Syfy's Caprica is Toast; Better News for Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down

Bad news for Caprica fans.

Syfy has axed the Battlestar Galactica prequel spinoff and will be pulling the remaining episodes from the schedule, effective immediately.

Which doesn't mean that you won't get to see how the season ended. Syfy also announced that it would air the remaining five episodes sometime next year, according to the press release:

"The remaining first run episodes of Caprica -- airing Tuesdays at 10/9c -- will be removed from the schedule as of next Tuesday, November 2. These final five episodes of the season will be re-scheduled to air at a to-be-announced time in the first quarter of 2011, and will conclude the run of the series."

News comes on the heels that the cabler has ordered a pilot for another Battlestar Galactica prequel series, entitled Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, which will return the series' setting to war-torn battles and Viper maneuvers. (I had wondered just what Syfy would do with Caprica last week when that announcement was made.)

"We appreciate all the support that fans have shown for Caprica and are very proud of the producers, cast, writers and the rest of the amazing team that has been committed to this fine series," said Syfy programming chief Mark Stern in a statement. "Unfortunately, despite its obvious quality, Caprica has not been able to build the audience necessary to justify a second season."

No word on just when those remaining episodes will unspool but the fact that Syfy has yanked the series from its lineup--a real rarity among cable networks--points towards just how dismal the ratings were for this Syfy original series, ratings that likely weren't helped by the move to Tuesday evenings at 10 pm where there was a hell of a lot more competition from the broadcast networks than on Fridays.

The news was better for fans of HBO's edgy comedies Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down, both of which were renewed yesterday for third seasons.

I've seen the remaining episodes of this current season of Bored to Death and thought they were among the series' sharpest and most nuanced to date. Fun, hilarious, and meaningful. I'm going to miss this show between seasons. Bored to Death has consistently emerged as one of the most underrated comedic gems on television. I'm glad to see HBO giving it a vote of confidence with another season.

What do you make of the news? Is Syfy right to cancel Caprica? Are you sad to see it go? And are you happy by HBO's renewals for Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down? Discuss.

Syfy Plots Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome Pilot: Where Does that Leave Caprica?

AOL's Maureen Ryan broke the news this morning that cabler Syfy will air its upcoming web series Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome as a two-hour backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off series that will focus on a young William Adama during the First Cylon War.

The project, written by Michael Taylor, shouldn't be confused with Syfy's current BSG spinoff Caprica, which ALSO features a young William Adama, here a pre-teen whose character is vastly different from the Admiral Adama played by Edward James Olmos that we came to know on Battlestar Galactica. Production on the pilot is expected to begin in early 2011 in Vancouver, according to Ryan, though it won't make it on air until at least fourth quarter 2011, if not later.

"When we read Michael's script, it was so clearly a full-blown pilot for a series," Syfy's executive vice president of original programming Mark Stern told Ryan. "The scope is fantastic and bigger, I think, than anticipated, so we said, 'Let's do it as a 2-hour backdoor pilot.' ... We're trying to get up and running as soon as possible."

"It's an opportunity to 'see them before they were famous,'" said Stern. "Here's the Battlestar Galactica as a brand-new, shiny ship -- well, not shiny, but as a new ship that had just been commissioned. What was that like?"

All of which begs the question: what happens to Caprica, the current BSG brand extension that has struggled with viewers and critics alike?

Stern indicated that a decision on the fate of Caprica will be made before November 11th and that the two series were developed independently and can stand separate from each other, given that Blood & Chrome is set ten years after the events of Caprica and four decades before the events of the BSG mini-series.

It will also be, based on the information provided by Stern, Taylor, and Ryan, much more war-driven and action-centric, something that was distinctly missing from Caprica, which focused on the interpersonal conflicts and dynamics between families grieving after a terrible tragedy, monotheistic cults, teenage terrorists, amoral lawyers, backroom politics, and the birth of the Cylon race, the latter of which has been teased for the back half of the freshman season.

But the main problem with Caprica--which I discussed in my advance review of the first two episodes of the second half of the season and in my review of the season finale--is that the stakes weren't high.

While we may have been seeing the emergence of the Cylon threat, unlike BSG, there wasn't the immediate danger of human genocide. Caprica has been about the excess and moral ambiguity of Rome Before the Fall, but throw in less than sympathetic characters and no clear "team" to root for and you have a series that's largely spinning its own wheels.

By contrast, the war-torn Blood & Chrome has immediate narrative stakes. While we know that Bill Adama, here an ensign, will survive to tell the tale, the fates of new characters introduced are up for grabs and many could be destined to be canon fodder. By pushing the narrative into the trenches, there's an immediacy to the threat here, a tension that's lacking from Caprica and a potential for some stories of survival and courage that are more in line with BSG than the current spinoff.

(It does concern me a little that Ronald D. Moore--described as the "godfather" of this project--isn't involved at all with Blood & Chrome. While I'm a fan of Michael Taylor, the lack of Moore's involvement here is a little worrisome.)

It wouldn't surprise me if Syfy looks to wrap up Caprica with the current season. Of course, they could renew it for one more season, allowing the creative team the opportunity to create a "bridge" to the new series, setting up the future conflict and providing the seeds that will pay off in Blood & Chrome.

But, ultimately, given the direction that Syfy seems to want to go in with its BSG franchise, it's only a matter of time before Caprica is, well, toast.

Caprica airs Tuesday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT on Syfy.

Heading Off-World: An Advance Review of Season 1.5 of Caprica

I was planning to write a lengthy review of the first two episodes of the back half of Caprica's first season, which returns to Syfy tonight after a considerable hiatus (one that was unexpectedly truncated), but AOL Television's Maureen Ryan did all of the heavy lifting yesterday and pretty much summed up everything I was going to say.

I've found Caprica so far to be maddeningly frustrating, a series of false starts, lackluster characters, and thwarted intrigue. (I wrote about my feelings about the first half of the season here.)

The two episodes provided to press for review ("Unvanquished" and "Retribution") haven't alleviated any fears I may have had about the series after its fantastic and thought-provoking pilot.

Two episodes back and I'm already restless, already losing interest in the plights of these characters, who remain unsympathetic and icy. (I will say, however, that the second episode was significantly better than "Unvanquished," and would point you to Ryan's pitch-perfect description of the goings-on on Gemenon. Shudder.)

Battlestar Galatica dealt with similar issues of religion, race, assimilation, and identity, but it was set against a backdrop of survival, where the stakes were enormous as the war between the humans and Cylons could lead to extinction. It's hard to recreate that dynamic here when the strife is limited to humanity at large and a small sect of monotheists who like to train teenagers to take on suicide missions in the name of their god.

But it would be one thing if there were something--or someone, rather--to grasp on to, but Caprica's characters are the embodiment of quicksilver: they're slippery and toxic. None of the central characters--whether that be Eric Stoltz's brooding genius Daniel Graystone, Paula Malcomson's brittle Amanda, Polly Walker's duplicitous Sister Clarice, Sasha Roiz's silent gangster Sam, Magda Apanowicz's sullen teen Lacy, and Esai Morales' dead-eyed lawyer--remain all that compelling and the production seems to treat them largely as sleepwalkers, making their way through a shifting landscape of images, flashbacks, dreams, and ominous portents. A psychic mishmash that dulls the senses rather than intrigue them.

Which is a problem with Caprica itself. There's less of a concrete narrative building towards a centralized arc than there is a series of disconnected incidents that hover over each other awkwardly. The one common thread linking these disparate elements together--that would be Alessandra Torresani's Zoe--is barely glimpsed at all in the first two installments, though her avatar does make one very memorable appearance. (Personally, I've not been a fan of Torresani since the beginning and while her absence is felt somewhat in terms of the overarching plot, there's considerably less hystrionics going on without her.)

As mentioned by Ryan, the first episode's travel to Gemenon, such a crucial destination for the first half of the season, descends into silliness as the STO-backed church becomes a larger influence on the series and we meet a slew of new characters. One in particular made me howl with laughter as the actress playing this key role was just so shockingly awful.

I'm not quite sure how to fix Caprica, other than suggest that the writers pick up the pace and bring the Cylon Centurions into the mix sooner rather than later, tighten the overarching plot, ramp up the tension, and add some subtle layering to the characters to bring the viewers at least a few sympathetic characters to latch on to. As it stands, Caprica isn't a place that I want to visit any longer.

Caprica returns tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on Syfy.

Channel Surfing: Bryan Fuller to Tackle The Munsters, J.J. Abrams Talks Alias Reboot, Matt Smith Talks Doctor Who Xmas, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

File this under: oh my god. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello and Andy Patrick are reporting that Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller is developing an update of--wait for it--The Munsters. NBC has ordered a pilot for the project, which is being described as "Modern Family meets True Blood." If that wasn't enough to whet your appetite, Ausiello and Patrick also report that Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) might executive produce as well. Jaw officially on the floor... (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos talks to Undercovers executive producer J.J. Abrams about the NBC espionage drama and about several topics on everyone's minds: namely that rumored Alias reboot and the Terry O'Quinn/Michael Emerson NBC drama pilot. News of a potential Alias reboot were news to Abrams, despite unnamed sources at the network telling Dos Santos that they're still considering rebooting the franchise. "I know there were some discussions about that early on," Abrams told E! Online. "But it was internal Disney discussions, not discussions with me. So I'm not sure what they're thinking now. At the moment obviously they have True Lies, which I'm sure is going to fill their need for a spy series, and we're obviously very busy at Bad Robot [J.J.'s production company]. So the idea of even discussing it is going to be very delayed for a while. But it's not only up to me; if they wanted to redo it, they could do it with or without me. It's not really my decision." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Metro's Tom Phillips has an interview with Doctor Who star Matt Smith about this year's Christmas special, written by head writer/executive producer Steven Moffat. "We've got Michael Gambon playing a Scrooge-like miser with a time travelling twist – and I think it’s really, really good," said Smith. "It’s particularly Christmassy, lots of snow and lots of twinkly lights. I think it’s full of the right heart and soul for the season. Steven has, once again, written something brilliant." Smith also discusses the Neil Gaiman episode of Who, set to air next season, which he describes as "a real cracker – I think it’s going to be a real one for the Who fans, I think they’re going to love it." (Metro)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a first look at the Cylon Centurions heading to Syfy's Caprica, which returns for the back half of its first season next week. “Daniel Graystone’s creation—the early-model Cylon known as the U-87—emerges as a critical story point,” executive producer David Eick told Ausiello. “Due to the bad PR Daniel has endured since his prized creation, the Holoband, [was blamed for] the emergence of terrorist cells on Caprica, Daniel shifts his company’s focus to the perfection of artificial intelligence and its proliferation throughout the culture as the ultimate `helper’: Never gets tired. Never asks for a raise. Never quits on the job... Meanwhile, Joseph Adama and his brother Sam—using their organized-crime muscle to seize control of Daniel’s company—see an altogether different purpose for the U-87s: to sell to the highest bidder, no matter how violent their agenda might be." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Shelley Conn (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) has been cast as the female lead in FOX's upcoming prehistoric/futuristic adventure series Terra Nova, which will get a sneak peek in May before launching in Fall 2011. Conn will star opposite Jason O'Mara and Stephen Lang and will play Elizabeth Shannon, the wife of O'Mara's character, who travels back 85 million years. (Deadline)

Despite being cancelled earlier this week, FOX's Lone Star's second episode will still get its encore broadcast this Saturday, according to The Futon Critic. (Futon Critic)

NBC has ordered a pilot (with a penalty attached) for a Jack Black-executive produced comedy based on AJ Jacob's book "The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment." Project, from Reveille and Sony Pictures Television, will revolve around "a man fixated on self-improvement who takes on difficult experiments and lifestyles, all of which makes things tough on his family." Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa are attached as writers. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere at the Peacock, NBC is said to be adapting British reality series The Boss Is Coming to Dinner, from Zodiak USA. Project, from executive producers Grant Mansfield, Natalka Znack, and Claire O'Donohue, revolves around "a group of job applicants who must invite their prospective employer to their home and throw a dinner party. After the boss meets with the candidates, he or she makes a final hiring decision." (Variety)

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that Anderson Cooper is in talks with Telepictures Productions and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to host a syndicated daytime talk show. "The talk show deal is complex because its being coordinated between Warner Bros., Cooper and Cooper's employers at CNN -- who have an exclusive contract with the newsman," writes Hibberd. "The deal, which has been in talks for more than a month and may close by the end of the week, calls for Cooper to continue hosting 360. With a lot of moving parts at play, however, sources caution the deal is not yet a sure thing." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that FOX is considering ordering Lawyers for Less, described as "a light legal drama franchise" from creator/star Danny Comden and Sony Pictures Television that will be executive produced and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. Project, written by Comden and Josh Pate, is said to be "a workplace comedic drama about two best friends - a white-shoe lawyer (Comden) coming back from disbarment for mixing business and pleasure and an enterprising black lawyer who takes him in as partner - who run a small storefront law firm specializing in ambulance chasing and defending the defenseless." (Deadline)

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker will bring the villain from his "Level 26" novel series--Sqweegel, described as a "forensic proof" serial killer--into an episode of CSI set to air on October 14th. He'll be played by Daniel Browning Smith, the world's most flexible man. (Variety)

Nickelodeon has ordered 26 episodes of live-action comedy Supah Ninjas from executive producer Brian Robbins. Series, which stars Ryan Potter, revolves around "a high schooler who discovers that he actually descends from a line of ninjas" and "forms a secret team of ninja crime fighters -- the 'Supah Ninjas' -- with his friends (Carlos Knight and Gracie Dzienny)." (Variety)

Sony Pictures Television has signed a blind script deal with Leah Rachel (CSI: NY), which would be executive produced by Jamie Tarses. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Syfy Brings Caprica Back Early, No Heroes Movie, Office Succession Plans, Fringe, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

I'm still not entirely sure what to make of the news that Syfy has bumped the premiere of the second half of Caprica's freshman season up by several months. While the series premiere aired this past January, Syfy surprised many by announcing that it would be a year later that the back half of Caprica's first season would launch. Cut to yesterday when Syfy seemingly reversed their decision, announcing a shocking soon launch date--Tuesday, October 5th, in fact--while Sanctuary, which was to have that timeslot, will now move back to Fridays this fall, where it will share the lineup with Friday Night Smackdown. “Though we initially announced the January return of Caprica, we still had hopes of finding a way to get the series back on the air sooner,” Syfy EVP Mark Stern told Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. “We’ve been able to successfully re-work our schedule, and are thrilled to bring the show back during what is traditionally Syfy’s most-watched time of the year." I can't help but wonder whether the move is intended to capitalize on Caprica or it's an effort to bury it among the slew of new network and cable series, given that there's now less than a month to get a promotional campaign off the ground. Hmmm... Meanwhile, still no word on a second season pickup. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed, Deadline)

File this under "hardly surprising." Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that NBC is not moving forward on a Heroes telepic that would tie up the loose plot points left dangling after the series ended this spring. Despite NBC's discussion of said film, series creator Tim Kring was less than hopeful that said film--like the ones discussed at HBO for Deadwood--would ever make it to air. Which means that the series finale of Heroes will remain just that: the finale, though Kring and Co. could in future again tap into the mythology of Heroes in some other fashion. [Editor: Was anyone really clamoring for a Heroes movie anyway?] (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd has a very long feature examining just how NBC will deal with the departure of Steve Carell at the end of the upcoming season of The Office and cites unnamed sources who say that "the final decision likely won’t be made until after the upcoming seventh season wraps," but "by season’s end, you will know who is getting Michael Scott’s job." According to Hibberd, the current strategy is to use the first half of the season to shine a spotlight on specific characters, giving them each a specific episode in which to be the focal point. The second half of the season will focus then on the issue of succession as Carell's Michael Scott makes his plans known for his departure, while NBC will launch online polls and the like designed to make the decision of his replacement interactive. "By season’s end, one character will have Scott’s job — but that person is not necessarily Carell’s replacement as the show’s star," writes Hibberd. "Sources say writers are tempted to have the character who becomes the Scranton branch's new boss fail in some spectacular manner, leaving the seat open again for another successor during Season 8. One radical notion being explored is the possibility of subtly shifting the show’s point of view so that a current character is the star instead of the boss." (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a first look at the Season Three cast photo for FOX's Fringe, which features Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, and Blair Brown... and a shadowy figure lurking in an open doorway that looks suspiciously like the silhouette of an Observer to me. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks to Life Unexpected creator Liz Tigelaar about Julia, the mysterious character that Jamie Ray Newman (Eastwick) will be playing on the CW series this fall. "We [introduce] Julia in the premiere, and then we let Cate and Ryan go on with their lives for a little bit. But her name starts coming up again, and Cate's confused about who this person is. We'll actually see some flashbacks of who this person is, and how she knows Ryan," said Tigelaar. "Julia's a person who was an integral person in Ryan's past. He's moved on and is with Cate, but in the course of season one she reappeared and there are repercussions of that. She's definitely lightly threaded into the first 13, and if we get a back nine, she'll be back. She be a character who's going to stir some stuff up for them." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

It's official: Jennifer Morrison (House) has joined the cast of CBS' How I Met Your Mother, where she will play Zooey, a new love interest for Ted Mosby. Morrison's Zooey, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, is "a rabble-rousing activist who’s hell-bent on saving the Arcadian, an old New York hotel that’s scheduled to be torn down to make way for the Goliath National Bank tower—which Ted just so happens to be designing." But this won't be another date-of-the-week for Ted, according to the show's producers. "This is going to be a big saga for Ted," Carter Bays told EW. "[It's] going to be a big overarching story that will take Ted on a journey that we’re really excited about." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO has confirmed the launch of Season Three of therapy drama In Treatment, which will kick off with two back-to-back half-hour episodes on Monday, October 25th, and Tuesday, October 26th at 9 pm ET/PT. Subsequent episodes will follow the same scheduling. New cast members include Irrfan Kahn, Debra Winger, Amy Ryan, and Dane DeHaan. (via press release)

American Dad producer Bob Kushell has sold two comedy pitches, animated comedy Red Roofs to FOX and an untitled multi-camera comedy to NBC about a "blended family dealing with the death of the clan's patriarch (who had been living a double life)." (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Olivia Munn Tackles Chuck, Scott Porter Investigates The Good Wife, Chris Isaak Could Replace Simon, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. A few things to get through before I hit the road for San Diego and Comic-Con.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Olivia Munn (the newly minted Daily Show correspondent) will guest star on NBC's Chuck this fall when the series returns for its fourth season on September 20th. Munn, who is a series regular on NBC's midseason comedy Perfect Couples, will play "an impossibly cool, smart, and pretty CIA agent who intimidates and schools Chuck and Morgan" in the same installment that features Dolph Lundgren. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In other scoop, Ausiello writes that former Friday Night Lights star Scott Porter will be joining the cast of CBS' The Good Wife this fall. Porter, whose CW pilot Nomads was not ordered to series, will play Blake, described as "Kalinda’s private-eye counterpart at the D.C. firm that’s merging with Lockhart & Gardner" who "offsets his cynical attitude with lots of hidden humor and sexual charisma. He is disguised as a landlord when he first encounters Kalinda, who doesn’t appreciate being taken in by this ‘master of disguise.’ However, underneath their fractious interactions, there’s definite chemistry between these two." Porter is expected to appear in at least ten episodes of The Good Wife's second season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Wicked Game? Singer Chris Issak is among the frontrunners to replace Simon Cowell on FOX's American Idol, as is Harry Connick Jr. while Bret Michaels and Donald Trump have each lobbied to replace Cowell for the tenth season of Idol. "The network is determined to land a widely known music industry figure for the post, and THR has learned that singer Chris Isaak has met twice with the network," write James Hibberd and Kim Masters. "Also, at least one desirable candidate has set off a tug-of-war between Idol executive producer Simon Fuller and Cowell -- whose upcoming Fox singing competition The X Factor is similarly seeking judges." Hmmm... (Hollywood Reporter)

Syfy has announced that the back half of Season One of Caprica will not air until January 2011, a sizable delay given that the first half of the season wrapped in the end of March. Here's how Syfy is positioning the remainder of the season: "In season 1.5, the once idyllic world of Caprica – as well as life across the colonies – falls prey to an explosive chain reaction of consequences set off by the characters’ many questionable actions in the season’s first half. Tensions rise, power shifts and the line between reality and the virtual world becomes increasingly blurred as everyone struggles to learn – and conquer – the stakes in this volatile setting. As the season races towards its stunning conclusion, events of each episode lay the framework for the inevitable (and brutal) clash between the newly-created Cylon race and their human creators." (via press release)

Universal Media Studios has signed a deal with The Office writer/co-star B.J. Novak that will keep him aboard the NBC comedy series for two more seasons and will be bumped to an executive producer title halfway through the series' upcoming seventh season. He'll also develop new projects for the studio as well. "B.J. has been an integral part of The Office since the launch of the show," said Angela Bromstad, NBC's president of primetime entertainment. "Whether he's in the writing room or appearing on screen, we always get the smart, sophisticated, ridiculously funny humor from him that the fans have come to love." (Variety)

Mark your calendars: HBO has announced that Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down will return for their second seasons on Sunday, September 26th at 10 pm and 10:30 pm ET/PT respectively. (via press release)

TVGuide.com's Denise Martin is reporting that Katherine Moenning (The L Word) will guest star in the upcoming season of Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter, where she will play a tattoo artist appearing in one episode. "How she'll become embroiled in the serial killer's world remains unknown," writes Martin. The fifth season of Dexter launches Sunday, September 26th at 9 pm ET/PT. (TVGuide.com)

Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) will be dropping by ABC's The Middle for the second season premiere, airing September 22nd. She'll play a new teacher for Brick who is "an intimidating force to be reckoned with" and "'strong' opinions about Frankie's parenting methods." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

File under strange but true: CBS' drama pilot Chaos, the subject of a lively back and forth between the network and studio 20th Century Fox Television, is allegedly alive again, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "The resurrection process took a step forward yesterday when CBS' entertainment president Nina Tassler had lunch with 20th TV chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman to discuss the matter," writes Andreeva. "I hear the Brett Ratner-directed Chaos is now back on track for a midseason series order at CBS, possibly as a co-production between 20th TV and CBS TV Studios. The only major obstacle is bringing back the cast, led by Freddy Rodriguez, which was released on June 30 when the actors' options expired. I hear the actors have been approached about returning and things look optimistic on that front." (Deadline)

If you were worried that the cast of MTV's Jersey Shore wouldn't be back for a third season, you can rest easy today: the entire cast has renegotiated their contracts and will be approximately $30,000 per episode for Season Three. [Editor: the sound you hear? Me gagging.] (The Wrap)

ABC Family is launching new comedy Melissa & Joey on Tuesday, August 17th, with two back-to-back episodes at 8 and 8:30 pm ET/PT. (via press release)

Cinemax is resurrecting the thriller anthology genre with a new latenight series Femme Fatales, based on the magazine. Format will be a half-hour anthology, airing in a latenight slot with a narrator introducing short-form thrillers. Project, which has received a series order, is executive produced by Mark A. Altman and Steve Kriozere. (Hollywood Reporter)

Bert Salke will replace Chris Carlisle as the president of Fox21, the subdivision of 20th Century Fox Television that specializes in cable and reality programming. He is expected to start in August and will report to Dana Walden and Gary Newman. (Deadline)

FremantleMedia has teamed up with Mark Sennett Entertainment and Headline Pictures to develop period racing drama The Drivers, which will be based on Wallace A. Wyss' book, "Shelby: The Man, the Cars, the Legend." Series will revolve around a group of drivers from US and Europe who race for the top prize at Le Mans and will be set in either the 1950s or 1960s. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

End of the Line: Thoughts on the "Caprica" Mid-Season Finale

I'm curious to know what people thought of Friday evening's spring finale of Syfy's Caprica, the last episode that will air until the series returns this fall.

While the episode ("End of the Line"), written by Michael Taylor, offered some closure to several storylines (at least for now, anyway) and contained the series' most exciting sequence to date (as armed forces attempted to stop a runaway Cylon prototype), it also was structured around a number of cliffhangers, each designed to hold our interest--or at least our curiosity--until the series returns.

But the problem was that I didn't really care which of the characters lived or died. And that's a major problem for a series that itself lives or dies based on the strength of its characters and the audience's innate connection with them.

Caprica has been a mixed bag so far this season: a heady brew of ideas and themes that are, at times, executed with the awkwardness of a robot taking its first steps. It's exciting at times, yes, but you also don't want to be standing near it when it inevitably falls down.

Part of the problem for me is that the numerous storylines and characters are so completely separate, creating the sense of narrative fragmentation. Thematically, they might be linked but each of the characters--Amanda, Clarice, Lacey, Daniel, Joseph, and Zoe--seems to be in their own series most of the time, with very little crossover or connection between them. That disconnect might be intentional and might have been implemented to reflect the disconnect in their own hedonistic and tech-savvy society but it doesn't necessarily make for compelling television.

This was especially true in the spring finale, where our main characters spent precious little time in scenes together, instead embarking on individual storylines that didn't really come together in any meaningful way. Joseph's quest to find his missing daughter Tamara in the V-world lead to a reveal of just who his guide Emmanuelle was in the real world: and--not surprisingly--it was his lovestruck assistant whose name I can't even remember. Joseph's addiction to amp and his obsessive quest to find the Tamara avatar could have been a thrilling story arc for his character but I found that I cared less and less about Adama as the season wore on as he descended into a husk of a man who spent more time in the virtual world than living in the real one.

Likewise, Amanda has retreated into her memories and (possible) madness, seeing the ghost of her dead brother and reflecting on a suicide attempt made before she met her future husband Daniel. While Daniel has all but forgotten about Amanda (just where is he while she wastes days away in their bedroom), except for chopping some vegetables for a dinner that never happens, Amanda slips further and further away from reality, finding herself atop a bridge as she decides whether or not to leap to her death. This should have been a pivotal moment for the series but I found that I didn't care whether she lived or died, whether she jumped or caught herself in time.

Given that she is a major character, I'd be surprised if the writers kill her off. Far more likely is that her instincts as a doctor kick in when she sees the nearby explosion--a car bomb unknowingly planted by Lacey at the behest of Barnabas--that doesn't kill its intended target, Sister Clarice Willow, but will likely instead claim the life of Clarice's husband Nestor, the brutally underused Scott Porter.

The other extinguished life is that of research scientist Philomon, accidentally murdered by Zoe in the body of the Cylon prototype, seconds after revealing her true self to her would-be boyfriend. While the death is not intentional, it's the most shocking element of the finale... and speaks volumes about the audience's investment in the series when a tertiary character has more an impact than the leads.

I didn't quite get Zoe's master plan to use Philomon to escape Greystone Industries and then meet up with Lacey to be shipped to Gemenon or why she needed him to help her do something that she could have done several times over at this point. Considering that the Cylon unit spent the majority of the season downstairs in Daniel's lab at the Greystone house, I don't know why Zoe didn't just walk out at any point during the season. Or call Lacey to come get her since the house seemed deserted most of the time. Color me confused.

Likewise, I don't know that Daniel would be so quick to order the MCP scrubbed either, considering that he knows that it's the only working one (Vergis was never able to make it work, after all) and that it might still contain Zoe's avatar on it, even after his numerous tests failed to force the avatar to show itself.

Ideally, I'd love to see the individual storylines begin to come together more closely, to overlap less in terms of theme and more in terms of plot. The series, to me, feels more like a grouping of semi-related characters than a true ensemble. I'm hoping that the writing staff can find a way of making these characters pop more and keeping the audience invested in these storylines. There's still a certain iciness to Caprica that desperately needs to thaw out and we need to feel the heat of empathy and connection with these characters if we decide to return to this world.

Otherwise it might just be the end of the line for me with this series.

But I am curious to know: what did you think of the season finale and of Caprica's season itself so far? Will you tune in again this fall when Caprica returns? Discuss.

Caprica will return will return with the second half of its freshman season this fall on Syfy.

Channel Surfing: Rob Lowe Heads to Pawnee, Debra Messing is "Wright", Scott Porter is One of CW's "Nomads," Dana Delany Circling "Body," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. I had a fantastic time at the Community panel last night at the 2010 William S. Paley Television Festival (followed by some late-night carousing with some other TV types). But onto today's headlines, of which there are many.

Outbound Brothers & Sisters star Rob Lowe will be heading to Pawnee. Lowe has signed on to appear in multiple episodes of NBC comedy Parks and Recreation later this season and his contract, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, calls for him to appear on the Universal Media Studios-produced series next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Meanwhile, Fancast's Matt Mitovich has details about just who Lowe will be playing this season, thanks to an interview with Parks and Recreation executive producer Mike Schur. While Schur--who likened Lowe's participation as "the perfect fit" for the series--was tight-lipped when it came to details about Lowe's character, he did say that Lowe will play a "powerful person entering our world form the outside." But don't rule out a possible romance with Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope. "Anytime Rob Lowe is anywhere, he’s a possible love interest for someone," Schur told Mitovich. Lowe's first appearance is set for this season's penultimate episode and he'll reprise his role next season. (Fancast)

Debra Messing (Will & Grace) is heading back to half-hour comedies, booking the lead in ABC comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong, where she will also serve as an executive producer, alongside Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum, and Kim Tannenbaum. Messing will play Evelyn Wright, described as "a driven conservative pundit who tries to maintain her public persona despite facing her own vulnerabilities" in the Sony Pictures Television-produced project, written by Stephnie Weir. (Hollywood Reporter)

Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) has been cast in the CW drama pilot presentation Nomads, where he will play John, described as " a magnetic and forceful college grad who is determined to find his missing brother." Project, from writer/executive producer Ken Sanzel (NUMB3RS)and executive producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, revolves around a group of backpackers who work secret missions for the CIA. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Hollywood Reporter)

Desperate Housewives' Dana Delany has received an offer to star in ABC drama pilot Body of Evidence, which places her future on Wisteria Lane under question. Delany's participation in the ABC Studios-produced Body is said to be in second position to her role on Desperate Housewives. If a deal closes, Delany would play the lead, Dr. Megan Hunt, a former neurosurgeon turned medical examiner who solves crimes. Already cast: Geoffrey Arend, John Carroll Lynch, and Windell Middlebrooks. (Hollywood Reporter)

Blair Underwood (Dirty Sexy Money) has been cast in NBC drama pilot The Event, where he will play the US president in the Universal Media Studios-produced thriller. He joins Jason Ritter, Zeljko Ivanek, Ian Anthony Dale, Laura Innes, Scott Patterson, and Sarah Roemer in the project, which is written by Nick Wauters and will be executive produced by Steve Stark. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Drea de Matteo will leave ABC's Desperate Housewives in May... but it's not related to any rumors of on-set friction between the former Sopranos star and the ladies of Wisteria Lane. "When I heard that stuff, I was stunned," creator Mark Cherry told Ausiello. "We adore her. She is the sweetest gal in the world... Part of the deal when we hired Drea was she was only interested in doing one season. She has a baby and is eager to get back to her life in New York." Look for John Barrowman's arrival in April to get de Matteo's Angie storyline in full swing. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Ryan Devlin (Cougar Town) has been cast in CBS comedy pilot Shit My Dad Says, where he will star opposite William Shatner and Nicole Sullivan. Project, written by Justin Halpern and Peter Schumacher and directed by James Burrows, will be executive produced by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pilot casting alert: Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty) has been cast as one of the leads in ABC cop drama pilot True Blue; Alicia Witt (Friday Night Lights) has landed the female lead in ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats (also cast: Derek Webster); Will Yun Lee (Bionic Woman) has booked one of the leads opposite Katee Sackhoff in Richard Hatem's untitled ABC drama pilot (as well as a guest spot on CBS pilot Hawaii Five-O); Richard T. Jones (Judging Amy) has also joined the cast of the untitled Hatem drama; Nicole Steinwedell (The Unit) and Brooke Nevin (Worst Week) have come aboard FOX drama pilot Breakout Kings; Oswaldo Castillo has joined the cast of NBC's untitled Adam Carolla comedy pilot; and Carmen Ejogo (Kidnapped) has signed on to CBS drama pilot Chaos. (Hollywood Reporter)

Zap2It's Hanh Nguyen has a story about the recent press call with James Marsters, to discuss his upcoming role on Syfy's Caprica as revolutionary Barnabus Greely. Marsters went on to discuss Twilight, the current vampire craze, and whether he'd be willing to reprise his role as Buffy and Angel's Spike. (Zap2It)

Universal Media Studios has signed an overall deal with Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights, Caprica), under which he will direct the pilot for NBC's thriller The Event (and will retain an executive producer credit if it goes to series) and will develop new projects for the studio. He's said to be already generating some ideas with Trauma creator Dario Scardapane and wants to work with Jason Katims again. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice is reporting that Sarah Palin and Mark Burnett are shopping a TV docudrama about life in Alaska, allegedly a "Planet Earth-type look" at America's northernmost state. "The former candidate for the vice presidency was seen leaving ABC today with Burnett, and an insider confirmed that she met with reality topper Mike Darnell yesterday at Fox (where she and her family ended the day by visiting American Idol. Palin stayed in the green room)," wrote Rice. "She also stopped by CBS today and plans to meet with NBC Universal TV Chairman Jeff Gaspin tomorrow." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Meanwhile, The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that "at least one broadcaster is already likely to pass on the project" from Palin and Burnett. According to Adalian, "ABC has decided the project isn't a right fit and won't be pursuing it," citing an unnamed source who is familiar with ABC's reaction to the pitch. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that the March 25th episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy will feature flashbacks scenes depicting Owen (Kevin McKidd) and Teddy (Kim Raver) in Iraq and will reveal, according to Raver, "this really fun, lighthearted bond, but also how loyalty is so important out there under very intense circumstances." (TV Guide Magazine)

BBC One has commissioned two additional seasons of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, with twelve episodes on deck for both the fourth and fifth seasons, expected to air in Autumn 2010 and Autumn 2011. Russell T. Davies, who had departed Doctor Who late last year, will remain on board as executive producer of The Sarah Jane Adventures and will be joined by newly minuted executive producer Nikki Wilson and producer Brian Minchin. (Broadcast)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that many of the former cast members from ABC's Ugly Betty will reprise their roles before the series takes a final bow next month. Ashley Jensen, Freddy Rodriguez, and likely Chris Gorham will return to Ugly Betty before its April 14th series finale. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Disney Channel has ordered two-hour telepic Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension, spun off from its Phineas and Ferb animated series, which it will air in summer 2011. Also on deck at Disney Channel and Disney XD: animated comedy Fish Hooks, live action comedy Pair of Kings, and animated superhero series The Avengers: Earth's Mighiest Heroes. (Variety)

ABC has announced launch dates for Season Two of True Beauty and Season Three of Wipeout, with the series set to return to the schedule on Monday, May 31st and Tuesday, June 22nd respectively. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Sony Entertainment Television has signed a deal with BT Vision in the UK for a branded channel that will offer British audiences such US series as Damages, The Shield, and The Tudors. (Variety)

Discovery is looking to rollout its TLC network to international viewers, with Norway the first network to receive the lifestyle-oriented network. (Hollywood Reporter)

Meredith Viera's contract with The Today Show is likely to be extended until fall 2011; her current contract was due to expire in September. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Syfy Standing Behind "Caprica," David Tennant to Star in BBC One Drama, Maggie Q Suits Up for CW's "Nikita," "Bones," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Syfy's latest original series Caprica isn't going anywhere any time soon, according to the cabler's EVP of original programming Mark Stern in an interview with Airlock Alpha's Michael Hinman. "We're definitely with Caprica for the long haul," said Stern. "There's no question about it. We knew exactly what it was not going to be, that is an easily adopted show. It's not Battlestar Galactica, it's its own animal. And we definitely recognize that it's going to find its audience and it's going to grow its audience... We're certainly not sharpening the axe by any stretch of the imagination. We all really believe in the show, and it has a lot of potential." Set to air its fourth episode tonight, Caprica will air the first half of its freshman season (10 episodes) before taking a breather and returning in late summer, where it will be paired with another original series as a lead-in. [Editor: my best guess? Look for Caprica to be paired with Haven, the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Colorado Kid."] (Airlock Alpha)

David Tennant has been cast as the lead in Single Father, a four-part drama series for BBC One that is written by Mick Ford (Ashes to Ashes). Production is slated to begin next month on the BBC Scotland-produced drama, which revolves around a photographer and single dad who must raise his four children on his own and who falls in love with his wife's best friend. "I feel very lucky to have been sent this script," said Tennant in a statement. "When I read what Mick Ford had written I was desperate to be part of this project. And to be working with Red Production Company again makes me very happy indeed." (BBC)

Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III) has been cast as the title character in the CW's Nikita, from executive producers McG and Craig Silverstein. In this version (itself one in a long line of remakes and updates since Luc Besson's 1990 La Femme Nikita), Maggie Q will play "a new Nikita being trained to replace the original one after she goes rogue." Casting marks the highest-profile minority casting at the netlet in its four-year history. Elsewhere, Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace) has landed the lead in Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters' ABC drama pilot Cutthroat, where she will play Nina Cabrera, a Beverly Hills widow who runs a drug cartel. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Bones executive producer Stephen Nathan about what's coming up for Booth and Brennan on the FOX procedural drama series before the end of the season. "The season finale is taking shape now and it’s going to be quite a surprise," Nathan told Ausiello. "We literally are in the process of working it out. We’ve had this in our minds for quite a while, and it’s gelling now. It’s going to be a pretty big episode for us in terms of what happens to Booth and Brennan.... This one will be as big [as the Season Four ender] in emotional terms." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Former Wonderfalls star Caroline Dhavernas has landed one of the three lead roles in Shonda Rhimes' ABC medical drama pilot Off the Map. She'll play Lily, described as "a young doctor who deals with tragedy by moving to a jungle in South America to work in a free clinic." (TVGuide.com)

Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight) has been cast as one of the leads in CBS' untitled Hannah Shakespeare drama pilot, which is being executive produced by John Wells (ER). Lefevre, most recently seen on ABC's The Deep End, will play "a confident young doctor more comfortable in the field than in the office" in the drama, which revolves around a mobile medical team that travels the country helping those less fortunate who need extreme medical attention. Elsewhere, Meanwhile, Carrie Wiita (Reno 911!) and Andrea Savage (Dinner for Schmucks) have joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot The Strip, which stars Tom Lennon. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Harold Perrineau (Lost) will guest star on CBS' CSI: NY in April, in an episode where he will play a death row inmate who is trapped inside the prison during a riot and who has a major bombshell to deliver to Hawkes (Hill Harper). (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot director update: Simon West (Human Target) will direct the pilot for NBC's vigilante drama pilot The Cape; Jace Alexander (Burn Notice) will direct ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats; Bronwen Hughes (White Collar) will direct ABC dramedy pilot Cutthroat; David Semel (Heroes) will direct the pilot for ABC superhero family drama No Ordinary Family; Yves Simoneau (V) will direct ABC drama pilot Matadors, Peter Horton (Grey's Anatomy) will direct ABC cop drama True Blue; Gary Fleder will direct ABC's untitled Richard Hatem crime drama; Bill D'Elia (Boston Legal) will direct David E. Kelley's NBC pilot Kindreds; Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) will direct NBC's untitled John Eisendrath legal drama (aka Rough Justice); and Ken Fink (CSI) will direct CBS drama pilot The Odds. (Hollywood Reporter)

Looks like Glee will be continuing into the summer. Or at least until June 8th, when it will wrap up its freshman season. FOX confirmed the finale date, along with those for Fringe and Bones (May 20th), House (May 17th), Human Target (May 5th), and several others. (Futon Critic)

SPOILER! TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck has some details about what's in store for Season Seven of HBO's Entourage, which is about to begin production. "Vince will be working on a new big-budget film with lots of stunts and pyro techniques, requiring a stunt coordinator to help Vince (Adrian Grenier) through some dangerous scenes," writes Keck. "Meanwhile, Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) will be starting up a new business venture, hiring three sexy girls named Sarah, Rachel and Abby to chauffeur the rich and famous around L.A. Of course, the girls would rather be working as actresses in Vince's new film." (TV Guide Magazine)

Rufus Sewell (The Eleventh Hour) will star as Italian detective Aurelio Zen in a three feature-length dramas for BBC One based on Michael Didbin's novels. (BBC)

In other UK news, Season Two of five-part mystery drama Five Days will launch on BBC One in March. It will star Suranne Jones, David Morrissey, Anne Reid, Hugo Speer, Bernard Hill, Derek Riddell, Nina Sosanya, Steve Evets, Ashley Walters, Shaun Dooley, Matthew McNulty, Navin Chowdhry, Shivani Ghai, Sacha Dhawan, Cornell John, Aaron Neil, Philip Arditti, Kerry Condon, and Chris Fountain. According to the press materials: "Five Days 2 is an atmospheric ensemble drama – a mystery which unfolds over the five most significant days of the police investigation into these two mysteries. It is set in the heart of urban Yorkshire – a melting pot of tensions and relationships within a multicultural landscape." (BBC)

HBO has already renewed its 12-episode freshman comedy series Funny or Die, which premieres tonight, for a second season of 10 episodes. (Variety)

Allison Janey (The West Wing) will guest star on USA's In Plain Sight in a two-episode story arc in which she'll play "a newly-appointed US Marshal for the district who butts heads with Mary (Mary McCormack)." Janey is especially in demand this season, with the actor scoring a co-starring role opposite Matthew Perry in ABC comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine and a recurring role in Showtime drama pilot Shameless. (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that former Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith will guest star in an upcoming episode of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she will play a former police officer. (TV Guide Magazine)

A&E has ordered a second season of docudrama Steven Seagal: Lawman, with 16 episodes set on tap. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Prometheus Bound: Televisionary Talks to the Cast of Syfy's "Caprica"

Caprica might be set in the past but it's the perfect time to take a look into the future.

Now that the pilot for Syfy's Caprica has aired, I can take the lid off a series of interviews I did with the main cast of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series a few months back about what lies ahead for the inhabitants of the doomed planet as they make their fateful first steps towards the annihilation of the human race.

Traveling up to the series' Vancouver set a few months back, I had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with the four adult leads of Caprica. The dining room of the Adamas' Caprica City apartment provided the focal point for our conversation and the space's warm terracotta and earth tones and Mission-style furniture seemed light years away from the sleek and icy modernity of the Graystone's high-end home, just a few steps away.

But it was that comfortableness that created a cozy environment as I met with Eric Stoltz, Paula Malcomson, Polly Walker, and Esai Morales to ferret out what lays ahead for their respective characters Daniel and Amanda Graystone, Sister Clarice Willow, and Joseph Adama this season on Caprica.

At Caprica's center is the intertwined destinies of two families, the Graystones and the Adamas. On the surface, these two clans couldn't be more different but they are united in their grief and in their efforts to move past the death of their loved ones. But many may be willing to break their moral compasses in order to snatch a second chance with the ones they've lost.

Stoltz likened his character, brilliant (and possibly mad) scientist Daniel Graystone, to a tragic figure in Greek mythology. "He’s smart and conflicted. He exists in a grey area; he thinks he is doing good. He thinks everything he does is wonderful--like most brilliant scientists--but he has a fatal flaw, which is that he can’t see what drives him might also eventually result in the destruction of society," said Stoltz of Daniel. "He’s so hungry for knowledge that, like Prometheus, he steals fire from the gods, gives it to man, thinking he’s doing a good thing and is eternally punished for it."

Stoltz said that portraying Daniel's sense of loss over his daughter Zoe's death was cathartic "in the best possible way" and that acting can be "a healthy outlet for any unresolved issues you might be dealing with." Still, Daniel's grief won't be easily erased, even after he attempts to resurrect Zoe by any means necessary.

"As anyone knows who has lost someone that they loved deeply, that stays with you for quite some time," said Stoltz. "You think you have your life together and then you find yourself weeping in a corner and you’re not even sure. You take three steps forward and then four steps back. It’s a continual monkey on your back for years. One thing our society does not help us with much is loss and how to deal with it."

That sense of loss has also infected Paula Malcomson's character, Amanda Graystone, whose guilt at a vicious fight with teenage daughter Zoe right before her death is exacerbated by a realization that she didn't know anything about her own child.

"To lose a child is an extreme," said Malcomson, speaking with her natural Northern Irish lilt. "I’m asking the viewers to come with me on that [journey]. It’s hard to get her out of there for a while and it might be taxing to take that journey with someone in so much pain. But I didn’t want to cheap out on it and throw in lightness. There is still that, there is fun, there is sex in the middle of it, there’s horniness in the middle of all the things that come up. I just wanted to be true to the enormous loss and the timeframe that we’re playing this. It’s an incredibly short amount of time; the first ten [episodes] are set over a matter of months since the accident."

Morales' Joseph Adama is both a man of the law but is actively breaking the law, walking a fine line between observing the moral code he's sworn to uphold and rejecting his heritage and cultural beliefs. Those beliefs are tested even more by his own mourning process.

"We don’t actually wake up doing what people can easily analyze from the outside," said Morales. "We just try to make a living. It’s just one mission at a time... We are all guilty of something or another. And if you’re not guilty of something than usually self-righteousness is your sin. You don’t have to look too far to see where we stray from the ideal. I have to think then that my character is not thinking he’s a crooked lawyer, [but rather] he’s living within the system. He’s making do as best he can, trying to stay true to his culture without getting arrested, trying to assimilate to this new world without being ejected from it."

But don't think for one second that Adama has anything figured out, especially after the death of his wife and daughter.

"He’s a mess," admitted Morales. "He’s lost the female half of his life, with the exception of his mother-in-law, who is a constant, irritating reminder of what he’s not, which is a good Tauron who is proud of his roots. He’s looking and searching; he’s terribly distraught and has to raise his son and doesn’t know how he’ll get the wherewithal to cope and be there for him. He’s floating. He’s in a pool looking for something to hold onto."

It's that sense of being rudderless that sinks in for Malcomson's Amanda as well. "It’s pretty dark and it’s twisted and it’s tortured," said Malcomson about Amanda's emotional journey this season. "She is not in a good place by the time we find her in the episode that we’ve just been shooting [the season’s ninth]. She’s despairing, she’s losing control, certainly; she’s losing a grip on things. We have to follow her down the slippery slope a little bit."

After all, one might argue that Amanda is a character whose job is to save people but she failed at the most crucial moment to save her daughter.

"She’s unable to save her own child and the fallout from that is devastating to her," she said. "In the midst of all of that her husband is busy, as men are in terms of getting into their own work. Little does she know what he’s doing. She’s no idea. There’s a lot of deception operating around her. There are enormous obstacles for this character in the first ten episodes. It’s been insane, and really, really challenging."

In the original version of Caprica's pilot, Malcomson's Amanda was involved in an extramarital affair with Thomas Vergis (played in the original pilot by Roger Cross), a storyline that was eventually scrapped and not included in either the DVD version of the pilot or the one that aired on Syfy.

Malcomson said it was for the best. "What’s funny is that those scenes, as written and when I was working on them, I didn’t believe them," she admitted. "That’s not to say I didn’t do everything I could to make them work, but there was a more natural chemistry to my own husband [played by Stoltz]. There was something between us. Eric and I knew each other already and there was just something between us: trust, respect, all of these things that were just more interesting than a fling, which is ultimately what that was. I think it was a smart choice to go with what was really kind of natural in the story."

Even more interestingly, Malcomson told me that she didn't originally audition for the role of Amanda Graystone but for private school headmistress Sister Clarice Willow.

"[Amanda] looked to me like a character that I didn’t know how to play and it was a character that I hadn’t played before," said Malcomson. "Coming from Deadwood, I thought that this was the pinnacle of playing a female character archetype and Amanda felt a bit like that. I don’t think it’s a secret that when I originally read and met with the director that it was for Sister Clarice and he thought I’d be a great Amanda and then they said, 'how about that?' I was terrified about it. The status, the position, it all seemed to me much further from me than anything I’d ever played before, which was incredibly enticing to me."

In other words: it worked out for the best, especially as
the role of the morally ambiguous Sister Clarice went to dynamic British actress Polly Walker.

When we first see Clarice in the pilot, she seems like a fairly straightforward academic/religious type but we slowly begin to learn that there is a darkness to her and that her personal life isn't quite that of a traditional religious figure. Not only does she live in a communal, plural marriage but Clarice is also a drug addict, to boot. Not exactly the prim and proper headmistress she appears in the pilot.

"She’s got a big agenda about society in its entirety," Walker told me about Clarice. "She’s a very conflicted character. She has very strong beliefs about what you should and shouldn’t do and yet she finds it very difficult to live up to those personally. She has a massive drug problem; she’s a drug addict and yet she’s selling herself as this perfect character. She’s pretty ruthless. She’s very powerful, she’s very manipulative and very narcissistic. She’s very interesting to play… [Clarice] can’t feel any of those things. [She] feels completely misrepresented by people and believes that [she is] a very good person."

While Clarice seems to be operating within the confines of a specific ideological philosophy, her actions seem to diverge from any sense of moral obligation.

"She will do what she needs in order to achieve what she wants," said Walker. "She is fairly reckless with her treatment of people. But she is incredibly bright and incredibly driven and she is an obsessive. I’m not quite sure yet about her. She is very vulnerable because she is so flawed. She’s got a weird heart. I’m not sure how much of it is actually flesh and blood. It’s a weird old heart in there that’s beating."

"She gets upset about herself and the things she does. She has a conscience, at least about herself," continued Walker. "When she falls off the wagon and she gets wasted on this opium-like drug, the next morning, she feels really guilty and she vows never to do it again. Of course, she does. As far as people are concerned, I haven’t seen much regret."

While Clarice seemed fairly separate from the Graystone/Adama storyline in the pilot, viewers can expect to see her slowly become more integrated into the overarching plot.

"She strikes up a relationship with Paula’s character, Amanda, and that’s an interesting dynamic because they are both strong women, though coming from very different places," Walker revealed. "That’s a very interesting relationship to watch. Obviously, I won’t divulge what happens there. I haven’t come across Daniel yet; I am sure I will at some point and I’ve not met any of the other main characters. She’s quite a lonely person, Clarice, but obviously she doesn’t feel that way. She has her agenda and that’s what she’s working towards. She’s a very, very committed terrorist."

Clarice's ruthlessness isn't too much of departure for Walker, who is known for playing deeply flawed and manipulative characters, like the murderous Atia of the Julii on HBO's Rome.

"You get what you get put in front of you and for some reason that’s what’s coming my way," said Walker about her penchant for playing deeply complex characters. "Sometimes I say, why aren’t I playing the kind of fluffy girlfriend/wife figure? Sometimes I wonder what does that say about me? Is that good or bad? Complexity is always interesting to play and that’s what fuels me as an actor. The worst thing that could happen to me as an actor is if I were bored. What’s the point then? Then I’d just become destructive."

What's certain is that each of these characters has an emotional journey ahead of them that will take each of them to some very dark places. Still, Caprica isn't just about death and loss but also about how technology, both physical and emotional, enables us to interact with each other and the world around us.

"Two things that Caprica deals with that I find a relief and strangely foreign at the same time are loss and a deeply loving marriage," said Stoltz. "Those two things... are rarely presented to us, certainly in film or television. There is plenty of fiction or nonfiction that gives that to us but as examples of how to live, I’m hard pressed to think of any."

Stoltz, meanwhile, has stepped behind the camera to direct the 10th episode of the season, written by Ryan Mottesheard and Jane Espenson. While the plot details are being kept firmly under wraps, Stolz offered some thematic clues about his directorial debut on the series.

"One of the themes that my episode deals with is fathers, lost fathers and finding and healing your family," said Stolz. "And that’s an overriding theme of the whole show: family. The difficulties and beauty of maintaining a family and all that it takes."

Caprica airs Friday nights at 9 pm ET/PT on Syfy.

Robots in Disguise: An Advance Review of Season One of Syfy's "Caprica"

One of the year's most eagerly anticipated series begins tonight on Syfy with the two-hour series premiere of Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica.

While the pilot episode of Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, and Jane Espenson's Caprica has been available via DVD or digital download for some time, tonight will mark the official linear television start of the series as the two-hour pilot gets its broadcast debut. (You can read my original thoughts on Caprica's pilot episode here.) For those expecting a space-set battle royale or a ragtag band of human survivors, Caprica will be a very different kettle of fish. For one, it's set way before the events of Battlestar Galactica and is set on the planet of Caprica not only decades before its fall but also during a time of peace.

But that peace is one that's short-lived. The comfortable existence enjoyed by the well-heeled denizens of Caprica is ripped apart by a shocking terrorist act in the pilot's opening minutes, one that involves a group of teenagers espousing a monotheistic belief. When a passenger train is blown apart by one member of the Soldiers of the One, two families are instantly united in their grief and loss. Brilliant scientist Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and his doctor wife Amanda (Paula Malcomson) must grapple with the loss of their rebellious daughter Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) and with the realization that they didn't really know her at all. Meanwhile, corrupt mob lawyer Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) loses both his wife and daughter aboard the train and suddenly finds himself thrust into the unwelcome role of single fatherhood.

But what if death didn't mean the end of these people? What if there was a way to bring their loved ones back to life? It's these questions, posed by Graystone to Adama, that provide Caprica with its narrative hook.

Given that we know that Graystone's scientific inquisitiveness result in the creation of the Cylon race and the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, there's already a sense of dread and foreboding cast over the proceedings here. But that his actions should stem from a parent's grief and a love for a dead daughter render everyone involved as a tragic rather than villainous figure.

While the pilot episode deals with Graystone uncovering Zoe's research and figuring out how to create a digital avatar of her, it's Zoe who successfully manages to somehow be downloaded into the body of a Cylon prototype, prompting another round of Moore and Eick's favorite question: what does it mean to be human?

That question lingers over the action, which is comprised of numerous subplots. While the pilot offers a strong and visceral beginning to Caprica, the second and third episodes don't quite hold up as well. The subsequent two episodes deal with not just the fallout from Graystone and Adama's decision to pursue this line of scientific inquiry, the machinations of secret monotheist Sister Clarice Willow (Polly Walker), the quest for answers set about by Zoe's best friend Lacy (Magda Apanowicz), and the investigation into the cause and culprits behind the train bombing, but also the media reaction (embodied rather brilliantly by Patton Oswalt's Baxter Sarno), the military-industrial complex, robots, virtual spaces, legal proceedings, and bribes. Whew. There are a lot of plates to spin and not everything quite manages to remain up in the air.

The second episode in particular feels all over the place and lacks a clear-cut throughline that a second installment really needs to keep the audience invested. A subplot about the young William Adama and Joseph's mobster brother Sam (Sasha Roiz) feel extremely leaden, though I do welcome these episode's increased focus on Walker's Sister Clarice, as the audience gets the chance to follow her home and learn more about her complex backstory. Additionally, Paula Malcomson's Amanda has more to do in the following two episodes than she did in the pilot (one of her main storylines from the pilot episode was scrapped) and she feels more integral to the overarching story. (It's worth noting that Malcolmson is also utterly fantastic here, giving Amanda a palpable sense of loss and confusion.)

However, I'm still not sold on Torresani as Zoe. Rather than imbue Zoe as powerful, mysterious, and compelling, she renders Zoe as just another bratty teen. While that could be the point (Zoe isn't an unknowable mystical trinity but the digital soul of a teenage girl), Torresani isn't a particularly strong actor either; her performance in the train explosion scene in painful and not in a good way. Fortunately, she's usually on screen with Apanowicz, whose Lacy is becoming more and more compelling.

While there are a few growing pains that need to be dealt with, there is a hell of a lot of potential within Caprica and even if these first few episodes fall short of the quality of Battlestar Galactica standards, I have every hope that these diverse storylines will knit together into a compelling and imaginative series about humanity, artificial intelligence, spirituality, and the nature of reality. It's definitely worth checking out.



Caprica launches tonight with a two-hour series opener at 9 pm ET/PT on Syfy.

The Daily Beast: "Sci-Fi TV Gets Frisky: Caprica"

Looking for some more information about Syfy's Battlestar Galactica prequel spinoff series Caprica? You've come to the right place.

Head over to The Daily Beast to read my latest piece, "Sci-Fi TV Gets Frisky," where I speak to Caprica executive producers Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, and Jane Espenson about the series, which launches on January 22nd.

Besides for some fantastic quotes from the talented troika of Moore, Eick, and Espenson and some insight about the series, there's also an exclusive video clip from the second episode of Caprica ("Rebirth") to boot.

Caprica launches with a two-hour pilot on Friday, January 22nd at 8 pm ET/PT.

Channel Surfing: Alyssa Milano Moves into "Castle", Kevin Murphy Bumped to Showrunner on "Caprica," Wilde Talks "House," "Fringe" Sneak Peek, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Alyssa Milano has been cast as a guest star on ABC's Castle, where she will play a former love interest of Nathan Fillion's Richard Castle with whom he reconnects on her wedding day. "Castle reconnects with Kyra (Milano) on her wedding day and sparks fly," writes Ausiello. "Beckett (Stana Katic) picks up on the obvious connection between the two of them, setting up a fun little love triangle." Milano's episode is slated to air in early 2010. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives) has been promoted to executive producer/showrunner of Syfy's Caprica, where he joins fellow executive producers Jane Espenson, Ron Moore, and David Eick. Murphy was originally hired as a co-executive producer on the Battlestar Galactica prequel series and will now serve as the day-to-day showrunner on the series. (Hollywood Reporter)

TVGuide.com's Gina DiNunno talks to House star Olivia Wilde about the medical drama's current season, which some shakeups at Princeton-Plainsboro. "This season, the writers have been all about taking risks," said Wilde. "It's Season 6, which means you really have license to try things. They're doing these unpredictable things, and one was having House bring back the old team. It was a result of House being in a mental institution and coming back, so I think if we went back to business as usual immediately, viewers would get frustrated. So I think it's cool they're shaking things up. And it's great because I got to take a little break!" (TVGuide.com)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a sneak peek at the first three minutes from this week's Observer-centric episode of FOX's Fringe. Meanwhile, FOX is pulling out of the stops for a viral campaign this week based around the Warner Bros. Television-produced series. In other words: keep your eyes peeled for Observers everywhere. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Variety)

NBC has given a pilot presentation order to an untitled comedy from writer/director/executive producer Larry Charles and executive producer McG, which studio Warner Bros. Television is calling a "prototype" for what the actual series would be. Project revolves around a group of small town sci-fi-obsessed fanboys who convene to shoot their own episode of a cancelled series. (Variety)

George Segal (Entourage, Just Shoot Me) has been cast in TV Land's multi-camera comedy pilot Retired at 35, where he will play the retired insurance executive father of a Manhattanite who moves to the Florida retirement community where his father lives. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC One has commissioned comedy Big Top, starring Amanda Holden (Wild At Heart), John Thomson (Cold Feet), Sophie Thompson (A Room With A View), Ruth Madoc (Little Britain), Bruce Mackinnon (The Catherine Tate Show), and Tony Robinson (Blackadder). Series, created by Daniel Peak, follows the performers and managers of a traveling circus. (BBC)

Adult Swim fans will be able to create their own DVDs via an online initiative at AdultSwimShop.com, where fans can select 110 minutes of episodic television as well as the disc's menu and artwork and be shipped the created-on-demand disc for just $20. The Custom DVD scheme launches with 100 episodes of such series as Robot Chicken, Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, and others. (Hollywood Reporter)

Hasbro Studios has landed its first project as is developing a My Little Pony series for the nascent joint venture cable channel launched by Hasbro and Discovery. (Hollywood Reporter)

Tyler Perry's comedy series Meet the Browns, which airs on TBS, has already cleared 70 percent of the country for a September syndicated launch following a similar pattern established by House of Payne. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Trailer Park: Syfy's "Caprica" (New Promo)

"You are what you choose."

Syfy has released a new 90-second promo for its upcoming drama series Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica launching in January.

Featuring all-new footage of the series, the promo depicts some of the storylines and imagery slated to appear on the series, which is being overseen by showrunner Jane Espenson.

And, yes, it just happens to also feature a brief shot of James Marsters as terrorist leader Barnabus Greeley. (He's slated to appear in at least three episodes this season.)



Caprica is slated to launch January 22nd at 9 pm ET/PT.

Channel Surfing: CBS Picks Up "Wife" and "NCIS: LA," Ellen Page and Alia Shawkat to Script HBO Comedy, Panettiere's "Heroes" Clinch, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

CBS has given full season orders to freshman dramas NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife, which are respectively the first and second best-rated new series of the season and have assisted in CBS winning the last three Tuesday ratings matches. (via press release)

Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, and Sean Tillmann will write and executive produce a single-camera comedy pilot script entitled Stitch N' Bitch for HBO. The project will follow "two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburge neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of become artists -- of any kind," according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva and Matthew Belloni. The trio might also star in the project if it's picked up to pilot but any decision of that kind will be made at a later date. (Hollywood Reporter)

SPOILER! E! Online's Jennifer Godwin has details about Hayden Panettiere's upcoming lesbian kiss on Monday night's episode of NBC's Heroes and reports that there's a twist to the lip-lock that features a third party, also played by a woman. As for who she is, Godwin writes, "You hated her guts on another series we love, and you rejoiced mightily when she was written off at the end of the season." Hmmm... (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Former Desperate Housewives scribe Kevin Murphy has joined the writing staff of Syfy's Caprica as co-executive producer. "As a rabid Battlestar Galactica fan, it's hard not to go in that writers room and not just grin ridiculously," Murphy told Variety. "These are the people who made the best TV show ever. To be able to be a part of the legacy of that show, I'd be willing to pay them for that." The writer also has several other projects in development, including an adaptation of Kate Torgovnick's nonfiction book "Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders" at CW with studio Warner Bros. Television and Tom Welling's production company Tom Welling Prods and USA's Velvet Hammer, a drama about a female FBI agent with CBS Studios. (Variety)

CBS has signed a talent holding deal with Jason Clarke, under which the Australian actor will star in a drama pilot for next season. Move comes on the heels of Clarke's performance in the network's untitled U.S. Attorney drama project. (Hollywood Reporter)

Showtime has ordered six half-hour episodes of reality series Behind the Green Room Door, a series of "no-holds-barred chat sessions" between prominent comics and host Paul Provenza. Series, which will air in the second quarter of 2010, will feature such comedians as Jonathan Winters, Eddie Izzard, Robert Klein, and Penn Jillette. (Variety)

Syfy announced on Tuesday at their press junket in Vancouver that the network will air its four-hour miniseries Alice on December 6th and December 7th. Written and directed by Nick Willing (Tin Man), the RHI-produced mini stars Caterina Scorsone, Kathy Bates, Matt Frewer, Tim Curry, Colm Meaney, Harry Dean Stanton, and Phillip Winchester.

TVGuide.com's Kate Stanhope talks with Law & Order executive producer Rene Balcer about the series' upcoming Jon & Kate Plus Eight-inspired episode, "Reality Bites," set to air on October 16th, which follows the star of the fictional Larry Plus 10, a reality series about a father looking after his ten adopted special needs children after his wife is killed. "It seems to be coming at a good time," said Balcer. "Aside from people being amused, bemused, disgusted and shocked at their exploits, [people] are probably looking for some other perspective on it." (TVGuide.com)

FX has opted to double the episodic order for its upcoming animated comedy series Archer before the series has even debuted. (The Wrap)

Planet Green has ordered ten episodes of unscripted series Beekman Farm, which revolves around two Manhattanites, a doctor and his ad exec/drag queen lover, who leave behind the city for an upstate New York farm. Project from World of Wonder, will launch in the spring. (Variety)

The Los Angeles Times has details on BET's eight-episode docudrama The Michael Vick Project. (Los Angeles Times)

Sony Pictures Entertainment will sell off its 21 percent stake in Liz Murdoch's Shine after growing concerns of conflict of interest now that the company is actually a major competitor with the studio. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: CBS Mulling "Criminal Minds" Spin-off, John Simm Talks "Doctor Who" Send-Off for Tennant, Kevin Zegers Hears "Gossip" Call, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

CBS is said to be developing a potential spin-off from its crime drama series Criminal Minds that will be created by showrunner/executive producer Ed Bernero and executive producer Chris Mundy, the latter of which will write the script for the potential spin-off which will air as an episode of Criminal Minds later this season. No concrete details are available but the series is thought to revolve around a new team of FBI agents, rather than focusing on any of the existing Criminal Minds characters. (Hollywood Reporter)

John Simm (Life on Mars), who returns to Doctor Who to reprise his role as The Master this winter, has said that David Tennant's swan song on the British sci-fi series is a "brilliant send-off" for Tennant and the Tenth Doctor. "It'll be a brilliant send-off for Mr Tennant," said Simm. "Last time I did it it was such fun to do. It was wonderful to be asked back and to be in the very, very last one. To go head-to-head with him was a really honour. It was lovely to be asked. It was a great, great experience. We had such fun doing it. Hopefully it'll come across." (BBC News)

Kevin Zegers (The Jane Austen Book Club) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on the CW's Gossip Girl as the potential love interest for Taylor Momsen's Jenny. Zegers will play Damien, "an international bad boy who somehow gets tied up with the likes of little Jenny Humphrey—-who is, in fact, the new Queen Bee." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Diane Ruggiero (Veronica Mars) will write the pilot script for an untitled FOX supernatural dramedy, said to be in the style of Shaun of the Dead, about "a group of dysfunctional siblings who are forced to live together in the family's haunted house after their father dies." Project, from executive producers Peter Chernin, Katherine Pope, and Ruggiero and studio 20th Century Fox Television, has received a script order from the network. (Variety)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams talks to Pushing Daisies' Kristin Chenoweth who guest stars on tonight's episode of FOX's Glee as April Rhodes, a former classmate of Will's who has a certain thing for younger men. "This part is like nothing I've had the chance to do on TV," said Chenoweth of April. "She's very happy when drinking to ease her pain. I also sing in three very different styles, which is always fun and challenging." (TVGuide.com)

FOX has given a pilot presentation order to an untitled animated project from Robot Chicken creators Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, and Tom Root that will revolve around various characters at home and at high school and will feature traditional, rather than stop-motion, animation. Project hails from 20th Century Fox Television. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that the two-hour pilot for Syfy's Caprica, which launches in January, is hitting the film festival circuit, with airings planned for the San Diego Film Festival as well as the Woodstock Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival in October. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

TLC will relaunch its brand-defining reality series Jon & Kate Plus Eight as just... Kate Plus Eight. The newly retitled series will be relaunched on November 2nd and will focus on Kate Gosselin as the single mother of eight children. But don't count Jon Gosselin out just yet; he's set to continue to make appearances on the series, albeit "on a less regular basis." The cabler is also said to be developing a new series for Kate Gosselin for 2010. (Variety)

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Drop Dead Diva) have received script commitments for two projects at FOX and NBC. The FOX project, a legal drama entitled Laney Sparrow, will be written by Dana Calvo (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) and hail from 20th Century Fox Television. The NBC project, dramedy Inside Mary Baxter, is set in a women's prison; that script will be written by Maria Maggenti (Without a Trace), who will executive produce with Zadan and Meron. (Hollywood Reporter)

Billie Piper (Doctor Who), Theo James (Untitled Woody Allen Film), Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval), Sue Johnston (Waking the Dead), and Alun Armstrong (New Tricks) have been cast in BBC One drama Kay Mellor's A Passionate Woman, based on Mellor's stageplay about a young mother who calls in love with a Polish neighbor and its dangerous consequences over a thirty-year period. Project, from Rollem Productions, will air next year. (BBC)

Warner Bros. Television has signed a two-year overall deal with Cold Case executive producer Greg Plageman, under which he will continue to oversee the CBS drama series with Jennifer Johnson and develop new projects for the studio. (Hollywood Reporter)

UK viewers will get a chance to watch Warner Bros. Television's new sci-fi series V (which is airing Stateside on ABC), following a deal between the studio and NBC Universal Global Networks that will see the Scott Peters-executive produced series air on the UK's Sci Fi, as well as the midseason drama series Human Target. (Broadcast)

History Channel has ordered several new reality series, including Extreme Trucking, a spin-off of its Ice Road Truckers, American Pickers, Madhouse, and Sliced. (Hollywood Reporter)

Camryn Manheim (The Practice) has been cast in Lifetime telepic Pregnancy Pact, opposite Thora Birch and Nancy Travis. She'll play a local nurse who alerts the school to the rising rate of teen pregnancies. Telepic is slated to air in early 2010. (Variety)

Jason Priestley will star in Canadian pay TV comedy Meet Phil Fitz, about a "morally bankrupt" used car salesman who "walks a fine line of acceptable behavior on the lot." Project, from writer/executive producer Sheri Elwood (Defying Gravity). E1 Entertainment, Amaze Film and Television, and Big Motion Pictures, will air on Movie Central and the Movie Network in 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: James Marsters to Spike "Caprica," ABC Checks into "Hotel," Davies Has Plan for "Torchwood" Season Four, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Buffy and Angel's James Marsters--who appeared last year in Season Two of Torchwood to boot--has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica. Marsters, who is slated to appear in at least three installments, will play Barnabus Greeley, a dangerous terrorist leader who is described as being "driven by desires both moralistic and carnal" and is "as lethal as he is unpredictable." Caprica premieres January 22nd on Syfy. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has given a script order to Clive Barker's Hotel, described as a "series of ghoulish incidents at a haunted hotel," from writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. Project, from Warner Bros. Television and Wonderland Sound and Vision, will be executive produced by Clive Barker and McG, who could direct the pilot episode if the network moves forward with the project, which had drawn attention from FOX and several other networks before landing at ABC. (Hollywood Reporter)

Torchwood creator Russell T. Davies has indicated that he has a direction in mind for the fourth season of Torchwood, whose format is under discussion at BBC One. "I could write you scene one of Series Four right now. I know exactly how to pick it up," he told Torchwood Magazine. "I've got a shape in mind, and I've got stories. I know where you'd find Gwen and Rhys, and their baby, and Jack, and I know how you'd go forward with a new form of Torchwood... If the BBC asked for another 13 one-part stories, that's what we'd do. I'm ready for anything, but I think it works well as one continuous story. But if the BBC decide they want 13 one-offs, I'll suddenly decide that's the best format in the world!" (Digital Spy)

Casting alert: Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) has been cast in NBC's Southland, where he will play a rowdy new partner to Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King). Elsewhere, Joy Bryant (Virtuality) has been added to the cast of NBC's midseason drama series Parenthood as single mom Jasmine, who moves to the Oakland in order to introduce her five-year-old son to his father. And Jurnee Smollet (The Great Debaters) has joined the cast of Friday Night Lights, where she will play Jess, described as "he daughter of a onetime NFL hopeful who knows the game and helps raise her siblings with the help of her father." (Hollywood Reporter)

Gina Torres (Firefly) has been cast in at least two episodes of CW's Gossip Girl, where she will play Gabriela Adams, a.k.a. Vanessa's mom, according to TVGuide.com's Mickey O'Connor, who describes her character as "a free spirit, a former Brooklynite who lives 'off the grid' in Vermont and has definite opinions about things, especially concerning her daughter." (TVGuide.com)

Cabler TNT has announced that it has extended the run of its drama series Leverage this summer, adding two additional episodes to the series' summertime run. (Televisionary)

ABC Studios has signed a two-year overall deal with writer Michael Seitzman (Empire State, House Rules) under which he will develop new series concepts for the studio. Seitzman, according to Variety's Cynthia Littleton, "said he intends to pen two pilots in the coming development season, and he's in the process of winnowing his candidates from a host of ideas that he's been kicking around to develop under his Michael Seitzman's Pictures banner." (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Amy Aquino (ER, Felicity) and Peter Gerety (The Wire) have been cast in multiple-episode story arcs on ABC's Brothers & Sisters, where Aquino will play a "doctor treating a member of the Walker clan who shall remain nameless," while Gerety will play a "surprising outsider." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Showtime has ordered ten episodes of Oliver Stone-narrated documentary series Oliver Stone's Secret History of America, which will air on the pay cabler next year. (Televisionary)

Shania Twain, Kelly Clarkson, and Joe Jonas are said to be among the guest judges on tap for next season of FOX's American Idol. (Hollywood Reporter)

On the eve of the anniversary of the investment bank's breakdown, BBC Two has commissioned The Last Days of Lehman Brothers, a 24-style "dramatization" of the collapse of Lehman Brothers that will star James Cromwell, James Bolam, Ben Daniels, Michael Landes, and Corey Johnson. Slated to air around September 12th, the one-year anniversary of the bank's collapse, the one-hour drama is directed by Michael Samuels. (Broadcast)

Actress and fashion icon Nicole Kidman will make a cameo appearance on Thursday evening's Project Runway: All-Star Challenge, which airs on Lifetime just prior to the series' sixth season premiere. (via press release)

Penelope Ann Miller (Vanished) will appear in at least five episodes of TNT's upcoming drama series Men of a Certain Age, where she will play the ex-wife of Ray Romano's character. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC soap All My Children will transition to 720p high definition production in 2010, following a long-term deal reached between the network and Broadcast Facilities, Inc. at the company's satellite transmission and post facility in LA, with the first HD episodes expected to air in February. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Patton Oswalt Lands on "Caprica," NBC to Attend "Midnight, Mass," January Jones Talks "Mad" Betty Draper, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Patton Oswalt (United States of Tara) has been cast in a recurring role on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica, where he will play Baxter Sarno, the comedian talk show host of a Caprican-based television series on which Eric Stoltz's Daniel Greystone and Paula Malcomson's Amanda Greystone appear. Oswalt is no stranger to genre-based series; he did a memorable guest turn on FOX's Dollhouse last season in the game-changing episode "Man on the Street" (pictured here). Caprica is slated to launch in January 2010 on Syfy. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has ordered a pilot script for Midnight, Mass, a series adaptation of DC Comics/Vertigo title about Adam and Julia Kadmons, a married couple who travel the world solving mysteries and tackling bizarre supernatural crimes. Pilot script will be written by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, who will executive produce along with Pushing Daisies producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen. Project hails from Warner Bros. Television and Jinks/Cohen. Berg and Harberts, meanwhile, are showrunners on NBC's upcoming medical drama Mercy. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has a new video interview with Mad Men star January Jones, in which the actor--who plays the frustrated Betty Draper on the AMC drama series--reveals that Betty's affair at the end of Season Two has been deeply divisive among the audience, with many male viewers feeling betrayed by her one-night stand with the handsome stranger (Ryan McPartlin) while women felt that Betty was "finally getting hers." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Looks like Paula Abdul won't be turning up on Ugly Betty, after all. The Los Angeles Times' Denise Martin is reporting that talks between Abdul and the network have "fallen apart" and she "will not be guest starring on Ugly Betty." Abdul, as previously reported last week, had been in talks to guest star on Betty as a Mode magazine temp who develops a friendship with Amanda (Becki Newton). (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

ABC has announced the sixteen new celebrities participating in Season Nine of Dancing with the Stars, which include: Aaron Carter, Olympian Natalie Coughlin, actor/martial artist Mark Dacascos, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Macy Gray, actor/songwriter Ashley Hamilton, Melissa Joan Hart, Kathy Ireland, former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irwin, actress Joanna Krupa, mixed martial arts icon Chuck Liddell, Debi Mazar, Mya, Kelly Osbourne, Donny Osmond, and pro snowboarder Louie Vito. (via press release)

Jay Leno has revealed that his first guest on his new 10 pm nightly talk show The Jay Leno Show will be Jerry Seinfeld, who is expected to "do standup on Leno and possibly race cars in the NBC parking lot -- a bit the show will probably go to often," writes Variety's Stuart Levine. (Variety)

Dave Franco (Superbad) has been cast in ABC's Scrubs as a series regular next season. Franco will play Cole, "a charming, conservative, confidently stupid and incredibly entitled medical student whose family donated a wing to the school. With his arrogance and erroneous medical decisions he becomes an enormous irritant to Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley)," according to the Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva. Scrubs is seeing the focus shift from Sacred Heart Hospital to a medical school next season; Franco will be among the new cast members helping to carry this new direction. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has optioned two volumes of Andrew Loog Oldham's biography "Stoned" and "2Stones," about his experiences as the producer and manager of the Rolling Stones. Pay cabler is developing a comedy series that will be loosely based on Oldham's life set in 1960s London. Wesley Strick will write the pilot script and will executive produce with Oldham and Lou Adler. (Variety)

UK audiences will finally get to see HBO's psychotherapy drama In Treatment: digital channel Sky Arts has acquired rights to the 43-episode series and plans to air episodes weeknights at 10 pm beginning in October. Sky Arts will also air an omnibus edition of In Treatment on Sunday evenings as well. (Broadcast)

Former NBC drama executive Lauren Stein has been hired at Peter Chernin's nascent production shingle, where she will oversee television drama development, a move that reunites her with her former boss at NBC, Katherine Pope. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Jamie Bamber to Play in "Dollhouse," Day, Denisof, and Glau Set for "Dollhouse" Season Two, Syfy Sets "Caprica" Launch, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Battlestar Galactica's Jamie Bamber will guest star in the season premiere installment of FOX's Dollhouse next season. According to E! Online's Watch with Kristin, Bamber will play a character who is "heavily involved in an engagement Echo (Eliza Dushku) and her new handler Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) have been assigned to." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

In other Dollhouse-related news, Joss Whedon has confirmed that Season Two of the FOX drama will feature some familiar faces from the Whedonverse including Dr. Horrible's Felicia Day (who appeared in the unaired "Epitaph One" episode), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' Summer Glau, and Angel's Alexis Denisof. (TVGuide.com)

Syfy has announced that Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica will debut on Friday, January 22nd at 10 pm. Of course, if you read my coverage of the Caprica/BSG: The Plan panel at Comic-Con, you already knew all about this. (Variety)

FOX has pushed up the return of Glee by a week to Wednesday, September 9th, where it will air at 9 pm, behind the launch of the new season of So You Think You Can Dance (which also got bumped up a week as well). (Futon Critic)

ABC Family has ordered ten additional episodes of freshman drama Make It or Break It, bringing the first season run to twenty episodes. The back ten episodes will launch in early 2010. (Variety)

Elsewhere at ABC Family, the cabler has announced that Season Three of Greek will launch on Monday, August 31st. Guest stars this season include Olivia Munn, Kadeem Hardison, Thomas Calabro, Tom Amandes, and Jerry Lambert. Greek will air ten new episodes through November. (via press release)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has some Gossip Girl scoop for Season Three, directly from the mouth of executive producer Josh Schwartz: "Well, you know Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) is coming back even though she is at Mercy. She is going to have a very unexpected roommate and a very unexpected love interest." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

UK terrestrial network ITV unveiled its autumn plans, which include the return of The X Factor, Duchess on the Estate, which follows Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson as she helps "communities raise ambitions and standards," a new Life Stories go-around with Piers Morgan, and game show The Cube. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

They Have a Plan: "Caprica/Battlestar Galactica: The Plan" Panel at Comic-Con 2009

This morning's panel at Comic-Con 2009 for Syfy's Caprica and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan certainly did not disappoint.

For one, there was some new footage of BSG: The Plan to see and there was finally a firm announcement about when BSG prequel series Caprica would debut: Friday, January 22nd of next year. Caprica's executive producers Ronald D. More and David Eick, showrunner Jane Espenson, Esai Morales, The Plan's director/star Edward James Olmos and Grace Park were on hand to unveil the footage and discuss what lies ahead for the Battlestar Galactica franchise.

The footage of BSG: The Plan was fast and furious and left me wanting more right now. It gave me chills and will present the Cylon's plan of human genocide from their own twisted POV, enabling the audience to see the events of Battlestar Galactica from the Cylons' perspective.

Jane Espenson, Caprica's showrunner who wrote the script for BSG: The Plan, said that the, er, plans for The Plan all came together rather quickly. "It all happened very quickly," said Espenson. "There was an idea that we would do movies. All of the sudden, we're going to do one and right away. It was a rubik's cube of a script." Espenson said much of the challenge came from being locked into events from the series and trying to match up scenes and scenarios based on what aired.

Edward James Olmost said that "The Plan to Battlestar Galactica is almost like The Bible... You will have to go back and rewatch the whole show" over again, after you watch The Plan.

As for Caprica, executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick were quick to point out that the series can be enjoyed by viewers new to the BSG franchise as it's not limited to "die hard fans." Caprica is decidedly not an action-adventure but rather shows "the beginning of the mythology that informs Battlestar Galactica [but it's] not following specific storylines in BSG," according to Moore. For one thing, Caprica is set further in the past--58 years, to be precise--and Moore says that the series should be "approached as a separate project."

Eick agrees, saying that the plot of Caprica is "tangential" to that of BSG and doesn't "require viewers to bring Battlestar baggage to it." Eick says that it will ask tough questions about our own society, where we are headed, morality, and artificial intelligence. (It is, after all, about the creation of robots.) And, like Battlestar Galactica before it, Caprica will ask what it means to be human, which is really the central theme of the series, according to Eick, who said that there will be some rather "strange bedfellows" in the series and will lead the audience to question whether they are rooting for the right side. He likened the series to Rome before the fall, pointing out Caprica's "decadence, hedonism, and naughiness."

Just don't expect the casual nudity seen in the direct-to-DVD release of Caprica's pilot to appear in the series. "Sadly, no," said Eick when asked whether there would be shots of nude breasts in the series. Still, the on-air version of the Caprica pilot will have some extra goodies when it airs on Syfy next year.

What there will be are different cultural aspects of the twelve colonies that we've not seen to date and these sort of touches--from hats, ties, vintage cars, and cigarettes--will act as a flavor throughout the production. (Or as Morales put it, a mix of "neo-punk and 1940s.") Caprica isn't as "wild or as verite as Battlestar," said Eick, "it's not as visually chaotic but more subtle and elegant, and [having a] more serene, beautiful quality."

Still, it's not static and there's a whole mess of conflict seething underneath the surface as Caprica is set "before the political unification of the colonies," according to Espenson, who said that the series will definitely differentiate between the disparate inhabitants of the colonies and one episode of the first season would actually be set off-world on the Scorpion colony.

And Caprica will have decidedly more humor than BSG did. "There are lots of ways to use humor that doesn't undercut the drama," said Espenson, who is no stranger to humor, having crafted some of the most articulate and humorous episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The most impromptu and heartfelt moment of the Caprica/BSG panel? When Eick lashed out at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for failing to recognize the amazing performances of the cast. "It is a frakking crime that the cast of BSG was never nominated," said Eick.

Best part of Caprica panel? Esai Morales hugging Eddie Olmos, kissing him on the head, and saying "my baby!!!"

So is The Plan the last we'll see of BSG? "It depends," says Eick. Hmmm. "I can guarantee you it won't be the last BSG movie," said Olmos.

For his part, Olmos joked that he wrote a script in which Adama is living in rustic log cabin when there is a knock at the door and it's Colonel Tigh, who says, "We have a problem." (Ahem.)

And Moore responded to a question about a DVD release for Virtuality, the FOX drama pilot he co-created by Michael Taylor by saying that the DVD release was up in the air but he promised future smoking/drinking commentaries for Caprica and Virtuality "whether they put it on the frakking DVD or not."

The video for the full Caprica/BSG: The Plan panel can be found below:



Caprica is set to premiere Friday, January 22nd, 2010.