Five cable series that nudged brilliance in 2010

LOS ANGELES: Five excellent cable series just ended their runs — one of them forever — leaving a gaping void on television schedules.

Three acclaimed freshman series — HBO”s “Boardwalk Empire,” AMC”s “The Walking Dead” and FX”s “Terriers” — joined Showtime”s Season 5 of “Dexter” and FX”s Season 3 of “Sons of Anarchy” in providing viewers an almost unheard-of opportunity to explore excellence.

Unfortunately for the private eye noir “Terriers,” which FX canceled because of extremely low ratings, its finale will be just that. The four others will return, and though they demanded attention and proved worthy of devotion, each has issues to address.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

The expectations on this series were probably unmatchable. It wasn”t the hype so much as the lineage. The “Sopranos” fruit tree is impressive — already, former writer Matthew Weiner has delivered “Mad Men.” Terence Winter got his shot with not only a cache of Sopranos directors but with a pilot directed by executive producer Martin Scorsese. Sprinkle in amazing actors, a huge HBO budget and — let”s not kid ourselves here — the bar was too high. Yet “Boardwalk” impressively laid the groundwork for a series that should be engaging and expansive for years.

Full-on greatness in Season 1? Pretty close but not quite. The pacing might have put people off. The series swiveled on backdoor deals, and those don”t always come with machine-gun fire. But there was much to love here. Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Kenneth Williams, on down the line — top-notch actors fleshed out nuanced and intriguing characters. “Boardwalk” was a flat-out success creatively, and Season 2 should go a long way toward cementing its reputation. Especially if it attains the urgency viewers are seeking.

THE WALKING DEAD

Could this be the first crossover zombie hit? If any series managed to pull in people who wouldn”t normally dabble in a big-screen gore-fest, this was the one. Leave the big screen to cheap thrills. “Walking Dead” managed to prove that not every arm will grab a throat, not every bit of evil lurks near a snapped twig in the forest. In fact, the real fear factor here is human behavior in the face of the collapse of civilization. Beyond that, sure, who doesn”t want to see some splattered zombie brains? The challenge next season — when “Walking Dead” moves up to 13 episodes from a mere six — will be to keep the story interesting, fresh and relatable.

TERRIERS

Blame the name, blame the branding or whatever might come to mind. But television is littered with wonderful shows that never caught on. The best way to eulogize “Terriers” is to liken it to a British series: they often come out, display their brilliance and disappear (usually as planned). In time, you”ll get the “Terriers” DVD — with, one would assume, some nice extras — and it can stand on your shelf as a monument to a story well told.

DEXTER

It”s almost impossible not to like America”s favorite serial killer, Dexter Morgan. It has been an incredible journey for the series and, even when it strains credibility — which happens often — “Dexter” never fails to entertain. But it”s pretty clear that if this series wants to stay in that rare stratosphere of being a hit that also has critical acclaim, it needs to change the formula.

Putting Dexter in situations where he”s almost found out but manages to slow his breathing and avoid detection is becoming tiresome. Repetitive patterns are emerging, such as Jaime Murray feeling strong emotions toward Dexter”s dark lifestyle in Season 2, just as Julia Stiles did in Season 5. Maybe those are minor quibbles. Besides, just when you thought “Dexter” was out of ideas, John Lithgow came around and made Season 4 the best ever.

SONS OF ANARCHY

Of all the excellent dramas here, fan reaction to “Sons of Anarchy” in Season 3 is the most interesting, and baffling. This outlaw biker-club series from Kurt Sutter embraces its heightened gangster mentality, its Hamlet-on-a-Harley agenda. You”ll find few series whose fans are as rabid and outspoken.

The story line that took the club from the fictional northern California town of Charming to Northern Ireland had a lot of viewers and critics claiming it meandered and that the skillfully riveting first and last episodes held together a soft middle. It”s too tough on Sutter; any creator/writer/showrunner ought to take chances — that”s essential to greatness. Had he kept “Sons” in Charming for a third year, playing the same tune, the backlash would rightly have been more fierce. Fans ultimately might look back at this ambitious season as instrumental in the series achieving brilliance.

Watch Water Walking Youtube Video

Watch the latest YouTube hit the water and “walk for water walkingyoutube Update (Video), water walking latest youtube, youtube water walking, Ronnie james dio, dio hit!. More than two million people have watched YouTube videos in the past fortnight. Even those who agree that this is a hoax on the internet it will be the cleverest hoaxes. The video shows the men racing in turns into a lake in Portugal. After several false starts they manage up to nine or 10 high-speed tiptoe-like strides before their legs buckle beneath them.

More than two million people have viewed the YouTube video in the past fortnight. Even those who believe it is a hoax agree it would be one of the cleverest hoaxes on the internet.

Walk on water (Liquid Mountaineering)

Criss Angel Walks on Water

wigan arsenal

Wigan fightback stuns Arsenal and shatters lingering title chances
Three goals in an incredible 10-minute finale transformed defeat into victory for Wigan Athletic and finally killed off Arsenal’s title bid.

Arsène Wenger and his team appeared to be coasting to a routine win when they led 2-0 in the 80th minute, but then Ben Watson gave Wigan a glimmer of hope and what followed was as remarkable as anything seen all season.

Titus Bramble headed the equaliser with a minute of the 90 remaining, and with Arsenal totally deflated, Charles N’Zogbia had time to plunder the winner.

The denouement was a personal nightmare for Lukasz Fabianski who, making his first appearance of the season in the Premier League, dropped the ball on to Bramble’s head for the goal that deprived Arsenal of the lead. Until that point, they had thrust themselves back into the title race.

Wenger had given up hope of overhauling the top two after the midweek defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, but then Spurs beat Chelsea to kick the door ajar again, and goals from Theo Walcott and Mikaël Silvestre here had set the Gunners’ sights on greater glory than a place in the Champions League.

Arsenal had been further depleted by the loss of Thomas Vermaelen and Manuel Almunia, both added to the list of the walking wounded after the Tottenham game, and unlikely to play again this season.

Poor Fabianski took over in goal, with Silvestre deputising for Vermaelen. Two other changes saw the 19-year-old Craig Eastmond given only his second start in the league, in place of the injured Denilson, and Walcott promoted from the bench to the exclusion of Emmanuel Eboué. Surprisingly, in view of his impact in midweek, there was no place in the starting line-up for Robin van Persie.

As might have been expected, Arsenal were always the better, more cohesive team, but it took them longer than they would have wanted to translate superiority into advantage. The goal they needed to revive their title challenge was delayed until the 41st minute, when Nicklas Bendtner’s through pass bisected the Wigan defence, setting up Walcott, who held off Maynor Figueroa before beating the advancing Chris Kirkland and scoring, left footed, from 10 yards.

Aishwarya Rai: Pregnant! Who, me?

MUMBAI: Aishwarya Rai: Pregnant! Who, me?, Bollywood rumours, once again, of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan being pregnant were delightfully laughed away by the Bachchan bahu.

“I think it was triggered off by that ad with Abhishek and me,” she said. The ad has the couple saying, “Ek khush khabri hai…” Ash added, “That’s where the talk must have started. But there’s no truth to it.”

So, that puts paid to the buzz about her walking out on Abhinay Deo’s Crooked, in which she teams up again with Abhishek, and also stories of her aim being to complete Vipul Shah’s Action Replayy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish, Mani’s Raavan and Rajnikant’s The Robot as early as possible.

Said a friend, “Ash does not get time for herself. She is trying to balance various projects, some of which have overshot the deadline, while playing her domestic roles properly. It’s a very tough balancing act, she needs a break.”

Understandably, the actress is now dropping out of projects that haven’t started. The buzz is she might not play Mumtaz Mahal to Ben Kingsley’s in Taj Mahal, a project that she had said yes to while shooting The Last Legion with Sir Ben.

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Aishwarya Rai: Pregnant! Who, me? was first posted on December 3, 2009 at 3:10 pm.

Chance Pe Dance Movie Review

‘Chance Pe Dance’ is directed by Shahid’s good friend Ken Ghosh who introduced the actor in Ishq Vishk.

The film stars Shahid Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza. Jiah Khan was the initial choice but director Ken Ghosh replaced her with Genelia. Apparenlty we heard it was done on Shahid’s recommendation as he thought Jiah looked older than him onscreen. The film was earlier titled ‘Star’ and ‘Yahoo’ before getting its final title.

The movie is based on story of a young and talented Sameer who is struggling to get a break in the industry and in the due course he meets Tina who is a choreographer. Sameer starts living in his old car when he is thrown out of his house as he is unable to pay the rent. He starts teaching dance in a school to young kids. Unfortunately, where he hates kids, these kids hate dancing.However, slowly Sam not only emotionally bonds with the kids, but also helps them win a prestigious inter-school dance competition and gets their confidence back. Tina is always his support who also helps him enter the reality talent hunt, where he wins and finally becomes a superstar.

Cast:  Shahid Kapoor,Genelia Dsouza…

Director: Ken Ghosh

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

Banner: UTV Motion Pictures

Music Director: Adnan Sami,Sandeep Shirodkar, Ken Ghosh

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Chance Pe Dance Movie Review was first posted on December 3, 2009 at 2:43 pm.
©2009 “India News“.

Ash: Pregnant! Who, Me?

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Ash: Pregnant! Who, Me? was first posted on December 3, 2009 at 3:22 pm.
©2009 “India News“.

Ash: Pregnant! Who, Me?

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Ash: Pregnant! Who, Me? was first posted on December 3, 2009 at 3:22 pm.
©2009 “India News“.

Pennhurst State School and Hospital

Pennhurst State School and Hospital, The School and the Pennhurst State Hospital began in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1908. The purpose was to help people with mental and physical disabilities. Both adults and children were brought there Walking on campus. Most of them were sent by parents, some children were there alone after that, because parents never got to see them. They had a system for separating patients according to their mental level. Some were able to do their job on their own after treatment while others could not even feed and bathe on their own.

Patients in extreme conditions was suspended in cribs all day, where they were unable to move or turn around.
Patients need constant attention and was a very difficult task for doctors, but the most terrible scene came to see when the hospital became overcrowded by patients, in those days, the patient looks in a miserable condition. Some patients learned to capture the attention of staff with their faces spots that force them to clean them.
Pennhurst was closed in 1987 due to a case that was filed against him in 1977. District Judge Raymond J. Broderick, was the man who ordered the closure after he found that the school is violating the constitutional rights of the patient.

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Pennhurst State School and Hospital was first posted on November 7, 2009 at 3:15 pm.