A Real-Life Fruit Ninja and 138 Falling Skydivers
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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.
Every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the video clips that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention
Oh boy, the reports from The Newsroom's TCA presser was this evening and Aaron Sorkin spent the whole time defending himself and being combative with reporters, while Jeff Daniels fell asleep (maybe) waiting to charm the room when he was finally called to speak.
During yesterday's quarterly earnings report, Netflix mentioned a possible end to its relationship with Epix -- one of its movie providers -- as if it were no big deal to lose a contract that provides many popular new release movies.
As evidenced by last night's harried, scattered mess of an episode, The Newsroom is not a terribly good show. This has been noted many times since the show began. But have no fear! The marketing team has swooped in and taken care of its pesky bad review problem by turning lemons into misleading lemonade.
You would think after getting picked up for a second season after the first two episodes, Aaron Sorkin and the rest of The Newsroom's writing staff would be on cloud nine. And yet, another two episodes later and almost all of the writing staff are getting their pink slips.
The incestuous cable television news for the day is that HBO is developing a project about Fox News chief Roger Ailes based on an as-of-yet unwritten book by New York's Gabriel Sherman, and it's to be produced by none other than MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.
Today: HBO re-ups with Aaron Sorkin, Naomi Watts is spotted in Princess Di costume, and A&E prequel a classic.
Today: HBO's newest drama had a decent debut, Maura Tierney gets a juicy new role, and Miley's dad heads to Broadway.
Some sort of slickster-sounding company called Buyology that does "neuro-insight" recently surveyed 4,000 Americans asking them how they feel about various products. Part of what they learned is that HBO and Showtime are "the most politically polarizing brands in entertainment." Democrats are totally into them but Republicans really are not.
The Atlantic Wire's Jen Doll talks about the season finale of Girls with The A.V. Club's Todd VanDerWerff for The Guardian.
Girls may be the one show that we, as a collective TV-watching presence, have had the most to say about this season. It's left a mark.
Critics say a pay TV business that regularly charges its customers $100 a month is doomed. So how about a cable bill that costs less than $40?
HBO Go will now be available on yet another tablet, the Kindle Fire, and it is just one more incremental move for HBO as it re-establishes itself as television’s most relevant programming brand.
Lots of people would like to pay HBO for online-only access to its programs, but at the moment the network apparently doesn't think that potential customer base is worth the trouble.
Much to all our dismay, the second season of HBO's enormous fantasy series Game of Thrones came to a close last night, ending what was a satisfying, if transitional, season. Or at least it felt that way to us.
Oral histories, in which TV creators and stars wax on about our favorite shows in the pages of magazines, are like crack for fans, and Marc Spitz's oral history of The Wire in Maxim is no exception.
Because of some trick of fate or due simply to poor timing, both HBO's Game of Thrones and AMC's Mad Men aired big, game-changing episodes right smack dab in the middle of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Awfully sneaky, guys!
Mysterious Hollywood genius Charlie Kaufman has announced his next project, and it is exciting! Deadline reports today that Kaufman is teaming up with his frequent collaborator Catherine Keener, another mysterious Hollywood genius, to make a show for HBO.
HBO's Girls is not exactly the show we thought it was a month ago. It's still about a general narcissistic, mostly clueless, selfish ambition that many young people possess but are too lazy to realize, but it's also just, I dunno, about a few characters in a nice, quiet, mostly humane way.
Amid the heaping vat of Girls-related blog outrage stew, show creator/star/writer Lena Dunham has remained relatively mum regarding her show's much criticized/discussed treatment of race.
As HBO's wonderfully intricate Game of Thrones gets further and further into the dense and expansive world that George R.R. Martin has created, it's inevitably going to become harder to follow.
Today: Marvel has another hit on its hands, Lifetime gets a new look, and HBO lost big.
Today: Some new series drama on premium cable, NBC goes gay again, and Angus T. Jones is very rich.
HBO invites two shows back for next year, Teri Hatcher is slumming it, and E! gets an awkward new makeover.
It's weird that the emerging consensus on HBO's Veep is that it's unenjoyable because it's not realistic, and it's not realistic because it's too cynical, given that the meme for the last two or 20 years has been that Washington is broken.
Lena Dunham's new HBO series Girls has inspired conversations, backlash, hate, and love, but mostly it's inspired a ton of writing.
One way that Game of Thrones fans have wooed skeptics to their cause has been to insist that, though the show is fantasy, it's not, like, all wizards and spells and crazy creatures and all that.
With her new HBO series, can Julia Louis-Dreyfus become a vice president who's not The Lunatic, The Sell Out, The Reluctant President, The Unwise Wise Counsel, or The Martyr?
Today: a wildly talked-out about show wasn't watched that much, James Cameron is huge in China, and the Tribeca Film Festival picks some strange judges.
Lena Dunham's Girls debuted last night to much hype and a not inconsequential aftermath: We're still talking about it, aren't we? Two "girls" of The Atlantic Wire of varying ages watched, and we had feelings.
The mistakes in Girls are only notable because the show gets so much about the city right, at least the version of the city known to a very particular subset of young New Yorkers.
I must first admit to some bias. I approached Girls, HBO's new series about the aimless youngs of Brooklyn, with more than a little snide skepticism.
Today: HBO has a real hit on its hands, Zooey Deschanel will be back in the fall, and the Eastwood reality show drops.
Game of Thrones is the ultimate example of what premium cable can do — it's as lavish and ornate as it is brutal and shocking. Your schedule may be crowded, but this is must-see TV of the highest order.
Today in books and publishing: Zadie Smith's run of good news continues, HBO gobbles up another book for a potential series, Jewel writes and sings, and Stephen King's Dark Tower series continues.
Also in books: Former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa lands a book deal.
In a sudden and surprising decision, HBO has decided to permanently end production on the horse-racing drama Luck after a third horse had to be euthanized as a result of an on-set accident.
A third horse has died in connection with Luck, Barack Obama and David Cameron chowed down in Dayton, and Jason Sudeikis will now romance Olivia Wilde on-screen as well.
Let's get to the important stuff first: Julianne Moore winningly captures the physicality of the Thrilla from Wasilla in in the new HBO film Game Change. It's a shame, then, that the rest of the movie is so much flatter.
The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types can care about. Today: Broadway claims another beloved movie, HBO passes on a dude show, and Jeff Goldblum heads to TV.
Also: Alan Ball is stepping down as True Blood showrunner, the Stanley Cup is coming to Capitol Hill, and Sean Young's history of awards season mayhem.
Also: A John Galliano sighting in London, Karl Lagerfeld touches the Adele third-rail, M.I.A.'s marriage may be on the rocks, and Demi Moore's meeting with intuitive healers and mediums in rehab.
Like it or not February is Black History Month. And everyone is getting involved! HBO, for example, has put together a little collection of appropriate Black History Month films that really fully capture the black experience... like The Book of Eli??
The New York Knicks reportedly will fire coach Mike D'Antoni right before the Super Bowl and hope nobody notices, a unique baseball bauble is missing, and baseball's new-fangled playoff format is going to have to wait a year.
Every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the video clips that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention.
Keep David Milch off Michael Mann's set, Michael Mann out of David Milch's scripts, and HBO off Dustin Hoffman's back.
Bethenny Frankel isn't out of the game just yet, Ben Stiller heads back to television, and hip role for Daniel Radcliffe.
30 Rock debuts low, HBO announces important dates, and Jessica Chastain does one for the kids.
Every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the video clips that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today: The Simpsons take a swipe at Fox News, the easy charm of print books after hours, and the first teaser for Eastbound & Down will restore your faith in the HBO comedy.
In another assault on Netflix's library, Warner Bros. has announced that it will double the viewing window for new releases, meaning viewers will now have to wait 56 days for A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas and other Warner releases to show up at Netflix.
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Submit your news and ideas | See all reader postsThe Atlantic Wire is your authoritative guide to the news and ideas that matter most right now. Our team tracks newsmakers and opinions across the entire media spectrum: newspapers, web sites, television, radio and magazines.
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