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Doux News: June 24, 2012



This week: The Critic's Choice Awards--This Is How The Killing Ended--This Week In Casts--Hunger is Coming--Fringe Spoilers?--Bravery vs. Slavery



The Critic’s Choice Awards

Our shows did well at the Critic’s Choice Awards, one of the bazillion and two awards shows that lead up to the fall Emmys. Breaking Bad garnered two wins: Best Supporting Actor for Giancarlo Esposito, and Best Lead Actor for Bryan Cranston. Christina Hendricks of Mad Men repeated her Supporting Actress award from last year. Community netted the Best Comedy honors. Sherlock’s second season won in the best TV Movie/Miniseries category.

Homeland won Best Drama. I marathoned my way through Homeland a few months ago, and I was both fascinated and repelled. I nearly wrote a review of the season until I talked myself off that dangerous ledge. Homeland is an undeniably brilliant show with troubling, thought-provoking politics that reduce global conflict to a familial scale and substitute personal tragedy for theories of statehood and international relations. It also has some of the most fascinating, complicated characters of any show I’ve seen lately. I strongly recommend catching up on the short first season in time for the upcoming second season.


This Is How The Killing Ended

[Warning: spoiler alert. In this section, I tell you who killed Rosie Larsen. Warning. Warning.]

According to the internet (because I didn’t want to bother watching the Season Two finale), annoying political aide Jamie punched Rosie at the casino for overhearing his scheming machinations with some guy named Michael. They put her in the trunk of the car, Terry the Aunt stepped in somehow and drove the car into the water.

[This spoiler alert has been brought to you by a person who doesn’t particularly care. And her cats.]


This Week In Casts

Emilie de Ravin has been bumped up to series regular on Once Upon a Time, and fan favorite Mark Pelligrino will have a one-episode stint on Grimm. And Jessica Lange will reprise her role in American Horror Story’s rebooted second season, this time as a hospital administrator and nun. A nun! And more Claire! I don't watch Grimm, but I'll bet that's exciting news for Grimmies, or whatever they're called.


Hunger is Coming

George R.R. Martin has endorsed the recently-released A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook, which is organized by region and features recipes for lemon cakes, quail drowned in honey (poor quail), and stuffed grape leaves. It is not to be confused with The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cookbook: From Direwolf Ale to Auroch Stew, which includes a recipe for the Tears of Lys. Do they make the ale out of direwolves?


Fringe Spoilers?

John Noble doesn’t always get his Fringe spoilers right: he was the one who told us they had filmed an alternate ending to Season Four, in case the show was canceled. (The truth is that an alternate ending was scripted but never filmed.) Now he’s making predictions again, this time that most of the fifth and final season will take place in 2036, the same year as 4.19 “Letters of Transit.”

I’m not sure this counts as a real spoiler, since it simply might not be true, or might not be entirely true, or might be crazy misinformation on par with the wall of silence surrounding Leonard Nimoy’s fourth-season finale return. But it’s a tantalizing tease, and now that Henry Ian Cusick is available (he and Scandal parted ways “amicably”), I’ve got high hopes for a great Fringe swan song.


Bravery vs. Slavery

Pixar's Brave is estimated to take in around $66 million dollars on this, its opening weekend, but Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has raked in a paltry estimated $16.7 million. I'd rather go see Brave, too. Pixar movies always make me cry (in a good way), and the main character has the type of hair I have always wanted.







23 comments:

  1. The fourth season of Breaking Bad (which I'm starting on in a day or two, after I finish my review of the third season finale) well deserved those awards. Giancarlo Esposito was phenomenal.

    Is it wrong of me to be more intrigued by Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter than Brave?

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  3. Sorry for the above. Technical difficulties, such as I can't type properly tonight.

    Homeland was an amazing piece of television. It was one of those rare shows that everyone I knew was watching and talking about. I loved it.

    I really wanted to go seeAbraham Lincoln, but it was so universally slated by the critics that I decided to wait until it comes out on DVD. If anyone did go see it, I'd love to hear what they thought.

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  4. Ask and ye shall receive, Chris. J.D. posted his review 30 seconds after your post!

    I wonder if that would work for other things:

    If anyone has a million dollars, I'd love to help you spend it.

    [And now I'll just sit at home, waiting for a knock on the door.]

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  5. So now I know who killed Rosie Larsen. And yet, somehow, I just can't seem to care.

    Thank you, Josie, for sparing me and everyone else the pain of actually having to watch the finale to find out.

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  6. Friday morning I went to the movies and didn't leave until after 5pm. I saw Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and Brave.

    I wrote a review of Abraham Lincoln, so I won't elaborate my thoughts on that one here. Except to say that I didn't agree with most of the reviews out there. I don't think that just because the premise of something his a touch of silliness to it, that the project has to be silly. I loved that they treated the idea with respect and seriousness.

    Seeking a friend for the End of the World was, in my opinion, brilliant. Sure it was a little uneven, but maybe I've seen too many episodes of Supernatral. The idea that something can be comical and serious shouldn't automatically make it bad. Yet that seems to be the consensus out there in review land. I didn't feel that there were abrupt tonal changes, I felt the narrative followed the progress of the characters. It will probably be added to my collection along with Abraham Lincoln.

    Finally there was Brave. It was a really good, heartwarming, and all together lovely Pixar movie. Was it as good as Wall-E (my absolute favorite Pixar movie), no. But I thought it was unexpected and well written. It also deviated a bit from the standard Disney villain theme that's been done to death. Overall I thought it was worth the price of admission.

    So there are my extended thoughts on a really lovely day at the movies.

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  7. Ditto on Gus winning the award. Aaron Paul is always excellent, but this was Giancarlo's year of glory. I've been bugged by people to watch Homeland, but I haven't yet. I guess I'll have to try it out now that you (Billie) endorsed it.

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  8. Roman, actually, it was Josie who endorsed it. I haven't seen Homeland yet. But I probably will, now that Josie has endorsed it. :)

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  9. It's a qualified endorsement. Honestly, Billie, I'm not sure you'll like it.

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  10. Josie knows me pretty well. So I probably won't.

    You never can tell, though. I've recently started to watch The Mentalist, which is a procedural. I almost never like procedurals, but for some reason, it's clicking with me. We're nearing the end of season three (best season so far) and I'm still liking it. Mostly because I like Jane so much. Anyone else like The Mentalist?

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  11. a) They better put a warning on those GOT cookbooks : cooking with wild fire is NOT a good idea. Burned myself twice just the last week. Going back to the microwave, much safer.

    b) Fringe ? Better wait and see. Last season brought to places never thought possible. So, who REALLY knows how the last 13 eps go ??? (yes, the writers do, but that's another story)

    c) I've just seen Wes Anderson's Moonlight Kingdom, and I'm on cloud 9. Beautiful all the way. Love his movies, big time.

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  12. You girls take turns on the news. Oh well thanks Josie, I guess I should have read who did the news. No worries though, keep em coming. :)

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  13. Matthew L., I'm so sorry, but your comment included a big spoiler for a movie so I had to take it down. If you want to repost without the spoiler and you don't have the text, just email me and I'll send it to you. Again, many apologies. billiedoux at gmail dot com

    Roman, yes, we do alternate. I did them all for the first couple of months, but Josie Kafka and Jess Lynde have been doing Doux News duties, too.

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  14. Yay for Henry Ian Cusick!!

    I endorse Homeland, too. The scene in the bunker is one of the tensest moments ever made for tv. Or for any media, for that matter. The first episodes are a little hard to get through, but it's totally worth it. Season 2 starts just before Dexter, so it's a double whammy of showtimey goodness.

    The bummer is that all those movies you mentioned will take very long to come to Brazil. sigh.

    I love Doux News, whoever writes it. I love both Josie's and Billie's styles, so it always works for me.

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  15. I think everyone and their cats should have a party. Except Mark and Paul because they constantly say mean things about my cat and Joffrey. They can watch from the window.

    I was really hoping that they'd bump Sebastian Stan up to regular for Once Upon A Time, but he's now on Political Animals? That boy seems to pop up on all my shows. I'm waiting for him to appear on White Collar.

    Everything should be endorsed by Josie and her cats. My cat and I would endorse their endorsements.

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  16. Chris: I saw Abraham Lincoln on Friday, posted my thoughts in JD's review.


    JD: is it strange that I also saw three movies with my friends this
    Saturday? We saw, wait for it, Brave, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, but instead of Abraham we saw Snow White. Coincidence or something more? :)

    Already wrote what I thought of Snow White in Panda's review.

    End of the World was somewhat uneven but I liked Carell and Knightley.

    I really liked Brave, the storyline didn't progress as I predicted which was a good thing. Made me cry near the end I'll admit. :) The three young buys as supporting characters almost steal the show, they are hilarious. Still haven't met a Pixar Film I didn't like. They also had a preview for the Monsters Inc. prequel, Monsters University, and
    what Sully does to Mike...bwa-hah-hah :D


    Billie: I too watch the Mentalist and the aspect I like most about it
    is Patrick Jane. It's not my favorite procedural, but it's among my favorites. My current favorite procedural is POI.

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  17. My cats do have really good taste. One of them is licking a plastic grocery bag right now.

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  18. The Mentalist is the one with the guy with the hair, right?

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  19. Yep. Rumpled, curly blond locks. He's an appealing actor. I'm pretty sure I'd still like him if he shaved his head.

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  20. My cat eats Vegemite and licks my laptop corners.

    I don't watch The Mentalist, but Simon Baker is a Tasmanian boy so I have hometown pride for him. Also Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. Her sister is my chemist.

    I'm looking forward to Magic Mike coming to screens soon. Matt Bomer, Joe Mango from True Blood ... Not so much plot-driven but more YAY! GRABBY HANDS.

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  21. Thanks, Josie, for another great Doux News. Look forward to it every week.

    Billie, if you do want to give Homeland a shot, I think you'll know whether or not you like it from one episode - the tone is pretty much the same all the way through. I loved it - Damian Lewis is an incredible actor and (as far as I can tell) very convincing as an American. Love Claire Danes too. (Incidentally, how many US shows does that make with UK or Oz leads? SGU, House, The Mentalist, Homeland, Longmire.... Good times for accent coaches!)

    Gavrielle

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  22. I have no inside information, but I would guess season five of Fringe is going to be similar to season four of LOST: a storyline in the present and "flashforwards" to a storyline in 2036. The two storylines will probably both wrap up in the series finale, with most of the characters getting ambered in the present (as we already know they will) and a final resolution of the story in 2036.

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  23. I actually saw Brave this weekend with my daughters. The result was they carried their bows around all weekend and keep leaving them on the dinner table to annoy their mother. Excellent movie.

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