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TV Review: LOVE BITES – “Modern Plagues”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF 07/22/2011

Michelle Trachtenberg and Bret Harrison in LOVE BITES - "Modern Plagues" | ©2011 NBC/Adam Taylor

Stars: Becky Newton, Greg Grunberg, Constance Zimmer, Michelle Trachtenberg, Bret Harrison, Matt Long, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly Writer: Cindy Chupack Director: Anton Cropper Network: NBC, Thursdays @ 10 PM Airdate: July 21, 2011 If it’s still a little unclear on why someone decided to revive the LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE format – albeit in a much less cartoonish incarnation – in 2011, the results are quite pleasant. While one of our main characters, Annie (Becky Newton) is off on maternity leave while carrying her sister’s child, Annie’s waitress colleague Jodie (Michelle Trachtenberg) has made the big leap, giving up her own […]Read On »

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TV Review: LOVE BITES – “Boys to Men”

By CARL CORTEZ 07/15/2011

Izabella Miko in LOVE BITES - "Boys to Men" | ©2011 NBC/Lewis Jacobs

Stars: Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg, Constance Zimmer Writer: Danielle Sanchez-witzel & Joe Lawson Director: Jamie Babbit Network: NBC, airs Thursday nights Original Telecast: July 14, 2011 I’ve given up on trying to figure out what the hell is going on with LOVE BITES. One week it’s horrendously bad, the next week it’s quite good. The tone has varied, the stories are all of the place, yet, some times it gets everything right. This week, with “Boys to Men”, the series almost feels like the writers have finally broken completely out of their shells and found clever ways of truly connecting […]Read On »

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TV Review: LOVE BITES – “TMI”

By CARL CORTEZ 07/08/2011

Cheryl Hines and Jay Harrington in LOVE BITES - "TMI" | ©2011 NBC/Jordin Althaus

Stars: Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg, Constance Zimmer Writer: Colleen McGuinness Director: John Scott Network: NBC, airs Thursday nights Original Telecast: July 7, 2011 I don’t envy the writers and producers of LOVE BITES – NBC’s summer anthology series about love, romance and other dysfunctional relationship woes. It has to be hard to come up with new characters, situations and scenarios every week and then wrap them around a common theme. With established series, you have regular characters and quirks to carry you through those weeks where nothing is working. Here, outside of three recurring lead (who usually end up […]Read On »

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TV Review: LOVE BITES – “Stand and Deliver”

By CARL CORTEZ 07/01/2011

Beau Bridges and Ben Feldman in LOVE BITES - "Stand and Deliver" | ©2011 NBC/Trae Patton

Stars: Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg, Constance Zimmer Writer: David McHugh, Matt Flannegan Director: John David Cotes Network: NBC, airs Thursday nights Original Telecast: June 30, 2011 It was bound to happen, but LOVE BITES takes a huge step backwards with “Stand and Deliver” after several weeks of striking a nice balance between its characters, storytelling and comedy. Nothing works in “Stand and Deliver,” which is a shame since I think this show has improved considerably since the pilot. The big issue comes back to storytelling and the guest cast – and this week it’s weak on all fronts (aside […]Read On »

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THE VOICE Recap: The Season 1 winner is … (and it’s a sort of shocker)

By CARL CORTEZ 06/30/2011

Javier Colon, Dia Frampton and Carson Daly on THE VOICE - Season 1 - The Finals Results Show | ©2011 NBC/Lewis Jacobs

Network: NBC Original Telecast: June 29, 2011 A one hour results show for THE VOICE? Really? NBC didn’t feel the need to stretch it to two hours plus? What is wrong with these people! Well, all I can say is Thank you! Thank you NBC for the most painless results show in the history of these reality singing competitions After whittling the contestants down to four finalists (one from each of the Coaches Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera), it’s now time to crown a champion. First, every contestant got one more chance to sing – […]Read On »

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TV Review: THE VOICE – Season 1- “The Finals” (Recap & Photos too!)

By CARL CORTEZ 06/29/2011

Adam Levine, Javier Colon, Cee Lo Green, Vicci Martinez, Dia Frampton, Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Beverly McClellan on THE VOICE - Season 1 - "The Finals" | ©2011 NBC/Lewis Jacobs

Network: NBC, airs Tuesday nights Original Telecast: June 28, 2011 Now here’s what an AMERICAN IDOL finale should look like – four worthy performers battling it out for the crown. Four quality singers. Four singers who would all make kick-ass albums. And four coaches who currently have pop cultural relevance and are powerhouses in their own right. Hail THE VOICE. The show kicked off with the four Coaches Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton tackling another Queen song – “Under Pressure” and doing it justice. It was much better than their Queen butchering a couple of […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: COVERT AFFAIRS star Sendhil Ramamurthy becomes a different hero

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 06/28/2011

Sendhil Ramamurthy in COVERT AFFAIRS - Season 1 - "Around the Sun" | ©2011 USA Network/Steve Wilkie

On USA’s COVERT AFFAIRS, now in its second season Tuesdays at 10 PM, Piper Perabo stars as Annie Walker, a relatively new CIA operative. One of her coworkers is more experienced espionage worker Jai Wilcox, played by Sendhil Ramamuthy. The Chicago native was already part of the NBC/Universal family due to his four years as Dr. Mohinder Suresh on HEROES, where his character was dealing with a lot of daddy issues even before he started to get scaly and super-strong. COVERT AFFAIRS allows Ramamurthy to do a number of things that HEROES did not – for starters, he gets to […]Read On »

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TV Review: LOVE BITES – “Sky High”

By CARL CORTEZ 06/25/2011

Eddie McClintock, Ken Jeong, Isaiah Mustafah in LOVE BITES - "Sky High" | ©2011 NBC/Trae Patton

Stars: Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg, Constance Zimmer Writer: Joe Lawson Director: Timothy Busfield Network: NBC, airs Thursday nights Original Telecast: June 23, 2011 How did I end up liking LOVE BITES? Let’s just say by brute force! Being chosen to review the show against my will, and hating the premiere episode, I’m now finding it a pretty agreeable and enjoyable summer time filler. The structure of a weekly romantic anthology series didn’t seem like the best idea in the world at first, but since it’s found a way to have a handful of recurring characters and bringing on a great […]Read On »

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The Dork Side: 5 Reasons THE VOICE is better than AMERICAN IDOL

By SONIA MANSFIELD 06/23/2011

I used to love AMERICAN IDOL. I watched every season. Well, except for this last one. I quit AMERICAN IDOL cold turkey this year, and I never looked back. Honestly, I thought THE VOICE was going to be a lame IDOL ripoff. Instead it has turned out to be a pleasant surprise, addressing many of my problems with AMERICAN IDOL. Not only do I like THE VOICE, I think it is superior to AMERICAN IDOL. Here are the five reasons I think THE VOICE is better than AMERICAN IDOL. 1. THE VOICE isn’t sentimental. No one made it through the […]Read On »

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THE VOICE recap, photos and reveal of the Final Four for Season 1

By CARL CORTEZ 06/22/2011

Blake Shelton, Dia Frampton on THE VOICE - Season 1 - Semi-Finals Results Show | ©2011 NBC/Lewis Jacobs

AMERICAN IDOL has perfected the art of procrastination when it comes to dragging out their results shows. It’s something that’s incredibly annoying and finely tuned week in and week out. Now, NBC’s THE VOICE gets to showcase their first official Results Show during the same week an episode has aired and damn did they get it right. It was mystery meat when it came to how the scores from the coaches and the audience was going to be added together, but the final reveal was actually quite clever. Essentially, the coaches had 100 points to divvy up between both of […]Read On »

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