TV Hangover

McGregor will play the two central characters — brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy — in the upcoming third season, which is supposed to be set closer to present day than the first two installments.

Joss Whedon is fond of saying that as a writer, he doesn't give audiences what they want, but what they need. That seems to be the route Weiner is taking in "Mad Men's" final stretch. A final encounter between Betty Francis and Glen Bishop probably wouldn't have been on my checklist for the last few episodes, but it was a powerful moment for what it revealed about how both of them had grown — so much that Betty didn't even recognize the young man whom she once related to as an emotional equal. (The way people felt about their exchanges seemed to largely parallel their take on the episode as a whole: Some found it stilted and heavy-handed; I was moved almost beyond words.) It's extremely unlikely that every one of "Mad Men's" characters will end up with a happy ending, or an ending of any kind. The show has, among other things, taught us to distrust those frozen moments where it seems like everything's right with the world — they never last. We're coming to the end of a story, but not their lives, and "Mad Men" is likely to be very clear on the difference between the two. (h/t julyshewillfly/via) 

In celebrating their two Golden Globe wins — Best Comedy and Best Actor in a Comedy forJeffrey Tambor — Amazon is is making all ten episodes of their hit series Transparent available to stream for free this Saturday, January 24, for non-Amazon Prime members. (via)

But at its core, Broad City is still a love story — just one about two hapless, pot-smoking, sexually experimental, striving, swearing, struggling, inseparable young gal pals running amok on the streets of modern-day New York City. The main characters, Abbi Abrams and Ilana Wexler, are completely, unshakably obsessed with one another. They are intoxicated by (and often in) each other’s presence, full partners in crime and life. Their New York is the New York that can be experienced only as a duo: a kaleidoscopic playground made for two, the kind of cinematic, heightened fun-house version of the city that accompanies the most epic, swooning romances. Abbi and Ilana live separately but share nearly everything: drugs, stomach issues, sexual fantasies, shattering ego blows, visions of grandiosity, and high-stakes capers to solve low-stakes problems. They staunchly refuse to judge one another’s outsize behavior; instead, they practice radical mutual acceptance. Between them there are no boundaries, no topic too taboo. Consider a scene from the new season: As the pair sit snuggled in the same blanket, on the same bed, drinking the same type of iced mocha lattes, Abbi expresses horror about potentially pooping herself one day during childbirth. Ilana soothes her, telling her that “if it happens to me, you have my permission not to look.” Abbi sighs: “I’m going to see you give birth, then?” “Bitch, duh,” Ilana says. “Who else would be my focal point?” They are codependent, co-obsessed, copilots. (via)

Hulu has acquired exclusive streaming rights to Starz’s cult comedy “Party Down,” it was announced Wednesday.

From Friday, August 29, every episode of Party Down will be made available on Hulu Plus, while the first five episodes will be available for a limited time on Hulu.com, which is free and ad-supported for non-subscribers. (via)

Gunn’s performance was not that of an action heroine or a television genius, and it was not meant to be. Skyler carries the weight of Walt’s actions. Plenty of people hated her for it, Walt sometimes included. But Gunn’s performance pushed both Walt and the people who wanted to see him as a hero to increasingly contrived and ludicrous justifications for treating Skyler like she was a worse person than Walt.

Gunn’s drawn face in the last two seasons of “Breaking Bad” might not have brought about the end of the anti-hero era in television. But Gunn’s performance marked the end of a time when the creators of such shows could get away with writing anti-heroes’ wives as flat, cartoonish characters, or when audiences could get away with worshiping difficult men without encountering strong opposition.