The Daily Beast: "TV's Winners and Losers"

Where did the broadcasters go wrong this season, and what did they do right? Good question.

Head over to The Daily Beast, where you can read my latest piece, "TV's Winners and Losers," as I break down the network's performance in the 2009-10 season and (via a nifty gallery) take a look at the season's winners--including Modern Family, Chuck, Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Bones, Parenthood, NCIS (and NCIS: Los Angeles), The Good Wife, and others--and the losers (such as FlashForward, Heroes, Melrose Place and medical dramas in general, as well as the draws.

Where did your favorite series end up on the list? And what's your take on the 2009-10 season? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Channel Surfing: Lost DVD Epilogue, Diane Keaton and Ellen Page Land Tilda, Julia Stiles in Talks to Join Dexter, Skins, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. (Is it just me or does it feel like this week will never end?)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that there's still more Lost to come, including an epilogue that depicts the time that Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Ben (Michael Emerson) spent on the island after the events of the series finale. Emerson spilled the dirt on the sequence on G4's Attack of the Show, where told Kevin Pereira about the bonus footage on the complete series DVD. "For those people that want to pony up and buy the complete Lost series, there is a bonus feature," said Emerson. "Which is um, you could call it an epilogue. A lost scene. It's a lot; it's 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley (Jorge Garcia) becoming number one and the end of the series... It's self-contained. Although, it's a rich period in the show's mythology that‘s never been explored, so who knows what will come of it." Dos Santos, for her part, wonders if it's that sequence that will also connect to the producers' promises that we'd see the story of Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) resolved as well. "Whatcha wanna bet that during Hurley and Ben's adventures on the island, they run into Walt a few years into the future, when he's oh, 18 and looking just as Malcolm David Kelley looks now?" ponders Dos Santos. [Editor: Hmmm....] (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

It's official: Diane Keaton is heading to HBO, where she will topline the pay cabler's half-hour comedy pilot Tilda, which revolves around Tilda, a powerful Hollywood blogger. (You know, the one who may or may not be based on Nikki Finke.) Keaton will be joined by Ellen Page (Juno), who will play Carolyn, described as "a morally conflicted creative assistant caught between following the corporate culture of the studio she works for and following Tilda, who has taken a keen interest in her." Project is executive produced by Cynthia Mort (Tell Me You Love Me) and Bill Condon (Dreamgirls). (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum) is in talks to join the cast of Showtime's Dexter for its fifth season. Details on who Stiles would play, should a deal be reached, are remaining firmly under wraps, though Ausiello reports that it's unlikely that she would be the season's Big Bad, citing comments made by executive producer Chip Johannessen several weeks ago. "We’re not going to have a single Big Bad this season," Johannessen said at the time. "We don’t want to try and top John Lithgow, so we’re going to change up the forces that Dexter’s going to be dealing with." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

UK's Channel 4 and Film4 are moving ahead with a feature film version of teen drama Skins, which will be directed by Charles Martin and will feature characters from both "generations" of the hit series. No word yet on who those characters will be--although this editor is hoping for Sid and Cassie to be in the mix!--though production is slated to begin in September, with a Summer 2011 release being eyed. (Deadline)

Say goodbye to SOAPnet, soap fans. The cable-based soap network will go dark as Disney/ABC Television Group will use the network to instead launch pre-school-oriented cable network Disney Junior in 2012. "The launch of Disney Junior in the U.S. is the next step in our global preschool strategy, which began 10 years ago with the premiere of our first dedicated preschool channel in the UK," said Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group, in a statement. "The decision to ultimately transition SOAPnet to accomplish this was not arrived at lightly. SOAPnet was created in 2000 to give daytime viewers the ability to watch time-shifted soaps, before multiplatform viewing and DVRs were part of our vocabulary. But today, as technology and our businesses evolve, it makes more sense to align this distribution with a preschool channel that builds on the core strengths of our company." (via press release)

I can now officially announce what I've known for quite some time: Chuck writer/producer Phil Klemmer will be working on NBC's new espionage dramedy Undercovers, from executive producers J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims, next season.

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that CBS has offered drama pilot Chaos an eight-episode midseason order, but there is no guarantee that the series will ever make it air as talks continue between CBS and studio 20th Century Fox Television, the latter of which seems less than encouraged by the short-run and has not accepted the offer. Elsewhere, CBS is said to have passed on medical drama pilot Gimme Shelter (formerly known as Untitled Hannah Shakespeare Medical Drama), though they may revisit it, given the situation with Chaos. Creator Hannah Shakespeare, meanwhile, has signed on to ABC's drama series The Whole Truth, but it's said to be in second position to her CBS pilot. (Deadline)

BBC America has teamed up with ITV Studios American to produce ten episodes of a US version of hit British culinary competition series Come Dine with Me, which features New Yorkers "competing for the title of ultimate dinner party host, bringing together four amateur chefs who take turns cooking up their idea of the perfect evening." The series will debut in early 2011 on BBC America and around the world on various BBC lifestyle networks. Meanwhile, the digital cabler has also acquired the original UK format and will air 22 episodes of the series beginning in July on BBC America. (Hollywood Reporter)

USA has given a script order to half-hour comedy Driven, the first time in decades that the cabler has developed a half-hour comedy. Project, from Linda Bloodworth and Harry Thomason, will star Ron White as an unemployed Texan who starts a limousine business. (Variety)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has a video interview up with the stars of the CW's Vampire Diaries, Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev, and Ian Somerhalder, in which the trio discuss Season Two, love triangles, and more. "The dynamic is going to change between the three of us," said Somerhalder of Season Two of Vampire Diaries. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

TBS has announced an airdate of Sunday, June 27th for its upcoming special, Team Coco presents Conan's Writers Live, which will feature Andy Richter, Reggie Watts, and several of Conan O'Brien's writers. (via press release)

Lifetime is developing two new unscripted series that are connected to acquired reality franchise Project Runway. The first is an untitled makeover show, from executive producer Rich Bye, featuring former Runway contestants Santino Rice and Austin Scarlett as they travel the country and transform women. The other is an untitled unscripted series (working title: Love's Divine) featuring Heidi Klum and her husband Seal as they travel the country offering guidance and counseling to couples. (Variety)

RDF Rights has hired former Shine executive J.C. Mills as VP of US acquisitions. He will be based in Los Angeles and report to Jane Millichip. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: ABC Clarifies Lost Wreckage Shots, Julie Benz to Return to Dexter, Friday Night Lights Heads to ABC Family and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

The Los Angeles Times's Maria Elena Fernandez is reporting that the final shots of the Oceanic Flight 815 wreckage that accompanied the closing credits of the series finale of Lost were not placed there by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but rather by ABC executives who wanted to "soften the transition from the moving ending of the series to the 11 p.m. news and never considered that it would confuse viewers about the actual ending of the show," according to Fernandez. ABC went on to release a statement to confirm this fact. "The images shown during the end credits of the Lost finale, which included shots of Oceanic 815 on a deserted beach, were not part of the final story but were a visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news," said an ABC spokesperson in a statement. [Editor: I am hoping this finally puts an end to the misread of the series' ending, as some have taken to believing that the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 died in the initial plane crash, despite the presence of some lengthy exposition from John Terry's Christian Shephard that spelled out about the nature of the purgatory that they had created... and stated that everything that happened on the island, happened in real life.] (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

[Editor: elsewhere, Movieline attempts to solve as many of the 100 "unanswered" questions from Lost, as raised by a recent College Humor video called "Unanswered Lost Questions."]

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Julie Benz is set to reprise her role as Rita in the first episode of Season Five of Showtime's Dexter but that Benz won't be playing Rita as a ghost. Confused? "We’re not going to do some ghostly thing with her," said executive producer Chip Johannessen. "We reserve those for Harry," executive producer Sara Colleton told Ausiello. "If you have too many things like that it becomes gimmicky." So just how will the writers bring her back from the dead? That's them mystery, although a Showtime spokesperson told Ausiello that Rita's presence will "help Dexter deal with his newfound feelings of loss and grief — emotions he has never really felt before." So interpret that as you will. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Looks like Friday Night Lights is heading to ABC Family. The cabler has acquired basic cable rights to all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, which airs on DirecTV's Channel 101 (and has a second window on NBC), and plans to launch repeats of Season One in September. "Friday Night Lights is a perfect fit for ABC Family's sensibility for the modern day family program," said Bruce Casino, senior vp of cable sales at NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution, in a statement. "ABC Family will introduce this award-winning show to a whole new audience segment where the series can thrive in its new environment." (via press release)

TNT has ruled out saving Law & Order, according to a statement released to The Los Angeles Times. "We are not in current talks, and we are not interested in a Season 21," said the cabler in a prepared statement. News comes even as creator Dick Wolf attempts to find a savior for the cancelled NBC procedural drama. (Los Angeles Times's Show Tracker)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that ABC drama Castle will relocate to Wednesdays this summer, a temporary move before it reclaims its Monday night timeslot this fall. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Brett Davern (Desperate Housewives) and Beau Mirchoff (Case 219) have been cast in MTV drama pilot That Girl, about a high school student who becomes the center of attention when she's involved in an accident that everyone believes was a suicide attempt. (Hollywood Reporter)

Variety's Cynthia Littleton takes a look at MGM's television business, which includes the twelve-episode order for drama Teen Wolf at MTV and its This TV movie channel. (Variety)

CBS has announced launch dates for several of its summer series, including Big Brother (July 8th), Flashpoint (June 4th), and the burn-off of medical drama Three Rivers (June 5th). (Hollywood Reporter)

Meanwhile, international co-production The Bridge, which stars Battlestar Galactica's Aaron Douglas, will premiere on CBS on Saturday, July 10th at 8 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

UK's Channel 4 has commissioned a fifth season of comedy The IT Crowd as creator Graham Linehan prepares to assemble a team of writers. (Broadcast)

Style Network has given a series order to docuseries Too Fat for 15, which will center on "four extremely overweight teens and one preteen whose parents bring them to Wellspring Academy, a weight-loss boarding school in North Carolina." Series will debut in August. (Hollywood Reporter)

Warner Bros. Television has expanded the oversight of executive Lisa Gregorian, who will now serve as both chief marketing officer and EVP. The former title was created specifically for Gregorian. (Variety)

Elsewhere, former Channel 4 executive Simon Andreae has been hired as West Coast SVP of development and production for Discovery Channel. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Family Legacy: Secrets and Lies on the Season Finale of Chuck

"Maybe being a spy is in our blood."

Season Three of Chuck came to a close last night, with a fantastic two-hour installment that shook up the status quo of the NBC action-comedy in so many ways, introducing a number of possible new directions for Chuck and Company and tying up some of the dangling story threads from the third season.

For once, we're going into the long hiatus knowing that Chuck will be returning next season, which placed my mind at ease watching the two-part season finale ("Chuck Versus the Subway" and "Chuck Versus the Ring, Part II," written respectively by Ali Adler and Phil Klemmer and Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak (and directed by Matt Shakman and Robert Duncan McNeill), which offered the opportunity to clear the decks and go into the summer with a feeling of unpredictability about just what the future holds for Team Bartowski. (You can read what Fedak had to say about the finale in an interview he did with Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall here.)

While the two episodes did bleed into one another in terms of plot, I have to say that the first half of the finale ("Chuck Versus the Subway") was stronger than the back half. Perhaps that was due to the importance of the B-Team here, which stepped into action and made the choice to cross over from civilians into spies, or the emotional stakes of the familial relationships here. As opposed to the second half, whose flashbacks to Young Chuck and Young Ellie were a little shaky and the Buy More storyline didn't really coalesce into anything until the episode's explosive ending.

Those minor issues aside, I thought that the season finale was a particularly strong one, tying up the Daniel Shaw storyline effectively (and hopefully for some time to come) as well as that of the malfunctioning Intersect, altering the dynamic between Chuck and Ellie, and creating an expanded Team Bartowski that seems ready to take on anything together... even if it ends up being the shortest-lived superhero team ever.

So what did I think of Chuck's kick-ass Season Three finale? Let's discuss.

There was a lot riding on this two-part season finale as the writers had quite a lot of story to get through. In just these two back-to-back episodes, after all, Chuck gets his Governor, Stephen Bartowski is killed, Ellie learns the truth about Chuck, the CIA is infiltrated by The Ring, Shaw reveals himself as both alive and an Intersect, the gang is taken into custody and then saved, Beckman is imprisoned (and delivers a fantastic Obi-Won homage), Casey's daughter returns, the Five Elders of The Ring are captured, we learn that Chuck's mom is more connected to the spy world than we thought, and the Buy More blows up, all before the closing credits rolled. (Whew.)

In other words, that's a lot of action to cram into a 90-minute episode, but I thought that Alder, Klemmer, Schwartz, and Fedak managed to pull it off beautifully, creating a giant-sized installment that brought the delicate balance of humor, action, tension, and emotion that Chuck, on its very best days, is able to juggle effortlessly.

Throughout it all, there's a strong current of emotion as the action swirls not just around our troika of super-spies but the Bartowski clan itself, which finds itself reeling when Stephen gets shot to death by Shaw, right in front of both Chuck and Ellie. It's not an act of vengeance so much as it is a power play by Shaw: an effort to show Chuck that he'll never be as strong as he is because he's laden by emotion. But it's that very emotion that inevitably saves the day for Chuck as he reboots to have a final showdown with Shaw using their Intersect abilities in the Buy More. While it doesn't bring Papa Bartowski back to life, it does ensure that justice is served and Shaw gets the beating he deserves... and Chuck chooses not to kill him this time. (Might, after all, doesn't make right.)

Fedak and Schwartz introduced new elements to Chuck's backstory last season but here the mythology is deepened once again as we learn that Chuck had accidentally downloaded a prototype Intersect as a child... and lived to tell the tale. Which is how Stephen--or Orion--knew that Chuck would be all right when Bryce Larkin sent him the first Intersect. Because his son was "special" and able to handle the massive quantity of visual data without firing his synapses.

While Season One of Chuck presented Chuck Bartowski as a hero of coincidence--he was in the right place at the right time--Season Two tweaked this slightly and presented him instead as a legacy hero, someone who received his abilities because of his familial relationship, following in the footsteps of his father. But in Season Three, we learned something new: Chuck wasn't just in the right place at the right time (i.e., Peter Parker getting bitten by that radioactive spider) or had his powers thrust upon them because he inherited them: no, Chuck, it seems, was always destined to be the Intersect.

The backstory as it's presented here, seems to combine all three elements into one tasty package: As a child, Chuck wandered into his father's lab in their Encino home and accidentally downloaded the Intersect, as though he was summoned there for that very purpose. While Stephen is terrified that Chuck has injured himself, he's stunned to learn that the boy is fine and shows no ill-results from accessing the program. It's perhaps a shot too close to the heart: Stephen doesn't want his children involved in this spy world and he goes to great lengths to make sure that they're not infected by it, even leaving them alone just to keep them safe.

But that's the ironic thing in the end: if Stephen had stayed, maybe he could have prevented Chuck from ending up following in his footsteps. But, like any parent, Stephen wants a better life for his children. He tasks Ellie with protecting Chuck, something that she is more than willing to do to this day, even to a fault. I understood why Ellie would want Chuck to quit the spy life and go back to being a civilian, especially after Stephen is murdered by Shaw, but it also rankled me that she would demand this of her brother, who is an adult and capable of making his own decisions now.

While Chuck might want to segue back into a normal life, especially now that the Intersect is under control, there's still the legacy of his father's world to uphold, especially once he sees what's actually going on beneath the house in Encino: a huge warehouse-like vault filled with Orion's casefiles on a number of at-large individuals that would seek to steal his work and kill Chuck. Including one villain that's closer to home than we thought: Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, Chuck's mommy, who might just end up being a Big Bad along the lines of Alias' Irina Derevko.

Many of us have been waiting for this inevitable twist since Stephen Bartowski showed up last season but I'm also curious just where the writers will take this plotline next season. Based on the snippet we get from Mary (or at least the back of her head), it seems as though she is being protected by a top-secret organization as a high-priority asset at the behest of Orion. ("I did it all for her," Stephen tells Chuck via his last confession.) Just why does she have to be moved, especially with the Ring Elders out of commission? Is it connected to the fact that Chuck breached the Orion vault? Hmmm...

It certainly seems as though Stephen has been working to track down his long-missing wife and I dare say that Chuck's first mission next season will be to find his mother and find out just why she walked out on them all of those years before. Hint: it had nothing to do with you breaking her charm bracelet, Chuck. (Elsewhere, Michael Ausiello already has some inspired suggestions as to who should play Mary Elizabeth Bartowski.) Plus, there's the matter of the other candidates whom Chuck can pursue in the meantime, along with a nice amount of tech, I'm sure, down there in the Orion HQ, which is just sitting empty.

Chuck is now in need of a new base of operations, after all, given the fact that Morgan inadvertently detonated Shaw's explosives and burnt the Buy More to the ground. I'd wager a guess that he'll be using the Encino home as a secret headquarters while he attempts to persuade everyone around him that he's turned civilian. I actually think that blowing up the Buy More was a risky if smart move to make for the fourth season. The writers have taken these storylines as far as they can take them without becoming cartoonish and, by clearing the decks, the writers have allowed for a new status quo to emerge, one that's not trapped in the Buy More but can move into new locations and possibilities.

Which isn't to say that I'm happy to see the backs of Jeff and Lester, because that's not true at all. Should Season Four not feature the legendary Jeffster!, I'd be pretty sad as these two bring a lot of the comic relief that's needed to balance the darker elements of Chuck's espionage world. However, I could see next season beginning with these two odd-balls on the lam as they attempt to evade arrest for arson and there's still the Beverly Hills Buy More, mentioned once again in this episode, to contend with. While the Burbank store was going out of business, the merchandise was meant to be shipped to their more luxe outpost on the other side of the hill. Which means that some of the employees could be transferred as well, should the writers opt to go in that direction.

But more likely, this is The End for the staff of the Buy More. I've loved having them here as a secondary plot device, but it just makes sense for the series to move away from the workplace-based comedy and focus more on the espionage aspects... and allow the studio to cut some production costs in the process.

(Aside: I found the Buy More plot here to be the weakest element of the season finale, particularly as we already dealt with the possibility of the store being closed or sold in "Chuck Versus the Beard." While that ended up being a Ring cover story, the emotions and reactions of the staffers to the news were more convincing and interesting there than they were here, as it was a major story point within that episode and here a subplot that didn't really have teeth, though there were some meta similarities to the ratings struggle the series had had this year.)

But as much as the season finale was about endings, it's also about new beginnings as well. Chuck finally gained a way of keeping the Intersect in check and received his father's blessing about the choices he's made in life as he prepares to fulfill his destiny. Chuck and Sarah finally have a shot at a normal life and the security of knowing that their significant other isn't going into the line of fire each day... though Chuck's arrival at Orion HQ would seem to challenge that. (I also wonder if Sarah, like Ellie and likely Devon, will be in the dark about Chuck's extracurricular activities next season.)

Casey has reconnected with his long-lost daughter Alex, who--thanks to her kick-ass fighting abilities--would seem to be a chip off the old block. With the Buy More gone, Morgan is likely going to have to find something else to do with his life... or actually start living it for a change. And Ellie and Devon were able to come clean to each other about secrets kept over the past two seasons and start over.

Additionally, the threat of Daniel Shaw has been eliminated for now. While some viewers took offense to the romance between Shaw and Sarah earlier this season, it did set up Chuck's attempt to kill Shaw in Paris... and his eventual return here as a villain. I have to say that I like Chuck having a nemesis, particularly one as crafty, cunning, and ruthless as Shaw, someone who knows him inside and out from having been an ally and friend previously. While I'm still not entirely sure of Shaw's motivations (why is he working for the organization that gave the order to murder his wife?), I think he makes a pretty fantastic villain. And I loved the fact that he gave us a totally deadpan villain laugh, to boot.

Dare I say it that Shaw could show up again down the line, the veritable bad penny turning up when you least expect it?

Ultimately, I thought that the season finale nicely set up a whole host of possibilities for Season Four and our beloved characters, as well as a new direction for the series itself. The long wait until we catch up with Chuck again is likely to be excruciating but I'm going to take comfort in the fact that we only have a few months to wait for more Chuck rather than half a year this time. That's one toast I'll happy take part in.

I'm curious to know just what you thought of the season finale. Did you love it? Like it? Hate it? Did you find it to be a satisfying conclusion to the various storylines set up in Season Three and an end to the Daniel Shaw/The Ring plotline? Glad that a Ellie knows about Chuck's secret? What do you make of the new member of their clandestine little group, Alex? And just what will all of them do for cover stories next season now that the Burbank Buy More has burned to the ground? Discuss.

Season Four of Chuck begins this fall on NBC.

Trailer Park: Season Three of HBO's True Blood

With all of the focus placed on Sunday evening's series finale of Lost, I don't want you to think that I've forgotten about some of the exciting offerings coming up this summer, not least of which is Season Three of HBO's addictive vampire drama series True Blood.

[Editor: I've already seen the first two fantastic and gripping episodes of Season Three of True Blood--and am watching the third tonight--and am beyond hooked once again.]

HBO has release an official Season Three trailer for True Blood, which you'll find below. And which, I dare say, you'll want to sink your teeth into straightaway...



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

Channel Surfing: White Collar Nabs Hilarie Burton, Natasha Henstridge Gets Drop Dead Role, Jim Parsons on Big Bang Move, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Fancast's Matt Mitovich is reporting that former One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton has signed on to appear in a six-episode story arc on Season Two of USA's White Collar, where she'll play Sarah Ellis, a new love interest for Matthew Bomer's Neal Caffrey, who is described as "an insurance investigator-slash-white collar bounty hunter who has a bit of a score to settle with Neal." Bomer's Neal will quickly find himself enmeshed in a game of cat and mouse with Sarah. Season Two of White Collar is set to launch Tuesday, July 13th at 9 pm ET/PT. (Fancast)

Former Eli Stone star Natasha Henstridge is heading back to the courtroom, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, who reports that Henstridge has signed on to a multiple-episode story arc on Season Two of Lifetime's legal dramedy Drop Dead Diva, which returns June 6th. She'll play the "heretofore-unseen partner at Harrison & Parker," according to Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks to The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons about the CBS comedy's move to Thursdays next season and Sheldon's new love interest, played by Mayim Bialik. "I am optimistically excited about it," said Parsons about Big Bang Theory's new scheduling. "We all know the world of television is unpredictable...but I do feel hopeful about it. It will be very exciting to be a part of a new night of comedy, a new section of comedy, whatever it turns into. My initial reaction was slight disbelief because I didn't see it coming, but as the day wore on I felt like this could be good. It will certainly keep things exciting and interesting. CBS has always been with us. From really very early on they've done these moves like this that made you realize that they have a lot of faith in the show." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

SPOILER! (If you haven't seen last night's 24 series finale) Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice has an interview with 24 executive producer Howard Gordon about the series finale, which aired last night. "Yes, that was very much designed from the beginning," said Gordon when asked if he knew early on that the season would end with Jack going off the rails. "How it would end, however, was something that was really unknown. I saw a little bit further ahead than I generally do, and we wanted to knit Jack and Renee together, only to take them apart, and for that to have a really profound effect on Jack. That’s about as far as we knew in the broad strokes. How that was going to happen, and how it would impact Allison Taylor and Chloe — those were late-to-the-party additions that I think helped bolster that initial idea." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has the skinny on the fake spoiler that Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse attempted to put out into the ether, one that the series ending with a wedding between Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim). "But this wedding, unlike the Kwons' first one (with special guest Jacob), was actually a red herring planted by producers to throw off any spoiler hounds trying to sniff around finale storylines," writes Dos Santos. "According to reliable sources close to the show, a fake call sheet was sent out to the entire cast and extended crew detailing a Jin and Sun wedding scene for the finale. The 'spoiler' never leaked." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that ABC has put five drama scripts into development for spring, hoping land two pilot orders from the pack of new projects. These include the Sony Pictures Television-produced reboot of Charlie's Angels, from Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach's Department Zero, and three projects from ABC Studios: Ghostworld, from Ian Sanders and Kim Moses (Ghost Whisperer), Behind the Blue, from executive producer Taye Diggs, and medical drama Island of Women, from Matthew Gross. These are on top of the six more scripts ordered for Rand Ravich's quirky bounty hunter drama Edgar Floats. (Deadline)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos talks to Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford about the fact that Crawford's Nate Archibald desperately needs a new love interest on the CW drama series... and that it likely won't be Taylor Momsen's Jenny. "I always thought [Nate and Jenny] was a little weird," Crawford admitted. "There's the age gap, she's still in high school..." Meanwhile, Crawford indicated to Dos Santos that the shocking season finale might point to a darker Nate next season. "That may be where they're going," Crawford said. "It'd be fun to play. Who knows, maybe I'll be the one getting shot next year." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

SPOILER! Elsewhere, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Gossip Girl producers are casting the role of Eva, described as " an utterly gorgeous female in her 20s or 30s who boasts a warm heart and an authentic French accent." Eva will be the new love interest for Chuck, natch, as shooting gets underway in New York and Paris in July. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Jace Alexander (Burn Notice) will direct the Syfy action-adventure drama pilot Three Inches, which is said to focus on "an underachiever who develops a unique 'super' power after being struck by lightning — the ability to move any object by 3 inches using his mind – and is soon recruited by a covert team of superheroes." (Deadline)

Meanwhile, Nellie Andreeva also reports that Ken Sanzel (NUMB3RS) is in the process of closing a deal to come aboard new CBS drama series Blue Bloods as showrunner. (Deadline)

Overall deal roundup: Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Greg Malins, newly installed as executive producer/co-showrunner on ABC comedy Better Together, has signed a two-year overall deal with Warner Bros. Television... and Zach Reiter (CSI: NY) has signed a two-year overall deal with CBS Studios, which will keep him aboard the crime procedural and develop new projects for the studio. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

See You in Another Life: Thoughts on The Series Finale of Lost

"No one can tell you why you're here."

I'm of two minds (and two hearts) about the two-and-a-half hour series finale of Lost ("The End"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Jack Bender, which brought a finality to the story of the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 and the characters with which we've spent six years.

At its heart, Lost has been about the two bookends of the human existence, birth and death, and the choices we make in between. Do we choose to live together or die alone? Can we let go of our past traumas to become better people? When we have nothing else left to give, can we make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good?

In that sense, the series finale of Lost brought to a close the stories of the crash survivors and those who joined them among the wreckage over the course of more than 100 days on the island (and their return), offering up a coda to their lives and their deaths, a sort of purgatory for found, rather than lost souls.

But it's that very ending that's dividing viewers. For some it was a somber and lyrical ending, but for others (myself including), I found it to be sentimental and cliched, as Lindelof and Cuse offered up the very plot contrivance that they fought so hard not to fall into in the island-set storyline.

My broad thoughts about the divisive nature of the ending can be read over here at The Daily Beast, but I also want to dive deeper into the specifics of "The End" and the symbolism of its ending as well.

So how did I feel about the series finale of Lost? Let's make our way to the church, open the coffin one last time, and discuss "The End."

I tried to lower my expectations when it came to Lost's series finale. I'd been burned somewhat by quite a few episodes this season and majorly by the two exposition dump episodes, "Ab Aeterno" and "Across the Sea," which seemed to point towards Lindelof and Cuse's way at the very tail end of Lost's journey to providing answers to the many swirling mysteries that have become intrinsically linked to Lost's narrative over six seasons.

Those episodes, particularly "Across the Sea," seemed to signify the answers that would be given here to the questions that Lindelof and Cuse thought were most vital: who were Jacob and the Man in Black? What was their relationship? What is the island and what is the duty of the protector? Just what is he protecting? How did the Nameless One become a murderous pillar of black smoke? We got answers to those questions but so many others fell by the wayside.

Cuse and Lindelof have been upfront about the fact that they wanted to answer the questions that were important to the Losties, not necessarily the audience. Why pregnant women were dying, who built the statue, what the Source really was, why Walt was "special," etc. weren't part of that equation.

I'm all right with that. I wasn't expecting Lost to tie up loose ends about these long-dangling plot threads or delve into an eleventh hour introduction of Alvar Hanso or the Dharma Initiative's status in the present day. I didn't go into "The End" expecting answers, really. Nor did I need them: Lost has chugged along for six years on the brainpower of its devoted viewers, for whom the mysteries have provided all manner of puzzle. Leaving these things ambiguous leaves the door open for further thought and analysis, for further conjecture and discussion. For all of the things that we who watch Lost have loved doing.

But what depressed me about the series finale was that it veered towards the Feel Good Ending as lovers reunited, mothers gave birth to sons, and friends hugged one another in a church that had a stained glass window decorated with symbols of many of the world's religions... before the crowd--which included most (but not all) of the many diverse characters that have been the focus of Lost over the years.

Many viewers have struggled this season with the late-to-the-game introduction of the Lost-X timeline, or the Sideways world, and how it connected to the narrative of the island and what was unfolding there. In the end, while what happened on the island had huge significance to what happened in that world, the reverse wasn't true. This world wasn't a world at all, nor a divergent timeline that explored what happened when the castaways didn't crash on the island. It wasn't a prism through which to explore their early days and what might have been.

It was, in the end, an epilogue of sorts. An epilogue of the most final kind. This world was a self-created purgatory for the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 and their loved ones, a place were they could repeat old patterns (with one significant change) before being pulled together once again by bonds of fate.

Like Desmond, we were wrong about the nature of this place: it wasn't an alternative universe, it wasn't an earthly escape from the pain and loss that many of the castaways had suffered through, but a heavenly one. A celestial kingdom where the dead could finally let go of the issues that had plagued them in life and cast off those repeating patterns, finally accepting their death so they could move on to a true afterlife, joined by those they loved in life.

Which is fine on a thematic level, even if I didn't feel as though the Lost-X timeline had earned that ending. It was purgatory, after all, which Lindelof and Cuse had promised the island would never be and it felt like a cheap trick for that very reason. Yes, the series dealt with life and death in so many ways but the symbolism of those final scenes at the church just felt too easy and pat: after all of your struggles, your death isn't the end but the start of a party with all of your friends and family. It seemed to cast off much of the more challenging Dharma-oriented principles to offer up a glossy Judeo-Christian take on the afterlife.

Which, to me, might be the ending that people wanted but it wasn't what I needed. Yes, death is an inevitability for us all, even these characters, who all made their way here eventually and stood on yet another precipice. (Even Hurley and newly installed second-in-command Benjamin Linus, eventually freed from their duties at some point down the line, turned up here.)

To me, the end of Lost's narrative is the final scene of Jack in the bamboo grove, his story having come full-circle to the place where it began, a lone sneaker dangling solemnly from a bamboo tree, its laces now rotten and old where once they were new. Time might heal all wounds but it's also a killer. Laying down his burdens where the series began, Jack stares up at the sky to see the plane--carrying Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Lapidus, Richard, and Miles--arc overhead as Vincent the dog comes to lay down next to him. While the story began with Jack opening his eyes, here we finish that thought, seeing the good doctor, the all-too-brief champion of the island, close his eyes for the last time, leaving behind the metaphorical and literal wreckage as he himself soars through those blue skies.

Which isn't to say that the purgatory that the characters created didn't give us some powerfully evocative moments, because they did in "The End." The moments of joyous reconnection between the characters--between Sayid and Shannon, Charlie and Claire, Sun and Jin, and Sawyer and Juliet--were beautifully rendered both by the actors and the subtle score of composer Michael Giacchino. While the ending left me cold, it was these moments that stirred some genuine emotion within me.

Our many star-crossed lovers got their moment in the sun, a final reunion at which they communed with one another and their collective experiences, of lives lived and lost, of loves conquered and stolen all too soon. But the final ten minutes of "The End" took this thematic reunion to a new level that it needn't have gone, with Christian Shephard (whatever did happen to his body on the island, BTW?) spelling everything out to his son as Jack finally comes to realize what the others already have: that they're long dead.

The self-awareness glimpsed throughout this season--the cuts on Jack's neck, the sense of frisson from reflections in the looking glass--all point towards this conclusion in the end. They were coming to terms with their deaths just as the island provoked them to come to terms with their lives. However, while I think this works on a thematic level, I found the ending to be so heavy-handed, clunky and maudlin at the same time, that I couldn't give in to the post-life love fest going on in those final scenes.

Lost-X. My frustration with the series finale may have been the fact of how the Lost-X timeline--or lack thereof--was presented, introduced in the final season and glimmering with possibility of how it directly connected to the narrative we'd seen unfold over the five previous seasons, the island trapped at the bottom of the sea. By revealing it to have been ethereally connected, it removed much of the drama that had been contained in that storyline. What did it really matter if Jack had a child there or Kate proclaimed her innocence or Locke was confined in a wheelchair once more, if none of it was "real"?

They were variations on a theme rather than a full-blown narrative in their own right, offering a sucker punch of emotion that, while moving during the episode, felt entirely false after the fact.

What should we make of the fact that Walt doesn't appear at the church at the end? Or that Michael too isn't there? While we know that Michael's soul is trapped on the island, chained to the rock as one of the Greek chorus of whisperers damned to remain there, that's not true for Walt. We could argue that many of the others absent from that final scene--Faraday, Charlotte, Mr. Eko, Ana-Lucia, and others--weren't ready to let go and move on, still needing to work things out in this intermediate state before they could achieve a heavenly release. (That fact was stated by Hurley in "What They Died For," whose title makes more sense now.)

But what then of the fact that Eloise Hawking seems all too aware of what this place is? That she is somehow self-aware of the fiction of this world yet has been included in a perfect world created collectively by the will of the dead castaways? I understand why Eloise might want to cling to the son she killed in life, but why was she even a part of this landscape to begin with?

I can't quite wrap my head around that one, I'm afraid. For a purgatory that was created by a group of people who wanted to reconnect, they certainly brought in quite a few people who had made their lives miserable in the process and their travails in this purgatory brought them together with other people from their lives as well. What should we make of the fact that Sayid "ended up" not with his one true love, Nadia, but with Shannon? Hmmm...

Or that Jack isn't at all perturbed by the fact that his son doesn't really exist and is instead a fiction created by his own subconscious? It's fitting that the original skeptic is the last to come around to a belief in the profound and divine at the very end, and only when faced with proof of this existence: by coming face to face with his dead father. A father whose coffin is once again empty and devoid of a body. But here, the two finally get a chance to say their farewells and share their true feelings in a way that the messy chaos of life and death doesn't usually permit.

The Incident. The actions that Jack and the others took at the end of Season Five (in "The Incident"), detonating the hydrogen bomb at the future site of the Swan Station never resulted in a divergent reality at all. So what to make of Juliet's final conversation with Sawyer at the bottom of the shaft, the one where she whispers, "it worked" and seems to indicate that their actions did have their intended consequences? Well, her words were taken at face value then, the "worked" element of that statement taken to mean that reality had split and they had managed to ensure that they had never crashed on the island in the first place.

But not so. Jack and Juliet's actions didn't seem to do anything other than cause the very Incident that they were looking to avoid, an action that resulted in the creation of the Swan Station, a button that had to be pushed every 108 minutes, and at the end of that string of causality, the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. (And, yes, sent them back to the present day.)

So what was Juliet speaking about? Had she gained a multi-dimensional awareness, cognizant of the existence of another world? Not quite. She was dying in those final moments, oxygen already depleted from her brain, her synapses firing one last time before fading out. And in those moments, she connected to that place of purgatory, one where she was the ex-wife of Doctor Jack Shephard (I do feel vindicated by that fact) and where she crossed paths with a handsome cop named James Ford and helped him obtain a trapped Apollo bar from a vending machine in the hospital by telling him to turn off the machine and then turn it back on.

The candy bar does drop from its holder. "It worked," Juliet says as the power goes off.

Juliet's words in "LA X" then refer to this specific scene, to the first--and last--meeting of lovers Juliet and Sawyer, achieving the union they couldn't have in life.

The Cork in the Bottle. The Final Battle between Jack and the Nameless One began the moment they set foot in the bamboo grove, the very heart of the island, with Desmond Hume, each hoping to achieve something impossible: that the Nameless One would be able to destroy the island and send it plummeting to the bottom of the ocean and that Jack would be able to kill his adversary. In order to do so, they both needed the help of Desmond Hume, the time-tossed survivor who had a resistance to the island's electromagnetic energy as a result of his proximity to the Swan Station's fail-safe procedure. Des got lowered into the cave, over that precipice--in a scene that evoked the final shot of Season One as Jack and Locke gaze into the abyss--and found himself in yet another grand, man-made cavern that this time contained a literal cork in the bottle.

Believing that by removing the stone stopper he would allow the castaways to travel to the other side that he had glimpsed (which wasn't a divergent reality but a purgatory), Desmond entered the Source and pulled out the cork... resulting in the water draining right out and volcanic heat swelling through the cave as the island began to shake to its core.

Just what is this place? Who built it? What is its actual purpose? I'm glad that the finale didn't seek to answer these, instead leaving the mythology tantalizingly abstract. In the end, the specifics of this place or the nature of the island don't really matter. Like Oz or Narnia or any number of magical realms, there's an inexplicable and unknown quality to their very natures.

That's a wonderful thing.

I don't want everything spelled out for me. I'm quite content knowing what we know about the island (particularly as any further answers just start a new cycle of further questions) and I am happy with it remaining something unknowable and mysterious, something eternal and impossible.

Desmond. Just what was Des' purpose then? Widmore brought him back to the island because of his resistance to the electromagnetism that was the same energy as the Source itself. He was, as Jack put it, a weapon to be used by either side. While it seems as though Desmond's entire purpose is thwarted--his actions, too, don't lead to another reality--he does serve his purpose all the same.

He's the only one who can safely enter the Source without being altered by its powerful energy and the only one who can remove the cork from the bottle. Whether it will sink or swim all depends on what happens next: will the island plummet to the bottom of the ocean? Will someone make the ultimate sacrifice to recork the bottle and keep the island safe?

Desmond was a weapon in the end, a weapon for either side. But the ultimate outcome depended not on fate but free will. Could Jack end his own life in order to save the world? Yes, of course. He had made a solemn pledge to defend this place and protect the Source, which could go off and on. (Just like, as people, we can make good or bad choices and still correct ourselves before the end.)

As for who rescued him from the well, the answer was the appropriate one: Rose and Bernard (and Vincent!), who had long since withdrawn from the battles for the island, preferring to live out their final days away from the others in retirement. "We don't get involved," she tells Desmond. But they did get involved, of course, by saving Desmond's life. Desmond, however, repays the favor, forcing the Nameless One to leave Rose and Bernard alone and not harm them in any way, before he turns himself over to the Man in Black.

The Final Battle.Desmond's actions result in the island nearly ceasing to exist but they also lead to something else entirely: to the Nameless One regaining his humanity. Or at least his corporeal nature. His powers as the smoke monster were derived by the Source. Once its light flickered out, he was human once again. A final loophole that Jack took advantage of.

The showdown between Jack and the Nameless One on the cliff's edge was a thing of staggering beauty, a face-off composed not as a series of close-up shots at first but a long shot that framed the action as a diagonal, a literal image of the scales, long since tipped over to darkness. (Watch again: you'll Jack up in the top left corner and the Nameless one at the bottom right.)

It all comes down to these two men, a man of science who has become a man of faith and a greedy deity who has stolen the face of a man who was willing to die for what he believed in. Their struggle is bloody, brutal, and messy (as is life itself, really). Locke cuts Jack's neck (that unstoppable bleeding in the Lost-X timeline) and then stabs him in his side. It's a mortal wound and Jack really does die then. He just doesn't let go, not yet. It's ironic that the Nameless One's death--in the body of Locke--follows yet another pattern. Just as Anthony Cooper had pushed Locke from a great height, so too does Jack do the same to the man wearing his face, as the Nameless One plummets onto the rocks below, his neck broken, his legs dangling uselessly.

The Candidate. It was too easy that Jack would step up and elect himself as Jacob's replacement ("the obvious choice"), and I had a sinking feeling last week that his oversight of the island would be short-lived. The responsibility falls to the most selfless of them, the one who didn't want the position at all and therefore is most worthy of it: Hugo Reyes, whose time on the island has been characteristic of his altruistic nature. He's been marked for this role from the very early days: he had an advance knowledge of the numbers, managed to survive every scrape without dying (or even coming close), never fired a gun, and saw dead people. He was special in every sense of the word.

Ben offers up a fitting chalice here, a water bottle that works just fine, thank you very much, as Jack makes do with a very different kind of transference ritual. No words, no blessing, just the drinking of the water, and the words, "You're like me now." A message of collective identity, of shared experience, of belonging. The magic circle is complete once more, a new protector for a place that needs protection.

But being protector means making rules. And Hurley's rules don't need to be the same as Jack's or Jacob's. It's fitting that it's the newly redeemed Benjamin Linus who tells him this fact. He needn't rule in the way that Jacob ruled. Desmond can leave the island, he can make his own ways, create his own legacy. Desmond might, after all, be able to finally return home to his waiting Penelope after this long odyssey.

Jack. Jack, meanwhile, fulfills his destiny: he makes a leap of faith into the unknown, recorking the bottle and saving the island from catastrophe. I thought his laughter and solemn joy at the bottom of the cave was a beautiful note to end the Final Battle on as the light of the Source reignites once more, before Jack finds himself at the bottom of the cave's output, the same place where Jacob stumbled onto his brother's body.

But Jack hasn't been transformed by the Source (I'd wager it's because he was already dead when we entered there and his motives were pure) and he instead makes his way back to the very beginning, where this story started, taking us with him one last time into the unknown.

Fly Away Home. I'm more than happy that I was wrong about the final fates of Richard Alpert and Frank Lapidus, both of whom survived their fates in "What They Died For" and "The Candidate" respectively. Lapidus managed to survive the sinking of the submarine and was reunited with the others so that he could fulfill his purpose: flying them off the island and back to the mainland. ("I am a pilot," Frank says with a hint of frustration.)

There was a beauty and triumph to seeing a plane take off from the island, defying the odds, rather than crashing to the rocks, the motley crew of final survivors safely heading away from this place of mystery back to the "real" world, their lives there lost to the mists of time. (Or a fitting choice by Cuse and Lindelof to leave things with Jack at the very end.)

That the plane was flown by the man who was originally meant to pilot Oceanic Flight 815 is no mere coincidence either. Frank Lapidus finally fulfills his purpose, the plane at the ready, soaring majestically overhead as Jack closes his eyes one last time.

Aboard that plane, those who are leaving are heading home, back to a world that they thought was long forgotten. Even Claire, who was so terrified of being a mother, of Aaron seeing her the way she was, that she was willing to remain behind. But she wasn't alone in the end. She might be meant to raise Aaron alone according to some prophecy but she isn't alone at all: Kate is by her side, squeezing her hand. The two mothers, united finally in space and spirit, setting out to raise their shared child together.

"There are no shortcuts, no do-overs," says Jack. "All of this matters."

And it does in the end. The journeys that these characters made over the last six seasons have led them in the end to this place. Which is why what followed left me so cold. I would have loved Lost to have ended on this note, with Jack's sacrifice and the departure of those he loved, those whose lives hadn't been lost and could therefore go on.

I didn't hate the Lost series finale, but I didn't love it either.

However, I did love every moment within the two-and-a-half-hours that was set on the island with the characters we knew and loved by taking it--and the Lost-X storyline to such a sentimental place, to an afterlife of rewards and happiness didn't make me feel good in the end. It made me feel sad that something Lindelof and Cuse clearly intended to be lyrical and magical felt to me instead like it had fallen to earth with a deafening thud.

If Lost has been about mysteries, it's been mostly about the mysteries of human existence rather than mythology. And some mysteries are better left unknown and unsolved. For a series that dealt so lovingly with multiple philosophies and beliefs, with the breadth and scope of literature and the nature of story, to come down to a singularly Judeo-Christian view of the afterlife (despite, yes, the ham-fisted presence of those symbols in the stained glass) felt like a bit of an easy way out to me, a reductive explanation of Season Six and an opportunity to give these characters a happy ending in death that they didn't have in life.

But that's not realistic when viewing the complicated messiness of life. Sometimes endings are happy but often they're just endings.

I'm curious about how you felt about the series finale and the sixth season as a whole. Did the ending make the flash-sideways (or, as I dubbed it early this season, the Lost-X timeline) work for you? Do you feel that the destination was worth the journey? Are you happy with the way the series came together at the end? Surprised? Sad? Feeling cheated? Melancholy? Was your mind blown?

I want to hear about your own thoughts to the very end of Lost and how you felt Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse managed to pull it together at the end of the road. Head to the comments section to discuss, analyze, and debate the very last episode of Lost. Ever.

See you in another life, brutha.

The Daily Beast: "The Infuriating Lost Finale"

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my broad thoughts about the divisive series finale of Lost ("The End") before I post my detailed thoughts here.

Head over to The Daily Beast, to read my piece, "The Infuriating Lost Finale," where I talk about my issues with the narrative and thematic conclusion of the series after six years.

Do you agree? Disagree? Head to the comments section to discuss your take on Lost and "The End." (And the end.)

Channel Surfing: Glee Gets Third Season, Mystery of Eko-Less Lost Finale Solved, Smallville Creators Get Charlie's Angels

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

FOX has given a major vote of confidence to musical-comedy Glee, which it renewed for a third season... before the first season has even wrapped. News of the pickup was broken by Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice. "Everything about Glee – from the concept to the characters to the marketing – has been innovative and risky, but with [series creator] Ryan Murphy tapping into the zeitgeist, the risk has paid off with this truly remarkable series," said Kevin Reilly, FOX Entertainment President. "Glee has one of the most active, devoted fan bases I’ve ever seen, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to give Gleeks a third season of their favorite show." The upside for FOX and studio 20th Century Fox Television are obvious: "Not only does it help cut production costs over the long haul, it allows Murphy and his writers a chance to plan ahead (if not breathe a much-needed sigh of relief)," writes Rice. "Most important, it gives the studio a head start in taking the episodes out into the syndication marketplace." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Wondering why Mr. Eko wasn't in the Lost finale? E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has learned that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje turned down an offer to appear in the series finale of Lost. "According to ABC and Lost insiders, Adewale was offered a hearty sum to do one scene in the last hurrah, but the actor wanted five times the amount that was offered," writes Dos Santos. "It didn't work out." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Dos Santos also answers questions from attendees at last night's E! Online Lost finale screening, including some heretofore unrevealed elements of Lost's mythology, such as the true name for the Man in Black. Watch the video to find out! (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

[Elsewhere, Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice reports that the Lost finale featured more than 45 minutes of commercial and promotional time, roughly 107 on-air spots.]

Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have signed on to write the pilot script for ABC's Charlie's Angels pilot, which will be produced by Sony Pictures Television and is being eyed for a possible midseason launch. The duo replace Josh Friedman, who had originally been hired to develop the project, which will be executive produced by Drew Barrymore, Leonard Goldberg, and Nancy Juvonen. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that British actress Emilia Clarke (Doctors) has stepped into the role of Daenerys on HBO's upcoming fantastic series Game of Thrones, replacing Tamzin Merchant, who left the project. Production will begin in July with reshoots scheduled for the pilot episode, which featured several actors who have since left the project, including Merchant and Jennifer Ehle. [Editor: I watched the original Game of Thrones pilot last week and was blown away. HBO has knocked it out of the park with this one.] (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Lost director/executive producer Jack Bender has signed on to direct the 90-minute pilot for Syfy drama Alphas, written by Zak Penn and Michel Karnow. "We are very excited that Jack has chosen to be part of Alphas," said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, Syfy and Co-Head of Content for Universal Cable Productions, in a statement. "His vision and expertise are perfectly suited to this project, and will truly elevate it." Here's how Syfy is positioning Alphas: "Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens who possess extraordinary and unusual mental skills. Using physical feats and uniquely advanced mental abilities, this unlikely team takes the law into their own hands and uncovers what the CIA, FBI and Pentagon have not been able or willing to solve. These gifted individuals must balance their quirky personalities and disparate backgrounds with their not always visible powers as they work to solve crimes, stop the ticking time bomb and catch the enemy." (via press release)

SPOILER (if you haven't watched the Bones finale yet): Bones executive producer Stephen Nathan has promised "big changes" next season for the series in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "The start of the season will have Booth and Brennan meeting [12 months later] at the coffee cart, and the series will start again… though on very different footing," Nathan told Ausiello. "There will be big changes." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Rand Ravich's ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats, which stars Tom Cavanagh, Robert Patrick, and Alicia Witt, is still alive and has received a order for six additional scripts, which means that the project is still in contention for a midseason slot on ABC's schedule. [Editor: having watched the pilot over the weekend, I can say that this is very good news indeed. Edgar Floats was a fantastic script and the best pilot I've screened so far this season.] (Deadline)

Paula Abdul is heading to CBS. According to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, Abdul is set to sign on to CBS' upcoming dance competition series Got to Dance, where she will serve as "lead judge, executive producer, creative partner, mentor and coach" on the series, which is produced by ShineReveille and based on the British competition series of the same name. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has signed a three-year deal which will see the Miss America Pageant head to the Alphabet. (Variety)

MTV has promoted Lauren Dolgen to SVP of MTV series development, West Coast, where she will report to Liz Gateley. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

Requiem for a Dream: Saying Goodbye to Lost

"To everything there is a season..."

As hard as it is to fathom, the end is upon us.

Lost will end six seasons of mysteries, mythology, and smoke monsters with a two-and-a-half hour series finale tonight as ABC devotes what seems like seven hours to ending one of the greatest and most ambitious serialized storylines ever devised.

My relationship to Lost dates back to May 2004, when I was still working in television development. On that particular day in late May, a box of pilots arrived at the studio where I worked, as they did every spring like clockwork after the network upfronts.

Among the offerings, many of which have now been forgotten to the dustbin of time, was the two-hour pilot for Lost, which was co-written and directed by J.J. Abrams, then coming off of a successful run on ABC's Alias. We had been waiting for this day for quite some time.

I remember that our boss was out of the office that week, so several of us furtively entered his office and sat down together to watch the original pilot. For ninety minutes (remember, no commercial breaks), we sat there in near-silence, entranced by the story that was unfolding, one that was so unpredictable, so shocking, and filled with plot twist upon plot twist so that by the time Dominic Monaghan's Charlie uttered those immortal words ("Guys, where are we?"), we were all hooked.

Lost, more than any other network drama series, showed us what television storytelling was capable of delivering, in terms of complexity, scope, and drive. It was television as Dickensian literature, featuring a cast of hundreds, the push and pull between fate and coincidence, and an examination of the human condition, all there on the screen, but made even more intoxicating by the introduction of the series' trademark mysteries.

The questions that the series kicked up week after week made us ponder, theorize, guess, and devote huge sections of our lives to decoding, even as we followed the characters through thick and thin, through kidnappings at sea, imprisonment in bear cages, birth and death, and the never-ending battle between light and darkness.

That early viewing of the pilot, five of us huddled around a television set, was sharply contrasted with the first Lost panel at that year's Paley Festival, which showcased the cinematic qualities (save that stuffed animal polar bear, maybe) of Abrams' pilot on the big screen. The crowd that gathered was large but nowhere near the gargantuan following that the series would later have at other public events such as San Diego Comic-Con and others. Its mythology was only just beginning, its following loyal but not yet as rabid as it would later become. (It seemed to reach its apex with last week's beautiful and triumphant Lost Live: The Final Celebration, which saw 1,800 attendees attend what was essentially a wake for the beloved show.)

But I was already on board, compelled week after week to check in on these disparate characters--a doctor challenged by a lack of faith, a paralyzed man who believed in miracles, a fugitive who had nowhere to run, a con man loner forced to live with others. The list went on and on, each one of them special in their own way, a part of a larger puzzle that became more complex and labyrinthine as the years went on.

I started Televisionary back in February 2006. At the time, I was still working in television (and would be for a few more years after that) but wanted a place to vent my feelings about the medium and the programming that I was most fixated on. Not surprisingly one of the series that I wrote about frequently and passionately was Lost, then in its second season of faith versus science battles, lonely men in hatches, and an increasingly mounting body count.

I've been a Lost devotee since the beginning but I've also been willing to call the series out when it made some missteps or missed the mark altogether. I've struggled to solve mysteries, pondered the larger metaphysical questions that the series has raised, and followed the drama with a passion that bordered on obsession. It was a series that broke down the fourth wall between the series and the audience, inviting each of them to discuss, come together, and debate. It was perhaps the first real organic social networking experience, demanding that its viewers, like its characters, had to live--and watch--together, rather than alone.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse announced several seasons back just when Lost would be ending its run. We've had several years' warning on that account but it doesn't make it any easier to know that that fateful day has finally arrived, and with it, the end of an era for its audience and for television in general. There has never been a series quite like Lost and there likely never will be another quite like it again.

As I quoted at the outset of this personal reminiscence about Lost, all things have their season and all things must come to their natural ends, even Lost. I've loved writing about this remarkable series and discussing it with friends, critics, writers, family members, strangers, and each of you, who have visited this site over the last four years, sharing the experience of watching this series week after week. To you, I offer my thanks for allowing me to express my thoughts and theories about Lost with you each week, year after year.

To the writers, actors, directors, and below the line crew who have worked so tirelessly to provide us with fodder for thought and six years of entertainment, I'd like to also offer my sincere thanks. You all have made your mark on the television industry in so many important ways. But even more than that, you've incited our imaginations, returning us to a state of wonder and awe on a weekly basis, something many of us left behind when we embarked on the long, hard road to adulthood.

Many thanks for the memories and for the magic.

The series finale of Lost airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Dreams End: Heaven's High on the Series Finale of Ashes to Ashes

"A word in your shell-like, pal."

With those final words, BBC One's extraordinary drama series Ashes to Ashes faded into the ether, offering a stunning series finale that was equal parts mythology and mystery, grounded in an emotional context for each of the characters that had me shamelessly weeping on the sofa by the end.

For those of us who have been following the struggles of many of these characters since they first appeared on the scene in Ashes's predecessor, Life on Mars, anticipation was running high that the end to the series would not only provide some vital answers to come of the central mysteries of these two series--such as the identity of Gene Hunt and the nature of this world--but also provide a sense of closure that befitted the legacy of Life on Mars and offered a catharsis of sorts to the viewers.

It managed to accomplish just that and so much more, offering a series finale that I loved every second of and never wanted to end.

Throughout its remarkable third season run, Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah's Ashes to Ashes delivered a jaw-dropping parable about good and evil, light and darkness, all enacted against a 1980s backdrop that swirled with menace, the color red, and so many shattered dreams. At its very center lay the man himself, Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), an anachronistic copper with a penchant for violence, misogyny, and a good boozer.

In the talented hands of Graham, Pharoah, and Glenister, Gene Hunt became one of the most memorable characters in any fictional medium, a maverick that you couldn't help but fall in love with, from his trademark snakeskin boots and love for flashy rides to his gruff exterior and intrinsic need to exert order over his little kingdom, Fenchurch East.

In a single hour, writer Matthew Graham managed to tie up five seasons worth of storylines and give us the important answers about just what has been going on in this impossible world, a place that has been at the forefront of both Ashes and Life on Mars and which holds the key to unlocking the series' mysterious truth.

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

I'm still trying to process many of my thoughts and reactions to the series finale of Ashes to Ashes, a beautiful and transcendent episode that revealed the truth about Gene Hunt and the world in which these characters inhabit, the identity of Officer 6620, and the status of Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) in the so-called "real" world. And indeed, we were given answers to all of these questions and more, a stunning hour of television that challenged us to see what has been staring us in the face all season.

In covering the third season of Ashes to Ashes, I've been making my own conjectures about the series: I believed that Officer 6620 was a dead Gene Hunt, that each of the characters were dead and given an opportunity to process the traumas that occurred to them in order to let go, and that Jim Keats (the superb Daniel Mays) was the evil incarnate. (Several of details about the final episode appeared in my write-up of episode 307.)

I wasn't disappointed at all to learn that many of my theories were in line with what Graham and Pharoah were planning since the start of the season. The clues have been masterfully planted, from the recurring image of the screwdriver surrounding Shaz (Montserrat Lombard, showing off some dazzling acting chops here) and the presence of the stars in the sky.

Alex uncovers Gene's identity by heading to the house from her vision and the photograph she recovered from Gene's desk drawer: a farmhouse in Lancashire with that creepy weathervane, a crone pointing West. (Which I still maintain is one of many Oz references that are woven through the series.) Under the watchful eye of a scarecrow (whose jacket has the Officer 6620 epaulet pin), Alex uncovers a grave even as Gene orders her at gunpoint to stop digging. But she doesn't, even as Gene remains frozen and motionless, uncovering a skeleton and an old warrant card. A warrant card for Officer 6620: Gene Hunt himself.

While many of us came to this conclusion some time ago, it was a staggering scene nonetheless as Gene was forced to contend with proof of his own gruesome death, murdered at a young age in the nearby farmhouse, still decorated for a royal coronation long past.

This world that each of them--Alex, Shaz, Ray (Dean Andrews), and Chris (Marshall Lancaster)--inhabits is a purgatory of sorts, a place where dead (or nearly dead) coppers can access or are sent in order to decide their ultimate fates. Can they achieve the resolution and catharsis that was denied to them in life or will they linger forever, never quite reaching the afterlife?

Fenchurch East Police Station isn't a "real" police station, it's a fantasy concocted by the long dead Gene Hunt, a slice of purgatory carved out as a mythical fiefdom, a fact that Jim Keats is only all too willing to reveal to them, ripping off the ceiling of CID to reveal the stars in the sky, the celestial kingdom looming overhead. Will they choose heaven or hell? Will they move on or cling to old patterns?

Gene Hunt is meant to be helping them on their way, guiding them to an eventual salvation at the end of the road, a communion with the heavens that is embodied in the Railway Arms, the Manchester pub from Life on Mars, the last boozer after the final case, the ultimate reward of a life lived. But Gene is a lonely soul, himself a dead young copper living in this place for far too long. It's clear that he loves his team. Too much in fact as he can't let go of them either, keeping each of them close to him for far too long.

Both Sam and Alex weren't dead when they arrived in this place. Each of them was clinging to life in their own way, desperate to return home, and therefore their minds rebelled against the world, seeing it for what it truly was, a place where their subconscious dragged up images, traumas, and puzzles for them to process. They weren't ready to follow Gene to the pub at the end of the road. Not yet, anyway.

Because they were clinging to life, they were still able to access their memories of their lives but even those faded over time. Alex began unable to remember Molly precisely and Gene himself had all but forgotten his true nature. But Alex and Sam, due to hovering between life and death, were still able to connect to their previous lives, still able to remember their identities and what had happened to them. (Keats even tells Alex this, saying that she and Sam are different than the others: "You both challenge this world that Gene's carefully built for himself. You're dangerous to him.")

Let's not forget that Sam chose to return to this world. Unlike Alex, he recovered from his coma and returned to life but chose to reembark on a path that brought him back here, to a place where good coppers chased bad guys and turned up for a boozer at the end of the day, where childhood memories mixed with filmic and television representations of fictional cops.

Gene Hunt didn't see himself as a skinny kid in a uniform. He saw himself as Gary Cooper in High Noon, a strong, gruff lawman who is unlike him in every way. Building a world around him that was based on this representation, Gene surrounded himself with the good cops who died and were unable to move on, building a team that gave him strength even as he forgot why he was there or who he really was. That's the problem with pretending: after a while, fantasy can become reality.

But it all has to end sometime. When Sam died at the end of Life on Mars, he returned to this world and lived there for years with Annie. But he wanted to move on and he asked Gene to help him, which he did. And which is why he disappeared without a trace. He was finally ready to let go and Gene allowed him to finally head to the afterlife. Likewise, the same held true for Alex, Shaz, Ray, and Chris.

Alex died from Layton's gunshot after clinging to life for the first two seasons of Ashes, dying at 9:06 am in a hospital in London, listening to the news that a body had been found in a shallow grave in Lancashire. Shaz died after attempting to stop a car thief--who had been jimmying open a door with a screwdriver--after he stabbed her in the gut with the tool. (It's worth noting that the courageous Shaz herself died in 1995, as evidenced by the fact that the first piece of modern music--Oasis' "Wonderwall," released that same year--played over her death scene. It also explains her modern thinking: she came from a different time period than Chris and Ray.) Ray, depressed over beating a young man to death--covered up by his DCI--and unable to deal with his grief, hanged himself in his flat. (Ray, heartless though he seemed throughout LOM and Ashes, actually felt too much, both grief and shame at disappointing his father.) Chris, a uniform officer, follows his superior's orders and is shot to death. (He knows better but is unable to stand up for himself, whereas he finally stands up to Gene in episode 307, finally earning his brains.)

I don't want to think of this world as a strict purgatory in the traditional sense of the word. This isn't some limbo for lost souls, but rather a magical place in line with the kingdoms of Oz and Narnia, a place that's perhaps more real than reality, granting the users the ability to deal with their mortal traumas, the formative moments that shaped them as individuals and set up their characters.

For Sam, that was 1973, the year his father murdered a woman in red (Annie) and took off into the wind. (It also explains, with no uncertainty, that copper Annie was also dead in the real world, which fits with the resolution here.) For Alex, that was 1981, when her parents were killed in front of her as a child. Both formative moments in their psychology, which is why their subconscious latched onto these particular time periods. In attempting to understand the very moments that shaped them, they are given the opportunity to reevaluate themselves, to come to know themselves inside and out, and to finally process their pain and release it.

I thought it was interesting that Shaz, in the seventh episode, threw out a line about it being 1953 in Ray and Chris' heads, and wondered if that was the year that Gene Hunt died. It was, as we learned this week, as he was a young copper murdered on the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, his body buried in a shallow grave in Lancashire. Since that time, he's been helping cops achieve heavenly release, pushing them on their way in his capacity as a hard-talking angel of sorts.

His polar opposite, Jim Keats, serves an inimical purpose, ferrying souls to Hell in an elevator that goes down to the basement level, making false promises and attempting to lure Ray, Chris, and Shaz to his division. Alex figures out early in the episode that Keats isn't Discipline and Complaints but something else altogether, even if she can't quite put her finger on what it is. But Keats isn't taking no for an answer. He pushes the trio to become self-aware once more, forcing them to come to terms with the nature of their deaths, giving each of them marked video cassettes that contain footage of the way they each died (as I theorized last week), each trapped in an act of violence that marked them forever.

Would they go with the guv? Or choose the seductive lures of Keats? They'd come face to face with proof of their deaths but the choice was in their hands. Would it be up or down? And would Alex stand at Gene's side or help Keats destroy this world after learning that Gene had the power to send her home whenever he wanted?

While Keats offers pleasures of the flesh, Gene offers the team something else: to achieve the things they never could in life: Shaz gets her promotion to DC, Ray receives the praise he always needed, Chris becomes his own man. Keats might offer what they want, but Gene offers what they need.

Keats is all too willing to take whatever souls he can get his hands on, taking them through the fire exit to an elevator bank where they await the path down to the fiery pit below, which is where poor Louise Gardner and Viv end up. It's even more depressing, given Chris' ominous dream of Viv among the fire.

Elsewhere, however, there's an alternative. The Railway Arms, Gene's favorite pub in Manchester, which has now magically been "shifted" across the landscape to London. Chris picked up on barman Nelson's voice in last week's episode as "Life on Mars" played in the background. It's here that our group, after stopping the diamond thieves and saying goodbye to the series' trademark Quattro, find themselves. It's the end point to the world, where a soft white light filters outwards, bringing with it the sounds of happy voices and David Bowie singing "Life on Mars." This is the end of the line, the point at which they can leave this world and travel on to the afterlife. Nelson himself stands at the door, St. Peter at the gates of heaven, ready to admit them to Paradise.

It's been Gene's job to eventually guide them here, to take them to the pub after the case is closed, the bad guys caught, evil vanquished. (Or as he puts it, "sorting out the troubled souls of Her Majesty's constabulary.") But there's one last showdown between Gene and Keats as he once again attempts to get Alex to cross over to his side. But Gene is stronger here than in their last encounter at Fenchurch East (where Keats is able to reveal the stars in the sky and display Gene's true form) and he knocks Keats for a loop.

Chris and Shaz finally reunite, Ray shakes Gene's hand, and then all of them enter The Railway Arms, their deserved final destination. Only Alex remains, Alex who wants to stay with Gene in this world, to continue to challenge and provoke him, to force him to be better. But she can't stay and neither can Gene leave. Both have the paths they must walk and they can't walk them together.

Kudos go to Daniel Mays for making Jim Keats such a spectacular character and for delivering a nuanced and brave performance this week as Keats' true colors began to emerge over the course of the hour, a terrifying shape of evil that, while broken and battered at the end, still was able to cackle malevolently and promise Gene that he would be seeing him again.

Likewise, I also want to praise Lombard, Marshall, and Andrews for stunning performances over the course of the series and especially with this final installment. Shaz's horror, Ray's stoicism, Chris' attempt to prevent Shaz from pain, all cut me like a knife. (Lombard in particular deserves praise for her shocking breakdown after seeing herself die in 1995, which made the hair on my arms stand straight up.)

The final scene between Alex and Gene finally gave them their moment under the stars, a true kiss that signified the end of their relationship and their time together. I've loved Hawes and Glenister together and after their near-consummation in Episode 307, I thought that this was a brilliant way to end their interactions, a soft kiss, laden with passion and love, as Gene finally sent Alex on her way to the afterlife. (Hawes' performance absolutely breaks my heart here.) It's with some regret that Alex finally steps into the light, leaving Gene alone once again. But not for long.

As he peruses a crimson Mercedes Benz 190D catalogue, Gene gets a new visitor: a traveler from 2010 who turns up at Fenchurch East looking for his office and his iPhone. A new companion for Gene, someone who can help him gather together his troops and send them on their way. The magic circle has opened once more for a new figure. (I do wish, however, that this new copper had been a "name" actor, offering us a cameo appearance at the very end, a way of continuing the story in our imaginations.) "A word in your shell-like, pal," he says in pitch-perfect Gene Hunt. And the cycle begins anew as Gene repeats the very words he said to Sam Tyler at the start of Life on Mars.

At the end, Gene is always there, the immortal guardian of this kingdom, an Oz for dead coppers, always watching and waiting. Just like George Dixon of Dixon of Dock Green from the footage at the very end of the episode. It might be the end but these characters endure forever, caught on the television screen, watching over us just as we watch over them. The police light remains on, a beacon in the darkness to all in need of salvation.

I'm going to miss Ashes to Ashes terribly, as well as the remarkable characters whose lives--and deaths--we've followed these past few years. Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah have created a remarkable piece of television that transcends the medium, delivering a powerful parable of life and death in two series that bookend the human experience: the turbulent joyfulness of life (Life on Mars) and the release of death (Ashes to Ashes). I'd like to thank them and the many writers, directors, and actors from the bottom of my heart for five extraordinary seasons of a genre-busting series that is unlike anything else on television.

All that's left to say is to fire up the Quattro and see you at The Railway Arms. Be seeing you, guv.

What did you think of the series finale of Ashes to Ashes? Were you satisfied by the resolution to Alex's story? The identities of Gene Hunt and Jim Keats? And the truth about Chris, Ray, and Shaz? How much will you miss Ashes to Ashes? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Letting Go Again: Lost Questions, More on "What They Died For"

Welcome to this week's second look at Lost, just a few days ahead of Sunday's series finale of the mind-bending serialized drama.

Once again this week, I'll be taking a second look at this week's episode of Lost ("What They Died For") by answering reader questions submitted via comments, Twitter, and email.

While I discussed "What They Died For" in full over here, it's time to dive deeper and get to some further theories, doubts, and questions that we're all thinking about.

So, without further ado, let's grab a tin cup, whisper some mystical words, and discuss "What They Died For."

I had the chance to watch this episode twice over the course of a few days, the first time and the beautiful and memorable Lost Live: The Final Celebration event at UCLA's Royce Hall (which you can read more about here), and the second being right here in my living room, where I wanted the opportunity to watch the second to last episode on my television with my wife and my dog by my side.

Given my dislike of the previous episode, "Across the Sea," I thought that "What They Died For" was a step in the right direction as the writers finally set up the endgame contained with the series finale (airing Sunday evening, though there's no one in the world that doesn't know that at this point) and positioned the players into their places.

We got an episode that provided some answers, offered some forward momentum, and even had a fair amount of humor as well, a final breather before what's likely to be a shocking and (hopefully) breathtaking series ender. It's hard to believe that we're about to reach that final destination after six seasons and "What They Died For" offered us an opportunity to get our bearings before we reached the precipice...

Richard. Ally wrote, "I don't think that's the last we've seen of Richard. We'd at least see him dead on the ground, I think. His last contribution may be little more than some dying words to someone (Ben? Miles?) but I don't doubt that they will be important." It was a sentiment echoed by reader Crystal, who believed that Richard couldn't be dead because he had gotten a huge backstory episode and we still hadn't learned why he didn't age or die.

I'd like to think that Richard Alpert didn't die when the smoke monster ripped through the barracks and slammed him into a tree. Given that we didn't see him crumbled and bloody, it's possible that the seemingly immortal Richard survived the impact... but I also think that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are clearing the board of the non-central characters at this point.

While Crystal points out that Richard got his backstory-centric episode, that's my point exactly, we already got his backstory and learned his origin. I don't think that's any reason to keep him alive; in fact, I think they signed his death warrant when they wrote "Ab Aeterno." With his backstory out of the way, Richard's plot is done. As for why he didn't age or die, Jacob made it so, just like "Mother" made Jacob and the Nameless One special. If it's Jacob making the rules--whether that be the rules of reality or physics--he's the one who decreed it, thus making it so.

What more is there really for Richard to do? He was Jacob's mouthpiece and Jacob is dead. He believed that the Nameless One wanted him to follow him. In actuality, all he craves is death and destruction, as evidenced by his behavior at the barracks.

Ben. Ticknart asked, "Did you see the look in Ben's eyes when Locke told him that Sayid had lied about killing Desmond? Ben has his own end in mind, I think. He's probably playing it by ear at this point, but knowing that Locke doesn't know everything was a surprise, and a pleasant one at that."

I agree and I think Ben has a plan of his own. Ben has always been on Team Ben rather than truly allied himself with any other cause. He's all about self-survival and I think here he realized, especially after seeing what the Nameless One did to Richard, that he had to go along with the Man in Black's plan... at least for now.

As I mentioned over in the Wednesday post, there's a definite reason why Ben gives the walkie-talkie to Miles, and I believe that Ben will thwart the Man in Black's plan at some point. He's definitely noticing the signs that MiB isn't in control of the situation and can be blindsided, as he was here by the knowledge that Sayid betrayed him, especially as Sayid was swayed to the dark side. (Remember the scene where Ben found Sayid over Dogen's body at the temple pool? If Sayid can betray the Man in Black, given the darkness within him, it means anyone can.)

Likewise, Rockauteur said, "Love your theories on Ben maybe playing Locke. I do think that Ben will end up being the ultimate candidate. But will Jack be able to perform the ceremony to initiate him now that Jacob is just about gone? Or will Jacob be able to initiate Ben?"

Is Ben the true candidate? Would he have been chosen to succeed Jacob if Sayid had never shot him in 1977 and had him claimed by the Others as a result? I don't know. I like to think that we've begun to see the redemption of Benjamin Linus but so many of his actions point towards self-serving ends than true selflessness. I believe he may make the ultimate sacrifice to balance the scales in the series finale, redeeming himself and achieving his soul's release from the island. But that's just me.

As for the other point you made, Jacob is gone. Jack is now the protector of the island. Should the day come where he needs to find a replacement, he'll be able to complete the ritual himself. The opening of his eyes after Jacob's benediction signify a thorough knowledge of the island and its--and his own--abilities. He is like Jacob now and he can create new rules to govern the island, just as Jacob had.

Widmore. Kim Harrington wrote, "I was a little taken aback by Ben killing Widmore, namely because they'd already made it clear in a previous season that--like Jacob and MIB--Ben and Widmore cannot kill each other. It's against the rules. It's not clear to me why that changed. And why Ben was obviously aware of this change. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered pulling the trigger."

Yes, but whose rules were those? Were they man-made rules as a result of Widmore's exile from the island years earlier? A sort of ceasefire agreement signed between the exiled Widmore--sent out into the world after he conceived a child with someone off the island--and the new leader of the Others, Ben? I never believed that there were cosmic rules put in place that didn't allow them to kill each other or their respective families. Unlike, that is, the laws that govern Jacob and his Bad Twin (heh), which are rooted in the fabric of the island and have mystical qualities. These are cosmic rules that have a basis in physical reality. The rules of the war between Ben and Widmore have no such basis. They're created and agreed upon by the parties but, like any war, there's nothing keeping either party from reneging on the deal.

Which means that Ben's murder of Widmore is just that: murder. There was no cosmic law preventing Ben from killing him, nor is there any loophole that will prevent Widmore from dying there on the floor of the secret room.

Claire. Carmen asked, "Where is Claire?" It was a sentiment echoed by reader stimpqb1, who wrote, "I also really want to know why they kept Claire from us, it leads me to believe that her role in the finally will be of the [utmost] importance." Rockauteur also questioned her whereabouts this week: "Where was Claire? She vanished into thin air about she was left with Locke aboard the docks... and he didn't seem like he wanted her dead. Wonder if she is just chilling with the other red-shirts at Hydra Station (and in my theory, Eloise is among them as well) that weren't killed by Locke."

A very good question. Claire's absence from "What They Died For" is an interesting one. When we last saw her, she was on the dock and the Nameless One went striding off into the jungle to finish what he started. Given this fact, it makes sense that Claire wouldn't be with the Man in Black as he paddled over to the Barracks on his own. So where is she? Hydra Station with Widmore's surviving flunkies? A likely possibility. She's denied the final audience with Jacob due to the darkness within her. But is she too far gone to come back to the light? Can her brother Jack save her soul now that he's the island's protector?

As for the other point, I'm not sure that Eloise Hawking is on the island... But I do believe that she'll definitely be at the museum's concert in "The End."

Miles. "What is Miles's purpose on the Island?" asked stimpqb1. "I believe he will hear Jack's final thoughts after he is killed and will pass down the job to Sawyer or Hurley. I think it will be Hurley just because he said that he did not want the job."

I thought that Hurley's line about not wanting the job was an interesting one as well. The role of eternal island protector seems tailor-made for Jack, what with his God complex and need to fix everything. But Hurley's not been a leader; while he's been a follower, he's also been a spiritual guide throughout the six seasons of Lost, one who felt that he was doomed to walk the Earth alone as everyone around him suffered horrible fates. (Sounds like Jacob, no?)

I feel like the fact that Jack became the protector in this week's episode--and not the finale--points towards a twist ahead. Can the Man in Black get someone--Ben? Claire?--to kill him and start the cycle over again? Would Jack be able to transfer his responsibilities to someone else before he died? Hmmm...

Lost-X. Jonah Blue asked, "So why is Hurley working toward eliminating the X time-line in favor of the main one, in which Ana-Lucia and Libby, his love, are dead?"

Do we know that that's what they're trying to do? Hurley is aware of the other reality but we've yet to find out what Desmond's master plan is here. While I believe that they are going to have to chose between the two worlds and sacrifice their true happiness in order to help their counterparts defeat the Man in Black, I don't know that Hurley is privy to all that Desmond knows. He recognizes Ana-Lucia and he remembers his brief and unconsummated relationship with Libby but how much does he know about what's going on? About the choice he might have to make?

After all, these individuals might have memories of the island (impossible ones) but they haven't shared the same experiences, those brushes with the profound and terrifying that the crash-survivors did on the island. Just what line is Desmond feeding them, after all?

Having said that, I do think it's going to come down once again to free will: will these individuals sacrifice everything for the greater good? Can they tear down this world to save another?

Desmond. Rockauteur asked, "Who rescued Desmond? I'm guessing that happened off screen (and we'll see it next week) as Jack finds him and brings him up from the well. I'm still not exactly understanding his role in the end game though I like your theories about how he may have to sacrifice himself to return his energy to the source. I only wish he is able to reunite with Penny and his son Charlie before then! Their romance is the true heart of the show!"

We never saw just what happened to Desmond after Sayid decided not to kill him in the well. The presence of the rope over the side indicates that someone threw it down there to help him out. Was it Sayid himself? If it was, why did he tell Jack to find Desmond at a well, knowing that he would have likely left that place and hidden elsewhere? And if it wasn't Sayid, who else would have known of his whereabouts? The real question to me, however, is: since Desmond has left the well, where did he go?

And I'm glad that you like my theory about Desmond sacrificing himself an entering the Source. I have a feeling that will play a very large role in the series finale.

Answers. Rockauteur wanted to know what happened to the Dharma Initiative and the Hanso Foundation: "My biggest question is: where is dharma and hanso? I know its not the most pressing question but I still want a bit of dharma and to finally meet hanso. and find out what happened to all the dharma people in 1977 in the mainstream storyline... i know we aren't supposed to care about that but its still important to me (much like the question we'll never get answered about what Amy was doing in the jungle). Oh well."

This goes to the heart of the answers vs. mysteries debates that have been raging the last few weeks. Lost has built its intricate story on the back of demanding and complex mysteries and engaging characters. But with so little time before the end, some things will have to remain unanswered. This might frustrate some viewers who have built up some of the mysteries into more than Team Darlton originally intended. What Amy was doing in the jungle will likely not be answered in the series finale, nor likely will the identity of the shooters targeting the time-strewn castaways in the outrigger in Season Five (as much as I would like it to be).

The Dharma Initiative seemed to have been co-opted by the Others after the Purge. Given the fact that Eloise Hawking had control over the Lamp-Post Station (as seen in Season Five) and the Others were using Mittelos Bioscience as a shell company makes me believe that they absorbed the Dharma Initiative leftovers at some point after this, moving into the Barracks, seizing the Lamp-Post and the Flame, etc. The polar bears also escaped the Hydra, likely due to lack of supervision there.

So who kept the provisions dropping on the island? Was it Dharma Initiative-backers the Hanso Foundation? Did it continue because they knew about the existence of Desmond Hume in the Swan and the need to press the button every 108 minutes?

Kelvin Inman did join Dharma after the Purge and was the one pushing the button before he chose Desmond to succeed him and attempted to leave the island... and the provisions kept dropping like clockwork thereafter. Which not only helped Desmond survive for as long as he did, but the passengers aboard Oceanic Flight 815 as well. Could it be that Jacob is behind keeping the supply drops coming? And, given that he's now dead, does that mean they've stopped?

Sadly, I don't know that we'll see Alvar Hanso or the Dharma Initiative in the season finale as the plot has moved away from the earth-bound and into the spiritual.

Epilogue. Kim Harrington wrote, "I also think his bloodbath we've seen in the final episodes won't stick. I'm hoping that the theory of the happy sideways world being the epilogue--the end game--is true."

I actually hope it isn't... and I don't think that the previous episodes have allowed for this at all. Desmond's mission--and the crossing-over of his consciousness--indicate that these two words are unfolding at the same time and Desmond is able to access his collective consciousness in both of them. Yes, the individuals are waking up and remember things that happened on the island but I don't believe that the Lost-X world is the end of the series. Rather, it's unfolding concurrently and Desmond's actions in both will have major effects on what world is left when everything is done and dusted. Will the Lost-X individuals be able to sacrifice their lives and those of their loved ones for a higher purpose?

I think the end of the series will have to involve our core characters, the ones we started this journey with back in 2004 when Lost began, rather than their counterparts in a divergent reality where the island is at the bottom of the ocean. Given Lindelof and Cuse's preponderance with the mystical and profound, I also don't see them ending the series in a world that's empty of "magic," for wont of a better word. Like Oz and Narnia, the island has to be out there somewhere, an impossible place that we all dream of and aspire to, a place where we can cast off our past traumas and become the people we were always meant to be.

Come back Monday to discuss next week's episode and head to the comments section here to discuss any of the above thoughts and theories or pose additional questions...

The two-and-a-half-hour series finale of Lost ("The End") airs Sunday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Soft Spots: Through the Vale of Tears on the Season Finale of Fringe

"I don't belong here... but I don't belong there, either."

Throughout the two seasons thus far of FOX's trippy sci-fi drama Fringe, we've associated the world of Olivia Dunham and the Bishops pere et fils with the color blue, a somber color that's been reflected in the main title sequence, the frequent colored flares that have appeared on the the screen at dramatic or pivotal moments, and the general muted color palette of the world in which these characters live.

On the other side, the alternate dimension from which a young Peter Bishop was kidnapped by a desperately grieving Walter Bishop, we see a world that's rather like ours on the surface but which is different in so many ways that matter. There, the color of choice is red, a deep crimson that's echoed in the opening credits for the two-part season finale of Fringe, the comic-book heroes whose stories line the walls of an apartment Walter has furnished for Peter (Red Arrow and Red Lantern being two), and the machine that will create a "doorstop" for Bishops and Olivia to cross back over to their own world.

I couldn't help but notice in the final half of the two-part Fringe finale ("Over There, Part Two"), written by J.H. Wyman, Jeff Pinkner, and Akiva Goldsman and directed by Akiva Goldsman, that we're seeing a world brought to life as the living, breathing, embodiment of unexpected consequences, that destination at the end of the road to Hell that's paved with good intentions.

Walter Bishop attempted to save the life of an alternate version of his dead son. In doing so, he tore a hole through the fabric of time and space and unleashed a wave of unspeakable horrors onto an unsuspecting world. While he acted out of love and grief, Walter all but destroyed an entire universe. As last night's finale began, we saw the results of those actions as Peter took a guided tour of Manhattan in a dirigible, witnessing the quarantine areas--including Madison Square Garden and the 10,000 people declared legally dead within--that are the ripple-effect of Walter's cross-time continuum jaunt.

What Peter sees is staggering, really. And it speaks volumes about just why this universe would fight back, would seek to lash out at the man who caused all of this and pay his home world back in kind for the tragedy that it has caused. We've long known that a war was coming between the two universes, but I don't think anyone anticipated that Peter Bishop himself would be the flashpoint. From the Department of Defense headquarters on Liberty Island (atop which sits Lady Liberty, with her original copper-bronze hue intact), The Secretary--a.k.a. Walternate--has set in motion a plot that will ensnare his own son and use him not to fix the broken elements of this universe but to destroy the other world.

Peter slowly realizes this after falling under the lure of his biological father. But in looking at the device that Walternate is hoping to build, Peter realizes his signifance... and that while, like his alternate universe counterpart, Walternate traveled through a hole between the worlds to bring him home, he is not a good man. Not like our Walter Bishop. While Walter's experiments may have had disastrous consequences, he has always operated out of a need to help, not to harm. While these two men might be identical, they're polar opposites beneath the surface.

Olivia, meanwhile, comes face to face with her alternate universe counterpart, a chestnut-haired Fringe agent who seems to have attained the things that she never could: a healthy relationship with a lover (Philip Winchester), a positive relationship with a mother who is dead in her world. (But it's come at a cost: this world's Rachel died in childbirth.) While they're both intrigued by the other--they seem to represent a case of What If?--their instincts soon kick in and the two engage in a vicious fight that nearly kills Olivia before she's able to knock her doppelganger out and tie her up.

It seemed at first to me that Olivia had killed her with a blow to the head but that was quickly disproved. I knew that Olivia would take her counterpart's place (and that the distinctive neck tattoo would have to play a part) but didn't see the bait-and-switch that came later as alternate Olivia took our Olivia's place back in our world. It's a masterful ploy that balances things out: just as Walter took Peter, so too does Walternate take Olivia here, leaving her imprisoned on the other side.

Which leaves Alternate Olivia in our world, alone with Peter and Walter and in a strange world she doesn't really understand. Considering what passed in this episode between Olivia and Peter--and their discussion of their true feelings for one another, culminating in a kiss--I've got to believe that Peter will pick up on Olivia's differences very quickly. Especially with that neck tattoo...

Just when did Walternate decide that infiltrating the other side was more important than keeping Peter Bishop there? Hmmm... As we see from the very end of the episode, Alternate Olivia reports back to the Secretary via the typewriter, delivering a message that her infiltration was successful and waiting for new orders. Just what those orders are will have to wait until next season. But I dare say that both Peter and Walter Bishop are in serious danger.

In addition to the Olivia/Olivia and Olivia/Peter scenes, there were some other fantastic moments here (besides as well for seeing Charlie Francis again) between Walter and Leonard Nimoy's William Bell. Far too often, Bell has been presented as a secret villain within the mythology of Fringe but we see that that's not really the case here. Yes, he helped develop the shapeshifters and much of the advanced technology of the other world, but he claims he did so in order to remain useful to Walternate... and that he traveled to the other world not to profit from their tech but to undo the damage that Walter had caused by stealing Peter. (We also learned that that world's Bell died in a car accident and never met Walter Bishop.)

There was a beautiful scene between the two as they drove to Walter's old lab at Harvard University and Walter came face to face with the destruction that his actions had caused, the devastation and the quarantined areas, with people trapped inside like insects in amber. As always, John Noble deserves an Emmy nomination (and, really, an award) for his stunning performance; here, he delivers quite a few stirring scenes that resonate with loss, grief, and anger. (And love as well: witness the scene where he sees Peter once again.)

"Did I cause this," he asks, a cross between a child and an elderly man, as his voice quivers. Bell doesn't sugar-coat the answer for him... but Walter finally does get an answer about why Bell cut out pieces of his brain, erasing swaths of memory, and we get some answers about Massive Dynamic to boot.

"Creating Massive Dynamic was not my idea," Bell angrily yells, which is an interesting reveal because it makes me wonder just who did. Was it Walter Bishop himself? After all, the two had had many plans and dreams together, but Walter's were sidetracked by the memory loss and his subsequent institutionalization at St. Clare's. We see here a partnership divided not just by a gap between the worlds but by a monumental chasm that's built on personal choices. Walter saw himself as the victim in his story, but what if he was becoming a true villain, making choices without thinking of the irrevocable consequences for both worlds?

"I did it because you asked me to, because of what you were becoming," Bell tells Walter about why he had pieces of Walter's brain removed. Just what was Walter becoming? A monster bent on harvesting the other world? A man who had already thwarted the laws of physics once and was out of control? Just what other horrors had Walter unleashed? Or had been prepared to?

We see a very different Bell than the one we've built up in our collective imaginings, one who is more nursemaid and clean-up crew for Walter Bishop, one who sacrificed his life to clean up the mess that Walter created in his wake... and one who is now willing to sacrifice his own mortality in order to save him once more. Bell is the "doorstop" that he mentioned to Walter, able to push open the crack created by Olivia so that she and the Bishops can get home. Little does he know that his sacrifice has sent the faux-Olivia over to the other world.

Something tells me we'll be seeing a lot more of both worlds as Fringe returns for a third season in the fall. With Olivia Dunham trapped over there and a false replacement taking her place in our world, the team will have to unravel what's really going on... and Olivia will have to find a way to return home, possibly on her own, just as she's made a major step to reclaim her long-buried emotional connections. Will the others notice a change in her behavior? What are her orders? Is William Bell truly dead? Who has Nina Sharp been answering to all of these years? And just what was Walter up to when he asked Walter to erase his memories? Find out next season.

What did you think of the season finale and the season as a whole? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Season Three of Fringe begins this fall on FOX.

The Daily Beast: "Is Your New Favorite Show Here?"

Over at The Daily Beast, I've spent the week updating our gallery of new broadcast network television series, as the networks unveiled their fall schedules and announced new programming at this week's upfronts.

You can check out the gallery at The Daily Beast--which has video clips and trailers for all of the new series for the 2010-11 season--and keep track of all of the renewals and cancellation by visiting my post "Is Your New Favorite Show Here?" (and get to the gallery directly by clicking here).

In the meantime, I'm curious to know which new series are you most excited about? And which do you think are doomed to fail? Head to the comments section to discuss.

CW New Series Previews: Nikita and Hellcats

The CW unveiled its fall schedule and new programming offerings to advertisers today in New York, continuing the fourth official day of network upfronts week.

(You can read more about the CW's fall schedule and and read episode descriptions here.)

Not in New York? You can check out the video previews for the CW's two new series, Nikita and Hellcats below.

NIKITA



HELLCATS



Nikita and Hellcats will air this fall on the CW.

UK Lost Alert: Watch the Lost Series Finale on Sky1HD Monday with West Coast US Simulcast

UK viewers of Lost, you're in luck: you'll be able to catch the two-and-half hour series finale of Lost at the same time it airs on the West Coast of the US.

Sky1HD will be presenting the series finale of Lost ("The End") at 5 am GMT, as it is transmitted at 9 pm Pacific Time of the West Coast of the United States.

"We are proud of the fact that at Sky 1HD we have a long tradition of running all of our US shows as close as possible to their US TX date," said Stuart Murphy, Director of Programmes, Sky1 HD, Sky1, 2 and 3, in a statement. "With something as hotly anticipated as the LOST finale it makes sense to show it at exactly the same time as millions across America will see it."

Given how high anticipation is for the series finale of Lost--and the fact that it will likely go down as the most illegally downloaded episode of a series ever, I have to give Sky1 and Murphy credit for offering UK viewers a legitmate and legal way of watching the historic series finale at the same time as US viewers... and not later in the week during Lost's usual timeslot on Fridays.

Well done, Sky1.

The full press release from Sky1 can be found below.

SKY1 HD TO SIMULCAST WORLD PREMIERE OF LOST: THE END

LOST reaches its ultimate conclusion with a thrilling two and a half hour finale simulcasting with the US West Coast broadcast on Monday 24 May at 5am, Sky1 HD and Sky1

On Monday 24 May, after six monumental seasons and 121 captivating episodes, the series that has provoked more theories, debates and analysis than any other, will reach its final hours on Sky 1 HD and Sky 1. Along with fans in six other countries outside of the US (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and Canada), UK viewers will be able to enjoy the world premiere of LOST’s thrilling conclusion as Sky1 HD air a live simulcast of the US transmission. The double bill finale, aptly entitled The End, will bring to a close the many unanswered mysteries that show producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have teased viewers with since 2004.

Stuart Murphy, Director of Programmes, Sky1 HD, Sky1, 2 and 3 commented: "We are proud of the fact that at Sky 1HD we have a long tradition of running all of our US shows as close as possible to their US TX date. With something as hotly anticipated as the LOST finale it makes sense to show it at exactly the same time as millions across America will see it.”

Since its launch, LOST has established itself among audiences as a ground-breaking television series that has defined a genre. It has succeeded in the almighty task of giving sci-fi universal appeal; placing ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. Still holding the title of the most expensive television pilot in history, LOST immediately captivated both audiences around the world and critics alike. It has since picked up a raft of awards including an Emmy® for Outstanding Drama Series, a Golden Globe® for Best Television Series (Drama), and Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild Awards.

In 2007, Lindelof and Cuse made the bold decision to announce that LOST would comprise six seasons in total and reach its conclusion in 2010, allowing them to map out exactly how the series would unfold over the final two seasons, whilst also providing dedicated viewers with an endgame.

The sixth season, which debuted on Sky1 HD in February 2010, has answered many long-standing questions posed back in the early days of the show. In perhaps one of the most revealing scenes so far, Jacob (Mark Pelligrino) used the metaphor of a wine bottle to explain the importance of the Island, the true nature of the Man in Black and how and why he must be prevented from fulfilling his wish of escaping. “Think of this wine as… Hell… malevolence, evil, darkness, and here it is – swirling around in the bottle unable to get out, because if it did, it would spread. The cork, is this island, and it’s the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs.” Now with the Man in Black taking on the form of the deceased Locke (Terry O’Quinn), the final episodes are building towards his potential escape. But will Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) or Jacob’s yet-to-be-decided successor, be able to stop him?

Executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse recently put the finishing touches on the final script, and explained that answers to the mysteries will continue to unravel. Cuse commented: “It was very profound for us, as we had written a cryptic scene, and we thought, no, these characters are actually at the place where they can have a discussion about what is going on here. It was very weird to take these closely held secrets and actually put them in the scene. It was very liberating and exciting.”

The final season has also introduced the concept of flash-sideways, portraying two parallel universes. The scenes on the island depict a universe where the bomb failed to detonate and the survivors remained, whereas the flash-sideways show a world where Oceanic 815 landed and the passengers never ended up living together. However, destiny appears to be drawing them together regardless as their lives end up colliding despite the reversal of history. Indeed, following a recent meeting with Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) starts to feel as if he has led another life before and plans to ‘awaken’ the other passengers on Oceanic 815 – starting with crashing his car into Locke as he crosses the road.

On Monday 24 May at 5am, catch the live simulcast of LOST: The End, a two and a half hour unmissable landmark event in television history. The finale will then be repeated on Tuesday 25 May at 9pm.

On Friday 28 May at 7pm, Sky1 HD and Sky1 will kick off an evening celebrating LOST with a two hour US special entitled LOST: THE FINAL JOURNEY. The documentary will take a retrospective look at the past six seasons of the series and delve into what has transpired during the current season as a primer leading into the finale.

At 9pm, it’s time for another chance to catch LOST: The End, and at 11.30pm, fans need not despair as two of Sky1 HD’s specials, THE END IS NIGH and TOP 10 GREATEST SCENES will follow.

First Look: Image Gallery for CW's New Drama Series, Nikita and Hellcats

The CW has released four images for its new drama series Nikita and Hellcats, which will air this fall on the CW.

The netlet this morning announced its new fall schedule for the 2010-11 season to advertisers in New York, wrapping up a week of broadcast network upfront presentations. (You can read more about the CW's new schedule, programming changes, and full descriptions for new and returning series here.)

You can check out four photos from Nikita and Hellcats below.

NIKITA

Here's how the CW is positioning Nikita:

NIKITA stars international action-film star and martial arts expert Maggie Q ("Mission Impossible III") in the title role as a spy and assassin for a top secret U.S. government agency, who rebels against the system that created her and will stop at nothing to bring their powerful operation to an end. Shane West ("E.R.") and Lyndsy Fonseca ("Kick Ass") also star.









HELLCATS

Here's how the CW is positioning Hellcats:

HELLCATS is a pumped-up drama about a young pre-law student (Aly Michalka, "Bandslam") whose world is turned upside-down when she loses her scholarship and has to join the college's competitive cheerleading squad. This fun, energetic series is a behind-the-scenes look at the drama, politics and pressure surrounding the football program at a Southern university. Ashley Tisdale ("High School Musical") also stars as a young woman who is totally committed to the cheerleading squad to realize her dreams.









Nikita and Hellcats will air this fall on the CW.

CW Unveils Fall Schedule, Moves Supernatural to Fridays, 90210 to Mondays

Welcome to the Day Four of network upfronts 2010 as the annual gathering of advertisers wraps up today.

CW this morning announced its plans for fall, unveiling a schedule that includes two new scripted dramas Nikita and Hellcats.

Among the changes made by the CW, 90210 will move to Mondays at 8 pm, where it will be paired with Gossip Girl, and Supernatural is heading to Fridays (paired with the final season of Smallville), while One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected, both previously on the bubble, will hold down Tuesdays. The two new series will see support from lead-ins America's Next Top Model on Wednesdays (Hellcats) and The Vampire Diaries on Thursdays... which means that new drama Nikita will be competing with FOX's Fringe on Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT.

"After just four short years as a network, The CW will premiere our strongest schedule ever this fall, with a combination of hit shows and exciting new series giving us all-original programming five nights a week for the first time," said Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment, The CW. "We've been growing this network one hit at a time and we're poised for a great 2010-11 season. This year The Vampire Diaries was a smash out of the box for us, and another freshman show, Life Unexpected, also opened strong and began building an intense, loyal following. On the heels of breaking Gossip Girl and 90210 the last two seasons and the enduring popularity of Smallville, Supernatural, One Tree Hill and America's Next Top Model, we had more strong program development and believe we have the goods once again with Nikita and Hellcats, two shows that are fun, fast and loud, and will enable us to make noise in the marketplace this fall. These hot new dramas will extend The CW brand and our hold on the coveted young female demographic, with international action-film star Jackie-Chan protege Maggie Q starring as Nikita, an empowered woman fighting for justice, and Ashley Tisdale of High School Musical and Aly Michalka of Bandslam in Hellcats, a lively new series about a pre-law student whose life turns upside down when she joins the cheerleading team at a major Southern university.

"Additionally, we're excited about two new reality series coming to The CW. First up in summer 2010 will be original programming from Plain Jane, with each week featuring a full-blown makeover for a young woman including a style transformation, new wardrobe and confidence-building assistance from the show's host, British fashion expert, Louise Roe. In addition to this powerful fall schedule, you can expect more news on original programming for next season down the line as we continue to grow our business. We're also as committed as ever to utilizing online, social media and new technologies to attract 'Generation Digital,' the passionate and highly engaged young viewers who get their CW fix whenever and wherever they want it."

UPDATED: CW's full fall schedule can be found below, along with the official press release from the network, descriptions for the new and returning series, and photography for the netlet's two new series.

THE CW’s 2010-2011 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM 90210 (New Night)
9:00-10:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM ONE TREE HILL (New Night)
9:00-10:00 PM LIFE UNEXPECTED (New Night)

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
9:00-10:00 PM HELLCATS (New Series)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
9:00-10:00 PM NIKITA (New Series)

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SMALLVILLE
9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL (New Night)

New Series: Nikita, Hellcats

Renewed:: 90210, America's Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, Life Unexpected, One Tree Hill, Smallville, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries

Cancelled/Ending: The Beautiful Life, Blonde Charity Mafia, Melrose Place

Scheduling Changes: 90210, Supernatural, Life Unexpected, One Tree Hill

Midseason Launches: N/A

THE CW ANNOUNCES 2010-2011 SCHEDULE

NEW FALL SEASON PREMIERES WITH TEN HOURS OF ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING, INCLUDING TWO NEW SERIES, "NIKITA" AND "HELLCATS"

ORIGINAL SERIES TO AIR IN EVERY TIME PERIOD, WITH ESTABLISHED FRANCHISES ANCHORING THE 8:00 HOUR ACROSS THE SCHEDULE

West Coast Meets East Coast When Dramas "90210" And "Gossip Girl" Take Up Residence on Monday Nights

Tuesday Night Brings "One Tree Hill" and "Life Unexpected" Together for a Night of Heartfelt Drama

Wednesday Pairs Hit Reality Series "America's Next Top Model" With New Pumped-Up Cheerleader Drama "Hellcats" With Stars Ashley Tisdale and Aly Michalka

On Thursday, Red-Hot Hit "The Vampire Diaries" Teams with New Action-Packed Drama "Nikita," starring International Star Maggie Q

In The Tenth and Final Season of "Smallville," Clark Kent Reunites with The Winchester Brothers When "Smallville" and "Supernatural" Team Up on Friday Nights

Transformational New Reality Series "Plain Jane" Premieres in Summer

Emmy-Nominated Singer/Songwriter Katy Perry Opened the Upfront with her hit singles "California Gurls" and "Hot N Cold"

May 20, 2010 (New York, New York) - The CW Network unveiled the schedule for its 2010-2011 season today at a presentation for advertisers, affiliates and national media in the Theater at Madison Square Garden, where singer Katy Perry rocked the house to open the show. The announcement was made by Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment, The CW.

"After just four short years as a network, The CW will premiere our strongest schedule ever this fall, with a combination of hit shows and exciting new series giving us all-original programming five nights a week for the first time," said Ostroff. "We've been growing this network one hit at a time and we're poised for a great 2010-11 season. This year 'The Vampire Diaries' was a smash out of the box for us, and another freshman show, 'Life Unexpected,' also opened strong and began building an intense, loyal following. On the heels of breaking 'Gossip Girl' and '90210' the last two seasons and the enduring popularity of 'Smallville,' 'Supernatural,' 'One Tree Hill' and 'America's Next Top Model,' we had more strong program development and believe we have the goods once again with 'Nikita' and 'Hellcats,' two shows that are fun, fast and loud, and will enable us to make noise in the marketplace this fall. These hot new dramas will extend The CW brand and our hold on the coveted young female demographic, with international action-film star Jackie-Chan protege Maggie Q starring as 'Nikita,' an empowered woman fighting for justice, and Ashley Tisdale of 'High School Musical' and Aly Michalka of 'Bandslam' in 'Hellcats,' a lively new series about a pre-law student whose life turns upside down when she joins the cheerleading team at a major Southern university.

"Additionally, we're excited about two new reality series coming to The CW. First up in summer 2010 will be original programming from 'Plain Jane,' with each week featuring a full-blown makeover for a young woman including a style transformation, new wardrobe and confidence-building assistance from the show's host, British fashion expert, Louise Roe. In addition to this powerful fall schedule, you can expect more news on original programming for next season down the line as we continue to grow our business. We're also as committed as ever to utilizing online, social media and new technologies to attract 'Generation Digital,' the passionate and highly engaged young viewers who get their CW fix whenever and wherever they want it."

On Monday, the Left Coast/Right Coast pairing of 90120 and GOSSIP GIRL will cover a lot of ground with viewers, providing cutting-edge drama, the latest in high fashion and backstabbing betrayal with the beautiful beach-set of 90210 from 8:00-9:00 p.m. and the powerful and privileged Upper East-siders of GOSSIP GIRL from 9:00-10:00 p.m. Despite tough competition last season, 90210 became the most DVR'd show on television, with Live-Plus-7-Day ratings that more than double its women 18-34 audience. Together, 90210 and GOSSIP GIRL have the highest concentration of women 18-34 on network television, and GOSSIP GIRL continues to be one of the most buzzed-about shows on the planet. Next season's premiere will take Serena (Blake Lively), Blair (Leighton Meester) and Chuck (Ed Westwick) to the City of Lights - Paris, France.

On Tuesday, ONE TREE HILL, the show loyal viewers demanded back, finds a new home in the 8:00-9:00 p.m. hour, followed by the second season of LIFE UNEXPECTED, last season's critically acclaimed show about a young girl who reunites with her birth parents after growing up in foster care. LIFE UNEXPECTED has a rapidly growing audience, and the two series are already a tried-and-true teaming, since LIFE UNEXPECTED, premiered at midseason behind ONE TREE HILL with strong audience retention.

On Wednesday, AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL will be back in its successful 8:00-9:00 p.m. timeslot. During its recently completed 14th cycle, TOP MODEL added a new judge, fashion editor Andre Leon Talley, and the show was number one in its time period with women 18-34 and adults 18-34. Last week's cycle 14 finale episode won the 8:00 p.m. hour in women 18-34, adults 18-34, females 12-34 and female teens.

The models give way to cheerleaders when the new drama HELLCATS premieres in the 9:00-10:00 p.m. hour. HELLCATS is a pumped-up drama about a young pre-law student (Aly Michalka, "Bandslam") whose world is turned upside-down when she loses her scholarship and has to join the college's competitive cheerleading squad. This fun, energetic series is a behind-the-scenes look at the drama, politics and pressure surrounding the football program at a Southern university. Ashley Tisdale ("High School Musical") also stars as a young woman who is totally committed to the cheerleading squad to realize her dreams.

The CW broke a major hit on Thursday nights last fall with THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, now the network's top-rated show. The vampires, witches and mere mortals of Mystic Falls will remain in the 8:00-9:00 p.m. timeslot, providing the perfect jumping-off point for the non-stop action and international intrigue of the drama NIKITA from 9:00-10:00 p.m.

NIKITA stars international action-film star and martial arts expert Maggie Q ("Mission Impossible III") in the title role as a spy and assassin for a top secret U.S. government agency, who rebels against the system that created her and will stop at nothing to bring their powerful operation to an end. Shane West ("E.R.") and Lyndsy Fonseca ("Kick Ass") also star.

On Friday, two rock solid hits, SMALLVILLE and SUPERNATURAL, reunite for a great two-hour block. In its explosive tenth and final season, SMALLVILLE will remain in the 8:00-9:00 p.m. timeslot, where it gave the CW its best numbers ever in the time period with scripted programming last year. The series will bring Clark Kent's epic journey to a conclusion worthy of a superhero. In the 9:00-10:00 p.m. hour, the Winchester Brothers continue their heroic battle to ensure that good triumphs over evil, no matter what the personal cost may be to the brothers themselves. Last season, SUPERNATURAL's ratings were up year-to-year with women 18-49.

MONDAY

8:00-9:00 P.M. "90210"

The third season of 90210 welcomes the West Beverly kids to their senior year of high school. It's the time of college acceptances and lovers' rejections, the time of prom dates and promises betrayed, the time of spring break, break-ups and make-ups - but as is always the case in Beverly Hills, it all happens in a world of sun and fun, palm trees and warm sea breezes, success and excess. From the very beginning of the school year, the lives of the West Beverly group will be shaken up in a way none of them could ever imagine. And from this new starting point, their journeys will take them to staggering new heights and terrifying new depths. We'll see the rise of a pop sensation and the fall of a group of friends, the beginning of a new love and the end of a professional dream, the creation of an unlikely family and the demise of another. And that's just the first week of school... It's now or never for the students of West Beverly, and they're not going to waste a moment of time. Expectations are high, hormones are raging, and scandals are hiding around every corner. From the brightest moments of love and happiness to the darkest hours of shame and fear, senior year at West Beverly promises to be an unforgettable journey into the lives, hopes and dreams of those lucky few who call 90210 home. The series stars Lori Loughlin as Debbie Wilson, Shenae Grimes as Annie Wilson, Tristan Wilds as Dixon Wilson, AnnaLynne McCord as Naomi Clark, Ryan Eggold as Ryan Matthews, Jessica Stroup as Silver, Michael Steger as Navid Shirazi, Jessica Lowndes as Adrianna Tate-Duncan, Matt Lanter as Liam Court, Trevor Donovan as Teddy Montgomery and Gillian Zinser as Ivy. 90210 is produced by CBS Television Studios with executive producer Rebecca Sinclair ("Gilmore Girls") and Dave Rosenthal ("Gilmore Girls," "Men in Trees").

9:00-10:00 P.M. "GOSSIP GIRL"

High society and low blows are back as GOSSIP GIRL, a one-hour drama about the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite, returns for its much-anticipated fourth season. Season three ended with a BANG! as a heartbroken Chuck Bass lay bleeding in the streets of Prague while Blair Waldorf and a newly-single Serena van der Woodsen jetted off to Paris for a fabulous summer abroad. Meanwhile, Nate Archibald fresh off his painful breakup with Serena, decided to take a page out of Chuck's playboy playbook just as Dan Humphrey discovered he was going to have to settle down and be a father - to Georgina Sparks' baby! Season four will open with a radiant Serena and Blair enjoying their grand and romantic summer in Paris... until Chuck mysteriously arrives in town with a new girlfriend and a new identity. Blair swore off Chuck forever but will this changed man woo Blair into having a change of heart, or will Queen B set her sights on ruling Columbia University? And as for that baby... ? The series stars Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen, Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf, Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey, Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald, Taylor Momsen as Jenny Humphrey, Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass, Jessica Szohr as Vanessa Abrams, Kelly Rutherford as Lily van der Woodsen and Matthew Settle as Rufus Humphrey. Filmed in New York and based on the popular series of young-adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, GOSSIP GIRL is from Fake Empire and Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Josh Schwartz ("Chuck," "The O.C."), Stephanie Savage ("The O.C."), Leslie Morgenstein ("The Vampire Diaries"), Bob Levy ("The Vampire Diaries") and Joshua Safran.

TUESDAY

8:00-9:00 P.M. "ONE TREE HILL"

After a seventh season that saw ONE TREE HILL continue to grow and break new ground, the show enters season eight with more than 150 episodes under its belt. The new season finds Brooke Davis happier than ever. Recently engaged to Julian, her wedding will be the captivating affair one might expect from a young, beautiful, successful fashion designer. As Nathan Scott prepares for his second season in the NBA, the Scott family is expecting their second child and Haley feels as though the baby will be a girl. How will she balance her pregnancy while raising Jamie and pursuing her music career? Also, Quinn and Clay's lives hang in the balance, the victims of a brutal attack which affects all of their friends and family. Season eight of ONE TREE HILL will explore the delicate balance that contemporary twenty-somethings face as they endeavor to build and define what their lives will be, while overcoming difficulties and embracing the good things that they sometimes take for granted, shrouded in the pursuit of someday. It will be a celebration of the most important things, among them the quest for love, laughter, health, friends, career and family: timeless pursuits that have always mattered, and matter now, in a place called Tree Hill. The series stars James Lafferty as Nathan Scott, Sophia Bush as Brooke Davis, Bethany Joy Galeotti as Haley James Scott, Robert Buckley as Clay Evans, Austin Nichols as Julian Baker, Shantel VanSanten as Quinn James and Jackson Brundage as Jamie Scott. ONE TREE HILL was created by Mark Schwahn and is executive produced by Schwahn, Joe Davola, Greg Prange, Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins. ONE TREE HILL is a Mastermind Laboratories and Tollin/Robbins Production in association with Warner Bros. Television.

9:00-10:00 P.M. "LIFE UNEXPECTED"

Returning for a second season, LIFE UNEXPECTED is a coming-of-age family drama that centers around 16-year-old Lux, who was given up for adoption at birth but never adopted. When she is put back into the custody of her estranged-since-high-school birth parents, radio show host Cate and bartender Baze, the three form an unlikely family, complicated by the fact that Cate is engaged to her co-host, Ryan. Cate and Baze struggle with becoming insta-parents and raising a daughter they are only now getting to know, while Ryan must deal with the fact that Cate's feelings for Baze aren't entirely in the past. Lux, meanwhile, tries to reconcile her past with her present, often torn between her old friends from foster care and her new family. As the unlikely trio begins to grow up together, Lux encourages Baze to reveal what she already knows - that he is in love with Cate, just like a part of Cate is in love with him. Baze tries to stop Cate's wedding, but when he's too late, Cate marries Ryan. Heading into next season, our unlikely threesome become a foursome as Ryan joins the family. The series stars Shiri Appleby as Cate Cassidy, Kristoffer Polaha as Nate "Baze" Bazile, Britt Robertson as Lux, Austin Basis as Math and Kerr Smith as Ryan Thomas. LIFE UNEXPECTED is produced by CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television in association with Mojo Films with executive producers Liz Tigelaar ("Brothers and Sisters," "What About Brian") and Gary Fleder ("October Road").

WEDNESDAY

8:00-9:00 P.M. "AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL"

Returning with its fifteenth and sixteenth cycles, the runaway runway hit series stars Tyra Banks. The show gives real people an opportunity to prove that they can make it in the high-stress, high-stakes world of supermodeling. With mentoring by Tyra Banks and exposure to high-profile fashion-industry gurus, young women of various backgrounds, shapes and sizes must endure a highly accelerated modeling boot camp and face weekly tests to determine who will make the cut as they vie for a professional modeling contract. The executive producers are Ken Mok ("Making the Band"), Tyra Banks and Laura Fuest. The series was created by Tyra Banks and developed by Mok and Kenya Barris. AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL is produced by 10 by 10 Entertainment in association with Bankable Productions.

9:00-10:00 P.M. "HELLCATS"

HELLCATS is a coming-of-age story about Marti Perkins, a young, pre-law student at Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is cool, hip and alt, but her world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when she loses her scholarship, and realizes the only way she can stay in school is by reigniting her dormant teen gymnastic skills to win a place on Lancer's legendary cheerleading team, The Hellcats. Against her every instinct, Marti goes for it and makes the squad, and is thrust into a world of camaraderie, backstabbing and the intersection of sports, backroom academia and big money. Marti's new roommate, Savannah Monroe, a petite, peppy Texan, is among the diverse cast of athletes, undergrads, family and friends, all set on the sprawling campus of a powerhouse college football program in the deep South. The series stars Aly Michalka as Marti Perkins, Ashley Tisdale as Savannah Monroe, Heather Hemmens as Alice Verdura, Robbie Jones as Lewis Flynn, Matt Barr as Dan Patch, with Sharon Leal as Vanessa Lodge and Gail O'Grady as Wanda Perkins. HELLCATS is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Tom Welling Productions, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Murphy ("Desperate Housewives"), Tom Welling ("Smallville") and Allan Arkush ("Heroes," "Crossing Jordan"). The pilot was directed by Allan Arkush.

THURSDAY

8:00-9:00 P.M. "THE VAMPIRE DIARIES"

Returning for its second season, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is the story of two vampire brothers obsessed with the same beautiful girl, and battling to control the fate of an entire town. During season one, Stefan and Damon Salvatore returned to their hometown of Mystic Falls, Virginia, for very different reasons - Stefan was determined to get to know Elena Gilbert, who bears a striking resemblance to Katherine Pierce, the beautiful but ruthless vampire the brothers knew and loved in 1864, while Damon was intent on releasing Katherine from the tomb where he believed she was trapped by a witch's spell all those years ago. At the end of season one, Elena's uncle set a plan in motion that brought the Founder's Day celebration to an end amid chaos, destruction and death, and saw the return of the vengeful Katherine Pierce. Next season, the appearance of the villainous Katherine in Mystic Falls throws a wrench into the love triangle between Stefan, Elena and Damon, and the other residents of Mystic Falls must choose sides as they fall victim to a new breed of danger. New and unexpected friendships will be forged, allies will become enemies, and hearts will be broken. Stefan and Damon will be forced to face a villain more evil and diabolical than they ever believed possible. And they'll take their shirts off. Frequently. The series stars Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore, Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore, Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert, Sara Canning as Jenna Sommers, Katerina Graham as Bonnie Bennett, Candice Accola as Caroline Forbes, Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan, Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood and Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman. Based on the series of books by L. J. Smith, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is from Bonanza Productions Inc., cptfc Outerbanks Entertainment and Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Williamson ("Scream," "Dawson's Creek"), Julie Plec ("Kyle XY," "Wasteland"), Leslie Morgenstein ("Gossip Girl," "Private") and Bob Levy ("Gossip Girl," "Privileged").

9:00-10:00 P.M. "NIKITA"

When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn't tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run. The series stars Maggie Q as Nikita, Lyndsy Fonseca as Alex, Shane West as Michael, Aaron Stanford as Birkhoff, Ashton Holmes as Thom, Tiffany Hines as Jaden, with Melinda Clarke as Amanda and Xander Berkeley as Percy. NIKITA is from Warner Bros. Television in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, with executive producers Craig Silverstein ("Bones," "K-Ville"), Danny Cannon ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Chuck"), McG ("Supernatural," "Chuck," "The O.C.," "Charlie's Angels"), and Peter Johnson ("Supernatural," "Chuck"). The pilot was directed by Danny Cannon.

FRIDAY

8:00-9:00 P.M. "SMALLVILLE"

Entering its explosive tenth and final season, SMALLVILLE culminates in the epic rise of the world's ultimate hero - Superman. Finally working alongside the intrepid Lois Lane at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent had accepted his destiny as the guardian of Metropolis when General Zod arrived, challenging Clark's authority and power. Just when the romance between Clark and Lois began to bloom, Clark was called into duty by the legendary Justice Society and his own burgeoning league of heroes to fight the gathering dark forces. As season nine drew to a close, Clark sacrificed himself to save the world from Zod. Season ten promises the classic reuniting of the timeless romance between Clark and Lois, and brings Clark face-to-face with his destiny as he overcomes his final trials and forges the iconic identity that will be known for all time. The series stars Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Erica Durance as Lois Lane, Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen and Cassidy Freeman as Tess Mercer. SMALLVILLE was developed for television by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar ("Shanghai Noon," "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"), based on the DC Comics characters. Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson serve as executive producers, along with James Marshall, Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins, Joe Davola and Tom Welling. The series is produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions, Millar/Gough Ink and Warner Bros. Television. SUPERMAN was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

9:00-10:00 P.M. "SUPERNATURAL"

Returning for its sixth season, this haunting series follows Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers bound by tragedy and blood to their dangerous, other-worldly mission. This past season, Dean and Sam faced their toughest foe yet: the Devil himself. As the Apocalypse raged on around them, the brothers, aided only by a dwindling band of fellow hunters and rebel angel Castiel, sought a way to stop Lucifer and save the planet. Ultimately, they discovered a way to force Lucifer back into Hell and end the Apocalypse - but at tremendous cost: Sam's life. Season six will be a season of mystery and shadow. Heaven and Hell have been left in complete disarray since the apocalyptic events of season five. And now, monsters, angels and demons roam across a lawless and chaotic landscape. And so Dean Winchester, who has retired from hunting and sworn never to return, finds himself being pulled back into his old life - pulled back by none other than Sam Winchester, who has escaped from Hell. The two reunite to beat back the rising tide of creatures and demon-spawn, but they quickly realize that neither are who they used to be, their relationship isn't what it used to be, and that nothing is what it seems. The series stars Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester, Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester and Misha Collins as Castiel. SUPERNATURAL is from Warner Bros. Television in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, with executive producers McG ("Nikita," "Charlie's Angels," "The O.C."), Eric Kripke ("Boogeyman"), Robert Singer ("Midnight Caller"), Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund and Phil Sgriccia.

SUMMER

"PLAIN JANE"

PLAIN JANE is a new summer reality series that transforms one woman from the inside out to reveal a brand new woman. Each of the eight episodes will feature a new "Jane" searching for the change of a lifetime. With the help of British fashion expert Louise Roe ("Fashion Police: The 2009 Grammy Awards"), each Plain Jane will receive a head-to-toe style transformation, including new wardrobe and confidence-building exercises. Once the transformation is complete, the formerly Plain Jane will surprise her unsuspecting crush with the new look and reveal her true feelings to him. A love connection is - or isn't - made. Hosted by Louise Roe, PLAIN JANE is executive produced by Allison Grodner ("Big Brother"), Rich Meehan ("Big Brother") and Amy Palmer ("You're Cut Off") for Fly on the Wall Entertainment. The series is distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

Measure of Last Resort: Letting Go on Lost

"We're very close to the end."

While those words are spoken aloud by Jacob on the latest installment of Lost, they might as well have been spoken by tireless showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, signaling to the audience that the curtain is about to drop on six seasons of storylines and the final battle between good and evil, with the fate of a mythical island and the entire world hanging in the balance.

Tonight's penultimate episode of Lost ("What They Died For"), written by Elizabeth Sarnoff and Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by Paul Edwards, definitely moved the players and their pieces into their final positions. The episode, offering a mix of humor and heartbreak, delivered some serious forward momentum and brought the story back once again to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 after last week's polarizing detour into outright parable ("Across the Sea").

The six seasons of Lost have given us a number of character studies of some deeply flawed individuals, granting the audience the ability to not just come to know them through their actions on the island but those that came before, via the trademark flashbacks that defined the early seasons. These strangers, thrust together by invisible threads of fate, seemed to be put through these trials in order to emerge on the other side complete individuals, unencumbered by trauma, strengthened by their experiences, finally able to let go and achieve catharsis. The island then isn't just a mystical place but a prism through which to see ourselves, to witness our flaws, and to strive to be better human beings.

While the mythology of Lost might involve a millennial battle between two sibling deities for control of an ancient power source that we all have within us, at its heart, it's about the mythic journey we each take over the course of our lives, the quest of the hero, whether we're a doctor, a fugitive, a con man, a rich kid, an absent father, or a failed rock star. It's the human journey, our collective story, that endures.

So what did I think of this week's episode of Lost, the series' second to last? Pour yourself some water, cook up some coq au vin, move the bookcase, and let's discuss "What They Died For."

This was my second time watching this week's episode, the first being at last week's amazing and moving Lost Live: The Final Celebration event here in Los Angeles (which you can read more about here) and, after the disappointment of "Across the Sea," marked a return to form for the season, providing us with some answers (why were these individuals selected by Jacob, who will succeed him, why was Kate's name crossed off), as well as some signs of increased relevance to the Lost-X storyline, which this week featured a major turning point as things began to coalesce on the other side.

While there was a fair amount of humor here (Miles, and even from some unexpected avenues like Benjamin Linus), there were also some really touching and evocative moments, such as Sawyer watching the life preservers from the sunken submarine wash on shore. Standing there silently, there's an immense sense of palpable loss and grief as Sawyer sees the items wash up as Kate puts her head on his shoulder before the entire group unites, silently, to stare out at the ocean and the final resting place of their friends.

Sawyer's guilt over their deaths is keenly felt. Walking through the jungle, he sadly asks Jack, "I killed them, didn't I?" But whereas Sawyer earlier this season blamed Jack for Juliet's death, Jack offers forgiveness instead, telling him that it was "Locke" who killed them.

Likewise, I loved the moment where Jack has to sew Kate up after tending to her gunshot wound, using a black piece of thread and a needle to keep her alive and infection-free. It's a nice callback to the pilot episode of Lost as Kate finds Jack in the bamboo grove and has to stitch him up. There's a nice sense of coming full circle here, retracing our steps all the way back to the beginning, all those years before.

That bamboo grove is, of course, highly significant. Not only is it the location where Jack landed after the crash and where he first opened his eye on the island but it's also right near the cave, the heart of the island. And that's what Jack's purpose has always been about: just as he knew he had to go back to the island, so too does he have to be the one to follow in Jacob's footsteps... and his own, retracing his own journey back to the beginning, his eyes fully open now.

Jacob's ashes are dying out and once the fire burns out, he'll be gone forever. So too is true that Lost's embers are fading. With only two and a half hours left, it too will cease to exist, except for in our memories. I'm not ready to say goodbye. Not yet and possibly not ever. But that's a fact of life and death. We don't get to make the rules. We rarely get to say our goodbyes on our own terms and too soon do good things come to an end...

Lost-X. This week's episode began to speed things up in the divergent reality, with Desmond acting once again as the catalyst for change, awakening the sleepwalkers from their slumber and working to bring them all together... at the museum charity event that many--if not all--the important players of the Lost storyline will be attending, from Charlotte and Miles to Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, Jack, and Jack's ex-wife (cough, Juliet, cough). They were always meant to come together, to be together, and Desmond is yanking those strings that bind them to one another, creating a web that ensnares everyone aboard Oceanic Flight 815.

But before then, there's still much to be done. Desmond nearly runs Locke over again but instead savagely attacks Dr. Linus at the school, awakening his impossible memories and sending a message to Locke: that he wasn't trying to hurt him but rather trying to help him "let go," the very message that Jack had told him several episodes back. The encounter shakes Locke enough that he seeks out Jack and tells him that he wants to get out of that wheelchair. He wants to walk again. He wants to believe that there is a purpose to everything, that life isn't just a series of meaningless coincidences, but rather something complex and guided by destiny. He is making that leap of faith, finally.

Jack, meanwhile, has another encounter at the looking-glass, waking up to discover that his neck is bleeding. It's the second time this has happened, the first time being in "LA X," when he found blood under his shirt collar. Just what does it signify? That the two worlds are bleeding together? That he's said farewell to his mortality on the island? That in bleeding, there is the truth of another world? A pathway to enlightenment? In the meantime, he shares a breakfast with what's left of the Shepard clan before getting a call from Oceanic Airlines saying that Christian's coffin has been recovered. Little does he know that it's Desmond...

Lost-X Ben. As for Benjamin Linus, he gets a quiet evening with Alex and Danielle Rousseau as she cooks him coq au vin. There's a beautiful familiarity between the three of them, a damaged family comprised of people who need each other, even though they're not related by blood. The profound sadness that Ben experiences when Danielle tells him that he's the closest thing Alex has ever had to a father is heartbreaking; even he is taken aback by how much her comment cuts him to the quick.

In the other world, of course, he's forced to contend with Alex's grave outside the house they shared... as he comes face to face with the man he blames for her death. Here, she refers to him semi-humorously as the exiled Napoleon. Fitting, really. And Ben gets his own moment to gaze into the looking glass, realization slowly dawning that something is not right with the man reflected back at him.

Desmond.Desmond turns himself in to James at the police station, getting locked up with Sayid and Kate, who continues to plead her innocence to James Ford. But while the cops scratch their heads about why Des would turn himself in, he enacts a brilliant stratagem, breaking them out of police custody with the help of Ana-Lucia and Hurley. (Hurley recognizes Ana-Lucia from the mainstream reality--his memories would appear to be fully actualized--while she has no idea who he is.) And Desmond sends Hurley and Sayid on a mission while he and Kate head to the museum.

Just what will happen next week when all the players are assembled? Just what is Desmond's plan? I'm not entirely sure but it's important that they all come together in the same place and are all awakened in time to... What exactly? Raise the island from the ocean floor with the power of positive thinking? Make a leap of faith to save not only their world but another? Sacrifice their happiness to save humanity?

Meanwhile, we learn just what Desmond's role is within the battle between Jacob and the Nameless One: he's a measure of last resort, a literal failsafe that can be employed by Jacob if the Nemesis is able to kill off his candidates. His resistance to high levels of electromagnetism seem to signify just what he's meant to do: fuse with the energy at the Source and sacrifice himself in order to prevent the Man in Black from ever leaving the island. After all, he did just that at the Swan Station, propelling himself into a divergent reality before the universe had to course-correct. He was exposed to massive quantities of the same energy that flows at the Source. If we all have a spark of that energy, is it possible that Desmond has more of it than normal people? A larger dose that enables his consciousness to travel through time and space. Could it be that he is meant to return it? To return to the Source and give it back?

However, the Nameless One has his own plan for Desmond, as he confides in Ben: he wants to use Desmond to destroy the island, just as Desmond destroyed the Swan Station. No island means no cork in the bottle, which means--as I surmised earlier this season--that the Man in Black intends to smash the metaphorical bottle once and for all.

Ashes. We finally got confirmation (not that there was any doubt in my mind, ever) that Hurley swiped the bag of ashes from Ilana's stuff after she exploded a few episodes back. Here, he's visited by Young Jacob, who demands he turns the ashes over to him and then leads him to the Ghost of Jacob, who sits waiting patiently at a campfire to tell the candidates just why Sun and Jin and the others died and what their purpose is.

"When the fire burns out, you'll never see me again," says Jacob. "We're very close to the end."

Richard. What a sad end for poor Richard Alpert as the smoke monster comes soaring out of the jungle and smashes him against a tree. It seems as though Jacob's gifts are fading, just like the final embers of the fire. Richard's immortality was more longevity than imperviousness. Was his purpose fulfilled? Was the island done with him? Or are the rules no longer applying as there is no candidate to replace Jacob and therefore no jailer to enforce the rules? Curious.

It does seem as though Richardo is dead, though. Could he have survived? It's certainly possible, but not probable. I dare say that we've seen the last of him, at least in this timeline...

Ben and Widmore. Ben, meanwhile, sits in a rocking chair of his old house, waiting for the inevitable. But the Nameless One doesn't want to kill Ben; instead he offers him the one thing that Ben has wanted his entire life: power. Ben makes a Faustian bargain once again, trading his redemption for the possibility of controlling the island after the Nemesis has left.

With no use for Zoe (particularly after she is told not to speak to him, which makes her "pointless"), the Nameless One slits her throat and then turns to Widmore, offering him yet another bargain. If he tells him just why he came back to the island and his plan, he will spare Penny's life. For his part, Widmore claims that he had been visited by Jacob after the freighter incident and that Jacob showed him the error of his ways... and he brought Desmond back to the island to act as Jacob's final failsafe.

Would Widmore betray all of humanity to protect the life of his estranged daughter? Love, after all, trumps everything... But, though he whispers his secret in the Nameless One's ear, Ben shoots Widmore three times, enacting a bitter vengeance for the murder of his daughter, Alex. "He doesn't get to save his daughter," he says viciously... and then asks about the other people the Nameless One wanted him to kill.

Has Ben really sided with the Nemesis? For one, Ben isn't really ever on anyone's side except for Ben... and then there's the fact that he specifically gave one of Widmore's walkie talkies to Miles (before he went careening off into the jungle to save himself) and then shut Widmore and Zoe in the secret room behind the bookcase. Why would he want to stay in contact with Miles if he was looking to kill all of them? I'm hoping that Ben has something up his sleeve, a payback for his manipulation at the hands of the Nameless One.

Jacob. The remaining candidates gather in the darkness around Jacob's campfire as he tells them about the Source and his culpability in the creation of the smoke monster. His replacement will have to make sure that the light never goes out and prevent the Nameless One from ever attaining the Source. "I made a mistake," he says. "I am responsible for what happened to him."

So why did Jacob bring them to this island, a fate that Sawyer views as a punishment rather than a reward. "I didn't pluck any of you out of a happy existence," he says. "You were all flawed... and, like me, all alone. You needed this place as much as it needed you." And that is the mission statement of Lost right there: that a place can save you as much as you can save it. That the stewards of this magical kingdom on Earth might be just as changed by the experience as much as they change the island itself. Oz and Narnia, after all, needed warriors to save them from those who would corrupt the land and cast it into darkness and ice.

So why was Kate invalidated? It's a simple answer: she became a mother. (It's likely why the Kwon of 42 was perhaps Jin rather than Sun.) In stepping into motherhood, her responsibility was to care for her child rather than sacrifice her life and her entire existence to guarding the island. He couldn't ask that of her, nor could he expect her to be willing to do so. But in the end it's "just a chalk line in a cave," according to Jacob. If she wants the job, it's hers. It really is about choice.

Jacob claims that they have to find a way to kill the Nameless One and prevent him from ever reaching the Source and ending everything. But Jacob has always been about free will; he wants them to have the choice that he never did. As Ilana predicted, it isn't a coronation but an election, a means of someone volunteering themselves, sacrificing their very future--possibly for all eternity--to protect this place.

Jack. The ultimate candidate is, of course, Jack Shephard. This has always been his purpose, from his "God complex" (Sawyer's words) to his intrinsic need to fix everything. He was born to fulfill this role and follow Jacob, a true shepherd in every sense of the word. He sacrifices everything now that he can truly see the world for what it is. Over the course of six seasons, the scales fell from his eyes and he became the man of faith that John Locke always wanted him to be, a believer in the profound and powerful, the unseen and the inexplicable.

He's initiated into the circle of magic by the ritual of transference, one that uses a cup or chalice (here Jack's tin cup), a liquid (water or wine), and some words. But it's not the single ingredients that matter but the confluence of them as well as the intention and meaning of those words, the belief that wishing and hoping and praying can make you god-like and the drink that follows the benediction is a symbolic conclusion to the ritual at hand.

We see at the very end a Jack Shephard much changed, one who opens his eyes truly for the first time to see the truth of the island and his role in this grand tapestry. This is now his burden to shoulder "for as long you can," Jacob tells him. With those final words, Jack has become like Jacob, an immortal guardian of the island and keeper of the Source. A Christ-like figure who sacrifices his humanity to step into the divine.

We stand now on the precipice, one last chapter to a story that began back in 2004 when a group of strangers crashed on a seemingly deserted island and were forced to live together or die alone. The remaining survivors are about to enter a final showdown between the forces of light and those of darkness. Only one side can win as the scale tilts inexorably in one direction. Will good triumph over evil?

With two hours remaining, there are likely innumerable mysteries that will not be solved. But Lindelof, Cuse, and Co. will have to answer some plot-rooted ones: Will Jack be able to stop the Nameless One? Is he the final guardian of the island? Will he have to utilize Desmond as a final ditch effort to prevent the Nameless One from leaving the island and destroying reality? Will someone else have to replace him? And how will this all end? Will the island be destroyed? Will it rise up once more? Will the story end or will it continue on forever, at least in the minds of the viewers?

In the end, Lost can only end once. It will likely be filled with heartbreak, sacrifice, and loss but also with the promise of hope and healing as well. Regardless of how it all comes together on Sunday, there will never be another series quite like this one and I feel incredibly blessed and honored to have traveled with these characters on this incredible journey. As we bid a final farewell to them in just a few days' time, I'm ready to take one last jaunt through the looking-glass. I'll see you all on the other side.

Do you agree with the theories above? Can the ending satisfy everyone? Are you as heartbroken as I am that there's only one episode of Lost left? Head to the comments section to discuss.

On Sunday's series finale of Lost ("The End"), details tk.

CBS New Series Previews: Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders, Blue Bloods, $#*! My Dad Says, Mike & Molly

CBS unveiled its fall schedule and new programming offerings to advertisers today in New York, continuing the third official day of network upfronts week.

(You can read more about CBS' schedule and and read episode descriptions here.)

Not in New York? You can check out the show previews for CBS' newest series, including dramas Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders, the untitled Criminal Minds spinoff and comedies Mike & Molly and $#*! My Dad Says, below.

HAWAII FIVE-O



HAWAII FIVE-O: OPENING CREDITS



THE DEFENDERS

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BLUE BLOODS



$#*! MY DAD SAYS



MIKE & MOLLY