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Since the turn of this century, the protagonists of TV’s most highly regarded dramas have, by and large, been antiheroes — morally ambiguous characters to whom audiences are drawn despite their darkness. You know their names: Tony Soprano (The Sopranos), Jack Bauer (24), Gregory House (House), Dexter Morgan (Dexter), Nucky Thompson (Boardwalk Empire), Don Draper (Mad Men), Walter White (Breaking Bad), Frank Underwood (House of Cards) — to cite but a few. Most have been men (with notable exceptions like Damages’ Patty Hewes and Weeds’ Nancy Botwin) whose generally respectable circumstances in life hide darker tendencies — ranging from deep misanthropy to murder. Somehow they managed to keep the audience on their side no matter what violent, illegal or twisted thing they did. And nowhere have antiheroes been more rewarded…
Melissa McCarthy is a firm believer in the comedy genre’s ability — need, even — to periodically poke the bear. And in her estimation, no show does that better than Saturday Night Live. Thanks to a red-hot political season, led by guest stars Alec Baldwin (as President Trump) and McCarthy (as press secretary Sean Spicer), NBC’s late-night stalwart enjoyed renewed relevance and its best ratings in 23 years — not to mention the frequent 140-character attention of Trump. McCarthy, 46, whose previous SNL guest turns have earned her four Emmy nominations, spoke with THR about “Spicey” and her other guest role — playing an over-the-top version of herself — on TV Land’s Nobodies, which she and husband Ben Falcone executive produce. How did you prep to play Spicer? I had…
Talk to some of the top female directors working in television — where women are at the helm far more often than in film — and you’ll hear a lot about the importance of boundary pushing and risk-taking in the era of Peak TV. In some cases, that means giving voices to protagonists who historically have had little screen time (as in Queen Sugar). In others, it means making fearless visual choices (witness The Handmaid’s Tale) or boldly experimenting with narrative form (I Love Dick). This flexibility is the best possible by-product of the prestige programming arms race happening right now. With so many outlets competing for viewers, the way to stand out in the crowd is to tell stories that are funnier, smarter, more relevant and compelling — and…
COMEDY DRAMA Becky Ann Baker GIRLS (HBO) Baker has played Loreen Horvath, Hannah’s (Lena Dunham) mother, throughout the series. Season four saw Loreen’s marriage fall apart after her husband came out as gay. In season six and the series finale, she tries to help Hannah come to grips with being a mom herself. FAVORITE THING ABOUT HER CHARACTER “I’ve had friends whose husbands have died when they were in their 50s, or their marriages have fallen apart. I think that Loreen, right now, is still trying to figure it out. I don’t think she has any easy answers at all. I’ve definitely grown. There’s been the character-building and a lot of my own growth. What’s great about the way the writers wrote this last whole season is that I don’t think…
Consider Jean-Marc Vallee the Energizer Bunny of the directing trade. The French-Canadian helmer, 54, started working on HBO’s limited series Big Little Lies two years ago, when his film Demolition was released. From Lies, he jumped back into directing yet another HBO limited series, the upcoming Amy Adams-starring Sharp Objects (still in production). He’s figured out a way to keep going and going: “I’ve got a whole team, including a massage therapist, to keep the machine working,” he jokes. He spoke with THR about collaborating with Lies producerstars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman and showrunner David E. Kelley on the series, which tackled domestic abuse, bullying, adultery and other fraught topics head-on. How has the reaction to Big Little Lies been since the season ended? It’s a very good reaction.…
DOC SERIES Chef’s Table NETFLIX Each episode of this globe-trotting series focuses on a chef’s handiwork. The most surprising thing to me about making Chef’s Table is how little our show is actually about cooking. Often, when we would try to put in a scene that was particularly technical or instructional, it kind of fell flat. Only when the cooking was personal, when it reflected an element of the chef's journey through life, did we find that it mattered in our edits. It’s not about what they cook, but why they cook. This philosophy came to its fullest realization in our episode about Jeong Kwan, a nun who practices Buddhism through her cooking in a monastery nestled in the verdant mountains of South Korea. She doesn’t even have a restaurant.…
