by Chrysa SmithThe glitz. The glamour. The seductiveness of it all. Welcome to 1950's Miami; the eastern counterpart to Hollywood, where celebrities, mobsters and of course, politicians mingle, schmooze and create drama that could be---well on a tv series known as Magic City. The Starz mini-series airs Friday nights at 10pm. And while I'm generally hanging my head in sleepiness at that hour (maybe I am ready for granny panties?), Magic City generally, has me [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoIt’s the perfect way to experience snow and ice.Despite an incredibly mild winter, I’m still more than ready to say goodbye to the season of freezing temperatures and paralyzing storms, unless, that is, I’m watching the wind whipping and the flakes fall on the Discovery Channel’s new series, Frozen Planet, airing at 8 PM on Sundays.From the makers of Planet Earth and Life, Frozen Planet explores the Earth’s polar regions [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoBecca Winstone’s son is missing. If you’re a mother, the mere thought of a missing child can reduce you to a useless puddle of goo. And if that child happens to be in another country when he disappears, well, most of us would have to be sedated.But Becca Winstone isn’t most of us. She is an ex-CIA agent, and while she’s terrified for her boy, she’s also really ticked off.ABC’s [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoIt looks like the bitch is back.From the time we’re but babes, toddling around in ribbons and curls, we gals are admonished to “be nice.” Be nice, be good, be kind. And most of us grow up doing just that, with occasional lapses which make us feel terrible, inspiring us to be nicer the next time.No one wants to be labeled a bitch, a name that is usually bestowed by [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoHow could you even begin to choose?In NBC’s new series, Awake, detective Michael Britten finds himself caught between two worlds after a car crash claims the life of his wife. Or his son. He’s not really certain, and neither is the viewer.Britten is trapped between two alternate realities, one in which his wife has died, while his son lives on, and another in which his son survives. Each time he [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoI adore my husband. But I’m not sure I’d set sail on the Amazon in the midst of its jungles and mysteries to track him down if he disappeared.Yet, that’s precisely what Tess Cole and her son, Lincoln, do to find missing explorer and beloved TV host, Dr. Emmett Cole on ABC's The River, airing Tuesdays at 9 PM.Along with a crew for the ship and one for the film [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoThink of it as an updated version of the Broadway musical, 42nd Street. Or better yet, Glee: The Broadway Years.NBC’s new television musical, SMASH, has it all: The talented chorus girl dancing the line and hoping for her big break, the naïve mid-western transplant with the golden voice waiting tables and harboring a dream of her own, a smarmy director trying to work the casting couch, and a high-level producer [...]
