More Series Orders at the Peacock: The Event, Love Bites and Outsourced Get Greenlights

J.J. Abrams espionage dramedy Undercovers is about to get some company.

NBC today announced three more series orders for this fall, issuing greenlights to thriller The Event, romantic anthology Love Bites and comedy Outsourced. All three were much-buzzed about pilots the last few weeks with NBC widely expected to order all of them to series.

"Each of these three series reflects a unique point of view and distinct style of quality that fits perfectly with NBC’s dedication to rebuilding the schedule," said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, in a statement. "These series showcase excellent writing and casting, and represent the kind of scripted programming our network and studio are committed to producing."

[Editor: having read all three scripts, I'm scratching my head the most about The Event, which I found to be a ludicrous thriller with an unsurprising "surprise" twist at the end of the first hour. Did they not learn their lesson with Day One? Or are they desperate to find a replacement for Heroes?]

The full press release from NBC can be found below, along with descriptions and casting for each of the three new series, all of which will join the 2010-11 schedule.

NBC PICKS UP THREE NEW SERIES FOR 2010-11 SEASON WITH ‘THE EVENT,’ ‘OUTSOURCED’ AND ‘LOVE BITES’
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – May 7, 2010 – NBC has given series pickups for its 2010-11 season to the dramatic thriller "The Event," the comedy "Outsourced" and the romantic anthology series "Love Bites."

The announcement was made today by Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

"Each of these three series reflects a unique point of view and distinct style of quality that fits perfectly with NBC’s dedication to rebuilding the schedule," said Bromstad. "These series showcase excellent writing and casting, and represent the kind of scripted programming our network and studio are committed to producing."

"The Event" is an emotional high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter, "The Class"), an Everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée, Leila (Sarah Roemer, "Disturbia"), and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. Sean's quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including: newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Blair Underwood, "Dirty Sexy Money"); Sophia (Emmy Award nominee Laura Innes, "ER"), who is the leader of a mysterious group of detainees; and Sean’s shadowy father-in-law (Scott Patterson, "Gilmore Girls"). Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.

Ian Anthony Dale ("Daybreak") and Emmy winner Željko Ivanek (“Damages”) also star in the ensemble drama.

“The Event” is a production of Universal Media Studios and Steve Stark Productions. Stark (“Medium,” “Facing Kate”) serves as executive producer, Nick Wauters ("The 4400," "Eureka") is creator/co-executive producer and Jeffrey Reiner (“Friday Night Lights,” “Trauma”) is the director/executive producer.

“Outsourced” is a comedy where the Midwest meets the exotic East in a hilarious culture clash. The series centers on the all-American company Mid America Novelties that sells whoopee cushions, foam fingers and wallets made of bacon -- and whose call center has suddenly been outsourced to India. Todd Dempsy (Ben Rappaport, off-Broadway's “The Gingerbread House”) is the new company’s manager who learns that he’s being transferred to India to run the operation.

Overwhelmed, Todd discovers that his new staff needs a crash course in all things American if they are to understand the U.S. product line and ramp up sales from halfway around the world. But as strange as America seems to his eclectic sales team, Todd soon realizes that figuring out India will be more than a full-time job. Rizwan Manji (“Privileged”), Sacha Dhawan (BBC’s “Five Days II”), Rebecca Hazlewood (BBC’s “Doctors”), Parvesh Cheena (“Help Me Help You”), and Anisha Nagarajan (Broadway’s “Bombay Dreams”) also star as members of Dempsy’s off-shore team; Diedrich Bader (“The Drew Carey Show”) and Jessica Gower (Network Ten’s “The Secret Life of Us”) additionally star.

“Outsourced” is produced by Universal Media Studios. Robert Borden (“The Drew Carey Show” and “George Lopez”) is executive producer/writer. Ken Kwapis (“The Office”) developed the project through his company, In Cahoots, and serves as executive producer/director. Alex Beattie serves as co-executive producer.

From Emmy Award-winning writer-producer Cindy Chupack (“Sex and the City”), “Love Bites” is an hour-long romantic comedy anthology series featuring three loosely connected, modern stories of love, sex, marriage and dating. Each episode contains multiple vignettes, all illuminating the theme of love with an edgy, irreverent spin.

Becki Newton (“Ugly Betty”) stars as Annie and Jordana Spiro (“My Boys”) stars as Frannie, the last two single girls standing after all of their friends get married. Annie is an infectiously bubbly optimist and Frannie is an always-a-bridesmaid realist. Their story will anchor the series, while other romantically-challenged characters will come and go each week.

The pilot's guest cast includes Jennifer Love Hewitt (“Ghost Whisperer”), Greg Grunberg (“Heroes”), Craig Robinson (“The Office”), Jason Lewis (“Sex and the City”), Lindsay Price (“Lipstick Jungle”), Larry Wilmore (“The Daily Show”), Charlyne Yi (“Knocked Up”), Pamela Adlon (“Californication”), Stacy Galina (“Hidden Hills”), Brian Hallisay (“Privileged”), Kyle Howard (“My Boys”) and Steve Howey (“Bride Wars”).

“Love Bites” is a production of Universal Media Studios and Working Title Television, which is a new division of Working Title Films (the U.K. production company behind box office hits including “Love Actually,” “Bridget Jones's Diary” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral”). Chupack is creator, executive producer and writer. Emmy Award-winning producer-director Marc Buckland (“My Name Is Earl”) also is executive producer and directs the pilot. Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan and Shelley McCrory from Working Title Television are executive producers. “Love Bites” is Working Title Television’s first U.S. commission.

You Can't Get There From Here: Northwest Passage on Fringe

"Technically, I'm from no place you ever heard of." - Peter Bishop

In its second season, Fringe has proven itself quite adept at tweaking its own formula, moving away from the episodic deadly-scientist-plot-of-the-week to a more balanced mix of procedural installments that have been underpinned by an increasingly strong mythology and an emotional core.

Last week's episode, the noir-musical "Brown Betty," offered a bit of a breather amid the shape-shifters, alternate world warriors, and brutal revelations gained by Peter Bishop, who quickly fled Boston to get as far away as possible from the man he believed to be his father, but who was finally revealed to him to be a kidnapper who yanked him away from his true family. It was a change of pace both for the plot and the general atmosphere of the series, creating a stand-alone episode that also revealed the true feelings--the wracking remorse and shame--felt by Walter Bishop.

This week's gripping episode of Fringe ("Northwest Passage"), written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Nora Zuckerman, and Lilla Zuckerman and directed by Joe Chappelle, continued the pattern so to speak, delivering a stunning episode that saw the Fringe team shattered as Peter went in search of himself in Washington State and encountered a mystery that seemed to swirl yet again around him. But was Peter being paranoid? Was he hallucinating? Or was there more than one mystery to consider?

Those were the thought-provoking questions pondered by an installment that saw Peter on one side of the country and his former comrades attempting to grapple with his disappearance on the other, creating an episode of Fringe that was about the chasm of distance between the two sides, both in an emotional sense and a physical one.

Peter's journey of self-discovery leads him to Noyo County, Washington, where he becomes the chief suspect in the disappearance of the waitress he was seen flirting with just hours before. Besides for the fact that Peter is acting shifty and checked into a motel under an assumed name, there's the fact that he seems to have knowledge of the killing that no one should know about: namely, that waitress Krista--who hours earlier was making music playlists for her customers--was missing part of her brain.

It's enough to make the local sheriff, Mathis (Martha Plimpton), deeply suspicious of Peter, even after he's vetted by the FBI. Of course, we know that Peter is innocent and that the removal of a part of the temporal lobe of this poor girl matches the modus operandi of Newton, whom Peter glimpses outside the diner where Krista worked. Did Newton kidnap Krista, operate on her, and kill her in order to locate Peter? It begins to seem that way when the bodies begin to pile up and Peter gets an increasingly bizarre series of phone calls at the various motels he's staying at.

Mathis is a believer, the sort of intrigued soul who likely has the box set of the entire run of The X-Files and an "I Believe" poster in her basement. Here, however, she's torn between her sworn obligation to protect and serve using deductive reasoning and her unerring belief that there's more to life than what's seen on the surface. She carries a pen, inscribed with the words "Find the crack," that her partner and lover Ferguson had given her on her first case. It's an entreaty to find the crack in the darkness that lets the light in.

In the dark woods of Noyo County, it's likely a good credo to adhere to. I couldn't shake the feeling that this episode reminded me both of The X-Files and Twin Peaks in the best possible senses. (The latter of which was originally entitled Northwest Passage.) Plimpton was absolutely fantastic to watch as Sheriff Mathis and I watched the hour secretly hoping that the producers would create a Mathis-based spinoff called Northwest Passage, where she investigates the spooky and inexplicable crimes that occur on the fringes of a sleepy former logging town. (Anyone else feel that? Hell, I'd watch it if it starred Plimpton.)

Back in Boston, Walter has a breakdown at a supermarket, spurred on by a chemical addictive in a box of toaster pastries. His angry rant and subsequent emotional collapse speak volumes about his mental state at the moment... and the fact that this genius scientist should not be living on his own as he can't care for himself. It's a sad fact that's all the more heartbreaking when Olivia and Astrid take Walter back to his house and see the filth and squalor he's been living in.

Walter's sadness and his pain have manifested in fitting ways. But he's not alone, as Astrid attempts to remind him. In a small but emotionally resonant scene, she asks why he didn't call her for help. While his answer is logical (he can't call her because he's out of toaster pastries), it really echoes the true answer of his situation: without Peter there to care for him, Walter is terrified he'll be sent back to St. Clare's.

But Olivia promises that won't happen. The bond between the group, shattered temporarily as it might have been by Peter's departure, is just as strong as ever. These are people who care deeply for one another. They are, for all intents and purposes, family now.

Likewise, Walter stumbles on a way to track down Peter but sabotages himself, as Astrid discovers. While he wants to reclaim his son, Walter is scared that Peter won't forgive him. But his fears may come true after all as Olivia tells them that she's found Peter in Washington and invites Walter to come with her.

But back in Washington, Peter is on his own. Or at least, teamed up with Mathis, who doesn't quite know what to think about Peter. After Ferguson disappears and Peter claims to have been fired at by Newton in the woods (after discovering a Bazooka Joe comic that sums up his whole dilemma: "You can't get there from here."), things begin to fall apart. Why would Newton be going to such lengths to find out Peter's whereabouts when he could just flash a picture at people and ask if they've seen him? It's a point that Mathis makes and which seems lost on Peter. Suffering from a distinct lack of sleep, he's not thinking clearly about his situation and seems determined to uncover a conspiracy that is intended to ensnare him.

The killer, ultimately, isn't Newton but a local ex-dairy farmer turned serial killer, who was kidnapping women and cutting them open in order to "feel close to them." (Peter realizes he's the killer after spying the CD Krista made for him among his things.) Which I can buy on the one hand but which also didn't sit totally well with me either. Just where did the guy, living in a trailer, get access to such expensive medical equipment? How did he have the knowledge to operate on these women in such a clinical and precise fashion? And why, of all organs, did he decide to take a part of their temporal lobe? While it's meant to cast suspicion on Newton, it seemed too likely of a coincidence here.

But that's a minor quibble about an otherwise fantastically perfect episode. I loved the final scene between Peter and Mathis as he confided in her that he doesn't know who he is anymore and she told him the story about how her family was murdered and she still hopes to track down whoever killed them. (A potential spinoff plot!) Just as she found her place in the world, so too will Peter... and she gives him the "Find the Crack" pen that Ferguson (luckily rescued before he was murdered) had given her back in the day.

And then there's the final bait-and-switch, a masterful narrative double-cross that I didn't see coming. Just when you believe that Peter had been hallucinating about Newton being there, the writers managed to pull the rug right out from underneath us. Peter finally attempts to get some rest and settles down on a motel bed with his Discman (clearly, iPods only exist in the other dimension) and the mix that Krista had made for him.

But as he closes his eyes, Newton appears in the motel room, armed with the dart gun we saw earlier. And if that wasn't enough, he brings Mr. Secretary into the room, forcing Peter to come face to face with his biological father, the alternate-universe Walter Bishop.

It's a staggering cliffhanger that will have to tide us over until next week's episode, the first part of what promises to be a series-altering two-part season finale... and another example of just how Fringe's writers can manage to surprise us, just when we think we have everything figured out. Well played.

Next week on Fringe ("Over There, Part One"), Walter and Olivia travel to the parallel universe and the anticipated face-off between Walter Bishop and William Bell occurs.

Channel Surfing: Katee Sackhoff Turned Down True Blood, Guests for Post-Lost Special, Stephen King in Sons of Anarchy, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has the scoop on why Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24) turned down the role of Debbie Pelt on Season Three of HBO's vampire drama True Blood, a role that was later filled by The Middleman's Brit Morgan when Sackhoff decided instead to join the cast of ABC drama pilot Boston's Finest. "I am a huge fan of True Blood,” Sackhoff told Ausiello. "It’s a phenomenal show and [executive producer] Alan Ball is a f—ing genius. But I wanted more security than one season of something, so I rolled the dice with [Boston's Finest]. This entire business is about rolling the dice and hoping you made the right decision. I almost didn’t take 24 to do my own series on USA Network, and that worked out. I’m sure [Brit] is going to be fantastic [as Debbie]." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The Wrap's Josef Adalian takes a look at just which cast members from Lost will be appearing on ABC's post-finale special Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost. Quoting the network press release, Adalian writes, "Kimmel will be joined in studio by Naveen Andrews, Nestor Carbonell, Alan Dale, Jeremy Davies, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Daniel Dae Kim, Terry O’Quinn and Harold Perrineau, with special appearances by Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly and an exclusive look at THREE ALTERNATIVE FINAL SCENES from the minds of executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse." Adalian was quick to notice that Yunjin Kim won't be participating... (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

Novelist Stephen King has been cast in an upcoming episode of Season Three of FX's drama series Sons of Anarchy, according to Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice. King will play "a quiet loner who appears in Gemma's (Katey Sagal) time of need." King, who is an outspoken fan of the series, will appear in the third episode. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Variety's Mike Schneider looks at why ABC decided to extend the series finale of Lost, thus positioning its final half-hour outside of primetime. "That might seem like an odd decision to make, given that every ratings point counts as the networks sprint toward the May sweeps -- and 2009-2010 TV season -- finish line," writes Schneider. "But in the case of Lost, the network is able to sell more commercial time with the extra half-hour -- which is why they didn't balk when producers called from the edit bay asking for additional time. Ditto ABC's affiliate stations, which were given additional ad time in exchange for the show pushing into local news time." So there you go. (Variety)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that adult film star Sasha Grey has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on HBO's Entourage, where she will play the new girlfriend of Adrian Grenier's Vince Chase, whom he meets at a bar in the fifth episode of Season Eight. (TV Guide Magazine)

Syfy is developing superhero drama series Metadocs, based on the comicbook series, about a "secretive wing of a large urban hospital that treats injured superheroes." Michael Chernuchin (Law & Order) will write and executive produce alongside Bob Cooper, J.J. Jamieson, and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Project hails from Landscape Entertainment, FremantleMedia, and Universal Cable Prods. (Variety)

G4 has given a ten-episode order to Attack of the Show spinoff It's Effin' Science, which will feature Angie Greenup, Marc Horowitz, and Chad Zdenek as they attempt to push the scientific envelope. According to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, segments will include "trying to build a hoverboard as in Back to the Future II, blasting a Port-a-Potty 100 feet into the air and trying to construct night-vision goggles." Series debuts June 15th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Boxer Gavin-Keith Umeh (All My Children) has been cast in at least two episodes of FX's upcoming drama series Lights Out, where he will play Javier Morales, described as "a younger fighter who squares off against Leary (Holy McCallany) in one of his first tune-up fights." (The Wrap)

The CW announced yesterday that it would begin airing repeats of Alex O'Loughlin's vampire drama series Moonlight, which it will air on Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT starting June 3rd. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Meanwhile, E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos offers an explanation of why the CW would decide, now of all times, to begin running a short-lived series that has already had a second window on cable. "I'm told that the decision was made in part to keep O'Loughlin's fan base chugging along, in the hopes they'll follow him to the new Five-O this fall," writes Dos Santos. "(The CW and CBS are all one family, you know.) Plus, maybe you've heard, people kinda like vampires these days? So the ratings shouldn't be too shabby either, and will keep the TV audience busy." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

The CW's current supernatural drama Supernatural, meanwhile, is heading to Fridays, where it will air repeats following the Smallville, beginning May 28th, according to The Futon Critic, who writes, "The move will undoubtedly fuel speculation that Supernatural will permanently take residence there for its sixth season." (Futon Critic)

20th Century Fox TV has signed a two-year overall deal with writer Liz Astrof (Kath & Kim), under which she will develop new projects for the studio and be staffed on an existing or new series. "The studio has obviously had a great year in comedy launching Modern Family, The Cleveland Show and Glee, and we're always looking for great comedic voices," said 20th Century Fox chairman Gary Newman. "Liz has excelled at a number of series, both multi- and single-camera." (Hollywood Reporter)

Fox Television Studios signed a new two-year overall deal with Mikkel Bondesen's Fuse Entertainment, under which the production shingle of the Burn Notice executive producer will develop new projects, primarily for cable. (Deadline.com)

Style Network has ordered a second season of Endemol USA's reality series Jerseylicious, which has been renewed for ten episodes. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Wedding Wars: Nuptial Nightmares on Top Chef Masters

Kudos to the producers for putting the master chefs through their paces with two of my favorite all-time Top Chef challenges, back-to-back.

This week on Top Chef Masters ("Wedding Wars"), the eight semi-finalists gathered back in the Top Chef kitchen to discover that they wouldn't be able to glide through on their earlier wins this week. No, the producers were determined to get these chefs to experience the full pressure and heat of Top Chef by making them participate both in the tag-team cook-off and--shudder--wedding wars.

As fans of Top Chef well know, wedding wars is one of the toughest and craziest challenges ever devised on the series as the chefs have limited resources and--even more critically--time to pull together an entire wedding reception (including cake!) on their own. Not only to do they have to get food out fast but it has to taste good, satisfy the 150 guests of the wedding, and make the bride and groom happy.

It's worth noting, of course, that the bride and groom seem to have very specific things in mind, both in terms of what they want and what they don't want. So it's up to the chefs both to make their clients happy while also remaining true to their culinary ethos and pleasing the critics at the same time. No small thing.

So how did the eight champions do? Let's discuss.

As I said earlier, I was really looking forward to these two challenges because both of them really force the chefs to work together and participate in activities in which they really are handcuffed.

The tag-team cookoff is one of my favorites because it forces the chefs to think on the fly and continually adapt someone else's dish that they've wandered into mid-stream. Here, the chefs were split into two teams, with Jody Adams, Susan Feniger, Rick Moonen, and Jonathan Waxman comprising the Blue Team and Carmen Gonzalez, Susur Lee, Tony Montuano, Marcus Samuelsson making up the Red Team.

Had it not been a random decision, I would have wondered why the teams split this way with some of the strongest players landing on the Blue Team... but, as it turned out, that mattered very little both in terms of the Quickfire and with the Elimination Challenge.

For the Quickfire, the Blue Team prepared a mussel and scallop stew with orange and fennel, while the Red Team took a similar tack and cooked up a truffle-spiced shellfish broth with a seared piece of fish that was served on top of prosciutto.

It was interesting that both teams immediately went for the same proteins and decided to go for seafood. I felt terrible that Waxman, a severe claustrophobic, had such difficult wearing the blindfold during the Quickfire but he ended up going on to infuse some bitterness to the dish with some sauteed fennel. While it seemed as those judges Kelly Choi and Jay Rayner had a problem with that, the Blue Team's dish actually did win, landing their team with $10,000 to split amongst their charities.

Elimination Challenge:

Blue Team:
The Blue Team offered up several passed hors d'oeuvres including: Waxman's red pepper pancakes with smoked salmon, caviar, and lemon zest; Feniger's spicy potato bhajia fritters with mint-cilantro sauce and tamarind-date chutney; and Adams' pancetta and melted raclette tarts.

For their entrees, Adams made a Dijon rack of lamb with rosemary, farro, and autumn vegetables. Waxman offered a roast chicken with tarragon veloute and cauliflower puree.
And seafood master Moonen created an a la minute seafood mixed grill with poah, Coho salmon, and swordfish with sweet and sour eggplant.

To round out the meal, Feniger made an Egyptian semolina cake with berries and cream while Adams made Bananas Foster, the bride's request and her favorite dessert, which Adams served with cinnamon, ginger, candied pecans and a rum-caramel sauce.

I thought that the Blue Team did a fantastic job here. Their passed hors d'ouevres were each beautiful little morsels of savory goodness. Some complained that Waxman's red pepper pancakes were too big but that's really a quibble when it appeared to taste deliciously. And everyone--guests and critics alike--raved about Adams' raclette tarts... and her risky rack of lamb.

Considering that the bride said that she didn't care for lamb, Adams took quite a chance by offering it up as the red meat offering on the bride's side. But everyone was bowled over by the masterful lamb, including the blushing bride herself, who may have just become a lamb convert after the experience. Waxman once again proved that he is unequaled when it comes to preparing "simple" food, here transforming a humble chicken into something magical and transcendent. But it was Moonen who had a rare misstep; considering he was working with his specialty (fish), he really had problem with his preparation as the fish weren't cooked to perfection. Hmmm...

Feniger's wedding cake was dry and the presentation wasn't exactly up to snuff. But it was Adams to the rescue with her delicious Bananas Foster, a dish she had never prepared before that evening but which drew raves from the guests and the critics. It did appear as though Adams might push them over the line into victory...

Red Team:
Over on the groom's side, the Red Team offered Gonzalez's jumbo lump crab cakes with avocado relish and Samuelsson's lobster roll with Asian pear (served in a spoon) and his honey mustard-cured tuna as hors d'oeuvres.

As entrees, there was Samuelsson's roast beef tenderloin with grilled onion ragout and pomegranate sauce and Mantuano's flaming ouzo shrimp and pasta with fire-roasted tomatoes, feta, and capers. Side dishes included Mantuano's potato gratin and Gonzalez's roasted corn relish.

Lee's desserts including a mind-boggling array of sweets including Croque-en-Bouche, carrot wedding cake, upside-down raisin pudding with butterscotch sauce, and chocolate profiterole with whipped cream. (Wow.)

But despite the staggering spread at Lee's dessert buffet, there were some real missteps here from the Red Team, aside from some crowd-pleasing standout dishes such as Samuelsson's lobster roll and cured tuna and Mantuano's shrimp and potatoes au gratin.

Rather than win over the judges with the variety and scope of their menu, the Red Team made some puzzling choices. While there was a red meat, a seafood option, and a pasta dish, they didn't really coalesce as the Blue Team's dishes did (with the exception of Moonen's) and instead of separate side dishes, I felt like these should have been connected to individual proteins instead. No one could figure out what Gonzalez's roasted corn relish was supposed to go with, though she viewed it as either a salad or a side dish. But it felt like neither, really.

Furthermore, Samuelsson's beef was deemed "mushy" by the judges, although the guests read that as "tender" instead. Mantuano's pasta was overcooked rather than al dente. Lee let himself down with the carrot cake, though he had never made one before (though neither had Adams made Bananas Foster). I think he was saved by the fact that he pulled off a Herculean dessert buffet all on his one.

But the critics were confused by what Gonzalez did. Yes, it was a team effort and, yes, she made the crab cakes and the corn relish and oversaw the logistics and helped set up, but there wasn't a dish that had that Carmen Gonzalez imprint on it, something that the judges could point to to see her influence on the evening. While she explained it as the fact that she didn't think her Puerto Rican flavors would meld with the rest of the offerings, I thought it was an odd excuse: the entire exercise was about adapting under extreme pressure and working as a team to deliver a singular meal.

It was no surprise then that Gonzalez was the one to be sent packing while the Blue Team walked away the winners and Adams was singled out for praise as the ultimate victor of this round.

What did you think of this week's episode? Would you have sent Carmen home? Was Adams the right one to win this week's challenge? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Top Chef Masters ("Scary Surf & Turf"), the master chefs are tasked with using often unappetizing proteins in a surf and turf dish; actors from The Simpsons judge the quickfire challenge.

Top Chef Masters Preview: A Simpsons Challenge:



Top Chef Masters Preview: Susur's Energy:

Channel Surfing: Emerson Talks Lost Finale, Perkins Leaves Weeds, Goggins Now Regular on Justified, Modern Family, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Fancast's Matt Webb Mitovich talks to Lost's Michael Emerson about the super-sized series finale of the ABC drama series, set to air May 23rd. Emerson--who plays fan favorite Benjamin Linus--wasn't surprised by ABC's decision to bump the final episode to a full two-and-a-half hours. "The finale script was so thick and so dense with action," Emerson told Mitovich. "When we were shooting it, we went so far overtime that I thought, 'How are they ever going to squeeze all this into two hours?!' If Lost has any flaws, it’s that occasionally we suffer from trying to cut too big a show [for the given time slot]. So I’m happy to hear they thought there was enough great stuff that they had to let it breathe. It’s a really great sign." (Fancast)

In other Lost-related news, Muppets invade the Lost production offices to ask Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse one question: "where does the Dharma food come from?" [Editor: my favorite bit had to be that Lindelof was confused with David Cross on Arrested Development.] (/Film via Vulture)

Looks like Weeds' Elizabeth Perkins is heading to the big screen, where she will star alongside James Marsden in Tim Hill's Hop. Move means that the actress--who plays played Celia on Showtime's dark comedy Weeds for five seasons--will depart the Lionsgate Television-produced series. No word on how she'll be written out of the current storyline. Perkins is also said to be developing a television comedy series, which would serve as a vehicle for herself. (Hollywood Reporter)

Good news for Walton Goggins fans: it looks like he'll be sticking around Harlan County for some time to come. Producers on FX's drama series Justified, which earlier this week was renewed for a second season, have promoted Walton Goggins to series regular. Goggins, who plays Aryan underground leader Boyd Crowder, was originally meant to be killed off in the pilot episode of the Sony Pictures Television-produced drama. "He's amazing and he's just a great guy," showrunner/executive producer Graham Yost told The Hollywood Reporter. "There had to be charm in Boyd. We knew with Boyd, going in, that who we cast was critical for the success of the pilot, therefore getting it to become a series. So Goggins' casting was really instrumental. Without him, we wouldn't be on the air." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks to Modern Family's Ty Burrell about the ABC comedy series' upcoming episode filmed and set in Hawaii. "Basically, Phil and Claire [Julie Bowen] are trying to use this opportunity to have the honeymoon they didn't get to have the first time around. So they're just running from the kids, trying to have some alone time," said Burell, who told Masters that the Hawaii episode nearly didn't happen. "The Hawaii trip essentially is two episodes. We had done the episode at LAX, which was based on Jay's [Ed O'Neill] birthday and Gloria [Sofia Vergara] surprising him with a trip to Hawaii, then surprising him again, much to his chagrin, that she is bringing the whole family. When we were finished, essentially the writers felt this isn't an old-fashioned, multicamera show where you just describe your trip. The more contemporary thing—and something we've really established for the show—is when we say we're going somewhere, we've gone there. So that's when the wrote they Hawaii episode. It totally worked out in our favor." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has the scoop on Grey's Anatomy's two-hour season finale right from creator Shonda Rhimes herself. "The theme of the first hour is sanctuary, which sort of uses the idea that the hospital is our characters’ safest place and our safest place as viewers," Rhimes told Ausiello. "[Then we use] the hour to slowly turn that on its head [so] that by the end, the hospital is definitely kind of the least safe place in the world... The second hour is about choices, and we get to watch our characters make big ones. Lexie chooses between Mark and Alex. Owen chooses between Teddy and Cristina. Bailey faces the hardest medical choice that a doctor has to make. And the other choice that’s being made is Callie and Arizona, and whether or not they’re going to be together or not. It IS going to come down to the baby thing." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO is developing an American remarke of French Canadian comedy series Taxi 22, which will be written by Dave Flebotte, who will executive produce with James Gandolfini, Nancy Sanders, Mark Armstrong, Dennis Erdman, Clark Peterson, and Francois Flamand. Project, which revolves around "a politically incorrect cab driver in New York City," is being looked at as a potential starring vehicle for Gandolfini. (Variety)

Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that CBS has ordered a pilot for a daytime culinary game show that will feature Emeril Lagasse from producers FremantleMedia. Potential series, which will be filmed in front of a live audience and feature contestants competing against each other as they prepare a dish, is said to be a possible replacement for cancelled daytime soap As The World Turns. (Deadline.com)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks to Smallville's Annette O'Toole and Michael McKean, whose characters Martha Kent and Perry White, are set to return to the CW superhero drama later this month. "It's a case of a Woodward finding her Bernstein," said McKean of Perry's interactions with Erica Durance's Lois Lane. "Perry is impressed right away with how sharp Lois is, and I've read some of her things and think she's talented. But it really kicks into high gear when we realize that the two of us have been working on the same story—two very, very different ends of the same story. We're all looking for the MacGuffin, if you will—a story that in itself is not all that fortunate. But it definitely is something that's going to move things forward. Perry and Lois are kindred spirits." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva has the fourth update for Deadline's Primetime Pilot Panic as the networks continue to screen their pilots and make their pickup decisions. Outsourced now seems all but a lock for NBC, along with fellow frontrunner Perfect Couples, while This Little Piggy has begun to cool off and Jimmy Smits' legal drama Garza is heating up. (Deadline.com)

USA announced the launch date for Season Two of its hit dramedy White Collar, which will return to the schedule on July 13th at 9 pm ET/PT, where it will offer a lead in to new series Covert Affairs at 10 pm ET/PT. Here's how USA described Covert Affairs: "In COVERT AFFAIRS, USA's newest original series, we meet Annie Walker (Piper Perabo), a young CIA trainee who is suddenly thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency after being promoted to field operative. While it appears that she has been hand-picked for her exceptional linguistic skills, it may be something from her past that her CIA bosses are really after. Christopher Gorham plays Auggie Anderson, a CIA military intelligence agent, blinded while on assignment, and Annie's guide in this world of bureaucracy, excitement and intrigue. Peter Gallagher is Arthur Campbell, the formidable director of Clandestine Services for the CIA. Sendhil Ramamurthy plays Jai Wilcox, an agent with a rich family history within the walls of the CIA. Anne Dudek plays Danielle, a married mother of two and Annie's older sister who knows nothing of Annie's life as a spy. Kari Matchett plays Joan, head of the CIA's Domestic Protection Division... and Arthur's wife." (via press release)

"What grenade?" Meanwhile, Michael Ausiello has a sneak peek at USA's upcoming on-air promo campaign that combines the characters of the cabler's series such as White Collar, Psych, and Burn Notice; you can check out three of the five spots that will begin running soon. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

A&E has announced its scripted development slate, which includes a miniseries adaptation of Robin Cook's "Coma" with executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott attached as executive producers. On the series front, there's Criminology, also from the Scott Brothers; Big Mike, which revolves around a plus-sized police detective, from writers Ed Decter and John Strauss, Sony Pictures Television, and Happy Madison; Hazel Rhodes, about a Southern detective, from writer Daniel Cerone and ABC Studios; and American Crime, which follows a set odd-couple FBI partners, from writers Diana Son and Tanya Wexler and ABC Studios. (Variety)

The Wrap's Dylan Stableford talks to Comedy Central's head of original programming, Kent Alterman, about his development approach, the cabler's slate, and why comedy works on cable. "We want to try to make shows that people want to watch," said Alterman. "With comedy, there’s that elusive alchemy – you know it when it hits you. We want to create shows that people respond to, and we put together a diverse lineup that we think people will. Or I could just speak in sports terms: We gave it 110 percent, left it all out on the field." (The Wrap)

TLC has commissioned a third season of reality series Toddlers and Tiaras, which will return to the lineup on June 2nd. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Televisionary Heads Back to AOL's Instant Dharma

It's time for some more Instant Dharma.

Last night, I had the extreme pleasure of being invited back to AOL's weekly Lost-centric show Instant Dharma, where I joined host Maggie Furlong and Kate Aurthur, my editor at The Daily Beast, to discuss this week's episode of Lost ("The Candidate"), where we talked about--SPOILERS!--this week's tragic deaths, another failed getaway attempt, why the castaways are now family, and much more.

You can catch my appearance on this week's episode of Instant Dharma below and read my further take on "The Candidate" here.



The final season of Lost airs Tuesdays at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Drowning, Not Waving: Sea of Love on Lost

"We're not strangers; we're family." - Jack

Last night's episode of Lost ("The Candidate"), written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso and directed by Jack Bender, may have started off a little wobbly with yet another switch-up among the alliances and another about-face with their destination but, by George, the last twenty minutes of that episode still has me in tears the morning after.

We can cross a few more names off the cave wall now, thanks to an episode that definitely brought the emotional painfulness back to Lost as well as brought things full circle to the notion of family and the bonds between these characters. When Lost first began, it was essentially a story of survival as a group of strangers--united by tragedy--had to discover a way to stay alive, deciding whether to live together or die alone.

Over the course of six seasons and countless threats to their survival, these disparate characters have grown into something akin to a family. A highly dysfunctional one, granted, but one nonetheless. The invisible threats of fate that linked them at the beginning have been replaced by strong emotional tethers. When Lost-X Jack calls Claire "family," it's not just about their newly discovered sibling bond but about all of the characters on the series.

Family, after all, is what you're willing to lay down your life for, to make the ultimate sacrifice, to stay to the bitter end as the waters rise up over your head. What's united these castaways all along is love.

So what did I think of this week's episode of Lost? Grab an oxygen bottle, bite into an Apollo bar, open up the music box, and let's discuss "The Candidate."

As I mentioned earlier, I found the first half of last night's episode a little tiring. This season, we've seen an endless array of alliance permutations as the castaways splinter, reform, and splinter again, choosing between following Jacob and following the Man in Black, between staying on the island or leaving, between heading for the plane or the sub.

It's felt, to steal a phrase from Sawyer this week, like they've been "running in circles."

With only a handful of episodes remaining, I wanted some real emotional impact, some major stakes raised, rather than just another trek through the jungle or another double-cross of ol' Smokey. Fortunately, the Lost writer gods must have been listening to me because the last twenty minutes of "The Candidate" packed in more plot twists and unexpected tension than several entire episodes.

And, thanks to the death of three major characters (and the assumed death of another), we saw the castaways shattered in a way we haven't seen them in a very long time. Escaping from the wreckage of the submarine, they're scared, shaken, and very sad. Those moments on the beach bring it all home. There's been so much talk of supernatural entities, candidates, and greater purposes that it's become easy to lose sight of the true battle going on here: survival. The deaths of Sun and Jin and of Sayid are an inescapable reminder that they--and we--are just all too mortal. When your time is up, it's up. You don't always get to have the happy ending that you deserve.

I thought that the submarine sequence was gorgeously shot and that the entire last twenty minutes or so--from the time they arrive on the dock to the very end of the episode--had me on the edge of my seat, either gasping in shock (Kate's shooting) or sobbing (Sun and Jin's death). I had a feeling, as soon as I saw that the Man in Black had removed the C4 explosives from the plane that something awful was about to unfold but even I couldn't have predicted that the producers would be killing off three major cast members in one fell swoop. (As well as leaving the fate of poor Frank Lapidus so ambiguous, though I can't imagine that the pilot survived.)

The Man in Black. Say what you want about the mysterious Man in Black, but he's a master manipulator, a cosmic trickster who lies right to your face with a wink and a smile. He knows exactly what he'll encounter on the Ajira plane as soon as (if not before) he steps into the clearing and dispatches Widmore's flunkies without breaking a sweat. Yes, I'm saying that he knew he'd find explosives on the plane because he knows that Widmore has planted them there and left just two redshirts to guard the plane. Why? Because he steals a watch off one of the corpses before he even boards the Gilligan's Island-style bamboo staircase to investigate the plane.

He knew that he'd use the watch to create a ticking bomb that he'd use to kill the remaining candidates... just as he knew that Sawyer would once again try to double-cross him. He was counting on everything playing out just the way it did, in fact. Hell, he was so confident that he let the group in on his plans, displaying the C4, and telling them that Widmore's plan would have them all in one place, in a confined space, with little chance of escape.

And that's just what happened. While it's not Widmore's plan, I believe that the Man in Black always knew just how he'd attempt to get rid of the castaways. While he claimed that he needed them to escape the island, I believe that the reverse is true: he needs the candidates to be dead before he can leave. No replacement for the jailer means that the exit will no longer be barred to him. As long as there is someone to take Jacob's place, he's trapped on his island prison.

So what does he do? He proves that he knows the castaways all too well. He knows that Sawyer will attempt to escape and betray him... and that Jack will likely be caught up in the escape plot, which he is. All he has to do is sit back and let the counter go off and his trouble with the candidates will be over.

Which seems a bit at odds with his inability to kill the candidates, with the fact that his hands are tied due to certain rules that govern the island. Or does it? We've been told that the Man in Black can't kill them and, in fact, he often goes to great lengths to save their lives (Jack, Sawyer). So how could he think that his bomb threat would work?

Because he knows these castaways inside and out. Had they waited out the clock, the bomb wouldn't have gone off, as Jack suggests. They're protected by Jacob's influence. But because Sawyer removed the wires and tampered with the mechanism, he is therefore acting on his own behalf and unleashing a threat against the others. (As Jack said, the Man in Black wants them to kill each other.) It's not the Man in Black's hand on the detonator, but Sawyer's. He knew that someone on the sub wouldn't follow Jack's belief that they were protected and therefore provide a loophole by which the candidates would be vulnerable to death.

Then there's the matter of the ending, as the Man in Black and Claire wait on the docks. He's immediately aware that the sub has sank to the ocean floor (though obviously it can't be seen from there) as well as the fact that not all of the candidates perished in the explosion. Grabbing his pack and his gun, he sets off to "finish what [he] started."

That anyone could say that the Man in Black is nothing less than evil incarnate is beyond me. He doesn't want to help the castaways. He wants off this rock and is prepared to kill all of them to do so. He can't directly cause their deaths but he can create a situation that, once one of them acts, will lead to their deaths (i.e., Sawyer pulling out the wires). As for that scene on the dock, you might be wondering just how he knows that the candidates aren't all dead. Simple: he can leave the island once they're all dead. If he can't leave, then they are still alive. Just as he knew the sub had sank, so too does the Man in Black know that the way is still barred to him. Escape is still not a possibility.

Widmore. So what was Widmore's game then? Why throw the castaways into the bear cages? He claims that he's doing it for their own good and, while I've doubted Widmore's motives in the past, I do actually think he's telling the truth here. He orders his men to move the sonic fence around the cages and locks the castaways inside in an effort to shield them from the Man in Black.

Which would mean that Widmore's mission is to keep the castaways alive. The longer they live--and the more of them that do--the less chance the Nemesis has of escaping the island. Widmore is attempting to keep the balance between light and dark, to keep the scales even as Jacob's candidate is called. He knows, therefore, just what the Man in Black is attempting to do.

So why rig the plane with explosives? To stop the Man in Black and his few remaining followers. After all, when the plane was likely rigged, Widmore already had the majority of the candidates--save Jack and Sayid--in his custody. So if the plane went boom, it would likely only kill the Man in Black's followers. (He did seem to take an awful lot of precautions to keep the Man in Black from the candidates but didn't think about back-up generators, clearly.)

Sun and Jin. I was one of the viewers who was disappointed by Sun and Jin's reunion two weeks ago, which--after all of this time--lacked a real emotional hook. Yes, it was cut short by the arrival of Widmore's men and the brandishing of firearms, but I didn't feel like the brief moment of reunion was strong enough, given how long many of us have rooted for these two to find one another again. This week, they get a brief scene in the bear cages where Widmore's men have stashed them as they talk about Ji Yeon and Sun returns Jin's ring, another symbol of coming full circle. (We also find out just who is watching Ji Yeon back in South Korea.)

(I was surprised that there wasn't a moment of frisson passing between Sun and Widmore, who had, after all, had some words together back in Seasons Four and Five about their mutual interests and Sun's desire to kill Benjamin Linus. But, alas, there wasn't even a flicker of recognition between the two.)

Here, we get the scene that their entire relationship has been building to as Sun is trapped in the wreckage of the sinking submarine. Faced with an impossible decision, Jin can either escape and save himself or they can die together. The fact that the Kwons were always represented with a single candidate number--42--is a poetic foreshadowing of the way they exit the world: bound together, united, hands intertwined. Their moment of unity is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time: an undersea ballet of billowing hair and clasped hands, a blue-hued postcard of the power of true love. These two never get their happy ending but they also get to die together, in each others arms, beneath the sea. It's only in death that their hands are separated...

(Sigh. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it again.)

Sayid. I was glad to see the old Sayid again, even if it was just one last time at the end of his life. For too long, we've seen a cold, emotionless Sayid, a walking zombie, who cared little for anyone else. But this week, Sayid seems to spring back to life again, recalling the Sayid from the earlier seasons, with his knowledge of defusing bombs. A zombie wouldn't willingly sacrifice themselves for the greater good, but Sayid--now once again alive, it would seem--does just that. He tells Jack about Desmond's location and instructs him to find Desmond and tells him that he is the one, the candidate of the title. And then he runs with the bomb and is blown to smithereens. He redeemed himself with that one act, proving that redemption is possible for anyone, regardless of their past actions.

Frank. And then there's Lapidus, who is felled by a bulkhead as the compartment fills with water. I don't see how Frank could have possibly survived that and escaped the submarine in time. I'm sad to say that our 1970s style pilot may actually be well and truly dead.

Claire. Like Sayid, Claire too seems to be more in touch with her emotional state this week, perhaps influenced by proximity to the castaways. Just as she is stunned that they would leave her behind once more, she seems terrified that the Man in Black has killed them all on the submarine. It's as though she's seeing the Nemesis clearly for the first time in all of these years. (There's also a brief moment of emotion when Sawyer thanks the Man in Black for saving their lives at the Ajira crash site and says he was wrong about him. Claire seems to react briefly to this comment as though she's all too aware that the Man in Black is far less kind than he seems.) There's not only a sense of horror on the dock but also deep sadness for the fact that some of her former comrades in arms may be dead or dying. Could it be that Claire has come back from the land of the shadows at last?

Kate. Would Widmore actually have killed Kate? I think he might have. He's proven himself to be an ends-justify-the-means sort of guy and he knows that Kate isn't a candidate to replace Jacob and therefore is expendable. If killing her would protect the others, he's all too willing to do so in order to prove a point. And it's Kate who gets shot on the dock, after all. Did Widmore give instructions not to hit any of the others? Hmmm...

Jack. I have to say that I've liked Jack a hell of a lot more since he finally embraced his destiny and became the man of faith that Locke had pushed him to be for so long. But we also see here a Jack that is shaken by uncertainty. He believed that, if they let the counter go off, there would be no explosion. That they couldn't be killed. I do feel that Jack was right: it was Sawyer's involvement that led to the explosion. Just as the dynamite didn't kill Jack and Richard Alpert, the bomb here would have failed to detonate when the timer reached zero. But because Sawyer chose to pull the wires out, it's his action that has consequences for the rest of the group and his hand on the trigger.

Despite Jack's conviction about the bomb, it doesn't make the aftermath any less painful for him. Saving Sawyer's life and getting him back to the beach and reuniting with the wounded Kate (who was desperately looking for him), the group succumbs to tears as Jack walks over to the water's edge at stares up at the heavens as he too begins to cry. It was a powerful scene that spoke volumes about Jack's journey and his struggle to believe in something unseen, something powerful and invisible, and give himself over to his destiny. But it doesn't cut any less to lose the people that matter to you. To lose the family that keep you going and protect your back. Lost might be about love but it's also about lost love just as much.

Lost-X. The flash-sideways this week brought together a number of characters, most notably Jack, Locke, and Claire (though Jin is glimpsed en route to Sun's hospital room as Locke wheels by). Locke-X, following his surgery, appears to have regained the lost memories from the island, as seen by his use of "push the button" and "I wish you had believed me" (from his suicide note to Jack). Which means that Desmond successfully awakened him, even if he's still not completely connected to those memories yet. But there's enough of a tenuous connection that he feels a profound sense of deja vu at the end when Jack utters those words to him, "I wish you had believed me."

This John Locke is one who refuses to take a leap of faith and who won't allow Jack to operate on him--after he's told he's a "candidate" for a new spinal surgery--to enable him to walk again. While the other timeline's Locke was paralyzed after being pushed out a window by his villainous father, Anthony Cooper, here his paralysis is a punishment for injuring Cooper in a plane crash just a week after getting his pilot's license. The other Locke saw the magic of the island because he was able to walk again; it was proof positive of the existence of something bigger than him, of something mystical and powerful. But here, Locke can't let go of his past. He's atoning for an accident but carrying around tremendous guilt for making his beloved father catatonic. Because he will never walk again, neither should John.

It's interesting here that the tables have been turned. Whereas Anthony Cooper did nothing but harm to John and use him, here he's a much loved father for whom Locke would do anything. Locke finally got his perfect family but at a staggering cost. Here, he's to blame for the fate that has befallen them and he's unable to move through his guilt.

Jack's advice to let go is a particularly profound one. That's been the struggle of each of the characters since the beginning of Lost, really. The flashbacks have illuminated their personal conflicts throughout their pre-island lives while, in the present, they attempt to move on, to let go of their conflicts and flaws, to accept who they are and become fully formed people. Could it be that once the two timelines come together again (as I believe they will once the island is raised up from the ocean floor) the survivors will finally receive their missing pieces, the parts of themselves that they needed to complete their very being?

The Music Box. Jack seems staggered that he keeps encountering people that were on Oceanic Flight 815 with him, from Bernard Nadler (yay!) and John Locke to his half-sister Claire Littleton. I wanted there to be a bit more of a shocked reaction from Jack than there was; after all, this is seriously weird. If you were on a plane from Sydney to Los Angeles and kept running into people who were on the flight a week later in strange and unpredictable ways, wouldn't you think there was something profound going on here, something that was propelling each of you to come together again?

While Jack goes in search of Anthony Cooper and attempts to heal Locke (his need to always fix things seen again here), he's surprised when Claire visits him at the hospital, bringing an item that their father had bequeathed to her. It's a music box that just happens to play "Catch a Falling Star," the nursery song that Claire had been singing a few weeks back. It also contains another appearance of the looking glass as well, as both siblings stare into the box, their reflections staring back at them. Could it be that these two are the next to "awaken"?

Jack is not going to let Claire go. He invites her to stay with him, saying that they're not strangers but family. As I mentioned earlier, this is an important piece of the Lost puzzle and, here in the alternate reality, we're going to see these characters be pushed together closer and closer as their purpose becomes clear.

Jack, meanwhile, doesn't want to let Locke get away either. He wants to fix him, to help him let go of his demons, his guilt, and his shame. Both of their fathers are gone, lost to them, and nothing they do--not punishing themselves, certainly--will fix that. Whatever happened, happened and hey have to let go and move on. They have to believe.

And they have to find what they're looking for. It's a subtle comment made by Bernard to Jack but it carries significant weight here. Just what is Jack hoping to accomplish? What are each of them looking for? And by coming together once more, will they achieve that end?

Ultimately, the writers are telling us that we're at the end of the narrative. The players are narrowing as the bodies begin to stack up once more on the island. I don't think we'll be seeing Sun and Jin again. Unlike Michael, their souls will be free to leave the island and won't be trapped there to whisper in the jungle. The final battle approaches and it will likely be a bloody and horrific one as the Man in Black makes his final gambit to escape his prison and unleash himself on the world. Will the remaining castaways be able to stop him and restore balance on the island? Are they each prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice? And will Jack be able to fulfill his destiny and become Jacob's replacement and the island's protector? I can't wait to find out over the next three episodes.

What did you think of this week's episode? Were you as moved as I was by Sun and Jin's death? Now that we're moving into the final act of Lost, where do you think the story is going? How do the timelines connect to one another? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Lost ("Across the Sea"), the motives of the enigmatic Man in Black are revealed.

Los Angeles Times: "V: We're Terrorists Now"

Looking to discuss last night's episode of ABC's V?

Head over to the Los Angeles Times/Show Tracker site, where you can read my take on last night's episode ("Heart and Minds"), entitled "V: We're Terrorists Now."

I'm curious to know what you thought of the episode. Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on V ("Fruition"), Anna delivers a message that the Vs don't feel safe and will be leaving following Lisa's attack; Erica and the team try to track down a scientist who may have created a weapon that the Visitors are afraid of; Anna gives a list of possible Fifth Column members to Chad, hoping he'll investigate to help in finding them.

Channel Surfing: ABC Expands Lost Finale (Again), Actors and Execs Talk Lost Twist, 24 Movie Update, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Looks like there's more Lost than we thought. The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that ABC has expanded the series finale of Lost by a half an hour, bringing the finale's running time to two and a half hours on May 23rd, after the two-hour recap special, Lost: The Final Journey, and before a special edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live featuring the cast at 12:05 am that night. The decision to expand the series finale was made after executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse completed post-production on the final episode. "The producers of ABC's hit drama have shot so much crucial material for the show's hugely anticipated series finale that the network has agreed to extend the last episode by an extra half hour," writes Hibberd. Which means that we get another half an episode of the series. Lucky, lucky us. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF LOST! Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen has an interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about last night's episode of Lost ("The Candidate") and about certain matters of good and evil. Asked why the producers had to kill off Sun and Jin this week, Lindelof said, "Because now you know this show is willing and capable of killing anyone." And those wondering about the Man in Black's true nature need to read the following quote: "There is no ambiguity,” said Cuse of the Man in Black. "He is evil and he has to be stopped... There will be very little debate at the end of this episode that [Fake Locke] is evil and bad and has to be stopped. The main narrative reason for him killing our main characters is to establish how much of a bad guy he is and to clearly identify him as the antagonist rolling into the end of the series." (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)

Elsewhere, TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to Lost's Yunjin Kim about last night's episode. "It was a brilliant way to end Sun and Jin's life on the island," said Kim of the episode that killed off her character and Daniel Dae Kim's Jin. "Because of the way the story is going, especially once we get to Episode 15, 16 and 17, it's moving at a pretty fast pace. Let's say if Jin dies alone, Sun would only grieve for Jin for two seconds and we'd have to move on with the storyline. It was a very romantic death... As soon as I got on the phone with Damon Lindelof, he said 'This phone call is not one of those phone calls.' He told me how it was going to happen and I actually thought it was a beautiful ending to both of the characters. It will only propel the other survivors to go after Locke [Terry O'Quinn], and have a very good reason to go after Locke as aggressively as they do in the final episodes." (TVGuide.com)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks with 24 executive producer Howard Gordon, Kiefer Sutherland, and Mary Lynn Rajskub about the long gestating 24 feature film... and how the series finale of 24, set to air later this month, will impact the plot. "It's less of a cliff-hanger as much as it is a personal ending between a few of the characters, which is very intimate for us, when we're not blowing up the planet," Sutherland told Masters. "It was very wonderful for us to make and I hope the audience likes it as well. I'm very happy with it." Gordon agreed: "It's exciting, it's emotional and it just feels right. The ending fits somewhere between Jack dying and a happily ever after." As for Rakskub, she believes she'll be playing Chloe for some time to come. "The series really lends itself to the movie, but having said that, it is a satisfying ending," Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays fan fave Chloe, says. "Things are coming to a head in a pretty exciting way. This whole year has been a really strong year to go out on and the ending is just as strong... I know for sure that I'll be Chloe for at least a few years from now." (E! Online's Watch With Kristin)

NBC has confirmed that Jimmy Fallon will be the host of the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which will be telecast on Sunday, August 29th at 8 pm ET and 5 pm PT. "Hosting the Emmys has been a dream of mine ever since they told me I was doing it," said Fallon. (Variety's Emmy Central)

Deadline.com's Nikki Finke and Nellie Andreeva have an update on their Primetime Pilot Panic List, tracking rumors about which pilots are going to get the greenlight to series and which will fall by the wayside. (Deadline.com)

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that Laurie Holden (The Shield) is the latest actor to board AMC's upcoming zombie drama series The Walking Dead, where she has been cast as Andrea, described as "a key member of the survivor group who has a proficiency with a sniper rifle and falls for a man twice her age." Also cast: Steven Yeun, who will play Glenn. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Life on Mars co-stars John Simm and Philip Glenister are set to reunite on-screen for Sky1's upcoming murder drama series Mad Dogs. (Broadcast)

Steve Blackman and Craig Turk have been promoted to co-head writers on ABC's Private Practice. They will report to creator Shonda Rhimes but will serve as "de-facto co-showrunners" on the series, which is widely expected to be returning next season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jessica Walter (Arrested Development) has been cast in an upcoming episode of ABC Family's Make It or Break It, where she will play the grandmother of Cassie Scerbo's Lauren. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

It's official: Debra Winger is heading to Season Three of HBO's In Treatment, where she will play a patient of Gabriel Byrne's Paul in the upcoming season of the psychoanalysis drama series. (Variety)

GSN has ordered raunchy comedy game show Late Night Liars, featuring Jim Henson Company's puppets, and will launch the series on June 10th at 11 pm ET/PT. Larry Miller will be joined on the series by "two human contestants [who face] off against a panel of four 'celebrity puppets' who are also drunk and telling half-truths." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Jenna Mullins talks to Glee's Jonathan Groff about his character's motives on the FOX musical-comedy. "He's certainly up to something, that's for sure," Groff said. "My reasons for being at the high school are surprising. I was surprised... He has some surprises up his sleeves, none that I can reveal right now." (E! Online's Watch With Kristin)

Jamie Ray Newman (Eastwick) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Season Two of Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva, where she will play "an accomplished lawyer from a rival law firm who possesses a killer instinct," according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. In other casting news, the series has also cast Emily Kuroda (Gilmore Girls) as the mother of Margaret Cho's Teri and Robin Givens will play "a mean-spirited cosmetics lab exec who accuses Jane’s (Brooke Elliott) client of wrongdoing." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TLC has renewed reality series Hoarding: Buried Alive for a second season, with nine episodes on tap. (Variety)

A&E has renewed Paranormal State for a firth season, with 20 episodes set to air in the fourth quarter of 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Battle Royale: An Advance Review of Thursday's "Modern Warfare" Episode of Community

"Come with me if you don't want paint on your clothes."

I've been a fan of NBC's absurdist comedy Community since its inception. Over the course of its first season, the series--created by Dan Harmon--has grown into one of the network's creatively strongest players on Thursday evenings.

Aided by a winning cast, a deft balance between the sweet and sour, and a willingness to embrace the quirky, the odd, and the just plain out there, the series has grown into one of the most inventive and original comedies on television today and, paired with fellow Peacock comedy Parks and Recreation, offers an hour that ranks among one of my chief delights of the week.

This week's episode of Community ("Modern Warfare"), written by Emily Cutler (who also scripted another one of my favorite episodes this season, "Contemporary American Poultry"), offers what isn't merely another gleefully absurd installment but just might just be the most ambitious and hilarious comedy outing this year, one that redefines what broadcast network comedies are capable of achieving.

I don't want to give too much away about this incredible episode but I will say that it challenges our preconceptions about what is possible within the confines of an American broadcast network comedy. While other series--such as BBC Three's The Mighty Boosh--have taken absurdist humor to another world altogether, American broadcast comedies typically attempt to retain some semblance of reality, even when absurdity or parody are locked within their creative DNA (such as 30 Rock).

Community has always been a series that has played fast and loose with the rules, creating a universe that is at once filled with heart as it is with head-scratching humor. But never before has this series--or any other, come to think of it--offered an episode that is so absurd, so ambitious, and so absolutely unique that you find yourself roaring with laughter just as often as you pick up your jaw from the floor.

"Modern Warfare" finds Greendale College a campus divided as Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) offers a paintball tournament with a unique prize for the victor (priority enrollment). Awakening from a nap in his car, Jeff (Joel McHale) discovers a world very different from the one he left, one that's ripped apart by violence and destruction, where everyone he encounters is a potential enemy. And unless he arms himself, he might just be the next victim. Fortunately, lone wolf Jeff quickly falls into an alliance with BFFs Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy (Donald Glover).

What follows is inspired pastiche of action films such as Die Hard and The Matrix, zombie moves like 28 Days Later, and one of the most hysterical and attention-grabbing comedic episodes this year.

Alliances are formed, friendships fractured, Glee battered about, and heroes and villains born. Abed gets one of the best entrances I've seen in a long time (just... wow) while Ken Jeong's Senor Chang turns out to be a vicious killer who would be right at home with Hans Gruber. (His full-on assault of the study room, complete with el tigre-colored paint gun and tan suit, is absolutely priceless.)

Look for Alison Brie's Annie, Yvette Nicole Brown's Shirley, and Gillian Jacob's Britta to comprise the world's toughest female hit squad, death scenes galore (I love Shirley's in particular), and an exploration of what is personally important to the individual members of the study group, through the prism of that promise of early enrollment.

It's that latter point that resonates most deeply. The episode itself, in keeping with Community's modus operandi, also has a kernel of heart buried within its war-torn exterior, one that examines the sexual tension between Jeff Winger and Britta Perry in some very unexpected ways... and the way that comrades--or indeed study group members--can make sacrifices to benefit others. (Both in times of war and peace.)

All in all, it's a must-see episode of Community and likely to be held up as a paragon for network comedy in years to come. Trust me when I say that you do not want to miss this installment, under any circumstances. So lock and load and let the war begin...



Community airs Thursday at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC.

Diamonds in the Rough: Heart to Heart on Chuck

"The CIA has a way of breaking young idealists. Especially if they're in love." - Craig Turner

The Hart to Hart-style opening credits of this week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Role Models"), written by Phil Klemmer and directed by Fred Toye, really did set up the overall feel of the episode, one that was in keeping with the relatively lightness of the previous episode and was miles away from the darkness that enveloped most of Season Three.

Here, the tone was positioned sharply on the comedic as Chuck and Sarah were tasked with teaming up with legendary super-spy couple Craig and Laura Turner (Fred Willard and Swoosie Kurtz), themselves stylized versions of the characters played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers in Hart to Hart, who might just be what the future holds in store for Chuck and Sarah... are are instead a cautionary tale of how not to let your marriage go off the rails.

Elsewhere, Colonel Casey was given the dubious honor of making Morgan field-ready, an extremely difficult task given Morgan's, uh, less than ideal skill set. With the couples coupling, these two have been pushed together once again as an unlikely partnership, one that recalls the early days of the series with Morgan stepping into Chuck's role as the fish out of water amid the high-stakes espionage world.

So what did I think of "Chuck Versus the Role Models"? Let's discuss.

There were a number of clever juxtapositions here, most notably Morgan's dream sequence (heavily influenced as it was by the aforementioned Hart to Hart) and the complexities of Chuck and Sarah's own relationship as seen through the prism of the Turners.

It's clear from the opening sequence (the one post-dream) that Sarah has gotten extremely comfortable in Chuck's apartment and has been, uh, spending a lot of time there at night, leading to some uncomfortableness on the part of Morgan, who has been forced to wear pajamas to bed and attempt to avert his eyes from the scantily clad form of Sarah Walker at the refrigerator. But despite the fact that Sarah might feel at home enough to walk around in next to nothing, she doesn't see quite why Chuck would want to make this arrangement permanent.

Chuck, on the other hand, wants to give Sarah her own key and have her move in to Casa Bartowski, an evolution in their relationship that Sarah just doesn't see the point of. While at first it seems that her hesitance is just Sarah being the proto-typical spy, there's more at work here. She's been a spy her entire adult life, used to jetting off to anywhere and everywhere at the drop of a hat; as a child, she lived out of hotel rooms under assumed names. Sarah hasn't exactly grown up with any sense of stability or an approximation of "home" in the truest sense of the world.

For Sarah, home may be wear you hang your hat (or your holster) but it means something very different to Chuck. Yet throughout the episode, there are glimmers of hope: Sarah's cache of firearms concealed in the couch point to more than just the thirty foot rule... and her decision to leave her gun in the car points to her seeing Casa Bartowski as a bit of a sanctuary, after Chuck forbid her to keep her guns around.

But, by the end of the episode, the two had reached a rapprochement on the subject: Sarah would move in, after all. We see her making little changes to Casa Bartowski, adding a framed photo of her and Chuck on the mantle, and we get the sense that their relationship is evolving rapidly. Moving in together is a big step (especially when there's another roommate to consider) but these two are clearly meant for each other, right?

They should of course consider the case of the Turners, the super-spies that they're meant to be working with on their latest mission but who turn out to be a pair of bickering and selfish individuals who betray them several times. Craig is a lecherous lothario prone to extra-marital encounters, while Laura is a scheming alcoholic. One can see how, thirty years earlier, they might have made the best of pairs... but their marriage--or marriages--has since hit the rocks in more ways than one.

While Chuck and Sarah are meant to be watching and learning from the Turners, they end up having to complete their joint mission on their own, at which point they're betrayed by the Turners, who force them to give up their quarry--the software concealed in Otto Von Vogel's tiger collar--at gunpoint. Fortunately, Craig's slip about the Ambassador Hotel being Los Angeles' only place to get a rare cherry perfect for a Manhattan leads them to turn the tables on the traitorous couple.

The tiger sequence--in which Chuck had to get the collar off of the dozing beast--was nicely paralleled with Morgan's own mission, in which he had to remove Big Mike's keycard from around his neck while he napped in his office. (Meanwhile, I roared with laughter when Morgan attempted to fire the gun and threw it up in the air after it "exploded" in his hand.) But rather than let the parallels lie there, the writers further shook things up by crossing the two distinct storylines, when Morgan had to face off against the Bengal tiger--unarmed, of course--and came out victorious, though destroyed Ellie and Awesome's apartment in the process.)

But the Turners also proved that they weren't totally morally bankrupt. After escaping Casa Bartowski, the Turners came back to save Chuck and Sarah and offer themselves up to Otto and Sarah returns the favor later by lying to General Beckman about their intentions, saying that they had orchestrated a triple-cross. And Sarah, naturally, moves in with Chuck, saying that she doesn't know how to live a normal life... to which he answers that they'll never have a normal life. (Aw.)

And then there was the Ellie-Awesome storyline set in the Congo as the two doctors attempted to settle into their new lifestyle with Doctors Without Borders, which was proving more difficult than self-described "city girl" Ellie had envisioned. Add to that killer mosquitoes, slithering snakes, and a villainous Ring operative named Justin. While it initially seems as though Justin is one of the good guys, he quickly launches a plan to incapacitate Devon--injecting him with a virus that Ellie believes is malaria--but which will likely prove to be more deadly.

I'm intrigued that The Ring storyline--despite its seeming resolution a few weeks back--isn't actually over and that Devon is still on their radar. Just what does this Ring cell want? Why have they infected Devon? And how does this fit into their larger plans? Are they aware of Chuck Bartowski's secret identity as the Intersect? Hmmm...

What else did I love about this week's episode? Devon's nickname of "Dr. Super Fantastic White Person" among the locals, Casey telling Morgan that he has balls, the Buy More hottie writing "you disgust me" on Morgan's business card, the Hart to Hart-style opening, Morgan describing Sarah as "the leggy Valkyrie with an aversion to clothing," Morgan running from the tiger, Sarah and Chuck in the closet, Chuck's aw-shucks grin in the morning, the fact that Big Mike has jelly on his key card, Beckman's description of Morgan as being a diamond in the rough ("very, very rough").

What did you think of this week's episode? Happy with how quickly Chuck and Sarah's relationship is advancing? What's up with Awesome and Ellie? Discuss.

On next week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Tooth"), Chuck struggles with disturbing dreams and now he believes his most recent dream predicts danger for a visiting head of state, leading General Beckman to assign Chuck to CIA psychiatrist Dr. Leo Dreyfus (guest star Christopher Lloyd); Ellie gets surprising news; Anna returns to the Buy More to talk to Morgan.

Ratings Report: The Boondocks Scores for Adult Swim

After a nearly two-year absence, Adult Swim's animated comedy The Boondocks returned Sunday night with a ratings smash.

The third season premiere of The Boondocks raked in 2.55 million viewers overall, the highest ratings for an original series at Cartoon Network's latenight imprint in over a year.

The episode also set new records for the series itself, breaking its previous ratings high in adults 18-34, adults 18-24, adults 18-49, women 18-34, and women 18-49.

Additionally, the broadcast also ranked number one in its time period across all key demos for basic cable, no mean feat for a series that's been off the air for two years now. (If that weren't enough, I'm also told that, since the show's premiere Sunday, the episode has also already been streamed over 200,000 times on AdultSwim.com.)

The full ratings release from Adult Swim can be found below.

Season Three Premiere of THE BOONDOCKS Sets Series Ratings Records;
Propels Adult Swim to #1 Among Target Young Adults
100th Episode of AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE Also Scores Significant Gains on Sunday Night

The Season 3 premiere of Aaron McGruder’s Peabody Award-winning animated series THE BOONDOCKS (Sunday, 11:30 p.m.) set several all-time series ratings records and anchored Adult Swim as the #1 ad-supported cable network among key young adult demos, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. The first original episode since Feb. 4, 2008, THE BOONDOCKS charted its best performance to date among adults 18-34, men 18-24 and adults 18-49. The premiere also earned Adult Swim’s highest audience delivery on any Sunday night in the 11:30 p.m.-12 a.m. time period among adults 18-34 since Feb. 8, 2009, and adults 18-24 since Nov. 16, 2008. A total of 2.55 million viewers tuned in, the highest overall audience delivery for THE BOONDOCKS since the series’ first season in 2006.

Additional highlights for THE BOONDOCKS include:
· #1 telecast in the timeslot on all television among adults 18-34, adults 18-24, men 18-34 and men 18-24
· #2 program of the day on all television among adults 18-24, behind only Fox’s Family Guy presentation
· #8 among the Top 10 telecasts of the week on ad-supported cable among adults 18-34

Compared to the same time period in 2009, THE BOONDOCKS earned double and triple-digit gains among all targeted demos: adults 18-34 delivery (1,255,000) increased by 61% and ratings (1.8) by 64%; adults 18-24 delivery (835,000) increased by 104% and ratings (2.9) by 107%; adults 18-49 delivery (1,576,000) increased by 57% and ratings (1.3) by 50%; men 18-34 delivery (671,000) increased by 28% and ratings (2.0) by 33%; and men 18-24 delivery (498,000) increased by 102% and ratings (3.4) by 100%. Additionally, adults 18-49 delivery (1,576,000) increased by 57%.

Overall for the week, Adult Swim once again ranked #1 among all ad-supported cable networks for total day delivery of adults 18-34, adults 18-24, men 18-34 and men 18-24. Adults 18-34 delivery (510,000) grew by 15%, adults 18-24 delivery (304,000) grew by 30%, men 18-34 delivery (295,000) grew by 14% and men 18-24 delivery (181,000) grew by 27%. Adults 18-49 delivery (682,000) also grew by 13%.

Also on Sunday night, the 100th episode premiere of AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE (12 a.m.) earned remarkable delivery gains compared to the 2009 time period. Adults 18-34 delivery (989,000) jumped by 79%, adults 18-24 delivery (604,000) jumped by 99%, men 18-34 delivery (524,000) jumped by 42% and men 18-24 delivery (364,000) jumped by 98%. TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB! (12:30 a.m.) earned significant delivery gains as well. Adults 18-34 delivery (464,000) improved by 37%, adults 18-24 delivery (284,000) improved by 44%, men 18-34 delivery (225,000) improved by 15% and men 18-24 delivery (160,000) improved by 52%.

Adult Swim (AdultSwim.com), launched in 2001, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s network offering original and acquired animated and live-action series for young adults. Airing nightly from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET, PT), Adult Swim shares channel space with Cartoon Network, home to the best in original, acquired and classic entertainment for youth and families, and is seen in 97 million U.S. homes.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

Channel Surfing: NBC Goes Undercovers, Lost Leaked Finale Pages, Evangeline Lilly on Kate, Katee Sackhoff Talks 24, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

NBC has given a series order to spy dramedy Undercovers, from executive producers J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims, the first series pickup for the 2010-11 season. Series, which revolves around the exploits of a married couple who both work in espionage, stars Boris Kodjoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Carter MacIntyre, Gerald McRaney, and Ben Schwartz. “Having J.J. on our creative team is a great reason for celebration,” said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, in a statement. “In Undercovers, J.J. and Josh have found a breakout couple that is rich in character and brimming with romance and action. We feel he’s found the perfect cast.” (Televisionary)

MEGA-SPOILER! I won't be clicking over to read these (and would ask that you not discuss them in any specific detail here) but Italian blog Macchianera has obtained six script pages from the Lost series finale, scheduled to air May 23rd on ABC. While neither ABC nor executive producers Damon Lindelof or Carlton Cuse have commented on their provenance, it's believed by many that the pages are authentic and they are ridden with spoilers for plot twists between now and the season finale. [Editor: again, WARNING, don't click if you don't want to be spoiled! I also have to wonder why no one in Lost's production thought to individually watermark these pages.] (Macchianera via The Onion's A.V. Club)

Vulture's Mike Ryan, meanwhile, talks to Lost star Evangeline Lilly about the imminent end of the mind-bending drama series. Among the many questions posed to Lilly, one was regarding whether the actress had wished she could rewrite a scene that had featured Kate. "There is this one scene that I stand by that if I could have chosen or written it, it definitely would have gone down differently: the scene where Kate watches Jack carry a meal over to Juliet at the survivors camp," said Lilly. "They sit down together and eat and they're laughing and talking, and then Kate subsequently goes to Sawyer's tent and lavishes him. I feel like it was a cheapening of the character. I feel like she was always an emotionally confused women between these two men, but she was never that manipulative sexually, I don't think. I feel like that was something that if I could have rewritten it — and I tried to work with the producers on that one; I tried to change so at least it wasn't a cut. It could have been Kate seeing Jack then maybe a couple scenes go by, time goes by, and then you see her go to Sawyer's tent. It ended up being a direct cut and that she literally went in a snit, and was in a pout, because Jack was playing with another girl and she went and seduced Sawyer. I didn't dig that. I would have rewritten that." (New York Magazine's Vulture)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks with Katee Sackhoff about last night's recent plot twist on FOX's 24, which saw Sackhoff's Dana Walsh murdered by Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer. "She doesn’t have one redeeming quality," said Sackhoff of Dana. "I tried desperately to give her a redeeming quality. I really tried. The only thing I could come up with was that she didn’t crack when she was tortured... I kind of figured if I couldn’t give her a redeeming quality, I was just going to be the most ridiculously unsympathetic villain ever. I was going to try and make everyone hate her. That was my goal, and I think I succeeded." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FX has renewed Justified for a second season. (Televisionary)

Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore has signed a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, under which he will develop projects for both broadcast and cable through his Tall Ships Prods. shingle. Moore had previously been based at Universal Media Studios. (Deadline.com)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to V showrunner/executive producer Scott Rosenbaum about what to expect from the final three episodes this season as he offers up eight hints about upcoming plotlines, ranging from V soldiers and alien babies to showdowns, attacks, and betrayal. (TVGuide.com)

Variety's Cynthia Littleton is reporting that NBC might order one or two other projects this week, ahead of its upfront presentations. The likely candidates include dramas The Chase, Kindreds, and The Rockford Files, with The Event and Love Bites also said to be in the mix. On the comedy side, the strongest players appear to be Outsourced, Perfect Couples, Next, This Little Piggy and possibly Beach Lane, which is said to require some reworking. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Smallville executive producer Brian Peterson is "very optimistic" that Allison Mack will return to the CW superhero drama next season. "We’ve learned the hard way not to say [it's official] until everything is signed and dotted," Peterson told Ausiello. "So the best we can say is we’re really optimistic. And so is Allison." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Slightly better news for Party Down in its second episode; the Starz comedy scored a 129 percent increase week to week, bringing its ratings to 289,000 viewers. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Look for Adrian Grenier's Vince to cut his hair this season on HBO's Entourage, according to TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck. “It’s for a story line where Vince cuts his hair without telling the director of his new movie,” executive producer Doug Ellin told Keck, denying reports that it had been Grenier who had shorn his locks without telling the producers. “As always with our show, art imitates life.” (TV Guide Magazine)

20th Century Fox Television has signed a multi-year overall deal with writing partners Patrick Masset and John Zinman--who together worked on Friday Night Lights and Caprica--under which they will develop new projects for the studio and be placed on the staff of a new drama series, likely either Midland, Ride Along, or Breakout Kings. (Hollywood Reporter)

Newcomer Jeff Rosick has been cast as Buddy Jr. in Season Five of Friday Night Lights, where he will recur throughout what will likely be the final season of the drama series. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

History Channel has ordered reality series Stan Lee's Superhumans, which the comic book guru and Daniel Browning Smith, will host as the duo meet "people who have remarkable abilities because of being genetically different." The series will be joined by a slew of other new programming at the cabler, including Brad Meltzer's Decoded, Top Gear, The Kennedys, and Chasing Mummies, as well as specials Voices From Inside the Towers, Jefferson, President's Book of Secrets, and Reagan. (Hollywood Reporter)

Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva offers a look at the rest of the development slate for nascent pay cabler Epix, which includes projects from Todd Field, Todd Holland, and Lawrence O'Donnell. (Deadline.com)

Spike has ordered reality pilot Weapon X, from executive producer Thom Beers, about "whether certain military battles could've been won if the losers had built a high-powered weapon that utilizes today's technology," and has ordered scripted drama pilot Rebel League, from writer Stephen Engel and executive producers Denis Leary and Jim Serpico, about the dysfunctional 1970s World Hockey Association. (Variety)

Syfy will air backdoor pilot (or, er, four-hour mini-series) The Phantom--starring Ryan Carnes--on a single night: Sunday, June 20th, beginning at 7 pm ET/PT. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Riding the Rap: FX Renews Justified For Second Season

Raylan Givens is going to be stuck in Harlan a little while longer.

FX today announced that it had commissioned a second season of Timothy Olyphant-led drama series Justified, based on character created by Elmore Leonard.

A second season of 13 episodes is expected to air on the cabler, with Season Two likely launching next year. The first season of Justified, meanwhile, is set to wrap up its run on June 8th.

"We are very excited about the tremendous, widespread acclaim that Justified has received from both audiences and television critics," said John Landgraf, President and General Manager of FX Networks. "Graham Yost, Tim Olyphant, Elmore Leonard and their talented partners have crafted a uniquely ambitious and entertaining series which is everything we aspired to when we developed the show.”

“I’m just thrilled, and I’m looking forward to chronicling the future adventures of Raylan Givens,” said executive producer Graham Yost. "To work with an actor like Tim, who was born to play this role, has been a wonderful experience.”

The full press release from FX can be found below.

FX ORDERS SEASON TWO OF JUSTIFIED

Network Orders 13 Episodes for Second Season from
FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television

Six All New Episodes Remain in Season One, Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT
With Season 1 Finale Airing June 8

Season One (First-Run) Averaging 3.4 Million Total Viewers and 1.7 Million Adults 18-49
With Multi-Run Weekly Average of 7.5 Million Total Viewers and 3.9 Million Adults 18-49

Basic Cable’s #1 New Series In Delivery of Men 18-49

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2010 – Justice has been served, as FX has ordered another season of its newest critically acclaimed hit drama series Justified, picking up a 13-episode second season, today announced John Landgraf, President and General Manager of FX Networks. Six all new episodes remain in season one, airing Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT, with the first season finale airing on June 8th.

“We are very excited about the tremendous, widespread acclaim that Justified has received from both audiences and television critics,” said Landgraf. “Graham Yost, Tim Olyphant, Elmore Leonard and their talented partners have crafted a uniquely ambitious and entertaining series which is everything we aspired to when we developed the show.”

Developed for television by Graham Yost and starring Timothy Olyphant, Justified (TV-MA) is based on the popular Elmore Leonard character “Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens” from his short story Fire in the Hole and some of his other novels.

“I’m just thrilled, and I’m looking forward to chronicling the future adventures of Raylan Givens,” said Yost. “To work with an actor like Tim, who was born to play this role, has been a wonderful experience.”

Through seven weeks, first-run episodes of Justified are averaging 3.4 million viewers and 1.7 million Adults 18-49. The weekly multi-run average viewership for the series is 7.5 million total viewers and 3.9 million Adults 18-49 (six episodes). Justified is this year’s number-one rated new series on basic cable in delivery of Men 18-49 (1.1 million). Justified was the most-watched series premiere in FX history, with 4.9 million total viewers, surpassing The Shield’s 4.8 million total viewers (3/12/02).

"This pick-up speaks volumes to the quality and collaboration on the series, and our unparalleled partnership with FX,” said Jamie Erlicht, President, Programming for Sony Pictures Television. "The viewer response to Justified has been as enthusiastic as ours was when we first heard the pitch."

Olyphant stars in the lead role of Givens, a true-blue hero born and reared in the hill country of eastern Kentucky, who left at age 19 to become a U.S. Marshal. Now, years later, after shooting a gun thug in a Miami hotel and thereby incurring the wrath of his Marshals Service superiors, Raylan has been sent in punishment (and by fate?) to the one place to which he vowed he would never return – Kentucky. But, being back in Kentucky, Raylan will also have to confront a past crowded with enough skeletons to choke a graveyard.

The series co-stars Nick Searcy as Givens longtime friend and boss “Chief Deputy Art Mullen”; Jacob Pitts as “Deputy Marshal Tim Gutterson”; Erica Tazel as “Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks”; Joelle Carter as “Ava Crowder,” Boyd’s sister-in-law; and Natalie Zea as Raylan’s ex-wife “Winona Hawkins.” Walton Goggins guest stars as “Boyd Crowder,” who worked with Raylan in the coal mines as teenagers and has now chosen a criminal path.

Yost wrote the pilot and serves as Executive Producer/Writer on the series. Leonard is an Executive Producer on the series along with Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Michael Dinner, who directed the pilot episode. Justified is produced by FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television.

Rambaldi Device: NBC Orders J.J. Abrams' Undercovers to Series

Looks like the Peacock is in the J.J. Abrams business.

NBC today confirmed that it had given a series order to romantic dramedy Undercovers, from executive producers J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims, the first series pickup for the 2010-11 season.

The announcement was made by Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, and Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment.

“We have tremendous confidence in this promising series and feel this is a great way to kick off our upcoming Upfront development announcements,” said Gaspin. “J.J. has delivered another signature series, along with our partners at Warner Bros., and we couldn’t be happier.”

“Having J.J. on our creative team is a great reason for celebration,” said Bromstad. “In Undercovers, J.J. and Josh have found a breakout couple that is rich in character and brimming with romance and action. We feel he’s found the perfect cast.”

Here's how NBC is positioning the series:

"Undercovers is a sexy, fun, action-packed spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world's most dangerous partnership. Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Soul Food,” "Resident Evil: Afterlife") and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Doctor Who,” “Bonekickers”), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy, “Smallville”).

Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre, "American Heiress") goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney, "Deadwood") to locate and rescue Nash. The pair is thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe -- and Steven and Samantha realize that this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing. Also starring is Ben Schwartz (NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”)."

The full press release from NBC can be found below...

NBC PICKS UP ‘UNDERCOVERS,’ FROM J.J. ABRAMS AND JOSH REIMS, AS FIRST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES FOR 2010-11 SEASON

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – May 3, 2010 – NBC has issued its first scripted series pickup for the 2010-11 season with the order of the drama “Undercovers” from acclaimed writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek," "Fringe," "Lost," "Alias") and executive producer/writer Josh Reims (“Brothers and Sisters”), it was announced today by Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

“We have tremendous confidence in this promising series and feel this is a great way to kick off our upcoming Upfront development announcements,” said Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment. “J.J. has delivered another signature series, along with our partners at Warner Bros., and we couldn’t be happier.”

“Having J.J. on our creative team is a great reason for celebration,” said Bromstad. “In ‘Undercovers,’ J.J. and Josh have found a breakout couple that is rich in character and brimming with romance and action. We feel he’s found the perfect cast.”

Abrams serves as co-writer, executive producer – and also directs – his first direction of a TV series pilot since “Lost.” “Undercovers” is a sexy, fun, action-packed spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world's most dangerous partnership. Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Soul Food,” "Resident Evil: Afterlife") and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Doctor Who,” “Bonekickers”), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy, “Smallville”).

Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre, "American Heiress") goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney, "Deadwood") to locate and rescue Nash. The pair is thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe -- and Steven and Samantha realize that this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing. Also starring is Ben Schwartz (NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”).

"Undercovers" is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television. The pilot was written by J.J. Abrams & Josh Reims and directed by Abrams. Abrams, Reims and Bryan Burk ("Fringe," "Lost, "Alias") are the executive producers.

Dead Man's Jacket: The Pipes Are Calling on Ashes to Ashes

I received quite a few emails and Twitter replies asking me where my weekly write-ups of BBC One's Ashes to Ashes had gone. After a one-week break, I'm happy to say that they're back and I'll be covering the last two installments of Ashes--the series' fourth and fifth episodes--in this write-up.

The fourth episode continued the pattern established earlier this season, with each of Ashes to Ashes's supporting cast getting a character-centric episode. With both Shaz and Ray getting their individual episodes (representing courage and heart, respectively), Chris Skelton finally got his installment with Episode Four, as he fell for a female undercover police officer who wasn't quite exactly what she appeared to be.

While the team attempted to protect Officer Louise Gardner (Zoe Telford) from the villainous Stafford gang, the true war that was being waged was the invisible one between DCI Gene Hunt and Discipline and Complaints Officer Jim Keats as the latter continued to systematically attempt to lure Gene's foot soldiers over to his cause... and Alex continued her own private investigation into the disappearance of Sam Tyler three years earlier.

And then there's the matter of Officer 6620, the disfigured young copper who continues to haunt Alex this season. Just what is he warning Alex about? Who is he? And how does all of this connect to Gene Hunt, Sam Tyler, and Alex Drake?

Warning: spoilers abound for US viewers who haven't seen Season Two of Ashes to Ashes.

What struck me the most about the fourth episode--Chris Skelton's episode--was the fact that he didn't get a "Life on Mars" moment like Shaz and Ray both did in their own individual episodes, a significant moment that seems to coincide with each of the characters achieving what they want most--for Shaz a sense that she's making a difference and can really be a cop, for Ray, the guv's approval--as Gene's influence over them is keenly felt.

But that moment doesn't quite come for Chris Skelton here. If we're using the Oz characters as a reference guide, Shaz gets her courage and Ray his heart, but Chris--acting here as the Scarecrow--never gets his brains. He remains uncompleted at the end of the episode and only barely escapes with his job intact after he falls for Louise's lies and nearly kills Daniel Stafford (Bryan Dick) in the cells, believing him to have raped and slashed Louise.

But Louise was playing Chris; as an undercover officer she's become so used to lying that it's become second nature to her. She's no longer sure who she is anymore nor where her loyalties lie. It almost seems as though Alex is able to get through to her as they spend an evening together at Alex's place but Alex is knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant and Louise disappears into the night. (Interestingly, having been chloroformed, Alex envisions herself buried alive in a coffin as dirt is piled on top of her before Gene almost presses his mouth to hers in an effort to perform CPR.)

Chris' entire police career dangles by a thread but Gene doesn't give in to Jim Keats' demands. Keats offers Gene a lifeline: he can save Chris' career if Gene agrees to have Chris transferred over to his team. Gene refuses... but Keats still steps in and saves Chris. It's an important about-face. Previously, Gene has been able to exert his influence over his team and, when faced with a monumental decision, his subordinates end up choosing Gene and Fenchurch.

But that's not exactly how things play out with Chris. He's already seduced by Keats before we get to this point; earlier in the episode, he makes an error in referring to Keats--and not Gene--as the guv, a fact that gets right under Gene's skin... and Chris proves several times in this episode that he's more than willing to work with Keats and perform tasks for him when he should be following his DCI's orders.

So Chris doesn't get a "Life on Mars" moment, a spotlight thrown on him in the darkness that connects him inexorably with Gene Hunt. The familiar refrain of Bowie's song never flits around him at Luigi's. It's a significant moment, I think, for Gene Hunt, proving a weak link in the chain of command, a chink in his armor that Keats can exploit for his own ends.

Gene, of course, isn't exactly helping his own cause. In Episode Five, he breaks into Alex's desk and steals Sam Tyler's leather jacket and the case files relating to his disappearance... and he burns them. ("It's a dead man's jacket," Gene tells Alex as Sam's trademark leather coat goes up in flames.) While Gene might seem to want to bury this case, it's not going away any time soon. Alex knows that Sam Tyler's disappearance--and alleged death--is significant and is connecting to both Gene Hunt and her presence in this world. Just what is Gene hiding?

That question becomes all the more obvious when Gene's former colleagues in Manchester, DCI Litton and DI Bevan, end up in London as part of an investigation that brings them onto Fenchurch East's beat in pursuit of comedian Frank Hardwick. Both Litton and Bevan knew Sam Tyler... and the corrupt Bevan is all too aware of the mystery surrounding Sam's death. While he doesn't go so far as to point the finger of blame at Gene, he strongly implies that something wasn't quite right about Sam's car accident in the canal and that Gene Hunt gets others to do his dirty work for him. And he was the one who took the crime scene photos that Alex has been poring over these past few episodes. Was Gene all the more willing to shoot Bevan in order to protect that secret?

And then there's the stars. Both Alex and Shaz have had moments where they saw the night sky filled with stars, a sudden hallucination that disappeared as quickly as it arrived. This week, it's Ray Carling who sees the stars. Both Shaz and Ray share this peculiar moment after their "Life on Mars" moment, which might point a clue to its true meaning. In following Gene Hunt and pledging their allegiance to him, are they now seeing the true nature of the world?

Ray briefly admits to Shaz that he saw the stars but her questions to illicit more information from him about this visual clue result in Ray clamming up. Neither of them want to appear as daft as Alex, who is always going on about dead coppers, Pierrot clowns, and the like. But these individuals--and I'd include Sam Tyler in this grouping--seem connected to the metaphysical mysteries of this world, glimpsing such entities as Officer 6620, the Test Card Girl, the Clown, and now the stars in the sky. The others seem immune to their influences, closed off from perceiving the world in this fashion.

So what is this world? It's the central question that's been at the heart of both Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes since the very beginning. Is it an Oz that only coppers can access, a place that uses notions about policing--idealized and demonized ones founded on such television series as The Bill--as a sort of refuge for lost souls? A purgatory between heaven and hell? Are they ready to achieve their final rests now that they've achieved what they needed to hear?

And if that's the case, are each of them already dead? Could it be that Sam Tyler and Alex Drake are able to see through the veneer of this world because they were both--at least initially--clinging to the last remnants of their consciousness back on Earth? In comas, kept alive by machines, both of them exist on bridges between the worlds, able to access memories from their lives but also able to see behind the curtain of this strange universe.

Are both shows inherently about Death?

While Ray Carling is meant to be popping and locking with Chris (a hysterical interlude, BTW), he instead opts to sing that old Irish chestnut, "Danny Boy." The lyrics couldn't be more apt in that case:

"And if you come, when all the flowers are dying/And I am dead, as dead I well may be/You'll come and find the place where I am lying/And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me."

Which made me wonder: is the police report in the opening sequence this season--the one that indicated that the body of a police officer had been found (near the house with the weathervane)--indicating exactly what Alex has to do? Should she be looking for that spot and unearthing the body of Officer 6620? And if she does, just whose corpse would she discover? Could it be that she would find the remains of Gene Hunt himself, a young copper, killed all those years before?

And if that's the case, could it be that all of them--Shaz, Ray, Chris, and the rest--are all in fact, already dead? Is this universe a Valhalla for English coppers, a place of puzzles and mysteries and crimes to be solved?

Is this whole world constructed by a long-dead police officer whose body lay undiscovered all of these years, his own central mystery unsolved by everyone? As the song says, "I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me..."

So does Alex go over to Keats' side at the end? Do they have that little chat? I'm not sure yet that they do (though in Episode Four, she did tell him that she was being haunted and seemed ready to sit down with him). But I think that the battle between Hunt and Keats for Alex is only just getting underway...

What did you think of the last two episodes? Did those of you in the know (regarding the awful US version of Life on Mars) chuckle at the astronaut comment (which reminded me of my recent interview with co-creator Matthew Graham)? How great was it to see Litton and Sam (at least in an opening montage) again? Just what is going on and, with only three episodes remaining until the end, how will the writers wrap up all of the compelling storylines and mythology they've established? When all is done and dusted, what do you think the ultimate resolution of the series will be? Discuss.

On the next episode of Ashes to Ashes, Viv's life hangs in the balance after an attempt to stop a prison riot goes badly wrong; when Alex's negotiations with the prisoners fail, Gene sends Chris and Ray in to the prison posing as members of a press contingent.

Los Angeles Times: "The Amazing Race: Breaking Language Barriers"

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 Amazing Race piece, entitled "The Amazing Race: Breaking Language Barriers," where you can read my take on the latest episode, ethnocentrism, mental breakdowns, bladder control, and much more.

Sound off in the comments section and be sure to come back next week.

Next week on the season finale of The Amazing Race ("Huger Than Huge"), Brent and Caite, Jet and Cord, and Dan and Jordan depart Shanghai and head home to race for the finish line and the one million dollars awaiting the ultimate winner.

Channel Surfing: Chuck Renewal Prognosis Improved, Sarah Wayne Callies Hunts The Walking Dead, Conan, Castle, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Could it be that things are looking up for Chuck? Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva breaks down the current on the bubble series at the broadcast networks, including NBC's Chuck. "Last year, NBC’s Chuck got an 11th hour reprieve, clinching a partial 3rd-season order on Sunday afternoon before upfront week," writes Andreeva. "This time around, its fate will be decided earlier if the show’s producers get their way. Several days ago, creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak pitched NBC their vision for Season 4 and producing studio Warner Bros asked the network for a quick resolution so the series could keep its writing staff. Even with NBC brass happy with their drama development, the spy dramedy’s chances of renewal are considered very good -- and certainly a lot better than last year when a sponsorship deal with Subway sealed the renewal. With the show rising in the ratings this week and fans staging rallies tomorrow, Chuck may be one solid ratings performance... away from an early renewal." [Editor: in other words, tune in tonight in huge numbers and LIVE.] (Deadline.com)

Meanwhile, today marks the day for the multi-city Chuck flash mobs, but if you're not in one of the cities participating, don't fret: you can still show your support for a fourth season of Chuck by participating in the Twitter mob scheduled for today between noon and 1 pm Pacific Time. Sample tweets include: "@NBC – We want more #CHUCK! Give us another season of flashes and fun. The world’s safety depends on it! #FlashChuck" or "#CHUCK rules! @NBC show your love for CHUCK and the fans will show their love back. We want a 4th season! #FlashChuck" (ChuckTV.net)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former Prison Break star Sarah Wayne Callies has been cast as the female lead in AMC's upcoming drama series The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman's comicbook series. Callies has been cast as Lori Grimes, described as "the slowly-unraveling wife of the show’s hero, Rick (Andrew Lincoln)." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The New York Times's Bill Carter talks to Jeff Gaspin's efforts to pull NBC's schedule "out of a long, precipitous slide," the network's development slate, and the C-word: Conan. "Late night’s not my problem anymore," said Gaspin, referring to Conan O'Brien's move to TBS. "I don’t have to worry about Conan anymore. Whereas if he was on Fox we’d all be, you know, what’s it going to do? That’s all over. The Conan story is gone for me." (New York Times)

Meanwhie, did you miss last night's Conan O'Brien interview on CBS' 60 Minutes? You can watch the full video of O'Brien's chat below.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos talks to Nathan Fillion about the upcoming season finale of his ABC procedural drama Castle. "Beckett has set her eyes on another man, and it's really getting to Castle," Fillion told her. "He's really not having an easy time with it, so we're getting to a point in time where she's gotta make a choice. And he's gotta make a choice! There's gonna be a choice made. An emotional choice. It's an emotional cliffhanger." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

In other Castle-related news, co-showrunner/executive producer Rene Echevarria has left the series after he was unable to reach a new deal with studio ABC Studios. Creator Andrew Marlowe, who shared showrunning responsibilities with Echevarria, will now serve as the series' sole showrunner when it returns for a third season this fall. (Deadline.com)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a brand new interview with "A Song of Fire and Ice" novelist George R.R. Martin, whose fantasy novel series is the basis for HBO's upcoming series Game of Thrones. (The series itself is undergoing some cast changes at the moment: Jennifer Ehle was replaced by Michelle Fairley and Tamzin Merchant--who played Daenerys Targaryen--will be replaced as well.) "I knew that the limitations of budgets and the censorship limitations," said Martin about possible television homes for "A Song of Fire and Ice," ruling out the broadcast networks. "I know it’s loosened up some since I was active in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, but I can still remember the fights with Standards and Practices and censors about the sex and violence. And the books are full of sex and violence. I didn’t want some watered-down, bowdlerized version of this... [HBO] had done shows like Deadwood and Rome and The Sopranos and that was the kind of thing I saw this as." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Showtime has announced its summer launch dates, which includes Season Eight of Penn & Teller: Bullshit and new series The Green Room with Paul Provenza on Thursday, June 10th from 10-11 pm ET/PT, The Real L Word on Sunday, June 20th at 10 pm ET/PT, and Season Six of Weeds and the launch of The Big C on Monday, August 16th at 10:30 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

Zoe Kravitz--the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet--has been cast in a six-episode story arc on the upcoming season of Showtime's Californication, where she will play Zoe, a "wild child" musician who looks to recruit Becca (Madeleine Martin) for her all-girl band. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Megan Masters has an interview with Vampire Diaries star Matt Davis, in which the former Damages co-star talks about why his Alaric is in need of some steamy sex scenes on the CW supernatural drama series. "We decided that the best way to reconcile them is a ménage à trois," Davis said, joking, about the return of Alaric's wife Isobel. "No, it's shocking. To see this missing wife of his after so long. Not only is it shocking, but those moments never go the way you expect them to. His whole life changed when she vanished, and he's been searching for her ever since. [To] finally confront the thing he's been looking for? That would turn your life upside down, and it will definitely be a big moment for Alaric." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Barry Sonnenfeld is heading overseas. The Pushing Daisies director/executive producer has teamed up with Fluent Media Group and Resonant TV to develop a supernatural drama series Beat the Devil that will be pitched to foreign networks ahead of the US. "Five years ago, it was unthinkable of a U.S. studio acquiring a scripted format from another country," Gonzalo Cilley, head of Resonant TV, told Hollywood Reporter. "We want to have Barry involved from Day 1 so he can use all of that experience and information when he pitches the American version." (Hollywood Reporter)

Nascent pay cabler Epix is said to have signed a deal with Oliver Stone and author Bruce Wagner to develop Los Angeles-based drama series Still Holding, based on Wagner's novel, which revolves around three people living in the City of Angels. (Variety)

20th Century Fox Television has signed an two-year overall deal with Bones writer Karyn Usher, under which she will develop new projects for the studio and remain aboard Bones as a co-executive producer. (Variety)

Sony Pictures Television has signed a new two-year deal with producer Jamie Tarses. (Deadline.com)

Britt Robertson (Life Unexpected) has been cast in Disney Channel original telepic Avalon High, where she will play a high school transfer student who discovers that her fellow classmates are actually the reincarnations of King Arthur and his round table. Project is based on a Meg Cabot novel. (Variety)

Megan Park (Secret Life of the American Teenager), David Charvet (Melrose Place), and Boti Bliss (CSI: Miami) will star in Lifetime original telepic The Perfect Teacher. Elsewhere, Michael Badalucco (The Practice) will be recurring on HBO's upcoming period drama series Boardwalk Empire. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

The Glass Heart: Dancing with Brown Betty on Fringe

"Death seems to follow you around." - Philip Broyles

This week's episode of Fringe ("Brown Betty"), written by Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman, and Akiva Goldsman and directed by Seith Mann, offered a look into the mind of Walter Bishop, via the noir-tinged fairy tale he told Olivia's young niece Ella. It's a mind that's been increasingly affected by major feelings of guilt and regret about what he had done to a young Peter Bishop, the man that he raised as his son but whom he stole from his alternate universe counterpart.

It was a bit of a break from the increasingly mythology-heavy episodes of late, which have adding in some newly swirling mysteries (who is the Secretary?) to Fringe's already complex and emotional plot. Rather than see the team battle shapeshifters or freaky fringe scientists, this episode turned the focus inwards, forcing the team to examine their own fears and dreams.

While Olivia continued to search for the missing Peter, Walter turned from labeling everything in the lab (from sulfuric acid to Red Vines) to entertain Ella (and Astrid) with a marijuana-scented story that fused together film noir and classic musicals, two of his mother's favorite genres.

While the plot worked on an altogether escapist level (it is, after all, one gigantic pot-fueled dream), there were some subtleties laced throughout Walter's story that revealed his own complicity in his fate: his need to create, to push the boundaries of science, and the knowledge that doing so would bring forth the creation of so many wonderful things (bubblegum, flannel pajamas, rainbows)... and also some deadly ones.

It's a truth that hits home for Walter. His inventions were forged on the stolen dreams of children, just as Walter Bishop and William Bell had stolen the childhoods of so many of their young patients. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. And for all of his talk about saving the world, both the real Walter Bishop and the fictional one damned two worlds in the process because of his hubris and because of his broken heart.

Peter's glass heart provided the impetus for the action as Walter set in motion a complicated dance that led private investigator Olivia Dunham on the path of the missing Peter, who had reclaimed his stolen heart. The heart itself, part steampunk and part ultra-modern, represented both the humanistic drive mechanism and also the will to live. (The men's quest for their heart also reminded me, in an off-hand way, of Rose Walker's quest to find her missing heart in Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman." But that's just me.)

Along the way, we had singing detectives (thank you, Lance Reddick and Anna Torv), singing corpses, and singing scientists (Walter putting on a little Tears for Fears), as well as some classic noir tropes: the damsel in distress who isn't quite as innocent as she appears, the long-suffering gal Friday (Astrid, here cast as the plucky Esther Figglesworth), the black hatted thugs (the Observers), a close brush with death (Olivia getting thrown into the ocean in a box), and the appearance of something akin to true love (Olivia and Peter, united, but only in Ella's alternate ending).

I'm still not entirely sure why the writers felt the need to fuse together both noir and musical, two radically different genres, into one single episode, other than the fact that--as previously mentioned--Walter's mother loved both and Walter's synapses were firing at an altogether different rate. But while it was great to see Reddick, Torv, John Noble, and Jasika Nicole sing, I almost wish that we had just stuck with the noir underpinnings here and saw them through to the end.

However, I did love the fact that Olivia and Peter did finally find happiness together, exchanging their differences to dance together in Ella's version of a happy ending, one where people can cast off their fears and complications for an interaction far more simple than snappy banter. Likewise, only a child would think of something as simple and magical as the act of sharing a single heart: snapping it in two, not to break it forever, but to allow both Walter and Peter to continue their lives, bonded by the glass heart.

In the real world, such endings are far more rare. Peter does leave with his heart and breaks Walter's in the process. Olivia never does locate Peter Bishop and the father and son never have a tete-a-tete (or coeur-a-coeur) about their shared destinies. There is no happily ever after, not for these three. Meanwhile, an Observer (August) lurks nearby, noting that Peter has not returned home and that Walter did not follow his warning...

What did you think of "Brown Betty"? Did it work for you as an individual episode and within the context of the larger second season? Can't get "Candyman" out of your head? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Northwest Passage"), Peter teams up with a local law enforcement official, Sheriff Mathis (guest star Martha Plimpton), on a serial murder investigation with ties to Newton; Walter copes with the possibility of being sent back to St. Claire's; someone from the "other side" pays a visit.

Channel Surfing: Allison Janney Heads to Lost, Damon Lindelof Speaks, Chuck Fans Plan Flash Mob, Veronica Mars Update, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

SPOILER! "Presence," huh? TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck attempts to get to the bottom of just who Allison Janney (The West Wing) will be playing on the May 11th episode of Lost by going right to the source: Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who are being rather cagey about Janney's mystery role. "We were so happy that she was able to do this," said Cuse. "It was really hard for her because she was getting ready to shoot a pilot, but she squeezed us in. Then once we saw her in this part we were like, 'How could anyone else have done this but Allison Janney?'" Lindelof wasn't giving Keck anything either: "We’ve been talking about this character for awhile and how nervous we were that we wouldn’t find the right actress," he said. "When we first started talking about this character in the writers room we called her 'Allison Janney' under the assumption that we wouldn’t be able to get her." [Editor: so who is Janney playing? My first instinct said that she'd be playing the mother of the Man in Black (or Penny's never-before-seen mother), though whether that will turn out to be true remains to be seen. Regardless, the role calls for someone with "incredible presence" and Janney has that in spades.] (TV Guide Magazine)

Elsewhere, The Hollywood Reporter's Matt Belloni has a video interview with Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof in which the two discuss the series finale, the flash-sideways, and the fact that Desmond wasn't in the series' final cast photo ("A cast photo that includes some characters but not others is beyond our area of involvement," he said). Most intriguing is the fact that producers had brand new sets built for the final moments of Lost's series ender. "We did not shoot the final scene of the series on the final day ... for reasons of maintaining the secrecy of the show, and we had to build some sets for the finale -- the construction of the new sets took awhile so that's the work that we did last," Lindelof said, who went on to say that there will be a definitive ending to the series, even if some questions are left for the viewers to answer on their own. "The Sopranos ending only worked on The Sopranos," said Lindelof. "The series finale has to fit the show. We're trying to end lost in a way that feels Lost-ian and fair and will generate a tremendous amount of theorizing. We're going to be as definitive as we can be and say this is our ending, but there's no way to end the show where the fans aren't going to say, 'What did they mean by this?' Which is why we're not going to explain it."(Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Chuck fans are headed to Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, and Philadelphia (and possibly other cities as well) to initiate flash mob publicity stunts in support of a Chuck renewal. The idea, the brainchild of chucktv.net, will have fans congregate wearing the series' trademark Buy More uniforms. "Chuck fans are the most loyal, dedicated, imaginative and passionate fans any show could ever hope for," Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz told The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd. "Every season they offer more proof they should be licensed and professional fans teaching other fans how it's done. This is yet another example of their awesomeness. We are, as always, grateful and inspired to deliver a show as good to them as they are to us." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Breanne L. Heldman caught up with Kristen Bell to ask her about the status of the potential Veronica Mars feature film that's been rumored for quite some time (and which someone asked creator Rob Thomas about at last week's Party Down panel at the Paley Center). "I wish I had news," said Bell. "Still in the process of campaigning to tell Warner Bros. that people would actually see it. I think that as long as you guys keep asking those questions and I keep answering them, Warner Bros. will one day get the picture that everybody does want it and that it will make its money back. I think, truthfully, they're a company and they want to know that they'll make their return back. We just have to convince them that they will." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

ABC Family has decided not to move forward with its comedy series 10 Things I Hate About You, which will wrap its second season in a few week. News of the cancellation was made originally by executive producer Carter Covington via Twitter."Sad news... ABC Family canceled the show," wrote Covington. "Thanks to our amazing fans. You are the reason I do this." (Variety)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a first look at Rob Lowe on NBC's Parks and Recreation, where he is set to join the comedy series next month along with Party Down's Adam Scott. According to co-creator/executive producer Mike Schur, Lowe's character, state auditor Chris Traeger, "very quickly falls into a romantic entanglement" with a resident of Pawnee. "I don’t want to spoil who it is because it’s kind of a surprise," said Schur. [Editor: having already seen a sizable chunk of Lowe and Scott's first Parks and Rec episode a few weeks back, I can honestly say that fans are in for a treat with these new characters.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Well, that makes one NCIS cast member who definitely will be returning next season: Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that David McCallum yesterday closed a deal to return to the CBS procedural drama next season. Negotiations continue for the three other actors--Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, and Sean Murray--whose deals have expired. (Deadline.com)

USA Today's Gary Strauss has a profile of Breaking Bad's Dean Norris, who plays DEA Agent Hank Schrader on the AMC drama series. In its third season, Norris' Hank has quickly psychologically unraveled. "For an actor, playing one character and transitioning to a completely different one is a dream come true," Norris told Strauss. "Part of me misses the old Hank. But nothing could be better than to set up a character, dismiss him and then bring a whole different side to him." (USA Today)

Warner Bros. Television is said to be about to close a multi-year overall deal with Sex and the City multi-hypenate Michael Patrick King that will have him launch his own shingle at the studio, according to Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva. (Deadline.com)

Futon Critic is reporting that NBC will keep struggling freshman medical drama Mercy in the 9 pm timeslot on Wednesdays for the remainder of its season. (Futon Critic)

VH1 has ordered eight episodes of The OCD Project, in which an anxiety expert will attempt to rehabilitate six individuals with several obsessive-compulsive issues who will live together in a house and participate in "exposure and response prevention" therapy. Project, launching May 27th at 10 pm ET/PT, is executive produced by JD Roth, Todd A. Nelson, Adam Greener, Matt Assmus, Jeff Olde, Jill Holmes, and Noah Pollack. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

UK satellite network Sky1 has commissioned a musical competition series, Must Be the Music, in an effort to compete with ITV's X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. Rather than dangle a recording contract, the series will award the winner a cash prize and the opportunity to perform live in a music arena. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere in UK television news, Kevin Lygo will quit Channel 4, where he served as director of television and content, in order to head up ITV Studios as managing director. (Broadcast)

Disney Channel has ordered a telepic based on Mark Peter Hughes' novel "Lemonade Mouth," about five high school freshmen who meet in detention and launch a band centered around unusual musical instruments. Project will be written by April Blair and executive produced by Debra Martin Chase. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Stay tuned.