Credit: FX

LOS ANGELES, February 22, 2010 —  FX has given the go ahead for a second season of its critically acclaimed animated series Archer, announced Nick Grad, executive vice president of original programming, FX Networks.  The network increased the episode order to 13 for season two, which is scheduled to debut in 2011.

Archer (TV-MA) has three new episodes slated for air this season. Through seven episodes the series is averaging 1.2 million total viewers, 853,000 adults 18-49 and 573,000 adults 18-34. This Thursday, Feb. 25, FX will air the “Four-Play Marathon,” four episodes of Archer from 10-midnight. Archer will return with new episodes on Thursday, March 4, at 10pm and the season-one finale airs on March 18.

“Executive producers Adam Reed and Matt Thompson are delivering a hilarious series and it truly earned a second season,” Grad said. “H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell and Judy Greer comprise one of the best voice casts of any animated series on TV. We’re very happy with the audience response and critical acclaim for Archer and are excited to move forward with it.”

Archer was created by Adam Reed and Floyd County Productions and is executive produced by Reed and Matthew Thompson. The show is produced by FX Productions. FX ordered 10 episodes for its first season.

“We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to make a second season of Archer,” said Reed, “and grateful that FX has enough faith in the show to allow it to build an audience.  Excelsior!”

Categories: Animation, Comedy by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Reed, Aisha Tyler, Archer, Chris Parnell, FX, H. Jon Benjamin, Jessica Walter, Stacey Harrison

Los Angeles, Calif. — To help promote the release of its newest original drama series Justified, FX has launched the interactive online game Justified Pursuit: The Scavenger Hunt Sweepstakes, giving players the chance to win cash prizes and clothing from Stetson. Justified premieres on FX Tuesday, March 16, at 10pm E/P.

At www.Justifiedthepursuit.com, players will sign up as “deputies” in Harlan County, Ky., and collect clues to track a fugitive.  The game leads participants through 16 sightings in the pursuit of fictional bank robber, Jarrett Lee Cook. On the way, they will learn key elements about the series and unlock hidden content from the show. Each player will be assigned a virtual deputy desk and tracking map to follow the sightings. The final clue will be revealed in the series premiere on March 16.

Participants will receive an entry into the sweepstakes for every sighting they enter. Four winners will be selected:  1 Grand Prize winner will receive a $5,000 reward and a $500 wardrobe from Stetson that will include a hat, pair of boots, jeans, and a shirt.  Three first prize winners will receive $1,000 as well as the $500 Stetson wardrobe.

In Justified, Timothy Olyphant stars as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens,  a true-blue hero born and reared in the hill country of eastern Kentucky, who left at age 19 to become a U.S. Marshal.  Now, years later, after shooting a gun thug in Miami hotel and thereby incurring the wrath of his Marshals Service superiors, Raylan has been sent in punishment (and by fate?) to the one place to which he vowed he would never return — Kentucky. But, being back in Kentucky, Raylan will also have to confront a past crowded with enough skeletons to choke a graveyard.

Check back here in the coming days for our interview with best-selling novelist Elmore Leonard, who created the character of Raylan Givens in his books Pronto and Riding the Rap.

Categories: Drama by sharrison76
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Tags: Elmore Leonard, FX, Justified, Justified Pursuit: The Scavenger Hunt, Raylan Givens, Stacey Harrison, Stetson, sweepstakes, Timothy Olyphant

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX

The title of the season finale is an Irish term for “the troubles,” referring to the longstanding ethno-political conflicts that plagued the two Irelands and England through much of the latter half of the 20th century. In other words, brace yourself.

This Chinese box of a wrap-up may have one too many coincidences and contrivances, but I’ll be damned if you’re not too busy picking your jaw up off the floor to get too upset. There is no cheating here — blood is frequently, shockingly, spilled — and it all ends with one of the more shocking cliffhangers I can remember.

The surprises come fast and furious, starting off with the truth about Zobelle. He and his daughter, Polly, are cut loose from prison quicker than a celebutante. When Unser confronts Stahl about it, and lets her know about Gemma’s rape, Stahl calculates her options and tells Unser that Zobelle is an FBI informant, giving them leads to catch corrupt politicians and well-connected Aryans. So he’s untouchable … at least till the Mayans and Aryans find out. In the meantime, Alvarez and his crew are guarding their investment and protecting Zobelle from SAMCRO. Unser lets Clay know immediately about Zobelle being a rat, and the word is quickly put out to Otto in prison, where it eventually will reach the Aryans’ ears. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Na Triobloidi, Recap, Ron Perlman, SAMCRO, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

"Lawman" is now titled "Justified" and will premiere in March on FX

LOS ANGELES, December 1, 2009 — FX’s midseason schedule features a lineup of new and returning original series, kicking off 2010 with the final season of the Emmy^® and Golden Globe^® award winning drama Nip/Tuck on Wednesday, Jan. 6; the new animated comedy Archer debuting on Thursday, Jan. 14; and the third season of the Emmy and Golden Globe award winning drama Damages on Monday, Jan. 25. FX’s new drama Justified (formerly Lawman) starring Timothy Olyphant debuts in March, and the new comedy Louie, starring Louis C.K., will launch in the spring.

Nip/Tuck, The Final Season, premieres on Wednesday, Jan. 6. The final nine episodes of the groundbreaking series’ seventh season will air consecutively on Wednesday nights at 10pm ET/PT. The series finale — Nip/Tuck’s 100th episode — will air on Wednesday, March 3. Guest stars for the final season include Melanie Griffith, Joan Rivers, Mario Lopez, Frances Conroy, Donna Mills and Joan Van Ark. [Read more →]

Categories: Animation, Comedy, Documentary by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Reed, Aisha Tyler, Archer, Campbell Scott, Damages, Dylan Walsh, Elmore Leonard, FX, Glenn Close, H. Jon Benjamin, Julian McMahon, Justified, Lawman, Louie, Louis C.K., Martin Short, Midseason, Nip/Tuck, Raylan Givens, Rose Byrne, Stacey Harrison, Tate Donovan, Ted Danson, Timothy Olyphant

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

By Stacey Harrison

The penultimate episode this season is one long call to battle, with the opening musical montage consisting of the West Coast chapters of SAMCRO coming together to assemble a task force to fight Zobelle and The League, while the old ladies — yes, Tara included — stand by their men to the plaintive swoon of “Someday Never Comes.”

It’s all headed toward an epic throwdown between the Sons and Weston’s faction of The League, all orchestrated by a united Jax and Clay fully in control of their dispute with the neo-Nazis for the first time. They tell Weston about Zobelle’s buddying up with the Mayans to run the heroin trade, in order to get the right-hand man to turn on his leader. They then turn Family Services onto Weston’s kids, resulting in having them hauled away in front of him. That’s when they confront Weston, let him know that they’re aware of his role in Gemma’s rape, and Jax challenges him to a fight, his best 10 against their best 10. No weapons. They also get the better of Stahl yet again, thwarting her latest attempt to catch them with a bunch of guns, instead making Cameron’s decision to cooperate and go against Jimmy O look like a fatal mistake. They’re also able to get the Chinese and the Niners to enter into an agreement that restores order and brings SAMCRO a lot more protection. All in all, some pretty fancy maneuvering. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Recap, Ron Perlman, SAMCRO, Sarah Jones, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison, The Culling

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

You always knew Opie would find out. But what would he do about it? Would he do what most of us believe we would do, and quit the group that sanctioned and carried out his wife’s murder? As each character in this show can attest, the ties to SAMCRO run deep, and not even Donna’s death can come between Opie and his gang.

Maybe it has something to do with how he found out. Having Tig break down out of guilt — which was compounded by a near-miss sexual encounter with Gemma that really came out of left field — and spill his guts probably put Opie in a better frame of mind to put the blame on Stahl. His decision to stalk her, put a gun to her head but not actually kill her sums up his character nicely — along with his stopping short of killing the judge’s son a few episodes back. Opie looks mean, and is willing to get his hands dirty, but he just ain’t a killer. As he puts it, “The outlaw had mercy.” [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, Ethan Zobelle, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Kim Coates, Recap, Ron Perlman, Ryan Hurst, SAMCRO, Service, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

A few recaps ago, I lamented that Sons of Anarchy seemed to be resorting too often to that tired cliché of action movies, wherein a character gets shot or maimed but never killed. This allows the story to mine some cheap dramatic tension without really delivering on any sense of danger. So when Chibs narrowly escaped a van explosion, only to slowly recover in the hospital, I wondered why they didn’t just off him. Really, Chibs hasn’t been much of a factor to this point, so couldn’t we have done away with him and raised the stakes a bit?

Consider me chastened. The writers had big plans for our former IRA friend, and his arc this episode (and the next), instantly rank up there with the most suspenseful and heartfelt of the series. Watching him sit down with the infamous Jimmy O, the IRA kingpin who banished him from the Emerald Isle and, for good measure, took his wife and kid, was bone-chilling and infuriating. Jimmy wants a sit-down with Clay to repair the relationship between their organizations, but doesn’t deign to set it up himself. Instead, he strong-arms Chibs into doing it, saying that Fiona is starting to lose her looks, and that the daughter, Carrie Anne, is starting to look appetizing. That’s enough to send Chibs to Agent Stahl, taking her up on her offer of flipping evidence on Jimmy O in exchange for protection for his family. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Charlie Hunnam, Chibs, FX, Hallucinogenic mushrooms, IRA, Katey Sagal, Recap, Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Mike Muller / FX

As Gemma Teller, the tough-as-nails matriarch of a California biker gang, Katey Sagal makes you all but forget the years she spent on the couch, eating Bon Bons and emasculating Al Bundy on Married With Children. Now in her second season on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, Sagal is in the midst of a gut-wrenching emotional arc. In the season’s first episode, she was abducted and gang-raped by members of the white separatist group looking to run SAMCRO out of town. But instead of telling anyone, and letting the attack have its desired effect of pushing the club into mindless revenge, she kept quiet. All the while, she’s watched tensions between her son, Jax (Charlie Hunnam), and husband, Clay (Ron Perlman) nearly destroy the club from within.

Sagal talked with reporters recently about her character’s trials and tribulations, and the show’s meteoric rise in the ratings this season:

On whom Gemma would side with between Clay and Jax: “I think it’s a tough question. Her allegiance is to everybody. I mean, you know, what she’s desperately fighting for, in my opinion, is to protect the whole system. This is her life, the whole thing. In my backstory of Gemma, she has nowhere else that she’s come from. I mean, where she’s come from, she doesn’t want to go back to, so her loyalty is to the entire situation. I would imagine if she really had to choose, oh, gosh. I really don’t know. I would say her son. That’s what I would say, but you never know with her.” [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Charlie Hunnam, FX, Gemma Teller, Katey Sagal, Peg Bundy, Ron Perlman, SAMCRO, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

The Sons are still reeling from the vicious murder of Luann, and — not surprisingly — failing to turn their energies into positive action. Instead, Clay seizes the opportunity to denounce the club’s involvement in the porn biz, saying their gunrunning business can get back on track with the Chinese. This maneuver has the added bonus of pissing off Jax. Never mind that the ultimate source of the guns is Hamas. Jeez.

Jax has other problems, though, after delivering the bad news to Otto in prison. Otto’s basically blind, but still is mad enough about Jax provoking Georgie that he tells him to bugger off. Georgie and his crew have split, off to Thailand on a “buying trip,” so retaliation will have to wait.

Clay goes ahead with his order to shut down the porn biz after word comes down that several of Luann’s girls, including Ima, were busted for prostitution while seemingly working on contract to Darby. Jax confronts Clay in front of the gang, and just when you think it can’t get any uglier between the two of them, Jax comes out with the line, “You are really going to stand there and lay the guilt of a dead wife on me?” Remembering Clay’s promise to kill Jax if he ever mentioned Donna again, Jax gives Clay a gun and spreads his arm, daring him to shoot. He doesn’t, but he does go so far as to pick up the gun.   [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, Fa Guan, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Recap, Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

Not to be too bloodthirsty, but it’s about time somebody died for real on Sons of Anarchy. After all these catastrophic injuries to minor characters who easily could have been written out, one would hate to think Sons was going the way of Heroes, not letting anyone really die. I have no objection to not killing people, just please stop gravely injuring them frequently enough that we never feel they’re in any real danger.

Now this episode’s death, which had been rumored to be of a character that had been present since the beginning of the show, isn’t as earth-shattering as it could have been, but it does bring the danger back a little bit.

Speaking of danger, Tara and Jax’s relationship seems to be hitting a rough patch, with her confronting Jax about his stated desire to change the club vs. the continual violence she sees. He tells her change will take time, but how long is she willing to wait? It’s starting to hurt her at work, too, with her boss making it very clear she doesn’t approve of the bikers and low-lives always coming to see her at the hospital. Gemma does not help matters by having a “passionate conversation” with the woman, leading Tara to tell Gemma off at a hastily arranged dinner designed to soothe over the boiling tensions. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Potlatch, Recap, Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy