Bill Maher gets two more seasons of 'Real Time' on HBO

Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" has just gotten a lot more time on the cable network.

HBO has renewed the edgy political series for its 11th and 12th seasons. "Real Time" is currently in its 10th season.

The show, which includes Maher's opening monologue, round-table discussions with panelists and inteviews with in-studio and satallite guests, is drawing its largest gross audience in three years, averaging 4.1 million viewers per episdoe.

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Photo: Bill Maher. Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times

 

'Game of Thrones': Richard Madden talks Robb Stark's romance

"Game of Thrones" isn't a show heavy with romance. On this epic fantasy series, beating hearts are usually cut out and thrown into the fire. But if there's one character close to a romantic lead, it's Robb Stark, the eldest son of Eddard Stark (who got beheaded last season).

Scottish actor Richard Madden is the man in the leather and furs, leading the men of the north of Westeros into battle against the Lannister clan. And to hear him tell it, pretending to be a medieval leader on the HBO series isn't far from actually being one. At least when it comes to the smell.

Have you started to experience the intense fandom of "Game of Thrones"?

A: Not so much. I look quite different than I do when I'm on the show, I think. So people will go, "Is that? No, not really. That guy's much bigger on the show."  I'm cleaned up. My hair is a bit shorter, and I'm not in fur and leather and armor. So I'm a little smaller. This press tour is nice. I went down to Brazil and Mexico, and the people there know the show so well, it's kind of overwhelming.  I take that as a compliment to all the hard work everyone on the show does.

CHEAT SHEET: Who's who in 'Game of Thrones' Season 2

So classic European medieval fantasy translates well all over the world?

The books have their following in so many countries, and I've been asked all over: Why has it worked? I think it's because it's about human beings in their most raw form. We're in this fantasy world, but it's almost like trickery what George does with these fantasy elements. You see with Cersei in one episode, she blows off what's happening up at The Wall. The people in this world are like, "Fantasy, whatever." The people that are on the same page as those characters get pulled into it, because the fantasy is becoming real for these people. Magic is becoming real for these characters as well. That's why a nonfantasy audience becomes engaged, because it's just a political drama, really, and these magical elements are coming in and nudging from the sides.

Were you a fantasy fan before this show?

I'm a sci-fi guy. But I like fantasy too.  If I wasn't in this show, I'd still watch it. You get to see what drives people, whether it's power or lust or just plain greed or justice or raw honesty in doing the right thing. I think it's the kind of things people from any country can relate to -- these aspects of human nature. I think that's what the show manages to capture. It's why there's no stereotypical heroes or villains in this; everyone has all those aspects, just like me or you.

'Game of Thrones' recap: 'Leave her face; I like her pretty'

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details.

At this point, I think it's fair to say that Joffrey is, hands down, the most hateable character on television. You're welcome to add your counterpoint in the comments, but after seeing him gleefully order his knights to strip Sansa Stark and and beat her like a piñata in front of the entire royal court, I can't remember the last time I yearned for the death of a fictional character so fervently.

Sansa's "punishment" for her brother's recent military victory is cut short by the arrival of your hero and mine, Tyrion Lannister, whose booming voice shames pretty much everyone in the room for their tacit participation in the torture of a 12-year-old girl. Joffrey reacts like a spoiled child who's just been scolded for smashing his toys together, and after Tyrion speculates that Joffrey's cruelty might be fueled by sexual frustration, he dispatches two prostitutes to the young king's bedroom. Unfortunately, the moment Joffrey learns who sent them he sees an opportunity to both resume the sadistic fantasy Tyrion so rudely interrupted and flip his uncle the finger, so he forces one of the women to torture the other with an escalating series of objects while he sits in a chair and smiles.

That video of Joffrey getting slapped on loop for 10 minutes straight is right here, by the way, just in case you need it.

CHEAT SHEET: Who's who in Season 2

Armando Iannucci talks political satire and new HBO series 'Veep'

In the middle of a publicity blitz for “Veep,” the new HBO comedy series premiering Sunday that stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a frustrated vice president, Armando Iannucci is holed up at the Trump International Hotel on Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Iannucci, the show’s Scottish creator, takes a swig from a water bottle emblazoned with Donald Trump’s distinctive orange scowl.

“I’m drinking from his face,” he jokes, pausing to stifle a sneeze with the crook of his arm.

The luxury hotel is an incongruous habitat for someone as habitually modest as Iannucci, who tends to apologize before tweeting anything even vaguely self-promotional, not to mention someone who’s made a career mocking the egomaniacal, the petty and the power-hungry.

Stateside, the 48-year-old Iannucci is best known for “In The Loop,” his artfully profane black comedy about the run-up to an ill-advised war in the Middle East, released to critical acclaim — and an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay — in 2009. Yet, over the last two decades he’s established himself as one of Britain’s preeminent humorists. He first made waves in Britain in 1991 with “The Day Today,” a satirical news program, and followed that with “Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge,” starring comedian Steve Coogan as the dense and self-important host of a fake TV show.

Then there was “The Thick Of It,” Iannucci’s excruciatingly funny British series about a group of manic, image-conscious London bureaucrats, which was later spun off into “In the Loop.” In a typical episode, a beleaguered government minister accidentally sends a crude email to an 8-year-old girl, then forces his press secretary to take the blame. (The third season of “The Thick of It” debuts on BBC America on April 28, and the show’s fourth season is currently in production in Britain.)

“Veep” is not Iannucci’s first foray into American television. A watered-down American adaptation of “The Thick Of It,” developed by “Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz, floundered at ABC several years back. The experience provided Iannucci with a difficult but vital lesson about maintaining creative control of his work.

“I was a little peripheral figure in that whole thing,” he says. “There’s 15,000 vice presidents of marketing chipping in. Obviously, you can make good television that way, but it’s not how I want to make my stuff.”

HBO's acclaimed comedy 'Girls' off to a slow start in the ratings

Critics evidently love "Girls" more than viewers do.

HBO's comedy got off to a slow start in the ratings Sunday night, despite some brilliant reviews. An average of 872,000 total viewers tuned in to the 10:30 p.m. premiere, with 246,000 more showing up for the 12:30 a.m. encore, according to Nielsen.

That means "Girls" — which stars Lena Dunham as a young woman navigating career and relationship troubles in New York — lost more than 20% of the audience from its lead-in, the third-season finale of "Eastbound & Down" (1.1 million). Generally speaking, TV executives look for a show to retain at least 80% of the audience from the show that preceded it.

Maybe it's for refined tastes. The critics poured love on the show, with an aggregate rating of 87 out of 100 at the website metacritic.com. However, Times critic Mary McNamara noted that although "Girls" is "wildly smart," it's nevertheless "a difficult show to love."

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Photo: Jemima Kirke (left) and Lena Dunham costar in HBO's new comic series "Girls," which Dunham created and writes. Credit: HBO. 

'Game of Thrones' recap: Power plays in the Seven Kingdoms

"Game of Thrones" was recently picked up for a third season, which means that the events of "Storm of Swords" will indeed make their way to the small screen, possibly over multiple seasons. If you've enjoyed the shocking twists and turns of the show but haven't read the books, allow me this spoiler-free teaser of George R. R. Martin's third novel: You ain't seen nothing yet.

Back in the episode I'm actually recapping, Jon Snow returns from the woods with the horrifying truth about why Craster doesn't seem to have any male children: He sacrifices the infants to a mysterious creature in the woods, possibly a White Walker. Even worse, Lord Commander Mormont totally knows all about it and turns a blind eye, because Craster's strategic advantage to the Night's Watch is too important to let a little thing like infanticide get in the way. Not an easy thing for a son of Ned Stark to swallow, but one that will probably serve him well.

The goldcloaks that came hunting for Gendry last episode return as promised, except this time they've got significantly more men (and swords). Yoren tells them yet again where they can stick their orders from the queen, but the sudden onslaught of professional soldiers goes poorly for the ragtag group of failed criminals and children, claiming the lives of Yoren and several randos. The queen's men demand to know which one of them is Gendry, so Arya points at a corpse, and they believe her. Problem solved, I guess? The remaining stragglers, including Arya, are taken as prisoners to Harrenhal castle, which we are told is haaaaunted.

CHEAT SHEET: Who's who in 'Game of Thrones' Season 2

Catelyn goes to treat with Renly, who now has around 100,000 soldiers at his command, and arrives just in time to see the vaunted Ser Loras suffer a rare defeat at a tournament. The helm of the mysterious victor is removed to reveal … a very large woman named Brienne. The crowd reacts to the sight of an able female warrior in roughly the same way they would a circus freak, but Renly seems pleased and grants her request to become his personal bodyguard. 

Later, in the royal bedroom, Renly's secret lover Loras reminds the king that the king's actual bride -- Loras' sister, Margaery -- remains untouched two weeks after their wedding, and people are starting to talk. Renly finally attempts to perform his marital duties, but when she arrives in his room and disrobes, he looks at her like an ill-prepared student thinking really, really hard about a math problem and pulls away, blaming the wine. Margaery is no fool, and offers to call her brother in to "get him started" without missing a beat. Gay or no, Renly needs to knock her up as soon as possible for political reasons, and if that means a three-way with her brother, then so be it. 

Theon's homecoming remains icy, as his father still regards him with disgust and openly favors his sister Yara, giving her command of 30 longships for their upcoming invasion plans while Theon gets one piddling boat to attack a bunch of fishing villages. The nasty twist is that they're not sailing after the Lannisters, but rather heading back to the North to lay siege to the holds protected by Winterfell while Robb's soldiers are at war in the south. Theon has a conflicted moment where he writes Robb a letter of warning, but ultimately burns it, choosing the rejection, disdain and incessant ocean metaphors of his blood relatives over the closest thing he has to a brother.

The MVP of this episode, like most episodes, remains Tyrion Lannister, who continues to remove his adversaries from the chess board of the royal court with ninja-like political acumen. This time around, he plants three very different plots in the ears of Littlefinger, Varys and Grand Maester Pycelle, and waits to sees which one makes its way back to Cersei. The ruse reveals Pycelle as the weakest link, which lands him in a Black Cell, and also irks Littlefinger, who only enjoys elaborate manipulations when he's pulling the strings.

Varys, however, seems oddly proud of Tyrion's deft maneuvering, and poses a riddle toward the end of their conversation that encapsulates the overarching theme of "Game of Thrones" quite neatly: A king, a priest and a rich man encounter a sellsword (read: mercenary), and each of them commands him to kill the other two. Who lives and who dies? "Power resides where men believe it resides," says Varys. "It's a trick, a shadow on the wall." 

Is Stannis more powerful because he possesses the best legal claim to the throne, or does Renly's popularity and superior forces render that moot? Does real power derive from birthright, the favor of the gods, the love of the common people, or simply the edges of swords? The answer to that question -- or rather, the one that most people choose to believe -- will likely mean the difference between life and death as factions splinter and more conflicted "sellswords" like Theon Greyjoy are asked to pick sides.

Who do you think possesses the real power in the Seven Kingdoms? Let us know in the comments.

The sex and violence tally:

Bare breasts: Renly and Loras provided a rare double dose of bare male chests (and some suggestive pawing at the drawstrings of pants), followed by four from the ladies: a full-frontal look at Margaery Tyrell during her doomed seduction, and a brief glimpse at Grand Maester Pycelle's bed-warmer.

Fatalities: Yoren and Lommy die at the hands of Ser Amory Lorch and his men during their attack on the Night's Watch recruits, along with several other unnamed men on both sides.

Extra credit book report:

Theon's sister was originally called "Asha" in the novels, but she's known as Yara on the show, likely because of how similar it sounds to Osha, Bran's wildling friend. The love affair between Renly and Sir Loras was never explicitly acknowledged in the books, but it's never been more explicit (or kinky) than in this episode, when Margaery suggests that Renly imagine her as her brother when they have sex, or even invite him to join in. 

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Photo: Peter Dinklage is Tyrion Lannister in "Game of Thrones." Credit: HBO

Q&A with 'Girls' creator Lena Dunham: The Ick Girl

Lena Dunham’s series "Girls" premieres this Sunday on HBO, and preliminary hype is so intense that if you haven’t heard about it by now, you probably aren’t spending much time on the Internet. Or reading magazines. Or wandering around L.A. or New York, where billboards of the young stars of the show -- Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet -- are plastered around town.

"Girls" is a half-hour comedy about the messy friendships, ambitions and sexual misadventures of four twentysomething women in New York, written and directed by 25-year-old Dunham, who also stars as aspiring writer Hannah Horvath. There’s no doubt the show will be polarizing: fans who have seen it (SXSW screened the first three episodes last month) love it for portraying young women in a realistic, ambivalent way, but detractors complain about the graphic, unsexy sex and the narcissism and privilege of the characters.

I interviewed Dunham several times for last Sunday’s Calendar feature -- once by phone last fall while she was on the set of Judd Apatow’s upcoming movie "This is Forty," in which she plays a small part; once in person in Los Angeles; and again by phone after she had returned to New York, where she called from the bathroom of a restaurant. ("I’m standing in the bathroom not because I’m going to the bathroom, but because I’m organizing things in my bags," she reassured me at the start of the conversation.) Here’s a megamix of our conversations about sex, being the daughter of artists, and Jordan Catalano.

What was the original pitch for "Girls"?

I went into a meeting at HBO and my ignorance was helpful. I said, "Here’s the kind of show I haven’t seen on TV." And I went on a tirade about my friends and the kinds of problems they were dealing with as twentysomething women, trying to navigate the social landscape that was totally reliant on texting and Facebook. I overshared about my own relationship foibles and I was like: which of my friends hasn’t been on Ritalin since they were 12? The one time I took Ritalin I punched an animal! And I hit on something for them. And then Judd [Apatow] got involved and helped me figure out where to take these girls.

You have a very strong voice. Were you worried that having Judd Apatow as a producer might dilute it?

One of my criticisms of my own work is that I write five girls who sound like me all talking to each other, so it was helpful to have people say, "Not everyone peppers every sentence with a reference to their favorite early teen soap opera."

There have been so few shows about young female experience on TV, and yet suddenly all these network shows appeared ["The New Girl," "Two Broke Girls," etc]. Did you know about them?

We called the show "Girls" and within two months, we heard of four other shows with the word "girl" in the title.... I know some of these female creators and every one of them has a very different perspective on what it feels like to be female right now. We haven’t had any of that, so to have a glut is a gift!  I don’t want it to be a zero-sum game where there’s one girl show so there can’t be another one.

Being on HBO allows you to use more graphic sex and language than a network would.

That’s one reason I knew that what I do at this point in my life couldn’t be on network. Frank depictions of sex and sexuality are such an integral part of my experience as a twentysomething woman that to have to hide bodies, it would be challenging to tell this story. The pilot I handed HBO -- the first draft -- opened with an aggressive sex scene. It was essential to understand: There is going to be sex and it’s not going to be sexy. A lot of the time girls are allowed to be a mess in an adorable way, and this is girls being a mess in a not adorable way.

Do young women raised with the oversharing world of blogs expect a more honest approach?

I am constantly tweeting things and going, why did I just say that to the world? I wanted to capture that feeling of there being no clear boundary anymore between public and private. And also, my characters will choose to keep really strange things private. They will share some sexual humiliation but refuse to tell their friends they lost their job. It’s an interesting thing in this culture what we choose to keep secret.

'Game of Thrones' gets a third season

"Game of Thrones" is getting another season, HBO officially announced Tuesday.

Though most people assumed the hit fantasy series would be back again -- it's been receiving rapturous reviews and great ratings -- its third season is now guaranteed.

Ratings for the second season premiere hit a series high, with an accumulated gross audience of 8.3 million viewers over the episodes multiple airings.

"Series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss raised our expectations for the second season -- and then surpassed them," President of HBO Programming Michael Lombardo said in a statement. "We are thrilled by all the viewer and media support we've received for the series, and can't wait to see what Dan and David have in store for next season."

If Benioff and Weiss continue to follow the pattern they've established in the first two seasons, then the third season of "Game of Thrones" will takes its story lines from the third book in George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, titled "A Storm of Swords."

"Swords" is one of the longest books in the series and many believe that in order to fit all the events into the television series it would need to be spread out over more than one season. Benioff and Weiss have spoken openly in the media about the idea of playing it out over the course of two 10-episode seasons. The first two seasons have managed to fit in most of the events of the first two books. However, HBO has not yet greenlighted a fourth season.

The idea of playing out the books over multiple seasons will probably be a relief to Martin, who is hard at work on the sixth book in the series, but has said that it'll take him a couple more years to finish it. Nothing like the locomotive of a TV series in production to spur an author's output.

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Photo: Kit Harrington is Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones." Credit: HBO.

'Game of Thrones' recap: The son also rises

 
I'm increasingly convinced that Littlefinger, Varys and Tyrion are the true triumvirate of power in Westeros, quietly pulling the strings behind the scenes while all the men in crowns are busy hitting each other with mallets by proxy. From their vantage point, watching Cersei and Joffrey rule the Seven Kingdoms must be like watching particularly stupid children kick down sandcastles. Last week, Littlefinger advised the Queen Regent that "knowledge is power," which she countered by threatening to kill him for no reason. There's Cersei Lannister in a nutshell: arrogant, inflexible and far too pleased with the use of power for its own sake. Does anyone really wonder where Joffrey gets it from?

In yet another genius stroke of domestic policy, the City Watch has been marching up and down the streets of King's Landing on Joffrey's orders and murdering King Robert's bastard babies in broad daylight. After all, why achieve your goals through subtle means when a wildly unpopular display of brutal force is also possible?

As an exercise in contrast, Varys and Tyrion conduct a master class in veiled threats after the eunuch pays a visit to Tyrion's prostitute Shae, trading quips and barbs in an ostensibly jovial conversation where nearly every word they say is an obvious lie or misdirection. Before leaving, Tyrion pauses by the door to inform Varys that a new challenger has appeared, and he is no Ned Stark: "I understand the way this game is played."

INTERACTIVE: Who's who in 'Game of Thrones' Season 2

Thank god one Lannister does. Tyrion responds to Babymurdergate by sitting down to dinner with Janos Slynt, the Cersei-appointed City Watch commander who carried out the orders, and informing him of his exciting new career in the Night's Watch, which begins immediately and lasts forever. As the guards drag him away, Slynt declares that they shall hear what Joffrey has to say about this. "No, we shan't," replies Tyrion, and puts him on a ship to Castle Black in the dead of night. And that's how you do it, folks.

'True Blood' and 'The Newsroom' to air on HBO in June

The fifth season of HBO's sexy vampires and werewolves and witches and fairies series "True Blood" will be back on the air June 10, the network announced Wednesday.

The first episode of HBO's new Aaron-Sorkin-penned series "The Newsroom," starring the not-quite-as-sexy-but-still-a-fine-actor Jeff Daniels will follow two weeks later on June 24.

What can fans expect from season five of "True Blood," which will be series creator Alan Ball's last as showrunner? The just-released trailer reveals lots of familiar vampire action, but there will be several news faces in the mix, including "Law & Order: SVU's" Christopher Meloni, Scott Foley, Kelly Overton and "General Hospital" star Carolyn Hennesy.

The trailer for "The Newsroom" looks as though creator Sorkin is combining two of his previous TV hits: the behind-the-scenes of a TV show excitement of "Sports Night" mixed with the hot-button issues of "The West Wing."

In the series, Daniels plays stressed-out news anchor Will McAvoy attempting to remake his show after a staff exodus at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (a thinly veiled version of Atlanta's CNN). Supporting cast members include "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dev Patel, Jane Fonda, Sam Waterston, Emily Mortimer and Olivia Munn. Will there be a lot of walk-and-talks?

What's most interesting about Fonda's presence on the show is her real-life role as the former wife of Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, to whom she was married for a decade. In the series, she plays the CEO of the news network's corporate parent.

Expect a lot of media reading between the lines when the series airs.

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Photo: Alexander Skarsgard in "True Blood." Credit: John P. Johnson / HBO

'Game of Thrones' Season 2 premiere hits series high

High ratings have come to Westeros.

HBO's "Game of Thrones" unfurled its second season Sunday with 3.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. That was a giant 77% increase over last year's series premiere and was up 30% over the Season 1 finale. HBO estimated that a total of 6.3 million viewers caught one of the three plays the show had over the night.

That kind of growth is enough to ensure that "Game of Thrones" remains among the hottest shows on TV. That's important to HBO, which is banking on a major franchise from George R.R. Martin's series of five fantasy novels about the struggle for power in the mythical kingdom of Westeros.

CHEAT SHEET: "Game of Thrones"

However, in a market cluttered with original cable series, HBO has had to fight harder for ratings than it used to, and some might view "Game of Thrones" as performing mildly given the money the network has spent making and promoting it. In 2002, "The Sopranos" premiered to more than 13 million total viewers.

One of show's producers originally pitched "Game of Thrones" as "'Sopranos' in Middle-earth." Hey, a guy can dream.

What did you think of the Season 2 rollout of "Game of Thrones"? 

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Photo: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in "Game of Thrones," which returned to HBO on Sunday. Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO.

'Game of Thrones' season 2: Everything you need to know

HBO's "Game of Thrones" returns Sunday for its second season. And if you're not already well-versed in George R.R. Martin's detailed novels, then it probably took you several episodes of the first season to get up to speed with the characters, plots, counter-plots and Dothraki marriage customs.

While nearly 10 months have passed in the real world since last we visited the continents of Westeros and Esteros, very little time has elapsed in the Seven Kingdoms. So Season 2's premiere episode, "The North Remembers," plunges viewers right back into the thick of the (very) complex saga.

Starks are fighting Lannisters, Night's Watch soldiers are marching north, Dothraki horse warriors are marching east, and everyone is worried about an oncoming winter. How to get maximum enjoyment from the show right off the bat?

You could hurry and wolf down Martin's doorstop-sized books before watching the first episode, brew a pot of coffee and rewatch Season 1 straight through. Or there's our "Game of Thrones" cheat sheet, which helps explain who's related to whom and who's still alive.

You also could check out Mary McNamara's rave review of the new season. And you can read Geoff Boucher's interview with Queen Cersei herself, actress Lena Heady. Plus, there's a Q&A with "Thrones" costume designer Michele Clapton (along with a gallery of her work).

The ins and outs of Westeros aren't so intimidating now, are they?

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Photo: Emilia Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen in "Game of Thrones." Credit: HBO