On the next episode of Red Widow, Marta’s drug smuggle hits a snag that could send everything crashing down around her, but luckily, she manages to get the consignment back on track and completes the mission handed to her by Schiller. The widow thinks that she’s in the clear; Schiller only told her that she needed to do one consignment to square away Evan’s debt, so now that she gave him what he wanted, he should leave her alone. Right?

Schiller tells Marta that she’s now a liability, suggesting that if she doesn’t do as he says from now on, he’ll be forced to take her out like he took Evan out. A lot of product was stolen from him and he’s still very much upset, so he decided to use the housewife to complete the consignment out of convenience and a need to understand just how far she’d be willing to go. Now that he knows that she’ll follow in her husband’s footsteps, Schiller will likely continue to use her in operations, both as a cover (she looks like an ordinary California housewife) and a way to keep her under his thumb. Will Marta ever find a way out of her new life?

Elsewhere on Red Widow, Marta’s children unwittingly become involved in the FBI investigation, while Boris continues to be haunted by the murder of his father.

Red Widow airs Sundays at 10:00 on ABC.

Was Marta in denial about her situation with Schiller? What would it take for her to free herself and her children from this situation? Will the FBI turn up anything in their investigation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qAZOZS7GNs

The post Red Widow 1.03 Sneak Peek: Marta Faces Reality appeared first on TVHackr.

On the series premiere of Red Widow, Marta has decided to use her children as leverage to get Evan to quit the business. After their youngest child Boris brings a gun to school and gets expelled, she sees the path that she’s sending them on and she doesn’t want them to end up like her or her brother. She wants them to live healthy, happy, productive lives where they contribute positively to society and don’t have to worry about their safety due to who their family is. That can’t happen if Evan is still connected and she threatens to leave him and take the kids if he doesn’t make it happen.

But wanting to leave the life isn’t exactly an easy thing to do, particularly for Evan; after an associate makes an ill-advised  move against an international crime boss, there are really two options. Either he and Marta can take the kids and go into witness protection or he can continue working in hopes of squaring the debt accrued and pray that the boss is forgiving of the company he keeps. Which is it?

The two-hour series premiere of Red Widow airs Sunday at 9:00 on ABC, with the remaining episodes airing at 10:00 beginning the next week. You can watch the first hour of the premiere here.

Why did Marta wait so long to try and get Evan out of the business? What made her push him to get involved in the first place? Would she be able to provide for the family without him?

The post Red Widow 1.01 Sneak Peek: Marta Wants Evan to Leave the Business appeared first on TVHackr.

Marta Walraven’s world has been rather quiet for a woman with as many ties to organized crime as she does. The California housewife has a seemingly idyllic life with her handsome husband and adoring children, a far cry from the danger that her father and brother brought around her when she was growing up. But when her husband, a marijuana exporter, gets caught up with the wrong people and ends up murdered in their driveway, she has to find a way to become the breadwinner and settle his debts before her children lose both parents. Can she find a strength and tenacity she didn’t know she had in order to protect her family?

Listed below are the date, title, time, and description for the pilot episode of Red Widow, which will be aired as part of a two hour premiere. Included is a link to watch the show on Hulu.

Sunday, March 3rd – “Pilot” (9:00-10:00 p.m.) (Watch Here)
Marta Walraven, a stay-at-home mom in tony Marin County, near San Francisco, has spent most of her life staying out of her father’s world of organized crime. But when her loving husband, Evan, who supports the family by exporting marijuana, is brutally murdered in their driveway, everything changes. Marta’s primary concern is to protect her three children – and yet when an FBI agent promises justice in exchange for her cooperation, she hesitates to go against the “Bratva” (Russian mob) code. Evan’s business partners – Marta’s scheming brother, Irwin Petrov, and their best friend, the hapless Mike Tomlin – were involved in the theft of millions of dollars of cocaine from a formidable international crime boss, Nicholae Schiller. Evan paid with his life, but as far as Schiller is concerned, his debt is not clear. It is up to Marta, as Evan’s widow, to navigate the criminal underworld in order to repay this debt – whatever way Schiller sees fit.

The two-hour television premiere of Red Widow airs Sunday, March 3rd at 9:00 on ABC. The show will move to 10:00 the following week for the remainder of its eight-episode first season.

Will you watch Red Widow this season? Do you like networks putting pilots up to sample so long before their actual debut? How do you think the show will do following Revenge?

The post Red Widow: Watch the Pilot Here appeared first on TVHackr.

Although the launch of the fall season is where the networks trot out their biggest and brightest ideas in search of the almighty (advertising) dollar and the increasingly illusive live viewer, midseason has become the preferable time of the TV season in recent years. With premieres being staggered throughout the early months of the new year and several shows each year penciled in as future network staples, it’s a much less overwhelming time for the TV fan and a way for each of the big four to focus on continuing their momentum or righting the ship after a weak fall. While the biggest recent breakout hits have all debuted during fall and instantly secured their place on the schedule, midseason has provided several key players that are just as, if not more, important to their respective homes.

In the coming months, there will be countless new shows from networks of all shapes and hues vying for attention in a crowded landscape. Rather than trying to highlight every promising offering throughout television, of which there are many, I selected five shows that I’m anticipating, either for what they could do creatively or for what they might be able to do for their network.

The Carrie Diaries (The CW)
Premiere Date: Monday, January 14th
Who’s in it: AnnaSophia Robb, Austin Butler, Matt Letscher, Ellen Wong, and Katie Findlay
Central Premise: pre-Sex Carrie Bradsaw. Also, the ’80’s!
Why I’m Excited: The CW recently said goodbye to Gossip Girl and it looks like they’re turning to Carrie Bradshaw to give them their next breakout hit soap. The Carrie Diaries, based on the book of the same title, is a prequel to Sex and the City and follows the title character as a teenager growing up in Connecticut in the ’80’s. Following the death of her mother, she gets an internship in the city at a law office, but after a chance encounter at a department store, her life will never be the same again – for the better. It should be interesting to see how well star AnnaSophia Robb channels the iconic New York fashionista’s early years and how much of the Sex Carrie is visible during The Carrie Diaries; if the show manages to find an audience, we might get the chance to explore aspects of the character that didn’t even the most ardent Sex fan didn’t know about.

Red Widow (ABC)
Premiere Date: Sunday, March 3rd
Who’s in it: Radha Mitchell, Goran Visnjic, Lee Tergesen, Clifton Collins Jr., and Jaime Ray Newman
Central Premise: Mob Revenge.
Why I’m Excited: 666 Park Avenue didn’t work out for ABC earlier this season, so there’ll be a new lead-out for their Sunday night line-up in Red Widow. An adaptation of Dutch series Penoza, Red Widow follows mob wife Marta as she infiltrates the organization that killed her husband looking for revenge. Makes sense that it follows Revenge, then, right? On the back of an expectantly huge Oscar ad campaign, the likes of which gave Scandal the ratings for renewal last season, the show looks to fuse the near-constant cultural fascination with all things mafioso (The Godfather, The Sopranos, Mob Wives) and the buzz from Revenge in order to become the next big ABC drama. However, it might turn out to be too much revenge for one night of programming.

Vikings (History)
Premiere Date: Sunday, March 3rd
Who’s in it: Travis Fimmel, Gabriel Byrne, Jessalyn Gilsig, Clive Standen, and Katheryn Winnick
Central Premise: A restless young warrior seeks life beyond what he knows.
Why I’m Excited: Television has seen period pieces ranging from ancient Rome to an advertising agency in the 1960’s, but there’s yet to be a series based on vikings or taking place in the time period they reigned supreme. That all changes with History’s first attempt at scripted programming following the raging success of Hatfields & McCoys, Vikings. From Michael Hirst (creator of The Tudors, producer of The Borgias), the show follows young warrior Ragnar as he attempts to explore places no one in his tribe has had the courage to go and fulfill his potential as a person and as a warrior. The TV landscape has expanded in recent years, with countless networks finding their niche in scripted shows, and if Vikings manages to succeed, it may cement the History Channel as a network to look out for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TrAGIcfKX8

The Americans (FX)
Premiere Date: Wednesday, January 30th
Who’s in it: Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell, Noah Emmerich, Keidrich Sellati, and Holly Taylor
Central Premise: Sleeper agents in love.
Why I’m Excited: FX attempts to capture a little Homeland magic with The Americans, an espionage period piece set in the early ’80’s and centering on an arranged marriage between two KGB sleeper agents. While they have to complete missions and keep their true identities under wraps, especially from the FBI agent living next door, the two begin to genuinely fall for one another and contemplate whether or not they want to remain in their current profession. In addition to featuring the return of Keri Russell to dramatic television, The Americans welcomes Emmy winner (and FX alum) Margo Martindale to the fold for at least eight episodes, a coup for a show that is likely to bring the paranoid tension and complicated emotion in spades.

Enlightened (HBO)
Premiere Date: Sunday, January 13th
Who’s in it: Laura Dern, Mike White, Luke Wilson, Diane Ladd, and Timm Sharp
Central Premise: A former corporate  buyer fighting back against her employer.
Why I’m Excited: One of my favorite shows of 2011, Enlightened returns from a year-long hiatus with a new direction, intriguing guest stars (Dermot Mulroney and Molly Shannon), and a time slot that could gain it the audience it lacked during season one. Amy’s cause, bringing down Abaddonn for the environmental crimes they committed in the name of profit, is gaining steam and now that she has multiple people on her team, she might be able to become the agent of change she desires to be. However, the company won’t exactly acquiesce to her demands that easily and with the possibility of love clouding her once crystal clear focus on social justice, Amy will have to be mindful of the pushback that will come before any progress gets made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrvjTefw0g

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