HitFix Interview: Rupert Boneham talks 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'
Fan favorite discusses his broken toes, dealing with Russell and being a Hero
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Rupert Boneham of 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'
Credit: CBS
Bearded, gravel-voiced, gregarious and reliably festooned in tie-dyes, Rupert Boneham was the right man at the right time for the pirate-themed "Survivor: Pearl Islands."
Rupert didn't win "Pearl Islands," but he was so popular that the show turned him right around for the subsequent "All-Stars" season. He didn't win that one either, but he did capture a fan vote that confirmed his status as one of the most popular "Survivor" contestants ever and earned him a million dollars.
The game drew Rupert back in for a third time in this "Heroes vs. Villains" installment, but for a good while, the shoe-stealing, challenge-dominating Goliath was missing-in-action. This season's Rupert was quieter, grumpier and less of a physical threat. Perhaps that had more than a little to do with the toes he broke in the season's very first challenge.
But in the past couple weeks, with his back against the wall, the Rupert fans adored returned. Facing a first inevitable elimination, Rupert turned an ordinary rock into the threat of an Immunity Idol and bluffed Candice out of the game. Facing a second inevitable elimination, Rupert worked to stir up discontent amongst the Villains and pushed Russell to turn on his allies and vote Danielle out. This Thursday (May 13), alas, time ran out for Rupert and he was unable to avoid having his torch snuffed at the last Tribal Council before the finale.
HitFix caught up with Rupert to discuss his injured feet, his disappointment with Sandra and why he was willing to try to align with Russell.
Click through for the full interview...
Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 16
Daniel Fienberg and Alan Sepinwall fight about 'Lost,' agree about several comedies
Courteney Cox of 'Cougar Town'
Credit: ABC
It's time for a comedy-heavy edition of the Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.
This week, Alan Sepinwall and I spent the first half of the podcast talking about three comedies we like -- "Cougar Town," "Modern Family" and "Parks and Recreation" -- and then the last 20 minutes arguing about Tuesday's "Lost," which Alan quite liked and which irked me. Oh well. It happens.
As we note at the beginning of the podcast, things may be irregular next week due to network upfronts. We will definitely still podcast, but no promises on when that podcasting will occur. It's possible we may even try for a double-podcast next week as we have to look over schedules for the full new slates for all four-ish (Sorry, The CW) networks.
Here's the time breakdown for this week's podcast:
"American Idol" -- 02:10 - 04:00
"Cougar Town" -- 04:15 - 12:10
"Modern Family" -- 12:15 - 19:35
"Parks and Recreation" -- 19:45 - 26:00
"The Pacific" -- 26:00 - 29:00
"Lost" -- 29:10 - 48:15
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]
And here's this week's podcast...
HitFix Interview: Candice Woodcock, Danielle DiLorenzo talk 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'
Double-elimination victims discuss mistakes, catfights and Russell
Danielle of 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'
Credit: CBS
The first two times "Survivor" did All-Star seasons, the most notorious power players picked each other off and the winners ended up being two women -- Amber and Parvati -- who wouldn't have been considered serious threats in the beginning.Â
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Perhaps that's why as "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains" began, Candice Woodcock and Danielle DiLorenzo were considered popular dark horses to win. Candice was the 13th player out on "Survivor: Cook Islands," while Danielle was the runner-up in Panama. Neither one was really a straight-forward Hero or a straight-forward villain.
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And for a long time Candice and Danielle lived up to their designated sleeper status. Danielle made an early alliance with fellow Villains Parvati and Russell, while Candice floated on the outside and proved adept at avoiding being targeted at Tribal Council.
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Then, on Thursday (May 6) night's episode, both were gone in the blind of an eye. In a double-elimination episode, Candice was punished for a strategically pointless flip-flop and Danielle learned what happens when Russell thinks you're threatening him.
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HitFix caught up with Candice and Danielle on Friday morning to discuss their surprising eliminations, Candice's outsider status and Danielle's notorious catfight with Amanda.
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Click through...Â
Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 15
Daniel Fienberg and Alan Sepinwall discuss 'Lost,' 'Community' and 'The Shield'
Alison Brie of 'Community'
Credit: NBC
It's Wednesday and it's time for the first Firewall & Iceberg Podcast with me and Alan Sepinwall under the same professional roof.
Unfortunately, we aren't under the same literal roof, so there were a couple Skype-based problems this week, but nothing catastrophic.
In addition to the usual time on "American Idol" (less and less each week) and "Lost," we also spent a lot of time on "Community," the return of "Friday Night Lights" and, because I just finished my marathon series viewing, "The Shield."
Here's the breakdown...
"American Idol" -- 02:15 - 05:20
"Community" -- 05:20 - 13:20
Reader Mail/Return of "Friday Night Lights" -- 13:50 - 25:00
"Lost" -- 25:10 - 35:15
"The Shield" -- 35:45 - 47:22
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]
And here's this week's podcast...
TV Review: 'The Boondocks' returns to Adult Swim
Aaron McGruder has his bark, but a lack of timeliness takes away some of his bite
Huey of 'The Boondocks'
Credit: Adult Swim
On an intellectual level, I understand that Aaron McGruder doesn't owe me anything.
On an emotional level, though, it's hard not to feel like McGruder is the deadbeat dad of political cartooning. Since McGruder abruptly concluded the funny pages run of "The Boondocks" in 2006, scarcely a week has gone by when something didn't hit the news that caused me to say, "Damn. 'Boodocks' would have had some righteous fun with this s***."
Tiger Woods.
Teabaggers.
Michael Steele.
Arizona immigration reform.
Dez Bryant being asked if his mom was a prostitute.
And then I flip to the comics and I've only got "Marmaduke" staring back and me and lemme assure you that Marmaduke doesn't have anything to say about anything.
I keep hoping that one day "The Boondocks" will return to the comics and it'll be just like McGruder really *did* only step out to buy a pack of cigarettes, rather than abandoning us entirely.
But, like I said, that's an emotional reaction and not an intellectual one.
I don't have the same visceral need for the TV animated incarnation of "The Boondocks," but it too has been long absent. After more than two years away, the "Boondocks" series returns to Cartoon Network on Sunday (May 2) night with an episode that seems to attack my neediness head-on.
[More on "The Boondocks" after the break...]
HitFix Interview: Amanda Kimmel talks 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'
'Survivor' favorite discusses her catfight, her jury time and why she won't do the show again
Amanda Kimmel of 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'
Credit: CBS
I've never made any secrets that when it comes to "Survivor," I play favorites. And I've never made any secret that on my list of "Survivor" favorites, Amanda Kimmel would rank near the top.
Twice -- in China and Micronesia -- Amanda made it to the Top Three and addressed the jury with victory and a million bucks in her grasp and twice she let it slip away. Often underestimated as just another pretty face (and the "Survivor" cameramen have obviously always agreed), no less a notorious schemer than Russell Hantz paid her the ultimate compliment by calling her "Boston Rob in a girl's body."
Of course, Russell called her that seconds before voting Amanda out on Thursday's (April 29) "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains."
This was a tough season for Amanda. She was targeted from the very beginning by an alliance within her own tribe. She lost her closest ally when James was injured and had to be voted out. And while she was the only castaway to tell the camera how stupid it was for JT to hand an Idol to Russell, she wasn't able to prevent the impending disaster.
On the bright side, she was able to go out with one of the show's most memorable catfights, scratching and clawing to try to keep an Immunity Idol clue out of Danielle's villainous hands. In Robert Louis Stevenson's old bedroom!
HitFix caught up with Amanda on Friday to talk about that catfight, whether she actually tried to prevent her elimination and why she's never planning to play "Survivor" again.
Click through...
Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 14
Daniel Fienberg and Alan Sepinwall discuss 'Breaking Bad,' 'Happy Town' and more
The Cousins of 'Breaking Bad'
Credit: AMC
It's time for another Wednesday installment of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.
It's Alan Sepinwall and my 13th consecutive week of on-time podcasts, but our last week podcasting from different online venues because, as you've already read, I hope, Sepinwall is coming to HitFix.
In a lean-and-mean 30:20 podcast ("Lost" was a repeat and "American Idol" was too dull to be worth the time), we mostly discussed ABC's new drama "Happy Town" and gave a midseason report on "Breaking Bad."
Here's the breakdown:
Sepinwall's coming to HitFix -- 00:00 - 02:15
"American Idol" -- 02:35 - 04:20
"Happy Town" -- 4:25 - 11:40
Reader Questions ("Lost"-ish and "Survivor") -- 11:50 - 21:30
"Breaking Bad" -- 22:00 - 29:00
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]
And here's this week's podcast...
TV Review: ABC's 'Happy Town'
Comparisons to 'Twin Peaks' and Stephen King do this self-consciously quirky drama no favors
Sam Neill of 'Happy Town'
Credit: ABC
Stephen King has taught me many things over the years. He taught me that if I'm suffering from serious obesity, the best diet plan is provoking an old gypsy woman. He warned me that no teenage girl likes having her prom interrupted with a pig-blood shower. He contributed the healthy reminder that the clown who lives in the sewer probably isn't friendly and I don't want to take his balloons, whether they float or not.
But if there's any lesson that Stephen King felt the desire to teach over and over again, and a lesson that I've taken to heart, it's this one: If a cultured, European man moves into your small town and opens a shop specializing in the sort of top-end merchandise nobody in your town would ever normally purchase, he's most likely either a vampire or Satan. And in either case, you may want to start investigating property values in a neighboring town.
I can't tell if Merritt Grieves, the character played by Sam Neill in ABC's new dramedy "Happy Town," will turn out to be more like Richard Straker from "Salem's Lot" or Leland Gaunt from "Needful Things," but I know that his arrival means that bad things are coming to the small town of Haplin, Minnesota.
But you *know* bad things are coming to Haplin because, not content with premiering a show with an ironic title, ABC has been advertising "Happy Town" with the 100 percent redundant tag line "Don't let the name fool you."
I'd say that you also don't want to let ABC's advertising fool you. Just because teasers make "Happy Town" look like another "Twin Peaks," it's not. It's just another show that looks like "Twin Peaks." I'm not even sure it's another "Push, Nevada" (somewhere, a shiver just went down Ben Affleck's spine).
Full review of "Happy Town" after the break...
HitFix Interview: Geoff Stults talks 'Happy Town'
'October Road' veteran discusses his mysterious new ABC series
Geoff Stults
Wednesday (April 28) night's premiere of ABC's "Happy Town" is a big deal for Geoff Stults.
The 32-year-old actor has been steadily acting for a decade on the big and small screen, playing supporting roles in shows like "7th Heaven" and "October Road" and in features including "Wedding Crashers," "The Express" and, most recently, "She's Out of My League."
"Happy Town," though, finds Stults in leading man mode as Tommy Conroy, a police deputy content to live in his father's shadow and enjoy the tranquility of a small town without any crime. When a bizarre set of circumstances unfold, Tommy finds himself having to investigate a series of crimes that may involve The Magic Man, the mysterious figure behind a rash of abductions years earlier.
Stults isn't just the lead in "Happy Town," though. The series comes from the team of Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, who wrote the pilot specifically for their friend and former "October Road" star.
HitFix caught up with Stults to his quirky new series, the responsibility of stepping up as a star and how much closure viewers will be able to expect by the end of the first "Happy Town" season.
Click through...
HitFix welcomes Alan Sepinwall
What's Alan Watching blog will be relocating to HitFix. Huzzah!
This isn't Alan Sepinwall. It's Omar Little. All in the game, though. All in the game.
Credit: HBO
I've been following Alan Sepinwall for the past 15 years. Literally.
When I arrived at the University of Pennsylvania, he was the managing editor at 34th Street Magazine, the arts & entertainment rag at the college newspaper. He graduated, but continued to encourage me and I eventually became 34th Street managing editor myself.
For my first summer internship, I was a nearly inept fact-checker at the now-defunct P.O.V. Magazine, the first college intern they'd had since Alan Sepinwall.
Alan didn't get me my job at Zap2it, but he certainly made sure that the editor there scooped my resume and clips out of the garbage after I ignored a couple basic application requirements. Because of that gig, I was able tag along behind Alan into the Television Critics Association.
Perhaps all of that following is why I'm so pleased, excited and, darnit, honored to welcome Alan Sepinwall to the HitFix family. Since Sepinwall is so prone to mocking my anglophilia, I should probably say that I'm right chuffed.
[More puffery after the break...]
