Boss S01E02

You have got to admire Starz. Even in a serious drama about political corruption and terminal disease they still find ways to shoe horn some boobs in there. In last night's episode there was no unnecessary passion, no intentional moaning, and we did't even know who — if anyone — got off from the furtive interaction. Yet thanks to the sublime new series, Boss, fans of Kathleen Robertson from Beverly Hills, 90210 are starting to learn what fans of Kathleen's independent film work have known for years - this girl is one of the most multifaceted actors of her generation, writes Jarett Wieselman. In a recent interview, the new boss of businesslike hallway hookups explains why banging the hand that feeds you can sometimes be a good thing...


First things first, your character's name - Kitty O'Neill - is pretty much the best name for someone who is not a stripper, ever.

I know! [laughs] That's why I love the scene where that guy asks her real name and she deadpans, "that is my real name." It's so good. A lot of people love her name; thought it was a genius little touch. And I am one of them. When you look at the character, you think she's an Amanda or a Stephanie – something like that. So it bumps up against her persona, which is great.

Aside from the name, what attracted you to Boss?

Gus Van Sant was a huge component. This is his first TV series and he is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. I grew up with My Own Private Idaho and To Die For. I'm like the biggest Gus Van Sant fan. I even loved his Psycho remake. So I was pretty excited to work with him. The script was also so incredible. And let me tell you, they just get better and better. It was one of those things where we'd run around set asking if the new scripts were in. They're unusual and beautiful – it's a dream job.

What is it you want people to know about this show that the pilot may not tell them?

Pilots have to set up a lot of stuff, so even though it's about politics, this show becomes much more about these characters and their relationships. As the season wears on, it becomes much more of an ensemble. Everyone has their own journey and arc – Kitty in particular goes on a pretty shocking, intense, emotional journey. She ends up in a shocking place at the end of the season. It gets really dark and messy and juicy.

The premiere sees her engage in a very risky sexual relationship -- that moment kind of caught me off-guard.

Did it? Good. At first I wasn't sure either, but it was explained to me that she's very political so everything is calculated – for her, the relationship almost starts out as her getting a chip in her back pocket. She's very meticulous in her professional life, but kind of reckless in her private life. She should know better but she does it anyway. That's why she’s so fascinating. We all know when we’re doing things we shouldn't, but sometimes you just don’t care. There's a bit of self-sabotage with Kitty for sure.


Television Series: Boss (S01E02- Reflex)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Kathleen Robertson & Laura Coover
Video Clip Credit: Zorg

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The New French Connection

Eddy Caplan is about to arrive on British TV, and the bedlam he creates makes him one of the great dirty cops. If you like your drama subtitled and your storylines the strength of an unfiltered Gauloises pleasantly sweetened with Gallic boobs, you'll hit paydirt on Sunday night with Braquo – the latest acclaimed European police drama. Like that other import Spiral, Braquo is set in Paris, comes courtesy of Canal+ and concerns itself with law enforcers who can't see a rule without breaking it. This time, however, you'll find the action on FX, rather than BBC4. The eagily anticipated second series- in part directed by A Prophet's Jacques Audiard- will air on the French cable channel in November at the same time as work commenses on season three.

Braquo will inevitably be compared to The Wire – a comparison underwritten by the fact that Canal+, effectively France’s “fourth TV channel”, seems to have been forged in the image of HBO, with its strong adult fare and subscription base. It bears some similarity: it’s gritty and handheld and exposes the dark underbelly of a large city; its central quartet of cops are prone to “crossing the line” in order to bring justice to scumbags, and their maverick methodology means they rub up against their chiefs on a regular basis. Braquo‘s creator, writer and predominant season-one director Olivier Marchal, was once a cop, so he has that in common with The Wire‘s co-creator Ed Burns. Oh, and it also employs novelists as writers. The thing that makes it different from The Wire is that it is not especially interested in the criminals.


So be warned: even if you're a hardened three-series Spiral veteran, you might still get a shock, suggests the Guardian's James Donaghy. Berthaud's crime squad were no pussycats but Caplan's SDPJ 92 crew (Hauts-de-Seine's district police department) ratchet up the bedlam and violence to new levels. There's a nice moment of Gallic stroppiness in this bruising new drama when the police brass have called a meeting to soft soap the rank and file, and a female lieutenant flounces out. When her mate, Caplan, follows, his boss says they are not finished. 'We are,' Eddie says, and that's it, meeting over as the whole unit departs.

Eddie and the lieutenant, Roxane, along with two captains, Walter and Theo, are furious that their leader, Max, has been buried in disgrace after committing suicide. He was in custody for stabbing a rape suspect in the eye, and someone has leaked an accusation from the suspect, Benaissa, that Max sexually abused him. Not the types to be messed around, particularly when a comrade and his family have been dissed, the quartet take matters into their own hands and launch a reckless and violent campaign to put matters straight. Ostensibly, therefore, their mission is clear but you get the distinct feeling that the Braquo cops just see mayhem as an end in itself. As The Shield showed, absolute power intoxicates.

Of course, all cops shows genuflect to American culture, and it’s there in Braquo, but it’s peculiarly Gallic, too, very moody and a touch existential. Just like The Shield, it is utterly compelling. If Braquo were a colour it could only be noir, from the black leather jackets to the dark ambivalent morals of this desperate bunch of cops, writes Crime Time Preview's Robin Jarossi. As directed by Marchal, who also made 36 Quai des Orfevres, it is far more hard-hitting than any cop series produced in the UK. Like Spiral, this doesn't portray les flics by half measures. These guys steal from the crooks, snort coke and seem to have a bar in the cinematically dingy warehouse that seems to pass as a police station in the suburbs of Paris. It is an atmospheric, tactile base for our rogue cops; and the bar, it turns out, is not a wishful fantasy. So this is a glimpse into the world of French urban policing that has its own attractions for a foreign audience. If it is based on Marchal's actual experience in the French force, it would be advisable to give them a very wide berth next time you're in Paris.

Interestingly Marchal reveals one of the key influences on his show in terms of style and story was not The Wire or The Shield, but rather a lesser-known American cop drama; namely, Joe Carnahan’s Narc from 2002 starring Ray Liotta. The critics admired that show as it seemed to hark back to 70s classics like The French Connection, which is nice, as there really is a French connection now, quips the Never Knowingly Underwhelmed Andrew Collins.
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Borgia S01E06

"Venus trap? That sounds nice ..."

German tongues are wagging about ZDF's "Borgia" - the six-part historical spectacle centred on the Spanish noble family and the two popes during the Middle Ages. The series shows everything that the public broadcasters have no place for: sex, violence, incest. And plenty of it. One of the faces of the 25 million euro production is Isolda Dychauk, a native Russian who has lived for the past nine years in Berlin. She plays Lucrezia Borgia, the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI. Here she grants Susie Groth her first big interview...


For a few days it seems hardly anybody is not talking about "Borgia" and you and your role. How does that feel?

I have not yet grasped it properly. This is all like a rush. I believe, I need a holiday just to process it all.

Have you managed to get new roles in recent weeks and days?

Until a few days ago I could not start anything new. We all really hope for a second season of "Borgia". At least ZDF is seriously considering it. For the shooting I had to keep myself constantly available; the first season we shot a whole seven months.

Then you were seven months at a time in Prague?

Yes, more or less. In between times I was a few weeks at home.

And school?

For "Borgia" have I paused the school. I could not make it there but it may well be that I catch up sometime.

"Borgia" is the biggest project of your career, a Franco-German production with performers from 18 nations. How shocked are you, with such a huge project to be able to be a part of it?

At first I was totally shocked that I even got the part because I had never expected it. That was one of my first auditions in English and I had at that time only passable English speaking. At the beginning of the shoot I was therefore even more concentrating on the language rather than the acting. But over time I found myself getting into such a groove I even started to dream in English. We even spoke English behind the camera so at that point it then felt like an exchange year.

Your foster mother plays Andrea Sawatzki and represents one of the few German actors in the film. How was that for you?

She is a really lovable person who has helped me an insane amount. During my first public appearances she was immediately on the spot when I did not know from nervousness what I should say. She is incredibly fascinating and interesting and a pretty cool woman.

Did you know the history of the Borgia dynasty, anyway?

Honestly, no. I had only heard the name of Borgia and Lucrezia Borgia before, but nothing more. I consulted Wikipedia only once before the first casting interview. Before shooting we sat a long time with the writer Tom Fontana and director Oliver Hirschbiegel and together developed the story and analyzed the characters.

The daily newspapers recently called you "Venus Trap" ...

I did not notice that. It sounds nice but ... (giggles)

In your role you are the sweet Lolita who shows a lot of skin. Was that difficult?

Let's just say it was not easy and not totally pleasant. But I was very lucky because I have been protected by all the directors who are great; and those scenes especially are handled very carefully with me, and attention is paid to ensure that it was not uncomfortable for me ... But it was strange, even if those were not the first nude scenes I've shot. They were the most difficult.

You're only 18 - where did you get this sensuality?

So I did not worry about it too much I just played myself...

How were your parents about this freedom?

Since they share the same opinion as me- that it is just part of my job- they are primarily proud of me.

The first part of "Borgia" saw an average of 5.5 million, and even movies such as "Pope Joan", "The Pillars of the Earth" or "The Whore" did not recorded such figures. How do you explain this widespread fascination with the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

Maybe people love to escape into another time that was so cruel and yet so magical ... And it shows that life used to be even harder than it is today. Maybe this is somehow a comfort.

As for the representation of violence, the film had to suffer criticism because it is too brutal for some ...

No matter what you do, there is always divided opinion, you will never satisfy everyone. But I think it was right to show the whole thing so relentlessly, otherwise it is not authentic. We were still "soft" because in reality it was much more brutal... And yes the show is not suitable for children keep so just don't let them sit in front of the TV when it's on!

You grew up in Siberia, but when you were nine you came with your mother and your cat to Germany ...

Yes, my mother had fallen in love with a German and therefore we went far away from Siberia. That was a great adventure for me. I had at the time never been abroad; even though I did not really realize that I was leaving my home forever.

What are your strongest memories of your childhood in Russia?

I'm from the city of Surgut in Western Siberia. This is a gas and oil town, everything is influenced by those industries. It snows a great deal; upto six months at a time. If these snow mountains melt then, you can hardly walk anywhere because of the mud... But I am a very sunny person. I like heat and light. That's why I'm so happy, now I'm living in Berlin.

Do you speak Russian still today?

Yes, with my mother. I want it to stay with me.

Do you ever think about where you would stand today if you had remained in Siberia?

Oh, no idea. Maybe I would have concentrated on ballet. I've abandoned it in Germany because of the acting.

You're already at 17 living with your boyfriend. Why so early?

I just knew that it was it. I always knew that I would take off at 18 anyway, so it was just a year early. My mother and her husband live outside in Lankwitz and that was always difficult to come to town. That's why I wanted to live nearer as soon as possible.

What is next on with you?

First off is some leisure time. I've only just completed a TV project: "I do not like Mondays". It is about life after a killing spree at a school. I play the daughter of a teacher who was killed and now must look after his little brother, because the father is a wreck ... A great film.

"I do not like Mondays," "Police," "crime scene", "Borgia" - all serious substances. Can you see yourself ever doing a comedy?

I have never had the chance unfortunately, but I would like to try ... But first I sincerely hope the sequel to "Borgia".



Television Series: Borgia (S01E06- Legitimacy)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Isolda Dychauk & Marta Gastini
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea & Wimsey

Isolda Dychauk










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The Fades S01E06

The real beauty of being an actor is the huge cross-section of projects you can work on,’ says Natalie Dormer. And she should know. In the last couple of years Natalie has spent six months playing a sensual turn-of-the-century Viennese woman in Sweet Nothings at the Young Vic, portrayed the young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mother) in Madonna’s Wallis Simpson film, been a junior barrister in the BBC’s new courtroom drama series Silk and a sassy Second World War American private in the giant-budget Captain America, alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell and Samuel L Jackson. Now she's playing beautiful, complicated and damaged Sarah in BBC3's supernatural thriller The Fades.

Her character is cursed by her powers and torn from the comfort of her loving home and family, but eventually manages to rebuild her life and find solace with Mark (Tom Ellis). Before things go wrong all over again. Sarah can be tough and determined and is incredibly loyal. She is Juliet to Mark’s Romeo – hopelessly in love but always just out of reach. “She’s married and has this double existence, because she is an Angelic," explains Natalie. "Her gift is that she’s a seer, she can see the future, and she has visions which she then relays to other Angelics. So she’s normal, but she’s got a history of mental illness and it’s obviously something she’s really struggled to come to terms with. Mark has been her saviour from that. The marriage has broken down for a plethora of reasons, the most pertinent being that she’s living a double existence that he doesn’t understand, which creates a lot of friction. She’s been clutching at straws, trying to maintain a normal life, pretending to herself, lying that she can have a normal, average, uneventful life – and she can’t.”


So does Sarah see her gifts and status as an Angelic as a blessing or a curse? “When you meet her at the beginning of the series she would definitely say it was a curse, because her marriage and her life have been destroyed by it," insists Dormer. "And that’s something that Iain’s character Paul has to face. It’s about finding your place in the world, where you belong, and not denying who you really are. Identity and self-identity is a very strong theme of the show. There is real, genuinely intelligent writing behind it, behind all the fun and the running around and the entertainment.”

Ah yes, the running around. "This has been one of the most physically demanding jobs I’ve ever done!" she states. "I couldn’t begin to list everything, but it was crazy! For example, being submerged in freezing cold gloop and goo all day, vomiting black stuff, ash being thrown in your face for three or four days, you name it we’ve done it. There’s been a sort of hellish physical experience for all the cast at one point or another. We’ve all been supportive of each other when it’s been that person’s turn! We’ve really been pushing the boundaries especially in the second half of the series."

The actress says she was attracted to The Fades by the the strength and the dexterity of the writing. "Everyone loves a good love story, and everyone loves a bit of action, and everyone loves a bit of guts and gore, you know, even the girls do," she explains. "Nothing in this is gratuitous – everything that is done is done to create true, weighty emotion. So there’s no pornography in this. When it gets really dark, it gets dark for intelligent reasons."

After that, it seems the nude scenes, intelligent or not, were a breeze by comparison. As Natalie puts it in a classic case of understatement, "It’s just a slightly tougher day at work. They are daunting in so far as it’s a very personal thing and you are doing it in front of eight other people, closed set or not." As she said in another recent interview, "You do become numb to the shock to the system of having to take your clothes off in front of people and obviously it helps the more submerged you are in the character and the motivations behind the actual act."

Natalie, all slanting pale blue eyes and waves of ash-blonde hair, says the process is hopefully handled in a very sensitive, discreet way and with the director being incredibly protective and generous with her in her most vulnerable state. People, she says, would be amazed at how unerotic the process actually is, because it’s heavily choreographed. Of her revealing scenes, she added, “I think actresses have a responsibility to protect the sisterhood. It is not something you can be flippant about. You wouldn’t do it unless you had given it weighty consideration, which I always have."


Television Series: The Fades (S01E06)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Natalie Dormer
Video Clip Credit: Webmskn & Trailblazer










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Borgia S01E05

Last night saw another six million Germans tune in to ZDF's medieval epic "Borgia"; where chief among the attractions is the beautiful Italian Marta Gastini (22). She plays Giulia, the almost always naked, while still scheming, calculating and violent mistress of Alexander VI. But sex with the Pope? It's pretty daring for a woman who told Bild: "I am a very religious, strict Catholic!"

Thank God, says the newspaper, that at least one of them remembers absolutely nothing about the experience! Marta has already put herself on display from the front, rear, top and bottom. "When we are in the bedroom, I forget about everything around me, I'm just focused on the sex scenes - without a second thought!" explains Gastini. "The flag falls, 'Action' is called and I just immediately drop my clothes!" she laughs.


Marta acts quite differently to her character, Giulia. In "Borgia" she never misses an opportunity to seduce the mighty pope, and thus impose her desires on him; namely the appointment of her brother as a cardinal. Gastini protests that her clothes do not fall so freely in private. "No, absolutely not! I am a very good girl, I have a boyfriend for three years and I am rather shy and modest!" Not that she doesn't have a few ideas for how the Church should operate today. "I think that the rules of the church and celibacy for priests should still allow for sex!", she smiles, and with that the mischievious spirit of Giulia Farnese shines through.

Gastini was born in 1989 in Alessandria. The first role she played was on stage in Shakespeare's "The Tempest". After studying acting in England and a first TV role in Italy ("Il bene e il male"), she turned to television in 2009 with the Terence Hill movie "L'uomo che nel cavalcava buio". Her international career started alongside Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins in the thriller "The Rite - The Ritual". Now the role in "Borgia," could mean her real breakthrough, especially as the Italian has already drawn the next big Hollywood role in the remake of "Dracula" in 3-D. The film is scheduled for release in 2012.


Television Series: Borgia (S01E05- The Bonds of Matrimony)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Marta Gastini
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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Orange Alert

Orange alert! The Department of Homeland Security may have retired its colour-coded terrorism alert system, but the pervading sense of paranoia that it represented isn’t going away, and neither is Showtime’s hit series, “Homeland.” This morning the cable network announced it had ordered an additional dozen episodes of the drama series; a serialized thriller about a dogged if possibly paranoid C.I.A. officer (played by Claire Danes), a recently released American prisoner of war (Damian Lewis) who may be a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda, Morena Baccarin's epic boobs and Mandy Patinkin’s even more epic beard.

The series, which is adapted from Gideon Raff’s Israeli television program “Prisoners of War” and is produced by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa (both of “24″), has been Showtime’s highest-rated first-year drama series since making its debut earlier this month. It debuted with 1.08m viewers and viewership has continued to rise, with the most recent fourth episode pulling in 1.1m. "Homeland is just getting started," said Showtime's president of entertainment David Nevins. "Clearly, the overall audience growth from week one to week four demonstrates that this show is hitting a nerve in the cultural zeitgeist." He continued: "Alex and Howard have created a psychological thriller that holds special relevance in the post 9/11 world. I'm quite confident that its passionate audience will be riveted as the season unfolds and people discover where this story is going."


The countless accolades for the show keep coming as the show gets deeper into its debut season. Newsweek calls it "the most addictive show of the season." The New York Times notes "Homeland is well made and gripping…impossible to resist" and TV Guide says "Hands-down the best new drama on TV." USA Today raves "Stands out as the season's best new drama." "Grade: A" says The Boston Globe. The LA Times relays "It's the first telling of a post-9/11 story that is all the things it should be: politically resonant, emotionally wrenching and plain old thrilling to watch." Writing on Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall insists Homeland has easily been the best new show of the fall season, comedy or drama. The only concern anybody seems to have with it, he notes, is whether it can sustain its quality and keep its story going in an interesting, plausible manner for multiple seasons.



Showtime said that production on the new season would begin next spring, giving Ms. Danes’s character plenty of time to refill her illicit supply of Klonopin. Homeland is the first Showtime drama developed under the Nevins regime since he replaced Robert Greenblatt at the network. Given his personal stake, and the uniform rave reviews, renewal wasnt in much doubt. Now it's official, and now we'll see how much life there really is in the concept. Homeland continues on Sundays at 10/9c on Showtime and will be broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK.
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TV Sex Now A Viewer Turnoff?

Almost half the Australian nation is concerned about the level of steamy sex and violence on television, according to a major new study by the broadcasting watchdog. But the Australian Communications and Media Authority report has found excessive commercials are our biggest bugbear when it comes to the box, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The study, Digital Australians, examined the new media landscape and found consumers were positive about the growth of new online platforms even though traditional mediums were still most commonly used. The focus groups and survey of 1250 people over the first half of this year found 44 per cent of Australians had general concerns over risque television content despite regulations. In a result attributed by experts to looser laws in Australia, ACMA noted the proportion was more than the 40 per cent identified by a similar British government study conducted last year.


With top-rating programs such as MasterChef and The Renovators now using endless product placements, the report found 45 per cent listed excessive commercials as their biggest concern. Television violence (43 per cent) was the second biggest concern followed by too many reality programs (36 per cent) and the amount of sex beamed into loungerooms (32 per cent).

Not surprisingly, only 24 per cent of men were concerned about the amount of sex on television while a greater 38 per cent of women had a problem. "Females were more likely to be concerned about violence and sexual content, while males were more likely to be concerned about too many reality programs and too many British/American programs on television," the report said.

It also highlighted concerns of parents over television and the growth of catch-up TV on the internet where viewing is less regulated. ACMA said parents with children under 18 were more likely to select sexual content and nudity than other adults as areas of concern. One parent told the study: "I limit my childrens' exposure to watching the news due to the horrific images they show ... you can't do that online ... they come across all sorts of things."

Media commentator Susan Hetherington, who has studied the impact of television on children, yesterday said the higher concerns locally about television content than Britain was because Australia's regulations were not as strict. She said parents were particularly worried about adverts for late night shows screening in earlier timeslots. The growth of social networking was also examined, with almost half of respondents reporting visiting social networking sites to browse profiles in the past month.

Meanwhile, despite the more stringent regulations, a record number of British viewers have still complained about the increasing amount of violence and sex on television. Last year was the worst for grievances about standards on programmes, according to figures from the Broadcasting Standards Commission. Comic Relief on the BBC and Channel 4's World Wrestling Federation programme were among the major offenders. But the highest number of complaints - 427 - for a single programme during the year was for Anne Robinson's appearance on BBC2's Room 101 in which she criticised the Welsh.

The BSC's annual review - unveiled yesterday - showed that the total number of complaints about standards in 2000-2001 increased by three per cent to 4,920. A third of those were about sex and violence - an increase of two per cent on last year and the highest in the BSC's history. The BSC received 86 complaints in March about Comic Relief, the BBC1 charity event. Viewers were outraged at the sight of comedian Billy Connolly dancing naked round Piccadilly Circus in London and a scene involving a troupe of naked male dancers.

Channel 4's WWF show also attracted censure from the BSC. The channel attracted 14 per cent of complaints which were eligible for investigation by the BSC. This accounted for nearly a quarter of the cases upheld, the highest for any broadcaster. Despite the increase in the number of complaints, only ten per cent were upheld by the commission.

The BSC also highlighted its concern about the rise in the number of programme-makers using hidden cameras. The commission recently won a long-running case in the House of Lords against the BBC1 consumer show Watchdog about the programme's decision to film secretly in a branch of retail giant Dixons. The BBC was ordered to pay the costs of the judicial review, totalling around £27,000.
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How To Make It In America S02E04

"Oh my god, you cannot keep me up so late..."

One thing has always been true: Your boys are your boys until a little estrogen is thrown in the mix. Of course, it isn’t hard to see why Ben gets so torn up over Rachel. Or why Domingo finds himself swooning over her. She’s nice, talented, funny, shy and sexy. Basically, she’s a fantasy. But thanks to Lake Bell, who is great this season, we connect with Rachel from her point of view, as a woman who’s lost passion and direction, and is clinging to anything different, hoping it proves instructive about what she really wants. Domingo and Ben are, in their own ways, a bit lost, and project quite a bit onto Rachel, not that she realizes. To Domingo, her affection and approval validate that he’s more than just the weed-slinging sidekick. For Ben, Rachel’s ability to move forward outside their relationship is a gauge for his own progress, even more so than the fact that Nancy wants to sell his designs and, in one scene, lick the lunch off the corner of his mouth.

Meanwhile, Cam wants Lulu's dad Felix to let him use his place for the book shoot. That means he had to strap on some spandex and literally wrestle Felix for the title, thus creating one of the most random scenes of the whole show. Still, Cam is living the life. He’s now got Lulu, he’s buddy-buddy with her artworld-icon father, and more or less kept himself clean amid the whole Rachel-Domingo scandal. When Lulu pulled away while they kissed on the couch you thought Cam would never recover from the blue balls. Thankfully, she quickly announced that they, not just he, needed to take a shower to wash off the stench of her dad. Between Ms LaLiberte and “True Blood’s” Jessica, HBO might be able to lay claim to the most beautiful crimson locks on TV. For now, Cam’s a self-made man with a pair of hot new relationships and interest in his business, and it helps the show’s energy when he’s bouncing around like a 12-year-old.


Television Series: How To Make It In America (S02E04- It's Not Even Like That)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Nicole LaLiberte & Lake Bell
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea & Maverick

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Dexter S06E04

"As your mentor, I reserve the right to watch you get it on!"

“Jesus Christ!” That’s Dexter’s reaction to seeing the Four Horsemen crime scene and those build-a-zombie riders. It’s also what many people probably blurted out at the end of last night’s episode. As slowly as this season had been creeping along, you figured there would finally be some payoff after the Prof and Travis unleashed their steeds. But there were so many revelations (pun intended) that Dexter didn’t even have time to kill anyone.

Instead, to his own surprise, an emergency with Harrison and a new tableau from Gellar and Travis had Dexter leaning on Brother Sam and an unexpected winged messenger for support as he questioned the idea of faith. With proof of a religiously motivated killer, Homicide hunting for a zealot and with Debra giving her first official press conference, the show's contribution to Cable's regular Sunday night FCC baiting came in the form of Jamie Silberhartz; who any true Lostie would immediately recognize as Rachel Blake in the Lost Experience.


The Long Island native showed up as Erin the waitress, offering a brief if dimly-lit funbag cameo before her Rube Goldbergian style demise; jury-rigged into a contraption that when unwittingly tripped would puncture her jugular and leave her hanging like a bloody angel in a swarm of locusts. Was the execution supposed to represent the Harlot of Babylon? Some sort of angel of death? A really extreme premarital sex PSA? Again, the answer seems to tie into the Bible and those numbers. From Revelation 12:14: “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.” Biblical scholars agree that the “time, times and half a time” is the same measurement as 42 months and 1260 days — three and a half years. That’s also the length of the Great Tribulation. Heavy stuff indeed!


Television Series: Dexter (S06E04- A Horse of a Different Color)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Jamie Silberhartz
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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Boardwalk Empire S02E05

"You'll get me into trouble..."

This week's episode, written by Howard Korder and directed by series vet Tim Van Patten, elevated the 'Empire' game. While we've been building on character nuances from the get-go, elements are starting to fall into place, the action is amping up in a big way and Heather Lind's boobs made their spectacular entrance. The result? Chatter for the water cooler for the 'boysie' show that is gradually developing a greater female focus.

Boardwalk Empire returned for a second series boasting a clutch of awards but also some critical opprobrium. The show's creator Terence Winter remains understandably sanguine. "You can drive yourself insane reading reviews whether people like the show or hate it," he told the Independent. "We've had everything from the highest praise to people just trashing the show but we've also had an embarrassment of awards, which bears out what we're doing."


Winter feels that perceived problems were in part caused by the difference between the show he is creating and that which audiences expected to see. "I think when you see a poster and it says directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter of The Sopranos then you expect a certain type of show, you automatically think gangsters," he says. "And that's reasonable but the story we're telling here isn't just a gangster's tale. To me violence is meaningless if it's simply killing for killing's sake. If you're not interested in human emotions and dynamics between people then maybe Boardwalk Empire is not your type of show. It's not aspiring to be a slam-bang action fest."

Yet there are issues surround the show's depiction of female characters, who last season came in only two sizes: Madonna or Whore. Winter remains bullish about suggestions that his women come a poor second – "I'm not interested in writing an alternate reality just to make people feel comfortable... in rewriting history to suggest these women had a power that they didn't," he says – but the problem isn't so one of power or the lack of it so much as it is of screentime or even reaction shots.

When the show's most problematic character, former showgirl, Lucy Danziger (played by Paz de la Huerta) is on screen we are rarely allowed to know how she feels, instead our reactions to her are entirely filtered through the male gaze, whether that of Nucky or repressed Federal Prohibition Agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon). It's arguable that this issue is partially due to de la Huerta's opaque performance but it's also the case that while we have no idea how Lucy feels about being pregnant, we're well aware of Van Alden's on-going battle to square that pregnancy with his conscience.

It's a criticism with which Kelly Macdonald who plays the widowed Margaret Schroeder partially agrees. "I get the concerns about the treatment of women," she says. "I think it's a very boysie show... but there is more for the female characters this year, last year was more about the men, it wasn't good or bad, it's just what it was. This year there's more of a concentration on the family, we see more of the character's personal lives."

Winter agrees that this season will have more of a family focus. "We get a chance to broaden and go deeper into our female characters lives, it's a function of where the stories are taking us," he says." We learn more about Margaret's background, spend time with Lucy... We have a new character called Esther Randolph played by Julianne Nicholson who is based on a real historical figure, a woman who was the assistant attorney general during the 1920s. When we get to these women's stories then I'll be writing them to the best of my ability."

Television Series: Boardwalk Empire (S02E05- Gimcrack & Bunkum)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Heather Lind
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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Hung S03E03

Last night Hung aired its third episode of the season in which Ray fears he’s blown his cover when he mistakes Logan, a former student, for a client. Logan is played by the beautiful and charming actress Kaitlin Doubleday whom Daemon’s TV had the opportunity to chat about her upcoming appearence. Kaitlin opened up about the intricacies of her character, the intense on-screen sex scenes she had to prepare for and her approach to her career overall...

How did you get involved with this series?

Well, I auditioned for it and I really was in love with the character and I just thought she was hysterical. So, when I didn’t get it, I was really devastated. And then a friend called me and said, ‘The girl that got it didn’t feel comfortable with all the nudity and stuff and she pulled out.‘ So, I called my agents right away and said, ‘Get me back in on “Hung“. I just found out that the girl was out.’ And my agency are not fans of nudity at all. So, they were like, ‘Are you sure, lady? Maybe it was a sign and blah, blah, blah.’

And I was like, ‘No, I’m sure. I’m not getting any younger. It’s time to bite the nudity bullet‘ I loved this character. So, I went back in and worked really hard. And I had to go back in a bunch more times just because they were shooting and the right people weren’t ever in the room. It was super nerve-wracking, but when you feel super right for something- in my heart I was like, ‘They made a mistake by giving it to somebody else.’ In the end it really did work out. They ended up writing me more episodes because it was a good fit. From the moment I got there it was just amazing. And then Logan, my character, became more of a part of the show and part of Ray’s life. And that was all unexpected and really wonderful. So it was awesome.


So, who is Logan? And what’s her relationship with Ray?

Logan is a former student of Ray’s who was kind of like a hot, popular girl in high school and who has had a crush- who had a crush on him in high school. Sort of a spoiled, rich, ‘It’s my world and you’re living in it’ sort of girl. Which I’ve never played a part of anybody who’s as confident as Logan. So, it gives you a lot of freedom because nothing anybody says to her really has an effect on her. So her responses are kind of hilarious.

With all the characters you’ve taken on over the years, do you have an approach to taking on a new character that you use every time or does it vary on a case by case basis?

It’s very on a case-by-case basis. I work on them through the auditions the same time kind of ways. But once I really try to work on the character, it’s always different. I have an audition tomorrow that, or today, that I worked on like I’ve never worked on anything before and I’ve been doing this for ten years. So I think you should find something that works for you, obviously. But sometimes it’s good to mix it up. And with different characters it’s always going to make you dig into different skills or aspects of your training.

So, with Logan I didn’t really know what to do other than when I would get insanely nervous and think I was going to throw up because I was about to have some insane sequence of five sex scenes in a row naked, I knew that in order to keep Logan who she was and who she was starting to become, I couldn’t let those nerves seep into me at all. Whereas on other sets, if I’d had to do sex scenes which have never have been this insane, but even if I got a little bit nervous, I would say, ‘Oh my god, I’m nervous.’ Or whatever.

Whereas on this show, I didn’t. I didn’t ever mention that I was nervous on set at all because I didn’t want it to seep into whatever performance I was going to give Logan because she was literally the opposite of being nervous. She exudes a sort of sexuality that’s very confident. And I was constantly saying:, ‘What would Logan do right now?’ And then I would just do that. And I’ve never done that before but that worked for me on this show.

Television Series: Hung (S03E03- Mister Drecker or Ease Up on the Whup-Ass)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Kaitlin Doubleday
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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Borgia S01E04

A second season of Borgia is looking more likely after Tom Fontana’s papal period drama bowed to an impressive 6.2 million viewers on its German premiere on public network ZDF Monday night, reveals the Hollywood Reporter. The 18.7 percent market share wasn’t good enough to beat reality show Farmer Wants a Wife on commercial net RTL, which drew 8 million viewers, but it is likely enough to convince ZDF executives still on the fence about a second season of the ambitious series.

Borgia debuted to 1.7 million viewers on Canal + earlier this month, a record audience for a new series premiere on the French pay TV network and racked up a respectable 420,000 viewers on Italian pay channel Sky Italia. Netflix, which has picked up North American rights to Borgia, is already on board for a second series of the show, should the European networks greenlight it.


Like Showtime’s The Borgias starring Jeremy Irons, the series follows medieval Rome’s most notorious and power hungry family. John Dorman stars as the patriarch, Rodrigo Borgia, the man who became Pope Alexander VI. Initially, Fontana and The Borgias director Neil Jordan discussed merging the two Borgia projects into one series but parted over their differing interpretations of the history.


Television Series: Borgia (S01E04- Ondata di Calore)
Release Date: July 2011
Actress: Isolda Dychauk
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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The Boss S01E01

A good political aide is seen, not heard. With the kind of finesse accorded to Mafia hit men, these worker ants carry out their king’s orders with stone-cold expressions, offering humbly potent advice and surveying the enemy camps like clear-minded spies. In the case of a Chicago Mayor whose brain is going due a rare disease, that lucidity is a very good thing indeed, especially in the enticing form of Kitty O’Neil, writes Daniel Schweiger. As a true believer who espouses the company line that “Kane is the city, and everything we do that is good for the city comes from the fact that he has the power to do it,” Kitty isn’t so much the power behind the throne as she is the force that will continue to prop it up at all costs.

However, that doesn’t mean that Kitty doesn’t like a good lift herself when it comes to torrid bouts of public sex with a hot young candidate. But then, what else would you expect from Starz, the rising, hot-blooded cable network who also offers the Machiavellian thrills of “Camelot,” “The Pillars of the Earth,” and “Spartacus.” Here, the arena is political, where so far only morality is being gutted in the developing, darkly intelligent downfall of the “Boss.” Kelsey Grammer (who also executive produces along with Gus Van Sant) plays the man given a death sentence that will bring on increasing hallucinations amidst his regular bouts of strong-arming.


Kitty has seen it all through her eight years with Kane, offering nary a blink. But doubtlessly, there will be some chips flaking off of this tantalizing ice princess as “Boss” develops. Kitty is a particularly raw TV evolution for Kathleen Robertson, a Canadian-born actress whose adolescent work in “My Secret Identity” and “Maniac Mansion” would lead to her first big break as Clare Arnold, one of the cool kids on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Robertson parlayed her peppy beauty into such offbeat film choices as Nowhere and Splendor for enfant terrible director Gregg Araki, as well as roles in Dog Park, Psycho Beach Party, XX / XY, and as a Canadian killer in Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story. Her continuing, eye-catching work in “Tin Man,” “The Business,” “CSI: Miami,” and Hollywoodland are full of the smart appeal that’s landed Robertson the silent, but politically deadly role of Kitty in “Boss.” And just as her character is filled with drive, Robertson’s own career is now finding her as a writer, and star, for the suspense thriller, Three Days in Havana, and as a psychologist in the upcoming dramedy series, “Your Time Is Up.” Now Robertson reflects on what might be her most daring character, Kitty O’Neil, a right-hand woman to be reckoned with — even in Chicago.

How did you end up alongside the “Boss”?

When I head that Gus Van Sant was doing a television series, I was immediately intrigued. I read the pilot, and just loved it. Farhad Safinia, who’s another creator on the show, is also an unbelievably brilliant writer. And the idea of Kelsey doing a role like this had so many components that were exciting on a personal level for me. All of this made Kitty a dream role for an actor, and her role just gets better and better as the eight episodes unfold over our first season.

Is it difficult to play a woman who at first appears to be as cold as she is concise?

Kitty goes on a real journey, which I can’t give you any “spoilers” about. What you see is definitely not what you get with her, I’ll say that much. She does a lot more than deliver information, and goes on a massive roller coaster ride personally, and professionally, that turns her world upside down. We get to see who Kitty really is behind the façade.

But is that difficult to rein in at first?

Farhad is very specific about how he wants each character. If anything, it was always about doing “less.” So playing Kitty wasn’t difficult in that respect, especially with what I found out by interviewing women who did her job. They told me that being a female political aide is very much business. It’s not about trading on their sexuality, or being the best friend or the mother to the Mayor. It’s all about servicing him. So the key to Kitty for me was to understand, on a psychological level, what would drive her to do this for a living. What would make her excited to get up and to go into this world? And once I figured that out, I sort of under- stood her.

Did you find that you had anything in common with women who are political aides?

I talked to many women who worked for Richard Daley, who was Mayor of Chicago for many years. I kept asking them, “But why?” Why would they want to be in this sort of fiefdom where you’re serving the King? That wasn’t something I could personally relate to. But in the end, I connected to Kitty’s job by relating things in my own personal life to hers.

What do you think distinguishes Chicago politics from any other American city?

The obvious answer is the unbelievable, on-the-table corruption that everyone acknowledges there. Even the people I talked to who worked in the Mayor’s machine told me how blatant it was. And the history of Chicago politics is unlike anyplace else’s. Nothing we could do in “Boss” could touch what went on there, or what’s still going on there.

Kelsey Grammer definitely has a presence here that more than fills a capital building. How do you hold your own without being blown away by his character’s force of personality?

Kitty has worked for Mayor Kane for eight years, so she’s not intimidated by him. So as an actor, it was absolutely essential that I could be in a room with Kelsey and hold my own during a four-page scene with him. But it turned out to be really fun because Kelsey is an actor in the truest sense of the word. People forget that he’s a classically trained Shakespearean actor who got his start doing theater. An hour after meeting him, he was calling me “Kath” and asking me to run lines with him. I’ve worked with some actors who walk on set, and you feel that it’s their room, their show, and that they’re the star. They’re not going to read lines off-camera for you. But Kelsey has none of that. He’s there to delve in, dissect, and rehearse the material. He’s there for every drop of the experience. And because he’s a co-producer on “Boss,” Kelsey has a lot invested in the show. So he wants it to be great. And he definitely brings out the emotion in you.

You get to show a whole new wild side to yourself in “Boss.”

You can’t do a show about Chicago politics and not have sex be a part of it. I actually loved that element of Kitty. She’s so contained and detailed that she needs that outlet. Those scenes for me were a big part of my wanting to take the role. And being on STARZ is pretty cool, because we can really go there and explore these characters the way they would be. If “Boss” were on network television, it would be a completely watered-down version of itself. I love that we go there on STARZ. Farhad said to me, “This isn’t the NBC version of what this girl would be. This is who this girl really would be.”

“Boss” is certainly a long way from “90210” for you.

Yes [laughs], I’ve been acting for a very long time. When I started, no one wanted to be on television. Everyone wanted to be a movie star. But now television is really where it’s at for great writing, and great material. I can’t remember the last decent movie I saw. But I certainly remember cable shows like “The Wire,” “Nurse Jackie,” “The Big C,” “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “The Killing.” They’re insane. They’re incredible, and their writing is so beautiful. It might be cliché to say that all the great roles for women are on television, but all the great roles for guys are there, too. Television for me is where it’s at now, even in a way it wasn’t ten years ago.

How did you make the move into writing?

It came from a natural progression. Writing was something that I always loved to do. I’m Canadian, and I get a lot of material offered to me out of there. But I was always frustrated, because so much of it wasn’t interesting. So I just started to write my own scripts. The first thing I wrote was for a pilot called “Your Time Is Up,” which sold. Now I’ve just optioned a book. Writing is really taking off for me. It’s exciting to be creative without having to wait for the phone to ring to give me permission to be creative as an actress.

If you could write the ultimate character for yourself, what would she be?

It’s funny, because I don’t really write for myself. I always write with other actors in mind. I’m now doing a screenplay that I think will have my ultimate character!

I became aware of your work through your appearances in Gregg Araki’s Nowhere and Splendor, a ménage a trois comedy which is my favorite film role of yours.

Gregg is one of my best friends. He’s incredible, because you can count on one hand the directors who can write, shoot, direct, and pro- duce like him. And he’s still making movies the same way as he did when he started out. He’s such a unique artist, and his movies are like nobody else’s. I told Gregg that I’m glad that people have such strong opinions about his work, whether they love or hate his movies, or whether they’re offended, or turned on by them. So few artists are making movies that are still relevant, or push those kinds of buttons. He’s an amazing artist, and it was a great experience to work with him.

What struck me about “Boss” is that you could basically put guns in these characters’ hands and turn it into a crime drama, a la “The Sopranos.”

Well, just wait! The show is slowly percolating to a boil.

What’s up ahead for you?

I’m back in L.A. after three and a half months in Chicago. For the next couple of months, I’m on writing deadlines, which are my focus. Then I’ll see what happens. I’m not super-dying to jump back onto a set just yet. I just want to wear my sweatpants and sit down with my laptop.

What do you think that “Boss” ultimately has to say about women in the political arena?

I don’t know if Farhad is trying to make a comment about women in politics, per se, especially because this takes place in a male-driven world, But over the course of the first season you’ll get to see what the effects of a life like this will have on someone’s self-esteem. It’s a tough, tough world for the guys. But it’s even tougher for women like Kitty. And it’s not one that I would ever have the stomach to be a part of.


Television Series: Boss (S01E01- Pilot)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Kathleen Robertson
Video Clip Credit: Biggin101










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Borgia S01E03

We’re shooting an incest rape scene today!” the director says, a bit too enthusiastically, as he sets up the next shot on the new historic drama series Borgia. French actor Stanley Weber, all lechery and loathing as Juan Borgia, leers at his onscreen sister Lucrezia, played by Russian thesp Isolda Dychauk. He then utters a line that’s disturbing even by pay-cable standards. If you were expecting I, Claudius, you should have stayed home. Because Borgia is not your father’s costume drama, notes Mimi Turner.

Instead, this take on the notorious Borgia dynasty — the Renaissance family whose ruthlessness is thought to have inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince — is Europe’s attempt to do American-style must-see TV. “Don’t want to miss a good rape,” jokes Borgia writer and showrunner Tom Fontana as he slips on the headphones to watch the scene on the flat-screen monitor. Fontana is the odd man out on the Borgia set. While the cast sashay by in their velvet finery, the creator of HBO’s prison drama Oz and writer-producer of Homicide: Life on the Street — with his gray Timberland sweatshirt, worn jeans and white low-top sneakers — looks ready to crack open a beer and enjoy the game. “Just do the top of the scene again,” Fontana tells the crew. Then, responding to an AD’s comment: “But it should be mean and unsatisfying! That’s the point!”


To be clear, this is not The Borgias, the US cable potboiler starring Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander. Strange as it seems, there are not one but two Borgia projects hitting the market: Fontana’s Borgia, which Beta Film is selling at MIPTV, and The Borgias, Showtime’s take on the same corrupt Italian family, directed by Oscar winner Neil Jordan. “Both projects were in development, in parallel for years, and neither knew about the other,” Fontana says. “They were literally announced within a day of each other.”

Worried that two Borgia series would cannibalize the same audience, Fontana and Jordan initially tried to merge their projects. Fontana flew to Jordan’s home in Dublin to try and 'work out a marriage.' “I had a lovely dinner. Neil Jordan is a charming, fascinating guy, but we clearly had utterly different views of the material,” Fontana says. “Jordan said he didn’t care about the history; he said he’d make things up — which I fully respect.”

So the world has two Borgia series. Showtime’s The Borgias came first in April before hitting international territories, while Fontana’s Borgia debuted in Europe this Autumn. Judging by the channels that bought the Showtime show — British Sky Broadcasting in the U.K., ProSieben in Germany — The Borgias played to a more mainstream, commercial audience. Borgia is aiming more high-brow, targeting mainly public broadcasters in Europe. It struggled to get a U.S. network on board, and convincing an HBO or AMC to go pontiff-to-pontiff with Showtime was always a hard sell, meaning Borgia has taken a while to cross the Atlantic.

If the other show didn’t exist, Fontana figures his series would have presold to either HBO or Showtime long ago. “And it would have probably changed because of it,” he says. “It’s great to be doing it without a U.S. broadcaster at this point because I’m not getting the kind of notes I would be from an American network. I’m doing the show I want to do.” Fontana’s approach to the Borgias is the opposite of Jordan’s: He’s trying to stick as close as possible to the recorded history, even researching 15th century documents in the original Latin.

Fontana didn’t create Borgia — it was the brainchild of European producers Canal+, Atlantique and EOS — but the show is clearly his baby. “In Europe, the writer is usually the least important person on set, but here I have all the creative control and responsibility,” Fontana says. “I have final cut on all the episodes, on the casting, the directors, the sets, the costumes, whatever.” With that creative control, Fontana is tried to do what’s never been done before: make a high-end, American-style cable series outside the U.S. With all his choices, starting with his own R-rated script to picking claustrophobic German filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) as director of the first four episodes, Fontana hmade it clear that Borgia will be closer to The Wire than Brideshead Revisited.

Fontana even picked The Wire’s John Doman to star as Rodrigo Borgia, the man who became Pope Alexander VI, the baddest of the bad pontiffs. “Tom is a very gritty writer,” Doman says. “He brings the same sensibility to this material that he did on Oz or Homicide. I might be in robes, but the dialogue is just as realistic, the characters just as gritty.”

Borgia is one of a new wave of lusty period series — think The Tudors and Spartacus — that are spicing up the genre by adding sex, violence and intrigue to their small-screen history lessons. Fontana’s attention to detail is everywhere on the Borgia set in Prague. While actors in full armor clanked by, Czech set painters put the final touches on the handpainted ceilings, replicating originals copied from Rome. Much of the series is shot in Martinicky Palace, a Renaissance-style castle in the middle of the Czech capital. Most of the original paintings and woodwork had been plastered over during the Communist era, but the new owners have allowed the Borgia team to restore the palace to its original Renaissance glory.

None of this comes cheap, of course. And the fact that Borgia does not have a U.S. buyer yet — Showtime’s competing project hadn’t helped — has meant the European series has had to become financially creative. “We had to drop the budget a bit — from $35 million to $30 million [without the U.S. sale], but this is still the biggest series Europe has done on its own,” producer Klaus Zimmermann says. “It’s a real test of whether this kind of financing can work for these kind of HBO-style shows.” Zimmermann says Borgia backer Canal+ is looking to become “the HBO of Europe” by bankrolling high-end English-language series: “Canal+ has 12 million subscribers; they can put up $1 million an episode for serial drama. The rest of the budget you deficit-finance — get three big European networks to back a show.”

The Borgia financing model is similar to that of other big-budget period series. The Tudors got backing from Irish and Canadian broadcasters; The Pillars of the Earth pieced together its $40 million budget from networks in Germany, Spain, Canada, Austria and Hungary. “It’s about value,” says Michael Edelstein, president of NBCUniversal International Television. “These co-productions allow two or three broadcasters to get the show they want for a fraction of the cost.”

But many are skeptical about Borgia’s all-European financing model. “Without a U.S. window, the financing doesn’t work,” says Craig Cegielski, president of GK-TV and executive producer of Camelot. “When you look at the U.S., it’s the one territory where they pay the largest license fee — so you have to be producing for a U.S. broadcaster. A good sale in the U.S. can make up for 15 bad sales internationally. But the reverse isn’t true.” Fontana is out to prove him wrong. But will Europe’s Borgia be sexy enough to entice U.S. viewers?

Back on the set, Fontana obsessed over every detail. “This show is a marriage between the American and European approaches,” he says. “In a lot of ways, it’s like the early days of HBO, back when we made Oz. There wasn’t a model then — no one else was doing what we were trying to do. It’s the same here. Can we do an HBO show entirely out of Europe?” Leaning back, Fontana smiles. “I’m a die-hard New Yorker. People back home ask me what it’s like doing this show in Europe. I tell them it’s certainly different. Prague, Europe, is a very different place. But it’s a hell of a lot better than L.A.”

Television Series: Borgia (S01E03- Ondata di Calore)
Release Date: July 2011
Actress: Isolda Dychauk, Marta Gastini
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea

Isolda Dychauk










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Marta Gastini










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The Slap S01E03

In times of social turmoil, people seek out television which is comforting, and avoid television which is challenging, writes David Dale. So it would be reasonable to assume that right now Junior Masterchef is attracting a much bigger audience than The Slap in Australia. It isn’t, and we have to put that down to two new influences on the national mood: the DGHF and the LATS (Davis-George Hotness Factor and Lingering Aftertaste of the Turd Sandwich).

In 2003, soon after the towers fell in Manhattan and the bombs went off in Bali, our viewing behaviour turned inwards. Australians escaped to sweet lifestylers such as Backyard Blitz, The Block and Location Location, and linear dramas such as CSI, wherein villains were reliably brought to justice within an hour. It was not until 2005 that we could embrace complex cliffhangers such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. The newfound sense of adventure continued till 2007, when we dumped Mr Relaxed and Comfortable and took a risk with Mr Driven and Geeky.


Now the world is in economic meltdown and Australian politics are a bloodbath. We should be seeking escape in the cosy cooking of cute kiddies, but last Monday Junior MasterChef drew only 714,000 viewers in the mainland capitals, compared with 1.3 million last year. Meanwhile The Slap, full of unlikeable characters and moral dilemmas (just like federal parliament), is drawing 917,000 viewers on a Thursday night when Australians traditionally go shopping (plus 79,000 who record it on ABC1, 326,000 who watch or record the repeat on ABC2, and 95,000 who catch up online).

The explanation for the discrepancy may lie simply in the fact that The Slap, a work of fiction, looks much more plausible than Junior MasterChef, which purports to be “reality”. But I think there are other forces in play...

The LATS: Nine weeks ago Channel Ten served up a turd sandwich when it sliced the finale of MasterChef in two halves and inserted a chunk of The Renovators between them. The audience has taken revenge on every Ten program since then.

The DGHF: The Slap is based on a book which sold 200,000 copies in Australian bookshops, but that would only be a significant audience for Pay TV or SBS. The ABC needs bigger numbers to justify such a slice from its drama budget, so it put Melissa George on the side of buses and Essie Davis in cinema commercials. The ABC knows that Davis and George are the hottest actresses currently working in Australia, and it is exploiting their charisma to the max.

George’s hotness is somewhat diminished by her character’s habit of breastfeeding a four year old (indeed, THE four year old who received The Slap in episode 1 for kicking a man in the shins, swinging a cricket bat at other children and being a selfish brat, which just shows what happens if you keep breastfeeding a kid after the first 12 months of its life). But Davis is hot enough to compensate for this without even taking her clothes off. Davis, George and Ten’s sandwich-maker have transformed the viewing pattern of a nation under stress.

Television Series: The Slap (S01E03)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Melissa George & Katherine Halliday
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea

Melissa George










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The Fades S01E05

Natalie Dormer reveals that filming sex scenes with Tom Ellis from Miranda was an mortifying experience. "The Fades was my first experience of being asked to do a love scene with a friend," she says. "I know his wife, he knows my fiancé, we've been to the pub. I actually found it harder because it's difficult to turn that part of your brain off. Anyway, it was just nice to get out of long skirts for a change, and to run around and do some blood and guts and gore and action... really modern. I've done stuff like that in the past, but it's not what I'm known for."

Indeed. The Fades, the supernatural BBC3 drama involving spirits trapped in the temporal plane created by Skins writer Jack Thorne, represents Dormer's "Fight Club moment" – a reference to the David Fincher film in which Helena Bonham Carter broke away from what Dormer calls "being tainted by the corset". She has often compared herself to Bonham Carter for this reason – an actress who not only also played Elizabeth the Queen Mother (in The King's Speech), but was Anne Boleyn to Ray Winstone's Henry VIII in a 2003 TV movie. Dormer calls this form of costume-drama typecasting "Helena Bonham Carteritis".


For anybody acquainted with a certain TV history drama Dormer will forever be a Tudor. Those of us who were glued to this sudsy mix of sex and 16th-century politics will however know that the spark went out of the series when Dormer's Anne Boleyn was sent to the scaffold, leaving centre-stage to Jonathan Rhys Meyer – never the most compelling of leading men – as a rather too trim King Henry VIII. Or as the Boston Herald put it: 'Dormer's unconventional beauty and frantic scheming made the first two seasons crackle every week and her departure leaves a void.'

"I didn't just want to play her as this femme fatale – she was a genuine evangelical with a real religious belief in the Reformation," says Dormer, showing how she might have been accepted for a place to study history at Cambridge University (fatally, she misread a question in her A-level exam and didn't get the necessary grade). "The show was an absolute joy because it was an amalgamation of my two greatest passions – drama and history. I read everything by Starkey... good old Starkey... opinionated Starkey [this was soon after the historian's controversial utterances about the August riots]... Antonia Fraser, all of them. But there is a lot of sex and violence in the programme, so it's hard to explain it to the guy in the street who's saying, 'The Tudors? Tits, man!'."

Dormer's naked romps with Rhys-Meyer are a YouTube favourite – often weirdly mashed with the most cloying of music (I have done my research) and not something the actress herself will ever be surfing. "It's very traumatic, it really is," she says. "Actors undress ourselves emotionally, and then it's kind of like... 'Fuck, he wants to do it physically as well'. It's like a all-over medical examination that us women have to go through at the doctors – it's never pleasant but it's for the greater good. But that's why it's so important to trust in your writer and director."

After 21 episodes of playing a brunette Anne Boleyn, Dormer has quite literally washed that girl right out of her hair – returning to her natural blonde. "I made the conscious decision to go back to my roots," she says, laughing at her unintended pun. "I was finding that people would look at me and see Anne and I needed to get away from her." After The Tudors there was a leading role in an ITV Miss Marple whodunit, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?; a low-budget film by X Files creator Chris Carter, Fencewalker (a biopic about Carter's early life that she doesn't think will see the light of day); the big-budget Captain America, and playing a trainee barrister in the BBC1 legal drama Silk.

Silk has been re-commissioned, but without Dormer, who has signed up instead for HBO's epic, on-going adaptation of American fantasy author George RR Martin's staggeringly popular novel Game of Thrones. "I start shooting that next week actually," she says. "I'm going to be playing Margaery Tyrell; she marries to a contender to the throne. She really comes into her own for seasons three and four, so I'm sort of committed for a number of years, which I'm really excited about." She's looking forward to poker sessions with the cast and crew (another unexpected hobby: Dormer was runner-up in the celebrity heat of PartyPoker.com Women's 2008 World Open in London, and is particularly sharp at Texas Hold 'em), but not to the sex scenes. More sex scenes? "Yes. Oh God, here I go, taking my clothes off again, I'll have to start running round Richmond Park again."

A squash addict and one-time member of the London Fencing Academy, Dormer seems to be constantly on the move – and every time I look up from my notes she seems to have switched seating position. She's tactile – giving my arm a squeeze on arrival and departure – and in repose has an interesting rather than a classically beautiful face. Her elfin features – a nose that's somewhere between pointy and retroussé, and large blue slanted eyes – have been satirised by one journalist as belonging to "a member of the House of Elrond" (Tolkien's Middle Earth-dwellers). Dormer becomes truly beautiful when animated, which is often – and rather fortunate considering that she's primarily a film and TV actress and not a photographic model.

Right now she is exploring her own potential, even if she has to wade through some insecurities to get there. "I feel like I've really earnt my stripes – I feel ready to play a lead," she says. "I would just love to prove I'm good enough to carry a project. But like any actor I berate myself on a day-to-day basis – I'm not doing well enough, or I didn't get that role, or I haven't done enough theatre... I'm shit, I'm shit, I'm crap, I'm crap... Oh, God... you know. It is important to stop and look and think how far I have come. We all need some TLC and to pat ourselves on the back from time to time."


Television Series: The Fades (S01E05)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Natalie Dormer
Video Clip Credit: Webmskn & Trailblazer










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