Entries Tagged as 'HBO'

Black History Month 2010 programming

Here are a few notable programs airing in February to celebrate Black History Month. Check back for further updates throughout the month.

Black Experience On Demand On Demand (check your local cable system On Demand lineup for availability). In recognition of Black History Month in February, the nation’s content providers and cable companies are providing digital cable customers with On Demand access to hundreds of programs and movies, specifically focused on the black experience and history. Multiple genres of programming are available as a part of this “Black Experience On Demand” initiative, including movies, music, biographies, documentaries, news and television series.  Shows will be accessible via the On Demand feature whenever the viewer chooses. Viewers can access these programs in a “Black Experience” or “Black History” folder from their Cable On Demand menus. Participating cable companies include Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Insight, Mediacom and Time Warner Cable. Click here to download a lineup of shows airing on certain On Demand channels.

Black Cinema On Demand Movies on Demand (check your local cable system On Demand lineup for availability). During February, this new category of Movies on Demand includes some of the most acclaimed and influential films created by or featuring the most celebrated black directors, actors and themes. Movies include: How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Brown Sugar, Facing Ali, Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself, More Than a Game, Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, Amistad, Do the Right Thing, Ray, The Best Man, Malcolm X, The Color Purple, Akeelah and the Bee and Blood Diamond.

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New OrleansPBS; check your local listings throughout February. Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans newspaperman, takes viewers on a tour of the city in what becomes a reflection on the relevance of history folded into a love letter to his storied neighborhood, Faubourg Tremé. Arguably the oldest black neighborhood in America and the birthplace of jazz, Faubourg Tremé was home to the largest community of free black people in the Deep South during slavery and a hotbed of political ferment. Here, black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor cohabitated, collaborated and clashed to create America’s first civil rights movement and a unique American culture.

banished

Independent Lens: Banished

Independent Lens: “Banished” PBS; check your local listings throughout February. This is the story of three counties that forcefully banished African-American families from their towns 100 years ago - and the descendents who return to learn a shocking history. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: A dick and a dream; fight the honey

By Stacey Harrison

It almost seemed odd this being the season finale of Hung. Didn’t really feel like it had been building up to much. Not like True Blood or anything. But it does get down to some serious business in this last half-hour, starting off with Tanya absorbed in a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking. Her mellow is harshed by an infestation of flies in her home, an infestation she makes into a literary metaphor for her life turning in to dead meat. She’s so upset that she rushes out in the middle of the night to Ray’s tent and tells him she’s deathly afraid of being alone. Her boyfriend (Pierce — remember him?) is somewhere in Cuba and everyone in her life seems to be abandoning her. Thank God she has Ray. Tanya may not be the best pimp, but she’s an expert at laying on the guilt.

Ray assures her he’s not leaving her, but the next day he’s having a power lunch with Lenore, who points out all the rich, horny ladies sitting in the restaurant — women Lenore could set him up with to make a mint. Problem is, Lenore’s proposition is absolute: It’s either her or Tanya. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: This Is America; Fifty Bucks

By Stacey Harrison

Ray is lecturing some detention students on making wrong choices in life (”detention now leads to jail later”) when in walks Damon looking extra goth and with a friend looking the same. Ray asks him out in the hall to see what’s going on and learns that Damon didn’t actually do anything to deserve detention. He just wanted to hang out with his friend, Powell. Ray is unnerved, wondering what’s going on with the Dame-ster, when the kid pops off and asks his dad if he’s homophobic. That pretty much ends the discussion. Later, Damon and Darby are climbing a rock wall (Jessica’s latest attempt to bond, for which she gave up Pilates) and Darby asks him if he’s had sex with the guy yet. He says no. Not yet.

Ray mentions it to Tanya, saying he thinks Damon might be “a gay.” She tells him to lighten up, that he might just be experimenting, like she did this one time in college. That’s a little too much information for Ray, who tries to steer their meeting back to business, and as Tanya is telling Ray they might have to lower their price a bit to accommodate the bad economy, she gets a call from Pierce. He’s in Cuba, apparently. Tells her not to worry. It’s a long story, and he’ll tell her all about it when he gets back in a few days. He’s gotta run, see. He’s running out of minutes on his phone. The fact that she still refers to him as her boyfriend after this call says a lot about poor Tanya. Ray shoots down the idea of lowering his price, saying he still needs lots of cash to fix his house and get his kids back. [Read more →]

“Hung” recap: Thith Ith a Prothetic; You C… Just Right

By Stacey Harrison

Ray is slow to take the hint that Jemma isn’t really interested in a non-financial relationship, calling her several times from the dock before deciding to leave. But the second his cell phone rings, he runs to get a reception, only to have her say they should slow down. Again, he doesn’t take the hint.

Feeling bummed, he decides to take Jessica up on her offer to host him for dinner. Just Ray, his ex-wife and her new husband, his ex-mother-in-law and his two kids smack dab in the middle of adolescent madness. Should go swimmingly, eh? It starts out civil enough, with Ray and Ron even seeming to be on the same side in disapproving of Damon’s new tongue stud. Jessica says it’s a method of self-expression (she read about it on the Internet!), which must also account for his dyed hair and bleached skin. Ron also seems to be suspicious that Jessica and her mom have been shuffling through his papers, since they seem to be out of place more often. That must have been weighing on him when Ray stops in the kitchen while Ron is doing the dishes, and their strained small talk soon leads to Ray asking Ron how a nerd like Ron could steal a girl from a stud like Ray. And that leads to Ray being asked to leave. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: The Rita Flower; The Indelible Stench

By Stacey Harrison

©2008 HOME BOX OFFICE Credit: Chuck Hodes

©2008 HOME BOX OFFICE Credit: Chuck Hodes

Ray takes Jemma (I know, I’ve been spelling it wrong) to see his tent. She seems a bit confused at first, but is soon making out with him by the lantern light. Then they’re doing a lot more. It all feels very real to Ray, not just a business transaction, but the pile of cash on the sleeping bag in the morning says otherwise.

Tanya is soaking her sorrows at a bar, still incredulous at Floyd’s rejection of her nonexistent advances. At her lowest point, a nearby patron notices her Proust tattoo. He then comes over to her and begins sweet-talking her, eventually kissing her full-on. His name is Pierce, which seems perfect.

Ray comes over to Tanya’s to give her a share of the payment from Jemma, only to find Pierce has spent the night. They also have some sort of disagreement, but that seems par for course. Whatever it is, it spurs Ray to the marketplace to try to drum up business. After a few hilariously awkward attempts that end quickly, he tries again only to find it’s Jessica. They have some pleasant small talk, and she invites him over for dinner sometime. Anytime, actually. His spirits are lifted enough to give Jemma a call and persuade her to go out on a real date. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: Doris is dead; Are we rich or are we poor

By Stacey Harrison

Gemma is back, amping up the crazy. She has Ray (Jim) meet her for a session with her therapist. She begins railing at him about what he did to her, and how his father’s money is like vomit in his throat. Ray tries to play along, giving as good as he gets, and Gemma storms out, pays him a nice bit of cash and goes on her way. Ray’s pretty happy with the arrangement, but Tanya feels there must be a protocol here.

Against Ray’s advice — he’s all for letting a good thing alone — Tanya confronts Gemma at her office. Gemma is, shall we say, dismissive, telling “Terry” that she’s just going to ignore her and keep scheduling appointments with Ray however she chooses. Tanya loses her cool and fires Gemma as a client, whatever that means. She also lets slip Ray’s real name.

Jessica pushes Ron to know the true state of their finances, but he’s still vague, settling on telling her they’re not rich but they’re not poor either. And that he would be happy to buy her something. Not satisfied, Jessica and her mother go snooping around Ron’s office at the house to try to get some answers. They ultimately find a document that shows Ron has lost more than $800,000 in the stock market. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: Do It, Monkey

By Stacey Harrison

hung_sn1_0609_5So sorry for missing last week’s recap. I was preoccupied covering a minor pop-culture confab out on the West Coast and had to miss one. Long story short: Ray was given a pickle jar full of cash from his supportive student body, but it wasn’t enough to get him the support beam he needed to start repairing his house. He also got a cold from sleeping out in his back yard and used it as an excuse not to sleep with an overweight client. But he sucked it up and did his job, accepting his role as a man whore.

This week starts out with a bit of chicanery on the viewer. Ray plays Good Samaritan to a damsel in distress making a rather pathetic attempt to change her tire during a rainstorm. Look a little closer and you might have noticed it was Natalie Zea, who played the hyper-sexual celebutante Karen Darling on the soon-to-be-departed Dirty Sexy Money. Here, she’s blonde and apparently normal. At least it seems that way until the quick cut to her and Ray going at it in a cafe bathroom. During the postcoital meal, Ray introduces himself as Randal, a book editor, and invites his new lady out to a movie. She shoots him down, saying she’s got a boyfriend. [Read more →]

“Hung” recap: Strange friends; the truth is, you’re sexy

By Stacey Harrison

hung_sn1_1The mystery of Ray’s missing wallet deepens when he and Tanya head over to the house where he and Lenore conducted their transaction only to find she doesn’t live there. In fact, the elderly gentleman who answers the door has no idea who she is. Tanya tries to soothe Ray’s nerves, assuring him she’ll get to the bottom of it. She finally tracks down Lenore, who thinks Tanya has come to her apartment to attend brunch. After getting all huffy and indignant, Lenore returns Ray’s wallet but without any cash. Then she refuses to pay for his night of services and pretty much slams the door in poor T-Brain’s face.

Being the good pimp (friend) she is, Tanya puts $300 in the wallet and tells Ray that Lenore had a great time and would be recommending him to all her rich, lonely clients. That puts a smile on his face and a spring in his step until he gets to the gas station and realizes his credit card has been maxed out. Because someone put $400 on it. As if that’s not enough to sour Ray’s day, his jerky neighbor Koontz is hassling him for every little thing. The latest is filing indecency complaints for Ray’s habit of urinating into the lake. The cops show up and tell Ray he also needs to inform the city about his tent, which after having been up more than a week, needs to be in compliance with a city ordinance. Well, at least he’s got someone coming to fix the house, right? Um, not anymore. His former Wolfpack teammate/contractor begs off and takes another job, so Ray summons up some courage and — while defiantly relieving himself into the lake and giving Koontz the one-finger salute — he decides to fix the house himself. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: Great Sausage; Can I Call You Dick?

By Stacey Harrison

First off, let me say how bummed I am to find out Hung is just a half-hour show. They fooled us with that magnificent hour-long pilot. Seems like the show could handle the (ahem) length, but if the quality of the show stays like this, we’ll take what we can get.

Ray’s school is laying off teachers — the entire art department, in fact. But Ray’s not worried about his job. After all, basketball is more important than art. But then he gets called into the principal’s office, but not for any termination. Just a garden-variety chewing out. [Read more →]

“Hung” Recap: Pilot

By Stacey Harrison

hung_11It doesn’t take long to spot an Alexander Payne project. Whether he’s shooting in his native Omaha (Election, About Schmidt), California’s wine country (Sideways) or in this case, post-industrial Detroit, the director instills such a sense of place in everything he does that it becomes impossible to picture them happening anywhere else. With Hung, we open on Motor City landmarks being torn down and other sights of urban decay, while Ray Drecker begins his narration with, “Everything’s falling apart. And it all starts right here in Detroit, the headwaters of a river of failure.”

Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) is a former high-school basketball phenom gone to seed, now teaching history at his former school and coaching the team he once starred on. He gives his West Lakefield Tigers a pep talk that revolves around a dung beetle and begins to lead them out to the court when he doubles over in pain. Handing off coaching duties to his assistant, he makes his way out to his Jeep, but not to visit a doctor. He heads into the city, into his first day working in “the oldest profession.” How did he get here? [Read more →]