor, mega-alcohol bingeing and total chaos reign." The subject matter and setting naturally lend themselves to that treatment, and the entire casts rises to the occasion. "Shameless" depicts abject poverty, incurable alcoholism, and hopeless co-dependence as grimly and accurately as they deserve, yet it still persuades slightly spellbound viewers the Gallaghers genuinely love one another.

"Rap Sh!t" is a new American comedy television series created by Issa Rae, known for her work on "Insecure". The show is set to premiere on the streaming service HBO Max in 2022, and will consist of eight episodes. The series follows a female rap group from Miami as they try to become stars in the music industry.

As he championed "the new journalism" in the late sixties, Tom Wolfe suggested no one ever would write anything truly compelling"”fact or fiction"”about the suburbs; he asserted, "There is no life there." During the New Depression, however, the suburbs have gone ghetto, suddenly teeming with life and depravity; and television writers are producing all kinds of compelling stuff about what they have discovered beyond the white picket fences. Witness Showtime's smash-hit "Weeds," the life and times of a "proper" suburban widow keeping-up appearances while she deals more dope than a six-pack of Mexican cartels. As in "The Office," the basic premise for "Weeds" is an import from Great Britain, adapted from the British film Saving Grace which showed a widow and her gardener conspiring to maintain the widow's lifestyle by supplying the locals with their favorite herbal refreshment. Critics frequently compare "Weeds" with American Beauty for its exploitation of the idea "Normal is the face we wear to cover how f***ed-up we are." By contrast with "Desperate Housewives," Nancy Botwin, our entrepreneurial heroine, has far more good reason for desperation than her difficulty achieving orgasm; she has a house, a mortgage, two sons, and a reputation. Since Bonfire of the Vanities tanked and "Weeds" flourished, Tom Wolfe may have to consider the distinct possibility that there is no life in Manhattan.