Happy Birthday, Jane Krakowski!

By Spencer Coile 

You’d be hard-pressed to deny the impact Jane Krakowski has made on stage and television. In recent years, no actress has been as deceptively successful as Krakowksi. Many still lament the fact that she never won her rightful Emmy for 30 Rock – and let’s face it, she was robbed. The countless memes and gifs her performance as Jenna Maroney has inspired in the past five years has been nothing short of astonishing.

That said, she has been working steadily for the past 30 years, and what a triple threat she has become. Garnering two Daytime Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe nomination, five Emmy nominations, two Tony nominations, one Tony win, and an Olivier Award in the span of her massive career, it’s safe to say that Krakowski’s talents know no limit. 

Today she turns 50, so let’s celebrate all the fabulous work she has done since she began performing professionally in 1981. What are some of your favorite Jane Krakowski performances, moments, musical numbers? My go-to is always her rendition of “Call From the Vatican” from her Tony winning role in Nine. 

Showbiz History: Mary Tyler Moore Debut, Charlie Chaplin Exile, Brangelina Split

10 random things that happened today, September 19th, in showbiz history

1913 Frances Farmer born in Seattle. She becomes a movie star and is eventually committed to an asylum as told in the movie Frances (1982) -- See, American Horror Story wasn't the first time Jessica Lange won awards for living in an asylum. 

1927 Happy 92nd birthday to Tony winner and Oscar nominee Rosemary Harris! We thank her for all her fine performances and for bringing another great actress, Jennifer Ehle, into the world...

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Review: "Atypical" Season 2

by Ben Miller

When Atypical debuted last year, it was not accompanied by widespread critical acclaim or a zeitgeist-catching wave of popularity.  It was seen as more of a niche show with some issues, but with room to grow and a modest budget. Season two didn’t have built-in expectations that a show like Stranger Things or the final season of House of Cards will have. This proves a blessing: with zero expectations, Atypical has now grown into the show we hoped it could be...

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Posterized: Glenn Close

by Nathaniel R

Glenn at the UK premiere of The Wife earlier this monthWith The Wife expanding to 78 movie theaters today, more of you will now have the chance to see the performance that's won Glenn Close so many raves. So let's consider this weekend the kick-off to what we hope will be a competitive but satisfying Best Actress race since Lady Gaga (A Star is Born) and Emma Stone (The Favourite) are in the process of making big splashes at Venice as we type this. To celebrate the Oscar campaign for Glenn Close, let's look back on her filmography, shall we? Balder & Dash beat us to a very fine essay about her whole career and we're glad they did because plans to do a whole Glenn Close Week here failed; weirdly  I discovered that a lot of members of Team Experience are agnostic about her! I have had an up and down relationship with this Connecticut-born Oscar favorite, myself, but I am most definitely not agnostic about her performance in The Wife. I think it's the best she's been in 20 years and I'm thrilled (and surprised) to be quoted on the poster for the movie.

Here is her entire feature film career via movie posters. We've mixed in a few key TV projects so that this will feel more comprehensive, since Close has spent major time there, as well. How many of these 51 Glenn Close performances have you seen?

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Sharp Objects: Episode 8 - Finale "Milk"

by Chris Feil

Sharp Objects has come to its conclusion, bringing with it some scratched heads and hesitant praise wondering when we would be served some real clues on the identity of its killer. Meanwhile it built it’s own slow burn reveals from the inside of Amy Adams’ Camille, leading to a firestorm of consequence and context in its final few episodes that had nothing and everything to do with who killed those girls.

For those of us who had already read Gillian Flynn’s source novel, we also watched the unfamiliar audience as we waited for the rug to pulled out from under them. We knew this was never to be a show built on closing cliffhangers to maximize bingeability and serve standard genre water cooler moments. But its bombshell final moment did just that and cruelly so, giving a conditioned audience the moment it craves the very second it completes; there is nothing more to come, we just have to reconcile its cruel dispatch. In some ways, Sharp Objects has challenged the serialized medium, or at least how we consume and engage with it.

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