The Daily Beast: "The Lonely Life of Survivors"

Looking for more information about BBC America's post-apocalyptic drama series Survivors?

Head over to The Daily Beast to read my latest piece, entitled, "The Lonely Life of Survivors," which is an interview with writer/executive producer Adrian Hodges in which we discuss the differences between Survivors and Terry Nation's original 1970s drama series, H1N1 fears, hope versus hopelessness, the human condition, and much more.

Survivors premieres tonight at 8 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

The Human Condition: BBC America Acquires Two More Seasons of "Being Human"

Cabler BBC America today announced that it had concluded a deal to acquire the second and third seasons of British supernatural drama Being Human.

Series regulars Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner all return in their respective roles as werewolf George, ghost Annie, and vampire Mitchell. Season Two of Being Human is set to air on BBC America in late summer, with Season Three to follow "shortly" thereafter. (Season Two of Being Human is set to wrap its run on BBC Three in the UK at the end of February.)

Looking for details about Season Two of Being Human? Here's what BBC America had to say about the upcoming season:

"After the death of vampire leader Herrick at the end of season one, the supernatural friends are hoping they can now get on with their lives, but an even greater danger is lurking, within the very human world of which they want to be a part.

Werewolf George is coming to terms with the fact that he has Herrick's blood on his hands, and a girlfriend who knows his horrific secret. Meanwhile, turning down the door of death has implications for ghost Annie, but her confidence is at a peak and she’s determined to stand up and be counted in the real world. And, with Herrick gone, Mitchell must appease the vampire world - can he find a way to lead by example?"



The full press release from BBC America can be found below.

BBC AMERICA ACQUIRES NEW SEASONS OF BEING HUMAN
- Hit sci-fi show back for two U.S. premiere seasons -

BBC AMERICA today announced the acquisition of two new U.S. premiere seasons of the BBC AMERICA co-production, Being Human. The show’s highly anticipated second season will premiere in late summer with the third season following shortly.

· Being Human (S1, 6 x 60 and S2, 6 x 60) is a Touchpaper Television and BBC AMERICA co-production for the BBC and is distributed by RDF Rights, part of the RDF Media Group.

Being Human premiered on the channel in July 2009 and quickly won over fans, with a sold out crowd at last year’s San Diego Comic Con. The Los Angeles Times said it “has not only avoided any sci-fi Three’s Company comparisons but wound up with a compelling, self-aware and funny story line. Buffy fans – come out of the Twilight and sink your teeth into this import” with The New York Times noting that “all three characters are highly appealing, but the charm of the show lies in the delicate balance of engrossing drama and disarming humor; the series is not campy or self-conscious, it’s witty in an offhand, understated way.”

Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner return as George, Annie and Mitchell, the three twenty-somethings trying to live as normally as possible despite being a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. After the death of vampire leader Herrick at the end of season one, the supernatural friends are hoping they can now get on with their lives, but an even greater danger is lurking, within the very human world of which they want to be a part.

Werewolf George is coming to terms with the fact that he has Herrick's blood on his hands, and a girlfriend who knows his horrific secret. Meanwhile, turning down the door of death has implications for ghost Annie, but her confidence is at a peak and she’s determined to stand up and be counted in the real world. And, with Herrick gone, Mitchell must appease the vampire world - can he find a way to lead by example?

The entire first season of Being Human is currently available on iTunes and Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Los Angeles Times: "The Amazing Race 16: Five Reasons to Tune In"

Staying in on Valentine's Day? Or just looking to set up your recordings for the weekend now?

Over at the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker, I offer you five reasons why you should tune into the newest cycle of CBS' The Amazing Race, in a piece that's not-so-cleverly entitled "Five Reasons to Tune In."

And head to comments section to offer your thoughts on the contestants (including the map-challenged former Miss Teen South Carolina) and what you're hoping to see this season on The Amazing Race.

The Amazing Race 16 launches on Sunday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on CBS.

Channel Surfing: Kate Winslet is HBO's "Mildred Pierce," Series on the Bubble, Marsha Thomason Returns to "White Collar," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

HBO has officially announced that Academy Award winner Kate Winslet (The Reader) has come aboard the pay cabler's five-hour miniseries Mildred Pierce. Based on the novel by James M. Cain (which was the basis for the 1945 melodrama starring Joan Crawford and Eve Arden), Mildred Pierce will star Winslet as the titular character, a self-made millionaire who struggles to earn her daughter's love. Project will be directed by Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), who will write the script with Jon Raymond. Production on the five-hour miniseries, to be executive produced by Haynes, Christine Vachon, and John Wells, is set to being in New York in April. (Variety)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian breaks down the current crop of series that are said to be on the bubble for renewal next season, including Chuck, Fringe, V, FlashForward, and Community and names the five series he feels are worth saving. "Being on the bubble is incredibly stressful," Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz told Adalian. "You are living and dying every week. Those moments before the ratings load onto your iPhone your hands are clammy, your vision blurry, your stomach doing flips. And then, since you're on the bubble, inevitably the rating is exactly low enough to guarantee you remain on the bubble, yet not so low as to ensure you are canceled. So that feeling persists for the entire week until the next ratings come in. Rinse and repeat." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd also offers a look at this season's endangered series and ranks their shots at coming back in the fall. For example: V has a 60 percent shot at returning, while FlashForward gets a 40 percent chance... and Melrose Place gets a five percent chance of another go-around. Ouch. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Marsha Thomason (Lost) will be returning for Season Two of USA's White Collar as a series regular. Thomason had appeared in the pilot episode as junior FBI Agent Diana Lancing. She's set to turn up first in the season finale on March 9th and then will return as a full-fledged cast regular for Season Two. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

CBS has ordered a pilot presentation for an untitled comedy from executive producers Larry Charles and Ant Hines (Borat). Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Tantamount, will star Paul Kaye as a father who reenters the life of his estranged daughter, who is now famous. Hines, who wrote the pilot script, will executive produce with Charles, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, and Mitch Hurwitz. (Variety)

Pilot casting update: Jimmy Wolk (Solving Charlie) has been cast as the lead in FOX drama pilot Midland, where he will play a polygamist living a double life in the oil industry; Laz Alonso (Avatar) will star FOX drama pilot Breakout Kings, about a team of ex-cons and federal agents who track down escaped felons; Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) has joined the cast of NBC's drama pilot Chase, Kathryn Hahn (Crossing Jordan) has been added to FOX comedy pilot Most Likely to Succeed, Erinn Hayes (Worst Week) will star in NBC comedy pilot This Little Piggy, Utkarsh Ambudkar has joined the cast of FOX comedy pilot Nevermind Nirvana; and Damon Wayans Jr. boarded ABC comedy pilot Happy Endings. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Heidi Klum and Paulina Porizvoka will guest star on ABC's Desperate Housewives this season and will be playing themselves in an episode slated to air in May. "In the episode Gaby (Eva Longoria Parker), who is a former model, and Angie (Drea de Matteo) run into the Project Runway host and former America's Next Top Model judge in New York City," writes Dos Santos. "The storyline will take place in NYC, but the episode will be shot here in Los Angeles." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe) are said to be developing a new animated Transformers series for The Hub, the new joint venture channel owned by Hasbro and Discovery Communications. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Kathy Najimy has been cast to guest star on ABC's Ugly Betty, where she will play the orthodontist removing Betty's braces. "Najimy will also play a pivotal role in the episode’s It’s a Wonderful Life-esque fantasy subplot," writes Ausiello. "Per an Ugly insider, her character will serve as the guardian angel who shows Betty what life would have been like had she been blessed with perfect choppers." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TLC has ordered six episodes of reality series Cupcake Sisters, which will follow two sisters and business partners who run a cupcake shop in Georgetown. Project, from Big Fish Entertainment, will launch in July. (Variety)

Former MTV executive Maira Suro has been hired by Universal Cable Prods. as SVP, development and current programming. The division has also promoted Christina Sanagustin to SVP, development and current programming, Tom Lieber to director of current and development, and Korin Huggins to current and development manager. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

The End of the World: An Advance Review of BBC America's "Survivors"

"There are so few of us left, every new person feels like a gift." - Abby Grant

BBC America's gripping and provocative drama series Survivors recounts the aftermath of a viral outbreak that wipes out 99 percent of the world's population. It's a nightmarish scenario that places these characters under the most gruesome of circumstances as they struggle to not only contain their grief and anger but also look for some way to survive.

Based on Terry Nation's novel and adapted by Adrian Hodges (Primeval), Survivors is gritty sci-fi at its most painful and realistic. The opening installment's first 45 minutes might be some of the most brutal and emotionally raw sequences ever to air on television as the virus spreads at an alarming rate and kills just about everyone. There's a palpable sense of loss and fragility as England comes tumbling down, but there's also a sense of hope emerging from the ashes as well.

For a group of strangers who band together into a makeshift community, it's as though they've taken Jack Shephard's message to heart: "We either live together or we die alone." What survives the global viral outbreak isn't so much old ways of thinking but rather the human spirit itself: unbreakable, adaptive, and wholly resilient.

Offering a cross-section of modern British society, the band of strangers is comprised of young and old, men and women, doctors and criminals, a wide swath of races and creeds represented. As this group struggles to stay together and create something new out of the destruction of everything they've known, there is a feeling that's rather similar to the early days of Lost: a group of ordinary people linked together by an extraordinary event that will forever define their lives.

For Abby Grant (Julie Graham), she's lost her husband but is clinging to the hope that her son Peter may have survived the outbreak and is out there somewhere. Greg Preston (Paterson Joseph) is in search of solitude but finds himself caught up in Abby's quest for unity. Tom Price (Max Beesley) is a brutal and charismatic killer who escapes prison and conceals his identity. Al Sadiq (Phillip Rhys) is a playboy millionaire who has never had to fend for himself but his wealth matters little in the world post-virus. Anya Raczynski (Zoe Tapper) is a young doctor who finds herself unable to stop the death around her and is haunted by her failure. Young Muslim Najid (Chahak Patel) continues to see the potential for good around him, despite having lost his entire family. Together, they carve out a new place for themselves in an increasingly uncertain world, one that is beset by lawlessness and anarchy. Their separate stories become inexorbly intertwined.

But Survivors isn't just about their daily struggles to forage for food and water, nor about their attempts to recreate the world. There's an intriguing serialized element, an overarching mythology, that becomes apparent by the end of the first installment. I won't say too much about it, lest I spoil the surprise but I will say that there are far more questions raised at the end of the first episode than were immediately apparent and a nice twist frames the series in a very different way.

The cast is top-notch and the action starts off slow and soon builds to a fever pitch by the time the first season (six episodes) ends, becoming over the course of just a few episodes must-see television that is compelling and addictive.

Ultimately, Survivors offers a fresh take on the post-apocalyptic sci-fi subgenre, offering a vision of a future that is all too real and possible. But it also finds hope among the hopelessness, reminding each of us to count our blessings each and every day.



Survivors launches Saturday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Channel Surfing: Alex O'Loughlin Heads to "Hawaii Five-O," New Showrunners for "FlashForward," Molly Shannon Finds "Glee," "FNL" to End, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

It's official: former Moonlight star Alex O'Loughlin, last seen in CBS' short-lived medical drama Three Rivers, has signed on to play Detective Steve McGarrett in CBS' remake of cop drama Hawaii Five-O, ending weeks of speculation. This is the third go-around for CBS and O'Loughlin, who will star opposite Lost's Daniel Dae Kim in the project, overseen by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Peter Lenkov. (The Wrap)

It might be a case of third time's the charm for ABC as well. The network announced a new set of showrunners for struggling freshman drama FlashForward, which had its episodic order cut down to 22 episodes. (At one time, the series was meant to air 25 episodes this season.) Co-creator Jessika Borsiczky, Lisa Zwerling (ER), and Tim Lea (Past Life) have replaced David S. Goyer as showrunners on the ABC Studios-produced series. (Goyer himself replaced Marc Guggenheim at the reins last October.) (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former SNL star Molly Shannon (she of the short-lived NBC comedy Kath & Kim) is joining the cast of FOX's Glee in a recurring capacity. Shannon, whose first episode is slated to air in May, will play Brenda Castle, described as "the busty 45-year-old new astronomy teacher and badminton coach at McKinley High School who is both an alcoholic and a pill-popper," and who becomes the nemesis of Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Ausiello is also reporting that the fifth season of Friday Night Lights will be the series' last, citing multiple sources. "Although an NBC rep insists no official decision on FNL’s future has been made," writes Ausiello, "I’m told the network has informed the show’s cast that they’re free to pursue other work after production on season 5 wraps in June." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

David Krumholtz (NUMB3RS) has landed the lead role in FOX's untitled IRS comedy from executive producer Ron Howard, writer Brent Forrester, Imagine Television, and 20th Century Fox Television. Krumholtz will play "an IRS agent who attempts to find nobility in his work." (Variety)

In other pilot casting news, Freddy Rodriguez (Ugly Betty) has been cast as the lead on CBS drama pilot Chaos; David Strathairn (Temple Grandin) has been added to the cast of ABC drama pilot Matadors; Cole Hauser (K-Ville) will star in NBC drama pilot Chase; Ashley Austin Morris has joined the cast of CBS comedy pilot True Love; Keir O'Donnell (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) were cast in ABC dramedy pilot Generation Y; Natasha Leggero (He's Just Not That Into You), Cedric Yarbrough and Dave Holmes have joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot The Strip; Ashley Williams (Dollhouse) and Shanley Caswell have been added to NBC's untitled Adam Carolla comedy pilot; and Sean Wing has been cast in ABC drama pilot The Whole Truth. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has given a second season order to reality series Shaq Vs., starring Shaquille O'Neal. (Variety)

Andrea Bowen (Desperate Housewives) will star opposite Greg Evigan (My Two Dads) in Hallmark Movie Channel telepic After the Fall. Also cast: Alicia Ziegler, Fiona Dourif, and Rick Malambri. (Hollywood Reporter)

Ellen DeGeneres' eponymous talkshow is staying put at NBC's O&O stations through the 2013-14 season, following the conclusion of a new deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Darkness Within: Claimed By Another on "Lost"

Lost has always been about patterns: the causality of our actions and who we become (seen via the series' trademark flashbacks), the sense that a group of strangers are connected by invisible threads linking them together, and the sense that we might be locked into various behaviors, regardless of the timestream.

Last night's episode of Lost ("What Kate Does"), written by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis and directed by Paul Edwards, points to this very phenomenon as the castaways are once again captured by the Others and held against their will (this time at the Temple rather than the bear cages) while certain events are once more coming together for what I've dubbed the Lost-X group members.

Destiny is, let's remember, a fickle bitch and clearly has a sense of humor as well. While Kate might be determined to flee Marshall Edward Mars, convinced of her innocence, she's once more pulled back into the orbit of those who were on Oceanic Flight 815, whether or not the plane crashed or landed safely in Los Angeles. Try as she might to go it alone, she finds herself connected once more to her fellow castaways. After all, just because you didn't crash, doesn't mean you're not cast adrift.

So what did I think of this week's episode? Get out your mortar and pestle, heat up an iron poker, cuddle with your stuffed orca, and let's discuss "What Kate Does."

The episode's title is clearly meant to recall the Season Two episode "What Kate Did," in which we learn just what crime Kate is guilty of and in which she would appear to be "haunted" by a vision of a black horse. In this week's episode of Lost, however, Kate's past actions--whether they be murder, assault, and theft--matter less than her actions in the present. Throughout the series, we've been told that we are the sum of our actions, a very Aristotelian belief that posits that our state at any given time is comprised of our past actions, a moral equation that takes into account every single behavior that has come before.

But Aristotle also posited that there were four causes that comprised causality itself: a material cause (what an object is made out of), a formal cause (an idea or thought about an object; its shape and essence), the efficient cause (an agent of change or movement or rest), and the final cause (the object's purpose). The change effected by causation could be intentional or accidental.

It's interesting, however, to note the importance of the agent of change itself in a series that deals with metaphysical entities such as Jacob and The Man in Black. If we choose to use Aristotle's Four Causes as a way of investigating Lost itself, it provides a rubric for taking the characters through their journey, however intentional the causes would be. After all, Jacob selected these specific individuals for his mission: he has a purpose in mind for them (the final cause) and has intervened on their behalf to push them into place (the efficient cause), moving them about the board with a grand purpose in mind.

But while Aristotle may have believed that we are the sum of our past actions, that's not entirely true when looking at the Lost-X universe. Because certain elements of the equation have been changed (Oceanic Flight 815 didn't crash), the outcome appears on the surface to have been altered. But the final cause of any object--its intrinsic purpose--may affect all of the other causes, after all. It's not the past actions that matter here but the ones unfolding in the present tense. (It's a sentiment echoed by the title. What's important is not what Kate did, but what she does now.)

In other words: Kate's sole purpose in life is to flee, regardless of which reality she's in. Her status as international fugitive hasn't changed, even if the circumstances of her crime have been altered. Her mission is to get away: from her small town, from the law, from herself. But in the Lost-X reality, she doesn't flee. Faced with the identity of her hostage (a very pregnant Claire) after seeing the contents of her suitcase (which contained a stuffed orca identical to the one Aaron had in 2007 Los Angeles), Kate does something uncharacteristic: she goes back. Despite her circumstances, Kate is therefore a "good" individual, one whose moral compass points to true north, even if she's forced out of self-preservation to do something that might go against her moral code.

But it's not self-preservation that compels Kate to find Claire once more and return what she took from her: it's a sense of altruism and perhaps a tug on that invisible thread connecting them. Just as Kate helped Claire through her difficult pregnancy on the island, so too does Lost-X Kate help this world's Claire. (Every good turn receives another in kind: Claire shields Kate, or "Joan Hart," from the police when they question her in the hospital.) Likewise, Claire still does cross paths with Ethan, here OB-GYN Ethan Goodspeed, who is just as interested in the health of Claire's unborn baby but here appears altruistic and benevolent, worried about injecting her with drugs in a way that the regular timestream Ethan had no compunctions about.

Claire names her baby Aaron for no other reason than the name popped into her head and she "knew" it was his name. (Interesting that, it seems to be generated by the same sense of frisson that passed between Kate and Jack as he stood on the pavement outside LAX. Aside: also loved Artz's shout-out to Midnight Cowboy with "I'm walkin' here!") Kate tells Claire that she should keep Aaron and raise him herself, echoing the prophecy that warned Claire about letting someone else raise Aaron. These are patterns that echo but don't reproduce those on the island. Claire and Aaron aren't separated--at least not yet--but the fact that Claire has crossed paths with Ethan is also interesting. (I was waiting for Dr. Juliet Burke to show up as well, but it's far more likely that Kate will have to deliver this baby herself.)

In other words: there are many, many similarities between these two worlds but there are also many differences. It's also clear that these two timelines aren't unfolding at precisely the same points in history; Claire's ultrasound reads October 22nd, 2004, which is a month AFTER Oceanic's crash in the other timeline. Things have been altered; Ethan escaped the island on the sub before "The Incident" and was never raised by the Others. The plane didn't crash because there was no island for it to crash onto. If that's the case, then I can't help but wonder if the timelines will become increasingly similar or increasingly dissimilar, given the lack of influence Jacob and the Man in Black hold over the castaways.

Back on the island, Jack and the other captives of the Others at the Temple struggle to figure out just what happened to Sayid after he was placed in the murky pool and regained consciousness after being, well, dead. I'm still intrigued by just what Miles "heard" during the moments before Sayid was seemingly resurrected; his behavior towards Sayid is odd and standoffish, as though he knows more than he's letting on. Sayid is tortured by Dogen, who calls blowing ash on him, electrocuting him, and burning him with a red-hot poker a "test" that he claims Sayid has passed. (The ash here is also extremely significant, given its propensity for keeping the smoke monster at bay.)

But not quite: Dogen attempts to convince Jack to give Sayid a pill containing "medicine" that will make him better. He says that Sayid has become "infected" (that word again!) and that a darkness is growing within him. But the pill isn't medicine but poison, a fact that Jack learns after he calls Dogen's bluff and attempts to swallow it himself. Clearly, Dogen is afraid of what Sayid has inside of him and wants to kill him once more before the infection spreads. If it reaches his heart, he will no longer be Sayid... and Dogen has seen this happen before: to Claire.

The return of the infection is interesting and significant. Dogen spoke of great risk involved in attempting to heal Sayid using the pool, which wasn't clear but rather murky and tinged with red. We know that this was the same method by which Ben was saved as a child after Sayid shot him and Kate and Sawyer took him to the Temple to be saved. What if the pool isn't just a pool with mystical healing abilities but a form of cosmic judgment: the inverse of the black smoke? It saves but with a cost: the victim's soul, should its actions be judged more bad than good. After all, Sayid was a torturer, an assassin, and a would-be child-killer. Could it be that the pool judged him and the darkness claimed him?

One problem with that theory: Dogen says that Claire herself had been "claimed" by the darkness as well. Back in Season Four, it did seem as though Claire had been mortally injured when Keamy's men attacked the Barracks and before she wandered off into the night, leaving behind Aaron and eventually turning up with her father in Jacob's cabin. But was Claire ever placed in the pool? Not that we had seen but how else would Dogen know about the darkness within Claire? And, after all, Claire's past actions didn't involve murder or torture. Hmmm...

But Claire does seem to have undergone a massive transformation of her own. The final shot of the episode finds a wounded Jin, pursued by Aldo (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney appearing for the first time since Season Three!) and Justin, gazing up at a mud-smeared Claire, looking for all intents and purposes like Danielle Rousseau. Given that Rousseau has been dead for three years, it's clear that the many traps that pepper the island belong not to her but to Claire. Is her behavior motivated by the darkness within her or was she able to fight against this infection, just as Danielle did before her? After all, it's Rousseau who says that her team--Montand and the others--were infected after they went into the wall of the Temple. Did they find the pool? Were they infected by the smoke monster? Intriguing...

Meanwhile, Sawyer fled the Temple to head back to the Barracks, pursued by Kate, Jin, Aldo, and Justin under Dogen's orders. Dogen wants all of them safe behind the Temple's walls--after all they were chosen by Jacob for a special purpose--and sends them out to retrieve Sawyer. Jin and Kate have different motives for going. Kate wants to escape (that old story) and Jin wants to find Sun, as she was aboard Ajira Flight 316 when it crashed on the island. Loved that Aldo was furious that Kate didn't remember him after she knocked him unconscious with the butt of her rifle... and proceeds to do the same this time around. But Jin's question, "Who do you care about, Kate?" leaves Kate with little choice: she has to find Sawyer.

Sawyer, for his part, has returned to the closest thing he can call "home," the house he shared with Juliet, where secreted beneath the floorboards is an engagement ring he intended to give to Juliet. I loved the scene between Sawyer and Kate on the ferry dock, in which Kate expressed her guilt for Juliet's death (if they had escaped on the sub, none of this would have happened), but it's Sawyer whose guilt is greater, as he says that he convinced Juliet to stay. He throws the ring into the ocean and tells Kate to get back to the Temple before nightfall.

It's interesting that Kate says that she came back to the island to find Claire and reunite her with Aaron, given that her actions in the Lost-X timeline result in Claire and Aaron not being separated in the first place. Could it be that the Lost-X timeline is more connected to the main timeline than we thought? Is it an opportunity to undo wrongs and put things into the proper places, a metaphysical tabula rasa where old ideas and actions matter less than the choices we make in the present?

What did you think of this week's episode? Did you find it frustrating not to catch up with Locke, Ben, Sun, and the Fake Locke? Were you happy to explore more of the Lost-X universe? Just what is going on with Sayid and Claire? And how does Dogen fit into the bigger picture? Discuss.

Next week on Lost ("The Substitute"), Locke goes in search of those who would help his cause.

Channel Surfing: Justin Kirk Gets "Modern Family," "Top Chef Masters," Leslie Hope Returns to "The Mentalist," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday television briefing.

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Weeds' Justin Kirk has landed a guest starring role on ABC's Modern Family but says that there is potential that he could recur later this season or next. Kirk will play Lee Keizler, the "gung-ho and athletic boss" of Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Mitchell, who quits his stressful law job to become legal counsel for clothing line owned by Kirk's Lee. (TV Guide Magazine)

Bravo has unveiled the 22 master chefs who will be competing for the top prize on Season Two of Top Chef Masters, which is set to premiere on Wednesday, April 7th. Those chefs include: Jody Adams, Govind Armstrong, Graham Elliot Bowles, Jimmy Bradley, David Burkey, Wylie Dufresne, Susan Feniger, Debbie Gold, Carmen Gonzalez, Maria Hines, Susur Lee, Ludo Lefebvre, Tony Mantuano, Rick Moonen, Mark Peel, Monica Pope, Thierry Rautureau, Marcus Samuelsson, Ana Sortun, Rick Tramonto, Jerry Traunfeld, and Jonathan Waxman. [Editor: it's immediately noticeable that there are more female chefs competing this season and that there are some familiar faces--Mark Peel, Ludo, Wylie, and others--are set to return to compete once more.] (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Leslie Hope is set to return to CBS' The Mentalist for the final two episodes of the season. Hope will reprise her role as psychic Kristina, last seen during The Mentalist's first season. "Jane tries to prove once and for all that she is a charlatan," executive producer Bruno Heller told Ausiello. "At the same time, [he finds] himself strangely attracted to her." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting alert: Andrea Anders (Better Off Ted) has been cast opposite Matthew Perry in ABC comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine. (Also cast: Nate Torrence.) Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) has landed a role in Jerry Bruckheimer's NBC drama pilot Chase; Matt Jones (Breaking Bad) will star opposite Gary Cole in TBS comedy pilot Uncle Nigel; and Eamonn Walker (Kings) has been added to the cast of ABC drama pilot The Whole Truth. (Hollywood Reporter)

Frank Grillo (Prison Break), Luke Mably (The Prince and Me), Janina Gavankar (The L Word), and Chandra West (90210) have been cast in ABC's supernatural crime drama series The Gates, about the residents of a gated community, all of whom have their secrets. Series, from Fox Television Studios and writer/executive producers Richard Hatem and Grant Scharbo, is being eyed for a summer launch. Pilot will be directed by Terry McDonough. Grillo will play a cop from the city who lands a gig as chief of police in this seemingly idyllic community; Mably will play a cardiologist who is also a "vampire-like creature"; West will play the owner of a local tea shop; Gavankar will play a local cop with a secret. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has ordered a second season of reality dating series Dating in the Dark and has slated six episodes of the Endemol USA-produced series to air this summer. (Variety)

TBS gave out two cast-contingent pilot orders yesterday. Comedies In Security, from writers/executive producers Pete Segal and Ric Swartzlander, about "two sisters who head up a private-security team protecting the super elite while dealing with personal and family issues," and Franklin & Bash, from Kevin Falls and Bill Chais and Sony Pictures Television, about "two street lawyers and lifelong friends who, after taking down a white-shoe law firm in a high-profile case, are recruited by the firm's patriarch." (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC is said to be close to giving a pilot order to an untitled single-camera comedy from Mad About You creator Paul Reiser and studio Warner Bros. Television about a group of male friends. Reiser has written the pilot script on spec as well as scripts for subsequent episodes. (Variety)

Leverage star Gina Bellman would jump at the chance to work with Doctor Who head writer Steven Moffat, if she had the chance. "I think there was a petition online to get me involved in Doctor Who," Bellman told Digital Spy. "I'm not a Doctor Who fanatic but I am a Steven Moffat fanatic. I've worked with him on Jekyll and Coupling so if he was to write anything for me - not just Doctor Who - I'd drop everything to go and do that." (Digital Spy)

Comic book guru Stan Lee has teamed up with Archie Comics and A Squared Entertainment for series Super Seven, about "seven aliens who find themselves stranded on planet Earth after their spaceship crashes, only to be befriended by none other than Lee himself. Taking them under his care, Lee becomes their leader and enables them to resume their lives as superheroes on Earth." Series, produced by Lee's POW! Entertainment, is being looked at for a fall launch. (The Wrap)

TLC has renewed reality series One Big Happy Family for a second season, with twelve episodes set to air in June. (Hollywood Reporter)

Season Five of reality series Gene Simmons Family Jewels is set to launch on A&E on Sunday, March 21st at 9 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

Stay tuned.

Life in the Present Tense: Family Plots on "Damages"

This week's episode of Damages featured a first for the serpentine legal thriller: no flash-forwards. Instead, the plot unfolded in a linear fashion and was confined to the present-day, focusing on both the machinations of the Tobin family, Tom confessing to his in-laws about the financial fraud, and the domestic squabbles at the Parsons' home in New Jersey.

There were no flashbacks, no six months later flash-forwards, and I missed the nonlinear structure of the series. Yes, the writers tried something different but what works best about Damages is that it is the television narrative equivalent of a Rubik's cube; I love twisting the various elements together, twirling the plot threads, to resemble something complete and whole.

Last night's episode of Damages ("Flight's at 11:08") therefore placed its emphasis on Patty relentlessly pursuing the Tobin case and engaging in some mind games with the Tobin family lawyer Leonard Winstone, while Ellen chose her family over the legal adventures promised by Patty Hewes, settling in for an evening of tension, petty feuds, and crystal meth at her parents' house.

In other words: the domestic and the professional collided once more as several of the characters were forced to weigh their careers against their personal lives. I don't think anyone was more surprised by what they ended up choosing than Ellen herself.

Ellen. Did Ellen make the right choice? She had made a commitment to her family, after all, and Season One was overflowing with examples in which Ellen made the other choice and picked work over family life, rejecting the simple (and some might say common) existence of her blue collar family for the excitement and (literal) danger of Manhattan high-stakes litigation work. Patty appearing on the steps of the D.A.'s office just as Ellen was leaving to catch her train was yet another symbolic crossroads for Ellen: would she play the dutiful daughter or would she fall back into Patty's orbit, accept her offer to stay late and try to track down the errant witness?

Ellen's choice was a simple one and one that points to some major development: she chose her family. But it's a decision that quickly seems to point to an error on her part. The old irritations--her grumpy father, her enabling mother, her teary sister--all seem to recall an Ellen that's long been since buried. And once Ellen decides to stay the night after learning that her sister Carrie's husband has left her, she quickly discovers that lies aren't the property of just those in the legal profession as she uncovers a stash of crystal meth in Carrie's bag. Ellen's reaction? To call Patty and find out what happened with the witness. Could it be that she's regretting the decisions she's made?

Joe Tobin. Likewise, the value that Joe places on family has opened him up to some rather malevolent dealings. First, he conspired with his father to keep the hidden fortune secret from Patty and look after his family. But, upon learning of Louis' relationship with Danielle Marchetti, he started drinking again, angrily confronted her, and then ran her over with his car. Joe might pretend to be a regular guy but his fortune and his circumstances have placed him outside of regular society; he doesn't call 911 but rather calls his family lawyer instead, revealing that he cares more about keeping his hands clean than actually saving Danielle's life. Even when he sees evidence of a massive concussion, Joe still drives Danielle to the airport, acting against their physician's advice, so desperate is he to clean up his father's mess and keep the fortune well-hidden.

What's even more shocking about this is the reveal (which I had surmised last week) that Joe and Danielle had once dated and that Danielle's relationship with Joe had even started while they were still together, a year before he went into rehab. Was Joe married to Rachel then? Was Danielle his little bit on the side? And just what is the relationship between Louis and Danielle? On the surface, it looks like just any other extramarital affair but my spider-sense is tingling. Yes, it could have been the results of the concussion but when Danielle said that Louis had done it for Joe, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Was she talking about their relationship or the fraud? And just what does she know? Why is she such a crucial witness in this case? Why did Louis and Leonard go to such lengths to get her out of the country before she could be deposed by Patty? Just what was she going to tell the D.A.? Hmmm...

Meanwhile, it appears that Leonard has others on call that he can turn to for help, including Sarah Wynter's mysterious security contractor. Are we seeing a relationship develop between them that harkens back to Frobisher's with Rick Messer? Just who is this mystery woman and is she involved at all in Tom's murder? Curious.

Patty. Once again, Patty proved herself to be far more clever and ruthless than those around her. Convincing Leonard Winstone that she intended to leak information about Louis Tobin's affair with Danielle Marchetti to the press, it was nothing more than a smokescreen used to draw Winstone to her office so that he could be followed... and thus lead Patty right to Danielle.

All in all, not the most exciting episode of the season but one that moved the plot along and showed Winstone just who he was dealing with. I'm hoping that Ellen's troubles with her family don't keep her traveling back to New Jersey but rather push her back into Patty's orbit. Patty may have tried to kill her, after all, but at least she doesn't go on and on about the messiness in the house.

What did you think of this week's episode? Miss the flashbacks and flash-forwards? Just what is going on with the Tobins? Discuss.

Next week on Damages ("Don't Throw That at the Chicken"), Patty grills Louis Tobin about his fraud; Joe Tobin is faced with a decision that will determine his family's fate forever.

A Night at the Museum: Breathless Lovers on "Chuck"

While Chuck's emotional heart lays in the thwarted relationship between Chuck and Sarah, it's impossible to maintain the will-they-or-won't-they dynamic indefinitely. We've seen both internal and external rationales for why they wouldn't end up together, not least of which is the pull between professional duty and personal desire.

Some potential love interests have come and gone: there was Rachel Bilson's Lou, Jordana Brewster's Jill, Matthew Bomer's Bryce Larkin. Each of them in their own way cast a thorn into our star-crossed lovers; after all, while Chuck and Sarah might be meant for each other in a cosmic way, that doesn't mean that they wouldn't seek out less complicated companionship in the here-and-now.

I don't think any of us would have predicted that Kristin Kreuk and Brandon Routh would provide perhaps the very best love interests for Chuck and Sarah to date. Yet on last night's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Mask"), written by Phil Klemmer and directed by Michael Schultz, we saw Chuck and Sarah each take an important step towards connecting with someone else.

So what did I think of last night's episode? Let's discuss.

I thought that the introduction and integration of both Shaw and Hannah were handled extremely well over the last few episodes. Routh's Shaw has fit in quite nicely to the world of Chuck, offering the team a charismatic if haunted leader who is determined to shake things up for the Intersect. After two seasons of Chuck being told to wait in the car, here's a guy who not only believes that Chuck is ready to become the spy he's meant to be but plans on helping him achieve that goal, sending him out on his first solo mission and making plans for his handlers--Sarah and Casey--to eventually pull back altogether. In other words: the training wheels are coming off.

Likewise, Shaw offers something very different to Sarah: the opportunity to be with someone who has lost the person closest to them and who wants to love again. And despite the, er, physical similarities, Shaw isn't Superman. He might be a dashing superspy who seems to have all of the answers but there's also a sweet innocence to his courtship, bringing her an Americano just the way she likes it (swizzle stick and all) and using their cover story at the museum to get close to her. Confronted by Sarah, Shaw admits that he is attracted to her (who wouldn't be?) and the two begin the delicate mating dance of modern couples. (Casey, meanwhile, takes his coffee "black and bitter." No surprise there.)

As for Hannah, she holds the promise of happiness for Chuck: a gifted woman who is slumming it a bit with her job at the Buy More and who sees the potential for something more within Chuck. She's not just the damsel in distress (though in this episode, she proved to be just that when she was trapped in the vault) but rather capable of uncovering Chuck's secret with her astute mind. The closer they get, the more dangerous it becomes. She nearly unmasked Chuck at the museum by getting those vault doors open too quickly, after all. But she's also a liability for that reason as well: the more she knows, the more danger she's in and their burgeoning relationship makes her an even greater target.

At the same time, Hannah is also driving a wedge between BFFs Chuck and Morgan. The look of sadness on Morgan's face when he spied Chuck and Hannah making out in the home theatre room at the Buy More was heartbreaking. We've never seen these two as romantic rivals before, so there's a nice tension here developing between the friends and roommates. Morgan's suspicions about Chuck's whereabouts may have been allayed for now (Hannah is a convenient smokescreen) but that doesn't mean that he won't stop poking around and looking for clues. Which does worry me a little bit...

It's also likely that Shaw will make the team more vulnerable by his very presence. The Ring believed that Shaw had been killed by Sydney Prince but now they have reliable (if now dead) intelligence that suggests that Shaw is alive and well. I'm thinking that The Ring isn't going to let him continue to walk around with his head attached to his neck. Look for this evil syndicate to step up their efforts to take out Agent Shaw ASAP.

I loved the conversation at the end between Chuck and Sarah as he tells her that if he has to see her with someone else, he's glad that it's a hero like Shaw. Sarah, for her part, shoots back rather sweetly, "What can I say? I have a type." In unison now: awwwww! It's nice to see these two have an adult conversation on the same level as one another and not have it be accusatory or vindictive. Really, quite cute in fact.

Chuck did manage to save the day this week and nearly with very little help from the Intersect itself. Nicely played, Mr. Bartowski. Could it be that you've actually been paying attention to Sarah and Casey's lessons, after all? As for Hannah, Chuck saved her life, after she nearly died from asphyxiation inside the oxygen-deprived vault and was rewarded by Hannah seeing her boss in a very new light. That Hannah can't quite remember why she was in there or the fact that the baddie actually locked her in there, we'll chalk up to lack of oxygen for now, no?

All in all, I thought that "Chuck Versus the Mask" showed a definitely improvement from last week's somewhat subpar episode and pushed the series back on track again. I'm loving the inclusion of Hannah and Shaw as the series broadens its universe to include some new characters and I'm actually hoping that they stick around for a bit.

What did you think of last night's episode? Happy to see Chuck and Sarah find love in other people's arms? Concerned that Hannah will uncover too much information about Chuck's double life? Discuss.

Chuck returns with all new episodes beginning March 1st.

Channel Surfing: Jack Bauer Heads to the Cinema, Christopher Lloyd Finds "Chuck," Nestor Carbonell Talks "Lost," "True Blood," and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Variety's Michael Schneider is reporting that 20th Century Fox Television and the studio's feature film division are working on adapting FOX's long-running drama series 24 for the big screen. The studio has hired Billy Ray (State of Play) to write a screenplay for the feature version of 24, which would see Jack Bauer jump across the pond to thwart a plot in Europe. Film would be executive produced by Kiefer Sutherland, Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer, Robert Cochran, and Joel Surnow. "Insiders cautioned that a 24 feature is still very much in the preliminary stages," writes Schneider. "There are a number of factors influencing how quickly it moves ahead, including the fate of the TV show." That fate is still to be determined, though it's thought very likely that Day Eight will be the final season of 24. (Variety, Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) will guest star on NBC's Chuck later this season. Lloyd will play "a therapist who Chuck turns to when the pressures of the spy biz become too much for him to bear," writes Ausiello. Look for Lloyd to turn up in this season's sixteenth episode, slated to air in April or May. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to Lost series regular Nestor Carbonell about Season Six's power struggle on the island. And, yes, we will learn about why Richard Alpert doesn't age and just who this mysterious counsel to the Others really is. "I knew at some point that they were going to answer some of the bigger questions, I just didn't know when," Carbonell told Abrams. "We have gotten to that point where there is an episode that deals with the origins of Richard Alpert and the bigger questions about his character, as well as bigger questions about the island and the mythology of it. It's an episode that reveals a lot. After three years playing this character, I was floored when I got the script and I was so excited to actually get to do the episode. They wrote a really tremendous script." (TVGuide.com)

SPOILER! TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that True Blood's Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) will have a new roommate next season: Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack). "Rooming with Jason will lead to some pretty adventurous times," Kwanten told Keck. "He’ll encourage Hoyt to sow his oats. In the first episode, my character wakes up with two women." (TV Guide Magazine)

Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) has landed the lead role in CBS comedy plot True Love, from writer/executive producer Matt Tarses. Kelly will play Kate, described as a "pretty, clean-scrubbed Midwestern who is a sweet but strong-willed romantic." Pilot revolves around four friends in Manhattan who are looking for love. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Keri Russell has received several pilot offers in the last few weeks. "She’s focusing on her film career right now," an unnamed source close to Russell told Ausiello. "But if the right project came along she would consider it. It all comes down to the material." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting news: Jennifer Finnigan (Inside the Box) will star opposite Joanna Garcia in ABC's untitled Shana Goldberg-Meehan comedy; Patrick Flueger (The 4400) has joined the cast of ABC's eight-episode drama series Scoundrels (based on Kiwi series Outrageous Fortune); and Rose Rollins (The L Word) has been added to the cast of NBC drama pilot Chase, from executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere, Laura Benanti (Eli Stone) has landed the lead role in CBS comedy pilot Open Books, about a book editor and her friends. Project hails from writer/executive producer Gail Lerner. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot news: Bones creator Hart Hanson has come aboard FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty as an executive producer and will supervise; should the project go to series, he'll oversee both Bones and Pleading Guilty. Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin) will direct NBC's US remake of British crime drama Prime Suspect. Brett Ratner will direct CBS drama pilot Chaos. Joe and Anthony Russo (Community) will direct ABC comedy plot Happy Endings. Charles McDougall (The Good Wife) will direct FOX drama pilot Ridealong. (Hollywood Reporter)

SPOILER! Wedding bells will ring out for someone on Bones this season, according to series creator Hart Hanson. "One of the four women in our cast will be getting married," Hanson told TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck. Four possibilities: Booth and Brennan, Angela and Hodgins, Daisy and Sweets, or Camille and a new mystery man. (TV Guide Magazine)

Jeff Probst has renewed his hosting deal for CBS' Survivor: "Survivor fans: I'm jazzed and wanted to share with you guys first," wrote Probst via Twitter. "I'll be back snuffing torches for two more seasons (21&22) of Survivor." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

20th Century Fox Television has signed a new overall deal with The Cleveland Show co-creator Rich Appel, which will keep him aboard the animated comedy for the foreseeable future while he also develops new series projects for the studio. (Variety)

The CW will launch new reality series High Society and Fly Girls respectively on March 10th and March 24th. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

E1 Entertainment is developing a reality series following R&B star Faith Evans as she looks to jumpstart her career after leaving the business behind five years ago. Project, which would also see Evans juggle her career with raising four kids with her husband, is currently being pitched to networks. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

There Will Be Rest in the Hereafter: Fathers and Sons on "Big Love"

"You are on the wrong path, brother." - Joey

Last night's episode of Big Love ("Sins of the Father"), written by Seth Greenland and directed by David Petrarca, focused squarely on the choices made by Bill Henrickson, both in the present-day as it related to his decision to exile Ben and in his own distant past. The people we are today are forged by the choices we make in our lives and by those made for us by others. Bill's formative years were shaped by Frank's decision to throw him out by the side of the road and force him to fend for himself on the streets, one of the so-called Lost Boys, the detritus of a polygamist society that had been corrupted and run on fear and jealousy.

Bill has long since sought to find a different path for himself in life, one that included following a belief in the Principle that wasn't as twisted and evil as his father's or Roman Grant's, an inclusive spiritual quest that was about family, unity, and empowerment.

Lately, however, Bill has taken a journey that has led him to abandon many of his callings, turning his back on the church he built to instead pursue political ambitions and forgetting his own past by giving into seething jealousy and transforming his once democratic family into a tyrannical authority over which he presides. Over the course of this week's episode, Bill realizes his transgressions and attempts to undo them but his greatest sin--being doomed to repeat his history because he has forgotten his own--proves out of his control to take back.

Bill. While some viewers have questioned Bill's motivations this season, I'm glad that the writers are allowing Bill to be a flawed individual, one who makes mistakes--often monumental ones--and who is clouded by the same sort of pettiness and emotion that we all are. I was glad to see that he recognized that he had made some pretty gigantic mistakes this week and fell into some of the same traps that he has often accused the wives of falling into: allowing personal jealousy to cloud his judgment.

While he may not have meant for things to get as bad as they did between him and Ben, there was no mistaking his intention when he said at the end of last week's episode that he thought a change of scenery would be good for Ben. For Ben--who had idolized his father and followed him without question--it was tantamount to banishment. Bill may not have meant it that way; after all, he was banished from Juniper Creek as a teenager and forced into a life of criminal activity, a Lost Boy cut adrift from the only home he had known, pushed out by a jealous father and a weak mother who fearfully couldn't act upon her child's defense.

Fortunately, Ben does have a support network in place that Bill didn't have as a Lost Boy; he turns to Sarah for help and therefore very luckily has a place to stay. Bill wasn't so lucky. I do believe that there was some level of miscommunication going on between Bill and Ben. For his part, Bill calls Ben repeatedly over the next few days but doesn't get any reply to his numerous calls and he never tells Barb that he has "banished" or "exiled" Ben; he seems to think that they are spending some time apart to work through their issues. It's not a belief shared by Ben, however.

Swept up by the stress and climate of the political campaign, Bill is making decisions that are far more personally-motivated than he should be doing. His jealousy leads him to push Ben away and to place Margene in the doghouse. He also wrongly makes an enemy out of Marilyn (Sissy Spacek). Arriving in Utah to show her support of Bill during the nomination process, Marilyn manages to coerce him into taking her to the Blackfoot Casino, where she wants to make a presentation to Tommy about representing their interests in Washington.

Rather than allow the meeting to unfold naturally and allow Marilyn to get her point across, Bill allows his personal distaste for Marilyn and her methods to influence him. Wanting a negative outcome, Bill sets Marilyn up and tells Tommy that she is a liar and a thief, leading Tommy to decline her offer. Marilyn, however, is not that easily defeated; she goes above Tommy to his father Jerry and then confronts Bill. He's very unwisely attempted to knock Marilyn out of the game but she's not having it. Not at all.

But Bill does make one act of recompense: he pays for the proper burial of the Lost Boy killed in a police shoot-out. It's an act of kindness that's deeply personal for Bill and one that perhaps places the past into perspective. As for why he does it: "I would have wanted someone to do the same for me," he says. Perhaps the past won't repeat itself, after all. Except that he's denied the chance to make it up to Ben, who has fled with Lois.

Barb. Poor Barb attempts this week to take on the role of the dutiful politician's wife but discovers that she's in the dark about everything that's going on under her own roof. As much of a shock as Margene's feelings for Ben were to Bill, they come as a total betrayal to Barb, a gut-wrenching realization that the circle of trust surrounding the sister-wives has perhaps been irrevocably broken. Her efforts to get Bill to discuss the Ben-Margene incident during their home-schooling was classic Barb passive-aggression but she's shocked to learn that her knowledge about the incident is wholly lacking. Her castigation of Margene--both her "flirt" speech and her vindictive kicking of Margene's jewelry stand--show a seething pit of anger within Barb, a feeling that her family is once more on the wrong path.

I thought it interesting that Barb escaped the claustrophobic atmosphere of the political campaign for the casino, a place where previously she felt vulnerable and out of her element. And yet, there's an honesty, a silence, an easiness about the casino that she can't find at home. (I also loved the small touches: her Boss Lady mug was a lovely memento of bygone seasons.) I was glad to see as well that she and Tommy have reached not just an understanding or a tolerance of one another but something approximating true friendship and respect, as Barb comes to know Tommy's tragic backstory--the death of his wife and two sons, killed by a drunk driver--and sees a very different side of him during the sweat lodge.

It's the sweat that gives Barb something close to release, the solemn silence of the lodge transforming into her own bathroom as the steam releases everything that is pent up inside of her: the rage, sadness, frustration, betrayal, and loss that she's feeling. It's a moment of transcendent release and beautifully played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, who lays bare those emotions without any artifice. A heartbreaking moment of loneliness.

Nicki. Bill's mistreatment of Nicki also comes into play in this week's episode, as Nicki confronts Bill about why he uses her for "morally ambiguous" missions but would ever think of asking Barb or Margene to do the same. Yes, Bill's using Nicki's "dark gift" for what he believes to be a righteous cause but he's casting her in the role of a spy, something that her father Roman did often. Even the language of their discussion--in which he calls her a "good girl" and his "spy"--seems to echo that of Roman in Season Three, when he placed her undercover at the D.A.'s office. I was glad to see that Nicki is thinking about her propensity for manipulation and lying and why she continually gets put into these positions.

The exchange Nicki shares with Barb at the casino (as she enjoys a sundae) about who she is could be taken at face value as a comedic dialogue about the many guises Nicki is forced to wear this week, from Bill's assistant Daphne to his sometimes-but-not-in-public-wife to Bill's ace in the hole. But it's also an honest expression of her own identity crisis at the moment. Does Bill see her as a wife and mother? Or as a saboteur?

Margene. Margene, meanwhile, finds herself cast out of everyone's good graces but doesn't hide like Nicki but confront Bill head on and beg for forgiveness, something he's not ready to give her. But she doesn't stop supporting him either, sticking close to his side in various guises of her own, the single mother/creator of Hearts on a Sleeve but it's clear that Margie's own heart is on her sleeve. She deeply regrets what happened and she doesn't apologize for having needs greater than Nicki or Barb; in fact, she demands an extra night with Bill and offers to buy it from one of them.

Are things done between her and Ben? Perhaps, now that they've both been honest about their emotions. And the final scene between Margene and Bill proves that there's still hope for the two of them after all of this. Mending those fences will take time but there's a willingness on the part of Bill that points to an epiphany on his part.

Lois and Frank. I was glad to see that Bill's actions towards Ben drew Lois and Frank back into his orbit as he was forced to contend with the results of his exile on Lois and Joey and on the twisted patriarchal rule that his father Frank imposed and still does, treating Jodean as little more than a work mule to cater to his every whim. (Her disgust at Frank--as evidenced by the peanut shells--is apparent from her every expression.) Lois has lived with an enormous amount of guilt that she stood and allowed Frank to cast out Bill, to throw him away like little more than garbage. But she's quick to stand up to Bill, to express horror at his behavior and to say that she had nothing to do with Ben's exile and that he's too good for Bill. For Lois, it's history repeating itself all over again... and this time it's Bill throwing his father out of the casino, a symbolic about-face that's utterly ironic.

Jodean and Joey. Loved the scene between the two in which Jodean expressed her gratitude to whoever killed Roman Grant, saying that she was "at peace" since the death of the prophet. I was glad to see Joey and Jodean interacting again; the last time they really shared a scene was after Kathy's death as, in a Vertigo-like twist, Joey attempted to recreate Kathy in her twin. There's still tension between them and likely attraction but there's precious little that they can do for one another in their current circumstances. Here's to hoping that we see more Jodean in the very near future... As for Joey, I'm glad he told Bill that he is on the wrong path. Joey believes that Bill should be the next prophet of Juniper Creek but is he acting here on behalf of JJ or out of his own convictions? Just what are JJ's plans for Bill and how do they involve prophethood?

What did you think of this week's episode? Glad that Bill finally came to his senses? Just what will happen to the Henrickson family and how much more pressure can they take before breaking? Discuss.

Next week on Big Love ("Under One Roof"), Ana resurfaces with a surprise revelation that shakes up the family; Bill tries to rebrand the casino and expand its advertising into Idaho; Lois, Ben, and Frank go south of the border to visit a bird vendor; Margene worries about the impact of Bill’s future outing on her booming business.

Ep. 40: Under One Roof - Preview

Televisionary Turns Four Years Old!

Happy birthday!

Televisionary is four years old. I want to thank all of you loyal readers (and fellow couch potatoes) out there who have made this site the success that it is today.

When I first started Televisionary back in February of 2006, it was to have a place separate from my television job where I could share my views on television programming, discuss recent episodes and news, and showcase some off-the-beaten-path series alongside the more mainstream series that we all know and love.

It started off way back when as a little slice of the web where I could express my thoughts to a few dozen readers who dropped by each day, but Televisionary has blossomed, over the last four years, into something much bigger than I ever dared dream.

I left the television industry (thanks to an ill-timed pink slip) and have been focusing on writing full-time the last year or so. If it had not been for Televisionary, I certainly wouldn't have landed contributing writer gigs with The Daily Beast and the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker and I've continued to write for all three on a variety of television-related topics.

I hope that I've been able to offer you my honest thoughts about television programming and share my passion and love for this medium while entertaining, informing, and maybe even coercing you into watching some series you might not have watched otherwise.

So please join me in raising a glass of champagne (and your remote) and toasting four great years of Televisionary and, hopefully, many more to come.

Channel Surfing: Daniel Dae Kim Finds "Hawaii Five-0," David Goyer Leaves "FlashForward," Zach Gilford Lands "Matadors," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Daniel Dae Kim won't be leaving the island. Or, Hawaii, rather. The Lost star has landed a lead role in CBS drama pilot Hawaii Five-0, where he will play Detective Chin Ho Kelly. Kim's co-star, however, is still unknown. Reports have indicated that former Moonlight star Alex O'Loughlin had been offered the role of Detective Steve McGarrett, but no deal has been reached yet for him to star in the remake project, which hails from executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Peter Lenkov. (Hollywood Reporter)

FlashForward co-creator David S. Goyer is leaving the ABC drama series, where he has served as showrunner since taking the creative reins from Mark Guggenheim in October. No replacement has been named for Goyer on the series, which still has roughly five more episodes to produce for this season's 23-episode order. Goyer, meanwhile, will segue back into film but will retain his executive producer credit on FlashForward. "As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions," said Goyer in a statement. "I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands." [Editor: just whose hands remain unknown at press time.] FlashForward returns with new episodes on March 18th. (Hollywood Reporter, Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford has been cast in ABC drama pilot Matadors, citing unnamed sources. Gilford will play Alex Galloway, half of a star-crossed pair of lovers whose families work respectively in the Chicago D.A.'s office and in a high-powered law firm and often find each other on opposing sides of the courtroom. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Michael Chiklis (The Shield) has been cast in ABC drama pilot No Ordinary Family, where he will also serve as co-executive producer following the closing of a development deal at the studio. Chiklis will play the patriach of a family that discovers they have super-powers. Dave Semel will direct and executive produce the ABC Studios-produced pilot alongside Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman. (Variety)

In other pilot casting news: Jason Ritter (The Dry Land) has been cast as the lead in NBC drama pilot The Event; Todd Williams (In Plain Sight) has joined the cast of FOX drama pilot Ridealong, where he will play a beat cop who is addicted to the adrenaline rush his job provides; and Aisha Hinds (True Blood) has been cast in ABC drama pilot 187 Detroit as an "overworked and underpaid lieutenant." (Hollywood Reporter)

Confirmed: Neil Gaiman is set to write an episode of Doctor Who to air in 2011 as part of the series's sixth season. (Televisionary)

Henry Winkler will recur on the second season of USA's dramedy Royal Pains, where he will play Eddie Larson, the absentee father of Mark Feuerstein and Paulo Costanzo's Hank and Evan, who heads out to the Hamptons to make up for lost time. Season Two of Royal Pains, which was increased to 18 installments, is set to air this summer. (Variety, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Sheryl Crow will appear in a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's Cougar Town, where she will play a new girlfriend for Josh Hopkins' Grayson. Her first appearance is set for March. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Enrique Murciano (Without a Trace) has been cast in Shonda Rhimes' ABC drama pilot Off the Map. He'll play a former plastic surgeon who takes a job at a remote tropical clinic overseen by Martin Henderson's character. (Hollywood Reporter)

Could this be the final season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for Christopher Meloni? According to remarks the actor made to Courier & Mail, it seems as though Meloni could be leaving the series to focus on theatre and film projects. "I think 12 years is enough, a good number," he said. "The writers will have fertile ground to figure out how to arc [Elliot Stabler] out to another place—whether it's this world or the next." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

A&E has passed on drama pilot The Quickening, which starred Radha Mitchell as a bi-polar police detective. Move leaves drama Sugarloaf as the only pilot currently in contention for a series order at the cabler. A decision about whether it will go ahead will be made before the end of the month. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has details about Andy and Erin's upcoming courtship on NBC's The Office. "It’s been a slow process of Andy gaining the courage to ask her out, but he finally does," showrunner Paul Lieberstein told Ausiello. "The wrinkle in their first date is she gets sick [with the flu], but they attempt to push on anyway." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Mathew Horne (Gavin and Stacey), Marc Warren (Hustle), Mark Gatiss (The League Of Gentlemen), and Douglas Booth will star in BBC Two drama Worried About The Boy, about "a young Boy George and his journey to become a star on the Eighties fashion and pop music scene." Project is written by Tony Basgallop (Hotel Babylon) and directed by Julian Jarrold (Brideshead Revisited). (BBC)

Elsewhere, ITV1 has commissioned three-part drama series Kidnap and Ransom, which will star Trevor Eve (Waking the Dead) as international K&R negotiator Dominic King. Project, from Projector Pictures and executive producer Patrick Harbinson (24), will also star Helen Baxendale, John Hannah, Natasha Little, Emma Fielding, and Amara Karan. (Broadcast)

TVGuide.com's Adam Bryant has an interview with Castle star Stana Katic about the recent storyline involving the murder of Kate Beckett's murder. "It was really a smart way to drop more information but not fully resolving it," Katic told Bryant. "I think it is going to be a driving force as we continue to move on. They'll definitely be dealing with it — probably not in the next couple of episodes. But I'm sure before the season's end, we'll get another big bombshell regarding that story line." (TVGuide.com)

Warner Bros. Television Worldwide Publicity SVP Sharan Magnuson will exit her position due to medical issues. "(Sharan's) leadership, talents and relationships working with creative talent, executives and the press are matched only by her character, selflessness and extraordinary work ethic," said Warner Bros. TV president Peter Roth. "She will be sorely missed by us all." (Variety)

TV Guide Network president Ryan O'Hara is leaving the cable network, effective immediately. He's reportedly set to take a new position at the company's New York office beginning next week. (Hollywood Reporter)

Nickelodeon has promoted Roland Poindexter to SVP of animation, current series. He'll report to Brown Johnson. The cabler also promoted Rich Magallanes to VP of animation, current series and will oversee Nickelodeon's diversity fellowship program. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

CONFIRMED: Neil Gaiman to Write "Doctor Who" Script

Author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman ("The Graveyard Book") has been plagued for years by rumors about the long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Appearing [Thursday] night to give a live reading and participate in a question-and-answer session at Royce Hall (as part of UCLA Live's spoken word series), Gaiman was once more put on the spot and asked if he would ever write a Doctor Who script.

Gaiman's answer? He nodded emphatically.

While not exactly a confirmation, it's perhaps the most concrete answer those of us in attendance could have hoped for. Season Five of Doctor Who is set to air on BBC One and BBC America this spring and it's highly unlikely that Gaiman will contribute a script for the first season of newly installed Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith's run.

Whether that means that Gaiman will "ever" write a Doctor Who script remains to be seen but for those of us who would love to see the "Sandman" and "American Gods" author tackle The Doctor, it's at least something to hold on to.

UPDATE (2/6/10): After I posted the above yesterday, Gaiman himself confirmed the news at SFX Weekender, announcing that he would be writing a script for Season Six of Doctor Who. Gaiman's episode, currently entitled "The House of Nothing," will air in 2011. You heard it here first!

Universes Collide: The Truth Will Out on the Winter Finale of "Fringe"

Now that's a cliffhanger to tide us over until April.

Last night's winter finale of Fringe ("Jacksonville"), written by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz and directed by Charles Beeson, may have pushed the members of the Fringe Division to their breaking point.

Several hard truths emerged as Olivia came face to face with a terror from her childhood... and a situation in the present that will likely have dire consequences for their little dysfunctional family unit.

This season of Fringe in particular has done a superb job of keeping the character dynamics moving along while juggling both a complex overarching mythology plot and compelling mysteries of the week. But every now and then an episode comes long (like last season's superlative "Ability") that changes up the delicate balance established among the characters.

You had the chance to read my advance review of last night's winter finale, but now that the episode has aired, we can talk more specifically about the plot.

"Jacksonville" worked on a number of levels. On its most shallow level, it was a horror-tinged adventure story about what happens when two worlds literally collide as molecules intermingle and blisteringly join with horrific results. The gripping opening sequence, depicting an architect (The Wire's Jim True-Frost) literally fusing together with his other-dimensional counterpart, was a gruesome and vivid way to raise the stakes for this week's installment. I thought that the writers did a brilliant job at keeping us guessing just what was going on (and, in fact, where we were) until the very last second. And seeing the head of poor Ted Pratchett (True-Frost) stuck in his chest? Utterly macabre and jaw-dropping.

But it was, once again, the personal stakes for Olivia, Peter, and Walter that made this episode just as compelling as it was. The team headed to Jacksonville, Florida, so that Walter could recreate the experiment he performed on Olivia as a child. By retracing her steps, Olivia was forced to confront not just what happened to her as an innocent but the true nature of Walter Bishop himself, a man so convinced that the ends justify the means that he and William Bell were willing to abuse the children in their care and force them to undergo horrific and terrifying experiences in the name of saving the world.

The look of horror as Olivia came out of her subconscious journey was as palpable as the disgust towards Walter that so clearly registered on her face. Olivia has come to understand Walter these past two seasons and perhaps even regard him as something approaching a father-figure but with the knowledge that he forced her and dozens of other children to visit a nightmarish dream landscape in an effort to tap into their latent abilities and drugged them with cortexiphan is more than Olivia can handle. And I can't say that I blame her. What Walter did to her--mercifully forgotten by Olivia until now--is horrific. That he flipped a switch inside of her and caused her to lash out using pyrokinetic abilities, all for the sake of a mission she knew nothing about, is a truth that's hard to swallow.

It's perhaps only because the clock was ticking that Olivia allowed Walter to create the cortexiphan experiment in the first place. And, luckily for all of them, it does--thanks to some fear (more on that in a bit)--reawaken Olivia's gifts, allowing her to see the location of a building in our Manhattan that is going to be pulled over to the other side to balance the mass equation. Lives are saved, crisis averted. But there's an unexpected side effect of the cortexiphan that enabled Olivia to continue to see that tell-tale shimmer of objects from the alternate universe.

But, first, the elephant in the room. Yes, Peter and Olivia nearly kissed last night and it was only averted because Olivia suddenly experienced a twinge of fear, a terror of intimacy that has marked her entire adult life. With the possibility of a romance developing between her and Peter, she felt fear again, a fear that enabled her to catalyze her ability once more. I have to say that while I'm glad that the series went there after two seasons, I am hoping that this is the closest we get to a full-blown romance between Peter and Olivia.

Personally, I much prefer this duo as something akin to spiritual siblings rather than lovers. The familial aspect of Fringe has always made it particularly appealing to me because these three damaged individuals were able to craft something resembling a family unit out of the terror and horror of their professional lives. In other words: I'm more than happy to see Peter and Olivia remain as friends and partners rather than hopping into bed together.

It's unlikely, anyway, that the latter will happen after Olivia discovered--thanks to her nifty new ability--that Peter himself is from "over there." Witnessing the shimmer cascading over Peter's body, Olivia knew instantly that he had been taken removed from the alternate universe. It's a shocking discovery that will likely break her from any possible intimacy with Peter Bishop.

But the truly heartbreaking moment came after that as Walter begged Olivia not to tell Peter. Will she be able to keep this a secret? Can she ever look at Walter the same way again? All of his crimes have been motivated by keeping the world safe. But this--the kidnapping of a child, the theft of someone else's son, decades of lies--might be more burden than Olivia Dunham can handle.

Just what will happen to our troika of pattern-pursuing crusaders? Will Walter's secret eat at Olivia, just as it has Walter? Will Peter find out sooner rather than later? And how are we expected to wait until April for more Fringe? Discuss.

Fringe returns with all-new episodes on April 1st on FOX.

The Daily Beast: Inside Temple Grandin's World

I already waxed enthusiastically about the beauty and grace of HBO's biopic Temple Grandin (airing Saturday night), which recounts the life of author, autistic, and inventor Temple Grandin, played here by the incomparable Claire Danes.

I had the rare opportunity to separately interview Temple Grandin, Claire Danes, director Mick Jackson, and executive producer Emily Gerson Saines in a series of one-on-one interviews for a feature over at The Daily Beast.

You can head over to The Daily Beast to read the feature, in which the quartet discuss the HBO film, its portrayal of autism and Grandin's extraordinary gifts, its legacy, and the remarkable woman at its center, Temple Grandin herself.

The half-hour I spent with Grandin will remain with me for the rest of my life and I was touched by her innate charm, humor, and honesty. You'll read just a sliver of what we discussed, which also went on to include details about her life, her work with the cattle industry, alarming trends in autism research, and much more. She is an incredible individual and I'll cherish the time I got to share with her.

Temple Grandin airs tomorrow night at 8 pm ET/PT on HBO.

Channel Surfing: "True Blood" Finds Its Debbie Pelt, Emily Rose Heads to Syfy's "Haven," "Ugly Betty," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Brit Morgan (The Middleman) has been cast in Season Three of HBO's True Blood, where she has landed the pivotal role of Debbie Pelt, the "psycho ex-girlfriend of werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello)." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

SPOILER! In other True Blood-related news, TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that an upcoming storyline will involve an Eric flashback to the year 900 A.D., where viewers will meet Eric's father, a Swedish Viking king named Ulfrick. Casting is currently underway for the role. (TV Guide Magazine)

Emily Rose (John From Cincinnati) has been cast as the lead in Syfy's supernatural series Haven, which is based on Stephen King's novella "The Colorado Kid." Rose will play FBI Agent Audrey Parker, who is sent to the titular Maine community in order to investigate a murder and finds herself caught up in a series of supernatural events. Project, from E1 Entertainment and Universal Networks International, is executive produced by Scott Shepard, Lloyd Segan, Shawn Piller, John Morayniss, and Noreen Halpern, along with writers Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Ugly Betty creator/executive producer Silvio Horta about the upcoming end of the ABC dramedy series. "The braces are coming off," Horta told Ausiello about an upcoming March episode in which Betty is sent on a metaphysical journey about what her life might have been like. "There’s a big fantasy element to it. We’ll ask the question, 'What if Betty had perfect teeth?'" Also coming up on the series: a new job opportunity for Betty, a wedding, the return of Wilhelmina's first love, and much more. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO is developing comedy series Tilda, about a "powerful female online showbiz journalist with a no-holds-barred style." [Editor: Hmmm, sound like anyone we know?] Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) and Cynthia Mort (Tell Me You Love Me) are attached to write and executive produce the project, with Condon also attached to direct, should it be ordered the pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Broadcasting & Cable's Melissa Grego is reporting that NBC is considering airing the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards telecast live across the country on August 29th. The move to end the tape-delay comes on the heels of NBC's decision last month to air the Golden Globes live in all timezones across the country. "According to sources, NBC is in the process of discussing a similar live Emmys scenario with affiliates," writes Grego. "Spokespeople for NBC and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which administers the top TV awards, declined to comment." (Broadcasting & Cable)

Syfy has acquired the basic cable rights to BBC's Merlin, the first season of which NBC aired last summer. Syfy will debut the fantasy series in April and will air the first two seasons of the series. "A viewer favorite after only one season, Merlin will be a strong addition to our schedule this spring," said Thomas Vitale, EVP of programming. "We expect its enthralling imaginative vision, engaging young talent, and rich production values to resonate with our audience." BBC, meanwhile, will launch the third season of Merlin in September in the UK. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pilot casting alert! Laura Prepon (That '70s Show) will star opposite Danny Wallace in ABC comedy pilot Awkward Situations for Men, where she will play Meg, the wife of British television personality Danny Wallace who moves to the US and who takes a job at a smoothie job with a boss (Matt Letscher) whom she shares a romantic past. Bret Harrison (Reaper) has landed the lead role in FOX's untitled Adam Goldberg single-camera comedy, where he will play a member of a team who crack computer security systems. Michael Kelly (The Sopranos) has been added to the cast of CBS' currently untitled Criminal Minds spinoff; he'll play a former gang member who joins a team of profilers. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Michelle Trachtenberg will return to Gossip Girl for the current season's final episode, while Gossip Girl's Connor Paolo is set to make a guest appearance on Trachtenberg's NBC medical drama Mercy. "I'm sure Georgina will be seeking vengeance," Trachtenberg told Dos Santos. "They haven't written it yet, but she was tricked and sent away, after all. And that li'l lady certainly doesn't like to be tricked." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

ABC has given a pilot order to single-camera comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong about a female Republican political commentator. Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Tantamount, is written by Stephanie Weir (MadTV), who will executive produce alongside Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, and Mitch Hurwitz. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC America announced that it will premiere the second season of comedy The Inbetweeners on Wednesday, February 24th at 9:30 pm ET/PT, a week after the first season wraps its run. (via press release)

Fox Television Studios has signed a two-year first-look deal with documentary filmmaker RJ Cutler (The September Issue) under which he will develop scripted projects for broadcast and cable, a first for the director who has seen success on the small screen with such unscripted projects as 30 Days and American High. (Variety)

VH1 has ordered an untitled dramedy telepic about two twenty-something African-American women in Atlanta, one a wannabe fashion mogul, the other a former dancer. Project, from writer Stacy Littlejohn, is executive produced by Queen Latifah, Sha-Kim Compere, Maggie Malina, and Jeff Olde. The cabler is treating the telepic as a backdoor pilot; should it be successful, it could be ordered to series. (Variety)

Nickelodeon is developing an untitled comedy, from executive producers Joe Simpson and Tommy Lynch and writer Emily Cutler, that will be loosely based on Simpson's life, revolving around a psychologist raising two daughters in Texas. (Hollywood Reporter)

Telemundo executive Enrique Guillen has been moved to NBC, where he will take over as VP of alternative programming and production. NBC also promoted Nicole Silveira to manager of alternative series and specials. Both report to Paul Telegdy. (Variety)

Michael Grindon, Sony Pictures Television's head of international television, will leave the studio in March after a 24-year tenure. Move comes after much of his oversight was taken over by Steve Mosko in a corporate restructuring. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Hard Choices: An Advance Review of Tonight's Winter Finale of "Fringe"

"There are times when the only choices you have left are bad ones." -Phillip Broyles

Throughout the season and a half run thus far on Fringe, the Fringe Division has managed to contain several deadly threats against this world. Mad scientists, alternate universe soldiers, and bizarre phenomena are just par for the course for the loose collection of associates-turned-dysfunctional family members witnessed on the series. Season Two of Fringe has done a sensational job at crafting taut and often terrifying mysteries of the week while also focusing week to week on the evolution of the relationships between the core characters of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter and Walter Bishop (Joshua Jackson and John Noble).

Tonight's fantastic winter finale of Fringe ("Jacksonville") finds the team grappling with their toughest and most dangerous case yet as the walls between the two worlds are seemingly becoming thinner and thinner when two buildings--one from "our" world and the other from the alternate universe--collide with deadly consequences.

A race against the clock to prevent this tragedy from unfolding again forces Olivia to come to terms with a dark period in her childhood that she has seemed to block from her memory and comes face to face with the truth behind Walter Bishop's experiments.

I don't want to say too much about the plot of tonight's truly amazing installment because half of the fun of the winter finale is in seeing the plot twists unfold. But I will say that after tonight's episode some relationships will be changed in unexpected ways and others may be fractured forever.

The cozy and familial atmosphere developed between our core troika of characters is built on a bed of lies. Olivia might see Walter as a bit of a doddering father figure but that perception is severely tested when Walter takes Olivia back to the Jacksonville of the title, the small Florida town where, as a helpless child, Olivia was experimented on by Walter and his then-partner William Bell and treated with a drug called cortexiphan.

This period in Olivia's childhood was dealt with in two previous episodes ("Ability" and "Bad Dreams") but the subplot is brought into sharp focus in tonight's episode as both Olivia's abilities, cortexiphan, and the childhood incident alluded to in "Bad Dreams" is dealt with head on.

For the members of the Fringe Division, there have never been easy choices. After all, they've been tasked with safeguarding the country--if not the entire world--against any number of threats to reality itself. Nearly every choice is a hard one and that's never more clearly felt than in tonight's episode, which pushes several of the characters to their breaking point.

The result is easily one of Fringe's best episodes to date, a gripping and engaging thrillride that takes us deep into the characters' backstories but also points towards the future of the series, once it returns in April. In other words: miss this crucial episode at your peril.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Every Door is an Opportunity: An Advance Review of HBO's Breathtaking Film "Temple Grandin"

Made-for-TV movies often get a bad rap. They're sometimes looked at as being saccharine stories of people overcoming adversity, focusing on individuals who bravely overcome diseases, disabilities, or gut-wrenching issues.

But every now and then, especially in the hands of HBO, a telepic comes along that is just as good as--if not better than--feature films shown in cinemas, projects that change your perception of the world around you, make you question some hard truths, and make you a better person just by dint of watching them.

One such project is HBO's superlative and imaginative film, Temple Grandin, which airs this Saturday night on the pay cabler.

Focusing on the courageous spirit and inquisitive mind of inventor, author, advocate, and teacher Temple Grandin, the film unfolds in a nonlinear fashion to reconstruct the struggles of autistic Grandin from her childhood as a mute four-year-old girl to her emergence as a brilliant scientific mind, one who revolutionized the cattle industry in America and who offered us a whole new way of understanding the world, its animals, and ourselves.

Written by Christopher Monger and Merritt Johnson and directed by Mick Jackson (Live from Baghdad), Temple Grandin stars Claire Danes (Stage Beauty) as the incomparable Grandin, depicting Temple from her early teenage years in the 1960s to her adulthood in the 1980s. Grandin is unlike anyone you will ever encounter: brilliant and inquisitive, she experiences the world as prey animals do, thinking in images rather than words. It's a gift that she uses to change the way that cattle are treated in the United States and carves out a life for herself that is far from less but so much more.

Danes' staggeringly powerful performance isn't an imitation of the unique Grandin. In the hands of a lesser actor, this turn could be nothing more than inaccurate mimicry; but Danes doesn't so much play Grandin as channel her. It's a breathtaking performance that immediately erases all traces of the actor. Danes transforms herself not just in looks (hairstyle, false teeth) but in every aspect of her being, recreating the stance, voice, and intensity of Grandin herself. (You can read my interview with Danes, Grandin, Jackson, and executive producer Emily Gerson Saines at the Daily Beast tomorrow.)

The result is a virtuoso performance that encapsulates the essence of the film's subject in a way that biopics always hope to achieve but so rarely do. While Emmy nominations are a long ways off, one can only hope that the voters recognize Danes' gifted performance here.

The rest of the cast is equally top-notch. Julia Ormond turns in a stirring and understated performance as Temple's long-suffering mother Eustacia Cutler, a woman who believed so much in her daughter that she pushed her to achieve greater and greater things, turning her back on a doctor's recommendation that Temple be institutionalized as a child. Catherine O'Hara plays Temple's aunt Ann, a supportive and encouraging influence in Temple's life who owns a cattle ranch where Temple spends a formative summer. Gone are any traces of O'Hara's innate comedic timing; her Ann is sensitive, empathetic, and soulful. David Strathairn appears as Temple's high school science teacher Dr. Carlock, a man who feeds Temple's insatiable scientific curiosity and convinces her that she can do anything she sets her mind to achieve.

Whereas many stories would focus on Grandin's autism as an adversity to be overcome, Temple Grandin recognizes that her neurological condition isn't a liability but a gift. Grandin sees the world in pictures, utilizing a photographic memory that enables her to recall thousands of objects, instantly memorize the pages of a French textbook, or run complicated schematics and blueprints through her head.

Director Mick Jackson brings her unique visual thinking ability to life in a series of sequences that showcase the inimitable way of thinking. Temple's ability to think in pictures is displayed by some funny visual puns (roosters, eels, etc.) and by her ability to see the patterns and movement of everything from a swinging farm gate to the cows on Ann's farm. A series of doors, both literal and metaphorical, open up for Temple and she sets out to work with animals, to improve their lives and their deaths.

I don't want to give too much away about this gripping and emotional journey, but I will say that Grandin's story reminds us of the preciousness of every moment. Never is this more clearly seen or keenly felt than here in Temple Grandin. People with autism process emotion in different ways than the rest of us; most find it uncomfortable to physically express a sense of connection in ways that we take for granted: a hug or an embrace. In the film, that feeling is captured beautifully by a scene at Carlock’s funeral, in which Temple almost shares an embrace with her mother. It’s a stolen moment, a near collision that sums up the vast chasm between Temple and those who love her.

Ultimately, Temple Grandin is the story of an individual blessed with an ability that few of us can understand who strives to break free to become not something resembling normal but something truly extraordinary. It's a beautiful story brought to live vividly with this remarkable production, a heartfelt gift to Temple Grandin herself and to all of us who watch.

Trailer

Temple Grandin airs Saturday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on HBO.