Blunt Talk

Blunt Talk
Blunt Talk Intertitle
Genre Sitcom
Created by Jonathan Ames
Written by Jonathan Ames
Starring
Theme music composer Moby
Opening theme "Blunt Talk Theme"
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Running time 25 min
Production company(s) Media Rights Capital
Fuzzy Door Productions
Release
Original network Starz
Picture format 720p (16:9 HDTV)
Original release August 22, 2015 (2015-08-22) – present
External links
Website

Blunt Talk is an American sitcom on the Starz cable network starring Patrick Stewart, created by Jonathan Ames, and produced by Seth MacFarlane.[1][2] The series' first two episodes were released online on August 15, 2015,[3] and premiered on Starz on August 22, 2015.[4] Starz has ordered 20 episodes, to be split into two seasons.[1] The first season concluded on October 24, 2015.

Premise

The show follows British newscaster Walter Blunt who moves to Los Angeles with the intention of conquering American nightly cable news. His misguided decisions on and off the air prove that his ultimate ambitions will be difficult to achieve.

Blunt's name was taken from the minor character Sir Walter Blunt in William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, which was Stewart's first role with the Royal Shakespeare Company.[5]

Cast

Main

Recurring

Guest stars

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)
No.
overall		 No. in
season		 Title Directed by Written by Original air date U.S. viewers
(millions)
11"I Seem to Be Running Out of Dreams for Myself"Tristram ShapeeroJonathan AmesAugust 22, 2015 (2015-08-22)0.446[15]
22"I Experience Shame and Anticipate Punishment"Tristram ShapeeroJonathan AmesAugust 29, 2015 (2015-08-29)0.341[16]
33"All My Relationships End in Pain"Michael LehmannJonathan AmesSeptember 5, 2015 (2015-09-05)0.204[17]
44"A Beaver That's Lost Its Mind"Michael LehmannReed Agnew & Eli Jorne and Jonathan AmesSeptember 12, 2015 (2015-09-12)0.221[18]
55"The Queen of Hearts"Bill D'EliaKirsten Kearse and Jonathan AmesSeptember 19, 2015 (2015-09-19)0.169[19]
66"Goodnight, My Someone"Bill D'EliaSam Sklaver and Jonathan AmesSeptember 26, 2015 (2015-09-26)0.179[20]
77"Meth or No Meth, You Still Gotta Floss"Michael LehmannDuncan Birmingham and Jonathan AmesOctober 3, 2015 (2015-10-03)0.160[21]
88"Who Kisses So Early in the Morning?"Michael LehmannJim Margolis and Jonathan AmesOctober 10, 2015 (2015-10-10)0.183[22]
99"I Brought a Petting Goat!"Tristram ShapeeroJonathan AmesOctober 17, 2015 (2015-10-17)0.136[23]
1010"Let's Save Central Florida! Let's Save Midtown!"Tristram ShapeeroSam Sklaver and Jonathan AmesOctober 24, 2015 (2015-10-24)0.161[24]

Ratings

Season 1 (2015)

No. Title Air date Rating/share
(18–49)		 Viewers
(millions)		 Ref(s)
1 "I Seem to Be Running Out of Dreams for Myself" August 22, 2015 0.13 0.446 [15]
2 "I Experience Shame and Anticipate Punishment" August 29, 2015 0.15 0.341 [16]
3 "All My Relationships End in Pain" September 5, 2015 0.07 0.204 [17]
4 "A Beaver That's Lost Its Mind" September 12, 2015 0.10 0.221 [18]
5 "The Queen of Hearts" September 19, 2015 0.05 0.169 [19]
6 "Goodnight, My Someone" September 26, 2015 0.03 0.179 [20]
7 "Meth or No Meth, You Still Gotta Floss" October 3, 2015 0.06 0.160 [21]
8 "Who Kisses So Early in the Morning?" October 10, 2015 0.07 0.183 [22]
9 "I Brought a Petting Goat!" October 17, 2015 0.05 0.136 [23]
10 "Let's Save Central Florida! Let's Save Midtown!" October 24, 2015 0.04 0.161 [24]

Reception

Critical response

Blunt Talk received generally mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the first season of the show a rating of 53%, based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's consensus states, "Blunt Talk squanders Sir Patrick Stewart's considerable gifts on a show that too often mistakes forced vulgarity for wit."[25] Metacritic gives the show a score of 54 out of 100, based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[26]

Dominic Patten of Deadline.com states in his review, "If the new series from creator Jonathan Ames and executive producer Seth MacFarlane was just a mix between another Network-inspired show about journalism and some very consistently bad behavior on the part of Patrick Stewart’s cable news host Walter Blunt, it would be hard to recommend giving such a collection of clichés much of your time. However, Blunt Talk, which debuts August 22 on Starz, is more than that and worth going along for the ride."[27]

TV Columnist Brian Lowry of Variety states in his review, "The premiere starts with a rambunctious energy that temporarily promotes a sense of good will. Stewart’s Walter Blunt goes on a bender, sings rap and picks up a transgender prostitute. When the hooker politely asks if he’s troubled at all by who she is, he replies cheerfully, “No, I’m English.” The adventure ends fantastically badly, at least for Blunt’s reputation. But from there, the series — which Ames produced with the seemingly ubiquitous Seth MacFarlane — pretty rapidly disintegrates, relying too heavily on Stewart’s madcap antics and an assortment of not particularly distinctive supporting players, including Walter’s sycophantic producers, Richard Lewis as his therapist and Romany Malco as the harried network boss."[28]

Brian Moylan of The Guardian states in his review, "Blunt Talk is an odd bird. It’s sort of like if The Newsroom and Veep had a love child and it was raised by Nanny McPhee in the Royal Shakespeare Company. It takes a close look at cable news and the personalities and celebrity involved, but it’s essentially about one man who is trying to change himself and do the right thing, but is incredibly bad at it. A crew as colorfully inept as Selina Meyer’s also surrounds him, but they don’t have the stinging bile of Veep’s crew.[29]

Mike Hale of The New York Times states in his review, "It’s not accurate to say that Patrick Stewart hasn’t done comedy. He was funny playing himself as a poker-faced pervert in an episode of Extras, or dancing with Kelsey Grammer and telling him how sexy he looked in a tux on Frasier. And he’s lent his plummy voice to a raft of animated shows from Family Guy to Robot Chicken. But it’s fair to say that Blunt Talk, a new sitcom beginning on Saturday night on Starz, offers Patrick Stewart as we haven’t seen him before. Shuffling around an airport men’s room stall with his pants around his ankles, for instance, losing his patience as he tries unsuccessfully to cover the toilet seat, or gravely asking a transgender prostitute whether he can feed at her breasts."[30]

Accolades

For the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, Patrick Stewart was nominated for Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy.[31]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Starz Gives 20-Episode Order to Seth MacFarlane-Patrick Stewart Comedy ‘Blunt Talk’ | Variety". variety.com. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
  2. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (29 April 2014). "Starz Orders Two Seasons of Seth MacFarlane Comedy 'Blunt Talk'". Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  3. ↑ Bibel, Sara (August 17, 2015). "Starz Streaming Premiere Episodes of 'Survivor's Remorse' Season 2 & 'Blunt Talk' for Free on Facebook". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  4. ↑ Petski, Denise (May 13, 2015). "Seth MacFarlane’s ‘Blunt Talk’ & ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ Get August Premiere Date On Starz". Deadline.com. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  5. ↑ Squawk Box. CNBC. August 21, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Jacki Weaver To Co-Star In Seth MacFarlane's Blunt Talk Series On Starz". Deadline.com. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Dolly Wells Joins Starz Comedy Blunt Talk; Joel De La Fuente & Michael Rispoli Cast In Amazon Pilot The Man In The High Castle". Deadline.com. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Blunt Talk: First Look At Patrick Stewart In Starz's Scripted Comedy". Variety. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ed Begley Jr., Mary Holland Join Seth MacFarlane's Starz Comedy 'Blunt Talk'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Dawidziak, Mark (August 15, 2015). "Writing takes the brunt of blame in 'Blunt Talk' starring Patrick Stewart". Cleveland.com. Advance Publications. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  11. ↑ Holloway, Daniel (August 22, 2015). "‘Blunt Talk’ Creator Reveals ‘Star Trek’ Actors He Will Cast, Why He Stopped Watching ‘Game of Thrones’". TheWrap. The Wrap News Inc. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Wagmeister, Elizabeth (March 5, 2015). "Elisabeth Shue & Jason Schwartzman to Guest Star on Starz’s Blunt Talk". Variety. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  13. ↑ http://www.accesshollywood.com/blunt-talk-exclusive-sneak-peek-at-mobys-guest-spot_video_2956337
  14. ↑ "Patrick Stewart gets 'Blunt' with his son". USA TODAY. 26 August 2015.
  15. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (August 25, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 8.22.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  16. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (September 1, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 8.29.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  17. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (September 8, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 9.5.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved September 12, 2015.
  18. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (September 15, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 9.12.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  19. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (September 22, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 9.19.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
  20. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (September 29, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 9.26.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
  21. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (October 6, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 10.3.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
  22. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (October 13, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals & Network Update: 10.10.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  23. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (October 20, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals & Network Update: 10.17.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  24. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (October 27, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals & Network Update: 10.24.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Blunt Talk: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Blunt Talk: Season 1". Metacritic. CBS Interactive (CBS Corporation). Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  27. ↑ Patten, Dominic (August 19, 2015). "‘Blunt Talk’ Review: Patrick Stewart’s Starz Comedy Nails Pitfalls Of Celebrity". Deadline.com. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  28. ↑ Lowry, Brian (August 19, 2015). "TV Review: ‘Blunt Talk’". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  29. ↑ Moylan, Brian (August 21, 2015). "Blunt Talk: Patrick Stewart's new show is duller than it should be". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  30. ↑ Hale, Mike (August 21, 2015). "Review: On ‘Blunt Talk,’ Patrick Stewart Is Far From Home and Caught With His Pants Down". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Golden Globe Awards 2016 Nominations - Full List". Rotten Tomatoes. December 10, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2015.

External links

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