Leading up to The Walking Dead's season finale, the thematic and story point similarities between AMC's freshman series and ABC's dearly departed Lost had been amassing not much unlike bludgeoned "geeks." Movieline even noted a few of them earlier during this short first cycle. But it was the Walking Dead season-ender that pushed us to detail just how much "blood" the two series share. Warning -- finale spoilers ahead!
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You may have been left weeping on the sidewalk after a Bravo bouncer kept you from James Lipton's intimate Inside the Actors Studio conversation with James Franco -- this year's Oscar co-host and presumed Best Actor nominee -- but after reading an eye witness's careful notes of the interview, it appears that your tears were for naught. Or rather, your tears were for James Franco's bizarre memories of bottling his own urine and watching coked up prostitutes "do business" in seedy apartments. Ahead, details about those incriminating revelations and more.
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Let it be known that Boardwalk Empire saved its best for last. After a first season of downs and slowly rising ups, "A Return to Normalcy" was anything but -- a 60-minute high wire act that produced the best Empire moments of the season. If the finale is any indication of what we can expect from the HBO series during year two, expect many, many people to place Boardwalk Empire at the top of their Best Of lists in December 2011.
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Robert De Niro returned for his third Saturday Night Live hosting gig last night, and the usually befuddled host was, this time, surprisingly... OK. Look, the guy is never going to be considered one of the great hosts -- a screen legend always seeming to be a little bit out of his element. For starters, De Niro, more than almost any other recurring host, doesn't really hide the fact that he reads off of cue cards (of course, because of so many last-minute changes, everyone on SNL reads off of cue cards, but some work harder than than others at hiding this). But, dammit, there's something endearing about the fact that he keeps trying. It would be going a little far to say that the third time was a charm -- but his third time was, let's say, serviceable (with some help from Ben Stiller). On to the scorecard!
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Movieline's intrepid Stereotypes Dept. has returned after an extended Thanksgiving vacation to pinpoint some of the more clichéd character generalizations made on television this week to both great and grisly effect. One was a penny-pinching landlord, one a high school delinquent and the third, a melodramatic soap star. Can you guess to which shows they belonged?
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I've been dreading (and sort of anticipating) this moment for fortnights, but here we are: The first promos for American Idol's 10th season with Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez are out. How sincere is Steven's glance? How earnest are Jennifer's head nods? How frightening is Randy's new facial hair? Join us for the scares.
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This week in sickening news: People name their kids after Glee characters and Betty Draper. A tally of baby names in 2010 shows that "Quinn," "Finn," and "Betty" are exponentially more popular spawn labels than they were in 2009. That is too bad. Naming your child is a profound task, and if you plan on using a TV character as source material, the least you can do is not consider the folks who mangled Sally Draper's childhood or Rocky Horror. Here are 10 characters -- with fancy, zeitgeist-tickling names -- who deserve your consideration.
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There is plenty to look forward to next Thursday on Fox's Bones.
For one, the Brennan-centric hour features a bravura, waterworks-inducing performance by Emily Deschanel, whose socially detached alter ego finds her world rocked by a case involving a woman whose physical, professional and psychological makeup matches her own - and whose tragic disappearance sadly went unnoticed.
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When Joel McHale visited Conan Wednesday night, he joked that Oprah Winfrey had the power to raise the dead. And after watching the Oprah Winfrey Network's first promo -- in which the she-deity herself announces her new cable channel from the clouds while looking down on lowly mortals -- Movieline is almost convinced that she can perform the same miracles as God himself.
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Last night's Grey's Anatomy episode, "Adrift and At Peace," featured the most dramatic line reading of the phrase, "There are no bathrooms out there, you know," ever featured onscreen. And while yes, there were a few other hokey moments that caused Grey's viewers chest pain and loss of feeling in their extremities, there were also brilliant moments -- like when Cristina made an emotional breakthrough whiling holding a 28-pound trout -- in last night's episode that made viewers re-pledge their loyalty to Seattle Grace. So grab that pain reliever of choice as we wade through this week's pain readings.
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30 Rock: What happened, girl? I was happy to dispense with my usual pre-programmed bits of Peter Travers-ian praise ("Just plain funny!", "Wickedly touching!", "Jane Krakowski is the billowing smokestack atop this factory for chortles!"), but that's all over. For some reason, half of the characters in last night's episode reverted to storylines we'd forgotten, one-joke bits that expired last season, or plot devices that we already saw this season. Very strange. Let's treat each of 30 Rock's five lead characters like kindergarteners and teach them lessons about quality that will render them bedwetters for decades.
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For the last few weeks, I've been one of those reviewers bemoaning the fact that Community doesn't have any stakes, relatable heroes or weight behind its story arcs. Much of season two has been very funny -- not as funny as season one, admittedly, but still very funny -- but not much has occurred that is likely to be remembered. Watching season two of Community has been like eating Cap'n Crunch for breakfast: Delightful, a little bit naughty and wholly unsatisfying in the long run. Which is why "Mixology Certification" was actually a welcome departure from the track of the season. It wasn't funny, but it was certainly meaty.
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We may have bid farewell to the alternating red and blue title sequences with last night's Fringe. Olivia's brief romp to her universe finally blew Bolivia's cover, the number of likable characters "over there" took a major hit, and only a few minor quibbles totally arrested disbelief. Read on for "Entrada's" mad science report!
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Last night, new Oscar co-host James Franco stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to explain how that fantasy gig came to be. And spoiler alert: It began with a simple dream of parodying his Twilight idol Robert Pattinson. Meanwhile, the Kardashians horrified Conan O'Brien with a story about mayonnaise and vaginas, Jon Stewart attacked Sarah Palin's Twitter personality, Stephen Colbert defended Christmas and Craig Ferguson continued the war on his French copycat.
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Keith Powell may play the stuffy, Harvard-educated writer James "Toofer" Spurlock on 30 Rock, but he's (wait for it!) downright approachable in real life. The Tisch graduate grew up a theater/film/TV nerd in Philadelphia and hasn't lost his ebullience for the hard work of doing funny right. We caught up with Powell to discuss Tina Fey, long shoots on 30 Rock, and what we can expect from the TGS with Tracy Jordan writers room in the weeks to come.
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