M2tv

Watch HBO, Streaming Live on The Internet

Courtesy of BitGravity, HBO is streaming live on the Internet. It's free.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE

HBO's The Wire as Living Anthropology

(first published Sunday, Jan. 20)

The latest episode of HBO's The Wire – “Not for Attribution” - is airing right now. In this episode another round of budget cuts threatens to bring the already battered Baltimore Sun newspaper to its knees.

Simultaneously, this NY Times headline popped up on my computer.

Los Angeles Times Editor Forced Out

The top editor of The Los Angeles Times has been forced out for resisting newsroom budget cuts, executives at the paper said Sunday, marking the fourth time in less than three years that the highest-ranking editor or the publisher has left for that reason… The Los Angeles Times had a newsroom staff of more than 1,100 people at the start of this decade, but the number has declined to below 900, officials say. Its weekday circulation has dropped to about 800,000, from 1.1 million.

The LA Times and the Baltimore Sun are both owned by Tribune Media, taken over just last month by Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell, self-nicknamed the “Grave Dancer.”

Watching tonight’s episode (yesterday, as new episodes are available one week early On Demand), my husband turned to me and said, "The Wire is like watching living anthropology."

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE REVIEW

Shows Fade: Handy Strike Charts/Entourage, Big Love, Dirt, Rescue Me, Eureka on Watch List

CLICK HERE FOR STRIKE CHARTS

HBO's Big Love Moves to Sundays; Where's Deadwood?

Now that HBO's John from Cincinnati, the aimless David Milch surf drama, is going the way of Davy Jones' Locker, Big Love moves into the Sunday 9 p.m. slot for the last two episodes of its Sophomore season.

The move will further confuse viewers who were forced to adjust to a new Monday night time slot after HBO bumped the series from its Sunday perch.

HBO cancelled Deadwood to allow Milch to focus on JfC, a decision that will live in infamy.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

Entourage: Thinly Veiled Mary J. Blige Infomercial

There was a time when Sunday was Entourage night. Forget the DVR. We watched it live. The next day neighbors dissected the latest episode, hilariously comparing their favorite scenes.

Entourage is deliciously naughty. The boys smoke a lot of dope. Sometimes they use a bong and sometimes they roll their own. I've never seen them wear seatbelts. They're bad, bad role models and that's why we love them.

Unfortunately, the forward momentum has slowed this season, the series' fourth. Some Sundays I actually forgot to watch or set the DVR and found myself playing catchup on on-demand, a sure sign that my interest was waning.

Two Sundays ago, the series hit a low point when a Mary J. Blige cameo was written as a thinly veiled infomercial for the singer.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

Rob Owen Predicts Uncomfortable HBO TCA Panel

HBO will face off with television critics during the network's upcoming Television Critics Association panel -- but some are bristling in advance. Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic and TCA prez, has landed in LA and is already reporting in.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY!

Bring Me The Head of Phil Leotardo: Sopranos Numbers Are In

The numbers are in: in spite of the tsunami of press, The Sopranos finale only managed to attract a little less than 12 million viewers. That's a far cry from 13.5 million viewers glued to the season four launch on September 15, 2002.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON MY MULTICHANNEL BLOG

Sopranos: Viewers Furious/Flummoxed Over User-Generated Ending

Viewers reacted swiftly and angrily across the Internet, venting their wrath over the much anticipated but ambiguous, anticlimactic Sopranos finale, "Made in America."

UPDATE: 9:24a.m.PDT. The New York Post is trolling the HBO boards....

Read the rest here on my Multichannel Blog.

Betting on The Sopranos: Phil Leotardo Will Go First

According to the betting site gambling911, oddsmakers think Phil Leotardo will die first based on the odds assigned to him. He’s "a -160 favorite" not to survive the final episode. (This means you would have to bet $1.60 to win $1.00 plus your initial $1.60 back.) Tony and Paulie Walnuts are favorites to survive.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the story, on my MultiChannel blog.