next week 1/28

Monday

  • State of the Union (6/9pm est/pst, Check Your Local Listings) – We don’t have to listen to him for much longer.
  • In Treatment (HBO, 9:30pm) Series Premiere – Gabriel Byrne is a therapist with of course a ton of issues of his own in this 5 night a week show, man, 5 nights a week?
  • Gossip Girl (CW, 8pm) – A special presentation of the pilot with additional behind the scenes and interview footage.
  • Making the Band (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – Hmm, so I read that this is the 11th season, then I read that this was Making the Band 4, maybe they stopped making new bands? I remember watching the first season on network tv with the making of OTown but haven’t watched since.

Tuesday

  • Baghdad Hospital: Inside the Red Zone (HBO, 8:30pm) – A close look at life in Baghdad by an Iraqi doctor who has since fled the country.
  • House (Fox, 9pm) – It’s new, they try to diagnose someone… should still be two more after this.

Wednesday

  • Lost (ABC, 9pm) – Last season’s finale with extra facts and tidbits to get you caught up.
  • Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – I don’t know what they win, but one team will win.
  • American Ballroom Challenge (PBS, 8pm) – And they dance….

Thursday

  • Lost (ABC, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – It’s baaack, and they really want you to know what’s going on so the recap espisode at 8 should tell us all we need to know to get sucked in yet again… they better settle this strike.
  • Eli Stone (ABC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Is this lawyer a prophet, a sick man, or a nut job? No matter what his life is going to change.

Friday

  • 1 vs. 100, Friday Night Lights, Las Vegas (NBC, 8/9/10) – They’re new…
  • Dinner for Five (IFC, 10:30) – Jon Favreau welcomes guests Vince Vaughn, Peter Billingsley, Justin Long and Keir O’Donnell.

Saturday

  • Trading Spaces (TLC, 9pm) – This episode is the first in its regular timeslot, we had the first ep of the season last week, and we were all excited to have Paige back holding the reigns again.

Sunday

  • Suberbowl XLII (Fox, 3pm/pst ) – This might be the only occasion that we use roman numerals.
  • House (Fox, 7:15?) – In the coveted after superbowl spot Mira Sorvino gets some remote diagnosis.
  • Life is Wild (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – I guess you could find out how the wild is treating this family.
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australian open

djokovic at australian openSome of you may have gleaned that I am a tennis fan. Not in a super fanatical sort of way, but in a I like to watch it when it’s on, though admittedly it’s nice to nap to… I do get more caught up the more I watch but as I am typically without cable access, I don’t get to watch a lot (though with my busy tv schedule that’s maybe not the worst thing). 

But as the tennis season starts with the Australian Open I almost missed it and was surprised to find that there is no network coverage. It was only being covered on ESPN2, not even ESPN mind you.

Now some series like Wimbledon and US Open get network coverage on the middle weekend, and Wimbledon has its own nightly highlights show, but I thought all of them showed the final. There are only four biggies: Australian, French, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Is that asking too much?

We even get network coverage of most of the finals in the entire hard court series leading up the US Open. Someone pointed out to me that it might be the time difference, which could be. Coverage at around 9pm/pst and midnight might not be the best to schedule, but we do have a writer’s strike going on, what else are they really showing?

So for those of you who might be interested, where do we stand right now? On the men’s side, even with Federer sick leading up to things he’s always the favorite, though I like that Djokovic kid. With Sharapova in excellent form taking out Henin (and the always wild card Williams sisters out) she has to be looking good, though I do like Ivanovic.

  • Men’s First Semifinal – Nadal (2) vs. Tsonga (Thursday – was at 12:30am/pst but… I won’t tell you who won – replays at noon/pst)
  • Men’s Second Semifinal – Federer (1) vs. Djokovic (3) (Friday 12:30am/pst replays at noon/pst)
  • Women’s Final – Ivonovic (4) vs. Sharapova (5) (Friday at 6pm/pst)
  • Men’s Final – TBD  (Sun 12:30 am/pst) 

ESPN2, Check your local listings.

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and the nomination goes to…

aa_noms1.jpg

Well it’s that time again… We’re still waiting to see how the writer’s strike will affect the Academy Awards show but today the nominations are out. I did mention these might be the only awards I follow didn’t I? Well I think it might be true.

I’ve got some more movies to watch before I can accurately pick the winners in my Oscar pool. Though we’ve all agreed watching the movies is a detriment to voting because you allow yourself to be swayed by what you want, or don’t want, as opposed to what will win. Let’s just say I thought I learned my lesson about standing on principles the year my refusal to vote for Titanic sunk my hopes of a win.

Maybe this year I’ll be stronger, though I have to admit I might already be in trouble, I liked but wasn’t in love with the two seeming frontrunners No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, and I thought Juno was cute enough, but Best Picture? We’ll see if Atonement or Michael Clayton will sway me, though I’m not sure Michael Clayton is playing anywhere maybe it will return to wider release.

Following are some of the major categories and for those of you interested you can see the full list of nominees at http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/nominees/

Best Picture
“Atonement”
“Juno”
“Michael Clayton”
“No Country for Old Men”
“There Will Be Blood”

Actor
George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”
Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”
Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises”

Actress
Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
Julie Christie, “Away From Her”
Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”
Laura Linney, “The Savages”
Ellen Page, “Juno”

Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”
Hal Holbrook, “Into the Wild”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War”
Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton”

Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There”
Ruby Dee, “American Gangster”
Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”
Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”
Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”

Director
Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Jason Reitman, “Juno”
Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”

Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton, “Atonement”
Sarah Polley, “Away from Her”
Ronald Harwood, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”

Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, “Juno”
Nancy Oliver, “Lars and the Real Girl”
Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”
Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, “Ratatouille”
Tamara Jenkins, “The Savages.”

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next week 1/21

Monday

  • Wildfire (ABC Fam, 9pm) Season Premiere – It’s actually quite surprising how many original series there are out there on other cable channels, this is season 4 of this delinquent-but-good-with-horses gal gets another chance with a ranch family.
  • Democratic Presidential Debate: South Carolina (CNN, 5pm pst) – What have they got to say? Maybe nothing new, but maybe worth a look.

Tuesday

  • Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 10pm) Last episode due to strike – An embryo caper makes Olivia question her own timeline, too bad they couldn’t just time this to when Mariska was pregnant.
  • Millionaire Matchmaker (Bravo, 11pm normally at 10pm) Series Premiere – Follow a matchmaking service with, yes you guessed it, millionaire clientele.

Wednesday

  • Criminal Minds (CBS, 9pm) Last ep due to strike – I tend to only watch this show in reruns, which is I guess next week, but I’m sure the BAU gang will find a serial killer.
  • Moment of Truth (Fox, 9pm) Series Premiere – This is the one where they hook the contestants up to a lie detector and ask humiliating questions for money, what will they think of next?

Thursday

  • Chuck (NBC, 8 & 10pm) Last eps due to strike – They’re kicking us out with a little double shot, where Chuck will get into some shenanigans with his friends, coworkers and spy guys.
  • Ugly Betty & Big Shots (ABC, 8 & 10pm) Last eps due to strike – I’ll be watching Chuck of course.
  • Winter X Games 12 (24-27th, ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, Check your local listings) – Skis, snowmobiles, and snowboarders get gnarly in Colorado and it should include another round of Shaun White.

Friday

  • Garth Brooks: Live in LA! (CBS, 9pm) – It’ll be Garth, he’ll be singing, in LA, will it be live?

Saturday

  • Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials (CBS, 8pm) – This must mean the super bowl is coming up.
  • US Figure Skating Women’s Championships (NBC, 8pm) – Isn’t the winter Olympics coming up, no I guess that’s next winter.
  • Torchwood (BBC, 9pm) Season Premiere – They describe this as ‘part X-Files part Angel… where excitement comes before morality,’ hmm…

Sunday

  • US Figure Skating Men’s Championships (NBC, 7pm) – Well I mentioned the women’s…
  • Screen Actors Guild Awards (TNT, 8pm) – This one could be picket free and actually attended.
  • Shark (CBS, 8pm) Last ep due to strike – Always good to get into Sebastian’s dark past when he’s a target for murder.
  • The Russell Girl (CBS, 9pm) – Probably a typical cheesy Hallmark movie but I developed a liking for Amber Tamblyn since Joan of Arcadia.
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philly’s idol

ai crewWell the time has come for the start of Season 7 of American Idol, and with the state of new television being what it is I thought I’d check back in. And I have to say what our fine friend Randy might: I’m just not feeling it dawg. Watching a two hour episode, even fast forwarding through it, just from Philadelphia… The good, the bad, and the awful singing a quick tune and leaping away with joy or slinking (or raging) away in defeat just isn’t what it used to be.

I wasn’t that engaged with the folks who were trying to be funny like the guy in skimpy costume who when they said they were too distracted by his chest hair went and got it waxed. Or the guy who sang a stalking love song to Paula, ok I chuckled with lyrics like ‘If she were Columbo I’d Peter Falk-her. If she was a bathtub I’d caulk her.’

And I thought the people who weren’t trying to be funny was kind of painful and sad. Like the poor Janice Joplin wannabe who they said wasn’t right for the show but maybe she should sing in a 60s or 70s band, and then she proceeded to rant about Simon for fifteen minutes, which they of course showed for drama. Or the self proclaimed dork dressed like Princess Leia who didn’t get picked and they showed her on the phone fuming that they only picked the same kind of girl. Right, the kind of girl who could sing well.

Do they gear the selection toward folks who can not only sing but are also cute and personable? Yes of course they do. But at least at the first round if you can sing Randy and Paula will usually at least overrule Simon and let them through. And Simon wasn’t even being that mean. Simon did perhaps provide the funniest moment of the show where he was literally stunned at how happy people were for each other, he couldn’t imagine being happy for someone else. Vintage Simon.

The novelty of this phase of the show wore off some time around season 2 though I think I stuck through season 3. I do have to remember that like many good reality shows I don’t really get hooked until there’s a person to root for or against, with at least some personality. And at this stage although they highlight folks we’re just not invested yet. And we shouldn’t be. They picked 30 people just from Philly to go to Hollywood and it’s a few more rounds of initial auditions before they start to narrow it down to the final twelve (?).

Though if I had to pick today I liked that girl who trains horses and cage fights. Maybe I’ll tune back in when they get to Hollywood… Maybe this will be the year that more people vote for President than for the next Idol.

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not so golden globes

globeSo I didn’t watch the Golden Globe ‘announcement’ show last night because my cable went out. I did read today that the NBC version where the announcements were slightly delayed, as hosts tried to make it all entertainment, was painful to watch, whilst E! and TV Guide were able to just show the straight up announcements made by folks such as Dayna Devon of Extra and Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight. Not much to see. The main selects for Motion Picture were Atonement (Drama), Sweeny Todd (Musical or Comedy), and The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Foreign Language). And for Television Series we got Mad Men (Drama) and Extras (Musical or Comedy). For the full list of nominees and winners you can check out the official site at: http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/

The fact that my cable stopped me from watching isn’t entirely true, my cable did go out, but I was debating whether to Tivo the show anyhow. I mean we all knew it wouldn’t be worth watching and I don’t particularly care who wins at this. For some reason I never care about awards for television, maybe because I already know what I like and it won’t effect what I watch. Or maybe I think there are generally too many great underrated shows and actors who don’t get appreciated, and too many cable shows that I don’t watch who do, for me to really generate enthusiasm for winners or disdain for those not honored.

And for films I have to say I generally structure the couple months of my movie watching leading up to the Academy Awards around the nominees and have been in an Oscar pool since I can remember. But the Globes aren’t particularly noteworthy for predicting the winners and I find division on film nominations between Drama and Musical or Comedy typically make for an odd pool of nominees particularly for the Musical or Comedy category.

As a side note about my cable, I know this is typical but I went to sleep Friday night with cable working, and I turned on my television Saturday and it wasn’t. I called my service provider and I got a guy trying to walk me through some ‘trouble shooting’ before sending a guy out. But my television and tivo and vcr and dvd are all wired together in a somewhat complicated manner that checking each connection through my entertainment unit is a huge pain. And I wasn’t expecting to touch any of that until I got my new flat screen tv. So unless someone unplugged something or a rabbit chewed through a wire (someone in my office had this happen, but he has a rabbit) I think it’s a problem with the cable. We’ll see sometime between 3 and 5:00 today.

As for strike news we’ll see if things get resolved before the Academy Awards, or if they can reach a sort of a la carter negotiation like Letterman with his shows, but it promises for a rough season in too many ways. Also of note the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Television and Motion Pictures Producers met yesterday to try to hash out their contract which could either indicate what sort of deal the writers could get (or could have gotten), or of course worst case scenario lead to another strike. Fingers always crossed we can wrap up this mess with equitable agreements for all.

Oh and I loved this J. Emilio Flores for New York Times photo of the unused Globe props being carried away.

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next week 1/14

Monday

  • Terminator (Fox, 9pm) – We’re settling into the regular timeslot and since I probably won’t have watched Sunday’s pilot I’ll plan to tivo this too whether it’s watchable or not, oh who am I kidding with the strike my bar is pretty low.

Tuesday

  • American Idol (Fox, 8pm) Season Premiere – Starting it’s Tuesday and Wednesday runs at the early auditions, is my bar this low? I actually watched this for the first few seasons and then new people couldn’t make this show fresh enough for me.

Wednesday

  • Reno 911! (Comedy, 10:30) Season Premiere – I don’t get this channel and I’ve never seen this show, but some of these updates are going to start getting a little more arbitrary, so here’s Season 5.

Thursday

  • Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew (VH1, 10pm) – The first of this started last week, and they’re rerunning it maybe every day if you missed it, I am a little bit morally opposed to this show and have no idea whether it’s entertaining or not but some ‘celebrities’ might get some help.

Friday

  • Moonlight (CBS, 9pm) – Maybe I’ll give this show another shot, though I found it a bad version of Angel the first time around.

Saturday

  • Husband for Hire (Oxygen, 9pm) – What have Erik Estrada and Tempest Bledsoe been up to, apparently this made for tv movie.

Sunday

  • Breaking Bad (AMC, 10pm) Series Premeire – Bryan Cranston is a  high school chemistry teacher who makes some questionable choices once he’s diagnosed with cancer.
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final gossip?

gg_serena_ptest2.jpgWell we saw the end of the episodes that they were able to wrap up before the strike and as much as I can’t say it’s a quality show, I’ll miss this guilty pleasure in my schedule. So what’s been going on? Well we’ve come back to a theme. We started the show with former queen bee Serena returning from boarding school after fleeing her sexual indiscretions. And we end the season (or the seasonette at least) with current bee Blair heading off to school in France slinking away in shame after losing it all. What led to this fall from Grace?

Well Chuck was keeping Blair away from Boring B with threats of exposing their tryst. But Boring B kept trying to woo her back. After they all got caught at an illegal on school pool party, Boring B even turned himself in facing expulsion since he thought Blair let them all in. Blair decided that they could forgive each other,

And Dan was caught up in the cast of characters illegally partying at the school pool. The new head mistress planned to expel the culprit who broke them in, or without a person to pin it on the whole gang would get the heave ho. And of course Dan the charity case (aka scholarship candidate) couldn’t afford to lose his future. This was made all the more difficult when it turns out Serena was the culprit, so she turned herself in to save dear old Dan.

And as Dan’s former flame followed him around with a camera (still pining for him much?) she caught Chuck and Blair arguing about his fessing up. Apparently Blair’s plan to call Chuck a liar won’t work if she’s filmed planning it… But little miss filmster had enough scruples to handover the tape to Blair. Not before Chuck offered her some cash which she traded for the tape that happened to be in the camera. So to balance out the evil she handed off the cash to some sort of herpes fund in Chuck’s name.

So video wasn’t the only problem, camera snapped photos circulated about Serena buying a pregnancy test… of course Dan would be there for her. He loved her and she even eventually admitted that she loved him. Now we all know from the previews that it’s really Blair who might be pregnant. What we don’t know is whether the father is Boring B or What up Chuck. Alas no father at all, though not pregnant Blair’s walls still came tumbling down.

When Chuck got dissed he risked it all to ruin things by emailing GGirl. Oh right that’s the premise of the show, there’s a Gossip Girl who posts all the dirt. So when the school started talking about Blair, her pregnancy, and her two fellas… Boring B checked in with the Littlest Humphrey. Though she’s been laying low these two eps she stepped in just in time. Blair kept her at arm’s length a little too long and after she overheard Serena telling Dan the sordid details she confirmed the Chuckness to Boring B.

So after some public fisticuffs Chuck and Boring B are friends no more. Boring B gave Blair the heave ho. And then Blair called Serena a ho yet again, apparently there are two sets of standards, and Blair blamed her for letting it slip to Little Humphrey. Serena and Dan just escaped a fight about whether he told Little H. And when Blair showed up to school she got dissed by her former snooty posse. Even a final threat to Little H rang hollow. And the snooty mcsnooterson gals adopted Little H back in and hired on a new lackey to treat like crap. So to whom does Blair turn in desperation? She admitted that he won but would you think Chuck would welcome her with open arms? He is a man who’s never seen a high road he didn’t pass up.

Chuck’s now busy hitting on his sister to be. Chuck’s dad won the fight, unbeknownst to him, for Serena’s mom. Serena’s mom was about to run off with the elder Humphrey but Serena pushed the issue… she’d rather be part of Chuck’s family than part of Dan’s because Dan was the most important person to her. Was Dan’s dad the most important thing to mom? Clearly we gathered that Serena was the most important thing to her as she accepted the Chuck family engagement and let Rufus go. This chapter may be closed but we haven’t seen the last of that age old romance.

And Chuck’s dad welcomed Serena to the fold by buying her out of her got-the-key-to-the-pool fiasco, community service in place of expulsion. And I was misleading… Serena who of course believes in second chances, or third, or fourth, talked Blair out of heading to France at the last minute. Wanna bet if Blair’s gonna come back, she’s gonna come back swinging? I wouldn’t bet against me on that. Though we’ll have to wait a while to see…

And for an honorary show close:

– xoxo gossip girl

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as the strike continues

So as the strike continues we are just starting to get a sense for what this means.

The late night talkers have returned, and with Dave and Craig the only teams with sanctioned writers. The quality may be higher, but more folks have initially at least, tuned in presumably to see if the others fall flat. And have they? I’d like to say I knew but to be honest I was tempted to tivo and check it out but have yet to do so. I’ll just say it’s in support of the strikers that I’m not watching Leno and not just because I’m too lazy to care. They are still getting some flack and some picketers for coming back, and some troubles landing the quality guests, but the show it does go on.

The latest big talk has shifted to what’s up with the awards seasons. The strikers are threatening to picket the shows, the actors are not under contract to attend so they’re not planning on it, and the little tidbit that surprised me the most was that they weren’t allowing clips to be shown. Who knew that was like a favor? So the People’s Choice and Golden Globes are first to deal. Right now the Globes are thinking about postponing theoretically to continue negotiating and/or potentially showing a more edited version, or gasp, not televising at all.

And our first real cable to network show is Dexter, getting a run from its first season starting Feb 17 on CBS. They will of course have to edit down to meet broadcast requirements. When they first did this for Sex and the City I thought it was ridiculous but found that I was less offended by the smut edits than I was by the scene edits to cut down the length for commercial timing. It really lost some of the delight and sense of the subplots, which you wouldn’t notice if you hadn’t seen the full version, but I think made a difference. So I am still happy to hear that some of this content will get a wider release but still tempted to just go ahead and Netflix it.

And I think Netflix will be getting even more support from the peeps. The longer the strike continues the less likely we’ll get anything other than reality shows this season, and the more likely that next fall season will be thrown off as well. Until then I’ll enjoy The New Adventures of Old Christine when it comes back and hope for another gem in the hodgepodge of midseason shows that will probably at least get a full run before anyone threatens cancellation.

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next week 1/7

Monday

  • Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (ABC, 8pm) Series Premiere – Drew Lachey joins two of the judges from Dancing With the Stars to create two singing and dancing teams to compete in this six week series, I didn’t get Dancing with the Stars either.
  • Medium (NBC, 10pm) Season Premiere – Things were shook up employment-wise for Allison and her husband, with her out of the DA’s office how will she solve her creepy vision mysteries?

Tuesday

  • Bones/House (Fox, 8/9pm) – See where it all began with the pilots of these two fun shows.
  • One Tree Hill (CW, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – The fifth season moves forward four years to try to beat the high school turned college show crisis and get the cast to about their appropriate ages.
  • People’s Choice (CBS, 9pm) – The people, they pick their picks for tv and movies as Queen Latifah hosts, nobody really cares what the people think do they?

Wednesday

  • Law & Order: CI (NBC, 9pm) Season Premiere – The show banished to cable returns in reruns for its 7th season to the network where it started, this is the one L&O that bugs me, mostly D-Onofrio who I used to like.
  • Cashmere Mafia (ABC, 10pm) – The show stops off in its regular timeslot.

Thursday

  • My Name is Earl/30 Rock (NBC, 8/8:30pm) – Ok these are the last ones we get for who knows how long, enjoy.
  • Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 9pm) – Ditto on last in the queue.

Friday

  • Catch up on some repeats (Grey’s/Cashmere Mafia on ABC) or catch some new eps of shows (Ghost Whisperer, Moonlight, Numb3rs on CBS or Friday Night Lights and Las Vegas on NBC) or maybe just go out and see a movie.

Saturday

  • If you didn’t get away from the television last night definitely get away tonight, unless you’ve got some netflix stacking up there’s nothing on.

Sunday

  • Golden Globes (NBC, 8pm) – Many thanks will be given out to the Hollywood Foreign Press for tv and movies this evening.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox, 8pm) Series Premiere – I haven’t heard anything about this but am intrigued and glad that Summer Glau from Firefly is going to protect them.
  • Commanche Moon (CBS, 9pm, also Tues/Wed) Miniseries – Prequel to the Lonesome Dove miniseries though I hear this one doesn’t live up to the previous.
  • Rock of Love 2/Scott Baio 46… and Pregnant (VH1, 9/10pm) Season Premieres – I got hooked on these shows last season, not good but I was truly addicted to Rock of Love.
  • Masterpiece: Persuasion (PBS, Check Your Local Listings) – This starts off a little Jane Austen theme for the now Masterpiece/Masterpiece Theater I always mean to watch them and this is supposed to be good.
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