Fans of Shameless and House of Lies have reason to celebrate today as Showtime’s President of Entertainment David Nevins announced both shows have been picked up for another season. Each series has been given a 12-episode order, and both shows will shoot their new seasons in LA later this year.
With these renewals, Showtime’s committed to bringing back the network’s Sunday night lineup (including the already renewed Episodes) in 2015.
Shameless is currently in the middle of its fourth season and is earning the show’s highest ratings to date (the average viewership is 5.5 million each week). Meanwhile, House of Lies is drawing in 3 million viewers on average and is coming off its highest-rated episode just last weekend.
Shameless is based on the British show of the same name and stars William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, Ethan Cutkosky, Emma Greenwell, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan, Jeremy Allen White, Noel Fisher, Jake McDorman, and Joan Cusack. House of Lies is led by Don Cheadle and features Kristen Bell, Ben Schwartz, and Josh Lawson.
Parmalee (l-r) Scott Thomas, Matt Thomas, Barry Knox and Josh McSwain (Photo Credit: Glenn Sweitzer / 2014 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.)
A Southern rock patrimony, dues paid in church gigs, a player too drunk to pick, and a late-night gunfight: Parmalee’s Country pedigree is as real as it gets.
Brothers Matt and Scott Thomas tagged along on their father’s blues/rock band gigs around Greenville, N.C. Soon they started playing on their own, joined by their cousin Barry Knox, a church choir drummer. After their dad’s inebriated guitar player failed to appear for a show, Matt took his place, with Scott assuming the drum chair and Barry switching to bass. When guitarist and keyboard player Josh McSwain came onboard, Parmalee was born.
Their road led eventually to Nashville — specifically, to a parking lot on Demonbreun Street, where they lived in their RV for a month of intensive writing and demo recording. Even the 2010 flood didn’t stop them, but a bullet almost did: After a North Carolina show in September 2010, Scott suffered a near-fatal wound during a robbery attempt. (He did, however, kill one of his assailants with his own legal weapon.) Ten days in a coma and 35 days of hospitalization were his first steps toward recovery, which culminated in his rejoining the band to audition successfully for Stoney Creek Records.
Produced by the New Voice team, released in December, Feels Like Carolina loosely tells the band’s story through rock-solid vocals, tightly crafted tunes, and a few discreet synthesizer effects — just enough to add a distinctive edge while keeping it Country.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
SONG YOU’D LOVE TO COVER
Knox: “Rockwell’s ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’.”
McSwain: “‘And Justice for All,’ bluegrass style.”
Scott Thomas: “‘My Hero,’ by Foo Fighters.”
ALBUM TOPPING YOUR PLAYLIST
Knox: “Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle.”
Matt Thomas: “Unorthodox Jukebox, by Bruno Mars.”
SONG YOU WISH YOU HAD WRITTEN
Knox & McSwain: “‘Live Like You Were Dying.’”
Scott Thomas: “‘Happy Birthday.’”
FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
Knox: “Scooter.”
McSwain: “Harley Davidson.”
Matt Thomas: “My Jeep CJ.”
Scott Thomas: “Truck.”
MOMENT YOU’D LIKE TO RELIVE
Knox: “12th grade.”
McSwain: “My wedding in Mexico.”
Matt Thomas: “Any of the shows I played with my dad.”
Scott Thomas: “High school football championship.”
In this new behind the scenes video from Enemy, Jake Gyllenhaal and director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) talk about how Gyllenhaal was able to play two identical characters. Coming to theaters on March 14, Enemy also stars Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini.
The Plot:
Enemy tells the story of a university lecturer named Adam (Gyllenhaal) who is nearing the end of a relationship with his girlfriend Mary (Laurent). One night, while watching a film, Adam spots a minor actor who looks just like him. Consumed by the desire to meet his double, Adam tracks down Anthony, an actor living with his pregnant wife Helen (Gadon) and engages him in a complex and dangerous struggle. The film is a haunting and provocative psychosexual thriller about duality and identity, where in the end only one man will survive.
The latest addition to reality dating shows is VH1’s Naked Dating, a new series that will require serious editing and blurring in order to not offend the censors/audience. Naked Dating is a one-hour series that will, per VH1, “explore the art of romance free of pre-conceived notions, stereotypes — and clothes.”
Season one will consist of 10 episodes.
“At first, this seems like a show that’s all about a noisy, provocative hook – and we embrace that,” said Susan Levison, Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production, VH1. “But when you go deeper, it’s really about something that we can all relate to – the search for true love. It’s also a series with heart and masterful storytelling – both earmarks of an engaging, must-watch show.”
“We created this show based on marrying a provocative idea with a back to basics philosophy. With all the dating options in the world, what happens if you take one man and woman and strip them of all their pretenses?” VH1 immediately understood our vision and is a fantastic partner on a show that uses a social experiment to provide a fun an entertaining look into how men and women interact when they bare all,” added Howard Schultz, President of Lighthearted Entertainment.
The Naked Dating Plot:
The series will play with the idea of what it really means to be naked in the search for love. Would your quest be more successful if you truly had nothing to hide? There’s no clothing, no jewelry, no phones and no conventions of society. Just you.
Filmed on a remote exotic locale, each close-ended episode will feature a man and a woman as they each date two different, naked suitors. At the end of the episode, the two romance seekers analyze what they’ve learned from their dates and themselves before deciding on whether or not to move forward with their prospective love matches. Once everyone has stripped away the artifices of our modern world and revealed their ultimate, honest selves, the results will be surprising.
Director Marc Webb says that this new Spider-Man movie is asking the questions: “If you’re Spider-Man, can you have another life? If you’re Spider-Man, can you be Peter Parker?” In the new The Amazing Spider-Man 2 behind-the-scenes videos, Webb also revealed audiences can expect a lot of fun situations in which Spider-Man has to negotiate with his other identity. And if the new videos are indicative of the tone we can expect from Andrew Garfield’s second outing as the webslinger, this sequel has a lot more humor to it than Webb and Garfield’s first Amazing Spider-Man.
The Plot:
We’ve always known that Spider-Man’s most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead.
It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp.
Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan), Bob Stookey (Larry Gilliard Jr.) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin) in 'The Walking Dead' (Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC)
Read on at your own risk as this is a recap and review and will give away spoilers for episode 10 of season four of The Walking Dead. You’ve been warned.
“I don’t want your help…I need it,” says Glenn (Steven Yeun) to Tara (Alanna Masterson) after saving her from a swarm of hungry zombies. The two reluctantly team up and hit the road in episode 10 of AMC’s horror drama The Walking Dead, with Glenn desperate to find Maggie (Lauren Cohan) after the epic prison battle sent the remaining survivors fleeing for their lives.
In last week’s season four midseason opener, “After,” viewers witnessed a weak and sick Rick (Andrew Lincoln) pass out and his son Carl (Chandler Riggs) take charge of their survival, killing the walkers who threatened their safety. Meanwhile, Michonne (Danai Gurira) went on her own flesh-eating murder spree, seeming to use them to let out her frustration and anger over the loss of the prison and her friends to the battle with the now-deceased Governor (David Morrissey).
Now, in “Inmates,” the second episode after the midseason break, the fate of the rest of the survivors from the prison is finally revealed. Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) has become a surrogate father teaming up with Mika and Lizzie and carrying baby Judith – yes, he saved Rick’s daughter from being an appetizer for a walker – and coming across another original member of the group (that’s one spoiler that won’t be revealed here) while trying to stay safe in the woods and looking for other survivors.
Meanwhile, Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Beth (Emily Kinney) have teamed up and are on the run, just escaping two different groups of zombies. A despondent Daryl barely talks to Beth, who wants him to track and find other survivors, telling him, “We aren’t the only survivors…we can’t be.”
Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who escaped with Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and alcoholic Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.), is determined to find Glenn and traces the school bus, where she last saw him and believes he’s still possibly on board, to find to her horror it’s filled with walkers. Needing to know if Glenn is in there as either a zombie or one of their meals, Maggie, Sasha, and Bob begin to let the walkers out the back door one by one to see if Glenn appears.
Glenn (Steven Yeun) and walkers in 'The Walking Dead' (Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC)
The scene then shifts to Glenn, who got off the bus to help other members of the prison group get out, passed out on a rooftop and waking up to a prison infested with walkers. Screaming for Maggie and struggling to regain his strength (remember, only days before the prison attack, he had the deadly ‘super-flu’ which killed half of the prison’s community), Glenn suits up in riot gear and smashes his way through the nest of walkers to discover Tara sitting in a cage still in shock from all the killing in the fight for the prison.
Knowing he can’t search for Maggie by himself in his weakened condition and not wanting to leave Tara, who he realizes didn’t take part in the fight because her pistol is still fully loaded, Glenn convinces her to join him on his search because they need each other if they are going to survive.
Suspenseful and extremely gory, The Walking Dead “Inmates” episode improves on the midseason premiere by incorporating multiple storylines and having very powerful performances, as well as answering the burning questions of what happened to all the other characters in the series after the fall of the prison.
There are two grade A stand-out performances in this episode. The first is by Lauren Cohan as Maggie with her strength and determination to find her husband Glenn and then her emotional mini-breakdown when she realizes Glenn got off the bus and is still alive out there…somewhere. It’s pitch-perfect with just the right amount of emotion and never reveals a false moment. The second is Steven Yeun’s portrayal of Glenn, who goes from confusion to fear to despair and finally to fierce determination to survive and find his beloved Maggie in about a 12-minute segment. It’s perhaps the best performance Yeun has given since the series began.
The writing and directing are strong and extremely tense, casting all the viewers’ heroes out amongst woods and roads full of hungry zombies with no place to call home and danger just on the other side of the brush.
Compelling, exceptionally well written, and acted, The Walking Dead’s season four episode 10 continues the post-apocalyptic drama series with a higher sense of tension and dread among the group while still trying to keep a small sense of hope alive for a few of the struggling survivors.
'Save My Bakery' (Photo Courtesy of Food Network)International Cake Exploration Societé Hall of Fame and Dessert Professional Hall of Fame inductee Kerry Vincent will be helping out bakeries in desperate need of expert assistance in the new Food Network series Save My Bakery. Save My Bakery is set to debut on March 19, 2014 at 8pm ET/PT and will find Vincent on the road and working hard to put local bakeries back on the road to success.
“For generations bakeries were the backbone of communities across America. Save My Bakery takes on the challenge of rescuing these businesses and the families behind them,” stated Bob Tuschman, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Food Network. “Kerry Vincent’s deep expertise combined with her take charge manner is just what these families need to get back on their feet.”
Details on Save My Bakery‘s First Episode [Courtesy of Food Network]:
In one episode, Viking Pastries, in Ardmore, Penn. is in need of Kerry’s help. Once a thriving neighborhood hot spot, this bakery is now on the verge of closing its doors. The shop has grown as stale as their old recipes, and they are in need of a younger clientele to sustain their business. Kerry brings in a licensed contractor and guides the owners through a complete remodel of the storefront. She also gives their baked goods a facelift in hopes of bringing the bakery back to life. In another episode, the owner of Schubert’s Bakery in Nazareth, Penn., is working long hours with limited results, and it has taken a toll on his business and his passion for baking. Kerry puts a new spin on their classic Moravian Sugar Cake and keeps the peace among the staff as she teaches them how to properly operate the bakery.
Demi Lovato has two special guests touring with her during her 2014 “The Neon Lights Tour,” with Lovato keeping things girl-centric by tapping Little Mix and Fifth Harmony to open her sold-out concerts. We had the chance to cover the February 13, 2014 stop on Lovato’s “Neon Lights Tour” held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA and it was Fifth Harmony taking the stage first to get the already enthusiastic crowd going.
Fifth Harmony played a six-song set, opening up with “Me & My Girls,” and during their set, they also covered “Independent Woman” by Destiny’s Child. Fifth Harmony – Dinah Jane Hansen, Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, and Camila Cabello – really knew how to get the crowd going.
Fifth Harmony’s setlist:
“Me & My Girls”
“Better Together”
“Leave My Heart Out Of This”
“Independent Woman”
“Don’t Wanna Dance Alone”
“Miss Movin’ On”
In between each set, a DJ was breaking it down, keeping the energy going, getting everyone ready for the next band, plus a magician that wowed the crowd. Then the crowd noise level escalated as Little Mix took over, playing a seven-song set, opening up with “Salute.” These women from England are reminiscent of the Spice Girls and had the crowd going crazy, backed by dancers and putting on a fantastic show.
Lucasfilm Animation’s busy showing off new characters that will be featured in Star Wars Rebels, premiering later this year as a one-hour special on Disney Channel. After its official debut, Star Wars Rebels (the series) will air on Disney XD channels.
Per Lucasfilm Animation’s official announcement:
In Star Wars Rebels, fans will see the rise of the Rebellion through Ezra: a 14-year-old con artist who learns to fight for a greater good. The seemingly-reluctant hero is revealed here in a video filled with character concept art, early animation, and creator interviews.
Growing up on his own in the age of the Empire, Ezra has had to rely on his wit and cunning to get by. As voice actor Taylor Gray explains, “He’s very street-smart, he’s a pickpocket, he’s a little thief. But he’s doing it all because he needs to survive.”
Executive producer Dave Filoni adds that Ezra is not a bad kid. Although he may enjoy stealing from the Empire, his behavior has been influenced by the world around him – a world that is under Imperial control.
But his hard life has also made his world smaller. “He doesn’t really trust anyone,” says Rayne Roberts, creative executive of Star Wars Rebels. “That’s kind of his motto in life. He has that hard edge at times.” When audiences first meet Ezra, he is not yet a Rebel and is not yet interested in restoring freedom to the galaxy – but that will soon change when Ezra is introduced to his new surrogate family: the crew of the Ghost.
Greg Weisman, executive producer, says, “His eyes get opened to the fact that there are people who care, who are trying to fight the good fight. And he becomes one of them.” Still, there is more to Ezra than even he knows.
Ezra is Force-sensitive, Filoni reveals, though he is unaware that he is tapping into this mystical energy field. Ezra knows he has some strange abilities, but they’re “instinctive and reactionary.” It is only through his relationship with Kanan, a Jedi Survivor and crew member of the Ghost, that Ezra will learn the true nature of his power. Together, they will forge new paths and destinies – and a rebellion will rise.
The latest addition to reality dating shows is VH1’s Naked Dating, a new series that will require serious editing and blurring in order to not offend the censors/audience. Naked Dating is a one-hour series that will, per VH1, “explore the art of romance free of pre-conceived notions, stereotypes — and clothes.”
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