Based on the popular Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea, Ugly Betty is a biting comedy with plenty of heart. There are several ongoing plots, including murder, illegal immigration, infidelity, a vendetta, and death. And yes, this really is a comedy. Golden Globe winner America Ferrera (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Real Women Have Curves) stars as Betty, a whip-smart assistant at a women's magazine who is clueless when it comes to fashion.
Completing the run of one of the most acclaimed television shows in broadcast history, season 6, part II of The Sopranos will be remembered mostly not for what happened during the season, but for what didn't happen at the very end. Creator David Chase pulled off a series ending that was as controversial as it was surprising and unforgettable, leaving countless fans to look away from the show and to blogs and articles for answers to the biggest mystery since "who shot J.R.?": what happened to Tony Soprano?
Several crises threaten Tony and his crew; for starters, rival boss Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) is in prison, and the always-tense relations between the New Jersey and New York families are strained through the unpredictable behavior of Sack's surrogates. Then there are the inevitable power struggles that ensue when certain family members are eliminated, by natural and other causes.
Combining richly dark humor with gripping family drama and intricate plot twists, the masterful final season of The Riches is as thrillingly original as television gets! Itinerant con artists posing as a wealthy suburban family, the Malloys are stealing the American dream, but their elaborate ruse may be stealing their very souls.
British comedian Eddie Izzard (Glorious, Dressed to Kill brings his raffish charisma to The Riches, a sneaky satirical drama about a family of con artists who lie their way into a wealthy gated community. Wayne and Dahlia Malloy (Izzard and Minnie Driver, Grosse Pointe Blank) are travelers--a kind of American gypsies--who get in trouble with their clan and have to hit the road with their three kids (Shannon Woodward, Noel Fisher, and Aidan Mitchell).
Framed for assassinating the U.S. president at the end of Season Three, Nikita is the world's most wanted woman - alone, on the run and trying to clear her name. When she unexpectedly reunites with her old team - ex-fiance and mentor Michael, former protege Alex, tech genius Seymour Birkhoff and ex-CIA analyst Ryan Fletcher - they struggle to heal past betrayals while attempting to take down their nemesis Amanda, discovering in the process a vast conspiracy that threatens a global catastrophe.
In a game-changing turnaround, Division is now run by Nikita, Michael and former CIA analyst Ryan Fletcher, who has been tasked by the U.S. President to clean up after the previous regime... or else. With punk rock hacker Seymour Birkhoff hardwired to the cause, Nikita's protege Alex and ex-Navy SEAL Sean Pierce in the fold, and Owen back from a Russian prison, the new team has all the tech, muscle and spy power they need to round up the Dirty Thirty - rogue assassins who remain at large around the globe.
The pedigree and history of Nikita's birth and development are easily researched elsewhere--see the season-one review for backstory and exposition. And for lucky fans of the show, season two continues the exceptional storytelling and movie-like feel of new installments about the rogue government spy organization known as Division. Maggie Q stars in the title role, a former Division agent now bent on destroying its evil reign by flipping her legs and firing her weapons at her avowed enemy, with a couple of devastating hair tosses and mega-toned body blows thrown in for good measure.
In Nikita, the CW Network has developed another resounding hit on its roster of solid dramatic series that do a nice job of grabbing viewers from a variety of demographics. With season two starting in late September 2011, this slick package of the 22 episodes of season one is a great way of diving into a show that's among the best looking, most tightly produced, and intensely cinematic on the small screen. The title and the premise both come from the 1990 French feature film and early style-setter from writer-director Luc Besson, La Femme Nikita.
He's ingenious, he's phobic, he's obsessive-compulsive. Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner "Tony Shalhoub is a riot" (TV Guide) in Monk, the show that critics are praising as "fresh, exciting and utterly original." (Chicago Tribune) Monk's hilarious, offbeat antics have made him unfit for duty but he's back as a police consultant to help out on their most baffling cases.
