Paging the Doctor: David Tennant Named New Host of "Masterpiece Contemporary"

In a stroke of inspired casting, PBS has unveiled Doctor Who's David Tennant as the new host of Masterpiece Contemporary, which returns to PBS in October.

Tennant, who is currently finishing up his tenure as The Doctor on the BBC series, is no stranger to PBS, having appeared in both Casanova and He Knew He Was Right, which appeared on the channel. He joins fellow Masterpiece hosts Laura Linney and Alan Cumming, who host Masterpiece Classic and Masterpiece Mystery respectively.

Tennant will kick off Masterpiece Contemporary's 2009 season with Endgame, starring William Hurt (Damages), Chiwetel Ejiofer (Serenity), and Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone).

The full press release from PBS can be found below.

David Tennant to Host Masterpiece Contemporary 2009 on PBS — Star of Doctor Who and Casanova Makes his Debut in October

One of Britain's most popular actors has been named the new host of Masterpiece Contemporary. David Tennant, well known to fans of British television for his acclaimed star turns as Doctor Who and Casanova, will make his hosting debut when Masterpiece contemporary returns in October, 2009, with Endgame, a drama about the last days of apartheid.

"How many actors can nail the characters of Casanova and Doctor Who?," says Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton. "David's talent, versatility and unique appeal make him the perfect match for Masterpiece Contemporary."

"I'm honored to be hosting the series that introduced American audiences to programming such as Casanova and He Knew He Was Right," says Tennant. "And it's a thrill to join the Masterpiece family of hosts: Mystery's Alan Cumming and Classic's Laura Linney."

Tennant's award-winning run (2005-present) in the classic British sci-fi series Doctor Who has gained him worldwide recognition. His other iconic television roles include the flirtatious vicar Reverend Gibson in Masterpiece's He Knew He Was Right; the infamous 18th-century lothario Casanova in Masterpiece's rollicking miniseries, playing the youthful counterpart to Peter O'Toole; and the down-at-the-heel Inspector Peter Carlisle in the cult hit Blackpool.

His career, launched in his native Scotland, extends to film and stage. Millions of moviegoers know him as Barty Crouch Junior in the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Ginger Littlejohn in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things. He recently worked with Bill Nighy, Romola Garai and Julie Christie in the Stephen Poliakoff film 1939, which will be released later this year.

A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Tennant developed his stage career at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He recently completely a successful run as Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Masterpiece Contemporary will return in October 2009 with Endgame, a gripping new drama about the final days of apartheid in South Africa. Starring William Hurt (Damages), Chiwetel Ejiofer (Dirty Pretty Things, American Gangster, Serenity), and Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone, Trainspotting), Endgame premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Masterpiece Contemporary returns this October on PBS. Check your local listings for details.

What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue: Tracking the Variables Before Tonight's "Lost" Season Finale

Will Jack succeed in his plan to avert the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 in tonight's season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two") by detonating Jughead, the hydrogen bomb left behind in the 1950s?

Just a guess but I'm going to say hell no. After all, Jack's theory has a few central flaws, not least of which would be that there wouldn't be a series if Oceanic Flight 815 did manage to touch down in Los Angeles, rather than crash land on that creepy island.

But putting that aside, I was pretty upfront last week about my feelings that there was no way for Jack to alter his own future, even if he was working to counteract the flow of events in 1977. The Jack in 1977 is the culmination of all of his previous experiences. He's there now because the plane did crash on the island, because he met up with his fellow castaways, and because he went back to the island on Ajira Airways Flight 316.

Altering (or attempting to alter) the future won't change any of that. In fact, if Jack were somehow able to detonate the bomb and destroy the entire island, his actions would result in the creation a divergent reality, separate from the one he's living in now, where the plane landed safely because there wasn't an island for them to land on, nor a man in the hatch choosing not to press the button on that particular day. But as for 1977 Jack and everyone else on the island, they'd be dead... as they would have blown themselves to smithereens along with the island.

Can the island exist and not exist at the same time? You betcha. It's called paradox and it speaks to a belief in an omniverse where there are a multitude of realities in which certain events did or did not happen, creating a cascade of possible outcomes for each and every action. Team Darlton has been upfront about the fact that they don't want to introduce paradox to Lost, nor do they want to tell an alternate reality story. It that is the case, then there is no way that Jack will be able to destroy the island or alter their pasts. Their appearance in 1977 is that of variables, yes, but The Incident will still happen because of their very involvement. The truth is that they were always there in 1977 and, even if they attempt to go against the flow of history, they will still bare witness to the fact that everything is happening in 1977 as it always happened.

I do think The Incident, with its massive release of electromagnetic energy, is the ticket for Jack and the others to ride the cosmic particle stream back to the present day and be reunited with Sun, Locke, and Ben. But I don't think that the island will allow Jack and Eloise to detonate the bomb. As for why Eloise Hawking sent the group back to 1977, the answer is simple: she remembered them being there. If they are not there, if they don't go back, time will unspool because she experienced their presence on the island the first time around.

As for what Bram and Ilana are up to in the present day, I'm still not sure. I don't believe that the answer to their riddle ("What lies in the shadow of the statue?") has a physical answer. (I'm not one of the viewers, for example, that believes the solution is, say, Jughead itself.) I think it's something completely different, like, say "death." We know that this group is operating at cross-purposes to Charles Widmore, given that they tried to get Miles not to join Widmore's expedition. So what do they want? To reclaim the island, if they are new Dharma Initiative recruits? To destroy it completely? A death cult that predates even the hostiles? Someone associated with Avellino and the heretofore unseen Economist? In any event, their MO is firmly opposed to Widmore's alleged desire to protect the island.

So what's in the crate? Is it something simple like guns and ammunition? Or something far more significant and nefarious? Have they brought a Doomsday device to the island and will they force the castaways and the Others to unite against a common enemy? I'm still not sure. I have a feeling that the ultimate reveal about Ilana and Bram's plan and the contents of the crate will have a major impact on the final season of Lost, kicking off in 2010.

As for Locke, I can't shake the creepy feeling I got when he expressed his intent to murder Jacob in last week's episode. Sure, he wants to prove to the Others that Jacob is the man behind the curtain, a faux all-powerful Oz, a false idol, so that he can assume complete control over the Others. But will he go through with his plan to kill Jacob? Is it a test of sorts for himself? Or for Ben? It does seem like there can only be one leader of the Others at any given time, so is this the way to ascend to the throne, as it were? Hmmm...

What do you think will happen in tonight's fifth season finale of Lost? Will Jack succeed in his plan to detonate the bomb? What are Ilana and Bram up to? Does Locke really intend to murder Jacob and just what does Ben have up his sleeve? Discuss... and come back tomorrow to share your thoughts on the season finale after it airs.

Previously on Lost...:



On tonight's two-hour season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), Jack's decision to detonate the hydrogen bomb is met with resistance from those close to him; Locke assigns Ben a difficult task.

Soft Spots: There's More Than One of Everything on the "Fringe" Season Finale

Look for the soft spots.

Last night's gripping season finale of Fringe ("There's More Than One of Everything"), written by Jeff Pinker and J.H. Wyman and directed by Brad Anderson, pointed towards a new direction for the series, one that is unfettered by the physical boundaries of our world and presents limitless possibility for the second season of the FOX series, which will air this fall.

Revolving around several intriguing plot strands, the season finale followed Olivia as she investigated an incident involving a tear between the dimensional barriers brought about by David Robert Jones (Jared Harris), Nina Sharp recovered from her shooting at the hands of Jones and his men, Walter traveled to his beach house to recover an important device, and we learned the truth about Peter's identity. And, oh, finally got to see William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) in the flesh.

I hate to say I'm right but... I was right about William Bell! As I posited in yesterday's post, William Bell has in fact been in an alternate reality this entire time, which is why he is always "out of the country" and unavailable for questioning by Olivia Dunham and the FBI's Fringe Division. Not only that, but Bell's office is located in a version of the World Trade Center that were never destroyed on 9/11. A pair of Twin Towers that are located in one of the multitude of alternate realities. (Along with a reality where the Obamas move into the "new White House.") It really is a most ingenious place to hide; no one can come looking for you, after all, in another world.

And it's a good thing that Bell had removed himself from our world as David Robert Jones was going to every length possible--from carrying out illegal and dangerous experiments to garner his former mentor's attention to breaching the dimensional barrier himself to locate Bell. So is Bell behind The Pattern? Nina Sharp claims he's not a terrorist and that The Pattern-related incidents were carried out by Jones in order to get his former mentor's attention. So what is Bell's endgame? That's still tantalizingly abstract. He's clear that he's happy to finally come face to face with Olivia but for what purpose? Hmmm...

Meanwhile, I'm glad that the writers didn't kill off Nina Sharp. Throughout her appearances, she's been an intriguing (if at times frustratingly so) character and her past relationships with Broyles and Walter still need to be fleshed out. The impetus behind her attack was so that Jones could obtain an extremely powerful energy cell which Bell had secreted in Nina's bionic arm. A power cell that, when used properly, could power equipment to open a doorway through dimensions. I thought it interesting that Nina upheld her end of the bargain and allowed Olivia to see William Bell, though not without a little trademark subterfuge.

After agreeing to meet Olivia at a Manhattan hotel, Olivia finds herself waiting there for Nina, who fails to turn up after several hours. Olivia gets on the elevator to go down--and one blue flare later (and a flickering light which displays for one brief second that she's not alone in another reality of this elevator car)--she embarks in a high-tech, iPhone-white HQ, where she comes face to face with Bell himself. I'm sure Nina had good reason for keeping all of this a secret from Olivia (and I began to become paranoid too when that car nearly swerved into Olivia's right outside the hotel) but the whole things smacks once again of gamesmanship.

Loved the final appearance of David Robert Jones, who we learn has been much changed from his teleportation-enabled jailbreak. Having opened a doorway to another reality, Olivia fires on the bandaged and nearly gelatinous Jones repeatedly, only to learn that the bullets pass right through him. He's ascended to some sort of higher state of being... but it's not one that can counteract getting sheared in half when Peter uses the patch (more on that in a second) to close the rift. (Ouch.)

So is Jones the true mastermind behind The Pattern? I don't think so. We know he worked for Bell 15 years ago and clearly picked up some impressive skills during his time at Massive Dynamic. But I don't think he's the ring leader, just another foot soldier in the battle. Was he in league with corrupt FBI agent Sanford Harris? I don't know. But I think that there is still much to be learned about the coming war that we still don't know.

This week's episode showed a lot of character development for Walter, who was forced to face up to some ugly truths about his own life and accept some semblance of responsibility for his life. (Hence the note he leaves Peter as he steps out of he lab at the end of the episode.) As we saw last week, The Observer pulls him from the lab and takes him on a road trip of sorts. Clearly aware of David Robert Jones' attempts to breach the dimensional barrier, The Observer tasks Walter with locating an instrument that he concealed at the Bishop family's old beach house. But first Walter takes a trip to a graveyard where he cries over one particular grave. (Hmmm.) And the Observer gives him a coin--rather like one he used to have--as not a token but a beacon to awaken his dormant memories. Walter, after having a fit at the beach house, finally does locate the object he's looking for: a patch, a sort of plug, that can close any doorway opened between the dimensions. And there's another coin. He tells Peter that when Peter was young, he was "very sick" and took to collecting coins, but Peter doesn't remember any of this. (Double hmmm....)

Seeing Walter finally remember not only what he was looking for but where it was allowed John Noble a fantastic moment to catalyze Walter's intelligence and tragic situation. A man whose intellect is second to none who is forced to shoulder the indignity of not being able to remember. And yet that's just what Walter doesn't want to do: remember.

It's not just the coin that there's more than one of, echoing the episode's title. We know that travel between the dimensions is possible, that these realities are inhabited by people very similar to us, and have seen with our own eyes this week that both Bell and now Olivia have successfully managed to cross the barrier. Walter it seems has done so too and he took something back with him, something that he sought to ease his grief. He brought back Peter. We learn that the gravestone he's standing over is in fact Peter's and that his son died at an early age. The Peter Bishop we know isn't our world's Peter Bishop at all... he's the Peter from an alternate reality, one taken by Walter to replace the son he lost. It explains why Peter's memories from his childhood are missing and why Peter is himself so very special. I'd go a step further to say that Nina Sharp knows Walter's secret and that Walter likely turned to Bell for help in "replacing" Peter.

It's a tragic and sad reveal of a father's love and the lengths Walter went to--breaking the laws of physics and every moral and ethical boundary--to bring his son back to life. Just what this signifies for Peter's future remains to be seen. Was this the reason why the Observer rescued Walter and Peter from the frozen lake? Was it the cause of the estrangement between Walter and Peter's mother, who we've yet to meet? How did original-flavor Peter die? And just how soon after his death did Walter have Peter replaced?

All I know is that I am very intrigued by the developments contained in this week's episode and I hope that Fringe's writers realize the strength of their mythology and focus more on developing the relationships between the characters, their backstories (in particular Astrid and Broyles), and exploring the overarching story of The Pattern. Kudos to FOX for using footage from the episode already filmed for Season Two as a lure to get viewers to tune in next season; we all appreciated even that small glimpse ahead to next season.

What did you think of the season finale? Were you surprised by the reveals of Peter's identity and William Bell's whereabouts? What was David Robert Jones hoping to achieve by visiting Bell? And just what does the future hold for Fringe? Discuss.

Fringe returns with Season Two this fall on FOX.

NBC Infront News, Plus Fighting the Good Fight for "Chuck"

There wasn't much in the way of news at yesterday's NBC Infront, which I attended at the Globe Theatre on the Universal backlot, although I will say that I did tell Ben Silverman to please renew Chuck. (Yep, right to his face.)

The second annual NBC Infront presentation, overseen by Ben Silverman, Mike Pilot, Dick Ebersol, Angela Bromstad, Vivi Zigler, and Paul Telegdy, was pretty similar to the one given in New York last week (and likely the one in Chicago as well).

Silverman said that the fall schedule was still not locked and urged advertisers to speak up about their support for bubble series like Chuck and that there were still negotiations going on behind-the-scenes on these series. After hearing Silverman (and confronting him later on the red carpet), I do feel like NBC will be bringing back Chuck... if they can reach a financial agreement that makes sense for all concerned parties.

Silverman's reaction to my heartfelt pleas to renew Chuck certainly indicated that he's not only aware of the fan and critical support for the series. (Silverman smiled and laughed and turned to the head of NBC Agency and said, "*This* is what I am talking about!") Methinks that the advertiser love has certainly improved Chuck's chances, but it's all going to come down to dollars and cents at this point. Still, no decision is still good news at this point.

Much of NBC's presentation focused on the controversial decision to schedule Jay Leno five nights a week at 10 pm and execs were quick to point out that the move is not bringing late night to 10 pm, but rather Jay Leno to primetime. Silverman said that Jay Leno is "topical, live on tape, comedic, and branded" and said that the use of Leno at 10 pm weeknights would allow NBC to "schedule more aggressively and surgically between 8 and 10 pm."

Trailers were shown for each of the new scripted series which include Trauma, Mercy, Parenthood, Day One, and comedies Community and 100 Questions. With the exception of a new trailer for Jesse Alexander-created Day One (which I have yet to see anywhere online), the clips were very similar (or identical, in some cases) to those shown to advertisers in New York. Particular mention was paid to unscripted series such as I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, The Marriage Ref, and Who Do You Think You Are?, as well as the Vancouver Olympic Games.

Silverman said that having a "focused lineup between 8 and 10 pm" will allow the network to "build themes across nights." It's still not clear what those themes will be but Silverman offered a slight taste of what we can expect to find on NBC each night, ahead of the release of the official schedule next week.

Mondays: Heroes and a new series (as yet undetermined)
Tuesdays: Biggest Loser
Wednesdays: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Thursdays: Comedies, including six episodes of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday (which Silverman seemed to indicate would air at 8 pm)
Fridays: High-end scripted programs
Saturdays: Drama Encores, Dateline, Saturday Night Live
Sundays: Football, special events like Golden Globes

Execs also heralded the return of freshman series Southland and Parks and Recreation, which it lauded as upholding the high comedic bar set by 30 Rock. (The series' Aziz Ansari and Ben McKenzie, meanwhile, were on hand to open the event and introduce Mike Pilot and Ben Silverman.) Silverman pointed to patience with comedy paying off, believing that Parks and Recreation could join the ranks of slow-to-catch-on NBC comedies like Seinfeld, The Office, and 30 Rock, and said their mission was to offer programming to "inform, entertain, and inspire."

Responding to a question from an advertiser, Angela Bromstad was quick to say that she didn't anticipate any content-related issues at the 8 pm or 9 pm hours stemming from such post-watershed series like Law & Order: SVU airing at an earlier hour. Silverman himself said that Law & Order: SVU now plays around the country around the clock and they did not anticipate any issues with airing the series before 10 pm.

NBC will announce its schedule and any additional series renewals and pickups on May 19th.

Channel Surfing: Starz to "Party Down" for Season Two, FOX Orders "Human Target" and "Sons of Tucson," "Torchwood" Ignites in July, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Good news: pay cabler Starz has renewed comedy series Party Down, from creators Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd, for a second season. The entire cast of Season One of Party Down will return for a sophomore season, though Jane Lynch's commitment to FOX's upcoming series Glee could create complications for her return and the actress is the only cast member who isn't already signed on for a second season. Party Down will return to production this summer for a Season Two launch date sometime in 2010. Also returning: directors Fred Savage and Bryan Gordon, who will direct episodes of the series, along with Ken Marino, who is locked to helm an installment as well. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin, Variety)

FOX has reportedly ordered pilots Human Target, from Warner Bros Television, and comedy Sons of Tucson, from 20th Century Fox Television, to series. FOX had no comment on the news, which is hardly surprising as the network will unveil its schedule to advertisers on Monday. Human Target stars Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jackie Earle Haley; it revolves around a man hired to pose as people whose lives are in danger, becoming in effect a human target. (Series is based on a DC Comics/Vertigo title.) Sons of Tucson, starring Tyler Labine and Natalie Morales, follows a hustler who is hired to pose as the father of three kids whose real father is in jail for white collar crimes. Series was created by Tommy Dewey and Greg Bratman. (Variety)

BBC America has announced that Torchwood's third season, comprised of five episodes, will air this July, following a similar air pattern as BBC One in the UK and will air day-and-date with the UK airings. (You can take a look at the trailer for season three, Torchwood: Children of Earth, here.) (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

FOX has renewed drama Lie to Me for a second season of thirteen episodes and has hired The Shield creator Shawn Ryan to come aboard as showrunner on the 20th Century Fox Television-produced series. The hiring doesn't mean curtains for Ryan's other series, CBS' The Unit, however; should that series be picked up for another season, Ryan will juggle duties on both of the 20th-produced series. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Hollywood Reporter)

Meanwhile, Dollhouse is said to still be alive at FOX, with Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva reporting that "cult favorite Dollhouse is still alive, with the final decision hinging on the low-rated series' economics." (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC's Scrubs is said to be inching its way to a ninth season renewal following reports that offers have gone out to the series' cast, with many of them--including Zach Braff--expected to return for a ninth season, even if only for a handful of episodes. (Variety)

The New York Post is reporting that Desperate Housewives' Lily Tomlin and Kathryn Joosten, who play Roberta and Karen McClusky on the ABC drama, are in talks to reprise their roles in an untitled spin-off focusing on their characters. (New York Post)

Showtime has confirmed that Alanis Morissette will will appear in at least seven episodes of Season Five of Weeds, which launches Monday, June 8th. Morisette will guest star in the series as no-nonsense clinic OB/GYN Dr. Audra Kitson, who treats Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) for her pregnancy. (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton will not be returning to One Tree Hill for the series' seventh season, launching on the CW this fall. Their final appearances on the series will air this Monday on the season finale. The reason behind their departure? Failed contract negotiations, according to Ausiello, who says that two new characters will be introduced next season to fill the void left behind by Murray and Burton and Austin Nichols will be bumped to series regular. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

A&E announced a slew of scripted development at their upfront yesterday, including the The Quickening from writer Jennifer Salt (Nip/Tuck) about a bi-polar LAPD cop who goes off of her medication; Night Falls, about a Manhattan cop with a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality disorder, from writer Daniel Connolly and executive producer Brian Robbins; an untitled Matthew Carnahan cop drama which splits its focus on the criminals and the FBI team assigned to track them down; and James Ellroy-scripted drama The Lead Sheet, a period drama set in the 1970s as the LAPD looks to capture the elusive Hillside Strangler. Two of those projects will get pilot greenlights in the next few weeks, joining Jerry Bruckheimer's Cooler Kings. (Variety)

Nikki Finke is reporting that ABC pilots Limelight and No Heroics are dead, while Romantically Challenged "came in better than expected but star Alysso Milano was worse than expected." At CBS, Miami Trauma and Three Rivers are both fighting for a slot on the schedule. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Universal Media Studios have signed an overall deal with former Scrubs writers Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, who co-created comedy pilot Nobody's Watching with Bill Lawrence. Under the terms of the deal, they will come aboard upcoming NBC comedy series Community as executive producers, working alongside creator Dan Harmon on the series, and will develop new projects for the studio hopefully in the 2010-2011 season. (Hollywood Reporter)

In other deal-related news, CBS Television Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with writer Ken Sanzel, under which he will remain showrunner on CBS drama NUMB3RS, should the series be renewed for a fifth season. Failing a renewal, Sanzel will be shifted over to another CBS Television Studios series. (Variety)

Discovery has announced another HD nature documentary series entitled Wild Planet: North America, on which the cabler will team with former BBC Natural History Unit head Keith Scholey as part of the first of a batch of documentary series that will catalogue the planet's natural beauty continent by continent. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC is developing a US adaptation of Dutch reality series Find My Family with RDF USA and executive producer Tom Forman (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) in which everyday people, desperate to track down a long-lost friend or relative, get reunited with their missing individual. Project, which just recently wrapped production on a pilot, will be hosted by Tim Green and Lisa Joyner. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Pattern of All Patience: Some Thoughts Ahead of Tonight's Season Finale of "Fringe"

Throughout its freshman season, Fringe has been a study in the battle between serialized versus self-contained storytelling.

When the series has embraced its mythology roots and given us some taut episodes that pushed the overarching story, Fringe has soared, offering us a complex plot about the insidious nature of technology and scientific advancement, the danger of allowing multi-national companies to control society, and a paranoid plot about soldiers preparing for a secret war taking place in the shadows. And while many of its X-Files-esque weekly plots have been good, scary fun, it's the mythology episodes that have reeled me in and made me think about the series in more complex terms.

I'm hoping that tonight's season finale of Fringe ("There's More Than One of Everything") pays off some of the plot threads that have been slowly building throughout the season. We've been teased with Walter Bishop and William Bell's involvement with bioterrorist group Z.F.T., the nature of the former partners' Cortexiphan experiments on children such as the young Olivia Dunham, the possible involvement of Massive Dynamic in The Pattern, the relevance of The Observer, the strange disappearance of David Robert Jones, and a host of other mysteries.

Will tonight's installment advance some of these stories and perhaps give Broyles and Astrid something to do? That remains to be seen. But with only a few hours to go before Fringe wraps its first season tonight, I thought I'd offer up some theories (not based on any spoilers) about where the storyline might be going.

We seemingly got a glimpse into the possible origin story of The Observer a few weeks back in the episode "Inner Child," when the Fringe Division investigated the bizarre case of a child living underneath a derelict building, a child with empathic abilities and a visage rather like The Observer himself. Was the child kept down there as not an experiment but a means to an end, the way to create a creature just like The Observer himself? The connection between the two is made all the more clear by the look they share through the car window as the child is driven by The Observer. Could it be that the title of tonight's episode ("There's More than One of Everything") could refer to The Observer himself? Will we learn that there are in fact an entire army of these beings whose mission seems tangled up in The Pattern itself?

Just what does The Observer want and where is he taking Walter? That's an interesting question. The two are no strangers to each other and The Observer directly intervened when Walter and Peter's car crashed into the frozen lake when Peter was a boy. So why did he save them? And, more importantly, how did he know to be there in the first place? It seems clear that The Observer either has precognitive abilities (in addition to the telepathic abilities he's previously displayed) or he has a knowledge of future events, so easily is he able to maneuver himself into the correct place and time just as Pattern-related incidents are occurring. As for where he's taking Walter, hmmm...

Throughout Fringe's first season, the specter of William Bell has hovered over the proceedings yet we've never seen so much as hair or hide of this enigmatic former partner of Walter Bishop. It's clear that both Bell and Bishop are connected to The Pattern and recent evidence has directly implicated Bell in a number of illegal scientific experiments conducted on the population. So why hasn't Olivia or the FBI been able to directly interview Bell? For one, Nina Sharp is a tough gatekeeper and she keeps concocting reasons why Bell can't be questioned: he's away, he's unreachable, etc.

I'll say he's away and unreachable. In fact, my theory is that William Bell isn't there to be questioned or interviewed as he's been in an alternate dimension this entire time. We know that the existence of alternate dimensions is key to the ZFT manifesto and that it's possible to breach the walls between dimensions. Hell, Olivia did it quite easily in last week's episode ("The Road Not Taken"), drifting consciously and several times unwillingly into an alternate reality, likely the result of the Cortexiphan trials she participated in as a child. So what if Bell was also able to make this leap and Nina has been covering for his absence in this reality?

We know that the coming war will be fought on several battlegrounds, in several dimensions, as prophesied by the ZFT manifesto. My belief is that Bell slid over to an alternate dimension before the events of the pilot episode and has been maneuvering things from over there, setting things into motion that will result in him finally coming face to face with Olivia herself.

So where is The Observer taking Walter? Why is it "time to go"? I believe he's following orders of a higher power and talking Walter to the other side of the dimensional breach, bringing him to where William Bell is waiting.

(In fact, I can't help but wonder if by Season Two, we'll find our leads in a world that's slightly different than the one they've been living in.)

Just why was Bell administering Cortexiphan to these children, all of whom have now reached adulthood at the precise time as The Pattern has become more and more frequent? Are they foot soldiers in the coming war, prepared for the imminent battle with paranormal gifts beyond that of normal human beings? And which side--good or evil--is William Bell actually on?

As for Nina Sharp, it's clear she's a believer in Bell's cause. She's given her life to stand at his side and last week paid a steep price for her loyalty to her employer. Shot at point blank range, it seems as though Nina is clinging to life. But who orchestrated the attack on her and why? The signs point to the elusive David Robert Jones, who also has an interest in Olivia and likely the other Cortexiphan-positive subjects. Was he working with Harris in the kidnapping of Nancy Lewis last week? After all, the presence of the light box in the holding cell would indicate a strong knowledge in Cortexiphan-derived abilities. So is David Robert Jones the flip side of the coin to William Bell? Are the two adversaries drawing the battle lines while everyone else remains mere pawns on the chess board?

What do you think? Any predictions on what might happen in tonight's season finale of Fringe and beyond? Discuss.

On tonight's season finale of Fringe ("There's More Than One of Everything"), Olivia and the Fringe Division find themselves reeling when after Nina Sharp is attacked, bio-terrorist David Robert Jones returns, and Walter disappears.

Like, Totally, Yeah: Cruising the Valley with Lily and Carol on "Gossip Girl"

I have to say that I was excited to see just what Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage had cooked up for their neon-colored 1980s flashback in last night's episode of Gossip Girl ("Valley Girls"), considering that it was the long-awaited backdoor pilot to a potential Gossip Girl spin-off centering on a teenage Lily and her black sheep sister Carol.

I tried to put aside the negative buzz emanating from the project, which some media outlets are saying is already dead at the CW after enjoying quite a lot of hype in the last few months and looking like a lock for the fall schedule. And yet after watching "Valley Girls," I couldn't help but hope that CW doesn't decide to go ahead with this project, which based on the flashback segments here seemed predictable and rather flat.

It didn't help matters that the putative star of the potential series, Brittany Snow--who plays a teenage Lily Rhodes without much depth or any real visual/spiritual connection to Kelly Rutherford's Lily--is completely upstaged by the always sensational Krysten Ritter (Veronica Mars, Breaking Bad), who here plays Lily's older sister Carol, a pariah in the Rhodes family who lives in the Valley and hopes to become an actress. That we've never so much heard the adult Lily mention a sister since the pilot episode of Gossip Girl is a slight misstep on the writers' part and could have been easily set up a few episodes earlier.

Throughout the flashback sequences, Snow irked me beyond belief. Yes, we're meant to see that this is a Lily that is still in the process of being formed, not yet the reformed bad girl and socialite that we see at the beginning of Season One of Gossip Girl but Snow's Lily was so bubble-gummy, perky, and naive that it was hard to take her seriously as a three-dimensional character, much less one that was meant to lead us back into Lily's secret past. Her Lily is a shallow shadow of Rutherford's and, if Valley Girls is to succeed, it needs a strong anchor in the lead role. Not sure Snow can pull this off here. Her surprised, determined, or aggressive displays of emotion all seemed rather the same to me. Unlike, Ritter who managed to dazzle with just a few lines of dialogue.

Not helping matters was the truly awful performance of Jericho's Shiloh Fernandez as Owen Campos, a waiter at the diner where Carol works (between acting auditions) and a possible love interest for Lily. To say that he makes even the most awkward cast member of Gossip Girl seem like an Oscar winner is an understatement. That he actually uttered a line about having to find family in other places (as he and Lily enter the club) made me literally throw up in my mouth, but the blame for that gem falls squarely on the writers who seem to be working way too hard to telegraph what's going on here.

And let's be honest: the montage involving Lily trying on an infinite number of ensembles from Carol's locker wardrobe stuck out as the sort of cliched stuff that this series should be avoiding at all costs.

I will give them credit for some fantastic music choices, which underpinned the era and played to their strengths. And I love Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars, Party Down) in anything and it's a testament to his abilities that Hansen gives an energy to even a rather thankless role like Shep here. Kudos to Lost's Cynthia Watros and Lipstick Jungle's Andrew McCarthy for playing it straight as Lily's yuppie parents CeCe and Rick.

But, ultimately, Valley Girls is not something I would tune in week after week to watch on the CW, not if this backdoor pilot is an example of what we should expect in terms of story, characters, or tone. Certainly no XOXO's from me.

What did you think of last night's episode as a backdoor pilot for a potential series? Would you tune in to Valley Girls if it were a series? Or should Savage and Schwartz stick to the Upper East Side demi-monde on Gossip Girl? Discuss.

Next week on the season finale of Gossip Girl ("The Goodbye Gossip Girl"), Gossip Girl shakes things up by sending out a damaging e-mail blast during the graduation commencement ceremony, rousing Serena into action; Jenny is challenged by The Mean Girls to throw her hat in the ring to succeed Blair as Queen Bee next year; Lily and Rufus struggle to fix their relationship after Lily's betrayal.

Darkness Falls: Season Two of HBO's "True Blood" Approaches

With only a few weeks to go until the start of Season Two of vampire drama True Blood on HBO, the pay cabler has officially released the description of the first three episodes of Season Two, which will kick off on June 14th at 9 pm ET/PT.

But beware: there are SPOILERS below for the first three episodes, so only read them if you dare...

June 14th: "Nothing But the Blood" (Written by Alexander Woo; directed by Daniel Minahan)

A shocking murder outside Merlotteʼs has Bon Temps reeling. Meanwhile, Sookieʼs (Anna Paquin) relationship with Bill (Stephen Moyer) is tested when she learns about Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), and of his involvement in her uncleʼs death. Sam (Sam Trammell) recalls a shape-shifting encounter he had with Maryann (Michelle Forbes) as a 17-year-old. Jason (Ryan Kwanten) gets a sudden windfall that allows him to pay for a leadership retreat with the Fellowship of the Sun. Two adversaries find themselves sharing a mysterious dungeon and, possibly, the same fate.

June 21st: “Keep This Party Going” (Written by Brian Buckner; directed by Michael Lehmann)

Sookie is forced to cope with Billʼs obligations to Jessica, as well as the romantic
inconveniences the teen vampireʼs presence creates. At the Light of Day leadership conference, Jason makes a favorable impression on its ambitious leaders, Steve (Michael McMillian) and Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp), though not on his jealous roommate Luke (Wes Brown). Maryann casts her spell on Merlotteʼs patrons, and Sam proves helpless to stop the revelry.

June 28th: “Scratches” (Written by Raelle Tucker; directed by Scott Winant)

When Sookie is attacked by a mysterious creature, Bill must enlist Ericʼs (Alexander Skarsgård) help to save her. At the Light of Day retreat, Jason has second thoughts about the sectʼs anti-vampire agenda, but Sarah and Steve counter his doubts with flattery and promises. After snapping at Tara (Rutina Wesley) and new employee Daphne (Ashley Jones), Sam decides to cut and run. A bored Jessica heads over to Merlotteʼs, where a smitten Hoyt (Jim Parrack) falls under her spell. At another Maryann-hosted party, Tara finds her attraction to Eggs (Mehcad Brooks) interrupted by a swirling,
aphrodisiac fog.

The full press release from HBO about True Blood's second season--and a look at the cliffhanger ending of Season One--can be found below.

HIT HBO SERIES TRUE BLOOD KICKS OFF SECOND SEASON JUNE 14
In the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the mystery surrounding the serial killer has finally been solved. But just as things are settling down, deadly new twists threaten Sookie Stackhouse and everyone around her.

TRUE BLOOD kicks off its 12-episode second season SUNDAY, JUNE 14 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO, followed by other new episodes on subsequent Sundays at the same time. Mixing romance, suspense, mystery and humor, the show takes place in the not-too-distant future, when vampires have come out of the coffin, thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood that means they no longer need humans as a nutritional source. The show follows the romance between waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), who can hear peopleʼs thoughts, and her soul mate, 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer). Alan Ball (creator of the Emmy®-winning HBO series Six Feet Under) created and executive produces the show, which is based on the best-selling Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

Other cast regulars on TRUE BLOOD include: Ryan Kwanten as Sookieʼs brother Jason; Rutina Wesley as her best friend Tara Thornton; Sam Trammell as Sookieʼs good-hearted boss Sam Merlotte; Carrie Preston as Sookieʼs fellow waitress Arlene Fowler; William Sanderson as Sheriff Bud Dearborne; Chris Bauer as Detective Andy Bellefleur; Todd Lowe as Terry Bellefleur; Michelle Forbes as Maryann Forrester; Alexander Skarsgård as Eric, a Nordic vampire; Deborah Ann Woll as Jessica, a new vampire under Billʼs supervision; Mehcad Brooks as Eggs “Benedict” Talley; Michael McMillian as Rev. Steve Newlin; Mariana Kloveno as Lorena; Anna Camp as Sarah Newlin; and Jim Parrack as Hoyt Fortenberry.

Meanwhile, for those of you who need a refresher on the True Blood Season One finale's cliffhanger ending, look no further than the below:



True Blood's second season kicks off on Sunday, June 14th at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.

Channel Surfing: NBC Passes on "Legally Mad" and (Allegedly) "Lost & Found," "Dollhouse" Bonus Ep Gets Comic-Con Screening, Michael Emerson, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

NBC has confirmed that they have passed on David E. Kelley's legal drama Legally Mad, which will not be going to series. Project, which starred Charity Wakefield, Hugh Bonneville, Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Seda, Loretta Devine, and Kurt Fuller as the denizens of a quirky Chicago law firm, has a rather hefty multi-million dollar penalty against it, which NBC will have to pay out to Warner Bros. Television after making a series commitment to the project last year. It's not anticipated that the studio will shop the project to other outlets. In other pilot news, ABC comedy pilot Let It Go (a.k.a. The Bridget Show), starring Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), is now believed to be "dead." (Variety)

The Peacock is also said to have killed procedural drama Lost & Found, which starred Katee Sackhoff and Brian Cox. There were rumors that the Universal Media Studios-produced pilot was being shopped to USA but The Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva says "that is considered a longshot." Meanwhile, NBC comedy pilot Off Duty is said to be undergoing some retooling and could still remain in contention while ABC screened pilots V and Limelight to some rather mixed reviews yesterday, with V still in the mix for a possible order. (Hollywood Reporter)

The so-called bonus episode of FOX drama Dollhouse, entitled "Epitaph One," will be screened at July's Comic-Con International in San Diego. The episode, which features guest star Felicia Day (Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog), is said to be set in the future and will also feature the core series cast. Day will play a freedom fighter battling the tyrrany of the Dollhouse in the "gothic horror" tinged installment, which is described as "mythology heavy and an essential watch for fans of the series." (End of Show)

The Onion A.V. Club talks to Lost's Michael Emerson about playing Benjamin Linus on the ABC drama and what he thinks about Ben being labeled as a villain. "I think it’s interesting that I make these best-villain lists when it’s not even clear that I am a bad guy," said Emerson. "I think it’s something in the playing of the part. I think it worries people when they can’t get a handle on a character. I tend to play him kind of ambiguously. There is a sinister quality to him, but I think the verdict is still out about what his position is on the scale of good and evil. To a large extent, people’s interest in the character is the mystery of the character." (The Onion A.V. Club)

Kevin Costner and Armyan Bernstein are developing an untitled four-hour Western mini-series at A&E, which Costner will executive produce and may direct; it's also possible that he could appear in front of the camera as well, depending on the script. Project will focus on a post-Civil War era "major conflict in the settlement of the West." (Hollywood Reporter)

In other A&E news, the cabler has ordered a pilot for Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama Cooler Kings about a former cop in Honolulu who is out for revenge after the death of his girlfriend and becomes the member of a group of enigmatic gumshoes called the Cooler Kings, whose mission is to fight the "seedy side of Paradise." Project, originally developed at FOX, is written by Tristan Patterson and comes from Bruckheimer TV and Warner Horizon. If ordered to series, Cooler Kings would likely boy in spring or summer 2010. (Variety)

Joss Stone has signed on to reprise her role as Anne of Cleves, one-time wife to Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in the fourth and final season of Showtime's The Tudors. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has pulled animated comedy Sit Down, Shut Up from the schedule with one installment remaining from its initial order. It's not expected that the series will return next season. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has some details about Season Four of NBC's Heroes, vis-a-vis some casting info about a number of roles that seem to place the action next season at some sort of traveling circus, making many--including Ausiello--draw comparisons to HBO's short-lived supernatural drama series Carnivale. Producers are said to be on the look out for a knife-thrower, a twenty-something tattooed woman, and "a middle-aged Eddie Izzard type to play the Carnival Barker, a smooth operator with a wicked wit." Other roles up for grabs include Claire's "quirky college roommate" and a partner/mentor for Matt Parkman. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Jimmy Kimmel Live co-creator Daniel Kellison has been hired as the new executive producer on The Bonnie Huny Show. He'll take his spot on the second season of the daytime syndicated talk show when it returns this fall, working alongside Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, and Jim Paratore. Kellison's company Jackhole Industries, which he runs with Kimmel and Adam Carolla, will continue to produce Jimmy Kimmel Live. (Variety)

Nickelodeon has handed out a series order to action/adventure comedy The Troop, ordering 26 episodes about three teenagers (Nick Purcell, Gage Golightly, David Del Rio) who battle monsters after school. The series, from executive producer Tommy Lynch and showrunner Jay Kogen, is expected to launch this fall. It was created by Greg Coolidge, Chris Morgan, and Max Burnett. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fremantle has hired former Sci Fi executive Tony Optican, who was responsible for developing Eureka, Tin Man, and Stargate: Atlantis, to oversee its scripted programming development and also sell the company's UK scripted formats into the US. He'll report to Eugene Young, Fremantle's chief creative officer, and will be based in LA. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Broken Dolls: Thoughts on the Season Finale of FOX's "Dollhouse"

In a position that is bound to make me unpopular with the legions of Dollhouse fans, I have to say that I found Friday evening's season finale of Dollhouse ("Omega"), written and directed by Tim Minear, an illogical and messy affair.

Following a first season that was fraught with behind-the-scenes complications and showcased an often disjointed approach to serialized storytelling, the finale failed to pay off some of the more intriguing story threads that had been slowly weaving together throughout the eleven or so preceding episodes and offered an Alpha (Alan Tudyk) that seemed bizarrely at odds with how he had been previously presented within the series.

"Omega" also suffered from an odd emphasis on telling rather than showing some important beats (meet Adelle: exposition dump) and potentially wrapped the series with a nonsensical ending that didn't in any way feel earned. (Not helping matters: the last scene was in fact culled from the final scene of Joss Whedon's original Dollhouse pilot.)

Confession: I've known about the Claire/Whiskey twist since last May and had been eagerly awaiting this reveal, though after several Joss Whedon interviews indicated that the series likely wouldn't be dealing with the possibility of any of the Dollhouse staff being dolls themselves until the second season, I gave up all hope of seeing this storyline play out. Still, I thought that if they were going to go down this road with Claire/Whiskey, it could have been handled a hell of a lot better. I thought that the reveal that it was Whiskey and not Echo dancing in the distance was fantastic and spoke to the beautiful visuals that Minear constructed throughout the direction of this episode.

But Alpha and Whiskey's Mickey-and-Mallory rip-off engagement was just odd to me. Why would a client book an engagement with a psycho couple? I could see Lars perhaps hiring Whiskey to be his Mallory on a crime spree but what was Lars' role meant to be here? Third wheel? It seemed more a means to an end for Minear to create a stunning visual of Whiskey and Alpha going at it while they torture this poor guy in a deserted club while the handlers try and track down their errant dolls.

Sadly, I thought that the handling of Whiskey's backstory was clunky and made little sense, given her scars and her apparent agoraphobia, neither of which was dealt with satisfactorily. It was interesting to learn that there was a previous Dr. Saunders and that Whiskey was given his personality as an imprint, leading to some continuity for the Actives as they continue to be treated on-site by a Dr. Saunders. (I did love that Whiskey accepted who she was at the end and picked up the jar of lollipops and that her hatred towards Topher was unrelated to her programming.)

But the reveal didn't quite ring true when you consider Whiskey's scars. Hell, I'd have much rather learned that the scars were repaired and Whiskey kept recutting her own face, making it impossible for the Dollhouse to fix their most valued Active and that it was self-inflicted, indicating that some things can't be erased no matter how many times you imprint. As it is, it doesn't really make much sense why Whiskey still has the scars that Alpha inflicted on her. Why would the Dollhouse let their best Active remained scarred and locked up? Surely they would have forced her to have them fixed, given she was under contract. And why was she an agoraphobic in this imprint? It made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

Additionally, Alpha's characterization here was diametrically opposed to the week before, where he was presented as a genius whereas here he was a garden-variety psycho with a fixation on Echo. Not that we know why he was quite so fixated on her or what his master plan actually was... which seemed to have nothing to do with taking down the Dollhouse at all and more to do with giving himself a multiple-personality psycho bride and killing Caroline's personality and making Echo watch. What happened to the Olympian-sized intellect? The genius skills? The feeling that Alpha was a larger-than-life ghoul instead of an average psychopath?

Was his endgame really so small? To allow Echo to "ascend" the same way he did via his accidental compositing and achieve something that wasn't quite self-awareness but an ability to embody a host of imprints at once? To infect someone else with the same madness he suffered from? If so, why did he give Echo an imprint of a Southern floozy rather than, say, Whiskey's Mallory imprint? Just why did he fixate so much on Echo in the first place? You've got me. And then without any real answers, Alpha climbs up the stairs of the power plant never to be seen again. Just how did he escape? No idea.

Even more frustrating to me was that several storylines--especially Paul Ballard's--went nowhere. I've never been a fan of Ballard as a character. Throughout the season, he's been portrayed as icy and unsympathetic and this week's episode made him seem weak-willed and vapid as well. After doggedly pursuing the Dollhouse (resulting in the end of his career) and proclaiming the wrongness of what they're doing, he just sits back and takes a job for the very organization he was looking to take down? Why? To be closer to Caroline? To free November/Mellie, whom I never bought his feelings for in the first place, from her contract rather than, say, Caroline? To take it down from the inside? (A rather far leap of logic, given that this is not indicated anywhere on screen.)

Meanwhile, November and Sierra vanished after being imprinted with the personalities of two bounty hunters and tasked with tracking down Alpha. I understand that a scene with the two of them at the power plant was cut from the finished episode but the result made them look like the two worst bounty hunters in the entire world, who apparently failed to find their quarry at all. Why bother showing the scene of them being imprinted as bounty hunters if it wasn't followed up on at all? (If anything comes from Dollhouse, it's that I hope that the superb Dichen Lachman gets a lot of work as a result. She's proven herself versatile, talented, and memorable even when stuck with a largely thankless role, as has the supremely talented Enver Gjokaj.)

We're told repeatedly that the Dollhouse is impenetrable and infallible yet it was anything but and the last two episodes proved this once again. Apparently, to get in, you need only break through two flimsy grates. And to get out, Alpha just took the elevator. Additionally, the fact that no one--not Topher, not Adelle--thought it was prudent to look at Alpha's file and investigate (A) who he was before he came to the Dollhouse or (B) what crimes he had committed after slicing up members of their staff, tormenting them, and breaking in was absolutely ludicrous. Surely, they'd want to to know everything about their target, even if it meant delving into his past before his initial imprinting. And, given that Alpha smashed his wedge on his way out the first time, shouldn't Topher have taken a look at the primary and backup wedges first thing after Alpha's latest attack? Sloppy.

As for Echo herself, I don't really think that after her experiences with Alpha, she would just gladly go back to the Dollhouse and have her mind erased. Yet we weren't given any inkling into what this Super-Echo believed or thought about her situation. I never for a moment thought there was any danger for Echo from Alpha at the end and he literally runs up the stairs into the ether while Echo climbs out onto a catwalk to retrieve the wedge with her original Caroline personality on it. Was Alpha really going to kill her? Hell no. And even when he has multiple opportunities to do so, even when Echo is distracted from chasing him by the precipitous position of said wedge, he doesn't even bother to fire at her. I thought the ending--with Echo whispering the name Caroline as the pod closes on her--was completely unearned and at odds with the Super-Echo we just saw in the previous scene, given how the season as a whole seemed to point the way towards Echo's growing self-awareness. After finally achieving self-awareness, would she really throw it away to be put back into a box?

Dollhouse dealt with some intriguing concepts of identity, individuality, memory, and free will but the execution of the individual episodes often paled in comparison with the ideas that they sought to explore. I'm all for the discussion of these fascinating moral and metaphysical questions--such as whether it's right to experiment on prisoners, whether our identities are more than just electrical responses--but I couldn't shake the feeling that the questions themselves were more interesting than the answers that the series was offering and that the series itself had the haphazard feeling of a rudderless boat.

All in all, I have to say that I'm disappointed. For a series so rife with potential, it failed to achieve it on a regular basis and remained, in the end, a frustrating exercise in the push and pull of concept and execution. Whether FOX will renew Dollhouse in spite of its shortcomings (and its dwindling ratings) remains to be seen. But I'm definitely ready for the cast and crew to move on to other, hopefully less creatively uneven, endeavors.

What did you think of Dollhouse's finale and, should Friday's episode be the series' finale, of Dollhouse as a whole? Were you disappointed by the final product or did you revel in the concepts of identity, memory, and individuality that the series brought up? Discuss.

Love and Marriage: A Real Botswana Diamond on "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" Season Finale

Was it just me or was last night's season finale of HBO's superlative No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency absolutely heartbreaking and gripping television at its very best?

Last night's episode ("A Real Botswana Diamond"), written by Nicholas Wright and Robert Jones, found Precious reeling from the revelation that her ex-husband Note Mokote (played with terrifying precision by Colin Salmon) had arrived in Gaborone even as she faced a future with JLB, Grace investigating the truth behind the Kgale Hill break-ins, and Florence the Maid taking a decidedly troubled approach to her employer's engagement.

It was at turns distressing, inspirational, humorous, and thought-provoking. Throughout the first season of the lovingly crafted series, a co-production between HBO and BBC, Precious has lived in the shadow of her former husband, an abusive drunk whose beatings lead to the death of their unborn child and propelled Precious into a new life.

And yet the past always has a way of catching up to you.

In Precious' case, it's the fact that she hasn't been entirely upfront--not to her fiance JLB or us as the audience--about her relationship with Note. In fact, it turns out that there was more going on as Precious considered JLB's proposal of marriage than met the eye as Precious really shouldn't have accepted the offer as she is still married to Note Mokote.

It was an unexpected plot twist that was handled extremely well and spoke volumes about how much Precious has sought to transform herself and her life. At no point did I consider that Precious had deliberately misled or lied to her honorable and upright suitor JLB Matekoni; rather, it's clear that Precious herself has been lying to herself and had convinced herself that she was free of Note, even if the divorce papers hadn't actually been signed.

The scenes between Jill Scott's Precious and Colin Salmon's Note at her beautiful house, decked out to the nines by Precious' ambitious maid Rose to impress JLB, were fraught with peril. Given that we've seen Precious as a strong woman in control of her own destiny, it was saddening to see how she reverted to the position of a battered wife as soon as Note invaded her home and began to walk around the place as though he owned it. This is the demon she's fought for so long to free from her heart, one that prevents her from truly giving all of herself to JLB and one that she finally manages to exorcise at the end of the season.

For all of the abuse Precious has had to endure at the brutal hands of Note, she is still an intuitive and resourceful detective and she does her job with the skill of a true gumshoe, uncovering evidence that proves that Note was already married to another woman when he married her, negating any legality to their own union and preventing him from extorting money from her for a divorce. (I literally jumped with joy when Precious threw this in his face, even as I wanted her to slap Buthelezi earlier.)

Yet still, Precious also proved that there is still mercy in her heart for her former husband. Discovering that he is squandering his gifts with drugs, she sadly holds up his trumpet and tells him that, with his gift, he has more than most people. And she gives him money, not for the drugs but for the music. It's enough to get Note on stage at the Go-Go Handsome Man's Club to perform... and for Precious to walk off with JLB into the night and finally tell her fiance that she loves him.

What else did I love? The fact that it didn't matter whether Precious' engagement ring were a real diamond or a cubic zirconium in the end, especially after she read JLB's beautiful inscription ("To a real Botswana diamond"), which finally compels Precious to admit the depth of her own love for JLB. I also loved the reveal that the culprits behind the break-ins at Kgale Hill weren't vandals or teen thieves but monkeys (loved the way that Precious stood up to that nasty one and gained the strength to stand up to Note himself), that Mr. Patel gave the agency a hefty check for solving the case (and admits that Paterson Joseph's Cephas Buthelezi is the lesser detective), the fantastic and funny scene between JLB and wheelchair-bound orphan Mothleli, the return (albeit brief) of Wellington, and that Nandira Patel really did have a boyfriend named Jack after all. Hmmm...

I am extremely worried, however, about just what Florence intends to do with that illegally purchased gun, whether she intends to plant it at the agency or Precious' house and send her rival to prison... or whether she intends a more permanent solution by finishing Precious off for good. Either way, Florence's maneuvers with Philemon Leannye at the Frosty Glass Bar do not bode well and are clearly meant to set up a second season of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

A second season that I hope comes sooner rather than later. Throughout its first season run, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency has been a beautiful epitaph to the work of the much missed Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack and a testament to their creative partnership and work ethos. I'm hoping that HBO and BBC realize that a trip back to Botswana is a necessity for the many fans of this remarkable and well-crafted series and that all of us want to see just what happens to Precious, Grace, JLB, and PK.

In the meantime, I might have to make myself a cup of bush tea, cut myself a piece of cake, and think about just what a true diamond The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency really is.

Surf Boards and Memory Games: The Season Finale of "The Amazing Race"

I'm just glad the redheads didn't win.

On last night's season finale of The Amazing Race ("This Is How You Lose a Million Dollars"), the final three teams raced to the finish line in Maui, Hawaii in a final leg of the race that was at times heartbreaking, inspiring, and frustrating. (In the best possible way, of course.)

All three teams played an extremely strong game throughout this cycle of The Amazing Race and I was happy to see that one of the two teams that I was rooting for walked away a million dollars richer in the end.

I was absolutely crestfallen that Margie and Luke didn't win the million dollar prize waiting at the end of the race. Yes, I am amazed that both of them--a woman in her 50s and a deaf guy--made it as far as they did but I was really rooting for them to win the top spot. And they would have if Luke had been able to figure out which surf board represented the last leg of the race. (I think that one was harder for him as Margie, rather than he, ate the scorpions in the Beijing Roadblock challenge.)

They had such an amazing lead going into that final Roadblock and I got really, really excited that they were actually going to come in first place... but their lead was quickly squandered when Tammy and Victor arrived and then the redheads finally showed up, after having more problems with their umpteenth taxi driver. (I do have to say that it's perhaps karma for Jamie's awful behavior along the way.)

I was surprised that there wasn't a Detour on this final leg of the race and that it all really came down to one final test of memory at a Roadblock... and then a quick taxi trip to the finish line. For a season that felt so reinvigorated and exciting, it seemed a quick final episode, with the teams ending up on the same flight to Maui and then remaining fairly neck-and-neck throughout the final leg and not that many speed bumps along the way. I wished that there had been just a few more challenges standing in the way between them and the finish line.

I am happy that Tammy and Victor won and they made huge strides in their sibling relationship throughout this competition (just think back to that awful Romanian leg with Victor leading them into the wilderness) and that they walk away with a stronger relationship as well as the million dollars. For Luke and Margie, the experience they shared is worth more than a million dollars; they each proved that they are capable of doing anything and everything that life puts in their path and they should hold their heads high and walk away from this race as true winners. (And I'll admit that I got teary-eyed as they crossed the finish line and both were crying as Luke said how amazing his mother was for learning how to sign and being able to communicate with him.)

What did you think of the final leg? Were you pulling for Luke and Margie to win? Discuss.

The Amazing Race will return with a new cycle next season on CBS.

Channel Surfing: ABC Orders "Flash Forward," J.J. Abrams Teases "Fringe" Season Finale, Michael Trucco Shares "The Plan," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

In a move that surprised no one (given the on-air viral campaign), ABC has given a series order to sci-fi drama Flash Forward, based on Robert Sawyer's novel. Series, executive produced by David Goyer, Brannon Braga, Marc Guggenheim, Vince Gerardis, Jessika Goyer, and Ralph Vicinanza, will star Joseph Fiennes, Jack Davenport, Sonya Walger, Courtney B. Vance, John Cho, Zachary Knightton, Peyton List, Brian O'Byrne, and Christine Woods. Guggenheim and Goyer will serve as showrunners on the series, which is rumored to be launching this fall. (Variety)

Excited about tomorrow night's season finale of FOX's Fringe? Series co-creator J.J. Abrams promises that the season finale will feature "a really interesting shift in the fundamental paradigm of the show in a very cool way." Abrams also promises that Season Two will have less exposition upfront. "There’s nothing more crazy than having that sort of massive chuck of exposition thrown at you in the story," said Abrams. "Sometimes the desire of producers/writers/network/studio is to provide clarity ... those kind of monologues of exposition don’t help anyone ... [actor Lance Reddick] delivers them beautifully, but any actor tasked with catching people up deserves a drink at the end of the day." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

SCI FI Wire talks to Battlestar Galactica's Michael Trucco about the upcoming BSG telepic The Plan, in which he'll co-star along with Dean Stockwell and several other members from the BSG cast. "Whereas Caprica is a true prequel, 50 years before the beginning of Battlestar Galactica, The Plan is less a coda: It doesn't extend the story beyond what we saw in the finale," said Trucco. "It actually picks up the story between Season One and Season Two. It's actually prequel to the entrance of Anders, my character, and Cavil, Dean Stockwell's character. The movie is told from that perspective... it was like being in a time machine; it was amazing. It was like, we did this in Season Two, and here we are going back to that moment in time, and it was a really interesting experience. That was when I first started on the show, so, yeah, you had to kind of erase all the baggage that came with Anders through the finale and start to put myself in the space of Anders the human that I started with, this character that I thought I knew before this big reveal that he's a Cylon. I had to put myself back in that frame of mind." (SCI FI Wire)

Wondering if all of 30 Rock's product mentions in last week's episode ("Mamma Mia") were in fact product placement? Think again. According to the network, the story line was "completely organic" and the product mentions--including that of Universal feature film Mamma Mia--were part of the script and selected by the writers themselves in what amounts to a another McFlurry moment for the series. "The show had written that story line all on its own,” said NBC spokesperson Liz Fischer, “the promotion department had always planned to run a Mamma Mia spot prior to Mother’s Day." (New York Times)

Several bubble series are looking good for renewal, including ABC's Better Off Ted, which is said to be "looking good to return," while Ghost Whisperer scored a renewal at CBS, ABC is said to be high on renewing Scrubs for another season, and CBS is thought likely to bring back Cold Case next season. (Variety)

Nikki Finke takes a look at several potential series projects at CBS, indicating that the untitled NCIS spin-off and Julianna Margulies-led legal drama The Good Wife are locks for the schedule this fall. Also potentially in play are U.S. Attorney and Three Rivers and comedies Accidentally on Purpose, Happiness Isn't Everything, and Waiting to Die. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Casting roundup: Misha Collins has been bumped to regular status on next season's Supernatural, after recurring in twelve episodes this season. Eddie Kaye Thomas ('Til Death) has joined the cast of HBO's How to Make It in America, where he will star opposite Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk; he'll play a wealthy hedge fund manager who went to high school with Ben (Greenberg). And Stephen Dunham (What I Like About You) has been cast in TBS comedy The Bill Engvall Show, where he will recur as Engvall's brother Kenny, a "likable ne'er-do-well who gets by on his charm," and could become a series regular down the road. (Hollywood Reporter)

Neil Gaiman has denied rumors that inbound showrunner Steven Moffat has asked him write a script for Doctor Who's upcoming fifth season and has an update about a possible Sandman series at HBO. "The last thing that I heard was that HBO wanted to do an ongoing, great big Sandman overarching HBO TV series, which would make sense because they're part of the Time Warner empire and Sandman cannot leave Time Warner," said Gaiman. "Whether or not that will ever happen I do not know, because it would involve HBO making a deal with DC [Comics] which they may or may not be capable of doing. The truth is they are things in my life that I do not own, that I've created but do not own and do not control. What gets really frustrating is people assume that I do and they assume I'm consulted and can say yes or no to things - which of course I can't." (Digital Spy)

The Los Angeles Times' Maria Elena Fernandez takes a look at just what it means when series are said to be "on the bubble" and talks to a member of the 225-strong crew of CBS' The Unit, all of whom are awaiting their fate as CBS weighs whether or not to pick up the 20th Century Fox Television-produced series for another season. "If drama is life heightened, then Hollywood's bubble shows mirror much of America right now, where the specter of pay reductions, freezes and immediate unemployment is writ large," writes Fernandez. "In the television industry, the phenomenon is an annual rite as network executives decide which series will be ditched to make room for new projects." (Los Angeles Times)

Amid the efforts to reduce budgets on ongoing television series, many studios have cut the number of writers on staff, with more experienced writers (who earn a heftier pay check) more likely to be cut than their lower-paid counterparts. "Industry sources say studios producing skeins for Big Four nets are pushing for cuts of as much as 10%-15% in the writing budget for returning series, while new shows will start out with smaller staffs than first-year shows in recent seasons," writes Variety's Cynthia Littleton. "Where skeins once had as many as 10-12 writers, not including the showrunner(s), the new norm is becoming six to eight." Freshman drama series Southland, recently renewed for a second season, only has four writers and isn't expected to add any scribes next season. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that producers on NBC's Heroes are looking to cast a hearing-impaired actress in her twenties to play the love interest for one of the main characters in Season Four. The as-yet-unnamed character will be introduced in next season's fourth episode. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has ordered six episodes of an untitled unscripted series with Jamie Oliver and executive producer Ryan Seacrest that is said to be loosely based on Oliver's 2005 television series Jamie's School Dinners (which aired in the US as Jamie's School Lunches), in which Oliver would travel to the unhealthiest towns in America and work with locals to devise ways to improve diet habits. The series is expected to air sometime in 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast's G4 is spinning off long-running franchise The Soup into Web Soup, hosted by Chris Hardwick and launching June 7th. Series, which will air Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT, will focus on digital culture and Internet content and will be executive produced by the team behind The Soup, including executive producers K.P. Anderson, Boyd Vico, Edward Boyd, and Brad Stevens. (Variety)

Executive producers/showrunners Ed Yeager and Ric Swartzlander have departed from CBS' freshman comedy Gary Unmarried after creative differences with the network. Rumors are swirling that Ira Ungerleider and Rob Des Hotel will be promoted to to showrunners on the ABC Studios/CBS Paramount Network Television series, which would then be renewed for a second season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fox Television Studios has hired Slater/Brooksband as a casting consultant for the News Corp division, with Mary Jo Slater and Steve Brooksband providing casting services on FTVS' scripted programming, including international co-productions. (Variety)

The Los Angeles Times' Dawn C. Chmielewski and Meg James take a look at the issues facing Internet juggernaut Hulu, including cable and satellite operators who are decidedly nervous about losing control over cable programming. In response, several cable series--such as full seasons of FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and USA's Psych--have been yanked from Hulu, despite the fact that they are both produced by Hulu partner studios. The site is also said to be looking into authentication: namely that viewers would have to prove that they are cable subscribers in order to access cable programming on the site. (Los Angeles Times)

Versus has ordered weekly series Fanarchy, in which seven fans will get the chance to get on their soapboxes about current sports topics via webcam in a "frenzied back-and-forth format" that will see two contestants eliminated each episode and replaced by new fans the following week. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Link Tank: TV Blog Coalition Roundup for May 8-10

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation.

This week, I reviewed the first two episodes of Showtime's sensational new Edie Falco comedy Nurse Jackie, which launches in June, and the three episode first season of PBS' mystery series Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh.

I also took a look at the latest pilot buzz surrounding potential projects at ABC, CBS, FOX, and the CW, offered my thoughts on Bravo's post-Runway effort The Fashion Show, kept the Chuck renewal effort going with updates on the possibility for a third season, talked to Dollhouse actor Alan Tudyk,

All this and discussions on the latest episodes of ABC's Lost, CW's Gossip Girl, and Ashes to Ashes, reviews of BBC America's Apprentice UK and Gavin & Stacey: Season One on DVD, and news about FOX renewing Fringe for a second season, NBC canceling Life, and the Peacock unveiling its new series and returning offerings for next season.

Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the following items...

• Inspired by the Bones/Family Guy crossover, Buzz dreamed up some other funny TV crossovers she'd love to see — complete with goofy photoshopping! (BuzzSugar)
• When Scooter took a look at the new NBC shows, he noticed there were a lot of people behinds the scenes of them that had Friday Night Lights or Arrested Development on their resumes. Hopefully that is a good thing. (Scooter McGavin's 9th Green)
• The Tony Award nominations are out and while it's about Broadway Theatre, the show is still on TV, so Vance gives his two cents on this years picks. (Tapeworthy)
• Whether it'll stick around remains to be seen, but Marisa wants to have the (almost) final word on Dollhouse. (TiFaux)
• Eric was lucky enough to interview Cassidy Freeman just a week before the Smallville season finale. (TV Fanatic)
• This week, the TV Addict offered up his snap judgements on NBC's new fall offerings. (The TV Addict)

Dancing with the Upfronts: Rounding Up the Buzz on Pilots at ABC, FOX, CBS, and CW

The networks aren't expected to announce their schedules until the week of May 18th, but ABC got a jump on the competition yesterday by announcing that they had given an early pickup to single-camera comedy Modern Family, from writer/executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, giving the series an initial thirteen-episode commitment.

Looking extremely likely for a series order at ABC is drama Flash Forward, especially given the fact that ABC has already launched an on-air viral campaign for the series with its "What did you see?" tagline. ABC executives are slated to screen the pilot and it's a given that Flash Forward will make it on the schedule. Other slots on the schedule could go to such drama projects as Happy Town, V, Limelight, Empire State, The Unknown, or Eastwick.

On the comedy front Awesome Hank (formerly known as Untitled Kelsey Grammer) is looking positive as are Ricky Blitt's Romantically Challenged (formerly known as Single With Baggage) and Bill Lawrence's comedy Cougar Town, though I've also heard some negative buzz forming about the latter. I'm hearing from several sources that comedies Pulling, Best Thing Ever, and The Law turned out decent but not spectacularly, although ABC's redo on The Middle screened very well. It seems like there's no hope for comedies No Heroics and Canned, however.

Meanwhile, several ABC pilots have gotten some title changes, with Lauren Graham's untitled comedy pilot reverting back to Let It Go (its original moniker), the untitled Tad Quill pilot now getting retitled as Best Thing Ever, the untitled Anita Renfroe pilot will now be called Bless This Mess, and Don't Try This at Home is now entitled Married Not Dead.

Meanwhile over at CBS, looking likely for a pickup is legal drama The Good Wife, starring Julianna Margulies, Josh Charles, Christine Baranski, Matt Czuchry, and Archie Panjabi, and the untitled NCIS spin-off is a lock, whereas the jury is deadlocked on the fate of medical dramas Three Rivers and Miami Trauma.

Hot comedies at the Eye are said to include Accidentally on Purpose, Happiness Isn't Everything, and Waiting to Die.

FOX is said to be extremely high on Simon West-directed action pilot Human Target, starring Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jackie Earle Haley, which is based on a DC Comics title. Meanwhile, medical drama Maggie Hill, starring Stuart Townsend, Christina Cole, Alfre Woodard, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Luke Mably, Denis O'Hare, and Anna Rose Hopkins, and supernatural drama Past Life (formerly known as The Reincarnationist) also said to be in contention.

On the comedy side, Sons of Tucson has emerged with the biggest buzz and Brothers and Cop House are said to be in contention as well. Reaction was mixed to Mitch Hurwitz and Christine Zander's US adaptation of British series Ab Fab, which here stars Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Johnston, Zosia Mamet, and Toni Trucks. I'm also hearing that Two Dollar Beer is stone cold and there's nothing to see on The Station, Walorsky, and Firsts, none of which have shot yet.

The revival of Melrose Place is considered a lock for the CW's fall schedule, so no surprise there that the netlet will go ahead with another update of a classic soap series.

Rather surprisingly, Privileged could get a second season renewal, thus tying up some of the available real estate at the CW. The Beautiful Life, from executive producer Ashton Kutcher, is looking strong, as are Kevin Williamson-adapted supernatural drama Vampire Diaries and Light Years. One fly in the ointment, however, is that Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke is claiming that the untitled Gossip Girl spin-off, which would focus on a teenage Lily Rhodes (Brittany Snow) in the 1980s, is "now dead." Or is it? E! Online is reporting that the project is not dead. ("Nothing is dead," says E! Online's unnamed network source close to the network.)

The CW is out of the comedy game, so there were no comedy pilot orders this season and the CW is closing up shop with The Game and Everybody Hates Chris taking a bow this month.

Crime and Punishment: An Advance Review of PBS' Gripping Mystery Series "Wallander"

"A really good detective never gets married." - Raymond Chandler

Many detectives would take Chandler's edict to heart, given just how married they are to their jobs, and the bookshelves are lined with detective novels about grim gumshoes who forsake their own personal lives in pursuit of catching killers. After all, detectives are prone to seeing the worst of humanity on a daily basis, of seeing the skull beneath the skin, companions as they are of death and murder.

Enter Kurt Wallander (Kenneth Branagh), a detective in the seaside town of Ystad, Sweden who--like many others of his ilk--has his own horrific demons to battle even as he throws himself into chasing criminals with intense abandon. And while we've all seen stories of flawed detectives a zillion times, PBS' Wallander, a co-production between WGBH and BBC which kicks off on Sunday night as part of Masterpiece Mystery, offers a tautly gripping and suspenseful roller coaster ride through the dark heartland of both coastal Sweden and the recesses of Kurt Wallander himself.

Based on a series of best-selling novels by Henning Mankell and adapted by Richard Cottan and Richard McBrien, Wallander is relentlessly bleak, offering some of the most shockingly gruesome crimes ever seen on the small screen. And yet, with Branagh casting his spell as the dogged and damaged detective, it's impossible to look away. So completely does Branagh sink into the role of the emotionally armoured Kurt Wallander that it's impossible to recognize the actor from his previous roles. Exhausted, rumpled, and driven, Wallander might be inherently flawed but you'd want him on the case if anything awful happened to you.

I had the opportunity to watch the three episodes--"Sidetracked," "Firewall," and "One Step Behind,"--that comprise Wallander's first season a few weeks back and I was completely sucked into the dark and twisted world that Kurt Wallander inhabits. These are gritty mysteries that are as far removed from the drawing room crimes of Agatha Christie as much as Ystad is as distant to the English countryside. There's an intoxicating hardness to these cases, which revolve around a serial killer who scalps his victims, a young woman who sets herself on fire in front of Wallander's eyes, two teenage girls who calmly murder a taxi driver, a vast network of conspirators, and a killer who who stalks and murders people engaging in secret rites.

Adding to the grittiness of the mysteries is the fact that the three episodes were filmed on location in Sweden, which gives the piece a verisimilitude that can't possibly be achieved by filming in a studio. Everything--from the stark landscape to the chill in the air--casts an aura of iciness over Wallander and this effect is heightened by the use of blue filters on the film. The three episodes of Wallander, directed by Philip Martin and Niall MacCormick, contain some of the most beautiful imagery seen on the small screen. Each installment is breathtakingly gorgeous and the beauty of the direction and cinematography are at sharp contrast with the darkness of the cases that Wallander tackles.

As I mentioned before, Branagh is sensational and perfectly cast as Kurt Wallander. When we first meet Wallander, he's just separated from his wife and has once again thrown himself into his work, his health (and one might argue, his sanity) are suffering, and he finds himself being controlled by his well-meaning daughter Linda (Jeany Spark) as he deals with his artist father (David Warner), who is succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. Suffice it to say, Wallander feels pulled in an infinite number of directions at once. But Wallander's true issue is that he gets so emotionally invested in his cases--he cares too much for the murdered--that he's dead inside when he comes to his own life. Surrounded by death, Wallander can't remember how to truly live.

The rest of Wallander's cast is equally top-notch. Special attention has to be given to Kurt Wallander's colleagues, played with aplomb by Tom Hiddleston (Suburban Shootout), Tom Beard (Silent Witness), Sadie Shimmin (The Bill), Richard McCabe (Einstein and Eddington), and Sarah Smart (Casualty 1907), as well as the aforementioned Jeany Spark (Tess of the d'Urbervilles) as the sunny Linda Wallander, who carries her own kernel of darkness in her heart. Guest stars include Skins' Nicholas Hoult, Secret Diary of a Call Girl's Ashley Madekwe, Conviction's David Warner, and Mistresses' Orla Brady.

Ultimately, Wallander is a perfect synthesis of its parts and is wholly different from the usual offerings of Hercule Poirot or Miss Maple, offering audiences a series of gripping and brutally original mysteries, each with a dark undercurrent of dread from which it is impossible to escape.



Wallander's three-episode season will air Sundays, May 10th, 17th, and 24th at 9 pm as part of Masterpiece Mystery on PBS. Check your local listings for details.

Designer Knockoff: Bravo's "The Fashion Show"

I was curious to see just what Bravo would do to hold onto its fashion-focused audience now that it had lost its protracted legal battle with Lifetime over its brand-defining reality hit series Project Runway.

Last night, Bravo attempted to recreate its own success by offering what can only be described as a designer knockoff of the venerable Runway label: the generically titled The Fashion Show, which features hosts Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland and fifteen professional designers vying for a cash prize of $150,000 and the chance to sell their designs... on Bravotv.com.

And while it might sound in theory very similar to Project Runway, there's a lot to be said about Runway's own skin tight format, the wise and knowing presence of mentor Tim Gunn, and the troika of cutting judges Michael Kors, Heidi Klum, and Nina Garcia. In fact, watching The Fashion Show reminds you that there's more to a piece of clothing than just the cloth; it's how it's cut and shaped by the hands of a master craftsman.

There are some minor changes to the tried-and-true Runway formula at play here. In addition to an elimination challenge (last night's episode had the designers split into teams and create five different looks based around a single must-have item), the designers now have to face a mini-challenge at the episode's start, rather like Top Chef's Quickfire Challenge. In last night's episode, this meant the designers had an hour to transform a simple black t-shirt into a little black dress with varied levels of success. The three winners then gained the ability to choose their teams for the elimination challenge based around their thoughts on the finished garments. And, oh, did I mention that the runway show--the basis of the elimination challenge--now features a triangular catwalk, a gathering of the fashion elite, and an audience vote to determine the top and low scores? Snooze...

The casting for The Fashion Show features an array of kooks and visionaries, eccentrics and the fatally ambitious. There's an overemphasis so far on "big" personalities, such as the over the top Merlin, who turns up in head-to-toe red with a gigantic feather sticking out of his hat, Johnny Depp-wannabe Keith, uppity and pink-streaked 23-year-old Kristin, and former stripper designer Reco. The intent seems to be to make the audience gawk at just how "quirky" these designers are and how larger-than-life their egos really are. As a result, it's hard to connect with any of them, much less root for their advancement in this competition.

What seems to be missing, really, is heart, something that Project Runway always had in abundance, as well as the series' trademark slick editing and packaging. As it is, The Fashion Show feels like a bit of a sub-par clone, moaning on about Tresemme sponsorship even as it feels like a cheap knockoff of Runway.

Not helping matter is that Mizrahi is no Tim Gunn (and Rowland is no Heidi Klum for that matter) and this is felt from his first entry into the studio during the elimination challenge. Whereas Gunn would have asked questions, made suggestions, and told designers to "make it work," Mizrahi is mostly silent, giving the designers little to work with, and there's no feeling of mentorship or support that Gunn offered to Runway's contestants.

I can understand why Bravo would seek to recapture some of the magic of Project Runway but I don't feel that The Fashion Show contains quite the right level of smart, heart, and skill to--let's all say it now--make it work.

The Fashion Show airs Thursday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT on Bravo.

Channel Surfing: McG "Optimistic" About "Chuck" Renewal, ABC Settles Down with "Modern Family," FOX to Air Two-Hour "Virtuality" Pilot, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

While the fate of NBC's on the bubble action comedy series Chuck is still unknown, executive producer McG--who helmed the pilot episode--is feeling positive about an eleventh hour renewal. "We're optimistic," he told SCI FI Wire. "We're going to find out in a week. But the fans have spoken. People really rallied and articulated their love of the show, but it's a cold-hearted numbers business. And I'm happy to report that the people at NBC like the show." (SCI FI Wire)

ABC has given an early series order of thirteen episodes to single-camera comedy Modern Family, from writer/executive producers Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan. The 20th Century Fox Television-producted project, formerly known as My American Family, will track the lives of three American families--one a traditional nuclear family, one a gay couple with an adopted Vietnamese baby, and the last an older man with a young Latina wife--as they are filmed by a Dutch documentary crew. Series stars Ed O'Neil, Ty Burrell, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sarah Hyland, Nolan Gould, and Ariel Winter. (Variety)

FOX has announced that it will air the two-hour pilot of Virtuality, created by Michael Taylor and Ronald D. Moore, on Saturday, July 4th at 8 pm ET/PT. Virtuality, which stars Clea DuVall, Erik Jensen, Gene Farber, James D'Arcy, Jimmi Simpson, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Joy Bryant, Kerry Bishe, Nelson Lee, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Omar Metwally, Richie Coster, and Sienna Guillory, follows the crew of starship Phaeton on a ten-year journey on which the crew uses virtual reality modules to escape their mundane existence but a virus infects the system and unleashes a virtual killer into the mix. (Futon Critic)

Nikki Finke is reporting that the Gossip Girl spin-off series focusing on the 1980s adventures of a then teenage Lily Rhodes is now dead at CW. The potential series, which would have starred Brittany Snow and Krysten Ritter, will get a backdoor pilot this Monday as Lily flashes back to her teenage years in 1980s California. However, Finke says "Even though I heard Peter Roth loved its yesteryear vibe, the show went from hot, to lukewarm, to 'fading but wouldn't count out,' to now dead, according to my insiders. I'm really surprised." (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

ABC has pulled comedy Surviving Suburbia off of the schedule for the remainder of the season. Scheduling change goes into effect immediately and will see Dancing with the Stars return to a two-hour format. (Variety)

Could Guitar Hero be coming to television? Video game producer Activision Blizzard is said to be looking into developing its array of video games into television or film projects. Guitar Hero is said to be a likely target for a reality television series and/or concert tour, while World of Warcraft and Call of Duty are being looked at for feature film development. (Hollywood Reporter)

VH1 has ordered a second season of reality series Tough Love, with new episodes slated to air towards the end of 2009. (Variety)

BBC Two has ordered six episodes of comedy series Roger And Val Have Just Got In, starring Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley, French & Saunders). Series, written by Emma and Beth Kilcoyne, will follow the lives of a middle-aged couple after they arrive home after a long day of work. Casting for the male lead is under way. "Roger And Val leapt off the page at me the very first time I saw it," said BBC Head of Comedy Mark Freeland. "There will be nothing like it when it arrives on BBC Two. It's original, intriguing, sweet, funny and full of pathos. And it's only got two people in it." (BBC)

Hulu has acquired online rights to such British series as Green Wing, Doc Martin, Peep Show, and Kingdom. All four titles are already available for streaming viewing on the site, which is offering all episodes from each of the series' freshman seasons. (Twitter)

ABC has ordered a pilot for an untitled talk show to feature host Aisha Tyler which will incorporate elements of social networking, including Tyler interacting with viewers via Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. While there were rumors swirling that the Tyler talk show, from ABC Media Prods., would take the place of one of ABC's afternoon soaps, sources at the network were quick to clarify, stating that the potential series was being developed for cable or syndication. (Hollywood Reporter)

ITV Global Entertainment has acquired worldwide television and home video distribution rights to multi-platform series Project Chopin, which follows the adventures of two children who discover a magical piano that can fly. Deal encompasses a film, a television docudrama, and 24 two-minute animated shorts, along with online and mobile content. (Variety)

Former RDF executive Martin Rakusen has been hired by ShineReveille International, where he will oversee their day-to-day operations and explore new joint ventures and partnerships. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Truth and Consequences: Subs and Subterfuge on "Lost"

Dead men do walk, apparently. At least on the island.

This week's episode of Lost ("Follow the Leader"), written by Paul Zbyszewski and Elizabeth Sarnoff, placed the storyline's focus on the seemingly resurrected John Locke as he connected with Richard Alpert and set off on a mission that underpinned his new purpose in life and on the splintered group of time-tossed castaways who contended with interrogation back in the Dharma camp and formed an alliance with the hostiles in order to detonate the hydrogen bomb.

With less than a week to go before the two-hour season finale, I was hoping for some more earth-shattering twists than we received in last night's episode, but I will say that it did a good job at setting up what promises to be a mind-blowing showdown between the castaways and (perhaps) the fabric of time and space itself and moving the various factions (of which there are many this season) into place for the final act of the season.

Those of us hoping that last night's episode would be a Richard-centric one are sore out of luck, but I really didn't think that Team Darlton will tip their hand about the so-called "adviser" to the Others before the final season but the writers did offer an installment that focused on the will of the leader, exploring the role that Locke, Ben, Horace, and Jack have over their followers.

So what did I think of last night's episode? Put on your Dharma jumpsuit, handcuff yourself to the bridge of the sub, take a deep breath, and let's discuss "Follow the Leader."

John Locke. I have to begin this week's discussion by talking about the new and improved John Locke. He's no longer content to be a mindless follower but is taking the reins of leadership with both hands now. Hell, he even brings his people a boar, a symbolic gesture of breaking bread and, well, providing that bread for them. He proves that he is reestablishing his rightful place as their leader and is just as much a master of the jungle as they are. I'm a bit worried about the almost Machiavellian way in which he seems to be moving the pawns into place, however; he blatantly lies to Sun about why they are going to see Jacob and he doesn't even seem all that worried about what is happening in 1977 to the castaways or whether he and Sun will ever really see them again. Locke is upfront about the fact that he has a purpose and has been once more communing with the island itself. (I think we can assume this is what he was doing when Ben went to summon the smoke monster.)

So what is his purpose? I assumed at first that he wanted to unmask Jacob and prove to the hostiles that there is no unseen leader issuing commands from afar (even though Locke himself heard and saw him) but then Locke shocked even this jaded television viewer by announcing to Ben--of all people--that he intends to kill Jacob. I think we can look at this proclamation in two ways. One is that, yes, he intends to kill Jacob in order to take his place; Locke doesn't intend to take orders from anyone, least of all some enigmatic man in a cabin whose will is invoked every time a leader wants to do something unpopular or unethical. The other is that Locke is fulfilling Jacob's plea for help: that by killing him he can release Jacob from his unnatural prison. But if Locke is following the will of the island, why would the island want him to kill Jacob?

Jacob. Which brings me to Jacob then. Just who is he? What does he want? And is actually he working at cross-purposes to the island itself? Why has he seemingly accepted Christian Shepherd into his confidence when he hasn't even appeared to Ben? And is there a deeper connection between the two of them than just the fact that they seem to inhabit the same cabin? Is Christian an avatar for Jacob? Curious...

Richard Alpert. As I thought, Richard's role is to act as an adviser to the leader of the Others, a role that he has fulfilled for quite a long time. As Juliet told us earlier this season, Richard is always here. So is he a human with longevity or is there more to Mr. Alpert than meets the eye? I loved the scene where Locke instructs him to remove the bullet from himself, bringing his journey through time with Richard full circle and giving us a new perspective on that scene at the beechcraft (as well as cementing just when that scene occurred). And yet Richard is suspicious of Locke as well. He clearly did not want to take Locke to see Jacob right then and is ill-at-ease with the notion of Locke bringing the entire camp to see Jacob... or the lack thereof.

Jughead. I'm still not sure what Jack is playing at. Yes, he believes that detonating the hydrogen bomb will solve all of their problems; by annihilating the island, he believes that he will ensure that Oceanic Flight 815 will never crash and will land in Los Angeles as planned. But it's not as simple as that... we know that the bomb never went off because the island is still there in the future. So if Jack does actually succeed in blowing the island to kingdom come, he will in fact be creating a divergent timeline where he and the other passengers on Oceanic Flight 815 never arrived on the island... but it wouldn't in theory change his own timeline at all. Because the Jack in 1977 is the sum totality of all of his experiences on the island. He wouldn't be in 1977 at all had he not crashed in the first place. I don't think that they can alter the future at all and that Jack is dead wrong.

And how did Eloise and the other hostiles manage to get Jughead down into the tunnels beneath the island? I love the fact that Jughead is now actually right under the Barracks, build unknowingly right on top of the ancient tunnels that belong to the Others. (It explains why there was a secret panel in Ben's house that lead right into the tunnels themselves.) Could they have summoned the smoke monster and had it move the bomb? Otherwise, I'm not sure how they were able to get the massive hydrogen bomb underwater, through some narrow passageways and up into the tunnels without, you know, detonating it.

Jack. Throughout the series, Jack has been a compelling and complex character but his behavior in recent weeks have left a bad taste in my mouth. I get that the man of science has made a huge leap of faith and begun to believe in the unknowable and mysterious quality of miracles rather than the cold logic of science. And, honestly, being dropped into 1977 and seeing the things he had might make me do the same but Jack has become so unlikable this season and so hellbent on doing the wrong thing nearly every time (not saving Ben12, blowing up the island) that I am now questioning his very sanity, just as he questioned Locke's. How is obliterating the island (with them on it, I might add) a Good Thing? In what universe could this be a positive development? And why would headstrong and resolute Eloise Hawking and Richard Alpert follow Jack's inane plan and detonate the bomb and wipe themselves out? If anything, Jack's demented plan to "fix" things will result in the very Incident he's seeking to avoid: a rip in the fabric of space and time itself, one that propels the island outside the bounds of physical reality and reestablishes the castaways' place in the timeline.

Hurley and Miles. I absolutely roared with laughter when Pierre Chang began to question Hurley about what year it was, asking him the very questions that Hurley was terrified someone would ask him upon arrival in 1977. And sure enough, Hurley hasn't done a very good job at creating a cover story for his new role in the Dharma Initiative, unaware that Jimmy Carter is POTUS, that the Korean War has already happened, and that he's not 46 years old. And sure enough Chang has his own role to play here, convincing the women and children--including a young Charlotte Staples Lewis and Miles--to leave the island with the sub. Which is a Good Thing as we knew that this moment had to come to pass. Charlotte and Miles aren't on the island when The Incident occurs so they had to leave and Chang fulfills his mission by being the one to get them to leave. It was blatantly obvious for weeks now that Chang's viciousness towards his wife is a ruse to get them to leave. (Duh, Miles.) Chang was clearly willing to do whatever it took (even if it meant his family hating him for the rest of their lives) to get them off the island. Which means that things are continuing to unfold as they were meant to, as they always had. (However, it now appears that that Comic-Con 2008 video with Chang and Faraday is now considered non-canon, given the fact that Faraday is dead.)

Radzinsky and Horace. Am I alone in wanting to punch Radzinsky in his face? The most irritating and shrill character on Lost to date, Radzinsky now usurps control of the Dharma folk from Horace at the most critical time the island has ever seen and refuses to let Chang stop drilling at the site of the Swan Station, despite Chang's warnings that it will unleash a destructive energy. Radzinsky is so focused on his own agenda that he's blindly willing to disregard Chang's warnings of disaster. So does he pay for it by pressing the button for the next dozen years or so? It would seem that way.

I'm still not sure which Dharma folk stick around after The Incident or what happens to them between this moment and The Purge, though we do know that Horace is still in charge at that point and has built Jacob's cabin between 1977 and 1992, when The Purge occurs. It's clear that Ben has to return to Dharma at some point after his time with the hostiles but just what happens to Amy and Ethan post-Incident? Hmmm. Why weren't they on the sub that was leaving?

Sawyer and Juliet. It was interesting to see that Sawyer would give up the location of the hostiles in order to secure a place for himself and Juliet on the sub... and that his greatest want right now is to share a life with Juliet and hold on to the time they've spent together. Hell, he's even cracking jokes about buying Microsoft when they get on the submarine and he hatches a plan where they ditch the Dharma Initiative members once they get to the mainland and live out the life of which they've been dreaming. Of course, things never go the way they are meant to and Kate joins them handcuffed to the bridge. The look of sheer annoyance, anger, and frustration that cascade over Juliet's face is a silent monologue of frustration. Given the scenes for next week, I'm still not entirely sure how the trio gets back to the island after the sub goes underwater (how awful was that special effect?) but get back they do: it looks like there's no Microsoft for Sawyer in the foreseeable future, after all.

What did you think of this week's episode? Were you let down by the lack of real movement in the storyline? Will Jack and the others successfully detonate Jughead? How does this all correspond to what's happening in the present day with Ilana and Bram? Just what is The Incident? Discuss.

Next week on the two-hour season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), Jack's decision to detonate the hydrogen bomb is met with resistance from those close to him; Locke assigns Ben a difficult task.

Channel Surfing: J.J. Abrams Compares "Lost" to Dickens, Emily Deschanel Dishes on "Bones" Action, "Cold Case" Unearths Ratings Surge, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams tells The Guardian that the writing staff on the ABC series, which airs its fifth season finale next week, approach the series a bit like Charles Dickens approached his own serialized storytelling. "It's a leap of faith doing any serialized storytelling," said Abrams in a new interview. "We had an idea early on, but certain things we thought would work well didn't. We couldn't have told you which characters would be in which seasons. We couldn't tell you who would even survive. You feel that electricity. It's almost like live TV. We don't quite know what might happen. I'm sure when Charles Dickens was writing, he had a sense of where he was going - but he would make adjustments as he went along. You jump into it, knowing there's something great out there to find." (Guardian)

(SPOILER) Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks with Bones star Emily Deschanel about next week's Brennan and Booth-based plot twist on netx week's episode of the FOX drama. "It definitely changes the dynamic between the characters," said Deschanel of the hook-up between Booth and Brennan. "But it's done in a very clever way. [Series creator] Hart Hanson wrote the episode in a way that gets these two characters together -- which a lot of the audience was waiting for -- but doesn't dissipate the sexual tension between them and, therefore, ruin the show... Let's just say there's definitely a twist. It's not a dream, but there are twists. And there are [other] twists at the end of the episode that will be shocking as well. [...] It's not a matter of life or death, but it's kind of huge. There's a cliffhanger and it has to do with Booth and Brennan's relationship. It puts their relationship in jeopardy." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Things are looking up for CBS' Cold Case, currently on the bubble for a renewal for next season. Sunday night's episode showed a 38 percent uptick in the ratings with 12.9 million viewers overall, the series' best performance in six weeks. No decision has yet been made about Cold Case's ultimate fate but the ratings surge does point strongly in its favor and rumors are swirling that the crime procedural will get another shot next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Adult Swim has given a nine-episode order to stop-motion animated comedy Titan Maximum from executive producers Tom Root, Matthew Seinreich, and Seth Green, creators of the network's Robot Chicken. Titan Maximum, which will feature the voices of Green, Breckin Meyer, Rachael Leigh Cook, Dan Milano, and Eden Espinosa, will parody 1980s Japanese animated series such as Voltron as it follows a group of fighter pilots whose spaceships combine to form a gigantic robot named... Titan Maximum. Additionally, "because of budget cuts, the team has been disbanded but must hastily reassemble when a former team member turns rogue and tries to conquer the solar system." The writing staff is said to include comic book writers Geoff Johns and Zeb Wells. (Hollywood Reporter)

Dominic West (The Wire) will star opposite Joe Armstrong (Robin Hood), Denis Lawson (Jekyll), and John Sessions (Oliver Twist) in BBC Four drama Breaking the Mould, which recounts the true story of Professor Howard Florey who, along with his team of researchers at Oxford University, were behind the discovery of penicillin during WWII. (BBC)

Kiefer Sutherland's latest brush with the law could find him in violation of his parole... and delay production on Day Eight of FOX's 24, set to begin filming at the end of the month. The latest charges stem from an altercation on Monday evening in which Sutherland allegely head-butted a fashion designer while Sutherland was talking with actress Brooke Shields at an event. Whether Sutherland was intoxicated at the time of the altercation may effect any parole violation discussions and could land the actor back in jail or performing community service. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Nicktoons has ordered 26 additional episodes of animated series Wolverine and the X-Men from Marvel Animation, bringing the series' episodic total to 52 installments. New episodes of the series will kick off on Nicktoons on May 22nd. (Hollywood Reporter)

Tribune Broadcasting stations have purchased off-network syndication rights to HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage from HBO and will begin airing episodes of both series in fall 2010, when it will be able to broadcast repeats between 4:30 pm and 12:30 am Monday to Friday, along with one weekend slot. Content will be edited for language and content. (Variety)

TNT has confirmed earlier reports about its summer lineup, with Mondays playing host to The Closer and Raising the Bar beginning June 8th, Tuesdays the home of Wedding Day, Hawthorne, and Saving Grace beginning June 16th, and Wednesdays the berth for Leverage and Dark Blue starting July 15th. (via press release)

Lauren Holly and Rob Lowe will star in Lifetime Movie Network telepic Too Late to Say Goodbye, based on Ann Rule's novel about a woman who discovers her husband's infidelity and has an affair with a man she meets online and then turns up dead, the victim of an apparent suicide. Holly will play the woman's sister, who believes that she was murdered and that her husband (Lowe) is the prime suspect. (Hollywood Reporter)

Zoo Prods. is developing an untitled docusoap based on the live of Larry Ramos Gomez, a 31-year-old man who suffers from "wolfman syndrome" (hypertrichosis) as he looks for love. Executive producers Amy Rosenblum, Barry Poznick, and Charles Steenveld will pitch the project to networks next week. (Variety)

Stay tuned.