MetaFilter posts tagged with HBO

"a job that is so vital to human dignity and human rights."

the man of twists and turns — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:37:16 -0800

Last month, HBO Documentaires released "Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Times Of Tim Hetherington." It is a "posthumous recounting of one of the most impressive photojournalism careers to date." "'Restrepo' director has sorrowful Sundance return. Produced by Sebastian Junger (interviewed in We Kind Of Assume We Won't Be Killed), the documentary covered "a war photographer who was more than just an adrenaline junkie." After Hetherington's death, Junger founded Reporters Instructed In Saving Colleagues, which is "dedicated to promoting the safety of freelance journalists in combat zones." Some of Hetherington's photos Abu Muqawama interviews Bryan Denton about the risks of photojournalism in a war zone. Previously on MetaFilter: Tim Hetherington Killed In Libya Restrepo

"It's more dramatic than our dramas."

Rory Marinich — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:13:04 -0800

Enlightened is TV’s best show right now—and it needs more viewers. Written by Mike White (School of Rock and Freaks and Geeks, among others) and starring Laura Dern (also the show's co-creator, Luke Wilson, Diane Ladd, and Timm Sharp (aka Marshall from Undeclared), the show has also seen an impressive line-up of guest directors, including Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), Phil Morrison (Junebug), James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords), and Todd Haynes (I'm Not There). The show's range is astonishing – it depicts its main character as cringeworthily oblivious, yet also lets her deliver monologues which are unusually sincere for a comedy; some of its characters are ridiculous and absurd, while others are capable of deep melancholy. Mike White talks to Interview Magazine about creating Enlightened before its premiere; a year later, he talks to Indiewire about why people have such a hard time sympathizing with Amy.

The hands are dealt; we get to see how we play them.

dobbs — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:07:46 -0800

Luck was a David Milch-created show on HBO last year. It was cancelled after one season. Some of you might have dug it. If so, you might also dig Out of Luck: "The following blog is the writer’s depiction of an imagined racetrack-based story, an ongoing saga, which includes some of the characters depicted in the ill-fated Luck series." It's written by John Perrotta who was a writer/producer/story editor on the show.

An unlikely reviewer

HuronBob — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:00:27 -0800

"Girls" is a bit of a hit. Although it lost out to "Modern Family" at the Emmy Awards, it continues to receive significant attention as the 2nd season gets underway. Nearly everyone with a entertainment industry related blog has mentioned it, but perhaps the most unlikely reviewer (if you ignore the fact that a large percent of the viewers of "Girls" are older men) is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who compared it to "My So Called Life" and "Wonderfalls" in terms of its being a vehicle to understand the "next generation". People reacted to his review, and he responded. Added Treat: perhaps the best part of this is the fact that, in the process, I came across, and present for your viewing pleasure, the unaired pilot (almost identical to the first episode, but Jaye's brother and sister are played by different actors) of "Wonderfalls", enjoy!

Hey, you've got your black people in my American TV show!

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:48:17 -0800

'I'm a White Girl': Why 'Girls' Won't Ever Overcome Its Racial Problem-an article from The Atlantic with several interesting links on the larger issue of including (or not) black characters into American television.

Delusional Downtown Divas

Artw — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:53:07 -0800

Lena Dunham shows her art-world roots in her 2009 web-series: Season 1 at Index Magazine, Season 2 at delusionaldowntowndivas.com. Meanwhile Season 2 of Dunham's HBO series "Girls" arrives Sunday night, expect online fireworks.

HBO's "In Treatment"

Egg Shen — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:16:13 -0800

In Treatment was an HBO series that ran three seasons from 2008 through 2010. Adapated - often word-for-word - from the Israeli drama BeTipul, it depicted the weekly sessions of a psychologist (Emmy-nominated Gabriel Byrne) with his patients (including Debra Winger, Emmy-nominated Hope Davis, and, in her first American role, Mia Wasikowska) and with his own therapist (Emmy-winning Dianne Wiest). The filming of the series placed extraordinary demands on Byrne - which are well described in this interview with showrunner Warren Leight. (h/t: MCMikeNamara) You can watch its entire first episode here. (possible spoilers throughout)

Make good programmes

Artw — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:36:08 -0800

Armando Iannucci's Bafta lecture 2012 - In which the creator of The Thick Of It argues that the BBC should be more aggressive, fight back against critics in the press and goverment, be more like HBO than committee-driven American network TV, and that if as James Murdoch says the only reliable, durable guarantor of independence is profit then the only guarantor of profit is independance.

The Redemption of Michael K. Williams

the man of twists and turns — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:38:24 -0800

The Redemption of Michael K. Williams

A slice of Vice on HBO

thisisdrew — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:16:49 -0800

Bringing VICE to HBO: To win over the cable network, the Vice team assembled a “best of” reel that included stories on North Korean labor camps, Liberia and the gun markets of Pakistan and later produced a pilot that included stories about Afghan suicide bombers and underground heroin clinics. Audio interview (mp3) with VICE founder Shane Smith, from the Joe Rogan podcast.

"Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it."

the man of twists and turns — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 08:37:04 -0800

'The Hubris and Despair of War Journalism: What Martha Gellhorn teaches us about the morality of contemporary war reportage.' Remembering Martha Gellhorn: The Atlantic memorializes a contributor, with links to her previous stories. John Pilger interviews Gellhorn (video) Salon: “I didn’t like sex at all”: 'Martha Gellhorn was a gorgeous, brilliant foreign correspondent once married to Hemingway. But underneath her glamorous exterior, her letters reveal a woman of awe-inspiring rage.' But not all letters were as acid - in The Millions: A Goofy State of Mind: My Grandmother’s Letters from Martha Gellhorn:

Sometime around the year 1949, the eminent war correspondent and novelist Martha Gellhorn wrote the above letter from her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico to an Episcopalian clergyman’s wife living in the small town of Alma, Michigan. Both women were devoted writers of vivid missives. Gellhorn’s pen pals included Eleanor Roosevelt, the editor Maxwell Perkins, H.G. Wells, her husband (later, ex-) Ernest Hemingway, and other luminaries. The housewife whom she was addressing, Peggy Schutze, nee Harvey, a native Kansan of pioneer stock, wrote mostly to her mother and sister. They came to know one another because Peggy (a.k.a. Nani Peg, my maternal grandmother) was a member of the St Louis League of Women Voters, which was run by Martha’s mother Edna. Both Martha and Peggy were imaginatively terrible cooks and tore through stacks of paperback thrillers like addicts, but other than that they seemed to have little in common.

HBO recently produced Hemingway and Gellhorn, starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen. The WSWS has a review, calling it a 'missed opportunity.' Gellhorn's play Love Goes to Press, set in Italy in 1944, is in a revival on Broadway And a taste of modern war reporting: The Big Picture, Afghanistan May 2012.

I think I might be the voice of my generation. Or at least _a_ voice of _a_ generation.

coraline — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:51:26 -0800

"The world of entertainment still, all too often, values women only as objects of beauty to be placed on screen and ogled. [...] [T]he world is full of other women who have profound, intelligent, often hilarious things to say, and Dunham is very quietly making a space for those voices on TV, in a way that’s revolutionary both in terms of the show’s gender politics and in terms of its presentation. - AVClub critic TodVanDerWerff on "how [the HBO show] Girls challenges the masculine expectations of 'good TV.'" The weird backlash against Girls has been going on on the AVClub boards already from the comment section of the review of the first episode. Here is the piece, mentioned in the article, Alyssa Rosenberg made to Todd's original response to a commenter who said that "Lena Durham needs to be funnier because of how unattractive she is" (paraphrase, original comment deleted). On a more positive note, here is Todd's review of the show's season finale.

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die; there is no middle ground."

Fizz — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:38:29 -0800

HBO is now selling a life-size replica of the throne from “Game of Thrones,” its epic fantasy adapted from George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” novels. [HBO-blue] The replica is made not from molten steel but from hand-finished, hand-painted fiberglass and fireproof resin, weighs 350 pounds and measures 7 feet, 2 inches tall; 5 feet 11 inches deep; and 5 feet 5 inches wide. HBO, which also offers artifacts and memorabilia inspired by its other original series, said in a news release about the throne that “calling it impressive is an understatement” but offered no advice on how to sit in a seat constructed from so many sharp and pointed instruments. [Via: NYTimes.com]

"I will lead the attack!"

Artw — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:03:39 -0800

"First of all, we almost had no battle at all. For budgetary reasons we came very, very close to having all the action take place off-screen, the way plays have handled battle scenes for a few thousand years." - How the epic battle at the heart of the latest episode of Game of Thrones, Blackwater, written by George R. R. Martin and directed by Neil Marshall, came to be. Mentor relationships in Game of Thrones (and Mad Men). The National's Lannister song. And, perhaps sriking closest of all to the central themes of the show, Jezebel plays Game of Thrones: Marry, Fuck, Kill.

The Weight of a Nation

stratastar — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:49:38 -0800

Consequences, Choices, Children in Crisis, Challenges. HBO’s multi-part research documentary The Weight of the Nation examines obesity in America in four parts, marshaling leading doctors, epidemiologists, economists, researchers, and community leaders to understand and explain the individual costs and public solutions to a multi-faceted social and individual problem. The documentary both explores large picture statistics, while giving voice “to those that often too seek to be invisible: members of the nearly 70 percent of Americans currently diagnosed as overweight or obese. (AV Club Review)” Also included online: Twelve bonus short films. A policy report on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention. HBO will also air “The Great Cafeteria Takeover” about students involved with Rethinkers “Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools” who “convinced Aramark to deliver locally grown produce” (AVclub ibid) to their school. Trailer / HuffPo Article Bonus : 60 Minutes interview with Dr. Nora Volkow on Hooked Why bad habits are hard to break, and not character defects.

You're TV is Wrong

juiceCake — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:12:32 -0800

Anti-piracy measures have made life difficult for those who actually pay for content, games, music, etc. DirecTV has blocked HBO (apparently at their request) over HDMI by use of HDCP. Suddenly, subscribers with older HD sets are not able to watch HBO and soon other premium channels. The solution? Use component cables or get a new TV.

Season 1: Episode 1

kliuless — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:09:01 -0800

Girls is being compared to Louie.

A Game of Lessons

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:56:01 -0800

With Season 2 of Game of Thrones to begin on Sunday, it's important to review the various life and parenting lessons we've learned from the show.

“I wanted him to die.”

Fizz — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:45:50 -0800

HBO Documentary: Child of Rage: (1989) "Story of Beth, a six-year-old child who had faced the loss of a mother, physical abuse, and sexual abuse all before the age of 19 months. Both Beth and her younger brother Jonathan were put up for adoption. They were adopted by a minister and his wife. This unsuspecting couple quickly learned that something was extremely wrong with Beth. This terrifying and disturbing documentary traces Beth as she goes through therapy in Colorado. The video explains that Beth suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder. [Via]."

You Betcha!

gman — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:23:49 -0800

A comparison of Sarah Palin's media appearances versus Julianne Moore's reenactment of them in the movie Game Change.

The Greatest Character on "The Wire"

Jeff Morris — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:35:43 -0800

Grantland held a March Madness-type bracket this past week to determine the greatest character from HBO's 2002-2008 series "The Wire". The idea came from a conversation between Grantland's Editor-in-Chief, Bill Simmons, and President Obama. Voting took place via Grantland's Facebook page. Spoilers from the results and TV show are within. Round 1: Round of 32 - Part One and Part Two Round 2: Sweet Sixteen Round 3: Elite Eight Round 4: Final Four Round 5: The Finals Winner Reaction From the Winner

Boardwalk Empire VFX Breakdowns

gman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:20:25 -0800

The company that creates digital effects for Boardwalk Empire has put together the before and after shots from Season Two.

The Season 2 Winds Are Rising

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:52:57 -0800

HBO's Game of Thrones was a huge hit (with some controversy and rebuttals of same), securing a second season only two days after its debut. Filming of said season finished on December 11th and now the production crew is pulling all the pieces together for the April 2012 start of season 2. A few details have officially and unofficially come out, details after the jump: First, check out the official teaser trailer and a look behind the scenes . HBO is also running a Production Diary, with information delivered by Cat Taylor, assistant to the show’s executive producers. Posts have covered how fights and stunts are coorindated, planning for special effects while on location and Arya Stark's new look. Unoffical blogs have pondered how season 2 will be marketed, glimpses of new character Ygritte, while Entertainment Weekly went looking for photos of the dragons.

Living In The Material World

hippybear — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:41:22 -0800

After the success of No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese has turned his documentary eye toward another 60s musician. On October 5 and 6, George Harrison: Living In The Material World will run on HBO in two parts. The film has already played some film festivals and gotten great reviews. The companion book is already available at Amazon.

You can't take a picture of this; it's already gone.

Houyhnhnm — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:34:53 -0800

The A.V. Club's T.V. Club has begun to reexamine Six Feet Under. The show, widely considered one of the finest television series of all time, turned 10 years old a little over a week ago. So far, the first three episodes have been reviewed.