Saul Goodman

Saul Goodman: Better an ending than a prequel

BEN POBJIE We can only hope that Saul Goodman doesn't get afflicted with Smallville syndrome.

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Kings landing

Game of Thrones author, George R.R. Martin, under siege from fans

ANDREW STEPHENS From childhood dreams to the blood-soaked machinations of Westeros, George R.R. Martin's wild imaginings have captivated readers and viewers alike. The man behind Game of Thrones retraces his journey to a place of ice and fire.

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School card

Ja'mie school report card: Pelvic dance moves ad nauseam

BEN POBJIE Ja'mie, frankly, has a lot to work on if she wants to live up to the potential she showed in previous years.

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Aussie

Peta Sergeant to star in Once Upon A Time

MICHAEL IDATO Having just won a plum role in a hit US drama, you could say Australian actress Peta Sergeant has stepped into a fairytale. Literally.

Homeland

Homeland twist draws ire but also hope for the series

KARL QUINN Homeland's twist on Monday night has certainly divided viewers, but could it also still conquer?

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The Tribal Mind

Blood on my hands

David Dale Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?

Report card

The Walking Dead Season Four: Reset the tragedy clock

GILES HARDIE The fact that The Walking Dead series is still introducing characters and killing them off, suggests no one is safe.

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'Brilliant!'

Anthony Hopkins writes gushing email to Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston

Screen legend Sir Anthony Hopkins has written a gushing fan email to Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston after binge-watching every episode of the Emmy Award-winning show in just two weeks.

Breaking Bad

More Breaking Bad please: DreamWorks CEO offers $US75 million

CHRISTINE SAMS The creators of Breaking Bad turned down an offer of $US75 million to make three more episodes of the show.

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Television

Good and bad ways to say goodbye

Now that the dust (and ricin) have settled from the Breaking Bad finale, it's worth considering what makes a drama series' exit good or bad.

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Outrage

Downton Abbey shocks with horrific storyline in new series

GILES HARDIE UK fans are furious about the latest episode, with one tweeting it was akin to having 'a murder on Teletubbies'.

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Comment

Joss Whedon returns with a wise-cracking, kickass marvel in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

John Birmingham An Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series means cartoon violence, technology and heroes. But a Joss Whedon Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series means all of that plus strong female characters, crackling dialogue and a script shot through with mass cultural references.

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The Blacklist's sinister James Spader: a Hannibal Lecter for our times?

MARK SAWYER As one of the FBI's most wanted, James Spader's Raymond 'Red' Reddington invites easy comparisons with Hannibal Lecter as the omniscient villain tormenting his easy on the eye female FBI handler.

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Report card

Miss brainy and brawny Homeland season three at your peril

Paul Kalina The new season's debut is more 24 than the psychological cloak-and-dagger of previous seasons, but Homeland is still full of nail-biting tension as well as chilling, real-world reminders of the war on terror.

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Breaking Bad's Walter White is the anti-hero for all seasons

KARL QUINN After five brilliant seasons, Breaking Bad gave us the ending it, and we, demanded. Walter went out in a haze of conflicted morality, bullets, drugs and money. There was redemption and there was judgment. And of course, there was an awful lot of bloodshed.

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Recap

Breaking Bad final episode recap: The luckiest break of all

KARL QUINN After five seasons of gripping drama, Walter White’s journey - to damnation or redemption - ends at last.

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Cemetery

Tell-tale sign? Cemetery setting for Breaking Bad finale screening

MICHAEL IDATO It seems fitting that the final episode of the dark series Breaking Bad would be screened in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Cemetery; a magnificent, sprawling gothic necropolis whose tombstones record the who's who (or used to be) of Tinseltown's A-list.

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Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais' David Brent could be set for Wembley after selling out concerts

GILES HARDIE As The Office's David Brent fails his way to the top, there's little that British comedian and man behind the character, Ricky Gervais, likes more than taking his audiences on an emotional roller coaster, no matter which of his many projects he's working on.

Comments

Hollywood stars named in bitter legal fight for overseas film payments

George Clooney and Helen Mirren are among a host of Hollywood stars named as potential witnesses in a bitter legal case in which the actors' union is being accused of failing to properly distribute up to $130 million in payments to its members.

Television

No spoilers but plenty of spoilsports

MARK SAWYER All of those decrying plot spoilers are missing the bigger picture.

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Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan: Why do I want Walter White to win?

GILES HARDIE Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan reveals why he wants the big bad chemistry teacher to have a happy ending.

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Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad star 'felt sick' shooting final episodes

GILES HARDIE She won't even hint at the end, saving fans from themselves, but Betsy Brandt felt awful during, and sobbed after, filming the series' last half-season.

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Tenplay

Will online streaming of Homeland season three debut save Ten in the ratings?

GILES HARDIE In a move to trump fast-tracking, Network Ten will stream online the first episode of Homeland season three and, if the first reviews are anything to go by, it should revitalise audience interest.

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Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad's penultimate episode leaves Walt a broken man, almost

CRAIG MATHIESON Absence makes the heart grow colder. In Granite State, the second to last episode of Breaking Bad, Walter White wasn't there. He was gone, and like an atom without its nucleus, everything was falling apart without him furiously trying to hold it all together.

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Ratings

Neil Patrick Harris pulled off successful Emmys, despite 'embarrassing' dance routine

LINDA MORRIS It might have been sombre, and featured a dance number that one high-profile actress tweeted was "just embarrassing", but the Emmys Awards scored its largest American audience in eight years.

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Spoliers

Dexter finale enrages viewers

AJA STYLES Spoilers: Dexter's conclusion has outraged viewers, and the show's developers have gone into overdrive to defend the lack of gore audiences have come to expect of this serial-killing series.

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Legally Brown: Muslim comedian finds the funny in radical, be it jihadists or bogans

WALEED ALY Probably the most telling moment in last night's debut episode of Legally Brown was when Nazeem Hussain quipped that white viewers would be 'expecting funny accents, jokes about the weird foods we eat and stories about my wacky ethnic parents. Sorry to disappoint'.

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Breaking Bryan

Breaking Bryan: Jeff Daniels shock win over Bryan Cranston at the Emmys

SCOTT ELLIS The biggest shock at this year's Emmy Awards was undoubtedly The Newsroom's Jeff Daniels scooping the best actor gong from under hotly tipped Bryan Cranston, of Breaking Bad fame.

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Emmy Awards 2013 live blog

GILES HARDIE Join us for all the action as Neil Patrick Harris hosts the 65th annual prime time Emmy Awards.

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Emmys after-party set to be 'magical, whimsical'

MICHAEL IDATO They may come for Emmy glory, but at the end of the night - win, lose or draw - all eyes will be on the centre stage of the official after-party, the Governor's Ball.