series

Atmospheric, moody, and addictive: Nordic Noir has emerged as a vibrant and prolific genre in film and series. Ricky Gervais says he watches two hours of it every night.

Unorthodox, the four-part Netflix miniseries about a 19-year-old bride’s escape from her Hasidic community in Williamsburg, New York, has been gripping audiences across the globe. Loosely based on the best-selling 2012 memoir by Deborah Feldman, it is a tale of new beginnings and finding one’s place in the world.

One of the most iconic TV- sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory, ended last Thursday. After 12 seasons and just shy of 300 episodes, Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Raj, Howard, Amy, and Bernadette took a final bow.

Actor, author, stoner icon, polymath James Franco is liable to cause a worldwide hyphen shortage. The three-time Golden Globe nominee (Best Actor Drama for 127 Hours in 2011; Best Actor Comedy for Pineapple Express in 2009 and Golden Globe winner in 2002 as the eponymous star of James Dean) Franco is also an Ivy league university teacher, PhD candidate, author (the short story collection Palo Alto), dance theater director and conceptual artist who has mounted installations from Sundance to the Gagosian gallery.

One of an occasional series on the artists and craftspeople working behind the scenes to bring movies to life. The costumes of The Bastard Executioner, most as appropriately bleak as the storyline, were as important to the authenticity of the Kurt Sutter series as the accents and the set design.

Premiere of "Da Vinci's Demons" in Florence, Italy: Composer Bear McCreary performes his soundtrack by Elmar Biebl (text and photos) A delegation of the HFPA attended the World Premiere of the Starz original series Da Vinci’s Demons April 2nd in Florence, Italy.  David S.