Today in show business news: HBO has a big ratings hit, Oprah re-ups with LaToya Jackson, and there's a new man in charge of American Idol. Also: Hobbit.
If you're looking forward to spending the summer of 2013 re-living major recent events of 2012, here's the new trailer that aired before last night's Game of Thrones finale, with a glimpse of the news on The Newsroom in season two.
The countdown to the show news nerds love to rage-watch ramped up last night with HBO's teaser for The Newsroom that is as fitting as it is fascinating, because nothing says self-righteousness like desert-conquering.
Today in show business news: Here's our first look at the old Oscar winners in Vegas comedy Last Vegas, HBO is heading to Silicon Valley, and The CW is trying to figure out Wonder Woman.
According to new data, everything that you do on every website besides Netflix and YouTube combined generates about the same amount of peak web traffic as those two sites alone. Netflix itself is bigger in every metric than HBO.
It's been seven long years since we last entered the world of Christopher Guest, the brilliant satirist/mockumentarian behind the comedy masterpieces Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. While his new HBO show Family Tree mostly registers at a low-key murmur, it's nonetheless a warm and funny little oddity worth spending some time with.
One scene last night represented maybe the biggest change from page to screen that we've had so far, in this third season full of misdirection from the most exciting stretch of the books to the unpredictable adaptation by HBO. Or at least the oddest.
As he continues to dominate the box office and TV, on Thursday came news that Dwayne Johnson will star in and co-produce a new pilot for HBO. The other producers are Entourage veterans, and you can groan all you want, but the sweet smell of Entourage cheese is exactly what The Rock is good at cooking.
Just when we were getting excited about a standalone streaming service from HBO — like HBO Go, except without paying for a cable subscription — HBO now says it was just kidding and won't cut that cord... ever.
Great Game of Thrones last night, huh? Yeah, it sure was good. But I'm afraid I have to put my annoying "guy who read the books" hat on and tell you one maybe possibly deflating thing about last night's excellent episode.
The most richly satisfying comedy on television, Veep is an assured, but manic, delight. And it benefits hugely from the second season settle, when a show has worked out the kinks and can truly hit the ground running come premiere time.
As we mourn the passing of Roger Ebert, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that another film and journalism icon who recently died, Nora Ephron, will be the subject of an HBO documentary.
Now we've got some actual footage of the whole glittery HBO extravaganza, Behind the Candelabra, in the form of a teaser trailer. Let's break down this important, even more glittery update.
Prepare yourselves! HBO's blood 'n' boobs 'n' Baratheons fantasy series returns on Sunday night, meaning the long wait of the superfans is nearly over. And based on what we've already seen, that wait was worth it — and the third season is a thrill.
If you're showing up late to Game of Thrones, you have only a little time to prepare for the third season premiere this Sunday. To aid you in your epic journey, we've put together a little primer to help you understand what you're watching in the first two seasons without having to read the damn books.
Because Harvard is paying for a service called Tivli, the Ivy Leaguers can burn through HBO's Girls, Game of Thrones, and a bunch of other cable TV content for free. Unfortunately, the ultimate student streaming model doesn't sound like it's built for the rest of us.
David Mamet's new HBO film Phil Spector begins with a disclaimer stressing that what we are about to watch is a work of fiction. What follows the disclaimer is a weightless film, both a dodge and a halfhearted apologia.
In what would be the most exciting single development for cord-cutters and their quality television since Hulu launched six years ago, the head of HBO hinted Thursday at the development of viable, legitimate standalone streaming service for people who don't pay for cable TV — any cable TV, not just premium. It might even be pretty cheap.
We should not be angry that Mike White and Laura Dern's brilliant show just got cancelled. Sad, sure. Disappointed, of course. But the most productive way to work through those feelings is not to beat our chests and scream at HBO. It's to evangelize about the Enlightened that exists.
Goodnight, bittersweet season two of HBO's Girls. You gave us a lot to think about. And now, hope springs new again, because season three could really bring anything.
Last night brought us the season two finale of Girls, an episode with the unusually rom-com-esque title, "Together." It's been an interesting ride this season, full of discomfort and displeasure, cringing and awkwardness for characters and viewers alike, and this 30-minute season ender was no exception.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Sunday's episode of Girls was about pain. Physical, mental, and emotional pain, and all three, together. And most of all, the pain of watching people in pain.
Though we've still months to go before it premieres, it's not too soon to start dreading season two of Aaron Sorkin's yesterday's-news-today drama The Newsroom.
"It's Back" is the title of last night's episode of Girls. It refers most obviously to the reappearance of Hannah's OCD. But it's a phrase that applies to nearly every major character on the show in some way or another.
HBO's Enlightened, a metaphysical, half-hour tragicomedy that is in danger of disappearing once its second season, concludes on Sunday night and is, in many ways, the finest and loveliest thing to appear on television in many years. Yes, it's that good.
So, there's this show about people who wear old clothes and fight with swords and stuff, and people say it's pretty popular but there's no evidence to back that up. No one wants to watch a trailer for some show called Game of Thrones first thing Saturday morning, right?
Last night's episode of Girls was titled "Boys." True to its name, it gave us the opportunity to spend more time with Adam, Ray, and Booth Jonathan than we have in any other episode this season, and certainly more time than anyone should ever need to spend with Booth Jonathan.
While everyone was worried about "female breast nipples" and other sexual horrors at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, over on HBO Lena Dunham, star and creator of the acclaimed series Girls, was busy baring it all with impunity. And the Internet went crazy!
Who hasn't wanted to say forget it to the toils and troubles of daily life and instead move into a castle, or brownstone, with a handsome older person who can take care of us and maybe even save our lives?
Though he just signed a two-year development deal with HBO, the Game of Thrones author's fans are already salivating over what could be a plan to adapt his novella series The Tales of Dunk and Egg.
After the complicated emotions last week's Girls inspired, episode four, "It's a Shame About Ray" — hark, a Lemonheads reference! — went a long way toward redeeming and refocusing the show.
With Netflix's foray into original, high quality programming today, the streaming TV network wants to turn into the HBO of Internet TV, but can Netflix afford it?
So, Apple's big plan to talk cable companies into making the iPod of the television industry thus far involves getting Time Warner to let it put HBO Go on its box (if you buy a cable subscription!), something other similar boxes already do. How very unexciting.
After six months — or years, depending on how you count it — of rumors and speculation, Warner Brothers gave the green light to a movie based on HBO's Entourage series on Tuesday night.
If art's great power is making the person who interacts with that art feel something, you could argue that HBO's Girls is highly successful television. But if a TV show consistently makes a watcher feel bad, can it be good?
Today in show business news: The ratings are in for the big Oprah/Armstrong interview, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg head back to war, and a look at the pilots currently in development for next season.
On a night in which the HBO show won two Golden Globes — Best Television Series and Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series for Lena Dunham — Girls was back with a season premiere. What happened?
In the second season, Lena Dunham's show is blessedly less concerned with defining an era or a generation and more relaxed in its own particular conventions. And that's a good thing.
More networks will reveal new details throughout the week at the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour, but here's what we've learned so far, from Steve Carrell's return to Donald Trump's real reality-show future.
Today in show business news: Lifetime makes some bad changes to its once big show, Game of Thrones gets supersized, and Natasha Lyonne is back.
Today in show business news: A Hunger Games-style new reality show is in the works, HBO gets back in the Game Change game, and the award for worst nudity has actually gone to someone.
A big, juicy new deal with Disney means that Netflix will be the first and only place to show its new releases — a privilege generally reserved for places like HBO, Starz, and Showtime.
Today in showbiz news: MTV sends us to West Virginia with its new show Buckwild, a Stephen King series is headed to CBS, and more Sundance films have been announced.
Esquire's Q&A with Lena Dunham in its December issue is getting plenty of attention. It's not because the Girls creator/writer/director said anything particularly illuminating or scandalous. It's because we found out that Dunham rides around Manhattan in a chauffeured Mercedes.
Today in showbiz news: HBO might already have a third season of Girls planned, E! renews an important series, and Louis C.K. is doing another comedy special.
Today in showbiz news: The CW gets ready to send its one-time flagship show off on an ice floe, Jamie Foxx might soon be a super villain, and HBO gets back into the Stephen Merchant business.
Today in show business news: Your favorite network is finally going On Demand, Johnny Depp boards a mysterious new project, and Oprah Winfrey has things cooking with both HBO and Justin Bieber.
Today in show business news: NBC is doing remarkably well right now, Comedy Central renews a very bad show, and James Gandolfini is heading back to HBO.
The Voice has two new voices, Robocop gets a makeover, Smash adds a Hairspray alum, and the first-look at the second season of Girls.
HBO, the content provider that has said many times that it has no interest in offering HBO Go as a standalone service, will now offer its content through a standalone streaming service. Don't get too excited: This isn't happening here in the good ole U.S.A but rather in Norway, Finland and Denmark.
Bellyaching about The Newsroom and True Blood are hallowed traditions. And yet we keep watching, episode after episode. Why? Well, because of season finale episodes like the one that aired last night. Just when we think we're done with the show, they go and reel us back in at the last minute. The jerks.
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