Image Credit: Zade Rosenthal
TV finale season is in full swing this week, with endings served up on Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Vampire Diaries, among others. But the most important entertainment event is arguably the box office bow of a new Star Trek movie — especially when the newest one is called Star Trek Into Darkness and comes studio-sealed in secrecy and trench coats in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch’s deep-voiced baddie.
That and oh-so-much more for the week ahead, below.
Image Credit: Fox
In honor of March Madness, EW is launching a tournament to determine the Greatest TV Couple of All Time. But before we can finalize the brackets, we are turning to you, our hopeless TV romantic readers, to decide which couples — all part of a love triangle on their respective shows — make it out of a qualifying round to fill the final slots. Today, we’re debating Dylan/Brenda and Dylan/Kelly on Beverly Hills, 90210
It’s an age-old battle: blonde vs brunette, L.A. wild child vs. Minnesota native on Beverly Hills, 90210. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Greg Gayne/Fox
What do you know about the 2013 Ford Fusion? If you watched last night’s New Girl, the answer is “all too much” — thanks to a two-minute sequence in which clumsy Jess struggled to model at a car show. As she stumbled about in her giant heels, a brand ambassador droned on and on about the new model’s many features. If the physical comedy hadn’t been so labored, the bit might have worked. But it didn’t.
In an age of ad-skipping DVRs and pirated online streaming, viewers have learned to accept a certain degree of commercialization on their favorite shows — especially the ones that are ratings-challenged. At the end of the day, an episode of Fringe sprinkled with plugs for Sprint’s Google Wallet is better than no Fringe at all. And a few fourth wall-busting series have managed to win us over by turning product integration into a joke — think Arrested Development‘s “It’s a wonderful restaurant!” or 30 Rock‘s “Can we have our money now?”
But even if it did make sense for Jess to step in for her sick model friend Cece at a car show, it didn’t make sense to insert her into a two-minute car commercial. Of course, New Girl‘s attempted Ford/comedy fusion isn’t the first egregious example of commercial-addled TV — remember these five product placement pioneers?
Best Wedding Dress wasn’t a category in our annual Season Finale Awards, but it could have been. There were at least eight ceremonies planned for May (some of them, of course, failed to go off without a hitch). Which of the dresses below was your favorite? READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Michael Desmond/The CW
More than a few were surprised when 90210 was renewed for another season, but after watching tonight’s season finale, I got the idea that the producers were confident that they’d be returning. After all, if they didn’t think they’d come back for a fifth season, they never would have left off on a huge cliffhanger.
[Have you seen the episode? Then read on:] READ FULL STORY »
It’s all the rage to go without makeup these days — People had a whole spread in their recent ’50 Most Beautiful’ issue featuring stars like Zooey Dechanel and Julie Bowen sans foundation. And today, 90210‘s Annalynne McCord (@iamannalynnemcc) posted a photo of herself au naturale on Twitter, skin blemishes and all, writing, “I woke up this morning and decided I’m over Hollywood’s perfection requirement. To all my girls (and boys) who have ever been embarrassed by their skin! I salute you! I’m not perfect – and that’s okay with me!” See her photo (including a comparison to what she looks like with makeup on) below:
READ FULL STORY »
If you haven’t seen last night’s Glee, then you better put this post aside, lest you stumble upon a SPOILER ALERT! If you already watched the winter finale, “On My Way,” then click through to discuss some other shows that have used a similar plot device to raise the stakes. So what tension-inducing turnabout did the Gleeks endure last night? It was… READ FULL STORY »
It all comes down to a heartbroken hipster and an ex-vampire slayer. For me, Tuesdays have generally been non-essential TV nights (sorry Gleeks!), but that changes this year thanks to New Girl and Ringer, two shows that are as promising as they are different. Unfortunately, they fall into the same time slot, which means one must inevitably end up on my DVR. Find out which one below and then share what you plan to watch on Tuesday nights in the comments!
8 p.m. – 9 p.m.
LIVE: Glee (Fox): OK, so I haven’t been the best Glee fan, but with all the talk about how this season could be the last for some characters, a nightly tune-in may prove worthwhile, no? (Premieres Sept. 20)
DVR: Nothing: Don’t get me wrong, there are some perfectly good shows on during this time-slot (NCIS, Biggest Loser and 90210 to name a few…), but I haven’t been keeping up with any them. Maybe they made it on to your list though? READ FULL STORY »
MTV just aired the latest edition of When I Was 17, an opportunity to discover what some of our favorite pop stars were doing when they were just shy of being legal. This go around, Jordan Knight (right) of New Kids on the Block fame, 90210 actor Tristan Wilds, and Nikita actor Shane West all confessed their teen sins and embarrassments. Check out the highlights below. READ FULL STORY »
In an interview with AfterElton.com, Terra Nova exec. producer Brannon Braga — who cut his teeth writing and producing Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — lamented the fact that Star Trek has never once included an out gay character in a movie or TV series. “It was a shame for a lot of us,” Braga said. “It was not a forward-thinking decision.” Yes, there was the occasional episode where, say, Commander Riker falls in love with an alien from a genderless world, or Dr. Crusher falls in love with a male alien who (thanks the symbiotic organism living inside it, naturally) changes bodies to a female — who Crusher then spurns. But as far as an out-and-proud same-sex loving character, the otherwise socially progressive and diverse Star Trek universe is stuck in the closet.
Braga does contended that had the shows been airing today, the TNG and DS9 creative teams “wouldn’t have been squeamish” about introducing a gay Trek character. Perhaps. For one thing, I always kinda wondered if Data, in his exploration of what it means to be human, would ever get intimate with a male crew-mate the same way he did with Tasha Yar. (Slash fiction tells me I am not alone in this overshare.) I also got to thinking: What other TV series have a surprisingly specific lack of diversity? READ FULL STORY »
