HBO News

August 17, 2007

HBO plays it safe and brings back the boys

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Once upon a time, long long ago, HBO was a place that took challenges, which thought so much of itself that it actually dared to declare that "it's not TV."

Then all that money went out the window on Rome, The Sopranos and Deadwood went away and John from Cincinnati challenged viewers in ways that no one could have imagined (like challenging them not to cancel their subscriptions to HBO) for a full ten weeks.

So with Showtime nipping at its heels and winning acclaim-by-default with one-degree-of-separation-from-FX shows like Dexter and Californication, HBO is now happy to be not TV... but MTV.

Four days after killing John, they've renewed Entourage and Flight of The Conchords.

Continue reading "HBO: HBO plays it safe and brings back the boys" »

August 15, 2007

Got Milch? HBO comes back for more

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We'd think that bigshot series creator David Milch had burned a bridge or two at HBO after he decided to scuttle his successful, praised and beloved Deadwood in favor of the incomprehensible, anger-making John from Cincinnati, a series about a family of surfing scumbags that in its original incarnation had nothing to do with surfing at all.

But we would be wrong.

Hours after HBO pulled the plug on John in wake of its season finale, the floundering-without-its-Sopranos network announced they've got Milch is cooking up another series.

This one goes back to safe, familiar, unchallenging turf.

Continue reading "HBO: Got Milch? HBO comes back for more" »

August 14, 2007

John is dead.

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Now we'll never know what was going on.

We'll never learn what "Mother of God, Cass-Kai" means.

We'll never know if John and Shaunie were surfing in from heaven or a UFO.

We'll never-- Oh who gives a s***? We weren't supposed to know. And you weren't watching, anyway.

John from Cincinnati, David Milch's saga of science, spirituality and surfing, his middle finger to popular opinion and a series that got more watchable as it got more incomprehensible, has been canceled by HBO after ten episodes and hours after its first season finale (with a rousing opening sequence set to Bob Dylan's "Series of Dreams" that seemed to be setting the course for a new direction).

Continue reading "HBO: John is dead." »

August 13, 2007

Gandolfini returns to the scene of the crime

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James Gandolfini isn't going to wait to find out if Tony Soprano has done to his career what Superman did to George Reeves. No, we don't mean that Ben Affleck will one day play him in a middling movie, but that he's about to find out if he can ever play a role without bringing the mobster to mind.

And he's not making it any easier by returning to HBO to play a real-life figure whose name at least sounds like it's straight out of Sopranosland.

He'll star as tough guy sports marketer Sonny Vaccaro, the man who signed Michael Jordan to the first million-dollar shoe deal at Nike, in the movie ABCD Camp. Gandolfini will executive produce through his Attaboy Films company, along with a few others including Baron Davis, the star guard for the Golden State Warriors.

So what's so dramatic about Sonny boy?

Continue reading "The Sopranos: Gandolfini returns to the scene of the crime" »

August 10, 2007

TiVo Alert! "The end is near" for John

As the network newsreaders say when plugging one of their tabloid shows:

"A programming note": Sunday is the season-- and possibly series-- finale for the greatest and most profound series with the coolest opening credits ever seen on television: John from Cincinnati.

We realize that no one can forgive creator David Milch for ditching Deadwood in favor of a show in which no one can figure out what the hell is going on, and even fewer of us gave John a chance after it premiered so obtusely, minutes after the frustrating final scene of The Sopranos, but the work of actors like Ed O'Neill, Dayton Callie, Luke Perry-- and Austin Nichols as John-- not to mention the angry, unhinged performance of Leonard Cohen's former galpal Rebecca DeMornay-- has generated a cult despite itself and made this appointment viewing.

So is he God or a space alien?

Continue reading "HBO: TiVo Alert! "The end is near" for John" »

August 17, 2007:HBO plays it safe and brings back the boys
August 15, 2007:Got Milch? HBO comes back for more
August 14, 2007:John is dead.
August 13, 2007:Gandolfini returns to the scene of the crime
August 10, 2007:TiVo Alert! "The end is near" for John