The Girlfriend is a slippery, dual-perspective psychological thriller on Prime Video, adapted from Michelle Frances's 2017 bestselling novel. Robin Wright, who also directs several episodes and executive produces, stars as Laura, a successful gallery owner and fiercely protective mother whose comfortable life tilts off its axis when her adored son Daniel brings home a new girlfriend. Olivia Cooke plays Cherry, the ambitious young woman who may be a devoted partner or a calculating opportunist, depending entirely on whose version of events you believe.
The series' central formal trick is to refuse to take a side. As the relationship between the two women curdles from wary politeness into open psychological warfare, the show replays key events from each woman's point of view, subtly altering a glance, a line of dialogue, or a gesture so that the same scene reads as either menacing or perfectly innocent. The effect keeps the audience permanently off balance, unsure whether Laura is a mother rightly sensing danger or a snob poisoning her son's happiness, and whether Cherry is a victim or a predator.
Wright and Cooke are both excellent, circling each other with icy precision, and critics praised the series as a tense, morally ambiguous adult thriller elevated by its two committed leads. Stylish and coolly unnerving, The Girlfriend is streaming on Prime Video.
Sketches are a comics best format for television and Nick Swardson has a show that's loaded with them. Each episode displays some sort of rank and raunchy humorous ingredients that will make 7th graders giggle and adults cover their heads. But along the way some of it is actually funny even if rather dark. Skits about cats in wheelchairs, snipers who masturbate, and incestual dreams involving the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are unusual fare for family television nights and when the show's main character sits and tells us about what we are about to see we begin to wonder what world this is. Nick's dead cat, Fitzgerald, is fair game for another episode as are a fatherly bucket list for a dying son, urine powered cars, and even a Gay Robot. Never one to be short on "off the wall" ideas, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time will give viewers a peek into a rather weird place, the mind of Swardson. Imagine, if you will, recovering a time capsule full of sex objects, or following Gay Robot as he buys airplane tickets to visit the alien probe site (area 51 come to mind?), or maybe learn how a forest ranger steps in to break up intimate moments between homosexuals. All this and more can be found on the Nick Swardson's Pretend Time show.
Remember high school and those mean girls who seemed to love tormenting someone who was shy or just didn't quite fit in? Those who took every advantage and used it to pester or torment others who just wanted to be left alone? They were and still remain bullies and mean people. Parents of daughters who now are targeted by a bully at school are trying to help by "toughening" up their daughters or even stepping in to protect them. Mothers of a bully are also finding they need to help. They need to find out why their girls do such mean things and how they came to be such mean people. When Annie Watson (played by Jaime Pressly from My Name Is Earl) notices her daughter Sophie is mocking her and constantly trying to embarrass her own mother, she knows it may be her own fault because she always allowed her daughter to do pretty much whatever she chose. Nikki Miller (played by Katie Finneral from Sex In The City) grew up being fat and unpopular now sees her daughter as the type who used to tease her back in high school. The fathers aren't much help with daughters who bully so it's up to the moms to teach these manipulative young women how to "play nice" and grow up as decent people.
Today the do-it-yourself home video market is extremely busy and popular. Almost anyone who has a cell phone or digital camera can shoot some video any time and anywhere. MTV brings the Funniest Home Video idea into homes with a bunch of amateurish videos that have gone internet viral and for one reason or another, have grabbed the attention of a wide audience. Some subject matter, like guys getting hit in their groin area, may be humorous to some but not so much to others. It's a matter of taste (or maybe lack of it) that gets home produced videos to earn watchability. The title of this show is more or less self explanatory and Rob Dyrdek's idea of fun and entertaining television is robbing entertaining clips from YouTube and presenting them on a network that used to mean something music wise, then turning them into juvenile jokes. Also seen are Chanel "West Coast" and Sterling Brim aka Steelo making comments about what is funny and what was better left on the internet to be lost in space. MTV"¦. let's get back to your roots and play music!
Using the Civil War and the wild American west as a backdrop, Hell on Wheels takes us on an incredible journey back to the 1860's when railroads were being dug, blasted, and scraped from one end of this country to the other. The land was opening up from east to west and the railroads could be credited for much of the civilization and modernization of North America in a time where native Americans chose to keep their land. There was plenty of bloodshed from sea to sea as the original owners of beautiful soil were forced to leave due to who had the bigger and more effective weapons. Follow along with former soldier in the Confederate Army Cullen Bohannon (played by Anson Mount) who seeks his wife's murderer. Rapper Common "Sense" is Elam Ferguson, a slave recently freed due to the Civil War, looking for a better life than he had before. Money seekers and brothers, Mickey and Sean McGinnes are both young and eager to establish wealth in the new west. Eddie Spears is Native American Joseph Black Moon, torn between holding on to his traditional life and the new world of opportunities. This series is a must see and should make interesting viewing for a long time due to excellent writing and quality acting.
Las Vegas, Nevada has long had the reputation of harboring legalized prostitution but very little has ever been mentioned about male prostitutes also known as Gigolos. In fact that particular line of work is definitely illegal and won't be tolerated by the police in the city of Vegas itself or anywhere else in the state of Nevada. That being said, it is apparently a popular and common tradition to escort women who are lonely and want the companionship of good looking men who can take them out on the town or simply take them to bed. This series, running on cable's Showtime channel will show how the lives of several Las Vegas Gigolos, all working at the same escort agency, are played out and how they can so easily get women to pay for their sexual or social services. The five main Gigolos include Nick Hawk, Steven Gantt, Jimmy Dior, Vin Armani, and Brace. Brace has been in the business a long time and tries to come up with a product line that will enable him to retire from the business he's in. Gantt is single with a son he needs to provide support for. Clabots is a personal trainer and actor who is apparently also gay. Armani is new to the game and has lots to learn. And we also see Garren James who is the "Cowboys4Angels" escort agency owner. Interesting premise and something quite different on our TV sets!
Enlightened brings the very talented Laura Dern to television as Amy Jellicoe, an executive who has found her job and her life to be too much to bear. When she suffers from a breakdown which just happens to be a very public embarrassing situation for her, she finds she must attempt to put her life back together by going through rehabilitation. Watch for Diane Ladd who plays Amy's mother, Helen Jellicoe (she is Dern's real life mother). Amy spends three months in Hawaii where she undergoes therapy to help with her problems, then returns home to face reality and the group of co-workers she embarrassed herself by breaking down in front of, living with her mother who is never short on unwelcome advice, and a lazy ex-husband (Luke Wilson) who enjoys his "recreational" drugs too much. Laura Dern is known for her roles in Jurassic Park, Rambling Rose, & Wild At Heart. Actress Diane Ladd has starred in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Primary Colors, & Wild At Heart. She and actor Bruce Dern are Laura's parents. Luke Wilson has been seen in 3:10 To Yuma, Blades of Glory, & Death at a Funeral; and he is brother of Owen Wilson.
Officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) works for the CIA and as an operative strives to keep this country safe from another attack such as the one occurring in September 11, 2001. Her latest assignment involves finding a Marine Corp member, Sergeant Nicholas Brody. He was captured in 2003 and considered to be missing in action, but was later found to be held by Al-Qaeda until recently. There is danger that he was "turned" by the enemy and now may pose tremendous risk to our nations security. When Officer Mathison is put on probation due to conducting some unauthorized operations while in Iraq, she finds herself reassigned to Langley, VA and a CIA counter terrorism center. In other words, a desk job. While in Iraq Mathison learned of a prisoner from America there who had become corrupt. Now the CIA superiors of Mathison consider the prisoner Brody to be somewhat of a hero. Claire Danes (My So-Called Life, Temple Grandin) is Officer Carrie Mathison who is employed by the CIA in counter intelligence. Nicholas Brody is played by Damian Lewis (The Forsyte Saga, Band of Brothers), rescued after eight years as a POW. The CIA Division Chief of the Middle East and Carrie Mathison's mentor and former boss is Saul Berenson played by Mandy Patinkin (Chicago Hope, Dead Like Me). Cast is tremendous and story is fresh, up to date, and somewhat disturbing.
If you like television that deals with fads from the movies, television, toys, and especially pop culture you might love Robot Chicken. It is full of comedy sketches and parodies that include using animated toys, claymation, and pose-able action figures. It blatantly steals from such film icons as Star Wars. Parodies TV stars like Bob Saget and his America's Funniest Home Videos, and even Public Service Announcements for prostate cancer provided by Optimus Prime, a Transformer character. How do you not laugh at all this madness and mayhem? Voice roles on Robot Chicken are obviously in high demand because there is a long list of celebrity guests who have provided their voiceovers for various characters on the show over the years of its run. Listen for Wayne Brady, Dean Cain, Dr. Drew, Phyllis Diller, Nick & Gene Simmons, Conan O'Brien, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Robert Culp, Billy Dee Williams, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and Burt Reynolds among many others who have become part of the weirdness of this extremely popular television show. Robot Chicken is a mad romp filled with funny skits and top quality comedy writing!
Dubbed a combination of mystery, crime drama, and American fantasy show, Grimm comes to home (not so small) screens on Friday evenings filled with dark twists and turns including some familiar fairy tale characters from the legendary Grimm's Fairy Tales we all grew up listening to or reading. There are familiar "bad guys" such as the Big Bad Wolf and many new ones that can be equally frightening if only to the younger set. Nick Burkhardt (played by David Giuntoli from Nip/Tuck, Veronica Mars) is a descendant from the Grimm line of hunters who is a homicide detective by day and fights supernatural forces on the side. Russell Hornsby (Lincoln Heights, Meet the Parents) is Hank Griffin, Burkhardt's homicide partner, and Juliette Silverton, who is Burkhardt's girlfriend is played by Bitsie Tulloch (Lakeview Terrace, Ring Tone). Eddie Monroe previously was considered to be a Big Bad Wolf but now works with Nick Burkhardt. He is played by Silas Weir Mitchell from Dexter and Monk. Don't confuse Grimm with another show that recently premiered, Once Upon A Time. Grimm will be much darker and have more of an adult theme. Through Burkhardt's eyes we see normal people turn into monsters and no one is safe anymore!
Imagine Snow White and Prince Charming coming to life and warning about powerful curses as they deliver their ominous threats. When Snow White finds she is pregnant and the curse looming threatening her baby, she hides until the baby is born, then hides the baby away. The baby, Emma, is secreted away in a wardrobe which is actually the trunk of a magical tree. We next see Emma 28 years later as she returns to assist her parents and do battle with the evil Queen who places curses on her subjects. Emma Sway is a bounty hunter as well as a bail bondsman in Boston as she celebrates her 28th birthday alone, blowing out the single candle on a cupcake she made herself. A boy named Henry approaches and tells Emma he is her son whom she gave away at birth ten years ago. Emma agrees to take the boy to his home in Storybrooke, Maine but can't believe his stories of fairy tale characters coming to life there or that they have been exiled there due to the Queen's curses. Henry has a therapist, Jiminy Cricket and a teacher who is actually Snow White and the Mayor of Storybrooke is the real Evil Queen who has placed curses on almost everyone she comes into contact with. Henry and Emma work together to end the Queen's reign of terror in the world of fairy tale fantasy.
