Timothy Olyphant joins Damages
It was announced today that former Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant has joined the season two cast of FX’s Damages in a season-long arc. This marks Olyphant’s first credited TV cast role since the HBO drama went off the air over two years ago.
Olyphant, who will star with returning cast Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, and Tate Donovan, marks the second addition to the FX drama in just over a week. William Hurt joined the show last Monday.
Olyphant’s character will become involved in the life of Ellen Parsons (Byrne) as she deals with her fiancé David’s murder and the FBI case being mounted against her boss, Patty Hewes (Close). Hurt will play a new client of Hewes.
Season two of Damages went in to production in New York City yesterday and the show returns to FX in early 2009, likely after The Shield’s seventh and final season has concluded.
I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single From Portland to Portland: Episode One (series premiere)
The good thing about this new series is that you know in the first two minutes whether or not you are the audience the show is looking for. All you have to do is ask yourself, “Am I interested in seeing a man forced to go down on a dildo being worn by a dominatrix?” If the answer is yes, keep reading.
The premise of the show is quite simple. Eric Schaeffer wrote a book about being single and trying to find love. When he went on his book tour he decided to make stops along the way, talk to different people about love and relationships and film it all for this documentary.
In case you’ve never heard of Schaeffer, he’s a fairly successful writer and actor. His most recent project was the FX show Starved, which ran for one season. My favorite of his body of work is a short-lived sitcom he starred on with Jeffrey Tambor called Everything’s Relative.
The show is rife with too much information. I’m sure Schaeffer finds a lot of humor in his stories about masturbation and being anally violated but for me it’s sort of like having a friend who you’ve known for a short while tell you something personal you never wanted to know, like he enjoys being anally violated.
Right after Eric arrives in Los Angeles he calls Amy, a girl he met online, so they can get together and have dinner. Amy is one of the few women that Eric thinks he could have a relationship with. When we get to see her in person, it’s clear that she isn’t very comfortable on camera. Personally, I can’t blame her. If you’ve ever seen Schaeffer act, you know that he generally plays an obsessive, self- involved chatterbox and his behavior in this documentary is basically the same. Maybe he’s playing it up for the camera but it seems to me that if he is really looking for a relationship then this experiment is not the way to go about it.
At the halfway point in the first episode, I have already had enough of Eric. Maybe it’s because I am a single guy myself and I have a lot less at my disposal to help me snare a lady, but his compulsive, self-destructive routine doesn’t really impress me.
Not to cast aspersions but I also have my doubts about the “reality” of the show. While it’s clearly unscripted, it seems that many scenes are planned out in order to demonstrate Eric’s food addiction or his fear of aging. Like most of you, I can spot that kind of stuff a mile away.
Another annoying part of the show are the multiple interviews Eric has with his longtime dominatrix. I suppose if I had an interest in S&M, I might like hearing her talk about their activities but while I enjoy many colors of the sexual rainbow, that particular shade doesn’t appeal to me, Moreover, I don’t have much interest in the sexual habits of a guy as desperate as Eric Schaeffer, therefore those conversations are of no value to me.
When all is said and done, it turns out that Eric and Amy decided not to continue dating because “there wasn’t much chemistry.” This ending is the final proof that Schaeffer is destined to be alone because if he can’t find some kind of connection with a woman as beautiful as Amy there’s clearly something wrong with him.
Denis Leary and Peter Tolan on Rescue Me, Red Sox, and writing
Denis Leary and Peter Tolan are busy men. As the two executive producers behind FX’s phenomenal drama Rescue Me, the two have had their plate full ever since the WGA strike ended. For those that haven’t heard, Rescue Me was renewed for a network-length 22 episode season scheduled to air in spring 2009. I had the opportunity to sit in on a conference call with Leary and Tolan earlier today and both pointed out that this is an entirely different animal since they’re used to producing 13 episode seasons. Leary was quick to make a sports analogy: they pretty much have been working on season five since last year’s football season and they probably won’t wrap until next year’s basketball playoffs. He also made an alcohol analogy: it’s like they’re in TV rehab. Coming from the guy who plays Tommy Gavin, I’d say that’s fairly appropriate.
Of course, the entire point of the call was to discuss the upcoming string of Rescue Me minisodes set to premiere on FX this coming Tuesday, June 24th. So here’s what I can tell you about them now:
- I’ve seen the first three, and much like the comedy short they produced a few years ago, they are funny as hell. However, Leary made it clear that won’t necessarily be the case for all for all of them. He said that while black humor is organic to any firehouse, that’s not all there is to it. So we should expect some of the new shorts to have a more serious tone.
- That being said, there will be some tie-in to past events (the second minisode deals briefly with Tommy’s drinking issues) and even though all ten haven’t been shot yet (they’re working on them in between season five episodes as the schedule allows), Leary and Tolan said to not rule out the possibility that one of them may set up something for season five.
- FX President John Landgraf came up with the idea of the minisodes since the show would have been off the air for almost a year and a half.
And… that’s pretty much all there is to say about the minisodes. Myself and everyone else on the call figured that out fast though as questions quickly shifted to the new season. Here are the highlights, but be warned as some of it may be a little spoiler-ish:
- All of season five’s 22 episodes will air uninterrupted. I suppose that could change between now and 2009, but for now, it looks like it’ll just be billed as season five and not seasons five & six.
- Leary and Tolan both said that the first six episodes of the new season are hands down some of the best written stuff the show has ever had and that they’re definitely worth the wait. Leary also said that they seem to write better whenever the Red Sox are playing well. Call me crazy then, but I hope that isn’t true because the whole American League East has been sort of mediocre so far this season…
- The season five premiere has the most amazing fire scene they’ve done to date.
- Charles Durning will be back! Tommy’s dad is indeed dead, but they’re planning a scene (ala The Iceman Cometh) in which Tommy will be visited at a bar by all of his ghosts. That leaves the window open for Jerry too. Leary did say that he and Jack McGee had patched things up.
- Regarding Tommy’s dad’s passing, I asked about Timo and Rosemary - the lost Gavin siblings. Are they ever gonna come back? Leary responded that it’s a big Irish family and Tolan said that they just ended up focusing instead on Maggie and Johnny. Which I suppose makes sense. There are a lot of characters on the show and you’ve can’t stick with them all unfortunately.
- Leary and Tolan said they do have plans for how the series will end. They even went as far as saying they were committed to it and they were fairly certain that something like it hadn’t been done before. Some characters will get happy endings. Tolan said they can’t be mean forever.
- No worries about Tatum O’Neal either. She’ll be featured in plenty of episodes in the new season.
- As far as guest stars, they confirmed that Karina Lombard (The L Word) would play a French journalist writing a book on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. I’m sure that’ll go over well with Tommy.
- There is one other guest star they wouldn’t name. Tolan did say this: he’s hoping the role will garner an Emmy nod for actor (actress?) in a guest role. Sounds like a good one then.
That’s all I got! Read the season five stuff slowly though because we won’t know if any of it comes true until around this time next year. Also, check back here on Tuesday nights. I’ll be reviewing the minisodes all summer long.
Tatum O’Neal is still on Rescue Me
File this one under “non-story of the day.” TV Guide is reporting exclusively that yes - wait for it - Tatum O’Neal is still part of FX’s acclaimed drama Rescue Me.
Was there ever any doubt that she wouldn’t be?
Sure, her recent drug bust was a major headline a few weeks ago, but there was never a moment when I thought, “Man… I guess she won’t be on Rescue Me anymore.” Last I heard, her charge was only a misdemeanor. According to TVG, she’s already filmed 2 episodes for the drama’s fifth season, which doesn’t return until 2009.
Personally, to me, she seems like the type of person who can laugh at her own follies. With her character Maggie and her brother Tommy (Denis Leary) dealing with the death of their father from the season four finale, I think they’d be crazy to not turn O’Neal’s drug issues into a storyline. It’d fit Maggie’s character perfectly.
In the meantime, FX has ten Rescue Me minisodes slated to air this summer in lieu of a full season. They premiere on Tuesday, June 24th at 10:00PM ET.