Review: NBC’s Deception

Posted on January 10, 2013 by s.e. smith

ABC’s Scandal and Revenge have been doing quite well for the US network, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that its rivals are trying to edge into the market. Both shows seem to capture a certain ethos viewers are craving right now; edgy, fierce, independent women usually rather, ah, creative means to get things done. Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) fixes things large and small while battling her demons, and Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) will stop at nothing to bring down the people who destroyed her father.

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Seven season finales to watch

Posted on May 5, 2012 by s.e. smith

May is upon us, which means that season and in some cases series finales are about to start rolling out as the 2011-2012 television season wraps up and the cable networks prepare to take over the summer airwaves with shows like The Newsroom, True Blood, Breaking Bad, The Closer, Perception, Leverage, and Weeds. With scores of shows attempting to draw viewers in for a last ratings push and a finale ending designed to pull people back in the fall, which finales should you bother tuning in for, and which are likely to be a snoozefest?

I know I’ll be trying to catch at least seven finales, each for entirely different reasons.

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ABC’s Revenge: Class War Onscreen

Posted on November 29, 2011 by s.e. smith

ABC’s Revenge is bringing some delicious class commentary to the table in what would otherwise be a fairly conventional (though still enjoyable!) television drama. Rich girl goes to The Hamptons to get revenge on the people who orchestrated her father’s downfall isn’t exactly the stuff of which radical television is made, no, not even when she’s swapping identities with someone she met in juvenile detention. Where things start to get interesting in the world of Emily Thorne and the people she’s targeted for revenge is that members of the servant class are not relegated to the background, but instead play fully realised roles in the narrative. Important roles, at that.

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