Tom Hiddleston, Jean Smart, Juliana Margulies, Emmy Roundtable

What Can Matthew Goode Bring to Downton Abbey Season 6?

MOVIE PILOT
by Peter Flynn ⋅ Posted on May 6th, 2015 at 6:46am



Matthew Goode is now in Downton Abbey! I can't stress enough what great casting that is! Of all the choices of well-mannered slightly adorable classy men, he fits the show perfectly. Tom Hiddlesdon? Too widely loved. Ben Wishaw? Too tasteful (dude was Paddington, y'know!) But Matthew Goode? He's the perfect culmination of tacky class. He's like a well-refined savant Ken Doll, and I would love him to return for Downton Abbey Season 6.

If his other main project, The Good Wife permits, we may well see more of Matthew Goode in Season 6. What might Downton Abbey gain from this precious porcelain man returning to our screens?

He Has Chemistry With Lady Mary!

Lady Mary's exploits, and the men those exploits rope in are where the sexy elements of Downton Abbey emerge (as sexy as you can expect Downton to be). Matthew Goode's Henry Talbot made his first appearance in the 2014 christmas special. While I'd misunderstood a joke sketch and was thoroughly fed up with the lack of George Clooney on my screen, Matthew Goode suddenly pops up and starts shooting grouse, and I'm in a stupor of wonderment for the rest of the episode.

I can speak for the fans when I say that everyone wanted Henry and Mary's snappy back and forth to be taken further. Their wry chemistry was palpable, and can be taken places, which the show seems to know! Why else would they explicitly address Henry Talbot's perchance for racing cars? It's kinda weird that Mary is totally into this, since it was a car crash that literally killed her ex-husband, Dan Stevens! I'm just not sure why she would be getting all hot and bothered for fast, dangerous machines.

He Can be Sinister

Matthew Goode is a funny actor. Just put him in stuff, and I will laugh at it, like a gnome being photographed going round the world. That said, he has more depth than just being a funny action-figure man, and has shades of lurid ominousness that make him a joy to watch. He could certainly adapt to some of the dark DARK places Downton Abbey is willing to go. Goode's range could tonally do some interesting things to Season 6.

If you want proof of Goode's ability to play the unsettling villain, look no further than Park Chan-Wook's masterful Stoker. His performance as Uncle Charlie is a truly terrifying delight, and if Henry Talbot were to descend into some sort of villainous figure in Season 6, Goode could manage it spectacularly.

READ MORE HERE: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/05/06/what-can-matthew-goode-bring-to-downton-abbey-season-6-2909516?lt_source=external,manual

(SPOILER ALERT) ‘Downton Abbey’ Recap: In the Finale, Mary Meets Mr. Handsome, With a Who Could-Care-Less Attitude (SPOILER ALERT)

NEW YORK TIMES
By LOUIS BAYARD  MARCH 1, 2015 10:37 PM


Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary with  one of the twin Barkers portraying Lady Mary's son, Master George Crawley.Credit Nick Briggs/Carnival Films for Masterpiece

Season 5, Episode 9

Oh, Abbots. It can’t be over, can it? Another season, gone as quickly as a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.

So let us keep sorrow at bay by reminding ourselves: We’ve finally pulled abreast. Oh, sure, those viewers in Britain got their usual three-month head start on us (just as the Brits used to get first crack at the latest Dickens installment). Viewers in the United States who were too impatient to wait for the weekly drip of revelation snapped up their DVDs and sometimes blurted out key plot developments over a few too many Manhattans. They had us in their spoiler-alert grip, Abbots, but no longer. Democracy reigns.

So now that we’re all on the same plane of knowledge, what can we say for sure about this fast-receding season? (For Baron Fellowes’ thoughts, read this.)

Longstanding relationships (the Bateses, Robert and Cora) were tested and left standing. Longstanding plot lines were either resolved (Edith’s daughter) or abruptly discarded (Mary Crowley’s sort-of-not-really love triangle). Characters like Violet, the dowager countess, were enlarged with new layers and backstories; others showed clear signs of outliving their narrative usefulness. From all indications, we have seen the last of:



1) Mary’s dim suitor Tony Gillingham (Tom Cullen), who gets a fine consolation prize in Mabel Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman).

2) Boston-bound Tom Branson (Allen Leech), who has taken longer to quit the scene than Cher.

3) Rose (Lily James) and Atticus (Matt Barber), who are heading off to New York. (Synchronously, Ms. James has veered off toward “Cinderella,” a part she seems genetically modified for.)

One way or another, the Downton family is fragmenting. Just like the Downton estate (headed for subdivision) and the Downton ethos, a victim to those winds of sociopolitical change that Carson (Jim Carter) keeps mumbling on about. As servants like Daisy (Sophie McShera) begin to imagine better lives, as Socialists like Sarah Bunting make scenes in fine dining rooms, as Edwardian ideals give way to harsh postwar realities (excellent historical timeline here), look for the Crawleys and their retinues to feel and fight their own anachronism.

We know they’ll lose, but what’s a historical drama without gallant fools engaged in rear-guard actions? So carry on, you lovely, maddening elitists, along with your lovely, maddening retinues. We’ll be griping and grumbling, and we’ll be watching.

In the meantime, may I suggest just one incremental reform? On the evidence of Episode 9, you need better legal counsel.

I’m sure the Earl of Grantham’s lawyer, George Murray (Jonathan Coy), has a few gray cells poking around in there, but several years after botching the defense of Bates (Brendan Coyle), he seems bound and determined to do the same with Mrs. Bates (Joanne Froggatt), even going so far as to declare the police case against her airtight when — as we all know, Abbots — it has more holes than, well, a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.

Turns out that, when Anna was a teenager, she cut her stepfather-molester with a knife, and while she was never charged, that mysteriously reconstructed incident has created some kind of — oh, I don’t know, “pattern” of violence that will sweep Anna straight to the gallows, and in the name of Perry Mason, can’t some fine lawyerly mind sweep this whole business to sea? Instead, it falls to Bates (Mr. Coyle) to confess to Mr. Green’s murder and then vamoose to Ireland.

Now if Sarah Bunting were still around, I would point out to her that, even without benefit of a welfare state, no one enjoys better job security than the Bateses. It doesn’t matter how much leave they take or how many heinous crimes they’re accused of, their jobs are always kept open, their home fires are kept burning, and free (if incompetent) legal care abounds. Sweden could do no better.

At any rate, Anna is sprung on bail, and Murray declares, “We’re going forward and not backward,” but to me, it feels like we’re on the same leaking story pontoon, which only stays afloat because Baron Fellowes’ legs are kicking as madly as they can. By episode’s end, even he must be a little fatigued because a York publican turns up to give Bates an alibi, and the witness who ID’d Anna sprouts “doubts,” and lo and behold, it’s Christmas, and who should pop out of the mistletoe, as it were, but Bates?

Love emerges when you least expect it, Abbots. Sometimes all it takes (and this will give aid and comfort to Freudians everywhere) is for a lot of men to pull out their big guns. The Sinderbys have rented Brancaster for a weeklong shooting party, and no one is immune. Even Edith (Laura Carmichael) loses a bit of her Mildred Pierce-y daughter fixation and dances a few rounds with agreeable castle agent Bertie Pelham (Harry Hadden-Paton). We wish them both well. (And by the way, Edith needs to let that hair flow. With her locks down to her shoulders, she goes from librarian to licentious.)

But no one is more moved by the sight of men and their gauges than Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery), who finds herself unaccountably aroused by the marksmanship of a handsome stranger named Henry Talbot. Now I don’t mean to crow, but as soon as I heard Matthew Goode was signed up for the final episode, I immediately discerned that his plot function would be roughly the same as it was in “The Good Wife”: to melt the froideur of a stern, ashen, erotically complicated brunette. Sure enough, he shows up on the Northumberland moors without even an establishing close-up but with enough swagger to remind us that Mary needs a chap who looks as good as Tony G but treats her as roughly as Inspector Vyner. “Heavens,” exclaims Mary, watching Talbot climb into his car. “What a snappy chariot.” Now I would’ve thought she’d be a little skittish of automobiles, given how her late husband met his end, but she seems to be all over Henry T and his Bentley.

Amazing to think, Abbots, that after two seasons of arid flirtation and Liverpool lovefests, Our Miss Flint has found someone to spark off. And the secret to his allure? He doesn’t give a damn if she likes him or not. Look for Talbot to stick around.

READ THE ENTIRE RECAP HERE: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/downton-abbey-recap-in-the-finale-mary-meets-mr-handsome-who-could-care-less/?_r=0

Matthew Goode Hits It Big With ‘Good Wife,’ ‘Downton Abbey’ Roles

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By KARA MAYER ROBINSON
Feb. 26, 2015 6:17 p.m. ET


Matthew Goode at Freemans, a restaurant on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. PHOTO: CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

In less than a year, British actor Matthew Goode joined the cast of a critically acclaimed TV drama (“The Good Wife”), appeared in an Oscar-nominated film (“The Imitation Game”) and secured a role in another, equally successful series (“Downton Abbey”).

“It’s been a really good year. There’s no question about that,” said the 36-year-old actor who grew up in England, studied at London’s Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, then performed mainly in theater (“The Tempest”) and film (“Match Point,” “A Single Man”).

Mr. Goode was offered the “Good Wife” role of prosecutor Finn Polmar last winter, just as producers Michelle and Robert King were secretly plotting the exit of one of its lead characters, Will Gardner, played by Josh Charles. He quickly accepted, temporarily moving his family—Sophie, his wife, and daughters Matilda, 5, and Teddy, 1—to New York.

It has been a good run, but Mr. Goode is eager to return to England.

He will pack up his family in April, in time to film the next season of “Downton,” shoot a show about wine with friend and fellow actor Matthew Rhys and prepare for a new arrival. His son is due in August.



WSJ: Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, you...Is there some sort of British actor boom going on?

There’s so much work over here. I think the Americans are much more open-minded than British audiences. But you’ve still got to pull it off. America isn’t just a couple of accents; it’s a vast country with a myriad of different accents and classes. You’ve got to get it right.

WSJ: Was it difficult to step into “The Good Wife” midseason, just as Josh Charles’s character was being killed off?

I never felt like I was stepping into his role. When I discussed it with Robert and Michelle, I said, “I think it would be a mistake to throw me in as this immediate replacement love interest. I think the audience needs to mourn and I don’t think it’s that interesting.”

So far, I like Finn. A lot of the characters are quite arch. You think you know them and suddenly they’ll do something that’s actually quite immoral. It hasn’t happened to Finn yet.

WSJ: How did you acquire your American accent?

I found a bloke on the Internet…this lawyer. He was talking to the press for a good five minutes. I didn’t memorize it, but I watched him. I could just learn his rhythms and what he said.

WSJ: Will you return next season?

I don’t know yet. We haven’t had the discussion. I might, but I’m all about the family, really. You can’t keep uprooting your children all the time.

WSJ: How did your “Downton Abbey” role come about?

I knew a few people in the cast already, like Allen [Leech] from “The Imitation Game.” I met Michelle [Dockery] a long time ago. We had a really good laugh and ended up dancing the night away. It’d been on the cards and suddenly it came to fruition.

I don’t know how long I’m going to be doing it, but the game is afoot. My character’s a guy called Henry Talbot. That’s all we know so far.



WSJ: “The Imitation Game” has caused quite a stir. What are your thoughts about it?

The story of Alan Turing is fascinating. We see that he thinks differently, we see that he has an incredible mind. Ultimately, he wins the Second World War. And for his efforts, because he likes to make love with men…?

Because Alan Turing achieved this incredible thing, he’s been pardoned by the queen. What about pardoning the other 49,000 men who you condemned for just being gay? There’s a petition you can sign. They wanted to get 49,000 signatures and I think it’s on its way to 100,000.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.wsj.com/articles/british-actor-matthew-goode-hits-it-big-with-good-wife-downton-abbey-roles-1424992619

Matthew Goode: A Goode addition to 'The Good Wife'

By SARAH LYALL , NEW YORK TIMES
January 05, 2015 - 3:17 PM



Lovers of “The Good Wife” found the death last spring of Will Gardner, everyone’s favorite sexily arrogant lawyer, shocking and traumatic. But even as they adjusted to the cold new reality (Will was never coming back), they were struck by a frisson of something that felt, inappropriately, like delight.

It arrived in the form of Finn Polmar, a sweet and morally upright prosecutor whose entrance just as Will was exiting provided solace to the audience and the grieving characters in the show. If this sudden attraction seemed disloyal — Will is dead; long live Someone Other Than Will — then so be it.

What does Finn, aka British actor Matthew Goode, make of all this?

“You can’t replace Will — you can’t replace a character who’s that influential and that loved,” Goode said. “But what they have tried to do with Finn was make him be one of the few people so far on the series who doesn’t have hidden agendas, who is sort of morally unambiguous.”

Goode, 36, let a wicked smile cross his face. “Although you might find out he’s a coke dealer in a couple of weeks,” he said. “Things can flip quite quickly on this show.”

‘Spectacular sense of humor’

Things can also flip quite quickly in Goode’s life. Long one of those slightly under the radar actors who log one impeccable performance after another, Goode suddenly is showing up all over the place.

Perhaps best known in America for his turn as Colin Firth’s longtime boyfriend in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” Goode in the past few years has played (briefly but memorably) a dashing 18th-century naval captain in “Belle,” the caddish Wickham in the BBC adaptation of P.D. James’ “Death Comes to Pemberley” and a charming yet psychopathic uncle in the thriller “Stoker.”

Most recently, he has injected a little sex appeal into “The Imitation Game,” playing a brilliant and flirtatious code breaker, a welcome foil to Benedict Cumberbatch’s aggressively unflirtatious Alan Turing.

But it is in “The Good Wife” — where he enjoys smoldering, get-a-room chemistry with the title character, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) — that Goode truly has made his mark. Now into its sixth season, the series remains a favorite of audiences and critics, even though Alicia is not behaving with particular goodness (or wifeliness) these days.

Charles’ decision to leave last season deprived the show of one of its most enticing plot lines, Will and Alicia’s steamily tortured on-again-off-again relationship. In looking for a replacement, show runners Michelle and Robert King sought to introduce a character of a different sort, someone who was cerebral and slyly disarming, in contrast to Will’s street-smart scrappiness.

“We wanted someone who was witty in court, who didn’t hit you with brass knuckles but when you weren’t looking might devastate you with his wit,” Robert King said.

They had seen Goode in various productions, including the pilot of the short-lived Ridley Scott miniseries “The Vatican.” They hired him without even meeting.

“He had this spectacular sense of humor on the phone, and that’s what Julianna is into — she likes having a good time with someone who is funny,” King said. “You want someone who is not too unctuous in his acting, who can take a U-turn from drama to comedy in a moment.”



Claret, veggies and marriage

Goode in person was not unctuous at all and had the added bonus of speaking in his real English-accented voice. He had all but disguised himself under a pair of large dark-framed eyeglasses and a floppy wool cap. He had just taken a shower and felt unhappy about his hair. “I’m not a blow-dry kind of guy,” he said.

Neither is he the kind of guy eager to discuss his career, necessarily. Instead he cheerfully digressed on various subjects: the asparagus, potatoes and other produce he helped cultivate as a child at his father’s garden; the oeuvre of Aaron Sorkin; a bottle of claret he bought on eBay; his success in quitting smoking and switching to e-cigarettes; the television program about wine he has signed up to film in France with his friend Matthew Rhys (the star of “The Americans” with whom he drank the claret); the joys of the Golf Channel, and the winsomeness of his wife, Sophie Dymoke, and two young daughters, Matilda and Teddie.


READ MORE HERE:http://m.startribune.com/entertainment/tv/287555411.html?section=/entertainment

Downton Abbey spoilers: ****** ***** joins cast as Lady Mary's new love interest?

MIRROR
Nov 07, 2014 10:23 By Tufayel Ahmed



Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary is getting a new love interest - and he’s Goode, real Goode.

Watchmen and The Good Wife star Matthew Goode has reportedly signed up to play the widow’s latest suitor in the hit ITV period drama, reports the Daily Mail.

The actor was spotted filming scenes for the Christmas special and it's claimed he will also appear in several episodes of series six which begins filming in February.

A spokesperson for the show confirmed Goode will be in the Christmas special, telling Mirror TV: "Matthew Goode will appear in the Christmas episode as a guest character."

Goode, 36, is currently starring opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley on the big screen in The Imitation Game.

Lady Mary - played by Michelle Dockery - has been fending off potential love matches over the last two series following the death of her husband Matthew Crawley.



READ MORE HERE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/downton-abbey-spoilers-matthew-goode-4584612

Alan Cummings: A host of stars turned out to see Alan Cummings in a new production of the Shakespeare tragedy (E.) BY JOANNA CRAWLEY ON APRIL 22, 201

Alan Cumming has bought his one man production of Macbeth to Broadway (Joseph Marzullo/WENN.com)

Alan Cumming's new production of Macbeth might be a one man show but the Scottish star was supported by a full cast of friends at the opening night on Broadway yesterday with Jodie Foster, Rosario Dawson and Jonny Lee Miller all in attendance.

Cumming, A 1998 Tony winner for his part in Cabaret, opened his play at New York's Ethel Barrymore theatre following sell out runs in Glasgow and the Lincoln Center Festival last year.

The actor's friends and co-stars came out to support his big night with Alan's The Good Wife co-star Julianna Marguiles taking her seat alongside Elementary star Jonny Lee Miller.

READ MORE:  http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/112370/Jodie-Foster-And-Rosario-Dawson-Take-Their-Seats-For-Macbeths-Broadway-Opening-PHOTOS

Daniel Craig with Rachel Weisz & Alan Cumming at BAFTA LA 2012 Britannia Awards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlzciEQINAQ&feature=relmfu

Who Is Michael Fassbender's Girlfriend? 08/31/2012 (INTERVIEW NEWS)

Fans of Michael Fassbender's Shame are intimately familiar with his ability to affect his viewers — but perhaps not as intimately as Fassbender's Shame costar, Nicole Beharie, 27, who met each other on the film. Beharie, whose acting credits include American Violet with Alfre Woodard and short stints on The Good Wife and Law & Order: SVU, played Marianne in Shame, the one woman with whom Fassbender's character tried to go on a "real" date.

READ MORE: http://www.uinterview.com/news/who-is-michael-fassbenders-girlfriend-nicole-beharie-5308

Emmys 2012: How 'Downton Abbey' might affect the drama races By Rick Porter July 11, 2012 7:19 PM ET (ZAP IT)

When the Emmy nominations are announced on July 19, you'll probably see quite a few repeat nominees. It's what the Emmys does, to a large extent, and as discussed previously, it's unlikely that any new shows not named "Homeland" will get a bucketful of nominations.

There is one returning show, however, that has the potential to shake up several races: "Downton Abbey." PBS' British import is moving from the movie/miniseries field to the drama series categories this year, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the show come close to matching the 11 nominations it received in 2011.

If "Downton" scores a big nomination haul, though, that means other shows and performers might get left out in the cold.

Here's a look at how "Downton Abbey" might affect several big drama races at the 2012 Emmys.

Drama series

Chances of a "Downton" nomination: Very high. The TV academy has a long history of embracing PBS' "Masterpiece" offerings both as miniseries and dramas. The show was also something of a phenomenon this season, pushing the public broadcaster's ratings to much higher levels than usual.

2011 nominees: "Boardwalk Empire," "Dexter," "Friday Night Lights," "Game of Thrones," "The Good Wife," "Mad Men" (winner)

Most likely to be pushed out by "Downton": Last year was the swan song for "Friday Night Lights," so let's say the returning "Breaking Bad" gets that spot. With "Downton" and "Homeland" both likely to score series nods, the bet here is that "Dexter" and "Boardwalk Empire" go by the wayside.

READ MORE: http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/07/emmys-2012-how-downton-abbey-might-affect-the-drama-races.html

Sean Connery, Alan Cumming: Independence for Scotland?

EDINBURGH, Scotland, May 25 (UPI) -- Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has launched a drive to encourage his compatriots to vote for independence.

Salmond, who wants a referendum on independence in 2014, was joined at Thursday's event in Edinburgh by actors Alan Cumming and Brian Cox, The Scotsman reported. He also read a message from Sean Connery, possibly the best-known supporter of Scottish independence, who said the launch of the campaign was a "historic day."

About 550 people attended the event, 100 of them reporters. Others were asked to sign a declaration: "I want a Scotland that speaks with her own voice and makes her own unique contribution to the world: a Scotland that stands alongside other nations on these isles, as an independent nation."

Cumming, best-known in the United States as a presenter on the PBS "Masterpiece" series and as political fixer Eli Gold in "The Good Wife," said Scotland has made progress under devolution.

"I believe that independence can only add to that potential and bring a whole new wave of confidence and pride," he added.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/25/Salmond-kicks-off-independence-campaign/UPI-60941337972266/?spt=hs&or=tn

Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery's (no) costume drama in U.S. cover shoot By ALASDAIR GLENNIE (MAIL ON LINE)

Lady Grantham would certainly disapprove. Normally seen in a demure Edwardian costume, Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery has shed her corset for this provocative photo shoot. The British actress marked her arrival as a transatlantic star by posing nude with three stars of the American small screen.

The 30-year-old shares the front cover of May's issue of Vanity Fair magazine with Claire Danes, 32, the star of Channel 4 hit Homeland as well as 45-year-old Julianna Margulies from The Good Wife and Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, 39.

READ MORE:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2124785/Downton-Abbey-star-Michelle-Dockerys-costume-drama-Vanity-Fair-cover-shoot.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

George Hatza's top TV 2011: The best programming responded to the times (Reading Eagle)

George Hatza's top TV 2011: The best programming responded to the times

George Hatza

The world in transition: If there was a theme this past year among television's best programs, this would seem to sum it up. The 10 series/TV movies/miniseries I have chosen as the best of the year all follow central characters who are confronting change in various forms. They are terrified, angry, empowered, grieving, victimized but not complacent. They fight back, some more quickly than others. This metaphor, if you will, speaks with shrewd insight to the age in which we live. Life in this country today is a fearful thing. Despair runs rampant. The nation is divided perhaps more than at any time since the Civil War. Yes, these shows are about terrorists, impending war, hurricanes, crime, disease, mental illness, specters, dirty politics, greed and betrayal. But they also are about building a life in a time when two steps forward always are followed by one step back. In order of preference, the following are the best in television for 2011: 1. "Homeland" - This Showtime series starring the magnificent Claire Danes as bipolar CIA agent Carrie Mathison is riddled with paranoia. A Marine POW, Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), returns heroically from Iraq years after being given up for dead, followed by rumors that he was "turned" by terrorists. Byzantine twists lead to enigmatic dead ends. Is Carrie just nuts, or is Brody about to trigger doomsday? This cable thriller boasts the perfect mix of unpredictable action and rich character psychology. It is never anything less than riveting. 2. "Downton Abbey" - Masterpiece Classic on PBS does what no one else can do, which is to re-create impeccably another time and place. In this dazzling miniseries, returning this month as a regular series, a wealthy British family on the eve of World War I clings to traditions despite crumbling class distinctions that lead to sometimes subtle, sometimes explosive class warfare. Sound familiar? The acting is brilliant (e.g., Maggie Smith), but it's the writing and direction that carry this addictive melodrama to something approaching perfection. 3. "Treme" - Set in the cultural jambalaya of New Orleans, this HBO series about Hurricane Katrina's aftermath continues to startle with its spicy blend of jazz and liquor, violation and corruption, pride and prejudice. The police and public officials betray the population while couples betray one another. The sharp schism between those unaffected by the flood and those still trying to put roofs over their heads proves as heartbreaking as it is infuriating. Location and plot merge seamlessly. 4. "The Big C" - The shocking conclusion of this Showtime comedy's second season still resonates. We watched in awe when Cathy Jamison (the amazing Laura Linney), in the fourth stage of melanoma, finished a marathon. What she found at the end of the race was not what fans of this quirky, intelligent, funny and affecting series would have expected. And that is what makes the series so special. The wit is all in the language, how the characters cloak their anguish in biting humor. 5. "Boardwalk Empire" - It's the roaring '20s, and boy, are they howling in Atlantic City in this epic HBO drama series. Prohibition is in full force, and thus so is crime, as gangsters in fancy suits with names like Capone and Rothstein and Darmody and Luciano and Horvitz battle for control of the booze black market. Blacks want in on the action as well, which leads to all sorts of violence. This Jersey melting pot is run by the wealthy Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (a terrific Steve Buscemi), politician and crook, who has met his match this past season in the deceptively demure Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), his mistress, whom he married in the season finale. If this series has taught us anything, it's that the women don't need guns and fists to get what they want. Their methods are much more sinister and surreptitious. 6. "Dexter" - Now in its sixth season, this ingenious crime series about a Miami police forensics expert and serial killer (the insanely underrated Michael C. Hall) - who ritually murders horrific criminals he believes have escaped justice - keeps getting better. This season it's all about religion and the End of Days as a fanatical Christian artist and killer re-creates biblical tableaux from Revelation leading up to the apocalypse - using his corpses. The plot works on a literal level, but what it suggests is what keeps the series powerfully fascinating. 7. "American Horror Story" - Leave it to FX to come up with something as genuinely terrifying as this. What's so surprising is that it was created by the team who fashioned "Glee." It's gruesome, sexy, disturbing and ultra-violent. A haunted house in Los Angeles is filled with ghosts; just who is dead and who is alive is often a mystery. But one thing is certain: Whoever moves in is changed forever, and there's no escape. Jessica Lange plays the matron of the proceedings, pathologically seeking revenge and power in a world gone mad. She and her cohorts all seem right at home. 8. "The Good Wife" - With the best acting on network TV, this CBS legal/political series is all about who is in control. It takes place in Chicago, of course, where a mother-in-law can wield as much power as a state's attorney. Personal lives spill into the professional realm and vice versa, with the result that no one has any secrets. Julianna Margulies, in her best role yet as lawyer Alicia Florrick, vacillates with heartbreaking yet chilling ease between the courtroom and the bedroom, the office and the home. And Archie Panjabi, as the law firm's mysterious investigator, may just be the most intriguing character on the tube. 9. "Justified" - Once again, FX inhabits territory no one else would dare to touch: the backwoods of Kentucky where meth and perverse sex are a way of life. Timothy Olyphant, as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, gets his strength from his white cowboy hat, not to mention his guns. In the second season, all hell broke loose in a battle with a clan of dealers led by the devious Mags Bennett (a great Margo Martindale). The final two episodes proved a spectacle to behold. Ah, that heady mix of poverty and greed, with a splash of bloody violence, has made America what it is today. 10. "Mildred Pierce" - Kate Winslet's towering performance in this daringly reconceived miniseries (based on the 1945 Joan Crawford melodrama) provided just the right amount of can-do Yankee ambition to wring the sentimentality out of the original sob story. The irony is Winslet's British. You'd never know it, though, as she pulls herself out of Depression-era poverty into postwar wealth only to be deceived by her handsome lover (Guy Pearce) and her devious daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). "Mildred Pierce" is about the hypocrisy of the American Dream. However, as much of the country knows all too well these days, dreams can be shattered. The trick is to find the right one, and in this version, Mildred does. Five runners-up worth honorable mention: ABC's riotous "Modern Family," Showtime's outrageous "Shameless," Fox's inventive "So You Think You Can Dance," Showtime's edgy "Nurse Jackie" and Comedy Central's hilarious, audacious and smart "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." Contact George Hatza: 610-371-5075 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 610-371-5075 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or ghatza@readingeagle.com.

NY Magazine's Top 10 TV shows of 2011

Jihadi double agents, meth mayhem, premium-cable dragons, and dinosaurs that fail to entertain

1. Breaking Bad
Vince Gilligan’s perfectly plotted methodrama kept flying high four seasons in, as once-mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White continued his breakneck moral descent, a chilling trajectory that led to the year’s most memorable, and least hollow, “Holy shit, did that just happen?” moment. Tie-straightening will never be the same again.

2. Downton Abbey
If Jane Austen made TV, it would be something like the first season of Julian ­Fellowes’s British-import late-Edwardian costume drama, bursting with witticisms, romance, a class system, and, stealing her every scene, Dame ­Maggie Smith.

3. Louie
Louie C.K.’s perverse, thoughtful, low-budget FX sitcom feels like being in his peculiar head—where masturbation, heartbreak, the anxiety of fatherhood, and observations about duck vaginas jangle together hilariously. Plus it finally made Dane Cook seem cool.

4. Homeland
A post-9/11 drama with a nuanced worldview and ­national-security perspective, it’s also a thriller that actually thrills. And Claire Danes makes for an extremely convincing hard-nosed, potty-mouthed, mentally ill government agent.

5. The Good Wife
For the first half of the year, The Good Wife was the best drama on television, a realpolitik procedural obsessed with meaty current events and also a serialized drama with a clear-eyed perspective on the sordid things people are capable of.

6. Parks and Recreation
In its third season, Parks and Recreation’s already strong Amy Poehler–led cast got stronger with the additions of Rob “Stop Pooping” Lowe and Adam Scott. The series’s distinctive comedic style forgoes mean-spiritedness and humiliation to celebrate kindness and competence.

7. Friday Night Lights
When coach Eric Taylor, the most decent man ever to anchor a TV show, tried to teach his new football team “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” in the series finale, his signature phrase still packed enough emotional gravitas to bring a tear to the eye.

8. Community
As of this month, Dan ­Harmon’s meta-sitcom Community will go off the NBC schedule. What a shame: There aren’t any other series with the guts or ambition to do a genre-exploding, episode-long homage to My Dinner With Andre that climaxes in an existential epiphany brought about by sudden-onset diarrhea.

9. Justified
Margo Martindale, as a backwoods matriarch, turned into TV’s most richly developed villain—on a show that has no shortage of great bad guys. ­Justifiedperfectly paced a season-long cat-and-mouse game that balanced genre staples with a consistent sense of humor.

10. Happy Endings
Proving yet again that in comedies it’s not concepts but chemistry that counts, what initially seemed like little more than a Friends knockoff developed its own fresh style by filling out its zany gang with heretofore unseen character types, like Adam Pally as an incidentally gay bro, and Damon Wayans Jr. and Eliza Coupe’s horny goofball marrieds.


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Sorry about the last one, Mods! Guess thats what happens when you make a post in the library instead of writing the essay that's due in tomorrow...

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