Salon.com > Willa Paskin http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:27:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “Downton Abbey”: Hard times hit the estate http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/downton_abbey_hard_times_hit_the_estate/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/downton_abbey_hard_times_hit_the_estate/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:37:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13160794 A few nights ago, I dreamed about “Downton Abbey.” Mr. Bates had taken Matthew Crawley hostage and was holding him at knife point in some soignée drawing room, a costume dream remake of “Misery.” Other people’s dreams — particularly the ones that do not contain the existence of you — are, as a rule, dull, so I won’t go on about the drapery patterns or the motive or Bates' strange expertise with knots. The basic outline makes my point: Over its first two genteel, delectable seasons “Downton Abbey” has sunk its well-manicured hooks in me, lodging so deep that my subconscious now spews out alternative story lines in which the pious Mr. Bates has been made over into a villain (which, not for nothing, would make him a whole lot more interesting).

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/downton_abbey_hard_times_hit_the_estate/feed/ 8 Carrie Brownstein: “A lot of these characters are permutations of myself” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/30/carrie_brownstein_a_lot_of_these_characters_are_permutations_of_myself/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/30/carrie_brownstein_a_lot_of_these_characters_are_permutations_of_myself/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2012 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13154840 Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen's anthropological sketch-comedy series "Portlandia" returns to IFC on Friday, Jan. 4, for a third season of gently mocking and dissecting the behaviors of niche Portlanders and their kin across these United States. Brownstein, who was Sleater-Kinney's front woman and now performs with her band Wild Flag, spoke with me while her dogs barked in the background. We discussed the series, the proliferation of Portland culture, her fascination with couples' behavior and the qualities she shares with Kath and Dave.

How many of the characters on "Portlandia" would make you insane if you encountered them in real life?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/30/carrie_brownstein_a_lot_of_these_characters_are_permutations_of_myself/feed/ 18 “Downton’s” Rob James-Collier: “America does not like people being not nice to dogs” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/22/downtons_rob_james_collier_america_does_not_like_people_being_not_nice_to_dogs/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/22/downtons_rob_james_collier_america_does_not_like_people_being_not_nice_to_dogs/#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2012 19:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13152018 On "Downton Abbey," Rob James-Collier plays Thomas, the handsome valet always cooking up a scheme or jockeying for a position. Back in season one of the period drama — the third season begins airing on PBS on January 6th, having already played in England — we learned that Thomas was gay, an aspect of his character that gets much more fully explored in the coming season. James-Collier, wearing a blue sweater and some stubble, spoke with me about the series while he was in New York promoting the show. (The cast rode the subway while visiting because, as James-Collier joked, "We’re keeping it real. There’s a recession on. Saving PBS money; that’s what we’re all about.") He talked about what's to come on "Downton," the show's appeal and Americans' love of dogs.

Thomas’s storyline this year, which has to do with his sexuality, feels like the most modern and relevant of any this season.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/22/downtons_rob_james_collier_america_does_not_like_people_being_not_nice_to_dogs/feed/ 7 Blue Glow TV Awards: Willa Paskin http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/top_10_tv_of_2012_%e2%80%94_and_a_preview/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/top_10_tv_of_2012_%e2%80%94_and_a_preview/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123429 Willa Paskin is  Salon's TV critic. 

Willa's top 10 (because she couldn't resist adding five more):

1. "Homeland" (Showtime). For the purposes of this list, I am using “best” as a synonym for “shows I most loved to watch,” which explains why “Homeland,” even with it’s deeply ferkockte final stretch, is here. Did the whole show kind of implode, selling out its realpolitik premise for a schmaltzy present? For sure. Did I always want to see next week’s episode desperately? For sure. As implausible and downright ridiculous as the last three episodes were, there was a good five-week span when “Homeland” tore through plot and expectations faster, more satisfyingly and with better acting — Claire Danes, the best of the best — than any show this year. “Homeland” couldn’t maintain its own momentum, but I wouldn’t have missed an out-of-control minute.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/top_10_tv_of_2012_%e2%80%94_and_a_preview/feed/ 4 Election during an apocalypse http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/election_during_an_apocalypse/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/election_during_an_apocalypse/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:27:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150161 As 2012 winds down and 2013 waves, ever closer, from the far side of New Year’s Eve, it’s the right time to look back on the year in television. From “Zou Bisou Bisou” to Honey Boo Boo, the Lena Dunham wars to the great “Homeland” plausibility debate, from Louis C.K. to the Dowager Countess, and all the zombies, meth lords and Karl Roves in between, it has been quite a year for television. One that, amped up by hyper-engaged writers, recappers, commenters, readers and the great tweeting masses, has shown that watching, thinking, talking and writing about television are exceptionally interactive, vibrant, impassioned and nitpicky pursuits. If these activities are practiced by couch potatoes, at least they are couch potatoes with racing minds.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/election_during_an_apocalypse/feed/ 0 “1600 Penn”: A political satire that’s short on wonkiness, big on wackiness http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/1600_penn_a_political_satire_thats_short_on_wonkiness_big_on_wackiness/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/1600_penn_a_political_satire_thats_short_on_wonkiness_big_on_wackiness/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:06:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148515 There are a lot of fictional politicians milling about the television these days. There’s Leslie Knope, State’s Attorney Peter Florrick, President Fitzgerald Grant, and Vice Presidents Selina Meyer and William Walden. Until recently, Kelsey Grammar was the mayor of Chicago on “Boss” and Sigourney Weaver was a version of Hillary Clinton on “Political Animals.” There are various Defense and State Department officials on “Last Resort,” a mayoral race in “Nashville,” and soon there will be all of Capitol Hill in Netflix’s forthcoming “House of Cards.” As of last night there are also the Gilchrists, America’s first family and the stars of “1600 Penn,” a new sitcom that sneak-previewed on NBC and will begin airing regularly in January.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/1600_penn_a_political_satire_thats_short_on_wonkiness_big_on_wackiness/feed/ 4 “Homeland” Finale Recap: Love rules http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/homeland_finale_recap_love_rules/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/homeland_finale_recap_love_rules/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13146948 A confession: At some point in the not so distant past, some time before the first season’s steamy cabin episode and up through the phenomenal interrogation episode of this now-completed second season, I was a devoted Brody and Carrie ‘shipper. Yes, their whole dynamic has always been a little implausible and a lot twisted, a partnership resting on a wacked power dynamic and a whole lot of chemistry, but I was into them. I, like the creators of “Homeland,” believed the show “elevated” when Brody and Carrie were on-screen together. I spent a lot of time thinking about why their seemingly unworkable thing worked. Sense be damned, I wished for the pair a cockamamie future, one in which they could be happy and crazy and never, ever — knock wood — have enormously messed-up children together.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/homeland_finale_recap_love_rules/feed/ 11 Blogging the TV revolution: Alan Sepinwall, the king of the recap http://www.salon.com/2012/12/16/blogging_the_tv_revolution_alan_sepinwall_the_king_of_the_recap/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/16/blogging_the_tv_revolution_alan_sepinwall_the_king_of_the_recap/#comments Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13125206 Alan Sepinwall's new book, "The Revolution Was Televised" is a must-read for anyone who has ever fallen hard for a TV show. Advancing an argument about how TV since "The Sopranos" has reached another, better level, it explores, chapter by chapter, the specifics of how "The Sopranos" and "The Wire"and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Friday Night Lights" and "Mad Men," among others, came to be. Sepinwall has been described as the "the acknowledged king of the [recap]"and writes prolifically, insightfully and influentially about an ungodly number of shows at What Alan's Watching. Sepinwall self-published "The Revolution Was Televised" — making his one of the very few self-published books ever to be reviewed, and raved about, by the New York Times — and has always been a bit of DIY guy. In college, he began writing a proto-blog about "NYPD Blue," which got him a job at the Newark Star-Ledger (where he became a reigning expert on 'The Sopranos," among other things), before he struck out on his own, one of the most widely read and astute TV analysts out there. I spoke with Alan about the book, what the men who created these shows have in common, why they're all men, and asked for yet another defense of "Lost."

Your book about television has also become this really astonishing publishing story, because it was self-published. It’s one of the only self-published books ever reviewed by the Times.

I’ve been completely floored by it. I did get one offer from a publisher a year ago, and it wasn’t a great offer, but I would sort of start thinking to myself as I was doing this, “You idiot, you should have taken it. You’re never going to make this kind of money selling the book, even if you’re completely happy with the book, and you’re always going to be sort of annoyed with yourself.” And it’s done a lot better than that offer would have.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/16/blogging_the_tv_revolution_alan_sepinwall_the_king_of_the_recap/feed/ 2 Channel surfing: “Happy Endings” battles helmet hair, “Glee” celebrates Hanukkah http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/channel_surfing_happy_endings_battles_helmet_hair_glee_celebrates_hanukkah/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/channel_surfing_happy_endings_battles_helmet_hair_glee_celebrates_hanukkah/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13124100 Observations about the past week of TV that are too short to stand on their own and too long to keep to myself.

1. Great moments in product placement ("great" moments): On “Parenthood,” cancer-stricken Kristina (Monica Potter) recorded a video for her children so the "Parenthood" audience could cry more. Her husband, Adam, watched said video on his Mac, which got major pride of place. A crowded Apple dock was visible for most of it and Adam very notably used the volume button as he settled in to watch. Macs, with volume functionality! Also the perfect computer to use when assembling your “If I die, know that I loved you” speech!

2. For a change this week, "Modern Family" decided to put the shrewish, dream-crushing shoe on Phil, not Claire Dunphy. Claire wanted to buy a house to flip it, Phil thought it was too risky, but didn't want to be the one to say no, and had to go through all sorts of contortions to play the part Claire usually plays. It was a nice role reversal — Oh, look, Phil can be an adult sometimes! — and one that suggests "Modern Family" doesn't always have to make Claire the shrew to structurally work.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/channel_surfing_happy_endings_battles_helmet_hair_glee_celebrates_hanukkah/feed/ 1 “American Horror Story’s” coat hanger abortion http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/american_horror_storys_coat_hanger_abortion/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/american_horror_storys_coat_hanger_abortion/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123730 Television is skittish about abortions. Occasionally, a character will have one — “Grey’s Anatomy’s” Christina Yang did last season, to no serious outcry. But miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and women deciding to keep the baby, even to bring said baby into a zombie-infested post-apocalypse, are far more common. And so too now is a woman giving herself a failed coat-hanger abortion.

On last night’s “American Horror Story,” in an episode titled “The Coat Hanger,” Sarah Paulson’s character, Lana Winters, a lesbian journalist wrongfully trapped in an insane asylum who had been raped by Dr. Threadson (Zachary Quinto), a serial killer who likes to skin people alive, found out she was pregnant. She tried to give herself an abortion with a coat hanger after the Catholic asylum staff forbade her from having a medically supervised one. Her attempt was bloody and unsuccessful —  but the devil might have had something to do with that. When the show jumped in time to the future, it was revealed that Lana and Dr. Threadson’s child grew up to be just like his daddy, a skin-flaying murderer.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/american_horror_storys_coat_hanger_abortion/feed/ 5 Too many severed limbs, too many rotting corpses http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/tv_blood_and_gore_is_only_so_much_fun/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/tv_blood_and_gore_is_only_so_much_fun/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13122605 “American Horror Story: Asylum,” as its title promises, traffics in horror tropes. But not all horror tropes are created equally disgusting. Last season, “American Horror Story” was primarily a ghost story: It boasted Frankenstein creatures, burn victims, bloated corpses, suicides, hangings and some blood, but in both savagery and bodily fluids, it was prim in comparison to “AHS’s” current installment. This season, the sociopaths circling the asylum include serial killers who skin people alive and wear a mask of human flesh, a Santa Claus who likes to stab and slice, and a Dr. Mengele type whose human experiments make the sewn-up creatures from last season look like cuddly stuffed toys. Puddles and puddles of blood have pooled in just about every episode: A tortured inmate put his hand in a meat-slicer; Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude imagined slicing her wrist; a forced hysterectomy went wrong.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/tv_blood_and_gore_is_only_so_much_fun/feed/ 3 “Homeland” recap: I’ve never been that stupid http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/homeland_recap_i%e2%80%99ve_never_been_that_stupid/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/homeland_recap_i%e2%80%99ve_never_been_that_stupid/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 07:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13119972 It is a sign of a sticky television show — and by sticky, I mean a show that one cares about, that gets under one's skin, that leaves one wanting more, however disappointing it eventually does or does not turn out to be — that left to think about it, the audience often comes up with much richer, more complicated, more cockamamie explanations for what is going on on-screen than the show’s own writers do. The most infamous example of this is, of course, “Lost,” where the audience dreamed up the hows and whys of everything from Jacob to the smoke monster, only to be told by the show’s creators that none of that really mattered in the warm and fuzzy afterlife.

After last week’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad "Homeland,” there was a flurry of speculation about what was really going on in that episode. Emily Nussbaum at the New Yorker floated a theory — which I was hoping was true— that would explain away much of the episode's suckage: Nazir and Brody were playing Carrie, in order to dupe her into enabling them with some bigger plot.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/homeland_recap_i%e2%80%99ve_never_been_that_stupid/feed/ 10 “Homeland’s” best shark-jumping moments http://www.salon.com/2012/12/09/homelands_best_shark_jumping_moments/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/09/homelands_best_shark_jumping_moments/#comments Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13118478 “Homeland” returns tonight with the penultimate installment of its second season, having just delivered the most controversial and outrageous episode of its existence. “Homeland” has previously done a lot of crazy things, but last week’s storyline, in which Abu Nazir kidnapped Carrie and then let her go after Brody promised to kill the Vice President but before Brody had actually done so, seemed to many — me included! — like a very long, tipsy walk into implausibility town. But a week later, there is one “Homeland” pattern that permits me to believe it will be back on the side of good television this week: “Homeland’s” habit of repeatedly jumping back and forth over the shark.

Doing crazy things and then pulling back on them — writing as if they don’t matter, tamping them down so they’re irrelevant, silo-ing them off from the main plot — is a standard “Homeland” tactic. “Homeland” regularly does something bananas to give the audience a thrill and then, weeks later when you re-examine the moment, you find that it has had little to no effect on the thrust of the show’s major storylines and relationships. "Homeland" jumps the shark one episode, but then swiftly steps back to the other side in time for the next.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/09/homelands_best_shark_jumping_moments/feed/ 3 “Restless”: Charlotte Rampling is armed and dangerous and bewitching http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/restless_charlotte_rampling_is_armed_and_dangerous_and_bewitching/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/restless_charlotte_rampling_is_armed_and_dangerous_and_bewitching/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:38:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13118233 I’m not exactly sure who a foxy Russian expat-turned-accomplished-and-then-betrayed WWII-era British spy grows up to be, but a Charlotte Rampling type seems like a very good guess. Rampling, who is now 66, is exactly the right mix of scared and scary, vulnerable and fierce, controlled and yet seemingly seconds away from insanity that suggests a woman who will always and forever know 836 ways to tie up a person and take his or her secrets. The casting of Rampling in the two-part miniseries “Restless,” in which she plays exactly the character described above — Eva Gilmartin nee Delectorskaya, a former British spy — is the only great thing about “Restless,” which premieres tonight on the Sundance Channel. But sometimes seeing Charlotte Rampling holding an outsize firearm like she intends to use it is good enough.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/restless_charlotte_rampling_is_armed_and_dangerous_and_bewitching/feed/ 5 Channel surfing: The rudderless “Office” thrives, “FNL” alums founder http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/channel_surfing_the_rudderless_office_thrives_fnl_alums_founder/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/channel_surfing_the_rudderless_office_thrives_fnl_alums_founder/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13118018 My observations of the past week of TV: Too short to stand on their own and too long to keep to myself.

1. When Steve Carell left "The Office," it sent the show into a frenzy to crown the “next boss.” Determining said boss was the major theme of last season, and the reason there were guest-starring roles for Will Arnett, James Spader, Ray Romano, as well as longer story arcs for Catherine Tate and James Spader as the mellow perveball Robert California. But after all that fuss, there is currently no boss in “The Office” at all — Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) is on a long vacation to the Caribbean and has been MIA for weeks — and it’s ... totally fine. The show’s in much better shape than it was during the doldrums of last year, and the huge supporting cast has more to do. In hindsight, "The Office" would have been better served ignoring, rather than trying to fill, Carell’s shoes.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/channel_surfing_the_rudderless_office_thrives_fnl_alums_founder/feed/ 0 The year TV broke out in song http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/the_year_tv_broke_out_into_song/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/the_year_tv_broke_out_into_song/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13116948 “Nashville” finished up the first part of its season last night with Juliette Barnes dominating a church, Gunnar and Scarlett selling a song, and Rayna Jaymes hesitating to go on tour with her younger rival. (Do it already!) In just eight episodes, “Nashville” has delivered some of the best musical moments on scripted TV this year. So on the occasion of its winter recess — and, also on the occasion of "Suburgatory's" homage to Rebecca Black last night — here is some of the year’s best singing and dancing, from “Mad Men's" "Zou Bisou Bisou” scene to "Happy Endings," with Adam Pally wearing a giant crucifix earring, and of course, because it's a show about a Broadway musical, we have to include a little number from that crazy show called "Smash."

From “Nashville” 

“Nashville” has been full of great music, but it’s the duets that have been mesmerizing, more effectively distilling and tracking the characters’ changing emotions than any dialogue. The three best: the first episode’s “If I Didn’t Know Better,” which presaged the inevitable Gunnar-Scarlett puppy-dog love story; the Deacon-Rayna duet “No One Will Ever Love You,” a bit of singing that’s emotionally tantamount to adultery; and Rayna and Juliette’s how-could-I-really-hate-you-when-singing-with-you-is-so-much-fun peace treaty, “Wrong Song.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/the_year_tv_broke_out_into_song/feed/ 1 “The Mindy Project”: Mindy’s got a beef with midwives http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/the_mindy_project_mindys_got_a_beef_with_midwives/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/the_mindy_project_mindys_got_a_beef_with_midwives/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:42:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13115275 What does Mindy Kaling have against midwives? Something! On last night’s episode of “The Mindy Project,” two smooth-talking, Zen-having male midwives (I don’t have the stats to back me up here, but I’d bet whatever you've got that men do not make up a significant percentage of midwives in this country) began poaching patients from Mindy Lahiri’s practice. Mindy’s male colleagues tried to retain their patients in a bro-ish and counterproductive way: by calling pregnant women attractive and offering them a discount. Only Mindy could stop the defections, and she did so by storming upstairs into the midwives’ gong-having, holistic-themed offices and scaring her patients into sticking with the doctors. “If you are a healthy 22-year-old, that baby is going to fly out of you no matter who delivers you,” Mindy explained. “But if you’re middle-aged, obese, have diabetes, then who’s going to help you?” Because there is apparently no middle ground between being 22 and being high-risk, the patients, abashed, filed back downstairs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/the_mindy_project_mindys_got_a_beef_with_midwives/feed/ 12 “Homeland” conspiracy theories http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/homeland_conspiracy_theories/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/homeland_conspiracy_theories/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:29:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13114285 The morning after the morning after Sunday’s ludicrous “Homeland,” New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum revealed a theory that explains many of the more jarring elements of the episode: Brody and Abu Nazir are duping Carrie in the service of some as-yet-unnamed larger scheme. If this doesn’t make sense of everything that happened (see episodes 2, 4 through 10, and 12 it would explain how terrible Damian Lewis and his tiny mouth were, why Nazir would let Carrie go, what Brody and Nazir talked about that was hidden from us two episodes earlier, and where the show is going in the season’s remaining two episodes. Of course, this could all be hocus-pocus, but I am in the groping-around-in-the-dark, willing-to-grab-onto-anything-that-provides-support, even-ephemeral-grand-conspiracy-theories stage of coping with that last episode.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/homeland_conspiracy_theories/feed/ 4 “Homeland” recap: What a mess http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/homeland_recap_what_a_mess/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/homeland_recap_what_a_mess/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 06:28:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13112966 I am going to start this recap calmly and in my indoor voice. Neither is going to last long. But while they do, I want to say that “Homeland” has never been the most realistic show. Or a realistic show at all. It’s about an unhinged, bipolar, genius CIA analyst in crazy and true love with a tortured, terrorist Marine who, by some freak of vetting, was allowed to become a congressman and a vice-presidential candidate.

“Homeland” exists in a relatively “real” geopolitical universe, but it has deployed teen hit-and-run accidents, consequence-free murders in the woods, cabin sex, car sex, motel sex, and amnesia — the cherry on top of any soap opera — as plot devices. Some viewers find these creative liberties/absurdities off-putting: I have not been one of them. “Homeland” is so entertaining, Carrie Mathison is so vibrant and broken, Claire Danes is so next-level great, I would forgive the show anything. Or so I thought, until I watched the most recent episode.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/homeland_recap_what_a_mess/feed/ 25 Meet this season’s 10 TV scene-stealers and scene-killers http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/meet_this_seasons_10_tv_scene_stealers_and_scene_killers/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/meet_this_seasons_10_tv_scene_stealers_and_scene_killers/#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13112331 Every TV show has a lead actor or actress — but then there's everyone else. Supporting characters may not sell the show, but they're integral to what makes a series good or bad, funny — or so, so not funny. Herewith, a slideshow of the five best and five worst supporting actors on relatively new TV shows (or, as in the case of Bobby Cannavale, in new parts on longer-running TV shows) from Danny Castellano to Sgt. Brody's son. (And yes, basically every one on "2 Broke Girls" could have made this list, but that seemed too easy.)

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