Real TV Critics

Once  again the news business is in an embarrassing situation.  This time it’s a FOX News which now is in the business of not only trashing Barack Obama but feels the need to do what local stations here in Los Angeles do all the time.

Broadcast live coverage of cop car chases.  They’re calling it a FOX News Suicide.

This one did not end up well for FOX News.  Not at all.  And you can bet this may be the last time FOX News airs such content and will hopefully go back to trashing President Obama.

FOX News picked up the feed from an Arizona television station of police chase that want quite simply wrong on air.  The suspect took cops on a high speed chase and then turned off the main highway on to a dirt road.  He got out of the car and started running to try to get away when he stopped, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.

A FOX News Suicide airing live. 

The network claimed to be in what talk radio stations call 7 second delay having the ability to drop out of a live broadcast before such an incident.  That did not happen and the FOX News Suicide was broadcast live on FOX News.  Shepard Smith who as hosting the segment on FOX News provided a lighthearted play by play of the car chase until the actual suicide took place.

After the suicide he was not amused any longer.  “Get off…get off…get off it,!” Smith screamed to the producers who clearly did not get off it.  “That won’t happen again under my watch,” said Shepard Smith before moving on to the next story.

In somewhat of a bizarre story in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, Sons of Anarchy and The O.C. actor Johnny Lewis was found dead outside an upscale home after apparently killing the woman who owned the property. 

Police were called to a quiet neighborhood to a home that rented rooms to actors who needed short term lodging and Johnny Lewis was one of those residents.  Authorities report that Johnny Lewis, who played  Sons of Anarchy gang member Kip Epps, got in to a fight with other men outside the home and then one of the men believed to be Johnny Lewis jumped on the roof and fell or jumped off.

The 70 year old woman was found dead in her home of an apparent homicide as police investigate exactly what happened to lead to the incident. 

Former NBC News correspondent Dan Blackburn lived in the neighborhood and encountered Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis prior to his death.  Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis went on to Dan Blackburn’s property beating up the painter working on Blackburn’s property and then his wife and him.  Johnny Lewis tried to break in to Blackburn’s house after the three victims tried to get away.  Blackburn slammed the door on Sons of Anarchy actorJohnny Lewis’ arm in an prevent him from entering the home.

 

Gotta love this one.  Yet this could be the last week for the pretty bad NFL replacement referees that have made a joke of pro football but to be honest it’s kinda fun to watch the craziness of these rookies trying to be bit time.

The NFL ref lockout could be coming to an end real soon with the wishes of the players and coaches but the NBC affiliate in Green Bay just had to have fun on their behalf.  Check out this video of the replacement weatherman who pretty much screws up the forecast.  You gotta love the fact that people in Green Bay can have a laugh over getting ripped off this past Monday night when the Seattle Seahawks won a game over the Packers that the cheeseheads actually won. 

Gotta laugh, right?  Well those laughs may be over as the NFL and their owners are about to get a deal in place to bring back the regular crews.  But check out this video.  Pretty funny.

Sons of Anarchy just got a lot more interesting last night.  OK Sons of Anarchy has been very interesting every episode in this new arc of episodes that now include the great Jimmy Smits, his character now the current friends with benefits partner of Katey Sagal’s Gemma.

That’s just one part of the new craziness of Sons of Anarchy on FX.  Let’s just say the Sons of Anarchy is one of cable televsion’s most popular shows, highlighting a drug dealing, gun toting motorcycle gang that kind of runs the town where they are located but there’s a lot of competition including changes at the top of the club.  Now Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is running the Sons of Anarchy but he and a few others in the crew have been in prison for manslaughter.  And that’s where one of the more lovable character’s in Ryan Hurst’s Opie just got offed in prison in return for the release of the other imprisoned Sons of Anarchy gang members.

Totally unexpected.

But wait there’s a lot more.  Gemma’s on a roll.  She and a pimp boss (Jimmy Smits) have been bumping nasties as they say since the night she got drunk as a skunk ended up in his character’s whore-house.

Whaaaat!!!

 

Yeah Gemma’s been tearing up the small screen with Nero Padilla (Smits) in a big time way following her violent breakup with former head of the table Sons of Anarchy leader Clay Morrow (Ron Perelman).  She’s been a big troublemaker since the start of the new season of Sons of Anarchy and that role may have hit a bump in the road after Nero‘s whore-house got raided by the local PD at the end of last night’s episode.

Oh Sons of Anarchy is so much fun in it’s fifth season.  There’s so much going on in this new set of shows that you have to tune in and watch. 

 

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

ERIC STONESTREET as Cameron Tucker ABC

Modern Family

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

LOUIS C.K., Written By FX NETWORKS

Louie

Pregnant

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

JULIE BOWEN as Claire Dunphy ABC

Modern Family

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

STEVEN LEVITAN, Director ABC

Modern Family

Baby On Board

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

JON CRYER as Alan Harper CBS

Two And A Half Men

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS as Selina Meyer HBO

Veep

OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM

THE AMAZING RACE CBS

OUTSTANDING HOST FOR A REALITY OR

REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM

TOM BERGERON, Host ABC

Dancing With The Stars

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

AARON PAUL as Jesse Pinkman AMC

Breaking Bad

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIESALEX GANSA, Written By SHOWTIME

HOWARD GORDON, Written By

GIDEON RAFF, Written By

Homeland

Pilot

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

MAGGIE SMITH as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham PBS

Downton Abbey

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

TIM VAN PATTEN, Director HBO

Boardwalk Empire

To The Lost

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

DAMIAN LEWIS as Nicholas Brody SHOWTIME

Homeland

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

CLAIRE DANES as Carrie Mathison SHOWTIME

Homeland

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

LOUIS C.K., Written By FX NETWORKS

Louis C.K. Live At The Beacon Theatre

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

Glenn Weiss, Director CBS

OUTSTANDING VARIETY SERIES

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART COMEDY CENTRAL

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS

IN A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE

JESSICA LANGE as Constance Langdon FX NETWORKS

American Horror Story

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A

MINISERIES OR A MOVIE

TOM BERENGER as Jim Vance HISTORY

Hatfields & McCoys

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A MINISERIES,

MOVIE OR A DRAMATIC SPECIAL

DANNY STRONG, Written By HBO

Game Change

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE

JULIANNE MOORE as Sarah Palin HBO

Game Change

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES,

MOVIE OR A DRAMATIC SPECIAL

JAY ROACH, Director HBO

Game Change

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE

KEVIN COSTNER as ‘Devil’ Anse Hatfield HISTORY

Hatfields & McCoys

OUTSTANDING MINISERIES OR MOVIE

GAME CHANGE HBO

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

HOMELAND SHOWTIME

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

MODERN FAMILY ABC

I though this would be another stupid, dopey FOX drama that would last a few episodes but The Mob Doctor is really a lot of mob action, medical drama, sex and the single girl type content that was more surprisingly exciting than expected.

Promos always look silly and short ranged.  But The Mob Doctor was a whole hell of a lot better than expected.  Does FOX have a hit drama on its hands?

Jordana Spiro who we got a look at on NBC’s Harry’s Law is quite frankly perfect in her role as Dr. Grace Devlin who gets caught up in the world of being the medical rep for the mob.  The even more incredible William Forsythe is definitely in a perfect role as an old school mob guy but his selecting for the role could not have been any more right on time.

Big mistake though to kill off Michael Rapaport in the pilot of The Mob Doctor.  Who can’t forget his work in The Big Fan where his performance was fantastic and one of my favorite movies True Romance when I at least had the opportunity to see the range of his work.  He surely needs to find consistent roles as I’ve always like his acting and the loss of him surely drops my personal interests in The Mob Doctor.

 

But the pilot episode was really strong,  Unexpectedly strong for a FOX drama as I have not been impressed with the content provided by this network.

Looking forward to more episodes of The Mob Doctor.

Rick Thomas

Wow!  The Event sucked!  What was that show about the superhero on NBC that lasted a minute where the guy dressed up in a a super suit and save the day while working his day job with a bunch of dudes in the circus.

Yeah what a mess for NBC.

But now the network we all love to pick on and never watch is introducing  the Revolution TV show , the new sci-fi drama that has some sort of promise but still it’s a bit hard to figure out.  The power across the United States and I guess across the world goes away and there seems to be a battle to get it turned back on and the activity to achieve that is simply active and amazing.

It’s kinda fun watch the Revolution TV show on NBC.  It may have a great chance and a whole heck of a lot better than The Event which stunk up NBC or that other show which I still can’t remember what its title was because it was an abysmal failure.

So instead of me saying good things about the Revolution TV show that is hopefully as mentioned in previous posts will help NBC get back on track in prime time, let me give you a few stories the Revolution TV show on NBC so that you can get a better overview of the new sci-fi show.

This one could be a winner.  It’s a lot easier to understand the Revolution TV show on NBC.  I kinda think this network might be on it’s way back and this show could be a start.  Biggest mistake from NBC’s PR department is not making a big deal about Giancarlo Esposito who just finished a major run on AMC’s Breaking Bad.  Not a smart move to play off his role in that show as Breaking Bad has had an awesome set of shows on AMC.

But we give the Revolution TV show an A plus so far on NBC.

Rick Thomas

http://www.policymic.com/articles/14946/revolution-tv-show-review-nbc-premiere-is-bland-but-the-sci-fi-series-could-succeed

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/revolution-tv-show-premiere-ratings-24379/

I watch a lot of television.  A lot.  This is a TV blog and there’s no doubt that even the commercials I speed past on my DVR, well some of them are really the most creative content that separates the Google Chrome brand from all of the boring commercial crap that’s on TV.

I know commercials pay the bills but guess what?  This is really cool stuff to watch.  Enjoy.

Rick Thomas

Steve Sabol was only 69 years of age when he passed away of brain cancer but he was one of the most formidable names in the National Football League and never put on a team helmet for Sunday play.  Steve Sabol’s forte’ came behind the camera, giving us some of the cleanest and the clearest visuals ever seen in the history of television broadcasting.

Being from the east coast, everyone in television or radio knew that Steve Sabol’s NFL Films was located in the Philadelphia area.  Most of us in the business probably sent our resumes over to Steve Sabol hoping to get a job with him and his company. Steve Sabol grew NFL Films and his personal brand to even include many stints in front of the camera as a host to some of his content.

Steve Sabol’s NFL Films won 107 Emmys since 1962.

Rick Thomas

 

This is one of those very nasty stories.  One that shows the reality of reality television.  You look at the before and after pictures of Jael Strauss, the former member of America’s Next Top Model who went from a contestant on The CW’s hottest TV show to a fucking meth mess. 

Yes that’s Jael Strauss.  A fucking, downright mess of a former really good looking female who is showing the end result of the nasty final look of a meth addict.  This meth mess is really the worst.  People smoke weed, OK some say.  People snort coke, some say OK.  But this Breaking Bad attraction to white crystal is killing Jael Strauss and she’s on a path that will only lead to the end of her life.

Step in Dr. Phil as in Dr. Phil McGraw.  His show this Thursday is all about Jael Strauss and her decline in what was a great life if that’s what you want to call it as a member of America’s Next Top Model.  It got so bad on the show that Jael Strauss literally ran off stage at the Dr. Phil show and ended up doing an interview with the talk show host in the parking lot of Paramount Studios. 

What a fucking mess!

There’s always some bullshit excuse for heading toward addiction.  And you kinda get sick and tired of hearing the whining about issues that happen in people’s personal lives that lead them to a meth line.   But that’s her story.  Jael Strauss had a friend who died of an overdose and she credits that incident as the reason for her issues with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman’s drug of choice on Breaking Bad.

Jael Strauss is only 28 years of age and a meth of a mess.  Tune in to Dr. Phil‘s show on Thursday.  You will see the reality of reality television.  And it won’t be pretty seeing Jael Strauss in her  current condition. 

There but for the grace of God.