Sunday, July 12, 2015
TV Tonight: The Strain, Ray Donovan, Masters of Sex
Posted By Bill Frost on July 12, 2015, 11:38 AM
What's new on the tube tonight:
The Strain (FX) Season Premiere: Season 2 of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's vampire-invasion thriller opens with the most terrifying bedtime story in the history of ever, and escalates from there. The Strain's first season established New York City as Ground Zero for an ancient, horrific, not-sparkly-nor-pretty vampire race's takeover of the planet; now that it's in full swing, Centers for Disease Control docs Ephraim (Corey Stoll, still wearing the wig) and Nora (Mia Maestro) may have sussed out a cure, whereas Prof. Geezer Van Helsing (David Bradley) would just as soon kill 'em all. It'll never reach Walking Dead-levels of hyper-fandom, but The Strain deserves credit for being faster-paced and more genuinely scary than that zombie soap opera.
Ray Donovan (Showtime) Season Premiere: As imposing as he and his giant head are, Ray Donovan star Liev Schreiber is always thisclose to being overshadowed by secondary players (namely Jon Voight as Ray's unrepentant bad-ass father, Mickey). To complicate matters in Season 3, Deadwood scene-stealer Ian McShane joins the show as a billionaire movie producer who hires Ray to retrieve his kidnapped son (discreetly, of course), and lesser threat Katie Holmes also comes onboard (cue the Inevitable Sex With Ray countdown clock). Fortunately, now that Ray's estranged from his family and acting as a lone-wolf Hollywood "fixer" free of boss/mentor Ezra (Elliott Gould), his swagger seems to finally match his billing. But don't worry—Mickey's still a bad-ass.
Masters of Sex (Showtime) Season Premiere: It's 1965, and Dr. Bill Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) are now famous, published authors of the Human Sexual Response journal. Even more shocking than that was in the '60s, Caplan finally has a TV series that's survived to see a third season!
On Topic...
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for Nov. 8
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Heretic, Small Things Like These, Memoir of a Snail and more
- Nov 7, 2024
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for Nov. 1
Anora, Here, Music By John Williams, Emilia Pérez, Absolution and more
- Oct 31, 2024
-
Theater Reviews: Plan-B's FULL COLOR and Pioneer Theatre's PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
Two new productions explore the psychological cost of bigotry
- Oct 28, 2024
- More TV » More Culture »
More by Bill Frost
-
True TV: Second-chance TV series on Netflix
Loudermilk, Detroiters, Kevin Can F**k Himself, Preacher and other shows you missed the first time around
- Nov 6, 2024
-
Make Halloween devilish again with these Satanic Panic flicks.
Hail Satan
- Oct 2, 2024
-
Best TV shows not available on streaming services
SCTV, Weeds, Ally McBeal, Ed and other classics lost in the streaming ether.
- Sep 18, 2024
- More »
Latest in Buzz Blog
