Lena Dunham

SUNDAY How to solve "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," when its venerable Victorian-era author died before he could finish it? "Masterpiece Classic" tries to bring Charles Dickens' dark tale of obsession to a satisfactory conclusion in a new adaptation. (KOCE, 9 p.m.) She made "Tiny Furniture" – the 2010 art-house hit, not things you might find at a mini-Ikea. Now, Lena Dunham, below, is giving the small screen a go as creator and star of "Girls," a new dramedy about twentysomethings in the Big Apple.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 13 - 19, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies       SUNDAY If you were hoping for a Ricky Gervais four-peat, you are out of luck, my friend. This year, it'll be gal pals Tina Fey and Amy Poehler manning - make that "womaning" - the podium at "The 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards. " (NBC, 5 and 8 p.m.) Remember how Sarah Jessica Parker would get splashed by that bus with her picture on it in the opening credits of "Sex and the City"?

As if it weren't enough that Lena Dunham, the 26-year-old writing/directing/acting phenom who started a revolution this year with her HBO series "Girls," scored a $3.5-million book deal and has been granted the unofficial but unimpeachable title of "voice of her generation," she also appears to have won the presidential election - or at least to have been one of the driving forces behind the guy who did. In a much-talked-about campaign video...

Take Shelter Sony, $30.99; Blu-ray, $35.99 Writer-director Jeff Nichols re-teams with his "Shotgun Stories" star Michael Shannon for "Take Shelter," a film about a blue-collar, small-town family man who worries that a recurring apocalyptic dream is either a prophecy or a sign that he's mentally ill. "Take Shelter" is more ponderous than it needs to be and too predictable as the hero suffers one setback after another. But Nichols is less concerned with those losses than he is in how people react to a loved one's mania.

There's one question director Ry Russo-Young expects to be asked about her new sunshine psychodrama "Nobody Walks": How much of herself, a New Yorker who came to California to make a movie, is in Olivia Thirlby's character of Martine, a New Yorker who comes to make a movie in California? The film opens with Martine's arrival in Los Angeles, where she lands at the tastefully bohemian Silver Lake home of the couple (Rosemarie DeWitt, John Krasinski) she is going to be staying with while she works with the husband on a film project.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of March 17 - 23, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY The route remains roughly the same - from Dodger Stadium to Downtown, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles and Santa Monica - at the annual running of "The L.A. Marathon....

The TV industry isn't accustomed to celebrating raunchy, edgy shows like "Girls,"the HBO series crafted by 26-year-old Lena Dunham. But the five Emmy nominations it grabbed Thursday reflect how television is increasingly driven by younger, hipper - and feminine - sensibilities. After years of disdain from the men who run the business ("I don't like any women comedians," Jerry Lewis famously pronounced in 1998), women are making inroads in comedy. And never has that dynamic been more evident than on cable networks, where women are free of the content restrictions of broadcast television and - beyond the surprise success of the smash female-skewing comedy feature "Bridesmaids" - of the commercial imperatives of feature films, where teenage boys still typically rule.

If, thanks to "Bridesmaids," 2011 marked the year that Hollywood remembered that women can indeed be funny, then this past television season took that late-to-the-party realization a step further. With the arrival of several new comedies created and written at least in part by women - "New Girl,""Girls,""Up All Night,""2 Broke Girls,""Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23" and"Whitney" - viewers were treated to a host of funny females looking at modern life from a wide array of angles and comic sensibilities.

French-Canadian director-writer-actor Xavier Dolan, who turns 22 later this month, already has had two films play ? and win prizes ? at the Cannes Film Festival, the prestigious international venue that some filmmakers can toil a lifetime to never get near. He dropped out of college to make the first, "I Killed My Mother," actually financing the micro-budget film about coming out and learning to live with an overbearing parent partly with savings from his childhood acting work. The second, "Heartbeats," which opened Friday in Los Angeles and is also available on video-on-demand, tells the story of two friends vying for the affection of the same young man. Dolan starred in both films, and in the case of "Heartbeats," he also edited the film, designed the costumes and handled the art direction.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of March 17 - 23, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SERIES My Big Redneck Vacation In Las Vegas, Doug asks Wendy to renew their vows, but it's not as romantic as it sounds - he really wants a bachelor party, in this new episode. 9 p.m. CMT Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? A minor earthquake shakes things up, just a bit. 9 p.m. WE MOVIES The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Judi Dench and Maggie Smith star as British retirees who move to India to live out their golden years in this 2011 comedy-drama.