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 April 26
Challengers, Boy Kills World, Humane, Alien 45th anniversary
- Apr 25, 2024
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for April 19
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Abigail, The Beast, Hard Miles, Sasquatch Sunset and more
- Apr 19, 2024
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for April 12
Civil War, Escape from Germany, Coup de Chance, Hundreds of Beavers, La Chimera, Sting
- Apr 11, 2024
- More TV » More Culture »
More by Bill Frost
-
True TV April 2024: Hidden gems on Tubi
Seven series worth a stream on the free-but-doesn't-suck service
- Apr 3, 2024
-
Flashback 2020: Lockdown TV
The shows we were all watching when we were stuck at home.
- Mar 6, 2024
-
Fox News is bad, but Utah's syndicated talk radio is even worse.
Radio Blah Blah
- Mar 6, 2024
- More »
Latest in Buzz Blog
