See the first episode of Liev Schreiber's new Showtime drama Ray Donovan here

Here’s how badly Showtime wants you to check out their new crime/family drama, Ray Donovan.

They’re willing to let you see the first episode for free.

Showtime has released a YouTube video containing the debut episode of the series, featuring Liev Schreiber as a “fixer” in Hollywood who makes problems disappear for the wealthy and Jon Voight as his murderous, debauched father, recently out of prison.

The show itself is a tribute to characters who make all the wrong decisions, including Schreiber’s Donovan, a towering Irish hunk from south Boston who winds up sleeping with a client’s girlfriend and threatening to kill his father. Doesn’t help that one of his brothers was molested by a priest when he was a kid and the other is an ex-boxer suffering from Parkinsons disease.

This episode is available almost two weeks before it will air on Showtime; plenty of time for you to decide whether it (and the first episode of Dexter’s final season, which starts the same night) is worth your cash.

Personally, I give it two thumbs up…broken in a fight, of course....

New programming deals reveal war among Netflix and Amazon for TV-watching kids

When talking about the online video revolution, it’s easy to focus on big-ticket prestige projects like House of Cards and the Arrested Development revival.

But recent moves by Netflix and Amazon show the new battlefield for eyeballs may have moved to an unlikely place: kids and family viewing.

On Monday, Netflix announced an ambitious deal with Dreamworks animation to add more than 300 hours of programming to their service -- their biggest programming deal yet -- including the ability to make new shows using established characters from their films.

So far, they’ve only revealed one project, a series based on the upcoming cartoon about a super-fast snail called Turbo F.A.S.T., due at year’s end. But since Dreamworks is the home of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and Shrek, there’s lots of possibilities.

This deal seems a pointed response to the sniping Netflix endured when it allowed a deal with Viacom to expire; rival Amazon picked up the pieces, showcasing kiddie favorites such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues from the vaults of Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. on its Amazon Prime video service.

Amazon also greenlighted three original kids shows and just two adult programs after asking Amazon Prime viewers to grade 14 different pilots previewed online.

For both platforms, it makes sense to go big on kids and family titles, at a time when school is off for summer and parents are more desperate than ever to find a way to keep little eyes occupied. A Netflix spokeswoman says viewing for their kids and family titles goes up by 30 percent in summer; already, such titles consume about 20 percent of their total hours viewed on streaming video.

Today Netflix debuted a page on its website for parents and families, with videos on how to use the streaming service to its fullest and testimonial clips from parents. Kids and family shows are also grouped in lists with names like “Are we there yet?” (shows for traveling), “Family movie night” and “TV for curious kids” (educational).

It’s pretty basic stuff for anyone who has been using the service for more than five minutes. But Netflix swears there are some folks who don’t realize they can call up the platform on smartphones or tablet computers, watching the stuff anywhere kids might need a little distraction.

Just imagine: a SpongeBob or Shrek cartoon available in an instant, anywhere, to calm a kid in the dentist’s office or kill time waiting for soccer practice to start.

For today’s harried parents, that might be the biggest selling point of all....

Showtime's Ray Donovan, The Fall on Netflix among six most important summer TV shows this month

Dozens of new and returning series are offering fresh episodes throughout the summer. It’s a tidal wave of brand-new television that could overwhelm even the most devoted small screen junkies — if you don’t have the right guide.

They’re not always the best shows — most of those still air in fall, winter and spring. (The TV industry still assumes many people go on vacation or spend time outside in summer, cutting into viewership.)...

Mad Men's big gamble: Can we stay invested in TV's biggest dirtbag?

We’re one episode away from the end of Mad Men’s penultimate season, and creator Matt Weiner has trounced his hero Don Draper in ways few showrunners would dare.

Forget about whether someone is a killer, a thief or drug dealer; in the world of modern television, such labels tell you little about whether a character is a hero for the audience.

I’ve noticed a few things, though. Even the unlikeliest of antiheroes has a set of values – codes of behavior that govern how they act. They have people in their lives who they value and try to love. They have goals with which most people can readily identify.

In a forthcoming book about TV antiheroes and the messed-up men who have created them, called Difficult Men, author Brett Martin quotes The Sopranos executive producer David Chase saying such modern characters really only need two qualities: They need to be good at their jobs, and they need to be the smartest guys in the room.

So leave it to Weiner and Mad Men to push that envelope as much as you might think possible, even in a TV world where mobsters, serial killers and drug dealers lead the most successful shows....

Producer Eva Longoria's show 'Devious Maids' debuts with debate

Imagine a major TV outlet debuting a soap opera-style drama about five young, contemporary, beautiful African-American women. Who work as maids.

Then try to imagine the NAACP, Urban League and Will Smith standing up to defend the program, saying it was an important look into the lives of black servants that would give great roles to black actresses.

That's something like the controversy playing out over Lifetime's new soap opera Devious Maids, a show created by Desperate Housewives mastermind Marc Cherry, with well-respected Mexican-American TV star Eva Longoria on board as a producer and endorsements from civil rights groups such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition....

In a world of TV antiheroes, Danny Huston plays a straight-up villain on Starz's Magic City

In an age where TV has made heroes of a serial killer, a methamphetamine dealer and a ruthless mafia boss, how does one go about playing a television villain who really is supposed to be a bad guy?

Don’t ask Danny Huston, who describes his bad guy character on Starz’s luscious Miami-set drama Magic City the way you might describe a free spirited pal with an uncomfortable habit of making the occasional bad decision....

CNN anchor confusion at the New York Post highlights larger problems with race

When the New York Post wrote about former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien’s cool new job as a correspondent on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, they made a not-so-tiny mistake:

They illustrated it with a photo of CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin, currently the channel’s highest-profile Latina anchor.

The mixup was particularly problematic for the New York Post for its recent history; it is now the subject of  lawsuit by two young men featured in a cover photo during the search for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing back in April.

The photo, headlined "Bag Men," made them look like the suspects even though they were innocent; both young men are also non-white, and one of their attorneys has accused the newspaper of racial profiling by highlighting them with so little proof.

This is also the newspaper which published a cartoon some said compared President Obama to a monkey, suggesting the simian wrote the stimulus bill that the president enacted in the first year of his administration.

Even for a publication following the supremely loose standard of a New York tabloid, perhaps it’s time to tighten up the ship a bit....

Why racism unleashed online after interracial Cheerios ad might help race relations

Sometimes, it feels as if social media is filled with a cadre of prejudiced oddballs intent on exposing their ignorance at every turn – creating an avalanche of racist nonsense for the rest of us to sort through.

But let me suggest another way to consider these incidents, which have led to lots of stories from columnists and pundits bemoaning the state of race relations and social media today....

WFLA-Ch. 8 announces five-year deal to air Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason football games

After a few years where Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason games aired on other channels, Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8 announced a deal today securing the broadcasts for the next five years.

Under the agreement, WFLA will produce and broadcast three contests: a home game with the Baltimore Ravens Aug.8; at Miami versus the Dolphins Aug. 24, and another home game against Washington on Aug. 29....

Miami-based 'Magic City' returns to Starz

In an age where TV has made heroes of a serial killer, a methamphetamine dealer and a ruthless mafia boss, how does one go about playing a television villain who really is supposed to be a bad guy?

Don't ask Danny Huston, who describes his bad guy character on Starz's luscious Miami-set drama Magic City the way you might describe a free spirited pal with an uncomfortable habit of making the occasional bad decision....

Characters at odds in sixth season of HBO's 'True Blood'

Before talk turns to the current season of HBO's sexy vampire drama True Blood, and the way co-star Kristin Bauer van Straten has turned sarcastic vampiress Pam into a scene-stealing, three-dimensional picture of need and denial over five seasons, there's a question the actor must answer.

Was she really the "man hands" girl on Seinfeld back in 1996?

"I'm very proud of that," said Bauer van Straten, 46, who played a beautiful woman named Gillian with huge, masculine-looking hands on a date with Jerry Seinfeld in the episode titled "The Bizarro Jerry."...

St Petersburg's WTSP-Ch. 10 wins national Edward R. Murrow award

St. Petersburg CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10 has won a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio and Television Digital News Association for a report on the danger posed by soccer goals improperly anchored to the ground.

The story, by reporter Noah Pransky, opens with the tale of a soccer standout from Lake Wales High School killed when he climbed a soccer goal to fix the net and it toppled over. Pransky’s story said 37 youths have been killed since 1979 in similar circumstances, though few are aware of the danger.

The RTDNA announced the award among 94 honors, in radio, online, national TV news and local TV categories. See the full list here.

See Pransky’s story below....

My Poynter post: How to consume (and report) news from the George Zimmerman trial

As Florida’s prosecution of George Zimmerman on murder charges begins this week, the same old arguments and conflicts which characterize the story’s emergence as an international media phenomenon have risen again.

Particularly since the case’s jury selection has proven particularly tedious and drawn out – just check out Tampa Bay Times reporter Ben Montgomery’s excellent Twitter feed from the courtroom for proof – media hoping to dip a toe into Zimmerman media coverage right now have to pretty much veer into the land of speculation and opinionating from the start....

Shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge rails against federal investigation and Tampa Bay Times coverage of his lawyer, Stephen Diaco

Tampa shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem responded to news that federal authorities were investigating his friend and attorney Stephen Diaco in typical form, spending much of his show this morning excoriating Tampa Bay Times writer/columnist Sue Carlton and alleging the coverage was the result of a conspiracy among the city’s power elite.

Carlton co-authored a story on May 23 reporting that FBI agents seized cellphones from Diaco and a Tampa police sergeant in connection with allegations that the lawyer’s firm set-up opposing counsel for a DUI arrest midway through a high profile trial.

Diaco’s firm was defending Clem in a defamation lawsuit brought by rival radio personality Todd “MJ” Schnitt. When opposing lawyer C. Philip Campbell was arrested for DUI after driving the car of a woman who turned out to be a paralegal at Diaco’s firm – Campbell said she lied about where she worked as they drank together that night – allegations flew that the arrest had been arranged.

Carlton also co-authored a story Thursday noting that Diaco’s law firm had been accused of sending a paralegal to discredit a witness in a case three years ago in Miami. Diaco denied the allegations and the Florida bar concluded it was a matter for a civil court, if the witness chose to file a lawsuit.

But despite lots of bluster, Clem offered no concrete proof this morning of allegations that Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and local attorney John Fitzgibbons, a former federal prosecutor-turned criminal attorney, had used their influence to get a federal investigation started into the case and spark Carlton’s stories.
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