BuzzFeed: "Lost Changed My Life In More Ways Than I Can Count"

“Guys, where are we?”

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "Lost Changed My Life In More Ways Than I Can Count," in which I revisit the 10th anniversary of Lost's premiere and look at how my life has changed in the time since the show first began.

I saw the pilot episode of Lost a few months before it premiered on ABC exactly 10 years ago today — on Sept. 22, 2004.

I was working in television development at the time, and a box of pilots — they may have even been on VHS tapes — had just arrived from a talent agency. My co-workers and I gathered in a tiny, cramped office to sort through the 30–40 screeners, most with titles and premises now forgotten, to find our copy of Lost. Damon Lindelof was an unknown name to us then, but we were addicted to Alias, the trippy espionage drama from Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams, who had also won our hearts with the wistful Felicity.

Twitter and social media as we now know them did not yet exist and, while we had followed the development of the super-expensive pilot in the Hollywood trades (when people still read printed trade publications), we knew nothing of the plot beyond the seemingly simple strangers-survive-a-plane-crash premise. We had no idea just what was in store for us as we dimmed the lights and hit “play.”

The 90-minute pilot was full of scares, surprises, and even a few laughs (that wonky polar bear!), and, most importantly, it introduced mysteries that had us immediately talking and questioning. And it’s the latter that became a trademark effect of the show, one that would be closely associated with Lost until its finale in 2010 and well beyond, and one that was instrumental in helping to cement the show’s massive success. (Almost 20 million people tuned in to the pilot when it aired.) What was this island? What was a crazed polar bear doing in the jungle? What was going to happen to these survivors and, to borrow the words of rocker Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), “Where are we?”

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BuzzFeed: "Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces Makes You See Fire Walk With Me In A Different Way"

David Lynch unveiled nearly 90 minutes of deleted and extended scenes to his 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me at a Los Angeles theater last night. It was intense and weird.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces Makes You See Fire Walk With Me In A Different Way," in which I look at the so-called Missing Pieces from Twin Peaks — the deleted scenes from David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me — unveiled by Lynch last night at the world premiere in Los Angeles.

WARNING: The following contains information about the identity of Laura Palmer’s killer. If, by some chance, you are reading this and haven’t finished the more than two decades-old series, stop reading before you are spoiled.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, David Lynch’s follow-up prequel to cult classic television series Twin Peaks, has always been an odd beast. It recounts the final seven days of the life of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), whose inexplicable and brutal murder is the impetus for the short-lived drama that riveted viewers when it aired between 1990 and 1991. It is also about the similarly brutal murder of Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley), a woman killed a year before Laura in a similarly ritualistic manner whose death puts FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) on alert, following the disappearance of one of his colleagues investigating her murder.

One would expect that the film is a strict prequel, but it is not: Fire Walk With Me plays with time in a unique and nonlinear fashion, making it both prequel and sequel in an odd, contradictory sense. Like Twin Peaks, it is both dreamy and nightmarish, making the conflation of time make sense slightly more. There are visions and sigils, haunted rings and groves of trees, whirring ceiling fans and rustling curtains. The film itself is cryptic and strange, embracing a full-tilt Lynchian mode that the director successfully curtailed in the ethereal Mulholland Drive. Fire Walk With Me is about dreams, desire, and death. It is about answers and more questions. And it is also an unflinching look at the horrors of incest.

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BuzzFeed: "What If Seinfeld Had Used Suggested Hashtags?"

Don’t forget to tweet using the hashtag #iwasinthepool. #MustSeeTV indeed.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest post, "What If Seinfeld Had Used Suggested Hashtags?" in which I imagine a world in which Twitter existed when Seinfeld was on the air and if NBC had used suggested hashtags on-screen for some of the show's most memorable moments. What a world indeed.

Seinfeld creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld may have claimed that the show — which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1998 — was about nothing, but devotees of the beloved comedy know that that’s not exactly true. Individual episodes centered around some facet of everyday life (from marble rye to a cologne that smells like you just came from the beach) and many of those so-called nothings have since become iconic moments in popular culture.

While Twitter didn’t exist when Seinfeld was on the air originally, imagine a world in which NBC could have guided our social media-based thoughts with those now-ubiquitous suggested hashtags that pop up every time you’re watching a current television series.

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BuzzFeed: "Clueless Comes of Age"

When Amy Heckerling set out to make a modern day retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, few imagined that the director would create a new classic and one of the most quoted films ever. The Alicia Silverstone comedy turns 18 years old today, but, let’s be honest, Clueless is timeless.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my first feature for the site, "Clueless Comes of Age," in which I write about Clueless turning 18 years old today, which is horrifying on so many levels.

Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, inspired by the winking spirit of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, was released in theaters 18 years ago today, which means that it has officially reached adulthood. For a movie about the vapidity of adolescence, the fact that nearly two decades have come and gone since Clueless first hit theaters cuts through me like a knife.

I was nearly 18 years old when the Alicia Silverstone film came out, and I saw it on opening weekend, a hot July night in 1995, the summer before I went to college. I don’t think anyone anticipated that the film would become a sleeper hit (it grossed $11 million on its opening weekend, way ahead of estimates), nor that it would go on to spawn a lexicon of its own — with its “Barneys” and “Bettys,” the use of “As if!” as a viable rejoinder to any argument — but for those of us who discovered the film in those days, it was like a bright light was being shined directly into the inner chambers of our hearts.

Clueless, first and foremost, was smart. It may have traded Regency-era England for 1990s Beverly Hills, but it managed to retain the spark of both Austen’s titular heroine and the flintiness of the novel’s romantic comedy plot, which presents naïve Emma Woodhouse as a self-made Cupid who is, in actuality, a selfish meddler who needs to learn what love really is, even as she plays at making couples out of those around her. A few broken hearts and a sudden realization — that she loves her romantic sparring partner, Mr. Knightley — later, and Emma is both humbled and bowled over by love. She is transformed by the experience, and her romantic adventure mirrors her psychological development. Emma moves into adulthood, and so too does Austen’s “gentle reader” in a way.

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The Daily Beast: "Rewind: BBC’s Iconic Political Thriller House of Cards Still Captivates"

Ahead of David Fincher’s American remake of House of Cards, which launches on Netflix in February, I revisit the original British potboiler and find that it still thrusts a steely rapier under the viewer’s skin.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Rewind: BBC’s Iconic Political Thriller House of Cards Still Captivates," in which I reflect upon the legacy and vitality of 1990 British miniseries House of Cards, ahead of Netflix's American remake--premiering Feb 1 and starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Mara, and Robin Wright--from David Fincher and Beau Willimon.

Netflix, the now-ubiquitous digital streaming service, will enter the original programming arena with its upcoming American remake of House of Cards, from writer Beau Willimon (Farragut North) and director/executive producer David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). The series, which launches Feb. 1, stars Kevin Spacey, Kate Mara, and Robin Wright in roles that are now as iconic as the British miniseries itself.

In many ways Netflix picked a stellar property to adapt as their first nonacquired original. The American House of Cards is, of course, based on the 1990 BBC political thriller miniseries of the same name—itself adapted by writer Andrew Davies from Michael Dobbs’s novel—which revolved around the Conservative Party’s chief whip, the Machiavellian Francis Urquhart, played to icy perfection by the late Ian Richardson.

More than 20 years after its release, House of Cards still manages to thrust a steely rapier under the viewer’s skin, its view of the hostile British political maneuverings of Urquhart and his kind both riveting and shocking. The overarching plot is simple: Urquhart—who is part spymaster, part enforcer, and wholly unpredictable and dangerous—is passed over for a cabinet position when his candidate for prime minister rises to power. Frustrated and seething, he sets out to destroy everyone in his path as he launches a chesslike battle to ascend to the highest seat in Her Majesty’s Government. Along the way, Urquhart meets an ambitious young journalist, Mattie Storin (Susannah Harker), and together they help each other achieve their ends, their partnership tinged with a particularly creepy psychosexual tension.

In Britain, House of Cards premiered on Nov. 18, 1990, playing out against the backdrop of the final weeks of Margaret Thatcher’s downfall and the succession of fellow Tory John Major to the seat of prime minister. With a clear sense of premonition, Thatcher’s fall from grace is even dealt with in the narrative. “Nothing lasts forever,” Urquhart says to a framed picture of Maggie Thatcher. “Even the longest and most glittering reign must come to an end someday.” (Even more emphatically, Urquhart—with a roguish smile—turns her picture facedown on his desk.)

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The Daily Beast: "Dark Shadows for Dummies"

Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows doesn’t require a deep knowledge of the '60s gothic-horror TV show, but it helps—and my glossary and character gallery explain all!

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Dark Shadows for Dummies," in which I offer a fairly comprehensive glossary of characters, terms, and places from 45+ years of Dark Shadows continuity, several series, films, and a plethora of other materials. What is Parallel Time? Who is Angelique Bouchard? What is Widow's Hill? It's all in here.

In the more than 45 years since Dark Shadows first premiered as an afternoon soap opera on ABC in June 1966, the series created by Dan Curtis has spawned numerous feature films, novels, television series, comic books, and even hit singles. Evolving from a standard soap opera into a supernatural horror-fest—overflowing with vampires, witches, ghosts, and H.P. Lovecraftian ancient beings (remember the Leviathans?)—Dark Shadows was a forerunner for many of today’s spine-tingling TV shows and films.

Revolving largely around tortured vampire Barnabas Collins (and, initially, around governess ingénue Victoria Winters), Dark Shadows offered thrills, chills, and unintentional laughs, thanks to rapid-fire production times and frequent flubs (such as actors forgetting lines, the sets swaying, crew members wandering onto the set, or the boom mic being visible), but it has also found a legion of fans new and old for its imaginative world and what might be the first depiction of a remorseful vampire.

With the May 11 release of Tim Burton’s feature film version, which stars Johnny Depp as bloodsucker Barnabas Collins, it’s time to either brush up on your knowledge of Dark Shadows or dive into the world’s complex and often confusing mythology for the first time. What is the difference between Collinwood and Collinsport? What is Parallel Time? What was House of Dark Shadows?

We delve into the original 1966-71 ABC soap, the 1991 NBC revival series, and beyond to offer you a glossary of Dark Shadows’ most common terms, characters, and concepts.

Angelique Bouchard: A vengeful witch in the 18th century who is responsible for the curse that transforms Barnabas Collins into a vampire after he spurns her for his true love Josette DuPres. She is played by Eva Green in the 2012 film; previously, the role has been filled by Lara Parker and Lysette Anthony, as well as Ivana Millicevic in the unaired 2004 pilot. (See also: WB Pilot, The.)

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The Daily Beast: "The Enduring Thrills of Dark Shadows"

Nearly 50 years ago, Gothic soap Dark Shadows hooked audiences with its spooky storylines and before-its-time remorseful vampire. Ahead of Tim Burton’s movie adaptation, a new DVD version of the show--a limited edition $600 complete series containing all 1220+ episodes packaged in a coffin--comes out Tuesday.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read "The Enduring Thrills of Dark Shadows," in which I reflect upon the enduring legacy of afternoon soap opera Dark Shadows and its influence upon popular culture today. I grew up watching both the 1991 revival series (which aired during primetime on NBC during the Gulf War) and the original, watching whatever scraps I could get my hands on from VHS tapes at Blockbuster and syndicated runs of the show. It remains a magical experience unlike anything on television to this day.

In Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, due in theaters Friday, Johnny Depp puts on the fangs of immortal vampire Barnabas Collins, awakened from his centuries-old slumber into a time he cannot comprehend, surrounded by a wealthy and eccentric family he does not know, and thirsting for both blood and his doomed true love, Josette du Pres.

Dark Shadows, of course, is based on Dan Curtis’s groundbreaking cult classic, the 1966–71 ABC daytime soap that became mandatory viewing for many households, including a generation of viewers rushing home from school to catch its latest supernatural plotline. The show spun off feature films (1970’s House of Dark Shadows and 1971’s Night of Dark Shadows), a short-lived 1991 NBC revival series (plus a failed 2004 pilot at the WB), and countless audio plays, books, comics, and merchandise. But Dark Shadows—which will be rereleased Tuesday as a $600 limited-edition complete-series DVD box set, with all 1,225 episodes packaged in a plush coffin—didn’t initially feature the brooding Barnabas (played memorably by the late Jonathan Frid) or indeed contain any hint of the horrors to come.

When Dark Shadows began in June 1966, it was a black-and-white soap revolving around a young orphan, Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke), who received an offer of employment from Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Joan Bennett), the matriarch of a wealthy New England family in far-away Collinsport, Maine. Recalling Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the Collins clan was deeply eccentric and isolated, their crumbling castle on the hill regarded alternately with suspicion or animosity from the townspeople. Soon a ghost or two emerged into the storylines, a blend of soapy intrigue and romance, and then there was the strange case of Laura Collins (Diana Millay), the estranged wife of scion Roger (Louis Edmonds), who was revealed to be an Egyptian phoenix, risen from the ashes, to reclaim her son David (David Henesy).

But it was the arrival, in April 1967, of Barnabas Collins that pushed Dark Shadows truly into the supernatural camp. Originally intended to appear for just a short run of a few weeks, Frid’s memorable take on Barnabas as a tortured, self-loathing vampire at odds with his hungers and impulses became such a hit with viewers that he remained on the series through the remainder of its run. (Over that time, Frid would play Barnabas in a series of time periods, as vampire and mere human, and other characters as well.)

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The Daily Beast: "Rewind: Rome Burns in I, Claudius"

Thirty-five years ago, PBS captivated audiences with the blood-and-sex-laden ancient-Roman soap I, Claudius, which is still influential. A new DVD version comes out Tuesday.

Over at The Daily Beast, it's the first of a new series called Rewind, which will look back at a television show or film that has proven to resonate. You can read my latest feature, "Rome Burns in I, Claudius," in which I take a look at PBS' ancient Rome-set drama, which celebrates the 35th anniversary of its U.S. broadcast this year.

I, Claudius celebrates the 35th anniversary of its U.S. broadcast this year. A rapt and devoted audience consumed this spellbinding ancient-Rome period drama when it first aired in 1976 on the BBC in the U.K., and in 1977 on PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre. Starring Derek Jacobi as the titular character and featuring some of the best boldface names in British acting circles, the Emmy Award–winning show—which ran 12 episodes and is today being released as a remastered five-disc DVD box set—is a multigenerational saga about the emperors of ancient Rome and the conspiracies, intrigues, murders, and madness that stood in their shadows.

Despite the fact that the poison-and-plots-laden miniseries, adapted by Jack Pulman (who wrote every episode), is now approaching middle-age, I, Claudius—based on the 1934 novel (and its sequel) by Robert Graves—remains one of the best dramas ever to air on television, a deft masterpiece of story, character, and, perhaps most importantly, vivid atmosphere. Shot on multiple cameras (whereas today it would be shot on a single camera in a more cinematic fashion) and with a budget that didn’t include throngs of rioting plebs, the style lends an overtly theatrical and intimate air to I, Claudius, as though the television set itself were the proscenium of a great theater. It’s here that the court intrigues of several emperors—from Augustus to Caligula—play out episodically; the show itself takes place between the years 24 B.C. and 54 A.D., charting the ups and downs of the Julio-Claudian imperial dynasty as characters breeze in and out of the frame, returning decades later to enact bitter revenges or suffer themselves from the hands of poisoners, assassins, or godly whims.

Narrated by Jacobi’s Claudius, a stuttering, limping man thought by all to be a fool who is nonetheless prophesied to one day rule Rome, I, Claudius dramatizes the period leading up to his birth and through his death, as he—now an old man and fading from this world—writes down the story of his life and that of his conniving family. The show’s opening sequence—which depicts a snake, a venomous adder, slithering over a mosaic tile floor—is both iconic and only too fitting, given the series’ depiction of ancient Rome as a nest of vipers, the most deadly of which is Livia (Siân Phillips), wife of Augustus and grandmother of Claudius.

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The Daily Beast: "Twin Peaks' Strange Reunion"

"She's dead. Wrapped in plastic."

Twenty years ago today (yes, precisely to the day), Laura Palmer's killer was unmasked for Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Truman on ABC's seminal series Twin Peaks. Tonight, many of the original cast members of the haunting and harrowing series will reunite on-screen for the first time in two decades on USA's Psych, which airs its Twin Peaks homage episode, "Dual Spires," tonight at 10 pm ET/PT.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "Twin Peaks' Strange Reunion," in which I explore the enduring legacy of Twin Peaks and speak with the series' co-creator Mark Frost and Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee, about the groundbreaking drama series and where things went wrong, and speak with Psych's star James Roday (who penned tonight's "Dual Spires" episode) about his Twin Peaks obsession (one that rivals my own).

All this plus, a damn fine gallery feature entitled "The Cast of Twin Peaks: Where Are They Now?" which explores what 12 of the series' stars have been up to since they last set foot in the Double R Diner.

Serve up a slice of cherry pie, grab a cup of Norma's coffee, and remember when...

Friday Night Lights Watch: Courage and Conviction on Season Four of FNL

Earlier this week, I finished watching Season Four of Friday Night Lights and, wiping away the manly tears that fell from my eyes, I'm already anxiously awaiting the start of the fifth and final season this fall.

Over the course of the summer, my wife and I have gone back and watched all four seasons of Friday Night Lights and fallen in love with this remarkable and heartfelt drama series, which in its fourth season inverted its premise to present even more complications for the central couple of Eric and Tami Taylor (Emmy Award nominees Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton), who found themselves under attack from a number of directions at once. From the school board, from the townspeople, from parents, from those who would see them fail rather than triumph.

(If you missed my earlier posts about the first three seasons, you can read my thoughts on Season One here, Season Two here, and Season Three here.)

Whereas the first three seasons presented a series of struggles both marital and professional for the Taylors, Season Four pushed the Texas couple--and the town of Dillon itself--nearly to their breaking points, as Eric was forced out of his job as the Panthers coach and handed an impossible task: to form a new football program at the decrepit East Dillon High (recently reopened after Season Three's redistricting) while Tami remained under fire as the principal of Dillon High.

While the show has always been about the invincible nature of the human spirit, Season Four of Friday Night Lights took the series in a different direction, presenting Coach Taylor with a nearly Sisyphean task to overcome. The goal wasn't the state championships anymore nor anything quite so lofty. No, this molder of men would once again have to get his hands dirty shaping a new team, transforming sullen and combative individuals into something resembling a fully functional single unit. And prove to the town at large that both he and this young men were capable of surprising everyone.

The battle lines drawn between the Dillon Panthers and the East Dillon Lions weren't arbitrary. In the hands of Jason Katims and his talented team of writers, the division became one of economics and race, as the show tackled some weighty issues and provided a portrait of a very different Dillon, one that wasn't as idealized and noble as the first few seasons.

Over the course of thirteen outstanding installments, Katims and Co. tackled hot-button issues of drug addiction, abortion, grief, and gang violence as the focus shifted from lily-white West Dillon to the mean streets of the other side of town, a place where a park wasn't an oasis but rather a crime-ridden hellhole, its lights permanently turned off, its purpose forgotten amid a sea of brutality.

Just as Eric Taylor gets the lights turned on at Carroll Park, so too does Friday Night Lights shine a spotlight on the challenges facing East Dillon's residents. Functioning as the new entrypoint to the story is Vince Howard (The Wire's sensational Michael B. Jordan), a young man at a crucial crossroads in his life, one torn between the potential that Eric is offering him and the lure of the street, a decision complicated further by the fact that his mother Regina (Angela Rawna) is a drug addict in need of saving.

While Vince is put through the ringer, there is someone who believes in him: his friend and would-be love interest Jess (Jurnee Smollett), who finds herself drawn towards nice guy Landry (Jesse Plemons), despite the obvious simmering attraction between her and Vince.

But we can't force anyone to take the path we want them to. Vince must find his own way in the world, make the right choices for himself. The same holds true for Zach Gilford's Matt Saracen, who gets one of the most intense and emotionally resonant storylines this season as Matt grapples with the unexpected death of his father, his grief pushing him to make a dramatic change in his own life.

Among a series of innately strong episodes, "The Son"--which focused on the fallout of the death of Matt's father and how it impacts everyone around Matt as he finally has an emotional breakdown at the Taylors' house--stands apart from the rest. Gilford gives a staggering performance that taps into our collective grief, a tricky turn that balances his inability to articulate his emotion with a male rage at a lack of control over the universe. Provocative and compelling, it's a sadly overlooked performance that points towards Gilford's strength as an actor and was impossible to shake after viewing.

It's Matt's story that provides the season with emotional bookends: the kid who stuck around in Dillon to care for his ailing grandmother (Louanne Stephens) and to be with girlfriend Julie (Aimee Teegarden) finally gets out for good, flying back to Chicago with his best friend by his side. Having returned to offer Julie not only an explanation for his departure but an olive branch (a plane ticket to Chicago), he's turned down by Julie but achieves an inner peace. There's an almost beatific expression on his face as he stares out of the plane windows, Dillon receding to a place in his past, not necessarily his future.

It's a fate that's juxtaposed with that of Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), who remains an important focal point within the series' narrative. Reeling after graduation, Tim ditches college and returns to Dillon, where he shakily attempts to find direction in his life. Is he destined to work on cars with brother Billy (Derek Phillips) at Riggins' Rigs? Is he still dreaming of owning a piece of land and achieving that dream of "Texas forever" that he and Jason had once spoken about so reverently? And just what is he willing to do to achieve those ends?

Season Four finds a very different Riggins than we've seen before. No longer a football star yet clinging to his identity as 33, Rigs finds himself aimless. That is, until he meets the precocious Becky Sproles (Madison Burge), a 16-year-old who thinks that she's the perfect thing for Tim. Rather than fall into bed together, however, Tim takes Becky under his wing, protecting her against the lies her father spews at her, supporting her dreams, and supporting her when she discovers that she's pregnant.

(It's Tim's decision to seek the counsel of Tami Taylor that leads Tami to her own personal crucible this season as she's called out for counseling a teenage girl to get an abortion--a spurious claim that nevertheless leads her to step down from her position as principal of West Dillon and head up the counseling unit at run-down East Dillon, professionally reuniting her with Eric in the process.)

While Becky would have their relationship turn romantic, it's important that Tim keeps it absolutely platonic. His decision to do so demonstrates a different side to Tim Riggins, echoes of which we saw in Season Two with Julie Taylor. A protective, gentlemanly presence mixed with something almost paternal.

Which is interesting as it's Billy who becomes a father this season, though his puts his baby and his future with Mindy (Stacey Oristano) in jeopardy when he convinces Tim to begin chopping stolen cars for profit. His intentions are good: he needs money for Mindy's difficult pregnancy and for his family but his decision to commit a series of crimes opens them up for more difficulty.

Tim, however, comes up with an elegant if selfless solution: he'll confess to the crimes and keep Billy out of it. Billy can remain with his family, become the father his family needs him to be, and Tim will do the time. Having lost the land he purchased and lost the makeshift family he created when Becky's mom Cheryl (Alicia Witt) kicks him out, Tim finds meaning and a purpose: he can sacrifice his own freedom to ensure his brother's.

It's a heartbreaking and unexpected twist of fate, one at odds with the very freedom that Saracen achieves at the end of the season. Tim opted to remain in Dillon and his decision leads almost directly to him not being able to leave, a self-created prisoner whose incarceration isn't figurative but quite painfully literal. Yet at the same time, his throwing himself on the fire is an act of courage, of self-sacrifice, and of nobility, an argument against the hateful words of Cheryl. Tim Riggins might be "nothing" in her eyes and those of the law, but he has saved the Riggins family with his gesture, given the severity of Billy's previous charges.

Becky's unwanted child, meanwhile, leads not only to her own personal crossroads but to Tami's as well. Despite her pleas to Luke Cafferty (the fantastic Matt Lauria) to keep her pregnancy a secret, he tells his religious parents that he got a girl pregnant. When his mother learns that Becky had an abortion, she turns her anger against Tami and attempts to have her fired.

While Margaret (Kathleen Griffith) believes what she is doing is right, she's blind to her own child's problems as Luke develops a dependence on prescription painkillers after injuring his hip... and keeping his injury a secret from Coach and the entire team. While she's railing against Tami for offering advice that "killed" her "grandchild," her own son is killing his own body in secret.

Tami's decision not to apologize but to make a statement about how she put the needs of a student--of a scared teenage girl--first and followed protocol reveal the strength of character and conviction that have marked Tami Taylor from the start. This season found her grappling with the political nature of her public job, juggling spiteful boosters and school board members, rather than focusing on what got her into education in the first place: the kids. Her decision to go East Dillon, where she's needed," points too to her own selfless nature.

Just what will the future hold for the Taylors? Will Julie go off to school far away? Will they have to deal with financial issues now that both of their salaries have likely been cut? Eric may not have gotten the Lions to the state championship but that was never in the cards for this scrappy team. But they proved that they had the heart to overtake their rivals, the Panthers, on their own field.

It was a victory not just for Eric and for the team but for the underdogs everywhere, in every battle. It was a reminder of the unbreakable bond between teammates and of the the truth of Eric's early words in the series: clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

And in reminding us of such, neither it seems can Friday Night Lights itself.

Season Five of Friday Night Lights begins October 27th on DirecTV's The 101 Network.

Friday Night Lights Watch: Dreams Deferred (and Achieved) on Season Three of FNL

Last night, we finished watching Season Three of Friday Night Lights. I'm still recovering, emotionally, from the end of a season that brought the promise and potential back to this extraordinary series.

I had no doubts that the series would come back around and be able to find its true creative direction (one without murder conspiracy cover-up plots or capital-D Drama) after the uneven and truncated second season, which screamed of network interference and, no sooner did it finally begin to find its way again, the season was cut short due to the writers strike.

While I had extreme doubts about the second season, I knew that the writers--with Jason Katims at the helm--could bring back the emotional resonance and connection that the groundbreaking first season of Friday Night Lights had so effortlessly pulled off.

My belief wasn't mislaid: with Season Three, the writers not only brought back the very elements that had made the series a success but built upon them, continuing to observe life in this small Texas town through the prism of high school football and wrapping up the storylines of both Smash Williams (Gaius Charles) and Jason Street (Scott Porter), while taking us through yet another season of Dillon Panthers football to create a tremulous and taut final hour that brought a slew of changes for the characters we've come to know and love.

It's these changes that carry some of the most emotional complexity and weight, charting both the naturalistic rites of passage--high school graduation, job hunts, and marriage--as well as some intricate and deft plotting about the intricacies of high school administration.

No other series could pull off a masterful storyline--threaded throughout the entire season--about school budgets, redistricting, and the class war in Dillon, a storyline that culminates in Tami Taylor (Connie Britton, once again electric here) having to tell her husband, Coach Eric Taylor (touchstone Kyle Chandler), that he had been replaced as the head coach of the Dillon Panthers after a coup from wealthy booster and chief nemesis Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett). But rather than cast Eric into the four winds, the school board hatches a plan that both blatantly punitive and likely their very downfall: they make him the head football coach at the soon-to-be-reopened Dillon East.

The move creates a cascade of potential storylines, splitting a town in two and creating an atmosphere of tension and animosity in a community that was unified and motivated by their local football team. It also setting up the married Eric and Tami as possible rivals, with Tami still the principal of Dillon High proper and Eric having to move over to a school that makes Dillon H.S. look like an Ivy League institution. But Eric has always been motivated by adversity (just look at how he brought home a state ring even after Jason Street's paralysis in Season One) and putting him in charge of some underdogs will likely only push his desire to get even with McCoy and trounce the Panthers next season.

Additionally, Season Three ended on a series of intriguing notes, centering around the wedding of Billy Riggins (Derek Phillips) and Mindy Collette (Stacey Oristano), with the hard work and perseverance of both Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) and Lyla (Minka Kelly) paying off for both of them, as Tyra makes it off of the waitlist and into UT and Lyla finally turns her life around and admits that she still does want to go to Vanderbilt (and Buddy comes through with the money, after having blown her college fund on a bad investment). But it's the fact that Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) actually makes it to college is one surprise that I didn't expect, despite his plans to live together with Lyla.

Riggins, upon seeing Billy purchase that auto repair shop, wanted the life that his brother was having: a wife, a kid on the way, a job that you could leave early from and drink some beer whilst doing, and some "me time" that meant not pushing himself and not leaving Dillon. But Billy, thankfully, doesn't want that life for his brother: he wants Tim to be a symbol of something better, of dreams achieved, of college degrees, and real potential.

It's a tender and emotional scene between the two brothers that reveals the truth depths of their feelings for one another and for the writers' belief that these characters can grow and change. They can reach for the stars, they can falter and even fall, but there is always the possibility of achieving one's potential.

This is also felt in the way that the storylines of Smash and Jason were wrapped up this season. With Smash's off-screen injury between the seasons and Jason's new fatherhood, the duo have been through quite a bit in the time since we had last seen them. While some series would have had them go off to school and disappear, Friday Night Lights would appear to be just as much in love with these characters as the audience and the writers wisely opted to give both Gaius Charles and Scott Porter a handful of episodes each in which to tie up their dangling plotlines and push them into a bright future.

I loved the way that Eric wouldn't give up on Smash until he had gotten him in school and back on the road to pro football, not allowing him to give up on himself and accept anything less than his dream. Through Eric constantly pushing him to get better and better and regain his confidence, there was apparent the real love that Eric has for these kids, even after they leave the Panthers. (Which makes his betrayal by the school board all the more gutting.) These kids are his family, his life, his passion. Tami said it best when she said that Eric was a "molder of men." He absolutely is and his care for both Smash and Jason proves that unconditionally. (It's the small things on Friday Night Lights: the paint in Eric's hair as he shows up late to the school dance, demonstrating that he helped Jason finish painting that house.)

While Smash found a way to reclaim his passion and confidence and find himself again, Jason needed to find a new context for his life, a new identity that had nothing to do with being the injured star quarterback of the Dillon Panthers. With his girlfriend and baby son having left for New Jersey, he launched an ambitious plan that included flipping Buddy Garrity's old house and landing him (along with the Riggins Brothers and Herc) some cash and then set out to Manhattan with Riggins to land a position as a sports agent. While that was not without serious setbacks, Jason proved that he could not only do what he needed to do in order to land the job, but he made good on his promise to be a good father to Noah and to help take care of his young family. (And the look of profound pride and loss that swirl over Riggins' face as he says goodbye to his best friend was like an emotional sucker punch.)

I'm pleased too that Julie (Aimee Teegarden) and Saracen (Zach Gilford) found their way back to each other, even as Matt faced increased pressure on the team from freshman quarterback J.D. McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter) and lost his starting position... though quickly proved himself to Eric in a new role even as his relationship to Julie took a turn towards the sexual. And Matt was also able to come to terms with his abandonment as a child by his mother Shelby (Kim Dickens) and forge a new and adult relationship with his mom.

But it was Matt's relationship with grandmother Lorraine (Louanne Stephens) that proved to be the most fraught with heartbreak. Very few series--particularly those that on the surface appear to be about a high school football team--would dare to offer a gripping and realistic portrayal of dementia. Over three seasons, Lorraine's struggles with dementia has been at the heart of the series but Matt's acceptance into a prestigious art school in Chicago meant that major decisions had to be made as Lorraine's condition worsened. This storyline was handled with such care and reverence that it brought tears to my eyes, particularly in the final episode of the season.

Lorraine finally realized that she couldn't hold Matt back or stand in the way of his dreams and relented about being placed in an assisted care living facility, believing that he should go to Chicago. But for Matt, Billy and Mindy's wedding brings up a lot of unresolved and complex feelings. He dashes off from the wedding to get Lorraine and bring her there, telling her that he's going to take her back home afterwards and that he'll stay in Dillon.

On the one hand, it's a heartrending decision that Matt would put aside college to look after his grandmother. On the other, he's right when he said that she's the only one who never walked out on him. His decision to stay is a sacrifice forged in love. One can only hope that he deferred his admission rather than just abandoned it. After all, Lorraine's condition is deteriorating. But she might only have another year of semi-lucidity before her disease eats away at her mind to the point where Matt can't care for her anymore. Why shouldn't she spend that year surrounded by who she loves? What price is a single year if it means not abandoning his grandmother when she needs him the most?

Meanwhile, the season also offered a storyline that plumbed the intense pressure that parents can put on their athlete children, something that we hadn't seen to date on Friday Night Lights. While J.D. may have a fantastic arm, he lacks the maturity to lead the team and inspire them, particularly as he takes his cues from his overbearing father Joe, a man so determined to brainwash his child and live vicariously through him that he denies him socialization, fraternization, and any free will of his own, separating him so mercilessly from the team to the point where he is made a laughingstock. The storyline culminates in a shocking showdown in the parking lot of Applebee's, where Joe physically assaults his son in view of Eric and Tami, who have no choice but to report the matter to child protective services.

It's a rain-slicked scene that not only rends the already tenuous relationship between the McCoys and the Taylors but also seals Eric's fate at the end of the season, creating a nemesis in Joe who is unrelenting in his determination to make his son a star and make Eric pay for what he did. With one punch, everything in Dillon changed... and not necessarily for the better.

I'm already anxious to watch Season Four of Friday Night Lights (I very luckily have a screener set from NBC of the entire season), but it will have to wait until after Comic-Con as I don't want to rush through the fourth season... and I still want to turn the brilliant, engaging, and emotionally layered third season over in my mind a little more.

Ultimately, this season stands up to the perfection of the freshman season, offering just as many tears, smiles, and laughs as the original did as well as some genuine emotional stakes that don't require stalkers, teen murderers, or student-teacher affairs in order to make it compelling. Sometimes the very best drama not only comes from the heart but from the everyday reality we all live. Thanks for the memories, Dillon.

Friday Night Lights Watch: Examining the Flawed Second Season

I heard a lot of negative things about Season Two of Friday Night Lights, which I finished watching over the long weekend as part of my Friday Night Lights catch-up.

After the strength of the freshman season, Season Two of Friday Night Lights almost feels like a different series altogether. While there were some beautiful moments that stood out, they were just moments rather than a cohesive season of taut storyelling. It's a stark contrast to the first season of Friday Night Lights, where each episode managed to build on the one prior to create a staggering portrait of a small town that perfectly captured, as I said last week, the ebb and flow of real life.

Not so with Season Two, where the main network note seemed to have been to inject Drama into the series. Yes, Drama with a capital d, rather than the more nuanced and studied drama of the first season. Here, everything had to be bigger, had to be bolder, and had to be broader than ever before.

Yes, watching from the first episode of the season it was blatantly clear that there was some major network interference going on here as the series made an effort to fit in more with nighttime soaps than in keeping the tone and balance of the previous season. Gone were the smaller stories of awkward adolescence, the powerful friendships, the tiny moments on which dreams were built or discarded. Not helping matters was the fact that the truncated season was derailed by the WGA strike.

I do think that Season Two of Friday Night Lights found itself as it went on, which made the decision by NBC not to resume production after the writers strike ended all the more gutting. The back half of the season, particularly the final installments showed the series getting back to its roots and reclaiming its voice once more... before it had to end on a non-cliffhanger that left the rest of the season--including whether the Panthers made it to the playoffs or to the state championships--in the dark. (Also unclear, though all bound to be revealed in Season Three: whether Jason had managed to convince the flame-haired waitress to keep their baby, whether Lila would continue her tentative relationship with Matt Czuchry's Christian Chris Kennedy, and whether Carlotta would return to mend Saracen's wounded heart.)

It helped that that the ludicrous murder cover-up conspiracy plot involving Tyra and Landry was wrapped up halfway through the season. I was well aware of how awful this storyline was ahead of time but I didn't quite appreciate just how much it would completely destroy Landry's character over the course of the season. Could Tyra and Landry have still accidentally killed Tyra's would-be rapist? Sure. Could the incident have still pushed them together into an unlikely romance? Absolutely. Would Landry still be plagued by guilt over what happened? Definitely.

Instead, it took the characters and pushed them into another series altogether, one where characters killed indiscriminately and then didn't feel any semblance of remorse (Tyra) or where a sunny and upbeat character became a dour, haunted individual who stole away some of the comic relief.

By pushing the duo into this OTT murder storyline, the series robbed viewers of one of the more rewarding relationships on the series--that between Matt Saracen and Landry--and curtailed several important story beats along the way. The beginning of the season should have focused on Landry's new role on the Dillon Panthers, his ecstasy at joining a team he cheered from the sidelines, and friction with his best friend but it instead made Landry and Saracen virtual strangers. Landry didn't tell Saracen about losing his virginity to Tyra, nor did Matt tell Landry about his burgeoning relationship with Carlotta. Whereas before there were open lines of communication between the two, they split apart without any real storyline involving their distance from one another, despite them now being teammates.

Likewise, we as an audience lost our entry point to the Panthers as Landry's focus wasn't on football but evading the police and keeping himself out of jail... even going so far as to bring his father into the conspiracy as police officer Chad Clarke destroyed evidence to keep suspicion of his son, a plot point that went unnoticed, as did any reaction from Landry's mother about her son's complicity in the murder of a rapist.

While I also understand why the writers would seek to get Eric back to Dillon as quickly as possible, they also jumped over any reaction from Tami and Julie about Eric moving home, with Eric turning up in the driveway and the twosome acting as though they knew he was coming back. (But what was their reaction? When did they learn about it?) Additionally, the firing of Chris Mulkey's Coach McGregor was handled very quickly, though there were some repercussions as a result of his swift dismissal (namely, Eric taking over as athletic director of Dillon High School).

I will say, however, that Season Two of Friday Night Lights did a wonderful job once again with the core relationship between Connie Britton's Tami and Kyle Chandler's Eric, making the Taylors once again a powerful force to be reckoned with, even as they themselves were beset with problems this season, from the birth of baby Grace and their long-distance relationship to daughter Julie's rebellious streak and some intriguing jealousy on the part of Eric. Their storyline focused on the stresses of everyday marriage and child-rearing, the fear of letting go both of newborns and of teenagers, and the push-and-pull of long-term relationships.

Additionally, I loved the storyline that had Taylor Kitsch's Riggins moving in with the Taylors for a brief spell, after the high drama of his living with a gun-wielding, ferret-loving meth cooker. It was lovely to see Eric and Tim bond over some quality time together, each fulfilling a missing role in the other's life (Eric for the son he never had, Tim for the father he lost) and, in the words of Coach Taylor, balancing the gender teams in the household.

Riggins, meanwhile, saved Julie not once but twice--shielding her body with his during a tornado and rescuing a drunk Julie from a lecherous teen at a party--only to be thrown out by Eric when he walked into Julie's room and caught her and Tim in a compromising position. The scene where he later apologized to Tim and called his actions "honorable" was a nice coda to this storyline, given how stubborn and quick to judge Eric often can be.

Fortunately, nothing happened between Tim and Julie, whose brattiness this season led to both Tami slapping her across the face in frustration and a near affair with a teacher (which fortunately didn't happen). That both the latter storyline and the relationship between Saracen and his grandmother's nurse Carlotta both played out after the Riggins-Jackie romance of Season One made them both feel repetitive. The May-September romance thing just felt forced this season and failed to create any real sparks. In the case of Saracen, it led him to a very dark place where he began to drink and cut class and generally act out... until Coach Taylor throttled him into the shower and talked some sense into him.

That many of these storylines--including the continued battle against adversity for Jason Street--were incomplete, due to the writers strike, means that there was no opportunity to see these play out in full. Yes, Friday Night Lights has used a time-jump between seasons before but in previous years, we at least got to see the end results of the season and the wrap-up of a few storylines.

I don't doubt that these dangling story threads will be dealt with in the third season premiere--just like life, Friday Night Lights goes on even if we're not watching--but I do feel cheated by the fact that we won't get to see these stories continue first-hand, as the time-jump between the second and third years has got to be fairly considerable to get us back to the start of football season in Dillon.

Which is sad, really. Season Two of Friday Night Lights has been plagued by a reputation for being awful that the series itself sought to overcome as it went on. While I won't be in a rush to rewatch it any time soon, it also hasn't diminished my enthusiasm for the series, particularly as I've heard amazing things about the next third and fourth seasons.

But to everything there is a season and to every season an end. That came too quickly for the sophomore season of Friday Night Lights but I for one am happy that I can jump into what promises to be a return to form for this ambitious, intelligent, and heart-felt series. Here's to moving on in the next day or so Season Three...

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts: I Am Now Officially a Friday Night Lights Convert

Confession time: I'm a recent convert to Friday Night Lights.

In the world of television, it's often necessary to make a judgment based on a pilot episode of a series. In fact, one job I held in Hollywood made it absolutely necessary to do just that: determine what would be a worthwhile series based on the pilot script and then the shot pilot. With financial investments on the line, it was imperative that one make a snap judgment based on a single episode of a series.

In a lot of cases, that initial judgment proves to be the correct one. But sometimes, the pilot doesn't quite match the full potential of the subsequent series.

When I originally watched the pilot for NBC's Friday Night Lights, it didn't click with me. I found it preachy, saccharine, riddled with some awkward dialogue, and placing far too much emphasis on the football aspect. I wrote off the series for a bit and then, when I heard about the creative struggles of Season Two, I opted not to go back and catch up.

How wrong I was.

Recently, I watched the entire 22-episode first season of Friday Night Lights in a handful of days, devouring the entire freshman season in the evenings and dreaming of Dillon at night. While the pilot and second episodes still failed to win me over, I persevered through those early episodes and found myself hooked on the series around the fourth installment.

What I had missed out on was a groundbreaking and emotionally resonant series that charted the ebbs and flows of life in a small Texas town. Revolving around a place where high school football was the focus, the residents of Dillon don't just see football as entertainment or sport but rather as an embodiment of Dream, an aspirational activity where the game becomes something akin to communion.

But Jason Katim's Friday Night Lights, while ostensibly about football, isn't really about the nitty-gritty aspects of the pigskin, instead using its importance in the town of Dillon to explore the relationships between the players, the audience, the cheerleaders, the teachers, and the students. Those who are obsessed with the game, those who avoid it, and those who find their fates inexorably intertwined with football itself: Eric and Tami Taylor (Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton), whose nuanced relationship marks one of the most realistic depictions of the joys and pains of marriage; their rebellious daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden); and new starting quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford, perfectly cast here).

Then there was the way that Season One of Friday Night Lights handled the paralysis of star player Jason Street (Scott Porter). While most series would have written Jason off after the pilot, the season charted his own recovery, his attempt to regain use of his limbs, and the way that his fractured dreams impacted everyone around him, from his parents to devoted girlfriend Lyla (Minka Kelly) and best friend Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch). What developed was a painful and beautiful story of recovery in the face of adversity, of mistakes made, relationships broken, and new dreams created. Porter's compelling performance anchored the season in an unexpected and provocative way as Jason progressed through the difficult stages of acceptance of his new condition and its limitations.

It's a storyline that's built around hope and heartbreak in equal measure and that's true about Friday Night Lights as a whole, really. While the season plots the highs and lows of the Panther's season--from the shock of Jason's accident to their victory at the end of the season--it also follows the emotional state of the entire town as well.

Likewise, the season plunged headfirst into the relationship between Eric and Tami Taylor, setting both up as strong characters in their own right. What other series would take its central characters, in a committed marital relationship, and separate them in terms of space, sending Eric to TMU to pursue his dream of coaching college football while Tami remained--pregnant, no less--in Dillon so that she could continue to work with her high school kids as their guidance counselor and allow Julie to plant some roots in Dillon and continue dating Saracen, who had his own hands full caring for his grandmother, suffering from dementia, while his father served in Iraq.

It also tackled a number of controversial topics including steroid use, bi-polar disorder, pre-marital sex, rape, adultery, Katrina refugees, alcoholism, deadbeat parenting, dementia, the war in Iraq, quadriplegia, and much more, all within 22 episodes that, on the surface, seem to be about a high school football team on the road to the state championships.

It's the rare series that can make this jaded critic cry and yet I found myself wiping away tears during most episodes. That Friday Night Lights managed to do so without resorting to cheap sentimentality is a testament to both the writers and the talented cast, who completely embody these characters to the point that the cinema verite-style hand-held cameras aren't just capturing this drama but recording it as though it were a documentary. Characters cut each other off, talk over each other, and behave as though what's unfolding on the screen is reality, a reality that is impossible to look away from.

I could speak about Friday Night Lights all day, really. I'm perfectly willing to admit when I made an error and wrote off a series too early--though now I am struggling through the creatively uneven second season (and its ludicrous murder conspiracy plot)--but I know that there are much brighter spots ahead. I'll be blazing through the second, third, and fourth seasons all summer long and I'm happy to say that Dillon is a place that pulls me back after each episode, one that has not only captured my imagination but also my heart.

Rewind: "Monarch of the Glen"

I'll admit that I found the BBC's Monarch of the Glen to be a little, well, twee the first time I caught an episode on BBC America. When Monarch's first season was released on DVD a few years back, I decided to give the series a second chance and placed it in my Netflix queue. Happily, I quickly became enchanted by this Scottish drama about the conflicting forces of familial duty and personal desire and eagerly consumed the series' subsequent seasons on television.

Over the past few years, Monarch has quickly become one of my favorite series, a cozy cup of tea before bedtime in television form. Granted, Monarch of the Glen is a drama series so chaste that characters seem to fall in love and propose after nothing more than a first date and a peck on the cheek, but that's all part of the charm of this wacky, whimsical family drama, set in the gorgeous Scottish Highlands.

At the start of the series, prodigal son Archie MacDonald (Alastair Mackenzie) arrives at Glenbogle, leaving behind his career as a restaurateur and his icy girlfriend Justine (Anna Wilson-Jones), to take on the role of laird and save the family estate from financial ruin. He soon becomes entangled in an ongoing family drama, cast between his gambling-addicted mother Molly (Susan Hampshire) and lunatic father Hector (Richard Briers), whose "accident" upon a jet ski has led Archie to succeed Hector as, you guessed it, the monarch of the glen.

Uneasily settling into his new role as laird, Archie is soon reacquainted with the local denizens of Glenbogle: his childhood flame, holier-than-thou Katrina Finlay (Lorraine Pilkington), cheeky housekeeper Lexie (Dawn Steele), gullible/adorable assistant ranger Duncan (Hamish Clark), and gruff estate ghillie Golly (Alexander Morton). In between trying to come up with schemes to save his family and the estate, Archie often is called to keep the peace between these colorful characters. Will Archie be able to turn the estate around... or will Glenbogle's residents instead drive Archie to madness?

Much of Monarch's fun comes from the schemes that the characters engage in, whether it's a feud between Hector and neighboring landowner Lord Angus Kilwillie (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Gosford Park Julian Fellowes) over who has the tallest tree in Scotland, the same duo stealing and re-stealing a barrel of priceless whiskey from Archie, or Molly arranging a poker game with a thug to pay off her mounting gambling debts... without Archie finding out, of course. Poor wee Archie often finds himself in quite a pickle, dealing with the constant haranguing of his family and employees, all of whom want something from him. And that something is usually money, which they've got precious little of, or sex, seeing as nearly every female character on the show has one time or another fallen for the laird's charms. (To name but a few: Justine, Katrina, Lexie, Stella, etc.)

But wacky residents and lovelorn housekeepers aside, Monarch of the Glen is definitely a drama and there's tragedy lurking in the corridors and crevices of Glenbogle estate. The MacDonalds' eldest son Jamie drowned in a boating accident on the loch as a teenager. A thirteen-year-old Archie was in the boat with Jamie when it happened and Hector and Molly never truly recovered from Jamie's death, nor has Archie who continues to blame himself for the death of his older brother. Not only then, is Archie's role as laird a burden and responsibility too heavy for him to handle, it's also one that was never intended for Archie in the first place. If Jamie's death has cast a pall over the beautiful Glenbogle estate, then perhaps Archie's return to his ancestral home can set things right.

Additionally, Monarch of the Glen deftly mines the conflict between the decaying (and literally crumbling) world of the old aristocracy and the modern, 21st century and much of that conflict is embodied in the relationship between futurist Archie and traditionalist Hector, set against the backdrop of a stunning castle that is literally sinking into the earth. Smartly, however, this theme is never the exact focus of the series, a blend of romantic drama, comedy, and cozy family yarn.

The MacDonalds and their loyal retainers are characters that you soon grow to love (I know I did) and you long to reconnect with them again and again. One caveat: don't get too attached to any one of them as Monarch has a habit of writing out its supporting characters with alarming frequency. It doesn't help matters either that the series' main cast members sadly move on over the course of its seven-season history. Even central protagonist Archie departs the series during the fifth season to go climb a mountain (seriously) with his errant sister Lizzie (don't ask). While those departures are far from being the smoothest in television history (especially Archie, and Duncan, who leaves to become a radio DJ in a hospital), it's rather sad to note that by the end of the series, very few of the series' original cast members remained. And while Monarch's producers brought in new characters to spice things up, one can't help but miss Archie, Lexie, Hector, and Duncan. (Hell, I even miss Katrina.)

To that end, I suggest sticking with the basics and watching the first four seasons of Monarch on DVD and, luckily for you, the fourth season was recently released. While there's definitely something rewarding about watching the later seasons (I eventually grew to love Paul, the long-lost MacDonald son who replaces Archie as the series' central figure), those first four series tell a complete story arc for Archie, from his reluctant arrival at Glenbogle to his departure with his bride on their well-deserved honeymoon at the end of Season Four. It's at that time that Archie gets the Glenbogle estate in somewhat of a working order and is able to leave the place in someone else's hands for once.

Sadly, BBC America has in recent years shown much disrespect to one of the programs which made its name synonymous with quality programming, scheduling the series at odd hours (the sixth season aired on Saturdays at 3 pm PT) and now unceremoniously yanking Monarch of the Glen off the air altogether. Additionally, the digital cable network has so far shown little inclination to air the seventh and final season of Monarch, which aired last fall in the UK.

I can only hope that the show's loyal viewers will eventually be able to see how this charming series ends; in the meantime, there are four fantastic DVD sets of Monarch of the Glen with which to reminisce about the MacDonald clan. But I just know that, faced with similar circumstances, Archie and that incorrigible Glenbogle gang would gleefully cook up a wee scheme or two to get their way...

The first four season of "Monarch of the Glen" are available to purchase or rent; the series' fifth season is currently scheduled to be released in October.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS; 8-9:30 pm); Most Outrageous Moments/America's Got Talent (NBC); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); George Lopez/Freddie (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX; 8-10 pm); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC; 8:30-10 pm); One Tree Hill (WB); Lost (ABC); Eve/Cuts (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Lost (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America (9 pm ET).

If you missed your Monday night fix of Gordon Ramsay, here's your chance to catch him this week. On tonight's episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares ("Oscar's"), Gordon faces one of his toughest challenges yet as he's forced to contend with Irish mother-and-son team of Maura and Lenin, a bickering pair constantly at one another's throats. If that weren't bad enough, chef Lenin is an alcoholic whose drinking problem often lands him in the hospital... during service. Will Gordon be able to knock some sense into their heads and save the restaurant?

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

It's the third season premiere tonight of Bravo's smash hit reality series Project Runway. I've never watched the show before (I know, I know!), but seeing as everyone I know watches and lives by this fashion competition, I will be watching this season. Catfights, fashion victims, and Heidi Klum. What more could you ask for in a reality series?

Rewind: "Battlestar Galactica: The Mini-Series"

Don't ask me why I've resisted the pull of the Sci-Fi Channel drama Battlestar Galactica for quite this long. It might have something to do with the almost religious obsession my co-worker maintains for the show, which knows no bounds. I'm not much of a sci-fi geek. I was never into Star Trek in any of its zillion permutations (ST: The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, or... the rest) and have only recently discovered Doctor Who as a valid entertainment option. So forgive my ignorance then, as I've never seen the original Battlestar Galactica that the new series is based on.

On a whim last weekend, I decided to Netflix the 2003 mini-series of Battlestar Galactica and see what all the fuss was about, as the show recently wrapped its second season on Sci-Fi last month (well, what the network is calling Season 2.5, anyway). And something magical and rather mysterious happened: I was instantly hooked. Not just hooked but sucked into the drama, which was far more dark and less campy than I had previously imagined it would be.

If you're new to Battlestar Galactica (or BSG as its devotees--or at least the acronym-friendly--refer to the show), here's the basic thrust: humans live on twelve planet colonies in a distant galaxy. Forty years ago, they barely escaped a war with the worker robots that they built to serve them but which had risen up and revolted against their masters: the Cylons. After the war, the Cylons and Humans formed a truce and the Cylons have not been heard from since. Until now. With cunning precision, the Cylons attack an orbiting space platform and then launch a simultaneous attack on the twelve planet colonies. The Cylons attack with brutal savagery and overwhelm the humans, crushing the interstellar fleet and stranding 50,000 survivors, whose only line of defense is the Battlestar Galactica, a huge space fortress/battleship that is about to be decommissioned and turned into a museum.

However, the Cylons have managed to evolve into a humanoid form and they can mingle with an unwitting public. Their mission: to exterminate the humans, their former oppressors. One of these newer model Cylons (there are 12 models of these human-looking robots) is the beautiful and deadly Number Six (Tricia Helfer, left). Two years earlier, Number Six seduced and gained control of one of the colonies' most brilliant scientists and thinkers, Gaius Baltar (Bridget Jones' James Callis), who unknowingly allows her to penetrate the master defense mainframes. Gaius doesn't ask too many questions about what she wants with the mainframe and is far too obsessed with Number Six, who is as sexually insatiable as she is power-hungry. Too late, Gaius learns of Number Six's true identity and their affair directly causes the nuclear attack on the twelve colony planets but Number Six is able to save Gaius from death and he ends up a passenger on the Battlestar Galactica.

Aboard the Battlestar Galactica, Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos) scrambles as he discovers the Cylon attack. In fact, Adama soon learns that the entire fleet has been destroyed, leaving him as he fleet's most senior officer. The fact that the Battlestar Galactica escapes destruction is due to the fact that Adama always opposed linking the ship's computers to a network; that loophole allows the earlier-model fighter jets and the Galactica to resist the virus-like programming with which Number Six infected the mainframe.

With the death of the president of the colonies--and his entire council--education secretary Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) is quickly sworn into office as the president of a species on the brink of destruction--and quickly becomes a thorn in Adama's side. (Did I mention that she is also secretly dying of an advanced cancer?) However, Laura has an ally in the form of Adama's prodigal son Lee 'Apollo' Adama (Hornblower's Jamie Bamber, below), who is harboring a deep resentment towards his father after the accidental death of his pilot brother, who was the lover of Apollo's hotheaded friend and fellow soldier Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace (Katee Sackhoff). Together, they set off to find the 13th legendary colony of man: a distant planet called Earth, where they can repopulate the human race.

Meanwhile, Gaius attempts to settle into his new life aboard the Battlestar, but he is haunted by visions of Number Six, whom implanted a microchip inside his head post-coitus. Number Six has her own agenda and she leads Gaius to uncover a Cylon device secreted aboard the ship and urges Gaius to implicate a potential human threat to their/her mission by denouncing them as a Cylon. While there are twelve humanoid Cylon models, some of these units are sleeper agents, unaware that they are in fact not human not Cylon and they are able to be remotely activated. We come to learn the identity of four models in the mini-series, but I am not going to spoil that for any viewers who haven't seen the show. Believe me, the reveal of the forth is a doozy.

I found BSG to be much more gritty and realistic (well, for a futuristic show about a war with a robotic race, anyway) than I had imagined it would be. And for a post-9/11 audience, there is a certain political undercurrent that cannot be ignored; while I was watching I kept finding various allusions to the current geopolitical climate that I was surprised to discover in what many would consider to be a sci-fi genre show. The mini-series kicks off the show with a tone that is dark and harrowing but with a human side as well. It is smartly written and cleverly plotted and, considering there is such a large cast, the characters are instantly sympathetic and recognizable. It's their interactions and interpersonal relationships that drive the humanistic side of the story while the battle between the humans and Cylons (and trying to figure out who the Cylon sleepers are) will satisfy the sci-fi geek in all of us (hell, even my girlfriend is a convert now and she is totally not your usual sci-fi'er).

All in all, while the story hooked me, it's the characters that are going to keep me coming back: the animosity between Apollo and his father Adama; the pull between matters of state and military interest (represented, of course, between Adama and former "schoolteacher" Laura Roslin, now the president of the colonies); the feelings of guilt and lust Starbuck has for Apollo, the brother of her dead former lover; Gaius' moral bankruptcy; and the very twisted relationship he has with the Cylon Number Six.

Fortunately, I've got two seasons of BSG to catch up on and I cannot wait to see how things develop. Will the refugees find Earth? Or will the Cylons destroy the race altogether? (Somehow, I doubt the latter, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a show.) But regardless of what happens, BSG has a newfound fan in me. I've already Netflix-ed the next disc in the series and what can I say? I'm now officially a sci-fi geek.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Survival of the Richest (WB); Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC); The Bernie Mac Show (FOX); WWE Friday Night SmackDown! (UPN)

9 pm: Close to Home (CBS); Las Vegas (NBC); Reba/Modern Men (WB); Primetime (ABC); Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy (FOX)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Conviction (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

6-8 pm: High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman/Little Britain/Creature Comforts.

The Friday night routine continues: High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman only gets more outrageous with each passing week; Little Britain continues to satirize, spoof, and generally poke fun at the zany antics of Britishers, and while Creature Comforts captures the thoughts--and words--of real-life British people and then transforms them (the people, not the words) into animated clay animals. Sounds... odd, I know, but it's brilliant.

9 pm: Doctor Who.

Can I just say how much I am loving Doctor Who? And I am super-excited for tonight's episode in particular. On tonight's installment ("Dalek"), a collector possesses the last remains of the Doctor's deadliest nemesis. One guess what that is. Could it be... the Daleks? Why, yes, yes it is.

Rewind: "Dark Shadows"

I was planning on writing this column for a while now but with the recent death of Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis on Monday, I figured that now would be the best time to take a look back at one of television's most seminal shows, Dark Shadows, and its many incarnations over the years. After all, what other television series can boast a long-running daily soap, a nighttime drama, two features, and a pilot among its checkered past?

I first discovered Dark Shadows in its 1991 incarnation, a nighttime drama for NBC that had the unfortunate distinction of airing--and getting preempted--during the network coverage of the Gulf War. I immediately fell in love with the show and its blend of campy horror and soapy drama and set out to immerse myself in the show's lore, seeking out VHS tapes of the original serial from the 1960s and 1970s and scouring the bookstores for books about the series. And later, while watching Buffy's resident vampire-with-a-soul Angel struggle with his quest to retain his humanity, I often thought back to Dark Shadows' Barnabas Collins. (Hell, there are even echoes of DS in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire series... and CBS' now-cancelled drama Forever Knight... the list of those influenced by the show goes on and on.)

For those of you not up to speed, Dark Shadows (in all of its many incarnations) features the wealthy Collins family of fictional Collinsport, Maine, and the many secrets and mysteries that surround them. One of those figurative skeltons in the familial closet is that of one Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid, above, in the original and Ben Cross in the 1991 revival series), an ancestor of the present-day Collins family who arrives at their palatial manse, Collinwood, seemingly out of thin air... but he's actually a nearly 200 year-old vampire under a deadly curse. The series concerns itself with Barnabas' quest to restore his humanity, rekindle his love for the long-dead and now-reincarnated Josette du Pres, and keep his secret from those around him. Oh, and there's time travel, parallel universes, Lovecraftian invasions, reincarnation, seances, werewolves, and a whole slew of other supernatural or paranormal occurences.

The original Dark Shadows series launched in 1966 on ABC as a daily, half-hour Gothic soap opera about strange goings-on at the Collins family estate in Maine. (It was a year until the show added what would become its vampiric lead, Barnabas Collins.) Young and inexperienced governess Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) arrives at Collinwood to care for disturbed David Collins, a pre-teen expelled from his school after he burns it to the ground. Hired by David's father, the stern taskmaster Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds), and Roger's sister, sad, tragic Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard (Joan Bennett), Victoria is pretty much left to fend for herself as she gets herself entangled in a series of dangerous mysteries and eerie happenings. She's aided--and sometimes hindered--by Elizabeth's spunky daughter Carolyn (Nancy Barrett) and no-nonsense Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), a waitress at local hangout, the Blue Whale. What followed was the usual soap opera romances, betrayals, and intrigues, set against an imposing Gothic structure, but influenced by the Gothic storytelling of Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and others. That is until, Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was introduced...

Overnight, the show went from a Gothic-influenced soap opera to a supernatural one. No-good handyman Willie Loomis (John Karlen) inadvertantly frees vampire Barnabas Collins, who attacks him and then shows up at Collinwood claiming to be a distant relative of the family from England (no computers in those days to check his story, though the 1991 version doesn't address this either) and soon moves in to the property's Old Manor House, which he had once lived in when he was alive. He kidnaps Maggie Evans, whom he believes to be the reincarnation of his lost love Josette, attempts to hypnotize her and keeps her prisoner in the Old House's basement. Eventually with the help of the spirit of Barnabas' sister Sarah (a playmate of David Collins), Maggie is able to escape but remembers nothing of her ordeal.

A specialist is brought in to help Maggie recover her memory and a writer's typographical error changed the gender of this character from male to female. Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall)--doctor, scientist, logician--is introduced. She quickly becomes Barnabas' adversary, but upon discovering his secret, attempts to cure him of his vampirism. Eventually, the two become companions in an unending quest to battle all manners of evil.

In a storyline crucial to the show's mythos, Victoria Winters is sent back in time to the year 1795, where she meets the flesh-and-blood Barnabas and his fiance Josette du Pres, the past self of Maggie Evans. There, Victoria spends many, many episodes attempting to get home while trying not to be hanged for witchcraft and ultimately falling in love with Peter Bradford (Roger Davis), the lawyer representing her. Meanwhile, the witch Angelique (Lara Parker, above) pulls all of the strings, evenutally cursing Barnabas (it's her fault he becomes a vampire) when he scorns her. Victoria returns to the present but, when she sees Peter Bradford on the side of the road, she crashes the car she's driving, which promptly removes her memories of Barnabas being a vampire.

Over the next few years, Dark Shadows would get weirder and weirder, introducing malevolent spirits influenced by Henry James' classic ghost story "The Turn of the Screw," zombies, werewolves, disembodied magical hands, witches, warlocks, and ancient demons influenced by the Cthulhu stories of H.P. Lovecraft. It would also frequently send its characters through time using the I Ching, to 1840 or the 1920s, always using its ensemble cast to play a wide array of period characters. Eventually the show began to explore the notion of parallel time--the thought that side-by-side with our own universe there exist an infinite number of alternate or parallel universes, similar to ours but with key differences.

While the parallel time idea was novel and interesting, ultimately the show, which soon left behind its primary characters--including Barnabas Collins, Victoria Winters, and Julia Hoffman--became a muddled alternate reality story, taking place in a parallel 19th century version of Collinwood. Longtime fans lost interest and Dark Shadows swiftly ended production in 1971.

However, the series managed to give birth to two feature films, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971), both of which were directed by creator Dan Curtis. The first film, House of Dark Shadows, effectively reset the clock and showed an alternate universe version of the Barnabas origin story, as Willie Loomis frees Barnabas from his prison and sets him loose on a bloodbath in Collinsport. It was a much bloodier, darker, and violent incarnation of Dark Shadows and portrayed Barnabas as much more malevolent character (the scene where he beats a defenseless Willie Loomis is as terrifying as it is heartbreaking), a portrayal that would greatly influence the later 1991 revival series, which drew greatly from the framework and tone of the film.

The second of the two Dark Shadows films, Night of Dark Shadows, departed even more from the storyline set out in the series. This time out, the plot was a reincarnation drama and revolved around a painter and his wife who move into yet another alternate reality Collinwood, only to find themselves plagued by ghosts of his ancestors. And when the husband becomes posessed by the spirit of his evil ancestor and keeps trying to murder his wife, all hell breaks loose. Unlike House of Dark Shadows, which focused on the central character of Barnabas Collins, this film concerned itself with two popular supporting characters from the series (or alternate version of them anyway): Quentin Collins and Barnabas' nemesis, the witch Angelique. Fan favorite Grayson Hall (she played Dr. Julia Hoffman on the series) gives a memorable turn as the menacing Carlotta Drake, the Mrs. Danvers-like housekeeper.

Sadly, neither film is currently available on DVD, which is a shame because there is really nothing quite like them.

In 1991, NBC revived the long-dormant series, this time as a prime-time soap starring Ben Cross (left) as reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins and Joanna Going as ingenue Victoria Winters. This series only lasted 12 episodes (the Gulf War didn't help) and greatly compacted a number of storylines into its brief run: Barnabas' arrival; his sometimes adversarial relationship with Julia Hoffman (Barbara Steele); his romance with Victoria Winters (this time producers smartly made her Josette's reincarnation); and Victoria's journey to the 18th century where she comes face to face with Barnabas before his transformation into a vampire at the hands of Angelique. The series also updated or reinvented several of the characters. Dr. Julia Hoffman is, this time around, far more formidable and icy; wholly a woman of hard science not in touch with her own femininity. Maggie Evans, still a waitress at the Blue Whale, is now having an affair with the married Roger Collins and has psychic powers of her own such as clairvoyance and is a spirit medium. Carolyn Collins-Stoddard (Barbara Blackburn) is just as spoiled as her 1960s counterpart but is now overtly sexual; as much a predator in her own right as Barnabas. Jim Fyfe's Willie Loomis far more pathetic a creator than John Karlen's; he's introduced as a greedy, lazy alcoholic who frees Barnabas while looking for hidden jewels and then cowers in fear from his new master (the series uses the beating scene from House of Dark Shadows), only to ultimately become Barnabas' trusted companion.

As previously mentioned, the 1991 revival series owes much of its darker elements to the House of Dark Shadows film while still retaining some of the campiness of the original series (check out the "nighttime" scenes which are obviously filmed in broad daylight, the overwrought score, and the not-so special effects). Ben Cross' Barnabas is a much more violent, torn individual and his hungers weigh much more heavily upon him, as he cuts a deadly swath through both the town and the Collins family, attacking and killing Daphne Collins (Rebecca Staab)--whom he turns into a vampire and who attacks boyfriend Joe Haskell (Michael T. Weiss) in turn, murdering the suspicious Professor Woodard (Stefan Gierash) whom he turns as well, and viciously beating poor Willie.

As the police investigate the eerie deaths of a dozen individuals, they bring in a blood expert from New York University, one Dr. Julia Hoffman. Julia soon deduces Barnabas' secret, but rather than kill or expose him, offers to cure him in an ongoing experiment. She believes that his vampirism isn't a curse but rather a medical condition that can be cured. And they succeed for some time at keeping his vampirism in check, until Barnabas and Victoria get too close and a jealous Julia seeks to destroy the progress they've made. Barnabas soon transforms into a grotesque 200-year-old man and is forced to feed upon Carolyn when she discovers him. He vows revenge against Julia and sends Carolyn to kill her in bed but Julia is onto Barnabas and anticipates him. Their feud ends when Angelique reappears and when, during a seance to contact the ghostly Sarah Collins, Victoria Winters is sent back in time.

In a nice twist, the show catapults back and forth from Victoria in the year 1791--where she meets her past self, Josette du Pres, and Barnabas and is forced to witness tragedy upon tragedy happen to the Collins family, unable to stop them from happening--and the present day, where the Collins attempt to find a way to bring Victoria back. But Angelique (Lysette Anthony) has other ideas and is able to reach through the centuries to try and separate Barnabas and Victoria for good and end the Collins family. But then Victoria is able to save the Collins family and return to the present... and just like that the show ended as Victoria reappears in 1991, but armed with the knowledge that Barnabas is a vampire and responsible for the deaths of dozens of people. As a terrified Victoria looks at Barnabas, we fade to black as Dark Shadows ends for a second time.

But it wasn't quite the end of the ongoing Dark Shadows story. In 2004, the WB network filmed an aborted pilot for a new incarnation of Dark Shadows, which never made it onto the air. This time, Barnabas was played by Alec Newman and Victoria by Marley Shelton. I managed to get a copy of the pilot script when it was in development at the WB and was saddened to learn that it was a jumble of storylines... the writers had managed to smoosh together several episodes' worth of stories into one confusing, underwhelming hour. I was hardly surprised that it didn't make it onto the fall 2004 schedule.

Which isn't to say that there won't be another attempt to revive the Dark Shadows franchise in the future. This is, after all, a show--like Barnabas Collins himself--that refuses to die.

What’s On Tonight

8 pm: Out of Practice/Courting Alex (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); One Tree Hill (WB); George Lopez/Freddie (ABC); Bones (FOX); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); The Bedford Diaries (WB); Lost (ABC); American Idol/Unan1mous (FOX); Veronica Mars (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Heist (NBC); The Evidence (ABC)

What I’ll Be Watching

Lost.

As thought that's a surprise. On an all-new episode of Lost ("Lockdown"), that old coot Locke has to enlist the aid of an unlikely ally when the hatch's blast doors come crashing down and the station takes on a life of its own. Could it be... creepy Other Henry Gale? And I've said it before but I'll say it again: Lockdown. Heh. Locke down.

Veronica Mars.

Meanwhile, over on a first run ep of Veronica Mars ("The Rapes of Graff"), Veronica's ex-boyfriend is accused of date rape and turns to everyone's favorite teen sleuth to clear his name. Come on, Veronica, leave your former BF out to dry and focus on solving the mystery of the bus crash! Inquiring minds want to know!