Cup of Joe: HBO Releases Poster for Season Three of "True Blood"

Morning got you down? How about a good old cup of Joe?

HBO today released the poster image for Season Three of its vampire drama series True Blood, which returns to the pay cabler's schedule this June.

While it's not exactly filled with spoilery imagery--or even a depiction of a single cast member--the poster, which depicts a coffee pot percolating with warm blood, manages to capture the exact tone and heat of the Alan Ball-executive produced drama. Look for HBO to release a new poster each week leading up to the third season premiere.

Personally, I can't wait to sink my teeth into Season Three as it's been far too long since a trip down to Bon Temps for my liking.

You can check out a larger version of the poster below.



Season Three of True Blood begins June 13th at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.

Trailer Park: Showtime's "The Big C," Starring Laura Linney

Showtime has released a trailer for its upcoming dark comedy The Big C, which stars Laura Linney (John Adams) and Oliver Platt (Huff) and features Precious' Gabourey Sidibe.

In the thirteen-episode series created by Darlene Hunt, Linney will play a suburban wife and mother whose cancer diagnosis forces her to reevaluate her life and take some chances, despite having to hold the hand of her immature but well-intentioned husband (Platt). Sidibe will play one of Linney's students in the series, which is expected to launch sometime this summer.

The trailer for The Big C can be viewed below.



The Big C will premiere this summer on Showtime.

Channel Surfing: Heigl Talks "Grey's" Departure, Carbonell On Eternal Life and "Lost" Love, Balfour Finds "Haven" at Syfy, "Warehouse 13," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Ahead of its publication, Entertainment Weekly has released some excerpts from Michael Ausiello's in-print Q&A with former Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl, in which she dishes about why she left the ABC medical drama, Emmygate, Isiahgate, and, well, a heap of controversies. "Yeah, I think so," said Heigl when asked if the parting was amicable. "I think it was a little bit shocking for everybody, and a little bit like, 'Can’t we find a way to work it out?' And I really wanted to, but at the same time I just felt like I couldn’t sacrifice my relationship with my child. Naleigh and I will always be a little bit complicated. I really had to work on bonding with her because I was obsessed with her, but she could really do without me. [Laughs] It was really hard because she loved Josh so much but she just kind of tolerated me. And I want this child to know that she will forever have me in her corner and I don’t want to disappoint her. [Fighting back tears] And even though I know I’m disappointing the fans, and I know I’m disappointing the writers and my fellow cast members and the crew, I just had to make a choice. I hope I made the right one. It sucks. You wish you could have it all exactly the way you want it. But that’s not life. I had to try to find the courage to move on. And I am sad. And I’m scared. But I felt it was the right thing to do; we just didn’t quite know how to do it appropriately, gracefully, and respectfully to the audience. And I think we all felt it wasn’t respectful to the audience to bring [Izzie] back again and then have her [leave] again. We did it twice this season. It starts to feel a little manipulative." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Los Angeles Times' Maria Elena Fernandez has a fantastic interview with Lost star Nestor Carbonell about this week's Richard Alpert-centric episode of Lost, in which we learned about Richard's backstory and his tortured past. "He knows them pretty intimately," said Carbonell about Richard's relationship with Jacob and the Man in Black. "It’s an interesting dichotomy because on the one hand he has a sense of history of the island and the forces at play in the island but he’s been dumbfounded by other elements he wasn’t aware of -- like time travel and, obviously, he didn’t know about the loophole with the Smoke Monster becoming Locke. He was really blown away by that. So much of what is happening to him and around him is new to him. This season, his world has been rocked by Jacob’s death and everything he’s lived for in the last 100 years ago or so has been taken away from him or turned down upside down for him. He attempted suicide. He’s gone a little crazy. But we’ll see how he settles down now that he has a mission from his wife." (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that Eric Balfour (24) Lucas Bryant (Queer as Folk) have been cast in Syfy's upcoming supernatural drama series Haven (based on a novella by Stephen King). Balfour will play Duke Crocker, described as a "charming yet mysterious jack of all trades" whose "mellow demeanor may conceal a much darker agenda." Bryant will play Nathan Wuornos, a local cop who becomes the partner to Emily Rose's FBI Agent Audrey Parker. Meanwhile, Gina Torres (Firefly) will guest star on Season Two of the cabler's drama series Warehouse 13, where she will play a new love interest for Eddie McClintock's Pete. [Editor: Warehouse 13 seems to be on a bit of a Firefly tear of late: Torres will join fellow former Browncoats Jewel Staite and Sean Maher this season.] (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Carrie Fisher (30 Rock) will star opposite Debra Messing and Patrick Fugit in ABC single-camera comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong, which revolves around Messing's Evelyn Wright, a political pundit whose life is decidedly less together than it appears on television. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has announced a premiere date for its telepic The Special Relationship, which recounts the alliance between President Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid) and Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen): May 29th. Project, written by Peter Morgan (The Queen) and directed by Richard Loncraine, also stars Hope Davis. (Variety)

CBS has ordered an undisclosed number of episodes for a US format of UK reality dance competition series Got to Dance, which will be produced by Reveille. Project--executive produced by Elisabeth Murdoch, Howard T. Owens, Mark Koops, and Robin Ashbrook--features dancers of all ages and all genres competing in front of a panel of judges, with the audience weighing in on later rounds. This being another as-yet-uncast reality series, the network is courting Paula Abdul to serve as one of the judges. (Hollywood Reporter)

TLC has won the bidding for the worldwide rights to eight-episode reality series Sarah Palin's Alaska, from executive producer Mark Burnett, which it will launch later this year. It's thought that the Discovery Communications-owned channel paid more than $1 million per episode. (Variety)

Pilot casting update: Lindsay Sloane (She's Out of My League) will star opposite Kyle Bornheimer on the untitled Bays/Thomas project (also known as Livin' on a Prayer); Melissa McCarthy (Samantha Who?) has scored one of the titular roles in Chuck Lorre's CBS comedy pilot Mike and Molly; Marisol Nichols (24) and Rhona Mitra (Stargate Universe) have been cast in ABC summer drama series The Gates, while Victoria Platt, Justin Miles, Travis Caldwell, Colton Haynes, and Skyler Samuels have also been cast. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer) has been cast as a guest star in NBC romantic dramedy pilot Love Bites, from writer/executive producer Cindy Chupack. "Details about her cameo are being kept under wraps, but a Peacock insider tells me that Hewitt will play herself," writes Ausiello. "My guess? One of the show’s lovelorn leads — portrayed by Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton and My Boys‘ Jordana Spiro — will meet Hewitt at a signing for her new memoir-slash-advice book, 'The Day I Shot Cupid.' But I’m just spitballing." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Elsewhere, Hewitt has been cast in Lifetime telepic The List, written by Suzanne Martin. She'll play a housewife and mother whose life is thrown into chaos after her husband becomes sidelined from his job due to an injury and she ends up taking a job at a massage parlor that's secretly a knocking shop. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sad but true: it's the end of the road for At the Movies, which will wrap its run on August 14th. Most recent iteration of the movie review series had been hosted by A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, who took over the reins late last year from Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons. (Variety)

Change is afoot behind the scenes at ABC's Private Practice following the departure of executive producers/showrunners Robert Rovner and Jon Cowan. The duo will not be immediately replaced as the remainder of this season's stories have already been broken. Shonda Rhimes, meanwhile, will continue to oversee creative and production on the spinoff series. While Private Practice has yet to be renewed for the 2010-11 season, it is expected to return next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Nickelodeon has announced that it will air a telepic based on Internet series Fred, entitled Fred: The Movie, written by David Goodman and directed by Clay Weiner. The kids cabler also acquired the rights to ABC comedy My Wife and Kids, which it will air as part of its Nick at Nite programming block. (Variety)

NBC Entertainment has promoted Cathy Goldman to VP, brand strategy and Ken Grayson to VP, media. (Hollywood Reporter)

Chris Coelen, late of RDF USA, has launched his own shingle, Kinetic Content, and hired several executives, including Jennifer Danska, Gerald Massimei, Katie Griffin, and Matilda Zoltowski. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Cork in the Bottle: Eternal Prisoners on "Lost"

I have very mixed feelings about this week's episode of Lost, which is a rarity for me, as I'm usually on board with whatever Team Darlton and Co. throw at us from week to week.

But in an opinion that's likely to make me not very popular, I didn't love last night's Richard Alpert-centric episode ("Ab Aeterno"), written by Melinda Hsu Taylor and Gregg Nations and directed by Tucker Gates, which attempted to fill in backstory for one of the most enigmatic characters on the series, the seemingly immortal Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell).

My dislike for the episode comes with a few caveats up front. For one, I thought Carbonell did a fantastic job, delivering a knockout performance that carried the entire episode and portraying some very different incarnations of Richard Alpert over a stretch of roughly 150 years. I also give the producers credit for doing something risky in allowing the action to unfold mostly in Spanish, with English subtitles, and attempting to recreate period action off the island.

That said, I wanted more from the episode and from Richard's backstory, which struck me as being a little cliched and predictable. While we got a few answers this week, both about Richard and the island itself, it lacked the revelatory punch that I had anticipated. While I'm glad that we got to see Richard's past, I wanted something staggering rather than serviceable.

So what did I think of the episode? Unlock your chains, grab that half-empty bottle of wine, bury that cross, and let's discuss "Ab Aeterno."

Richard Alpert has been at the forefront of many viewer discussions. The spiritual adviser to the leader of the Others, he had been blessed--or cursed--with eternal life and the episode's title draws attention both to his condition as well as that of the island's battling entities, Jacob and his Nemesis, the Man in Black. Just who is Richard? What was he before he came to the island? How did he receive his gift from Jacob? And how much does he really know?

I wondered for a moment if the producers had pulled a bit of a bait-and-switch with the audience and would focus not just on Richard but also Ilana in this week's episode, given the way that the installment opened with the heavily bandaged Ilana being visited in a Russian hospital by Jacob. But this sequence seemed almost out of place, given the fact that we learned precious little more about Ilana and it didn't connect very much with the Richard plot. (The sequence involving the castaways at the campfire acted more as as a narrative framing device, with Hurley and Richard's scene at the end wrapping the Richard plot up as it were.)

But Ilana's story will have to wait for the time being as this episode was devoted almost entirely to exploring Richard's backstory and shedding light on the complicated rivalry between Jacob and the Man in Black, the latter of which I enjoyed thoroughly and far more than Richard's noble savage plot in Tenerife. With a nice bit of visual theatricality, Jacob explained the true nature of the island, the Man in Black, and his role in this eternal battle. (I'm hoping that this speech more than anything will finally silence those who believe that the Man in Black could possibly be good.)

Using the half-empty bottle of wine as a metaphor, Jacob explained that the wine itself is symbolic of a terrible darkness, which if it could flow from the bottle, would overtake everything, a viral infection of evil that could spread throughout the world if unchecked. The island itself is the cork in the bottle, a means of keeping it trapped and contained. I thought it interesting that Jacob didn't view himself as the cork, but gave that role over to the island itself, an eternal prison for the darkness that would consume everything in its path. Jacob, therefore, is the caretaker for the island, a tapestry-weaving prison warden whose mission is to protect the island and therefore keep the darkness at bay.

The Man in Black's attempts to escape, to find a loophole to kill his jailor and flee, would result in the scales tipping towards black for the entire world. If the island has sunk to the bottom of the ocean as it has in the Lost-X timeline, then it could mean that the wine has flowed out of the bottle. Despite people getting their heart's desire (or close to it) in that world, it might just point towards the Man in Black having escaped from his prison and roaming freely. Which would be very bad indeed. In detonating the hydrogen bomb and altering the timeline, did Jack and the castaways smash the bottle? Have they freed the djinn and unleashed unspeakable horror on the world? Or is the Nemesis still there, at the bottom of the sea, biding his time and plotting his escape once more? Hmmm...

To use the cork and bottle analogy further, the Man in Black's efforts to find a loophole to escape take on greater significance. He and Jacob are opposing forces whose respective strengths have resulted in an even scale and stasis. The cork in place, the wine can't get out of the bottle. But there's more than one way to get out of the bottle, one that doesn't involve removing the cork: simply smash the bottle. Which is exactly what the Man in Black does here after Jacob makes a gift of his lesson to Richard by giving his Nemesis the bottle as "something to pass the time."

So why bring people to the island? Jacob is not only looking for candidates to replace him but also to allow the eternal game between him and the trickster to continue, a moral Skinner box in which those who find themselves on this island can choose to become repentant for their past sins or choose to become corrupted, to select between the light and the dark. Prior to Richard's arrival, everyone who has come to the island has been killed but Jacob isn't there to force them to act one way or the other--that is the Nemesis' style, given his gift for manipulation--but rather he wants people to figure out right and wrong on their own. Jacob's whole modus operandi is to foster free will, then.

Richard's arrival on the island is a fortuitous one as it seems as though we're seeing the birth of the Others before our eyes, a race of people who have chosen to protect the island, to fortify the prison, and keep the cork firmly in the bottle. So why might they have sought to purge the Dharma Initiative? My theory: the Dharma Initiative's experiments into the electromagnetic energy properties of the island were creating a situation from which the Nemesis would be be to make his escape. They were effectively weakening the cork and allowing the darkness to seep out into the rest of the world. They saw the island as something that needed to be dissected, examined, probed, and categorized rather than what it was: a prison with them as the jailers. (The same held true of the U.S. Army, which is why the Others slew them in order to prevent others coming there and giving the Nemesis further opportunities to escape or to allow the scale to tip the other way.)

Richard's need for contrition places him on the path to righteousness. His crimes were accidental but crimes nonetheless. While he sought to help his wife, he murdered and stole but he turned towards redemption rather than destruction. Did it matter whether Jacob had spoken to him before he plunged the knife? Or was Richard's fate decided the moment he turned towards the light, towards divine forgiveness for his past misdeeds? It's not Jacob's ability to offer absolution. If we can move past our issues, our damages, and transgressions, we can be forgiven it seems. At the very least by ourselves.

Richard Alpert's Backstory. We saw this week just where Richard--or Ricardus, as Jacob calls him--came from: namely, 19th century Tenerife. (Incidentally, itself the site of one of the world's most deadly aviation accidents, as mentioned earlier this week on Breaking Bad.) Richard is a Spanish Catholic whose wife Isabella is dying. Traveling through a terrible storm to try and find help, he's refused by a greedy, mercenary doctor who finds that Richard does not have enough to pay him for his services and throws Isabella's beloved cross on the floor. A struggle ensues and Richard pushes the man, accidentally killing him. (I called that one straightaway.) Then he pockets the medicine and rushes back to Isabella's side, only to find that she's died. (Ditto.)

He's then seized by soldiers and imprisoned, where he learns English by reading the Bible. A priest denies him absolution for his crime (only a life of penance can remove his cardinal sin) but before Richard can be executed, he's purchased by Jonas Whitfield, a man working for Magnus Hanso (!!!), who explains that he is now a slave and the property of Hanso. And, sure enough, he ends up shackled aboard the Black Rock and, in the midst of a terrible storm, winds up in the middle of the island.

Whitfield ends up slaying most of the slaves because they have limited supplies and they will try to kill him... but the remaining officers are instead massacred by the smoke monster, who flits through the Black Rock in a fantastically cool visual before killing Whitfield and sparing Richard's life. Richard's dead wife Isabella appears and she tells Richard that they are both dead and in hell. But she runs off and is seemingly menaced by the smoke monster. (It seemed fairly certain to me that this was a manifestation of the smoke monster, appearing in the form of the dead Isabella. The monster had previously taken the form of someone else who died off-island: Ben's mother.)

Later coming to Richard in the guise of the Man in Black, he offers him freedom from his shackles (offering a nice callback to his line earlier this season about it being good to see Richard out of his shackles), and manipulates him into helping, preying on his fears of eternal damnation and his need to find his wife, setting up Jacob as the devil to who took her. His mission for Richard: to slay Jacob with a ceremonial knife (just like Dogen gave to Sayid) and to not allow Jacob to say a word before he plunges the knife into his chest (just like Dogen told Sayid).

But, when faced with the possibility of regaining his wife (his heart's desire) or performing a life of penance for his sin, Richard chooses the latter, placing himself into Jacob's employ and receiving a gift: eternal life. Unlike the Man in Black, who claims to be able to return his wife to him, Jacob asks for sacrifice, for penance, for an act of contrition that will set the scale within Richard to the side of the just. He's baptized by Jacob, who plunges him into the ocean waters and then is given a choice: he can take the position of representation or intermediary, a sort of moral guide to help others where Jacob cannot. Richard accepts and Jacob gives him eternal life.... and then Jacob gives his Nemesis a white stone. Score one for Team Jacob. Richard, meanwhile, buries Isabella's cross.

Black Rock and The Statue. We learned that the Statue of Taweret was destroyed by the Black Rock in the tsunami that deposited the ship in the middle of the island. (Looks like Arzt was right after all.) I was a little confused by the storm, given that it seemed from "The Incident" that the Black Rock had arrived in the middle of a sunny, tranquil morning rather than during a hurricane gale (just like Oz, in fact), but perhaps that boat we saw Jacob and his Nemesis arguing over last season wasn't the Black Rock but one of the other ships that had previously arrived on the island and whose occupants had been killed. (I was also confused as to the 1867 date for the Black Rock, given that we had previously been told it set out from Portsmouth in 1845; the entire timeframe of events here seemed a little later than they should have been, really.)

Did the breaking of the statue result in any negative effects on the island? That remains to be seen. But it clearly isn't the cause of the pregnancy-related deaths plaguing the Others as it happened years before there even was a tribe of Others on the island. Just what caused their reproductive failure remains a mystery. It was serious enough that Ben had Juliet brought to the island but it would appear to be something that occurred fairly recently rather than in the distant past. Hmmm...

Ilana. We still don't know much about Ilana other than the fact that she is loyal to Jacob, knew him, and accepted her own commission from him: to protect the final six candidates from coming to harm. At the campfire, Sun believes that she is one of those six but I don't think we have a definitive answer there as Ilana just last week indicated that she was sent to protect "Kwon" and didn't know if that referred to Sun or Jin. Nothing has changed since then to indicate that she's been swayed one way or the other.

Ilana is waiting to receive her next instructions from Ricardus but he has no idea what they're meant to do next: Richard, still suffering his crisis of faith from the previous few episodes, believes that everything Jacob has said is a lie and that they are all dead, echoing a fan-favorite theory from Season One that had the island as purgatory or hell. (Not so, of course.)

Jacob brought Ilana to the island but didn't tell her everything she had to do; he's leaving things still to free will and to her being guided by Richard in a way that he cannot. Jacob seems to set things into motion--pushing people into the game--but doesn't intervene when it comes to their choices, even going so far as to allow himself (I believe) to be killed by Ben in "The Incident."

Richard. So just what are they meant to do next? Richard has no idea and he's had it with his bargain with Jacob. He wants to switch sides, to change his decision and his alliance. He returns to the spot of his past decision, the place where he had buried Isabella's cross, and digs it up as he screams out to the Nemesis that he has changed his mind, echoing the offer made by the Man in Black to come over to his side whenever he wanted. But before that can happen, Hurley turns up with a message from Isabella, acting as a bridge between Richard and his dead wife and passing along two important messages: one, that they are already together, always, and two, that they must stop the Man in Black or they will "all go to Hell."

All in all, I thought this was a serviceable episode that didn't totally fulfill the promise of Richard Alpert's backstory. Things did pick up once Richard arrived on the island and was forced to enter the game between Jacob and his Nemesis but I found the Isabella elements to be really contrived and forced and didn't have the emotional impact that it really should have. (I especially felt that the scene at the end between ghost Isabella, Richard, and Hurley wasn't really earned, given that I didn't care about Isabella and she remained little more than a pious cipher at the end of the episode.) I did, however, really enjoy the flashback elements that dealt with the Man in Black and Jacob as we got to see much more of their relationship and those scenes crackled with energy and tension.

What did you think of this week's episode? Am I being too harsh? Were you let down or excited by this installment? Did you fall for Richard and Isabella or moan when they were on screen together? Just what was the deal with that blue butterfly at the Black Rock? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Lost ("The Package"), Sun and Jin desperately continue their search for one another while Locke confronts his enemy.

Channel Surfing: Alan Cumming Upped to Regular on "Good Wife," "Scrubs" Dead, Jane Lynch Talks "Glee," More "Ricky Gervais Show," "Big Love," and More

Welcome your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Alan Cumming has been promoted to series regular on Season Two of CBS' The Good Wife. Cumming, who joined the cast of the legal drama last month, will reprise his role as Eli Gold (described as "a sharp-tongued reputation rehabilitator working with Chris Noth’s disgraced politician") as a series regular next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Looks like Scrubs is done. At least according to former series star Zach Braff, who posted a message on Facebook indicating that the ABC medical comedy series would not be resuscitated next season. "Many of you have asked, so here it is," wrote Braff. "It appears that New Scrubs, Scrubs 2.0, Scrubs with new kids, Scrubbier, Scrubs without JD is no more. It was worth a try, but alas... it didn't work." ABC refused to comment on the possible cancellation, though series creator Bill Lawrence told E! Online's Megan Masters that Scrubs "hasn't been canceled [but], we're all just assuming it's over." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams interviews Jane Lynch about what's coming up on FOX's musical-comedy series Glee. "She's just always trying to hurt somebody," Lynch said of Sue Sylvester. "She always has a moment of "I will get that glee club." It's more of the same, but I think she's a little more desperate. Mercedes [Amber Riley] and Kurt [Chris Colfer] defect and come over to the cheerios; they stay on glee, but I give them solos, so they prefer me. I'm trying to break it up anyway I can." (TVGuide.com)

Could it be that Karl Pilkington's round head has bowled over executives at HBO? The pay cabler has ordered a second season of animated comedy The Ricky Gervais Show, set to air next year. "With this second series we would have already done as many episodes as The Office and Extras put together," said Gervais. "This can run and run as long as Karl remains a global village idiot." UK residents, take note: Channel 4 will launch the series on April 23rd. (Hollywood Reporter, BBC News)

The Onion's A.V. Club has a new interview with Big Love's Chloe Sevigny, where she slams the HBO drama series' latest season. "It was awful this season, as far as I’m concerned," Sevigny told A.V. Club. "I’m not allowed to say that! [Gasps.] It was very telenovela. I feel like it kind of got away from itself. The whole political campaign seemed to me very far-fetched. I mean, I love the show, I love my character, I love the writing, but I felt like they were really pushing it this last season. And with nine episodes, I think they were just squishing too much in. HBO only gave us nine Sundays, because they have so much other original programming—especially with The Pacific—and they only have a certain amount of Sundays per year, so we only got nine Sundays. I think that they had more story than episodes. I think that’s what happened." (The Onion's A.V. Club)

Kevin Kline will star in an untitled HBO drama pilot about a disgraced doctor who emerges from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence for murdering his mistress and attempts to get his life back on track. Project will be written by David Auburn, who will executive produce with Klein, Gavin Polone, and Judy Hofflund. (Variety)

Pilot casting update: Jennifer Beals (Lie to Me) will star opposite Jason Clarke in Shawn Ryan's FOX cop drama pilot Ride-along, where she will play Teresa Colvin, Chicago's first female police chief; John Larroquette (Boston Legal) will star opposite Jason Isaacs in FOX legal drama pilot Pleading Guilty, will play a managing partner at the firm where Isaac's Mack--a former cop turned lawyer--works; and Keith David (Death at a Furneral) will star opposite David Lyons in Tom Wheeler's NBC vigilante drama pilot The Cape, where he will play a criminal mastermind who becomes the mentor to Lyon's Vince. (Hollywood Reporter)

IFC has announced that it has ordered ten half-hour episodes of Onion News Network, which it will launch in early 2011, as well as comedy-mystery series Death Comes to Town, featuring the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe. Network also announced that it had acquired the five-episode British zombie horror-comedy Dead Set, written by Charlie Brooker, that will launch in October and will launch its co-produced comedy The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, which stars Will Arnett and David Cross, this fall. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Judy Greer (Archer) will guest star in an upcoming episode of CBS' The Big Bang Theory, where she will play a famous physicist who spends the night at Sheldon's apartment. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage's Fake Empire has its first employee as Warner Bros. Television executive Leonard Goldstein has been hired as the head of television for the new WBTV-based shingle. Goldstein will remain with the studio until the end of pilot season, at which time he'll move to Fake Empire full-time. "He's one of the few people who can give me bad news or big notes, and I still like him," Schwartz told Variety. "I floated the idea (of partnering) a few years ago, but it's all about timing. He knew what Stephanie and I had planned, and the timing was finally right." (Hollywood Reporter, Variety)

NBC is said to be developing a flash mob reality competition series with 3 Ball Entertainment, who are themselves in talks with Paula Abdul and Kenny Ortega. But don't assume this is a standard flash mob show. "This is way beyond that," a source told The Wrap's Josef Adalian. "This is enormous dance performance, far beyond what you'd expect to be able to do on television." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe, Variety)

ABC has ordered roughly seven or eight episodes of reality medical series Boston Med, which will feature the staffers and patients of three different hospitals in Boston. Series, which features the first televised face transplants, will air this summer and is expected to be given Grey's Anatomy's Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT timeslot. (Variety)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Vampire Diaries fans will be able to get a teaser for future plotlines by making a phone call to a mysterious number, the same number that will appear on screen this week on Thursday evening's episode. (TV Guide Magazine)

FOX has confirmed that comedy series 'Til Death will not be returning for a fifth season. (Variety)

RDF USA has restructured its West Coast office under inbound chief creative officer Natalka Znak, with development and current programming duties being split among executives. Claire O'Donohoe will serve as EVP of current while Mike Duffy will handle development as EVP, with both reporting into Znak. (Variety)

In other executive news, Gordon Ramsay has opened a Santa Monica office for his One Potato Two Potato production company, which will be headed up by Adelina Ramage Rooney. The company's first US project will be FOX's upcoming Master Chef, which it co-produces with Reveille and Shine. (Variety)

Finally, Sue Norton has been hired as SVP of television for Lonely Planet at BBC Worldwide Prods. She's been tasked with broadening the presence of Lonely Planet on television and digital platforms. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Crack in the Wall: Vulnerabilities on "Damages"

"Life is complicated... We live in the grey areas." - Arthur Frobisher

On this week's episode of Damages ("Drive It Through Hardcore"), written by Glenn Kessler and directed by Tate Donovan, we received a few tidbits of information about the two overarching mysteries this season as Patty and Tom sought to learn the truth about what really happened on Thanksgiving (and how it involved Tessa Marchetti) and we're given another look at just what happens to Tom Shayes in the future storyline. (I'm still sticking by my theory even with last night's seeming revelation.)

Meanwhile, Ellen had to contend with more family drama and Arthur Frobisher met with Terry's producing partner in an effort to bring his life's story to the silver screen, bringing them face to face with Patty Hewes herself.

So what did I think of this week's episode? Let's discuss.

The season's two timelines are now nearly touching one another as the gap between the present and future continues to slide together, with only two months now between them. Given that things still seem to be cordial between Tom and Patty, I'm curious to see just what leads to the breakdown in their relationship in the next few weeks... and just how some of the grander character explorations--such as Patty's recurring nightmares and Frobisher's seeming redemption--fall into the larger picture.

This week's episode didn't give us too much to go on with regard to the future storyline, save for two scenes that seemed to shed some light on the aforementioned bust-up between Patty and Tom and the final scene which offered a potential twist in Tom's murder, one that I'm still trying to wrap my brain around. Instead, the episode focused on four distinct storylines: the Tobin case, Patty's nightmares and her estrangement with son Michael, Ellen's family drama, and Arthur Frobisher's nascent movie career.

The Tobin Case. This week, we learned that everyone in the Tobin family would appear to be a pathological liar by nature. Tessa Marchetti lied to Patty and Tom when she said that she hadn't spent her Thanksgiving holiday with her mother, instead claiming that she spent it with friends upstate. Why Tessa would lie--and why Danielle would instruct her to--remains to be seen, given that what Tessa would appear to be covering up (at least from Carol Tobin's perspective) is that Leonard Winstone stopped by the apartment and collected Louis Tobin's things--removing all evidence of the affair between them--and then throwing them into the dumpster behind the apartment building he owns.

Those items would appear to be the custom monogrammed cowboy boots and a burner cell phone that Louis used to communicate with Danielle. Yes, Leonard acted quickly to build some distance between Louis and Danielle but why was it so essential that the removal of the evidence be done that night, by Leonard himself, and why would everyone lie about it, given that Patty already uncovered the objects themselves weeks ago? Hmmm... And, given that Danielle made Tessa promise to lie, there must be something bigger than all of this going on, something that reveals just how Louis and Zedeck were able to hide the money in Antigua. Interesting.

Carol Tobin, meanwhile, is cracking under the strain as she attempts to come to grips with the fact that she murdered Danielle Marchetti. Not helping matters is the fact that she's a virtual prisoner of the apartment where Joe has hidden her and that the only person she has any contact with is Leonard Winstone. Finding her in the bath with a knife, he convinces her to see her psychiatrist... but forbids her from discussing Danielle Marchetti.

But Carol's visits to Dr. Samuels open her up to a confrontation at his office by Patty and Tom, who question her about Thanksgiving and she tells them about how she and Leonard drove to see Danielle Marchetti that night and disposed of her father's belongings. While she identifies Tessa as having been there, Patty doesn't reveal that she wasn't Danielle's housekeeper, as Leonard claims, keeping Carol in the dark that Leonard is lying to her about that night. (Clearly, it's an effort to keep Tessa's existence a secret and therefore preserve their means of keeping the fraud and the secret fortune alive.)

Interesting too that Marilyn would be attempting to create some familiarity between herself and her dead husband's illegitimate daughter, as we see Marilyn and Tessa share a coffee and Marilyn reach out and touch Tessa's hand when Tessa tells her that she's been talking to Patty Hewes. Just what is Marilyn after exactly? Why attempt to form some connection between them now? How much does Marilyn know, really? (It's the first scene together for the two since Marilyn turned up as Tessa arrived home the night of Danielle's murder.)

Ellen. Poor Ellen once again got sucked back into the nightmare of family drama as her junkie sister Carrie got arrested with an ounce of meth on her and was booked for intention to distribute. Once again, Carrie attempts to (A) lie, (B) deny, and (C) basically blame Ellen for landing her there and not doing anything to get her out of this situation. I'm beginning to think that jail might be the best place for Carrie as she desperately needs to face up to reality and admit that she has a problem. Instead, Carrie is so quick to attack Ellen that it's no surprise that Ellen wouldn't want to put herself out there and help her sister, a fact that their mother plays up in her typically histrionic way, saying that Carrie "never had a chance." Ugh.

Was Ellen right to tell Carrie to plead guilty and throw herself on the mercy of the court? Probably, especially because her logic is somewhat sound as Carrie doesn't have a record and is a first-time drug offender. She certainly can't represent her as she works for the D.A.'s office and Gates even goes so far as to tell her that she should hope for the nastiest prosecutor ever because there would then be no whiff of favoritism. They can't get involved.

And yet... Ellen's mother once again works her guilt mojo on her, leading Ellen to ask Patty for help. Which is always a big mistake as Patty hates weakness, she hates vulnerability, and she doesn't do anything for free. A favor now means one in exchange down the line and it means that Ellen now owes Patty. Which makes me very nervous, given Ellen has already crossed a line for Patty and Tom regarding the Tobin case and withheld evidence from Gates about Carol's involvement in Danielle's murder. It's only a matter of time before Ellen loses her job at the district attorney's office, given the subterfuge and unethical behavior going on.

Not good.

Patty. I'm glad that Michael finally came clean to Patty about what's really going on in his life, telling his mother that he is expecting a baby, is a painter, and is living with Jill. He claims that he lied to her at that dinner they had because he didn't want her judgment; she then responds by asking if there's any possibility he isn't the baby's father. (Um...) But Michael isn't there for a fight; he wants her to fill out some paperwork on their family's genetic background and poses some questions that take us back through the last two seasons.

Loved the mention that his biological father is in prison and his question about previous babies, once more dredging up the corpse of Julia Hewes from her grave. We've never fully gotten the entire truth about Patty's prior pregnancy, so I can't help but wonder if we'll learn something more about Patty's past before the season is over. After all, the recurring nightmares about horses continues apace. After Michael leaves, Patty throws a bowl against the wall, leaving a nasty gash there. (A chink in her armor, perhaps?)

Patty, being Patty, later takes a hammer to the wall and smashes it up, rather than let architect Julian Decker do it properly. During her latest dream, she looks through the hole she made and sees a horse looking back at her. Just what does the horse symbolize? The idealized version of her life that she left behind in childhood? An emotional truth that's buried beneath the surface like the true beauty of her apartment? Like her home, Patty needs someone to smash down the walls built up over the years and reveal the truth that lies there, the skull beneath the skin.

Frobisher. This week's character exploration dovetailed quite nicely with the latest scenes with Arthur Frobisher, who has become so focused on his redemption that he wants Terry and his producing partner to make Patty Hewes the hero of the piece rather than the Machiavellian villain; he's fully aware of his crimes and wrongdoings in the past and wants a fair and balanced approach to the story. (Fro's son, meanwhile, offers a more nuanced perspective of what happened, rightfully acknowledging that Patty attempted to destroy Frobisher.)

Patty isn't interested in appearing the crusading hero or playing a part in the ongoing redemption of Arthur Frobisher. She turns the tables on Frobisher's little meet-and-greet at the office with the Hollywood types, belittling Frobisher and attempting to humiliate him for his weakness, vanity, and foolishness. "The Arthur Frobisher I know is a despicable bully," said Patty. "He stole from his employees, then he manipulated the system to escape prison with a slap on the wrist... Do what you want; I don't much like movies."

The effect brings back the old Frobisher we know and (sort of) love: he's done with any attempt at balance and fairness in this film. Patty can be the villain and he can be the protagonist who overcomes obstacles, makes grievous mistakes, but redeems himself in the end. Oh, Fro, you've just fallen prey to a revisionist history, exactly what you sought to avoid. Maybe you are just as vain and foolish as Patty said you were. Or maybe you're just as mercenary as you always were.

Two Months Later. The episode is bookended with two scenes from the future-set storyline. In the first, Tom hands in his resignation from Hewes & Shayes, clearly as set-up for launching his own firm with Ellen. If Patty is surprised, she hides it extremely well (she did, after all, almost convince Michael she didn't know about his baby) and Tom doesn't exactly give her a reason for why he quits. Could it be that she learns that he's personally invested in the Tobin case and was himself swindled out of money? Or does she once more ask him to cross a moral line that he's unwilling to cross? Hmmm...

Meanwhile, the final scene puts another spin on Tom's murder. He's seen once more bloody and staggering over to a pay phone, calling someone--Deb?--and telling the recipient that he loves them. This time, we see a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge as something dark plummets from the bridge into the waters below. Tom's body? Does he kill himself? Is he pushed? I'm more than a little confused by this as there doesn't seem to be a hard connection between the pay phone scene and the bridge. (Would he really make a call from a public payphone on a bridge? Why would there by a phone on the bridge?) And if Tom jumps or is pushed from the bridge, why would anyone fish him out of a huge body of water and then dump him in a dumpster nearby where someone would find the body? How could anyone locate a corpse in that much water?

To me, it's a red herring, at least as far as Tom's murder goes. I still maintain that the fluid in Tom's lungs comes from waterboarding, which would again explain the vast quantity of empty water bottles littering the floor of the apartment. Which would mean that it's not Tom's body but something else that's thrown off of the bridge. It's not the bag of cash, because that's found in the trunk of that car registered to Tom.

My initial response is that what goes into the river is Leonard Winstone's body as he jumps off the bridge. Knowing that the truth about his real identity will come out (given that his fingerprints would likely be found at the scene), Leonard kills himself before he can be exposed as a fraud. The season's been rife with suicides--from Louis Tobin's death to the mention of poor Ray Fiske last night and Carol almost slitting her wrists in the bathtub--so it might only be fitting that Leonard leaves his world in the same method that his father figure Louis did: at his own hand.

What do you think? Do you agree with the above theory? Disagree? And what did you think of this week's episode? Discuss.

Next week on Damages ("Tell Me I'm Not Racist"), Patty's clients want her removed from the Tobin case; Tom Shayes makes a risky move that jeopardizes Ellen's job with the district attorney.

Red Test: Chuck, Sarah, and Casey Find Themselves at a Crossroads on "Chuck"

"It's America, Chuck. Everyone has a choice." - John Casey

If there's one single theme for this season of NBC's Chuck it would be appear to be identity. How do we define ourselves? How do we let others define us? Does it matter whether Chuck is a spy, an asset, or a civilian? If you take John Casey out of the espionage world, is he still Casey? And are we more defined by the actions we take or those that we don't?

This week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Final Exam"), written by Zev Borow and directed by Robert Duncan McNeil, brought these issues to the forefront of the series, posing several questions about the way in which our three central spies see themselves in reference to the rest of the world and the way in which they view each other.

As Chuck prepares to take his final mission, the one thing that stands in his way is a final test, the last hurdle in his path to becoming a full-blown spy. But if he's willing and able to take that leap, it might very well destroy any chance he has with Sarah and forever remove any last vestige of his innocence. What happens when your heart's desires are at cross-purposes? Is there any way to win? Or are you doomed to fail no matter what you do?

So what did I think of this week's episode? Let's dive in.

I thought Zev Borow did a fantastic job with this week's episode, though I will say that the Subway product placement was extremely heavy-handed this week, bordering on the almost obscene as Big Mike not only chomped down on a Subway sandwich while his tailor measured him for a new suit but an entire scene was shot inside an actual Subway and Casey had to literally "break freshly baked bread" with Jeff and Lester (and take a bite of Jeff's "tuna-roni" concoction). Granted, Chuck couldn't have come back without the support of sponsor Subway and I appreciate everything that Subway has done in keeping this series on the air, but I wish that there was a way to tone down these moments without making them quite so blatant.

It took me out of what was otherwise a solid episode that featured some real shifts in the dynamics between the characters, but that's a minor quibble in an otherwise stellar installment. Several of the characters were forced to make decisions that would have long-standing implications within the confines of the narrative. Would Chuck follow orders and kill CIA mole Hunter Perry (guest star Kyle Bornheimer)? Could Sarah ever look at him the same way again if he passed his red test? Could Casey put aside his "John Crazy" persona and adjust to being an everyday civilian?

It's Chuck's decision which dovetails nicely with those made by both Sarah and Casey. Following the near-dismantling of the team last week (after Casey's treasonous actions), Chuck receives word that, if he passes his final exam, the team will in fact be finished. He will be stationed in Rome and given a cover as a billionaire industrialist (though how Chuck could quite pull off such an elaborate cover would remain to be seen), while Sarah and Shaw will be based in Washington D.C., where they will focus on counter-Ring operations.

While Sarah says that it looks like Chuck got everything he's always wanted, that's far from the truth. Yes, he stands on the precipice of becoming a "real" spy, one with a badge and a gun, it's not all that he's wanted. While he's become something bigger than his job at the Buy More, he wants it all: the spy job, the glamorous/dangerous thrill, and the girl. It's the latter that's presenting a problem.

I loved how Chuck brought along a stakeout kit, complete with Hall & Oates' "Private Eyes" on the iPod and the famous sizzling shrimp, both of which played prominently in Chuck and Sarah's very first stakeout. There's a nice sense of finality here, as though this could easily be their final mission together and both Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski play it brilliantly, evoking a solemn nostalgia and a sweet camaraderie that nearly culminates in a kiss between the two. (Until Shaw chimes in, that is.)

Would they be different people if Chuck had made a different decision in Prague and chosen Sarah over the job? Possibly but it's also in Chuck's nature to choose professional duty and selflessness over personal desire and selfishness. He also wrongfully believes that he's not worthy of Sarah's love because he's ordinary rather than extraordinary, which coldn't be further from the truth.

What has attracted Sarah to Chuck has been his innate innocence: the fact that he abhors violence, doesn't want to carry a gun, and prefers to solve his problems by thinking rather shooting his way out of them. Chuck believes that if he passes his test, they can be together because they'll both be equals. But that's a problem for Sarah, given that she's fallen for Chuck's sweet naivete and his inability to kill someone in cold blood.

If he goes complete his final exam--his "red test"--then Sarah believes he won't be the same person that he once was. She doesn't want him to be able to kill, especially because she has carried around the guilt of her own red test all of these years, a formative experience that shaped Sarah immensely and likely caused her to conceal a lot of her own emotion and bury it deep inside. Even as she shot her target, she wanted to be sure that the woman was reaching for a weapon and that she hadn't murdered her without justifiable cause. But it's a mystery that will forever plague her.

I had a feeling when Chuck gave Casey a gun from Castle as a thank-you present that this gift would have to come back into it somehow... and, sure enough, it did. I wondered if Chuck would be able to kill Perry if it came down to it, whether he would be able to pull the trigger if his or Sarah's lives were in jeopardy and whether Chuck would be pushed to action. (I also wondered for a split-second whether the entire mission--from Ivan Drago (ha!) to Perry murdering Anatoli to the train station fight--was all a set-up designed to see if Chuck would be willing to kill.)

Casey has seemingly always wanted Chuck to man up, to step into the role of spy and accept the full responsibilities of that job. Yet when it came to Chuck making the final step into that arena--into killing for his job and country--Casey fulfilled that part of the mission for Chuck, felling Perry with a bullet just as he reached for the gun on his ankle and preserving Chuck's innocence.

As Casey says later, given that he's a civilian, no one can know what he did for Chuck as it was murder, not a government-sanctioned assassination. But that presents complications for Chuck and Sarah's relationship. She can't be with him if she believes he pulled that trigger and he can't tell her that he didn't. While Casey meant to help both of them, he may have just created an even bigger obstacle to their reconciliation.

Special praise has to go to Strahovski, who once again managed to convey a real depth of emotion with little more than a look, a tilt of her head, or a teary eye. She's proven to be quite adept at choreographing a great deal of nuance with the smallest of movements and this episode was no exemption. The sadness as she looks back at Chuck at Union Station spoke volumes as did the painful recollection of her red test as she tells Shaw that it was the worst day of her life.

What else did I love about this week's episode? The use of Ivan Drago (a shout-out to Dolph Lundgren's character in Rocky IV); Chuck's stakeout kit (complete with bottle of champagne, glasses, and Chinese food); the callbacks to the gang's first joint stakeout; the knife fight in the Union Station restroom; Chuck's horror when he believes he killed Perry; Casey smashing Jeff and Lester's heads together; and the best line of the evening: "I am a naked spy!"

All in all, I'm extremely intrigued to see just where the writers take this storyline. This was the last episode I had seen in advance so I'm just as much in the dark as everyone else is right now. It definitely seems as though the team is splintering in more ways than one and their entire close-knit unit has been fractured, possibly beyond repair.

But I am curious to know: what did you think of this week's episode? What do you think will happen to Chuck, Sarah, and Casey? Is Chuck and Sarah's relationship beyond damaged at this point? Will Chuck come clean about what Casey did for him? Can he get on that plane for Rome? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the American Hero"), Chuck has his pick of the best CIA agents for an undercover operation, but he has only one girl in mind for the job: Sarah. Meanwhile, Casey, Morgan, and Awesome join forced to help Chuck win Sarah back.

Hope Never Dies: An Advance Review of the Season Premiere of BBC America's "Survivors"

For the survivors of the European flu, things have not been going so well lately.

During Saturday night's season finale of BBC America's Survivors, members of the group were alternately kidnapped, shot, and forced to participate in a child thief gang that would have felt quite at home in Charles Dickens' Oliver. In other words: things couldn't really get much worse. And yet...

In tonight's gripping second season premiere, the loose band of survivors discovers that things can in fact get a lot worse, as they face their toughest challenges yet and continue to become increasingly splintered by outside forces. Tonight's episode pushes them to the brink of death itself, as several characters find themselves trapped in untenable situations from which escape seems futile while one of them makes a selfless sacrifice in an effort to earn her place among the group.

Survivors has thrived by offering a heady blend of post-apocalyptic suspense and a meditative exploration of the human condition under some bleak circumstances and tonight's episode is no exception to that rule. What do we do when faced with certain death? When the world comes crumbling down around our heads, do we hide or fight? Can you trust in the kindness of strangers or is there always a price to pay?

Season Two of Survivors takes place moments after the end of the freshman season as Anya and Tom attempt to save the life of Greg, wounded by a shotgun blast minutes before at the hands of the sadistic Dexter. But attempting to operate on a gunshot wound victim in the middle of a horror-filled London isn't exactly easy and Anya needs vital hospital equipment if she has any chance of saving Greg's life. Thus, a last-ditch mission to the hospital where Anya worked as Anya, Tom, and Al attempt to grab some supplies while Sarah and Najid keep an eye on the delirious Greg.

The only problem: Anya didn't count on the hospital being on fire.

I won't say any more about that situation but it ranks up there with some of the most grueling and tense situations on the series to date as the severity of their situation is tested by even more terror, the aching possibility of loss, and a brutal encounter experienced by the manipulative Sarah, who discovers that she is in way over her head.

Greg, meanwhile, suffering from the results of the gunshot wound and having his chest cut open without any anesthesia, begins to imagine/remember life before the virus outbreak, giving the audience some vital clues into his past and his character, including one reveal that tantalizingly dangles in the air. While he struggles with his past actions, his sole desire is to locate and save Abby, taken during the season finale by a group of armed men from the lab.

Abby's presence at the laboratory kicks up a whole new direction for the series as we learn more about the lab and its scientists, who they are, what they want, and what their true mission is. I was extremely surprised by a crucial reveal at the end of the episode as well as an intriguing subplot that makes me wonder just what is actually going on with this lab. Look for Whittaker, the Machiavellian head scientist, to become a more fully realized and three-dimensional character as he explains--or lies--to Abby about what they want from her and as we learn a great deal about his own character flaws.

Three words--"hope never dies"--may hold some critical answers and I can't wait to see just how this story pans out. Survivors continues to surprise with its grittiness, plot twists, and compelling characters and despite the series' move to Tuesdays (where it will now air opposite Lost), it's a series that's well worth your time.

Season Two of Survivors begins tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Channel Surfing: Knepper to "SGU," Schwartz and Savage Set up Shop, "Chuck," Knighton FlashForwards to "Happy Endings," Spacek to CBS, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Robert Knepper (Heroes, Prison Break) has reportedly been cast in a villainous recurring role on Season Two of Syfy's Stargate Universe. Citing internet reports, several sites are reporting that Knepper will play Simeon, a mysterious member of the Lucian Alliance, and will appear in a multiple-episode story arc to last between six to seven episodes. (via TV Squad)

Producing partners Josh Schwartz (Chuck) and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl) have signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. Television and have set up their own shingle, Fake Empire, which will be based at the studio. Pod will develop projects for television, film, digital, videogames, music, and publishing. (Variety)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian, meanwhile, has an interview with Schwartz and Savage, who jointly answered Adalian's questions via email. [Editor: The duo answered the question I had, which was whether Chuck would fall under the Fake Empire umbrella. Answer: it won't.] (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

SPOILER! Speaking of Chuck, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has some major spoilers for the third season finale of NBC's Chuck. You can read them but I am keeping my eyes and ears pure as I don't want to be spoiled about any of the plot twists ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you! (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FlashForward's Zachary Knighton has been cast opposite Elisha Cuthbert in ABC comedy pilot Happy Endings, where he will play Dave, half of a couple that split up at the altar and must decide how to maintain their friendships afterwards. Project, from ABC Studios and Sony Pictures Television, is written by David Caspe and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Knighton's participation is said to be in second position to FlashForward, but Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva states that the latter's "chances for renewal are slim." (Hollywood Reporter)

Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek--who just completed a story arc on HBO's Big Love--has been cast in CBS' untitled Hannah Shakespeare medical drama from executive producer John Wells. Spacek will play Adrianne, a driven visionary who heads up a mobile medical team that travels the country providing care for the less fortunate and who grapples with her own cancer diagnosis and regular chemotherapy. (She's also the mother to Rachelle Lefevre's character, also a doctor.) Spacek's role was, like several others this season, originally written as a man. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jaime Pressly (My Name is Earl) has been cast as one of the leads in CBS' untitled Carter Bays/Craig Thomas multi-camera comedy pilot (also known as Livin' on a Prayer) from writers Kourtney Kang and Joe Kelly. Pressly will play a veterinarian who works with her best friend Tommy (Kyle Bornheimer) at the local zoo. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pilot casting update: Michael Rapaport (The War at Home) will star opposite Dylan Walsh in ABC cop drama pilot The Line (also known as ATF); Will Estes (Reunion) and Bridget Moynahan (Six Degrees) have been cast opposite Tom Selleck, Donny Wahlberg, and Len Cariou in CBS' untitled Burgess/Green drama pilot (a.k.a. Reagan's Law); Amy Landecker (A Serious Man) has landed the female lead opposite Paul Reiser in NBC comedy pilot Next; Kurt Fuller (Supernatural) has been cast in ABC's untitled Shana Goldberg-Meehan comedy pilot; and Kevin Rahm (Desperate Housewives) has come aboard CBS comedy pilot Open Books. (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Scott Porter will likely be heading back to Friday Night Lights for the series' fifth and final season, following a conversation Porter had with the series' producers, in which they indicated that they would like him to reprise his role as paraplegic Jason Street. "I’m hoping it turns into a definite because I’d love to go back," Porter told Keck. "I’m hoping he could repay his debts – particularly to Riggins for everything he did for Street." (TV Guide Magazine)

The Los Angeles Times' Maria Elena Fernandez has an profile of Justified co-star Walton Goggins (The Shield), who plays the sadistic white supremacist Boyd Crowder on the FX drama series... and whose character was meant to be killed off at the end of the pilot episode. "The greatest part about it," Goggins told Fernandez about Boyd's alleged religious epiphany in tonight's episode, "is that you will think you know by the end of the first season if the change is real, but no one knows. This is Boyd seeing God for the first time. What's so interesting about it is that while his actions may not be different, his motivations are different. And that's really important at the conclusion of the first season. What happens to this guy and this friendship when many things are called into question?"(Los Angeles Times)

Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray), Hayley Hasselhoff, Andrew Caldwell, and Zander Eckhouse have been cast in ABC Family's upcoming ten-episode drama series Huge, which revolves around the teenagers and staffers of Wellness Canyon, a weight-loss camp. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has named January 16th as the date for the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which will once again air live coast to coast on NBC. (Variety)

Those tears that Peter Facinelli's Dr. Fitch Cooper let flow in last night's season premiere of Showtime's Nurse Jackie? Absolutely real and completely not pre-meditated, according to Facinelli. "I started venting, and all of a sudden, tears sprung from my eyes and I couldn't stop crying. Basically, I had a physical meltdown," Facinelli told E! Online. "I was traveling back and forth from Vancouver to New York, and I was shooting Nurse Jackie and Eclipse at the same time. I think I was emotionally exhausted. The writers loved it! They thought I planned it, and I really didn't. Just know that those are real tears." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

HBO has given a greenlight to telepic Cinema Verite, a dramatization of the behind-the-scenes events during the making of the landmark reality television series An American Family, which premiered in 1973 and focused on the Loud family. Telepic, executive produced by Gavin Polone, will be written by David Seltzer and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Bob Pulcini. (Hollywood Reporter)

TLC has ordered twelve episodes of spinoff reality series Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, which will launch in July. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

All Saints and Sinners: An Advance Review of Season Two of "Nurse Jackie"

"Why [do] the things that are so bad for you make you feel the best?"

Season Two of Showtime's deliciously dark comedy Nurse Jackie begins tonight and the series, which launched last year, hasn't lost any of its sparkle, wit, or biting charm during its time off. This is after all a series that featured its hero--the overworked and underpaid Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco), a woman willing to cross several lines to save lives and score a fix--flushing a severed human ear down a toilet in its very first episode.

Since then, the series' diverse cast of characters has deepened and grown as we've seen the staff of All Saints Hospital struggle with medical, moral, and marital issues and blossom into appealingly flawed individuals. None more so than Jackie herself, a woman devoted to the profession of nursing who is so caring towards her patients and her family and yet so entirely self-destructive, pushing herself into extramarital relationships, keeping nearly everyone at arm's length, and indulging in any number of prescription drugs filched from the hospital.

The series--created by Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem, and Evan Dunsky--returns tonight with a fantastic installment that picks up a little while after the events of last season's finale, where Jackie's former lover Eddie (Paul Schulze) discovered that she was married and revealed that he had been spending time with her husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa). Suffice it to say that there's much drama, as well as some hysterical dark humor, lurking just around the corner.

While I've seen the first eight episodes of Nurse Jackie's second season provided to press for review, I'll focus for now on the first four installments of what promises to be a fantastically taut season. Minor spoilers follow but none that will derail your pleasure with this incredible comedy series.

As mentioned earlier, Season Two of Nurse Jackie finds Jackie attempting to process the implications of what Eddie has revealed and her fear that Eddie will tell Kevin about their affair continues to haunt her. In the first episode back, a day at the beach with Kevin and their two daughters--sweet little Fiona (Daisy Tahan) and anxious Grace (Ruby Jerins, once again astonishing)--turns into something darker as Jackie believes she sees Eddie watching her. But while Eddie might not be at the beach, he does force his way back into Eddie's life in these episodes in a way that's both shocking and pathetic. (It really had to be seen to be believed.)

Despite her horror that Eddie could destroy her marriage, Jackie hasn't stopped abusing prescription medication. Her addiction is both an enabler--it gives her the energy to deal with her work and home lives--and a crutch, as Jackie can't seem to function with daily life without repeated self-medication. It's another way at building a wall between her and Life. But it's also made her a target, following the hiring of Sam (Arjun Gupta), a recovering addict who viewers will remember from Season One. Jackie's distrust of Sam, as well as her fear of exposure, put them immediately at odds and Sam's holier-than-thou attitude doesn't help matters.

Once again, her sole confidante is Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best), the wealthy British doctor whose penchant for Hermes scarves and generous gifts seems to lead her into trouble this season. Still reeling from the death of her mother at the end of the first season, O'Hara seems desperate to connect to someone in a way that's inimically opposed to Jackie herself.

Likewise, Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli) seems desperate to manufacture friendships with the people he works with, especially after he lands on New York Magazine's list of the Top 25 doctors in New York City, a fact that gets under the skin of Jackie, O'Hara, and, well, everyone at the hospital. If you thought Coop was unbearable before, just wait until he starts tweeting about life at the hospital and his new position in the medical community. Credit goes to Facinelli for being willing to play the butt of many jokes and for playing Coop with such realistic awkwardness. Coop is so desperate for friends... and yet so unable to see just how repugnant and unlikeable he truly is to everyone.

These episodes also deliver two intriguing subplots for one of my favorite characters, Merritt Wever's fantastically naive Zoey Barkow as Zoey finds herself pushed into adulthood when she must act quickly--and illegally--to save the life of a dying child and when she... Well, that would be telling. But the reveal of that second subplot is one of the great moments of the new season. Kudos to Wever for once again effortlessly making Zoey adorable and sympathetic as well as funny. Her pronunciation of Hermes is priceless as is her discussion with the mentally disturbed man (who calls himself "God") who lives across the street from the hospital.

Season Two also deepens the supporting characters at All Saints, giving Anna Deavere Smith's Gloria Akalitus some real grit and depth this season (I felt that the first season often made her too cartoonish rather than real) and allowing her to open up about her own personal life. There's a gorgeous scene between Akalitus and O'Hara in the third episode that proves that Akalitus isn't really the crabby administrator she makes herself out to be and a moment of real truth as she attempts to break through Jackie's armor by revealing something about herself.

The departure of Haaz Sleiman's Mo-Mo (off-screen and only alluded to in passing) is eased by the arrival of Sam and the very welcome prominence of Stephen Wallem's Thor, whose diabetes plays a role in the first two episodes of the season. His "wedding cake addiction" also sheds a light on the bad things that we all do that make us feel better. While Thor's isn't as bad as, say, Jackie's addiction, it provides a strong case against giving into temptation.

Which is a lesson that Jackie could definitely learn from, though her deep flaws are what make Falco's Jackie such an incredibly nuanced and unpredictable character. For a woman who is more sinner than saint, it's likely to be a season in which her moral code is further tested as the walls continue to close in on her. Just what the addict nurse will do when faced with uncertainty and the threat of discovery on multiple fronts remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure: I'm very gladly along for the ride.



Season Two of Nurse Jackie begins tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime.

TV on DVD: "Mad Men: Season Three"

"Change isn't good or bad. It just is." - Don Draper

In its third season, AMC's gorgeous and provocative period drama Mad Men offered a year of turmoil, both political and social, that was infused with the very essence of change as series creator Matthew Weiner and his writing staff forever altered the foundations of the series. While some so-called game-changers do little more than rearrange the furniture, Weiner and Co. used the third season to lead up to several powerful shifts in the dynamic of this intelligent and gripping series.

Tomorrrow, Lionsgate will release the third season of Mad Men on DVD. If you have seen Season Three of Mad Men, then you know that it's a slow burn that culminates in a series of gasp-inducing moments as the action draws in the Kennedy assassination, the real-life figure of Conrad Hilton, and major changes on the domestic and business fronts for the cast of characters that inhabit this meticulously recreated 1960s snow globe. (You can also find out more about Season Three from my exclusive interviews with Weiner for The Daily Beast from late last year, which can be read here and here.)

If you haven't seen it, then you are missing out on one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking, and emotionally resonant series ever to air on the small screen as it addresses social, political, and gender issues with a deft hand and a skilled flair for deep metaphor.

I've written extensively about the plot of Mad Men's third season so don't want to recap it here because it won't do it justice; it's far better enjoyed at a languid pace that emphasizes the graduate character growth and sharp turns that Weiner's writing staff employs in the third season, a year that finds each of the characters grappling with monumental change in their professional and personal lives. Familiar faces come and go, old relationships are ripped asunder, and new alliances made, all while the characters deliver dialogue of such stinging beauty that's it's only right that they indulge in some other vices. And indulge they do as they smoke their cigarettes, drink their alcohol, and indulge in some extracurricular relationships.

At times, you don't know whether to wince or empathize with them... and that's perhaps the charm of Mad Men. These characters aren't placed on a pedestal of perfection but are instead allowed to make mistakes and appear alternately vulnerable or cruel. In other words: they're truly three-dimensional adults with all of their flaws.

The four-disc box set contains all thirteen episodes from Mad Men's third season, as well as a slew of bonus features, including commentaries from Weiner, the cast, and the crew of Mad Men on each episode and several featurettes. The latter includes: a documentary exploring the life of murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers; a look at the history of the cigarette industry and its relationship to the advertising industry; a pictorial gallery of the historic March on Washington, set to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech; and "Mad Men Illustrated," which features the artist behind those winsome Mad Men-inspire illustrations.

All in all, Mad Men: Season Three is a must-have for devotees of the AMC drama series, period drama, or quality drama in general. Its intoxicating spell is one that will remain with you long after the closing credits have rolled at the end of the third season... and which will make you long for the days to fly by until Season Four of Mad Men can begin this summer.

Mad Men: Season Three is available for purchase beginning tomorrow for a suggested retail price of $49.98. Or you can pick up a copy in the Televisionary store for just $28.99.

Secrets and Shadows: BBC America Unveils New "Doctor Who" Trailer

Digital cabler BBC America today unveiled its newest promotional trailer for Doctor Who, which launches April 17th in the US.

Starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, this new Doctor Who finds Smith tacking up the mantle of the Doctor, a 900-plus-year-old traveler from a vanquished planet who travels through time and space in his TARDIS. Joining the Eleventh Doctor is Gillan's Amy Pond as the dual-hearted time traveler's latest assistant. Plus, Steven Moffat comes on board as the new head writer/executive producer. Having written such standout installments as "Blink," "The Girl in the Fireplace," and "Silence in the Library," among others, I can't wait to see just what he gets up to when he's at the reins.

You can watch the full minute-long promo below as we begin to count down the days before the new Doctor takes to the sky.



Doctor Who premieres Saturday, April 17th at 9 pm ET/PT on BBC America.

Los Angeles Times: "The Amazing Race: Champagne Dreams"

Looking to discuss the latest episode of CBS' fantastic reality series The Amazing Race?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker to read my latest piece, entitled "The Amazing Race: Champagne Dreams," where you can read my take on the latest episode, duct tape, champagne towers, wrong directions, and much more.

Sound off in the comments section and be sure to come back next week as I'll be discussing each episode of The Amazing Race all season long.

Next week on The Amazing Race ("Anonymous?"), the six remaining teams depart the Pit Stop in the Champagne region of France but it's anything but smooth sailing as they set out for the Seychelles as Brent and Caite's relationship hits its rockiest moment yet.

Channel Surfing: Thomas Hayden Church Lands "Episodes," Starz Builds "Camelot," Recasting at "Game of Thrones," Conan and FOX, "Torchwood," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Thomas Haden Church (All About Steve) will star opposite Matt LeBlanc, Claire Forlani, Kathleen Rose Perkins, and Stephen Mangan in Showtime's upcoming single-camera comedy series Episodes, where he will play Merc Lapidus, the network president who purchases the format for a British comedy series and then ruins it when he attempts to adapt it for American audiences. Church is slated to appear in six out of seven of Episodes', er, episodes. Series will air on BBC Two in the UK. (Variety)

Starz is heading to Camelot. The pay cabler has ordered ten episodes of romantic adventure series Camelot, a contemporary retelling of the Arthurian legends of Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" that will be written by Chris Chibnall (Torchwood) and executive produced by Graham King and The Tudors' Morgan O'Sullivan and Michael Hirst. Production on the series, originally developed at Showtime, is set to begin in June in Ireland, with Ecosse Films producing, for a 2011 debut. (Hollywood Reporter, via press release)

Michelle Fairley (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) will replace Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark in HBO's upcoming fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, according to the Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva. "The blogsphere rumored that HBO had reservations about the way the Thrones pilot turned out -- though the network obviously liked the pilot enough to order a series," writes James Hibberd. "Sources say this change was more a behind-the-scenes issue and not a performance issue." (Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

FOX and Conan O'Brien have once again begun talks that could bring the former Tonight Show host to FOX's latenight. But there's a fly in the ointment as NBC has barred O'Brien from participating in FOX's upcoming Idol Gives Back special, slated to air April 21st. (O'Brien's contract does not allow for any television appearances prior to May 1st.) While no deal is in place for O'Brien to make a new home at FOX, should they be able to, O'Brien's upcoming comedy tour schedule would allow for him to be available for FOX's upfront presentation on May 17th and he would be able to meet with local affiliates in nine major markets, thanks to his tour route. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks with Torchwood star John Barrowman--currently appearing on ABC's Desperate Housewives--about the potential US version of Torchwood, which Barrowman hopes won't make Captain Jack Harkness straight. "I hope wherever [the franchise] goes that the show stays the same," Barrowman told Ausiello. "The last thing I would want would be for Jack to become this heterosexual, straight hero. He’s an omnisexual guy. He likes men, women, aliens, whatever. I think we should continue going down that route." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Christian Slater (The Forgotten) and Trevor Moore (The Whitest Kids U'Know) have been cast as two of the leads in FOX's untitled Adam Goldberg comedy pilot (a.k.a. Security), about a group of geniuses who crack top-notch security systems. Slater will play Oz, described as "the charismatic renegade who runs the Titan Team, a gruff ex-military misanthrope with a checkered past." Moore will play Josh Armstrong, described as "the team's womanizing intelligence and reconnaissance head." (Hollywood Reporter)

Pilot casting news: Tate Donovan (Damages) has been cast in ABC superhero drama pilot No Ordinary Family; Caitlin Fitzgerald (It's Complicated) has been cast as the female lead in FOX comedy pilot Most Likely to Succeed, replacing Kaitlin Doubleday; Jennifer Ferrin (Life in Mars) has come aboard NBC vigilante drama pilot The Cape opposite David Lyons and Summer Glau; Sean Patrick Thomas (Lie to Me) and Lorraine Toussaint have joined the cast of CBS drama pilot The Line (also known as ATF), Billy Lush (Generation Kill) has been cast in Shawn Ryan's FOX cop drama pilot Ride-Along; and Flex Alexander (One on One) and Dylan Moore have been added to the cast of CBS' untitled Burgess/Green drama pilot (a.k.a. Reagan's Law) opposite Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg, and Len Cariou. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan offers an update on the long-gestating live-action Star Wars television series. "They are working with writers on scripts," a Lucasfilm representative told Ryan about executive producers George Lucas and Rick McCallum. "They won't set a production date [for Season 1] until the scripts are done." Ryan goes on to indicate that the writing of those scripts has been going on for two years now and that the series could--and that's a massive could--debut on a network as early as 2011. As of right now, however, there is no network attached to the project and Lucasfilm is keeping mum about when or where the Star Wars series will launch. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

NBC has renewed daytime soap Days of Our Lives for the 2010-11 season, guaranteeing the series' 45th anniversary. Series has recently posted a 9 percent ratings increase, landing the soap with its best ratings in three years. (Variety)

The New York Times' Brian Stelter has an article about how Nurse Jackie's Dr. Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli) will be tweeting under the name @DoctorCoop, the latest in a series of Twitter appearances on scripted programming in the last few weeks. (New York Times)

Looks like Rosie O'Donnell could be heading back to daytime syndication... or cable. O'Donnell has teamed up with former Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution executives Rick Robertson, and Scott Carlin to form a new company and launch a new daytime talk show with O'Donnell hosting to arrive on the air in fall of 2011, the same time that Oprah Winfrey wraps her own series. O'Donnell's latest offering, however, wouldn't mimic her daytime talk show, which ran from 1996 to 2002; instead, it would focus on "the host's charitable and political pet causes." (Hollywood Reporter)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at why Rosie O'Donnell's return to daytime could work and offers "three new rules for the new Rosie." (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Spike has pulled its comedy series Players from its schedule, effective immediately. series, which had aired three episodes, will be replaced with repeats of Blue Mountain State and repeats of Deadliest Warriors beginning April 6th. (Futon Critic)

TV Guide Network has teamed up with Curb Your Enthusiasm creator/star Larry David to offer never-before-seen extras that will air on the cabler in connection with its syndicated run of Curb. Hosted by Susie Essman, the extras, entitled Curb Your Enthusiam: The Discussion, will "feature a panel of high-profile guest stars, pundits and prominent social figures who will debate the moral implications of the behavior in each episode." (via press release)

Stay tuned.

San Diego Comic-Con: Hotel Hell?

As Shirley Ghostman might say, I feel your pain, I feel your shame, but you're not to blame.

Despite the fact that San Diego Comic-Con isn't for several months, the always frustrating hotel reservation process began yesterday, which lit up Twitter with horror stories of reservations gone horribly awry and guests being given none of their twelve top choices--a new feature this year--and instead being placed miles away from the convention center.

(Personally, after several years of frustrating experiences that left me nearly ripping out my hair, I ended up landing my first choice this year and didn't have as much of a madness-inducing experience as several people I know.)

While it's not a television-related topic per se, I am wondering who at this point is still going to Comic-Con 2010, who has thrown in the towel, and who is still on the fence. Plus, if you are going, where did you end up in the hotel lottery? And did you find the reservation process this year improved, the same, or worse?

Discuss.

The Daily Beast: "15 Reasons to Watch TV This Spring"

Looking for something to watch this spring?

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "15 Reasons to Watch TV This Spring," where I round up fifteen new and returning series airing this spring--from Doctor Who, V, Nurse Jackie, and Fringe to Treme, Peep Show, and Top Chef Masters, among others--as well as some major events like the end of ABC's Lost in May.

What are you most looking forward to this spring and what's caught your fancy as your latest television obsession? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Channel Surfing: Michael Trucco to "Castle," More "Doctor Who" on Tap, Nestor Carbonell Talks "Lost," Skeet Ulrich Returns to CBS, "24," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Battlestar Galactica's Michael Trucco--next seen on ABC's V this spring--hs signed on for a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's Castle. Trucco will play a new love interest for Stana Katic's Beckett in the final four episodes of this season and is described as a "charismatic cop in the homicide division." Ausiello also indicates that, if the character clicks with the audience, he could return next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

BBC has ordered a sixth season of sci-fi series Doctor Who, which will once again feature Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. The broadcaster confirmed that Smith will return for Season Six of Doctor Who and that a Christmas special, written by new head writer/executive producer Steven Moffat, is on tap for this winter. (Broadcast)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks with Lost's Nestor Carbonell, slated to get his own Richard-centric episode of the ABC drama series on Tuesday. In a video interview, she asks him whether Richard Alpert will team up with Ben, whether the Man in Black can really be trusted, and more. (TVGuide.com)

Skeet Ulrich (Jericho) is headed back to CBS, this time set to star in the network's untitled Hannah Shakespeare medical drama pilot, about a medical team that travels the country helping the less fortunate. Ulrich will play Billy Jost, described as "a Harvard-educated brilliant cardiologist with rock star looks who embraces the tumult of frequent volunteer missions to escape the hell of his personal life" who is "still in love with his ex-wife, now a hopeless junkie, and is holding out hope that she may clean up and come back to him and their six-year-old daughter." He joins a cast that includes Amy Smart, Janeane Garofalo, Rachelle Lefevre, Jay Hernandez, and Michael Beach. (Hollywood Reporter)

Looks like these are indeed the end times for FOX's 24, according to Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice, citing a recent casting call for the 20th Century Fox Television-produced drama series, which read, "These are the final episodes, so if some of your name people would like to do something on the show, this is the time for them to do it." [Editor: that sure seems final to me.] (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Beau Bridges (My Name is Earl) has been cast opposite Dermot Mulroney in NBC drama pilot Rockford Files, which is being overseen by House creator David Shore. Bridges will play Rocky, father to Mulroney's Jim Rockford, who is described as "a truck driver for thirty years who always helps his son in a tough situation, though he tends to offer a commentary that Jim doesn't always appreciate." (Hollywood Reporter)

In other casting news, Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical) has signed on to star opposite Aly Michalka in the CW drama pilot Hellcats, where she will play Sierra, described as "the peppy and fiercely intense captain of the Hellcats who, after an initial clash with Marti, her new roommate, realizes that she just might be the godsend the Hellcats need to win the championship." (Hollywood Reporter)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian explores why viewing figures have fallen off so sharply for once mighty tentpole series... and why no new series have risen up to take over for them. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Jesse Williams will be returning to ABC's Grey's Anatomy, where he will be reprising his role as Jackson Avery during the 2010-11 season. (TV Guide Magazine)

Oprah Winfrey's April 7th episode will feature the cast of Glee as Winfrey interviews the cast and co-creator Ryan Murphy. The episode will also feature backstage videos and a musical performance from the cast, who are slated to appear at the White House the day before. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Sayonara, CNN. Longtime cable news network correspondent Christiane Amanpour is heading to ABC, where she will join the network's This Week as anchor beginning in August. (Variety)

Sarah Palin's Alaska is inching its way closer to reality, with A&E and Discovery Communications said to be interested in acquiring the rights to Palin's reality series, which is executive produced by Mark Burnett. (Hollywood Reporter)

Modern Family's Sofia Vergara wants Italian icon Sophia Loren to play her mother on the ABC comedy series. "My mother should be Sophia Loren, don’t you think?" Vergara told TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck. "She would be perfect. I met her for the first time at the Golden Globes this year. I arrived to rehearse the day before and we ended up waiting together backstage. I was dying. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I couldn’t say anything." (TV Guide Magazine)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that How I Met Your Mother producers are looking to cast an actress to play a TV-movie actress who is herself playing Sarah Chalke's Stella. "Recall last May’s 'As Fast As She Can,' where Future Ted told us what happened to the woman who left him at the altar: She and Tony (Jason Jones) moved to California, where Tony wrote a hit movie The Wedding Bride," writes Ausiello. "Well, that hit movie is coming to the Mother ship — and Ted is not going to be thrilled with how he comes off." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Lucy Gaskell (Being Human) has been cast in BBC One medical drama Casuality, where she will play Kirsty Clements, a mental health nurse who "brings a breath of fresh air--and a bucket of attitude--to Casualty's beleaguered emergency department." (BBC)

CBS Television Studios has hired former FOX current programming executive Beth Miyares as VP of drama development. She will report to Julie McNamara. (Variety)

Cabler VH1 has promoted both Noah Pollack and Kristen Kelly to VP, series development and original programming, where they will jointly develop unscripted programming for the network. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

"FlashForward" Returns: Who's In?

I'll admit, this was meant to be an advance review of tonight's two-hour spring premiere of ABC's FlashForward, but I couldn't get ABC's Medianet video player to stop skipping and eventually gave up altogether.

That's perhaps symbolic of my frustration in general with ABC's creatively uneven sci-fi series, which returns tonight after a lengthy hiatus with the promise of answers, answers, and more answers.

While I applaud the producers for seeing the value in providing solutions to the many mysteries that the early episodes produced, my main issue with the series is that I just don't care at all for these characters, their situations, or what they saw in their flash-forwards. Which is a major problem for a series that spends a great deal of its time having the character talk endlessly about fate, free will, and conscious choice.

All of which makes me wonder if I'll bother tuning in to the twelve remaining episodes this season. FlashForward has already fallen off my must-see priority list for Thursday nights, which meant that I was getting around to these episodes whenever I had free time.

But I am wondering: with FlashForward set to return tonight, which among you is looking forward to its return and which of you has already given up on the series? Are you willing to give it another chance? Or did you know you'd stop watching based on your own flash-forward last fall? Discuss, along with reasons why.

FlashForward returns tonight with a two-hour episode from 8-10 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Danger Zone: FX's "Archer" Wraps Its First Season Tonight

I'm going to really miss FX's gleefully absurd animated comedy Archer.

The Adam Reed-created action/workplace comedy wraps up its first season tonight after last week's hilariously perverse and just plain weird episode that finds ISIS' best two agents--that would be Sterling Archer and Lana Kane, natch--poached by a rival intelligence agency, ODIN.

(The same agency that happens to be headed up by a man voiced by Jeffrey Tambor, which makes this episode all the more delicious because it's another Arrested Development reunion between Tambor and the former Lucille Bluth, Jessica Walter.)

Anything with Walter's Mallory is a plus and tonight's season finale features a mystery-style set-up involving a sleeping Mallory, a blood-covered Sterling, and a sharp cleaver, all before flashing back 18 hours earlier to reveal just how we got to this point.

I'll admit that I wasn't knocked head over heels by the pilot for Archer when I saw it last year, but the series itself has found its voice and settled into a nice rhythm of espionage-related action, workplace humor, gross-out humor, and double- and triple-entendres.

It's helped that the series doesn't take itself too seriously and has a hell of a lot of fun with its premise, a spoof of both James Bond films, office-based sitcoms, 1960s red terror, and anything the writers can get their hands on. (The same can't be said for ABC's FlashForward, which returns tonight just as Archer ends its freshman season.)

But I'm curious to know: have you been enjoying Archer this season? Going to miss Mallory, Archer, Lana, Cyril, Pam, Cheryl (or whatever her name is this week) and the rest of the gang at ISIS? Discuss.

Archer's season finale airs tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on FX.

Channel Surfing: "Parks" and Procreation for Poehler, Diane Farr to "Desperate Housewives," "FlashForward," Gordon Finds "Prisoners of War," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

The mystery behind Parks and Recreation's early renewal, said to be due to a production-related issue, has been revealed: star Amy Poehler is pregnant again and the Universal Media Studios-produced comedy will film its third season early in order to accommodate Poehler's pregnancy. "We'll continue production of Season Three as soon as production of season two concludes," an NBC spokesperson told E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos. "And we'll be back next season with new episodes." Which means: Season Three will launch this fall and the cast and crew will likely take a hiatus later than usual... and it means that Poehler's Leslie Knope will not be pregnant on the series. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Diane Farr (Rescue Me) has been cast in an upcoming episode of ABC's Desperate Housewives "as a character who interacts with the ladies of Wisteria Lane." Farr's episode is slated to air in late April but her details about her character, who will be the focal point of this episode, are being kept under wraps. Keck cites an unnamed source who indicated that Farr's character "is part of a special episode (involving) things that happen in the suburbs... evil kind of things." Read into that however you will. (TV Guide Magazine)

E! Online's Jenna Mullins has a look at what to expect from the return of ABC sci-fi drama FlashForward, which returns tonight with twelve new episodes, and she gets the cast to tease some details about upcoming storylines, which involve answers. "How and why did this happen? Who's the dude in the stadium? Is John Cho gonna live? And who's that shirtless dude on the couch?" teased Jack Davenport. "All of those things will obviously be answered. They have to be or people would be pissed. I would be!" (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

24 executive producer Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa (also of 24) have teamed up with Gideon Raff developing a US adaptation for Israeli drama series Prisoners of War for 20th Century Fox Television; no network is currently attached to the project. According to Variety's Michael Schneider, the US version will "center on two soldiers who were captured soon after the war on terror began in the wake of 9/11; they're finally released a decade later from their captors. But a third POW died -- and his demise becomes a mystery. The show will also center on suspicions that one of the returning soldiers may have turned rogue -- and could be a terrorist threat himself." Gordon and Gansa will executive produce with Raff (who created the original) and Avi Nir of Israeli television network Keshet. (Variety)

NBC, Donald Trump, and Mark Burnett are resurrecting the original Apprentice format, bringing The Apprentice back to the airwaves, albeit with a slight twist. This iteration, set to air during the 2010-11 season, will feature 14 candidates who have all been affected by the economic turndown in the country. They'll range in ages and could be those who lost their jobs, those who are working jobs that they hate, and recent college graduates who are unable to land their first job... and the eliminated candidates will all receive some form of career coaching from Trump himself. "I am very excited to return to the original premise of The Apprentice," said Trump in a statement. "We've got to do something about the economy and this is a terrific way to provide jobs as well as business lessons along the way. NBC, Mark Burnett and I hope this economic downturn can begin a turnaround, and we'll do our best with The Apprentice to see that it starts happening. I'm proud to be putting people back to work, and to positively changing the psychology of America." (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that The Wire's Robert Wisdom--most recently seen on Supernatural--as been cast in at least six episodes of Burn Notice next season. He'll play Vaughn, described as "a veteran spy handler who works for the group that burned Michael" and who possesses "an impressive combination of high-end book smarts and real-world experience; he’s smart, world-weary, and ruthless." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Jason Clarke (Brotherhood) has been cast as the lead in Shawn Ryan's FOX cop drama pilot Ride-Along. Clarke will play Detective Jarek Wysocki, described as "one of the city's toughest cops... a local legend and outsized character with a wicked sense of humor who struggles to clean up the town's violence and corruption." Move marks the second casting of a Brotherhood lead this pilot season; Jason Isaacs will star in FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty. (Hollywood Reporter)

In other pilot casting news, Josh Cooke (Big Day) has been cast as the male lead in ABC's untitled Shanna Goldberg-Meehan comedy pilot, where hew will play Ben, half of an unmarried couple whose seemingly perfect life together is thrown into chaos when Maddie (Jennifer Finnigan) discovers that her younger sister (Joanna Garcia) is pregnant and engaged. Elsewhere, Skyler Stone (Con) has been cast in Greg Garcia's FOX comedy pilot Keep Hope Alive, which is in the process of recasting several roles. Stone will play Mike, the messy cousin of Jimmy (Lucas Neff); role was played by Kate Micucci in the original pilot, though it was initially written for a man. (Hollywood Reporter)

Congratulations to FX, which saw huge opening numbers for its scripted drama series Justified, which launched with 4.1 million viewers, the highest-rated FX premiere since The Shield in 2002. (Variety)

Showtime has unveiled its summer schedule, which includes programming on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday evenings. Penn & Teller: Bullshit! returns on Thursday, June 10th at 10 pm ET/PT, where it will lead into new comedy series The Green Room with Paul Provenza. The pay cabler's new reality series The Real L Word will launch on Sunday, June 20th at 10 pm ET//PT. And Monday, August 16th sees the return of Weeds at 10 pm ET/PT and the launch of the Laura Linney-led comedy series The Big C at 10:30 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

CBS has ordered a pilot for culinary competition series Beat the Chefs from RelativityReal and executive producer Tom Forman (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition). Format will feature amateur chefs and their friends and families competing against professional chefs as they each attempt to make their version of a particular dish, which will then be judged by a panel of judges for a cash prize. (Hollywood Reporter)

Private Practice's Amy Brenneman is slated to return to the ABC drama series on April 1st, after she missed filming three episodes due to a "planned surgery to fix a chronic health issue," according to Brenneman's rep Stephen Huvane. She's already back at work, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, and the last episode to be shot sans Brenneman's Violet will air next week. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove has signed a new deal with Nickelodeon that's said to be in the low- to mid-seven-figure range under which she will film an additional 26 episodes of the comedy series, which was renewed late last year. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.