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Boston Globe -- Matthew Gilbert columns
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Taking a moment to gush about 'True Blood'
When "True Blood" premiered in September, I expected it to unfold as a highly thought-out and orderly metaphor of minority struggles in America. In Alan Ball's TV adaptation of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels, vampires come "out of the coffin," churches declaim "God Hates Fangs," and still the undead and their nightclubs have a hip cachet.
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Critic's corner
Lipstick Jungle 10 p.m., Channel 7 If you are a fan of this series, now is the time to watch it, and to call all your friends and have them watch it. The "Sex and the City"-ish show almost met its maker along with "My Own Worst Enemy," until an uptick in ratings last Friday inspired NBC to stay the ...
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Critic's corner
30 Rock 9:30 p.m., Channel 7 I really don't want to say "I told you so" to "30 Rock." Partly because talking to a TV show is just weird, but partly because I want this show to stay good. But the whole guest-star-every-episode thing continues to pose a threat to the integrity of the writing - to wit, last week's ...
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Critic's corner
Law & Order 10 p.m., Channel 7 Wow. I saw a preview of this episode and it is rather stupid indeed.
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Critic's corner
True Blood 11:30 p.m., HBO As we approach Sunday's season finale of "True Blood," I want to give a shout out to Ryan Kwanten, who plays Jason Stackhouse, Sookie's man-slut of a brother. Kwanten (above with Lois Smith, center, and Anna Paquin) has been like a live electric wire on the show. He's awesome, and he makes Jason's dull thinking ...
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'Pregnant Man' doesn't deliver much depth
The idea of a man getting pregnant and giving birth is fabulously provocative. It implies some kind of biological miracle. No wonder America has been a little bit obsessed with Thomas Beatie, the "pregnant man," the guy in the People magazine photos with a hairy belly and a massive baby bump. He represents a challenge to the very basics of ...
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Critic's corner
True Blood 8 p.m., HBO2 And this week's obsession is: "True Blood." I can't believe "True Blood" is about to reach its season finale on Sunday. The episodes flew by. OK, so it isn't as psychologically sophisticated as "Six Feet Under," Alan Ball's previous TV effort. But this supernatural drama is still a really good time - playful, metaphorical, at ...
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Critic's corner
Filth 9 p.m., Channel 2 Julie Walters (above) is a sympathetic lead in this fact-based "Masterpiece: Contemporary." She plays Mary Whitehouse, a moral watchdog who campaigned obsessively to clean up television in the 1960s and '70s. Hugh Bonneville is the BBC executive who tries to ignore her efforts.
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A true tale of decadence, greed, and murder
There is cocaine. There is a lot of cash. And there is the doctoring of financial books. Before the murders are explained in Lifetime's "The Two Mr. Kissels," tonight at 9, there is mucho decadence, set in glitzy mansions that are as bright and gilded as Nancy Grace's hair.
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An extra dose of Ricky Gervais
It's a pleasure to watch Ricky Gervais say really, really stupid things. That was the case in the original British "The Office," in which his boss character, David Brent, was in desperate need of verbal Imodium. That was the case in "Extras," which saw his aspiring actor scale the heights of sitcom-catchphrase idiocy. And that is the case, more or ...
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