My mother, Margaret, turns 92 Wednesday. Her birthday is December 7 — as my dad and FDR used to say, “A day that will live in infamy.” Roosevelt, of course, was referring to another momentous and far less joyous occasion: the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The dawn raid that drew the United States
Sunday marks the 3rd season premiere of one of TV’s funniest comedies–Silicon Valley (10 p.m. ET, HBO and HBO Canada). Some other show comes back right before that, Game of Something or other. Veep is also returning, but as Hugh Hefner used to say, let’s stick with Silicon. I had fun interviewing leads Thomas Middleditch
According to showrunner and writer Terry Winter, Vinyl bad boy Richie Finestra is “a pretty accurate amalgam of a lot of different record executives.” Finistra is the character at the centre of the set-in-the-’70s drama. A lot happens to Finestra in the first two hours–he even has a building fall on him. The series premieres Feb. 14
John Oliver sees the endless U.S. election coverage as the gift that keeps on giving. The host of Last Week T0night with John Oliver also says the Trump and Cruz circuses and all the other primary concerns bring their own unique challenges for a TV satirist. “Sometimes it’s hard to joke a joke,” says Oliver. “If people are
The past four or five years I feel like I’ve been a researcher for the HBO series Getting On. The dark comedy, based on a British series, is airing its final short season on HBO Canada (Sundays at 10 p.m.). I’ve had my dad pass away during those years and my mom has recently transitioned to a
HBO’s best new offering at the January press tour begins tonight: The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. The six-part documentary miniseries starts Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. on HBO and HBO Canada. HBO screened the first episode for reporters during the tour and held a session the following day. I got in
Are some topics just off limits for comedy? I’ve been having that conversation with several people in the funny business lately while pulling together a feature about a certain ex- CBC radio host. A good example of a TV show that tackles a taboo subject with wit and compassion is Getting On, returning for a second short season
The folks behind Sensitive Skin are smart. Get too wordy in a review and you wind up sounding like Al, Skin‘s wannabe downtown Toronto hipster who clings to columnist status though he’s barely a blogger. Al is played by Don McKellar, also the director of this series which premiered July 20 on HBO Canada. I was