Friday, March 04, 2011

Around the Tubes - 3/4/11

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Beast Hunter, Ultimate Factories, Saturday Night Live, the 50 Best Music Scenes in Movies, Army Wives, Breakout Kings, Big Love, Greeting Cards, Esperanza Spaulding, INXS, and Showtime renewals and premiere dates.


- New show alert: Beast Hunter on the National Geographic Channel staring Pat Spain. In each episode Spain goes in search of bizarre creatures that are a thing of legends. Tonight he will be on the hunt for the man ape of Sumatra. In future episodes Pat will be on the lookout for the nightmare of the Amazon, the Swamp Monster of the Congo, the Sea Serpent of the North, and the Mongolian Death Worm. Check out a preview below:

On Orang Pendek’s Path


- The National Geographic Channel recently also send me the greatest (and worst) bit of swag ever: a bottle of Jack Daniels in honor of the product being featured on Thursday’s installment of Ultimate Factories which will be followed the week after (3/17) with Jack’s natural companion Coca Cola. So be sure to tune in so more people are compelled to send me alcohol. Although I may regret that considering my track record with drinking Jack Daniels.

- Miley Cyrus is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend and here’s hoping she doesn’t ruin the best skit of the season, The Miley Cyrus Show. Check out a promo below where she uses her alter ego’s catchphrase.

SNL Promo: Miley Cyrus


- Moviefone recently released its list, and accompanying video, of the 50 Best Music Scenes in Movies and no need to discuses number one because it is obvious (if you need to look to figure that out, I am not sure we can be friends), but there are plenty of spots worth debated. Like how is Sister Christian from Boogie Nights only #25; that is a top 5 lock. And the song at the end of The Wedding Singer isn’t even the best Adam Sandler musical moment (that would be him serenading the old Asian lady in Happy Gilmore) or even the best in the movie (Love Stinks, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me).

- Army Wives returns this Sunday for its fifth season at 9:00 on Lifetime, here is a sneak peak:

Army Wives Season 5 Exclusive Sneak Peek


- In a story I broke yesterday, Breakout Kings premieres Sunday and A&E has launch a new Catch a Con contest to celebrate. If you live in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Chicago, there are people in orange jumpsuits roaming your cities and to “catch” them and win up to $5000, all you have to do is download GoldRun app on your iPhone and once you spot a con, take a picture and share it on Facebook for a chance to win.

- With only three episodes left, here is a tease of the next episode of Big Love:



- Who better than Gaddafi to tell that special someone how you feel. Head over to voiceyourfeelings.com where you can have the dictator say things like “Live from Libya …Wish you were here! No, really, I could use some help” for a greeting card that will be sent to anyone you want.

- Esperanza Spaulding is a better person than I am because she made a very elegant response to the backlash to winning the Best New Artist last month on The Gayle King Show. I would have said, hey all you annoying twelve year old Justin Beiber fan: shut the frack up. The twerp didn’t even deserve to be nominated, so back into your little hole until the next award show to let stupid people vote on the awards. (And Mumford and Sons are the ones that deserved the award anyway.)

- Fans of INXS will want to head over to AOL’s Music’s Listening Party where you can stream their new album Orginal Sin where artist Ben Harper, Rob Thomas, Pat Monahan perform the band’s classics with the band.

- NBC just cannot find any sort of luck. Just as they were announcing her as a mentor on their new singing competition The Voice, Christina Aguilera get busted for public intoxication (insert your own Not Myself Tonight jokes here). That’s not what we call winning. Hopefully fellow coaches Cee-Lo Green and Adam Levine can stay out of the drunktank before the April 26 premiere.

- Showtime recently announced that both Shameless and Episodes have been picked up for a second season. Also here are the released the dates for its Spring and Summer premieres. Here they are:

Nurse Jackie – March 28 at 10:00

United States of Tara – March 28 at 10:00

The Borgias – April 3 at 9:00 (2 hour premiere, new episodes starting the following week will begin at 10:00)

Secret Diary of a Call Girl – April 7 at 10:30

Gigolos – April 7 at 11:00

The Real L Word – June 5 at 10:00

Weeds – June 27 at 10:00

The Big C – June 27 at 10:30

Web Therapy – July 19 at 11:00


Comedy Specials:

Caroline Rhea and Friends – March 5 at 9:00

Fierce Funny Women – March 10 at 8:30

Aries Spears: Hollywood, Look I’m Smiling – April 16 at 9:00

Jon Lovitz Presents – April 23 at 9:00


Documentaries:

Ahead of Time – March 3 at 8:30

Behin the Burly Q – March 31 at 8:00

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Previewing Breakout Kings


The cast of Breakout Kings

Who would be better at catching someone who has broken out of prison better than someone who has actually done so themselves? Not that any correctional facility would let a criminal that has already escape leave it premises to do such a thing. Luckily television is restrained by such this as reality so we can get a show like Breakout Kings that has such a premise.

Laz Alonso of Breakout KingsThe show features two federal marshals who are tasked at apprehend a convicted murder who has broke out from prison. Laz Alonso (Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood) is the straight laced former desk jockey eager to show he has the chops to be out in the field. While Domenick Lombardo (The Wire) is the shoot from the hip fed with a drastic idea of utilizing convicts that he previously hunted down after their successful breakouts from their respective prisons.

The crooks include Jimmi Simpson (Herbie: Fully Loaded), the mastermind of the group, a former professor that deals in psychoanalysis. Malcolm Goodwin (Leatherheads) is the street smarts. They are rounded out with some muscle and a former beauty queen turned con artist but do not get too attached to the characters because one doesn’t even make it to the end of the Pilot while the other doesn’t show up in the second episode (A&E send along the first and third episodes so I do not know if it is explained why the character is not asked back on the team.

Serinda Swan of Breakout KingsShowing up starting the second episode is Serinda Swan (Smallville’s Zatanna) as an expert tracker who learned the skill from her bounty hunter father and has extra motivation to help out because she has a daughter at home and her baby daddy doesn’t always get her to visitation time. The carrot at the end of the stick is for every escape they help capture is an extra month they get knock off their sentence at country club prison, but if one of them cuts and runs, they all get their jail time doubled at a maximum security prison.

Rounding out the cast, and bringing up the cop to con ratio to even, is Brooke Nevin (The Comebacks) the information guru who is find sitting behind a desk, and not so much anywhere else, which of course Simpson loves to psychoanalyze. Also be on a look out for Billy Riggins who show up in the third episode as the convict of the week.

Brooke Nevin of Breakout KingsBreakout Kings is really two shows, the marshals are your typically cop drama with Alonso and Lombardo (who is holding onto a big secret) playing up the good cop / bad cop dichotomy and Nevin dealing with deep issues of her own. While the crooks bring the comic relief reminiscent of conmen and women of Leverage and are never ones to turn down a good quip or good natured shot at their coworkers. That changes a little when Swan gets added to the cast as she is more serious that her handlers. But Simpson is clearly the breakout star (no pun intended, okay, maybe a little intended) of the show. His attention to detail and mommy issues (the cons get a cell phone while on the job which he uses to check in with his to humorous consequences) is the perfect mix of Sheldon Cooper and Howard Wolowitz but with a gambling problem.

Breakout Kings airs Sundays at 10:00 on A&E. You can download a sneak peak (and presumably future episodes) of Breakout Kings on iTunes.