Game Change

The battle for control of the living room just became more fierce. Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled the Xbox One, a next-generation video game console that aspires to be more than just a plaything. Not only will the Xbox One deliver an amped-up game experience, but it also will let users watch live TV, rent a movie and listen to music. Viewers can use their voice and gestures to control the TV too. Want to change the channel? Just tell the Xbox One to turn on ESPN for a baseball game, check out a movie on HBO or launch an on-demand service such as Netflix.

Sarah Palin will likely have more complaints to lodge about the biographical drama based on her vice presidential run, but the Hollywood community rendered its verdict Sunday night with multiple Emmy awards for “Game Change.” The HBO film won television's top award for miniseries or movie, as well as awards for writer Danny Strong , director Jay Roach and actress Julianne Moore , who portrayed the one-time Alaska governor....

With the presidential election just six weeks away, it was only fitting that politics took center stage at the 64th Emmy Awards . Showtime's political thriller "Homeland" made television history Sunday evening when it delivered the cable network's first dramatic series Emmy for the show about a Marine under suspicion of being an Al Qaeda operative. The freshman series won four Emmys. Besides the top prize, it also won in the drama categories for best actress for Claire Danes, best actor for Damien Lewis and for writing.

Supporters of Sarah Palin who fear HBO's "Game Change" will present a negative portrayal of the former Alaska governor will have their own viewing options this weekend. Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, emailed supporters Friday to direct their attention away from HBO and instead to the Reelz Channel, which will have the cable television premiere of the pro-Palin documentary "The Undefeated" on Sunday night. "Please tune in to see the real Sarah Palin story," the email stated, without reference to HBO's depiction of Palin.

DENVER -- How President Obama's lackluster performance and Mitt Romney" forceful response at their first face-to-face confrontation will play among undecided voters is an open question, awaiting the next round of polling in the battleground states. But political observers say Wednesday night's showdown had a keen effect on both political parties. "It's hard to tell if it is a game changer at the level of ... undecided voters. It's clearly a game changer for the bases of both parties," said Floyd Ciruli, a Denver pollster.

HBO's "Game Change" won big at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night, beating out History's ratings smash - and red-state favorite - "Hatfields & McCoys" to win the oustanding miniseries or movie prize. "Game Change," adapted from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's bestselling account of the 2008 presidential election, picked up four prizes overall, including the Emmy for oustanding lead actress, which went to Julianne Moore for her portrayal of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

With the Democratic and Republican national conventions just days away, there's already suspense behind the camera: CNN is staring down one of the worst crises in its 32-year existence. The cable news network that dominated the political discussion during the 1990s has slumped to record ratings lows this year, with its prime-time audience plunging by more than 40% compared with four years ago (No. 1 Fox News and runner-up MSNBC have each posted double-digit increases). Critics are attacking the Time Warner-owned network's coverage as dull and rudderless.

As Republicans wage a sharply divisive presidential nominating contest, HBO is preparing to release a television film on the 2008 ascent of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that seems sure to reopen the wounds of that lost campaign and reignite controversy over Palin's fitness for office and the wisdom of putting her on the ticket. "Game Change," based on the 2010 book of the same name by two journalists, is not due to premiere on the pay-cable channel until March 10, but already on Friday Palin's supporters were hitting back at its depiction of her as woefully unprepared to be a national candidate or be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Compliance Magnolia, $26.98; Blu-ray, $29.98 Available on VOD beginning Jan. 8 Craig Zobel's film dramatizes that bizarre news story from a few years back about a restaurant manager who forced an employee to strip on the orders of a man impersonating a policeman. Dreama Walker plays the luckless cashier, who by the end of the night is coerced into doing naked jumping jacks in a stockroom (and worse) because her boss (played by the remarkable Ann Dowd) tells her that a cop has accused her of stealing.

"The Undefeated," a documentary about former Alaskan governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin drawn from her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life," seems to have been made as a piece of political promotion for the 2012 presidential race. But before "The Undefeated" premiered in a tiny number of theaters, Palin announced that she would not run. The film did not do well, either financially or critically. Now it has found a secondary purpose — running on Reelz Channel as an answer to the much-touted HBO film "Game Change.