The Daily Beast: "The Summer's Best (and Worst) TV"

Over at The Daily Beast, you can check out my latest feature as I offer a report card for the Summer TV Season: picking the winners, losers, and draws across broadcast and cable.

Be sure to check out the gallery at "The Summer's Best (and Worst) TV," where I break down the successes and failures of the past season show by show. Where did White Collar, Pretty Little Liars, and Covert Affairs end up? And which shows ended up at the bottom of the barrel?

Head over to The Daily Beast to find out and head to the comments section to discuss your favorite and least favorite shows of the past summer season and why you felt certain programs succeeded or failed.

Channel Surfing: Kristen Bell Wants Veronica Mars Movie, Tricia Helfer Nabs Lie to Me, SNL Lands Bryan Cranston, Fringe, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Just a few headlines to go through before the long weekend...

Remember the Veronica Mars feature film that never was? So does Kristen Bell, who has taken to Twitter and the interwebs in order to drum up support for a feature film return to the UPN/WB series that so many of us fell in love with. Creator Rob Thomas had floated a film version of Veronica Mars back in 2009 but Warner Bros. passed on the concept, deeming that there wasn't enough of an audience to warrant the expenditure. (As if!) After radio silence about the project, Bell has now taken her cause to the streets. Or at least to Twitter, where yesterday she tweeted the following messages: "mars fans-can we bug @wbpictures & tell em the must do a VM film?? new tactic. bombard em w/tweets, theres evidence of fans they cant ignore... #veronicamars fans send petitions & any obsessive [behavior] u have 2 @wbpictures & demand the film. they c no audience 4 it? i beg 2 differ." Needless to say, several petitions have already sprung up in support of Bell's campaign. [Editor: I'd long given up hope of ever seeing a Veronica Mars feature film, though I'd love one. I do miss Neptune and Bell's Veronica. While I still don't have faith it will get made, my hat is off to Bell for drumming up support... and for not turning her back on her roots.] (Vulture)

TVGuide.com's Adam Bryant is reporting that Tricia Helfer--she of the skin-tight dresses and blonde wig on Battlestar Galactica--will be guest starring this season on FOX's Lie to Me, where she will play Naomi. According to Bryant, her character is "attracted to Lightman (Tim Roth) despite being frustrated by the inability to hide anything from him. But when she calls on Lightman for protection from a violent ex-boyfriend, it's Lightman who begins to wonder if her beauty has impaired his lie-detecting skills." No airdate for Helfer's episode has been announced but it will air as part of Lie to Me's third season, which kicks off on November 10th. (TVGuide.com)

Good news for Breaking Bad fans: Bryan Cranston will host Saturday Night Live this season. The Hollywood Reporter has indicated that Cranston--who took home an Emmy Award this past weekend for his work on the AMC drama series--will host the October 2nd episode. (Hollywood Reporter)

Bubs Alert! Entertainment Weekly's Lynette Rice has a first-look at Andre Royo--yes, who played Bubbles on HBO's dearly missed The Wire--in an upcoming episode of FOX's Fringe, where he'll guest star opposite Anna Torv's Olivia Dunham. Royo, who will appear in the September 23rd episode, will play "a taxi driver that Olivia (Anna Torv) encounters as she fights to find her way home." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Jamie Oliver is heading to Los Angeles. ABC has renewed the British chef's reality series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution for a second season of six episodes, which will be shot in Los Angeles. Reports have indicated that the sophomore season will air either in midseason or next summer. (Variety)

Speaking of food shows, The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd has an interview with chef/author/l'enfant terrible Anthony Bourdain, in which the two discuss culinary television shows, travel, and more. Asked about his views on FOX's Masterchef, Bourdain had this to say: "Dreadful. I saw one episode where they had the contestants try to identify the ingredients of chili. 'I'm guessing there's onion in there' -- you know what I'm saying? 'There might be beef too.' I wish Gordon Ramsay well, but I think Top Chef remains the benchmark... I'm horrified at the low level of competitor in Hell's Kitchen. None of these people could ever -- ever -- be up to the standards of a line cook at a real Gordon Ramsay restaurant. So the whole construct seems artificial to me. Top Chef, on the other hand, what they ask these cooks to do is really difficult, and the quality of the contestants is very high." (Hollywood Reporter)

TVGuide.com's Adam Bryant is reporting that Thomas Calabro (Melrose Place) will guest star on an upcoming episode of CBS' CSI: NY, where he will play "a man who is searching with his wife (Helen Slater, Smallville's Lara-El) for their missing son. Together, they follow clues left for them from a mysterious caller." His episode will air sometime this fall. (TVGuide.com)

Oren Peli and Michael R. Perry--the creators of Paranormal Activity--have joined forces with Dreamworks Television and ABC Studios to develop horror drama The River, which revolves around "search for a person who went missing on the Amazon river and employs the found-video footage format popularized by Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and, of course, Paranormal Activity." Project is said to be thisclose to a pilot pickup at ABC. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere, Paul Scheuring (Prison Break) and McG have gotten a "hefty commitment" from ABC for their private investigator drama I, PI, which revolves around "an investigator who learned everything he ever needed to know about being a P.I. from watching shows like Magnum, P.I. and Simon and Simon while growing up. As a result, he tends to subconsciously emulate those TV shamuses while out on the streets." The duo will executive produce along with Peter Johnson and McG will direct the pilot, should be ordered. (Variety)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone) and Jennifer Robinson have sold a pilot script for an untitled event drama to ABC. Project, which the two will write, "follows the White House Office of Crisis Management as they tackle one huge global crisis per season" with "the first season [chronicling] a crisis with a ticking clock on board the international space station." The two will executive produce with Gary Fleder and Mary Beth Basile and Fleder is attached to direct, should the project go to pilot. Elsewhere, Sam Raimi has sold a script for drama pilot Lancaster, from writer Andrew Lipstiz, about a Scotland Yard copper who joins the LAPD. [Editor: sort of like a reverse Keen Eddie.] (Deadline)

CBS is said to be developing a comedy based on Susan Brightbill's upcoming book "The True Adventures of a Terrible Dater," with Brightbill attached to adapt her book, which revolves around a single architect in Chicago who attempts to make her way through the dating scene. Project, from Warner Bros. Television, will be executive produced by Sheldon Turner and Jennifer Klein. (Variety)

Following the departure of executive producer/showrunner Ken Sanzel from CBS' upcoming cop drama Blue Bloods, there has been a flurry of hirings, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Fred Keller has been brought aboard as a producer/director while writer Linda Gase has been hired as a consulting producer. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

Gastro-nauts and Space Cadets: Another Frustrating Episode of Bravo's Top Chef

It's only fitting that a frustrating and uneven season of Bravo's Top Chef should have yet another frustrating twist in the final challenge in Washington D.C.

I've been extremely vocal about my dislike of this season of Top Chef, which is strange to me as I've been an obsessive devotee since the very first episode of this culinary challenge series, which is also the first reality series to dethrone CBS' The Amazing Race from its Emmys perch.

But while last season rightly snagged an Emmy Award, this season of Top Chef has been almost painful to sit through and several times I nearly walked right out without paying the bill. Lackluster casting, poor editing, and some head-scratching challenges have left me questioning whether there needs to be a shake-up behind the scenes of this series, or whether they just need to cast better next time.

Bravo would appear to be launching an All-Stars edition of Top Chef for next season, which Reality Blurred reports is already filming in Manhattan. Andy has the full list of cheftestants returning for another shot at culinary glory, but I'd advise against reading the piece unless you want to be potentially spoiled about the outcome of this season.

It might be a step in the right direction or at least bring back some familiar faces with the grit, determination, and--above all else--the talent to make the competition interesting again.

Which isn't to say that there haven't been some stand-out chefs this season, because there have been but it seemed to take so long to slog through the also-rans and talent-deprived this season that it sucked the fun out of the proceedings, really.

And then there was last night's episode ("Gastro-nauts")... So what did I think about this week's installment of Top Chef and why am I steaming? Read on.

I had made up my mind a few weeks back that the Final Four this season would be Angelo, Tiffany, Ed, and Kelly. Each of the four was among the most talented, inventive, and consistently great chefs in the bunch and I was increasingly impressed and blown away by Tiffany, who managed to come up from the middle of the pack to win time and time again these last few weeks. Considering that I had nearly written her off in the first episode, I was surprised by how much I'd come to love Tiffany over the last few months and was rooting for her to take it all the way to the finale.

It was not to be, sadly.

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief over last night's judging decision, which sent Tiffany packing while keeping Kevin in the running. With only four spots available for Singapore--the first time the series has gone international--I had every hope that Tiffany would be among those heading overseas and competing for the top prize. After all, the judges have been extremely impressed with her work and her ability to coax massive flavor out of just about everything... whereas Kevin hasn't been as strong a player, in my mind, anyway.

Tiffany brought a much needed spark to the competition and she seemed to provoke the best kind of reactions in her competitors, who seemed to love her carefree nature and her killer culinary instincts. Her success the past few weeks have pushed everyone towards climbing higher, imbuing the competition with some much needed energy and charm the last few episodes.

Hell, she nearly won the Quickfire this week--in which the chefs had to create a dish that would be paired with a specific wine--for yet another fantastic plate, though she was edged out by Angelo in the end with his sautéed foie gras with black salt and fennel salad. While I was impressed with Angelo's dish and would gladly order it at a restaurant, it was Tiffany's dish that had me salivating: a cocoa- and black pepper-crusted Wagyu tenderloin with spring risotto, which seemed to leap out of the screen and into my stomach. Beautifully cooked, elegantly plated, and infused with so much flavor and complexity, it was a gorgeous dish that she should be proud of.

Which is why what happened next was so entirely frustrating.

For their final Elimination Challenge before the finale, the chefs were tasked with creating dishes that could be freeze-dried and taken into outer space. While space-obsessed Kelly was enamored instantly with this task, I thought it was a pretty lame challenge to offer the chefs as their final showdown in Washington D.C. It seemed like something that should have come far earlier in the season rather than the last major hurdle before earning a spot among the Final Four.

Even more puzzling: the chefs didn't have to actually freeze-dry anything. Despite the fact that the dishes were meant to be designed to be eaten in space--and therefore must be fried-dried before breaking through the upper atmosphere--the dishes were going to be served as-is to the judges back on Earth. So who is to say that any of the dishes were really suitable?

While Kelly was taken to task for the excess liquid on her dish (pan roasted halibut with artichoke-fennel barigoule and salsa verde salad), not a single complaint was raised about how well fried onion rings--which would then be freeze-dried and reheated--would hold up under those conditions... while Angelo used candied ginger for his dish (ginger-lacquered short ribs with pea puree, pickled mushrooms, and horseradish crème fraiche), despite the fact that they were expressly told not to use a high concentration of sugar.

So what were they really being judged on then? If the dishes weren't being eaten in the context or format that the task was designed for--unlike previous years, where they had to actually freeze ready-made meals and then reheat them--then how could anyone really judge the final product?

The judges also said that they would be giving points for originality and creativity. Which confused me then how Kevin's traditional home-style dish--NY strip steak with bacon, jalapeno, corn puree, and onion rings--managed to get through and sit among ginger-lacquered short ribs, artichoke-fennel barigoule, and Ed's Moroccan-inspired yogurt-marinated rack of lamb with eggplant puree, cous cous croquette, and hummus, but Tiffany's dish failed to make the cut.

For the record, her dish was a gorgeous pan-seared Alaskan halibut with coconut curry, snow pea shoots, and jasmine rice, which matched what the NASA organizers set as the brief in the first place. Despite it being a curry, it wasn't overtly runny or too liquidy; it had heat, and the halibut would freeze-dry easily.

Should Tiffany have not cooked the pea shoots in the fish sauce? Definitely. It was a rare misstep from Tiffany; the pea shoots were there to provide crunch and contrast with the other elements. But by cooking them in the fish sauce, it took out the essential verdant crunchiness of the shoots in the first place.

And then there was that pepper skin, which seemed to lose Tiffany her spot. The judges thought it amateurish that she left it in the dish and said it lent a bitterness to the dish. Um, yeah? But it also negated everything else she had done? It was more of a blatant flaw than Kevin using sirloin at this point in the competition? It got her booted?

For a season obsessed with missing pea puree, it might be fitting that a top contender would be sent home for pepper skin but that doesn't make it any less of a bitter pill to swallow. Tiffany seemed poised to perhaps take it all; she had made front-runner Angelo a little less certain of his victory and she made all of them better chefs by example. While I'm intrigued to see what Angelo, Ed, and Kelly cook up in the final rounds, I have to say that I'm a less than excited now that Tiffany is out of the running and Kevin took her spot in the final round. It's not to say that Kevin is a bad chef because he isn't, but he seems to lack the creativity and energy that Tiffany brought to the kitchen--and the show--each week.

And when you have a season as lackluster and dull as this, you need every last bit of spark that you can find.

What did you think of this week's episode? Should Tiffany have been the one to go home? Should it have been Kevin? And what do you think of the Final Four? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Top Chef ("Finale, Part One"), the competition moves to Singapore as the chefs are narrowed down to the final three.

Channel Surfing: WBTV Developing Sandman, JJ Abrams' Alcatraz, Evil Wheaton Back to Big Bang, Free Agents, True Blood, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit and James Hibberd are reporting that Warner Bros. Television is in the process of acquiring television rights to Neil Gaiman's DC/Vertigo comic series "Sandman" with the view of adapting it as an ongoing television series. Among the contenders to tackle the project: Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. It's not the first time that Hollywood has courted the mythopoeic comic series: HBO nearly had a version in development at one time with James Mangold attached; Roger Avery attempted to get a feature film version off the ground in the mid-90s. It's still early days for the project as Kripke is said to be cautious about treading on such hallowed ground and attempting to translate the deeply complex and layered narrative for television. [Editor: Personally, I'd rather that Kripke and WBTV didn't: the plot of "Sandman" isn't a strict narrative in the traditional sense of the word but rather an exploration of stories and myth, strung together with some serialized plots and one-offs about Morpheus of the Endless, a race of eternal beings older than the gods themselves. It would be a very difficult project do justice to, given the strength of Gaiman's work on the series and I can't quite wrap my head around how an ongoing series would function. Would it draw from some of the more linear storylines like "A Doll's House," "Season of Mists," "The Kindly Ones," etc.? Or would it be a procedural about a dream lord who can flit through people's subconscious minds? The latter would make me vomit in rage, really.] (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Warner Bros. Television-based producer JJ Abrams and writer/producer Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost) are shopping drama spec script Alcatraz, about the notorious San Francisco island prison that once housed the nation's most infamous criminals, including Al Capone and, yes, the Birdman himself. The duo are taking the script--which was written by Sarnoff--to networks. No other details were immediately available, though it seems clear that the Bad Robot-produced project would be a period drama. Or not, as Abrams has been known to throw a curve ball or two. (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Evil Wil Wheaton will be returning to CBS' Big Bang Theory to resume his feud with Jim Parsons' Sheldon. “We started talking about the idea of minor celebrities cutting in line, and we thought it might be funny to have our [Big Bang] guys waiting in line for a one-time-only midnight screening of something like Raiders of the Lost Ark with restored footage, and Wil Wheaton and his three friends cut the line," executive producer Bill Prady told Ausiello. "When it comes time for our guys to get in, the line stops; Wil took the last four seats and Sheldon is just furious. Because it doesn’t make sense to him. Wil’s celebrity is not applicable here. This is not Star Trek. It’s just wrong.” Should the episode come together, it would likely air in November. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Another day, another project for Party Down co-creator John Enbom, who has sold a second project to NBC in the last week. Enbom will adapt UK's Channel 4 comedy Free Agents for the Peacock and will executive produce with Karey Burke and Todd Holland and Universal Media Studios. The original UK series, which hailed from Simon Pegg and Nira Park's UK shingle Big Talk, revolved around an agent enmeshed in a very messy divorce. (Variety)

SPOILER! E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos and Megan Masters have the scoop on which actors will be returning for Season Four of HBO's vampire drama True Blood, though the answer might surprise you. According to the duo, Denis O'Hare, Marshall Allman, Kevin Alejandro, and Lauren Bowles will all be back next season, along with the previously reported Joe Manganiello. Yep, Russell will be back in some capacity next season, though he won't be seen initially in Season Four, which will focus--according to reports--on witches. Tommy Mickens will be back as well, as well as Alejandro's Jesus, while Lauren Bowles--who plays Wiccan Holly--has been promoted to series regular. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

As expected, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's adaptation of Joe Hill's comic book "Locke & Key" has landed at FOX, which has given the project a series commitment, though Steven Spielberg will no longer be involved as an executive producer. Project, which revolves around two brothers who live in a strange New England mansion, hails from 20th Century Fox Television and DreamWorks Television. (Variety)

Elsewhere, FOX has handed out a series order to an untitled sketch comedy show from executive producer Jamie Foxx, which will feature "a diverse cast tackling spoofs of movie trailers, commercials, TV shows, music videos and celebrities." Affion Crockett will star and executive produce the series, which comes from Fox Television Studios, Foxx/King Entertainment and The Tannenbaum Company. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Mekhi Phifer will be leaving FOX's Lie to Me when the Lightman Group breaks its ties with the FBI. "We’re going rogue a little bit,” executive producer David Graziano told Ausiello. “Lightman [Tim Roth] is going to act slightly in the more old-school PI model of a TV protagonist, [so] we’re doing away with the FBI contract [and] Mekhi is unfortunately no longer going to be on the show. The FBI franchise limited our storytelling a little bit because it had to adhere to the FBI structures of ‘Would the FBI take this case or not?’ The character that’s going to be our badge this season is a bent cop, Wolowsky [The Unusuals' Monique Gabriela Curnen], who goes about business in a similar way to Lightman. There’s a mutual respect from the get-go. We’re working hard to make The Lightman Group a dysfunctional family.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Megan Masters has an interview with The Office executive producer Paul Lieberstein, in which he floats another possible replacement for Steve Carell, who is set to leave the NBC comedy at the end of the season: Harvey Keitel. "He's probably the only guy who can do it, and he's doing TV now," said Lieberstein. "I haven't started any talks with his people, but Harvey would do a great job—a very different energy. And we don't want to bring in another Michael, having someone play a very similar character because we have such a high regard for Steve." Lieberstein goes on to say that Keitel could play a former salesman who comes out of retirement in order to oversee the Scranton branch. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

HBO has ordered a third season of dark comedy Hung, with ten episodes likely to air in summer 2011. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

In other renewal news, Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports that TNT said to be close to giving Memphis Beat a second season order. Elsewhere, Lifetime has passed on that Army Wives spin-off that was to star Brigid Brannagh and Gabrielle Union and USA has slashed the episodic budget for legal drama Facing Kate from twelve to ten episodes and pushed the premiere into early 2011, due to scheduling issues. (Deadline)

Syfy has announced the cast for its upcoming four-hour miniseries Nerverland, a prequel to Peter Pan, which will star Rhys Ifans (Pirate Radio), Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Bob Hoskins, Raoul Trujillo (Tin Man), and Charlie Rowe (Pirate Radio). Project, from writer/director Nick Willing, will air in 2011. Here's how Syfy describes the project: "Raised on the streets of turn-of-the century London, orphaned Peter (Rowe) and his pals survive by their fearless wits as cunning young pickpockets. Now, they've been rounded up by their mentor Jimmy Hook (Ifans) to snatch a priceless--some believe, magical--treasure which transports them to another world. Neverland is a realm of white jungles and legendary mysteries of eternal youth, where unknown friends and enemies snatched from time welcome the new travelers with both excitement and trepidation. These groups include a band of 18th century pirates led by the power-mad Elizabeth Bonny (Friel), and the Native American Kaw tribe led by a Holy Man (Trujillo), which has protected the secret of the tree spirits from Bonny and her gang for ages--and that has meant war. But as the fight to save this strange and beautiful world becomes vital, Hook, Peter, and the ragamuffin lost boys consider that growing old somewhere in time could be less important than growing up right here in their new home called Neverland." (via press release)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck reports that Cybill Shepherd will be guest starring on ABC's upcoming dramedy series No Ordinary Family, where she will play Barbara Crane, the mother of Julie Benz's Stephanie. (TV Guide Magazine)

Following yesterday's news that Eddie Izzard would be appearing in eight episodes of Showtime's United States of Tara, the pay cabler has announced that Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) will be guest starring in one episode of Tara next season, where she will play "Max Gregson’s (John Corbett) mother, a recluse with a compulsive hoarding problem." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Former Heroes star Jack Coleman has been cast in an upcoming episode of CBS' The Mentalist, where he will play Max Armstrong, described as "wealthy, regal, arrogant, self-important man who becomes the prime suspect in a murder," according to TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck. Coleman's episode is slated to air October 14th. (TV Guide Magazine)

Nickelodeon has announced that Jane Lynch's episode of iCarly will air on Saturday, September 11th at 8 pm ET/PT. Lynch guest stars as the "never-before-seen, eccentric" mother of Sam, Pam Puckett. (via press release)

Alyssa Milano will star in Lifetime original telepic Sundays at Tiffany's, based on the book by James Patterson. Milano will star opposite Eric Winter and will play a "bride-to-be visited by the adult incarnation of her childhood imaginary friend" who "begins to re-examine her life." (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Daywalking: Angels and Demons on True Blood

I'm back from break, which meant racing home to watch this week's episode of True Blood, the season's penultimate installment which left devotees on the edge of their seats after a gripping cliffhanger designed to keep us hungry for more over the Labor Day weekend. (Which, yes, means we'll have to wait another week for the season finale.)

This week's episode of True Blood ("Fresh Blood"), written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Daniel Minahan, pushed several characters past their breaking points--particularly Sookie, Tara, and Sam, among others--and seemed to deal heavily with themes of sight and blindness.

After all, we can see without understanding, just as we can finally open our eyes to certain uncomfortable, glaring truths. The sun might be a pleasant glowing orb in the sky and warm our skin, or it's a painful reminder of things lost, of burning and unbearable torment. In a series where so many characters want to be more than ordinary, something truly mundane--the sun on our skin--becomes something magical and transcendent.

So what did I think of this week's episode of True Blood. Pour yourself a B-negative, pick up a bottle of liquid silver at your local health food store, settle in at Fangtasia, and let's discuss "Fresh Blood."

As the penultimate episode of the season, I thought that "Fresh Blood" did a fantastic job at not only setting up the final showdowns for the season but also provoked the characters into new and starling arrangements, peeling back the facade to reveal the skull beneath the skin, the truth of several situations. One can't change their inherent natures; Sookie and Bill might wish for a "normal" life but that's not going to magically appear for them.

The dreams that they have--Sookie of being a wealthy real estate agent, Bill of being a third grade teacher and "loving" his job, are daydreams of the most dangerous kind because they're not based in any reality. Their lives are defined by what they are and what they aren't. Sookie is part-faerie, her telepathy derived from a non-human lineage that has marked her as a target for vampires and who knows what else; Bill, despite his insistence on clinging to his humanity, is a vampire whose thought-processes are vastly different to Sookie's.

Which made their fantasizing in the car all the more heartbreaking. There will never be a semblance of a normal human life for either of them. No afternoon picnics, no children, no growing old together. Bill is quantum-locked into his current appearance, the years moving on but his body retaining its youthful appearance. Not so for Sookie. But while that's unspoken, they dream up a life together that's filled with love and happiness, that's separate from the quagmire they're currently enmeshed in: on the run, fleeing once again, and their fragile reconciliation about to fall apart once more.

Writer Nancy Oliver nicely juxtaposes the couples' dreams of normalcy with another couple's issues as Hoyt and Jessica take a giant leap towards union together. While Jessica believes that Hoyt can't handle the truth about her nature, it's clear that he not only accepts her vampiric nature but embraces it, inviting her to drink from him rather than hunt strangers for sustenance. Season Two had these young lovers grappling with the sexual component of their relationship while this season has had Hoyt and Jessica attempt to come to terms with their own inner identities. Jessica can fight her urges but she doesn't want to. Hoyt doesn't want her to either.

Faced with the dull certainty of a life with Summer--a human life of baked goods, fancy bras, and stepladder kisses--Hoyt chooses the extraordinary with Jessica.

It's a brave decision that points towards the depth of his love for the baby vampire, as Hoyt allows himself to be pushed into a submissive role in their relationship, the source of sustenance for Jessica, the source of fresh blood. The perpetual virgin strips away Hoyt's virginity in a way in the scene where she pounces on him, sinking her teeth into his flesh, draining him for the first time. He's a sacrificial lamb designed to sate her urges while keeping her close to him.

(Just wait until Maxine learns about this latest twist.)

Jason, after storming off, does accept Crystal for what she is: a were-panther and the daughter of a meth dealer. While at first he's uncomfortable with her true nature, Jason manages to surprise even himself by being open to, er, alternative lifestyles. The old Jason Stackhouse wouldn't have looked back but he's drawn to Crystal's differences, to her need to warn Hotshot about the DEA raid, to protect her family, a trait that he shares with her. After all, no one in Bon Temps these days seems to innocent; everyone has a secret, carries a darkness, even his sister. Even, it seems the Bon Temps star QB Kitch Maynard, who we learned this week is set to break Jason's record thanks to the V he's on. It's not just Crystal who's got her toes in the supernatural.

But the truth can hurt, sometimes far more than blindness.

Tara attempted to goad Andy into confessing that he was a "dirty, dirty cop" who killed her boyfriend Eggs but she's shocked to discover that the truth about Eggs' death was far worse than she imagined. It wasn't just that Jason killed Eggs and Andy covered it up, it's that Andy knew that Eggs wanted to be killed, he wanted an end to his suffering. And by choosing the darkness, he chose death over Tara. It's a kick to the gut for the already reeling Tara Thornton. Her quest for vengeance, her rage, has been misplaced. It's Eggs who failed her in the end, who left her behind, who chose to walk on a path towards death rather than towards life.

Lafayette and Jesus experienced something deep and dangerous last week when they did V together but while Jesus is anxious to go back into his past, to further mine his ancestry for truth, Lafayette is terrified. The experience has unlocked something within Lafayette, something dark and extraordinary. It's unlocked his latent sight, granting him the ability to see the shifting shadows that others cannot. A glance at Jesus reveals a disturbing demon visage. Is it the true nature of Jesus that Lafayette sees? His lineage, built in dark magic, etched upon his face? Or is it just the lingering after-effects of the V?

(I'm going to discount the latter, particularly given that--SPOILER!--we see Lafayette experience a vision of Rene clutching Arlene's throat in the season finale. It seems clear to me that the V has unlocked what Ruby Jean called Lafayette's power, connecting him to the magic of their ancestry.)

As for Arlene herself, she took Holly up on her offer to magically remove her unwanted pregnancy, given that she is carrying the unborn child of dead serial killer Rene. But despite the sacrifice to the goddess and the arcane ritual that they carry out, this spirit seems stronger than Holly's magic. It wants to be born and it seems far too evil to be undone by some foul-tasting tea and salt circles in the woods. A seeming miscarriage reveals just the opposite: Arlene hasn't lost the baby at all. The spell didn't take, the spirit didn't waver, and that baby still wants to emerge into the world. Arlene is far from being out of the woods...

Sam, meanwhile, continues to sink into self-hatred, drunkenness, and asshattery as he abuses his staff (including poor Terry), kicks out the customers, and attempts to destroy any last vestige of "nice guy" Sam Merlotte, throwing Tommy out and disowning him (and acting like Joel Lee Mickens in the process). I am glad, however, that Sam and Tara rekindle their romance, turning a brief kiss in the bar into something more passionate back at Sam's place.

But it's a distraction that allows Tommy to get the jump on Sam and crack open the safe at Merlotte's. Not good.

Points go to Eric and Pam as well this week for once again making their relationship even more emotionally nuanced and resonant. Pam's tears as she sees her maker trying to make the ultimate sacrifice to save them all (cough, Christ imagery, cough), to walk in the sun and burn up, said volumes about her devotion to Eric. His efforts to meet the One True Death head on in order to enact his revenge against Russell Edgington and destroy him once and for all reveal a side of Eric that we haven't seen before. It's not based on self-preservation at all; in fact, he's placed the safety of the group before his own personal survival.

In other words, he's connected with his humanity in a way that Godric did in his final moments, whispering a prayer that Russell not see the smoke emanating from his flesh as it crisps in the harsh glare of the sun. The click of the handcuffs as Eric makes his decision, sealing his fate with that of the deposed Vampire King of Mississippi, isn't so much a punishment as it is a release, an act of godhood that's at odds with the violence and suffering that Eric has caused over the centuries.

But to get to that moment, he fed off Sookie. And he allowed Russell to do so, to entrap him with stories of daywalking and faerie blood, to prey on his arrogance and hubris. So too did Bill. While he chose to go along with Eric's plan, he didn't tell Sookie of this, allowing her to remain in the dark while two vampires chowed down on her. Did he intend to have Pam free him so he could feed Sookie and save her? Hell yes. But is that enough to prevent their inevitable split once she comes to? Likely not.

Me, I just can't wait to see what happened to Eric and how the writers will manage to save the Nordic bloodsucker from the One True Death. The wait for the season finale just became that much more painful...

In two weeks on the season finale of True Blood ("Evil Is Going On"), Eric grapples with his conscience while plotting his perfect
revenge against Russell; fed up with being “vampire crack,” Sookie considers a new life without Bill – or any other vampire; Tara discovers some surprising news about Sam, whose rage resurfaces upon learning of Tommyʼs latest transgression; Jason finds a new calling after warning Crystalʼs family about an impending drug raid; plagued by visions, Lafayette turns to Jesus for help, and learns his boyfriend has more to offer than companionship; Hoyt hopes for a future with Jessica, spurning Maxineʼs pleas to wed Summer.

Ep. 36: Evil Is Going On - Preview

Telly News From Blighty: Doctor Who, Sherlock, Luther, Case Histories

Yes, I'm back from my holiday-slash-birthday-weekend-extravaganza and catching up on what I missed while I was gone, including news about three of my favorite series, all of which happen to hail from the other side of the pond, and a fourth that is likely to become a new favorite when it launches next year. (Hint: it involves the creators of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes and novelist Kate Atkinson.)

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has indicated that Season Six of the time-travel drama series will be split into two separate segments, with seven episodes to air in the first half of 2011 and six episodes to air in fall 2011.

What comes between? Well, a "game-changing cliffhanger," according to Moffat, speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. (You can watch video of the session over at The Guardian as well.)

"Looking at the next series I thought what this show needs is a big event in the middle," said Moffat. "I kept referring to a mid-season finale. So we are going to make it two series – seven episodes at Easter building to an earth-shattering climax, a cliffhanger we could never normally do because it would be too long before it came back. An enormous game-changing cliffhanger that will change everything. The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series."

"What I love about this idea is that when kids see Doctor Who go off the air, they will be noticeably taller when it comes back," he continued. "It's an age for children. With an Easter series, an autumn series and a Christmas special, you are never going to be more than few months from the new series of Doctor Who. Tart that I am, we will now have two first nights and two finales, twice as many event episodes as we had before."

Let the guessing games begin about just what the cliffhanger might be...

Sherlock.Moffat, meanwhile, might have his hands full already with Doctor Who but that hasn't stopped Auntie Beeb from rightly commissioning a second season of the truly fantastic mystery series Sherlock, created by Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

(It's not a surprise as the first season of Sherlock--which consisted of three feature-length mysteries--lured approximately 9 million viewers in the U.K. It launches Stateside next month on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.)

BBC One has ordered another three feature-length cases for Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman), set to launch in fall 2011. The creators have promised "baffling new puzzles, old friends and new enemies" when the series returns. (Holmesians will be happy to note that I put in a request for Irene Adler when I met with Moffat and Gatiss a few weeks back.)

Luther.BBC One has ordered two hour-long specials for psychological crime drama Luther, which wrapped up its sixth episode run earlier this year in the UK and which will launch this fall on BBC America. A co-production between BBC One and BBC America, Luther stars Idris Elba; the two specials will air in 2011.

Case Histories. Elsewhere, Monastic Production's Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah--the creators of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes--have announced their new project: an adaptation of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, beginning with "Case Histories." I'm a huge fan of Atkinson's novels and Graham and Pharoah, so I can't wait to see how they tackle her books and adapt them for television.

The duo will adapt all three novels--"Case Histories," "One Good Turn," "When Will There Be Good News," for the first season of Case Histories, with Pharoah set to adapt the first, Graham to adapt the second, and an as-yet-unnamed writer to tackle the third. Project, which will be produced by Ruby Television with Monastic, is set to air in 2011, with production slated to begin in Edinburgh this autumn.

But the best bit is who the guys have got to play Jackson Brodie: none other than Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood) himself. Isaacs was attached to play the lead in FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty (an adaptation of Scott Turow's novel), which was overseen by Bones creator Hart Hanson, but the project was not ordered to series.

FOX's loss is Case Histories' gain. Congrats to Ash and Matt for the commission and for landing Isaacs. Can't wait to see him as Jackson!

What do you make of the news? What's behind the splitting up of the next season of Doctor Who? Anxious for more Sherlock? Ready to have Luther put you on the edge of your seat again? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Channel Surfing: Eddie Izzard to Tara, Shameless Grabs Joan Cusack, Ron Moore Brings Magic to NBC, Conan, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Eddie Izzard (The Riches) has signed on to appear in Season Three of Showtime's dark comedy United States of Tara. Izzard is set to appear in eight episodes of Tara, where he will play "Tara’s brilliant psychology professor who starts as a DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) skeptic, but becomes fascinated with Tara as a subject, leading him to explore the condition further." Production is slated to begin this month for a 2011 premiere. (Deadline)

Joan Cusack has been cast in Showtime's upcoming drama series (and Televisionary personal favorite) Shameless, where she will play Shiela, an agoraphobic mother to a sexually active teenage daughter. Cusack, who is set to appear in twelve episodes of Shameless, replaces Allison Janney, who appeared in the pilot but had to withdraw from the role due to her commitment to ABC's midseason comedy Mr. Sunshine, starring Matthew Perry. (via press release)

NBC has ponied up a substantial amount of money to secure a new project from Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), with penalties--according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva--said to be in the $2 million range. Project, from Sony Pictures Television, is being described as "an adult Harry Potter set in a world ruled not by science but by magic." No other details were immediately available, but the sizable commitment made by NBC indicates that they were particularly keen to land this project. (Deadline)

Looks like Conan O'Brien won't be able to be dumped from his new TBS show. O'Brien this morning announced the title for his forthcoming latenight talk show, which launches on cabler TBS on November 8th. It's title: Conan. “I’m just using 'Conan' and dropping the 'O’Brien' because I want to get away from the whole Irish thing," joked O'Brien. (Deadline)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Sharon Lawrence (Desperate Housewives) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on the CW's One Tree Hill, where she will play the mother of Austin Nichol's Julian. "Although Lawrence’s character does in fact come to town to help with the wedding preparations, there’s no hard evidence to suggest she’s a monster," writes Ausiello. "I mean, she probably is. I just don’t have any proof." Lawrence will make her first appearance in October. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has announced the contestants for the latest iteration of Dancing with the Stars, which includes Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, David Hasselhoff, Rick Fox, Bristol Palin, Kurt Warner, Florence Henderson, Audrina Patridge, Michael Bolton, Brandy Norwood, Margaret Cho, Kyle Massey, and Jennifer Grey. The new season begins September 20th. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

So who turned ABC down then? The Hollywood Reporter's Leslie Bruce and James Hibberd indicate that ABC made overtures to Mark Zuckerberg, Sylvester Stallone, Ann Coulter, Condoleezza Rice, Erin Brockovich, Richard Branson, Tim Allen, and Suzanne Somers... all of whom turned down the opportunity to appear on Dancing with the Stars. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

NBC has renewed reality competition series America's Got Talent for a sixth season. Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne, and Howie Mandel will return as judges, as well as Nick Cannon, who will again serve as host. (via press release)

Bravo has renewed both The Real Housewives of New Jersey (for a third season) and The Real Housewives of New York (for a fourth season). (via press release)

And, in other renewal news, TLC has ordered a sixth season of Say Yes to the Dress, with 18 episodes on tap to begin airing in February. (Variety)

Michael Riley has been named president of ABC Family, replacing outbound chief Paul Lee, who is taking over ABC and ABC Studios. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

The Daily Beast: Fire and Ice: Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and January Jones

As promised, the last Emmy-related piece of this year.

While I've already discussed Modern Family and Glee, Friday Night Lights, and to a certain extent Lost, as well as rounded up my picks for who will win a gold statuette and who should have won, I can't imagine not discussing AMC's luminous period drama Mad Men.

Over at The Daily Beast, my latest feature--which is curiously entitled "Mad Men's Ice Queen"--takes a look at Mad Men's Emmy nominated actresses January Jones and Christina Hendricks and explores how they fit into certain female iconic traditions and why our perceptions of their characters seem to spill over into their real lives.

Just why is Betty Draper so misunderstood and disliked? Why does Jones seem so icy whereas Hendricks--a somewhat reluctant sex symbol--seems so vibrant and full of life? Can they escape our own perceptions of them? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Season Four of Mad Men airs Sunday evenings at 10 pm ET/PT on AMC.

Televisionary: En Vacances

Just a heads up that I'm officially on vacation and heading out of town, so thoughts on Sunday night's episodes of Mad Men and True Blood--along with Emmy reactions--will be delayed until I return.

In a weird twist of fate, my birthday weekend just happens to coincide with Emmys weekend this year (normally the latter is in September, whereas my birthday, um, stays the same each year), so I'm skipping everything Emmy-related. No after-parties, no flashy suit, no overindulging at HBO's Pacific Design Center shindig or the the after-after-party at the Chateau for me this year.

What I will be doing is taking a respite from work--and, scarily, from television--for a few days to recharge my mental batteries and soak up some much-needed relaxation.

See you on the other side. Or as soon as I post a link to my last Emmy-related story for this year from over at The Daily Beast, that is.

The Daily Beast: "Give Friday Night Lights An Emmy Already"

Could Friday Night Lights finally win an Emmy Award? Or, more importantly, isn't about time that the Academy recognized the amazing quality of this fantastic series and its lead actors?

That's the question that I'm asking in a new feature over at The Daily Beast entitled "Give Friday Night Lights An Emmy Already" where I talk to stars--and current Emmy underdogs--Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.

In the piece, which went live this morning, I talk to Chandler and Britton about their nominations, saying goodbye to one another, the end of Friday Night Lights, and what the fifth and final season of FNL holds for Coach Eric and Tami Taylor.

Head to the comments section to discuss why you think this series has been criminally overlooked by the Television Academy and whether you think Chandler and Britton are more than deserving to take home a statuette or two this weekend at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

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

Trailer Park: Sky1's An Idiot Abroad, Starring Karl Pilkington

Karl Pilkington traipsing around the world and checking out the Seven Wonders? Sign me up please!

That's exactly the premise of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's new docuseries An Idiot Abroad, which will air this month on Sky1 in the UK and which will follow the notoriously round-headed Pilkington--the breakout star of HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show--as he makes his way around the globe to step outside his comfort zone and, well, maybe challenge himself.

Here's how Sky1 is positioning the series:

"Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are outraged that Karl has written off the Seven Wonders claiming they’re all “a bit s**t” having never seen any of them with his own eyes. They’ve thrown down the gauntlet to send him around the globe to force him out of his comfort zone. Stephen wants the experience to broaden Karl’s mind and change his outlook on the world. Ricky wants Karl to hate every minute of it for his own amusement.

Dispatched on what many would term a journey of a lifetime, the ‘little Englander’ will be putting his misgivings to one side as Karl finds out for himself what the fuss is about. He will travel to the Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Petra in Jordan, Machu Picchu in Peru, Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Meanwhile Gervais and Merchant will be keeping a watchful eye from London, monitoring every step of Pilkington’s journey. The conclusion of the series will see the weary traveler returning home to report on his findings."

The full trailer for An Idiot Abroad can be found below.



“I can’t wait to get started," said Pilkington via an official statement. "Not ‘cos I’m excited but ‘cos the sooner we start the sooner it will be over. The fact the nurse gave me an injection that protects me from dirty chimps put a dampener on the whole thing. I don’t think Ross Kemp has to have that injection.”

Channel Surfing: Chuck Sets Mercenaries, Katee Sackhoff Back to Big Bang, Modern Family's Manny, Neil Gaiman's Doctor Who & More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Chuck Versus the Mercenaries? Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that WWE champion wrestler Batista, Eric Roberts (The Expendables), and Joel David Moore (Bones) are set to appear in the fourth episode of Chuck's fourth season this fall. The trio will guest star as "Casey's former Soldiers of Fortune buddies from the Clinton era" who have "gone rogue and are back to seek revenge on their ex-comrade." The episode is entitled "Chuck Versus the Coup D'Etat." Season Four of Chuck is slated to launch on September 30th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

While Maureen Ryan hasn't officially started at AOL Television (she doesn't until September 1st), that hasn't stopped her from landing an exclusive: namely that Katee Sackhoff will be returning to CBS' The Big Bang Theory this fall, where she will reprise her role as "Katee Sackhoff," the conscience of Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), in an episode that will also guest star Melissa Rauch's Bernadette. "He's struggling with his feelings about Bernadette and them breaking up, and in pops Katee Sackhoff again," Sackhoff told Ryan. "I can probably say [the scene] won't be in the bathtub. I don't know for sure ... I can't imagine them doing the same thing twice, but you never know." Sackhoff told Ryan that she jumped at the chance to stop by The Big Bang Theory a second time when Chuck Lorre called her; Sackhoff is slated to appear in the September 23rd episode. (AOL Television)

Missing Manny? You're not the only one. However, Modern Family creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd have indicated that Rico Rodriguez's precocious Manny will be pushed front and center this fall in a plot about Manny going on his first date. [Editor: a plot that I revealed over on The Daily Beast last week in an interview with Steve Levitan.] "It's his first serious girlfriend," said Lloyd. "The first one he really feels he's falling in love with... It mostly turns into a clash with Gloria. Because in the Colombian culture the bond between a mother and son is very intense, and it becomes a little bit of a competition between the girl and Gloria for Manny... He realizes that he's almost forgotten to live his childhood and he tries to figure out a way to pack it all in, because he's only got one year left before he's a teenager." (TVGuide.com)

"Tastes like Marmite on socks." Neil Gaiman has been very close-lipped about the details of his upcoming Doctor Who episode, which will air next year on the Matt Smith-led British cult sci-fi series. But he did post a deleted scene from the episode in question--in the form of a script page--that sheds some light on just what a Gaiman-scripted episode of Who will be like. In this case, it involves the Doctor and Amy (Karen Gillan) about to sit down and eat, well, something foreign. (Neil Gaiman)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the producers of Friday Night Lights--which returns for its fifth and final season on October 27th--tried to get Billy Bob Thornton to reprise his role as Coach Gary Gaines from the feature film that the series is based on. While executive producer Jason Katims isn't saying why, Thornton would have appeared in the series finale. “We wanted to pay homage to the movie, so we came up with an idea for a cameo," Katims told Ausiello. "But Billy wasn’t available." Not that you'll miss him--even if Katims was loath to reveal just what role Gaines would have played in the story arc involving Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor. “We wanted the episode to be a rich and satisfying ending,” said Katims. “Nine-tenths good story and one-tenth nostalgia.” Hmmm... (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has a sneak peek at the senior year awaiting the class of the CW's 90210, which she writes will involve "fresh plot twists, body shots, jet-skis, Adrian Grenier and vows to get 'wicked pissed.'" (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Judd Hirsch is set to guest star on ABC's The Whole Truth, where he will be reunited with Rob Morrow, who played his son on CBS' NUMB3RS. Hirsch, whose episode will air sometime in October, will play Judge Ruben Wright, described as "a distinguished and well-respected jurist who is accused of corruption and murder" who "asks Jimmy Brogan (Morrow), whom he has often chastised for colorful but inappropriate behavior in his courtroom, to represent him." (via press release)

NBC has delayed the launch of reality series School Pride, opting to shift the premiere date back by three weeks to October 15th. It will instead fill the timeslot with two-hour editions of Dateline. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

ABC is spinning off its long-running talk show The View into a new hour-long afternoon version that would add a male perspective to the mix. Project, from executive producers Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie, would be shot in Los Angeles and would feature "five co-hosts discussing a range of topical subjects." Among their dream hosts: Bryant Gumbel, Alec Mapa, Jacque Reid, and E.D. Hill. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Trailer Park: Betty White on Community Teaser

"We'll just say Community is the new Glee."

With less than a month to go until the second season premiere of NBC's deliciously absurd comedy Community, NBC has released a teaser trailer for Season Two, which just so happens to feature Betty White seeming a but, uh, confused about what show she's slated to appear on.

You can view the teaser in full below.



Season Two of Community launches Thursday, September 23rd on NBC.

Channel Surfing: Fox Snags Locke and Key, Trouble for Tilda, Torchwood Star Lands Three Inches, Temps, The Office, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that FOX is in talks with 20th Century Fox Television and Dreamworks to develop a series based on Joe Hill's comic book "Locke and Key," which revolves around "three kids who end up watching over a secret, spooky New England mansion filled with mystical doors that transport them to different worlds and give them special powers (like turning into a ghost)," according to Adalian. But FOX isn't turning to just anyone to adapt the series created by Hill (who happens to be the son of Stephen King): Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe, Hawaii Five-0) and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as well as Steven Spielberg are attached as executive producers. (Vulture, Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that there's some major behind the scenes drama brewing at HBO's much anticipated dark comedy pilot Tilda, which stars Diane Keaton as a Nikki Finke-esque Hollywood blogger. Showrunner Cynthia Mort has been removed from the project after the pilot shoot, during which she allegedly clashed with director/executive producer Bill Condon and with Keaton herself. "It was an unhappy marriage from day one,” an unnamed source told Ausiello about Mort and Condon's working relationship. “They banged heads about almost everything…and during production she picked huge public fights with anyone who disagreed with her on anything, including Diane.” Mort's removal prompted a nasty email to the production and the studio; neither she nor HBO would comment on the story, though Ausiello notes that Condon is assembling a new creative team and is close to picking a new showrunner for the project. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Which former Torchwood star is crossing the pond to star in Syfy drama pilot Three Inches? Naoko Mori--who played the much missed Toshiko for two seasons on BBC Three's Torchwood--has been cast as a series regular in Three Inches, which follows a slacker who discovers that he has a useless superpower: he can move any object three inches with his mind. Mori will play "a woman who can duplicate and recite any sounds she hears." Also cast: Melrose Place's Stephanie Jacobsen, who will play Watts, described as "a beautiful 'super' hero who has the ability to shape the emotions of anyone she meets at close range." (Deadline)

Good news for fans of Party Down: the creators of the short-lived Starz comedy series have landed a put pilot from NBC for their next project, a single-camera comedy entitled Temps. The project, created by Rob Thomas, Jon Enbom, and Dan Etheridge, was the subject of an intense bidding war before a deal was reached between NBC and studio Warner Bros. Television. According to Variety's Michael Schneider, Temps will revolve around "a group of recent college grads who are forced to take a variety of oddball temp jobs to make ends meet." Any chance those trademark pink bowties could make a return appearance? (Variety)

E! Online's Jennifer Arrow is reporting that producers of NBC's The Office, which will see the departure of series lead Steve Carell after the upcoming season, would prefer to promote from within rather than bring in an A-lister to replace Michael Scott. Arrow caught up with writer/producer Warren Lieberstein to ask him about whether the show can go on without Carell and just where Michael's replacement will come from. "We're really sad. I don't know how you soldier on from Steve leaving," said Lieberstein. "He's such an amazing talent. He's the best. He's the best, honestly. But we're kind of lucky, we have a lot of movie stars in our cast! Craig Robinson, Ed Helms, Rainn Wilson—and that Krasinski guy is not bad, and Jenna Fischer, she's pretty great. I think the reason we've been able to survive as many seasons as we have is because of the supporting cast." As for the matter of succession, Lieberstein said, "We're still debating. A lot of us want from within, because we think we have such a strong cast, but we'll see. We have a network that also [has] wants." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

In other Three Inches-related news, The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd is reporting that Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) has also joined the cast of the Syfy superhero pilot, where she will play Belinda Spackman, the mother of the main character, who is described as "a brutally cynical force of nature who will do anything to protect her son, who has developed a unique not-so-superpower: the ability to move any object three inches using his mind." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with True Blood star Denis O'Hare, who is stealing scenes this season as the Vampire King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington. O'Hare told E! Online that, despite his character's longevity, he can still be killed. "I am 3,000 years old, but it can be done," said O'Hare. "The vampire rules are if you behead them, if you stake them with wood, or if you put silver on them, they're going down. The silver weakens them incredibly, the wood will actually kill them, and beheading is game over." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

FOX is developing an untitled drama pilot with writer Rick Eid and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci about a prosecutor who discovers that he can tell whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. "Show revolves around an overly ambitious prosecutor who wrongfully convicts an innocent man for murder, an event that becomes the trigger for his magical flashes and an understanding that he has a debt an understanding that he has a debt to repay to the innocent," writes Variety's Cynthia Littleton. (Variety)

Meghan Markle (Fringe) has been cast as one of the leads in USA's legal drama pilot A Legal Mind, where she will star opposite Patrick Adams and Gabriel Macht. She'll play Rachel Lane, described as "an attractive paralegal with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law who's assigned to Mike [Patrick Adams] and becomes his valuable after-hours research ally." Whedonverse alum Gina Torres has also been cast in the project, though her role--senior partner Katherine Pearson--is in second position to ABC Family's Huge. (Hollywood Reporter)

FX is developing comedy 13th Grade, about a "a high school graduate who's content with his meager lifestyle -- until his girlfriend dumps him for being 'stuck' between childhood and adulthood"--with Michael Cera, Derek Waters, and Emily Kapnek. Kapnek and Cera are writing the script, while Waters is set to co-star in the project. (Variety)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) will star opposite Sherry Stringfield in Lifetime's currently untitled Josh Berman drama pilot, where she will play Brooke Kross, the partner to Stringfield's police detective Molly Collins. Elsewhere, John Hawkes (Lost) will star in FX drama pilot Outlaw Country, where he will play Tarzen Larkin, the uncle to Luke Grimes' Eli, who is described as "one of the most charismatic and compelling characters in Slaughter, a big-time player in the Southern crime world." (Deadline)

Amy Sedaris (Strangers with Candy) and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) are set to guest star in an upcoming episode of USA's Royal Pains when the series returns for its first ever winter season this January, according to Fancast's Matt Mitovich. Sedaris will play Nan Noonan, "Jill's partner for a Hamptons golf tournament," while Cavanagh will play pro golfer Jack O'Malley. (Fancast)

TLC has ordered eight episodes of Sextuplets Take New York, which is--you guessed it!--about a family raising four boys and two girls in Queens, New York. It will launch on September 14th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Yep, Jennifer Aniston is going to guest star on ABC's Cougar Town next month, when she'll drop by as a therapist for Courteney Cox's Jules. (via press release)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Life Unexpected's Reggie Austin has been cast as the husband of Vanessa Williams' character on ABC's Desperate Housewives this season. He'll make his first appearance in the fifth episode of the season and will be playing Doug, the New York pro baseball player husband of Williams' Renee Perry. (TV Guide Magazine)

20th Century Fox Television and Chernin Entertainment have signed a blind script deal with Get Him to the Greek writer/director Nicholas Stoller. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former TNT programming executive Julie Weitz has been hired as president of Carol Mendelsohn's production company. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Dead Walk: AMC Announces Halloween Launch Date for The Walking Dead

Be prepared to be scared.

AMC has announced an official launch date for its upcoming zombie series The Walking Dead, which is based on Robert Kirkman's comic book series.

The Walking Dead, which stars Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, and Jeffrey DeMunn, will launch with a 90-minute series premiere on Sunday, October 31st at 10 pm ET/PT.

The official trailer for The Walking Dead can be viewed below. "Stay focused."



The full press release from AMC can be found below.

AMC LAUNCHES NEWEST ORIGINAL DRAMA “THE WALKING DEAD”
WITH A 90-MINUTE PREMIERE EPISODE ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 10PM

Series Stars Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies,
Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn and others

Written, Directed and Executive-Produced by
Frank Darabont, Executive Produced by Gale Anne Hurd
New York, NY – August 2010 – AMC's newest original series, “The Walking Dead,” will premiere on Halloween night, Sunday, October 31 at 10 PM ET. The Sunday night series will debut with a 90-minute premiere episode, airing at 10 PM, October 31st. Subsequent episodes will be one-hour long presentations.

In conjunction with the announcement, today AMC released a four and a half-minute trailer, previewing the series, as was seen at this year’s Comicon. The trailer can be viewed on www.amctv.com.

The series will premiere during AMC's Fearfest, the network's annual blockbuster marathon of thriller and horror films. Fearfest is celebrating its 14th year by airing 14 consecutive days of themed programming with more than 50 films.

“The Walking Dead” is AMC's first wholly-owned original series.

“The Walking Dead” is based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The six-episode series tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln (“Love Actually,” “Teachers,” “Strike Back”), traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Jon Bernthal (“The Pacific,” “The Ghost Writer”) plays Rick’s sheriff’s department partner before the apocalypse, Shane Walsh, and Sarah Wayne Callies (“Prison Break”), is Rick's wife, Lori. Supporting cast include Laurie Holden (“The Shield”), Jeffrey DeMunn, Chandler Riggs and Steven Yeun.

Three-time Academy Award-nominee Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile”) serves as writer, director and executive producer. Chairwoman of Valhalla Motion Pictures, Gale Anne Hurd (“The Terminator,” “Aliens,” “Armageddon,” “The Incredible Hulk”), creator of the original comic series, Robert Kirkman, and David Alpert from Circle of Confusion serve as Executive Producer. Charles “Chic” Eglee (“Dexter,” “The Shield,” “Dark Angel”) and Jack LoGiudice (“Sons of Anarchy,” “Resurrection Blvd”) are Co-Executive Producer.

For more information, visit AMC’s press website, http://press.amctv.com .

About AMC
AMC reigns as the only network to ever win the Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series - Drama three years in a row and the only basic cable network to win back-to-back Primetime Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade from the most comprehensive library or creating acclaimed original productions, the AMC experience is an uncompromising celebration of great stories. AMC's original stories include the Emmy® Award-winning dramas “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” and insightful non-scripted programming such as “AMC News.” AMC further demonstrates its commitment to the art of storytelling with curated movie franchises like AMC Hollywood Icon and AMC Complete Collection. Available in more than 95 million homes (Source: Nielsen Media Research), AMC is a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, which includes sister networks IFC, Sundance Channel, WE tv and Wedding Central. AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile.

The Daily Beast: "Secrets of Lost Revealed on New DVD" (a.k.a. My Thoughts on "The New Man in Charge")

Today, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released both Lost: The Complete Collection and Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season on DVD and Blu-ray.

The box sets contain the latest--and possibly last--in-canon adventures of the Lost cast via the twelve-minute epilogue entitled "The New Man in Charge," which stars Michael Emerson, Jorge Garcia, and... Well, that would be telling.

Over at The Daily Beast, I discuss "Lost: The New Man in Charge" as well as my thoughts about the strength or weakness of the epilogue as a narrative outgrowth of the series in a piece entitled "Secrets of Lost Revealed on New DVD."

Plus, I check in with fellow television critics and writers Maureen Ryan (now of AOL Television), Entertainment Weekly's Jeff "Doc" Jensen, Time's James Poniewozik, and New York Magazine's Emily Nussbaum to see their reactions to the Lost epilogue, how it fits in with the contentious ending of the series itself, and its effects on the legacy of the series.

Head to the comments section to discuss your take on the epilogue and whether it gels with your need for answers or whether you feel that the creative team should have left well enough alone.

Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season DVD retails for $59.99 (or get it on Amazon for $37.99), while Lost: The Complete Collection has a suggested retail price of $229.99 (or $148.99 on Amazon).

Blood Lust: Past Lives, Past Crimes on True Blood

The One True Death comes for us all in the end, human and vampire alike, and one has to hope that when the time comes you've accomplished what you've set out to do in the decades or centuries afforded to you.

That's rarely ever the case. Certainly not for most humans, though Eric Northman confides in Sookie just what he'd regret most if he met his true end. Right before, that is, he has a monumental change of heart about just what matters most in this world. Is it a matter of love? Or a matter of saving one's own skin and their children's? What price does survival have?

On this week's episode of True Blood ("I Smell a Rat"), written by Kate Barnow and Elisabeth R. Finch and directed by Michael Lehmann, much of the episode delved into the backstories of several characters, most notably Sookie, Sam, Tara, and Jason, while setting up some major consequences and twists in the final two episodes of the season.

As such, "I Smell a Rat" wasn't the highlight of the season for me but it did contain some fantastic moments, even as it began to build towards the season's climax. For the most part, however, it was an episode that dealt with the aftermath of several occurrences: Sam's vicious attack of Felton, which left one man clinging to life while the other reflected on his dark past; Bill's revelation that Sookie is a faerie, and therefore a prize to be claimed; and Jason's murder of sociopath Franklin, which brought back the truth about what had happened to Eggs.

It was an installment that was based in advancing the plot to the place it needs to be for the season's endgame, but it also had some fantastic moments that peeled back the layers of some of the characters in some very unexpected and exciting ways.

So what did I think about this week's episode of True Blood? Grab yourself a warm Tru Blood, put down the black cohash, take a sip of some V, and let's discuss "I Smell a Rat."

As I mentioned before, this week's episode wasn't the strongest of the season but there were some intriguing developments that signaled the narrative moving into the final part of the season. I can't believe that there are only two episodes remaining before the long, insufferable wait for next season. But I have a feeling that things are going to get very dark very soon, particularly as Eric has seemingly made his alliances clear now.

I say seemingly because there's always more than meets the eye when it comes to Eric Northman. It's clear that Russell Edgington is going to be out for blood now that he knows that Eric murdered his beloved Talbot and he wants Sookie Stackhouse. While it now appears that Eric is willing to sell out Sookie in order to save himself, I'm not quite convinced that he's going to just turn over Sookie to the fallen King of Mississippi once they've shaken hands. Rather, I can't help but wonder if Eric isn't playing another long con, promising Russell one of the very last faeries left on the planet in order to get him to lower his defenses... and then stake him.

After all, the Authority--via Nan--did instruct Eric to take care of the Russell situation quietly and what better way to lure the King out into the open than with the telepathic blond waitress that they're all eager to taste? Why not offer up a glittering prize to be claimed before delivering Russell the One True Death?

Of course, Sookie--who is now chained in the basement of Fangtasia--might not see it that way. Likely, nor will Bill Compton, who promised to protect Sookie and told Eric that he could not have her. It's interesting that Bill did freely admit to Sookie that her faerie blood did affect him initially (and it's why she would appear to be irresistible to vampires), but it's not why he fell in love with her.

Bill's true motives have been called into question these past few episodes, both by Sookie herself and by trickster Eric Northman, who has now urged Sookie several times not to trust her paramour. He's been less than honest in the past and concealed her true nature from her, he claimed, to protect her. They say the truth will set you free, but that's not always the case. Just look at poor Tara, who finally learned who was really responsible for Eggs' death. That knowledge did her no good whatsoever, particularly as it came right after she tearfully admitted that she believed all of the good in the world was dead and that Jason had always protected her.

He had in so many ways that mattered. But he also killed her lover... and then actually told her after he had saved her life from the vampire who had kidnapped and raped her. Did the truth set her free? It didn't at all. Instead, it shattered her already tenuous outlook on the world and on her life. It pushed her further over the edge rather than giving her strength.

That's not the case per se with Sookie and Bill... He should have come clean to Sookie about her heritage much, much sooner, particularly given that Sophie-Anne was so interested in her. But what's interesting to me is that the knowledge that Sookie is descended from the faerie folk actually creates some interesting parallels between her and Bill. They both carry darkness in their blood; Sookie is shocked to discover that her ancestor may have forced themselves on a human and that that was a common enough occurrence for the faeries. There might be magic in their pasts but it's a dark one.

That holds true as well for Lafayette and Jesus, who learn about their own ancestry after using V together and are given visions of their ancestors, of the witches and sorcerers that made up their family trees. But not all of it was good: they both appear to have darkness within them as well, which gives me pause to wonder how lucid Ruby Jean really is. She knows that Lafayette is powerful, after all, just as Jesus did; he saw the magic within Lafayette and responded to it. But Lafayette knows that both he and Tara would and will continue to be driven towards the darker elements of their nature, just as Jesus' grandfather wanted him to be.

There is, after all, a duality to all things: a light side and a dark side. The faeries may have all been wiped out due to the vampires, who craved their light but they themselves aren't innately good either. Russell and Sophie-Ann believe that a faerie's blood will allow them to walk in the sunlight, to cast off the darkness of night, a fact that would make them nearly unstoppable. Bill seeks to disprove this: while he was in the light, he still burned. Their dark nature still holds; the sunlight is fatal, even with faerie's blood.

So then what is Russell's true goal? What does he hope to take from Sookie? The strength that he would get by ending the life of another of the Fay? The light itself? Hmmm....

Russell, meanwhile, confronted several hard truths: that the man he had loved for so many centuries was nothing more than bloody remains in a crystal urn and that Talbot had faced the One True Death without his lover by his side. In a cruel and horrific twist, Russell seeks to recreate the conditions of Talbot's death, luring a young prostitute (90210's Michael Steger, who I thought was rather weak here) to a room and then staking him in the heart, seeing not this bite-mark ridden stranger dying, but his beloved Talbot.

Heartbreaking and absolutely psychotic in equal measure.

Elsewhere, Sam faced up to his own dark passenger, remembering how--back in his grifting days--he was betrayed by a woman who conned him out of his cash and how he tracked her and her boyfriend down and then killed them in cold blood. While Sam's shooting of the woman was accidental (she was firing at him), his murder of her boyfriend was motivated by vengeance and rage, the two qualities that his vicious attack of Felton brought to the surface once more. Throughout the last the seasons, we've seen a Sam who has sought to keep his own impulses in check, as much as several of the vampiric characters who have struggled with their own grip on humanity.

But with Felton, Sam let the genie out of the bottle, and allowed his anger to take hold of him once more... an anger that would definitely seem to have been inherited from the Mickens clan. Tommy's attack of Hoyt in the parking lot (after Hoyt punched Tommy in the face) connects to this same locus of rage.

But Tommy's plan to attack Hoyt and swoop in and make Jessica love him backfires horrifically as he mauls Hoyt and Jessica flies out of Merlotte's to come to his aid, throwing Tommy (in his bulldog guise) into the woods and demanding that Hoyt drink her blood. She does love him and she can try to either keep the darker elements of her nature from him or allow him into her life fully. Her choice is made in these moments as she rips open her wrist and forces Hoyt to drink her blood. They're bonded now in ways that Hoyt could never had imagined, her true form shown to him.

Just as Crystal displays her true self to Jason, appearing to him in her panther form in his bedroom, and Arlene comes clean to Terry about the parentage of her unborn child.

But while the truth might have set them free in a way, there is always a price to pay for honesty. Whether Bon Temps' couples will come out the other side unscathed is what we'll have to wait to see. But I dare say that there is bound to be much heartbreak and pain in the days ahead, and no amount of vampire blood can ever cure a broken heart...

Next week on True Blood ("Fresh Blood"), Bill tries to earn back Sookieʼs trust, but ends up bringing her face-to-face with fresh dangers; Eric tempts Russell with the ultimate vampire dream; Jason tries to wrap his head around Crystalʼs revelation; Sam embraces his dark side, alienating everyone except Tara; Hoyt and Jessica take their romance to the next level; with Hollyʼs help, Arlene puts her future in the hands of a goddess; post V-trip, Lafayette struggles with new demons.

Ep. 35: Fresh Blood - Preview

A Doll's House: The Chrysanthemum and the Sword on Mad Men

"A man is shamed by being openly ridiculed and rejected."

On this week's fantastic episode of Mad Men ("The Chrysanthemum and the Sword"), written by Erin Levy and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, we see how symbolism is in the eye of the beholder: what one man sees as a vase of chrysanthemums is another man's symbol for death. What a mother sees as her daughter attempting to punish her is a cry for help. Or it's none of those things at all, but a burgeoning sexuality or effort to explore and to understand.

Or it's just an attraction to The Man From U.N.C.L.E..

We can parse the meanings from others' behaviors but we always apply our own patina of understanding to the symbols we take in. Sally's behavior isn't of a wanton nature; she's not on a path of destruction, despite Betty's claims that her daughter is "fast" or is picking up things from Don's "whores." She's a normal girl dealing with normal things, particularly after her world came crashing down around her following her parents' divorce.

That dollhouse that Betty so admires in Dr. Edna's office is an illusion. It's a house without a wall on the outside, letting us peer into another world. Betty sees a perfect family living inside, everything in its proper, ascribed place. But what we might see are lifeless dolls, unable to think for themselves, unable to express their rage, frustration, lust, until someone else comes along to give them meaning.

In other words, we see what we want to see. Just as Don's competitor Ted Chaough believes that he sees Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce breaking the rules and shooting a commercial in order to land the lucrative Honda account, Roger sees not dollar signs but dead army buddies, not businessmen but ruthless Japanese villains, and Betty sees not her own childhood reflected back at her but evidence of her own imperfections.

In an interesting twist, it's Henry who seems to be the sole carrier of parental knowledge here, able to see much of Sally's behavior as not abnormal but completely normal. "Little girls do this," he says to Betty after Sally chops off her hair, "even those not from broken homes." Henry, as the parent of a now-grown daughter, has seen all this and more. Despite their physical similarities, Sally is not Betty, though the latter seems to want to place her on a similar path, lying to her about her own girlhood tendencies and threatening to cut off her fingers, just as her mother did to her.

The lines have been drawn in the former Draper household: while Bobby runs to his mother and throws her arms around her, Sally is withdrawn, aloof. There has always been a simpatico spirit between Don and Sally and Betty goes so far as to push the two of them into the same category, into being recipients of her somewhat sublimated rage. Rather than console and confront her daughter rationally, Betty acts out irrationally, slapping Sally in the hallway simply because she cannot slap Don. While it's supposedly Sally she's furious with, Betty moans, "I want him dead" as soon as Don leaves. The mark she leaves on Sally's cheek is meant to ricochet to the girl's father, really.

For her part, Sally Draper is attempting to find her own way in the world. The doll's house she once lived in has been knocked on its side. In attempting to make herself over, she's attempting to thwart her mother's expectations for her and to attract her father's attention. Sally first expresses disapproval that Don is going to meet Bethany for dinner at Benihana and leave her with neighbor Phoebe. Later, she hacks off her hair in an effort to transform herself, to feel "pretty." She assumes--incorrectly--that something is going on between Don and Phoebe and then attempts to remake herself in the nurse's image, scissoring off her locks to give herself short hair. ("You have short hair and Daddy likes it," she says.)

Betty's response is to punish Sally, even as Henry advises rewarding her. In other words: paying attention to her and giving her encouragement, transforming the situation into something positive (a trip together to the hair salon) rather than something negative. But Betty, for all of the change in her life, can't transform her rage and frustration into something pleasant; it's been so deeply sublimated her entire life that it erupts into inappropriate behavior. (Like mother, like daughter.)

Sally is curious about sex and sexuality. We see this both from her questioning of Phoebe and to her response to watching The Man From U.N.C.L.E. but no one is guiding her or talking to her. And she can't talk to Betty about it because Betty won't confront these touchy subjects, even though she herself went through just what Sally is going through. ("You don't do those things," Betty screams. "You especially don't do them in public.") Don's question to Betty--"boy or girl?"--is a valid one but Betty fails to see the distinction. Sally's curiosity was inward rather than external; Betty sees only whores and fast girls.

But Betty also can't see herself. It's fitting in a way that it's a child's psychiatrist who finally gets Betty to open up, not only about Sally, but about the pain and loss in her life, about the breakdown of her marriage and the death of her father. Both Sally and Betty were deeply affected by Gene's death, though it takes the gentle coaxing of Dr. Edna to allow Betty to admit it openly.

In going to consult Dr. Edna, Betty sees the woman as a possible cure for Sally's abnormal conditions, rather than as a sounding board for herself as well. Witness how easily Edna is able to get Betty commit to coming to see her--in the guise about talking about Sally--whereas she fails in getting her to see a psychiatrist of her own. (Betty is, however, put at ease knowing that Edna will keep both sides of the ongoing conversation private from the other party.)

"I feel like Sally did this to punish me," she tells Dr. Edna. But that in itself is a symbol of misplaced anger too; Betty's reading of Sally's behavior fails to take into account her own punishment of Sally to get at Don. A misplaced slap, a cool attitude. Their every interaction is a bitter reminder to one another of what they've lost.

In a room full of toys, it's the first time Betty can be honest and it's the first time we see the ice thaw in a long while. She admits to masturbating as a girl, she admits to feeling the agony of her father's death, and--though she doesn't say it out loud--she admits that her life hasn't turned out how she imagined it. It was never as easily as moving those dolls around that open house, after all.

Roger, for his part, can't let go of his own past. His anger at the partners for even considering doing business with the Japanese speaks volumes about his anger at his World War II adversaries and in himself. While his rage is directed at the Honda executives, it takes Pete to see what's really going on here: the negotiations are symbolic of a larger issue at play. Should Pete have successfully brought in this account, the agency is less dependent on Lucky Strike... and therefore less dependent on Roger himself.

While Roger lunges at Pete for having the temerity to suggest such a thing, Don intervenes... and agrees with Pete. His efforts to wrap himself in the American flag was a smokescreen to divert from the true issue. Just as later his story to Joan about his dead war buddies is an effort to make Joan feel sorry for him, despite the fact that her husband is about to ship out to Vietnam. She urges him to let go, reminding him that he made the world a better and safer place through the sacrifices he and his friends made twenty years earlier.

She has to believe that, after all, because her husband is standing on the same precipice that Roger had all of those years before. While he attempts to engage her sympathies, Joan urges him to stop feeling sorry for himself. The scene in beautifully shot by Glatter, as Joan and Roger are positioned in front of the window, two vertical lines dissecting their tableau, depicting the separation between them, a chasm that widens even more as Joan steps out of the scene.

Don, meanwhile, fails to see that Lane has given his little "stunt" his blessing, preferring to see that they acted without the partners' knowledge, though Lane makes it clear that he had to have allowed Joan to book studio time (at which Peggy drove around an empty set in circles). But Don's stunt does work: not only is CGC put out of the running but SCDP lands the Honda account (or at least the future Honda automobile account) because Don played up the sense of honor that the Japanese hold so dearly. By failing to hold up their own rules, they invited dishonor. Don's understanding of the symbolism land them the account. It's a matter of deciphering the meaning behind the shifting symbols.

Likewise, Faye admits to Don that she uses a fake wedding band in order to discourage "distracting conversations" from men at work. The ring is a symbol of attachment; by using it she wards off prospective admirers without uttering a word. But while Faye comes clean to Don, he too opens up to her. Her psychiatrist's couch is the narrow break room at SCDP; her notepad a bottle of sake left as a joke. But Don unveils a harrowing truth about his relationship with his children: that they are intense when he watches them, that he is relieved when he drops them off, and that he then misses them. The cycle repeats itself over and over. He does love his children but can't express it; what Betty sees as disinterest and irresponsibility is a host of conflicting emotions.

Emotions that all of them either bottle up or turn to the bottle to avoid facing. It's the chrysanthemum in the room, the specter of death, the symbology that they can't quite face up to. The call to California goes unanswered, hair once shorn can't be immediately repaired, and the hard truths of life can't always be confronted. One can only hope that Sally Draper finds solace in talk therapy and that she, as the symbol of a new generation, finds herself able to discuss the things that her parents are unable--or unwilling--to say aloud.

Next week on Mad Men ("Waldorf Stories"), Peggy clashes with her new creative partner; Don pitches under unusual circumstances.

The Daily Beast: "2010 Emmys: Who Will Win This Year?"

With the 2010 Emmy Awards less than a week away, it's time to take a look at this year's front-runners and weigh the major races that are already underway.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "2010 Emmys: Who Will Win This Year?" in which I take a look (via a visual gallery) at who will win the top spots this year and who should be taking home those statuettes come August 29th.

Do you agree with my assessments? Think Julianna Margulies is a lock? Or do you think that I'm wrong and Aaron Paul won't get overlooked for a Best Supporting Actor award? Head to the comments section to discuss and debate and post your take on the major categories.

The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards will air live coast to coast on Sunday, August 29th on NBC.

Channel Surfing: NBC Dumps Parks and Rec Repeats, Smallville Return, Creative Arts Emmy Winners, Grey's Closure and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Good news for Community; bad news for Parks and Recreation. The Futon Critic is reporting that NBC has opted to forgo repeats of Season Two of Parks and Recreation for the remainder of the summer, instead using the Thursday 9:30 pm timeslot for a second round of Community repeats. [Editor: While I applaud NBC for recognizing the potential of Dan Harmon's Community, I wish it weren't at the expense of Parks and Rec, which won't even return for its third season until "midseason."] Planned repeats for August 26th and September 2nd will instead be filled by Community episodes... which means that the airwaves will be Pawnee-free until the series returns at a to-be-determined point later in the season. (Futon Critic)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that John Glover will return to the CW's Smallville to reprise his role as Lionel Luthor in a multiple-episode story arc on the tenth and final season. Glover is currently slated to appear in at least two episodes that will air in November, though it's unknown just how Lionel will be making his grand return as he was last seen plummeting to his death after being pushed out of a window by Michael Rosenbaum's Lex. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO took home 17 statues on Saturday for the Creative Arts Emmys, followed closely by ABC with 15. [Editor: Congratulations to Ryan Case, who won an Emmy for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Comedy for Modern Family. Go Ryan!] A full list of all winners can be found here. (via press release)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Izzie's story is far from being done on ABC's Grey's Anatomy and talks to executive producer Shonda Rhimes about providing closure for Alex when the series returns this fall for its seventh season. "We’re talking about it [in the writers' room] obsessively and trying to figure it out,” Rhimes told Ausiello. “We’re approaching it pretty carefully... I want how ever we deal with Alex growing up and moving on and moving past that relationship to feel authentic and not to feel like something that’s patched together.” So might Katherine Heigl be dropping by Grey's, after all? "I don't know," said Rhimes. Hmmm... (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In other Grey's Anatomy-related news, Diane Farr (Rescue Me) will guest star in an episode slated to air in October, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Farr will play a patient with Huntington's Disease in the upcoming season's fourth episode. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy is not only developing a series vehicle for Kristin Chenoweth but is also looking to develop a project that would star John Stamos... and that the security on the set during Britney Spears' appearance was so tight that Murphy himself couldn't get on the set. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Murphy, meanwhile, hinted to Access Hollywood that Spears could end up making another appearance on Glee down the line. (Hollywood Reporter)

A happy ending for Bill and Sookie? Maybe not, but the actors who play them on HBO's vampire drama True Blood, Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin, have tied the knot. The couple were married in Malibu on Saturday evening. Among the attendees: Carrie Preston, Michael Emerson, and Elijah Wood. (Hollywood Reporter, US Weekly)

SPOILER! Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to 90210 showrunner Rebecca Sinclair about her decision to bring Trevor Donovan's Teddy out of the closet this fall on the CW teen soap. "[We wanted] to play a coming out story that features a kid we already knew," Sinclair told Ausiello about why they waited to delve into this storyline until this season. "Instead of his sexuality being the first and defining characteristic, we’ve already gotten a chance to know Teddy before he explores his sexuality. Teddy’s an athlete, he’s a famous guy’s son, he’s blonde and hunky and yes, he also has a sexual orientation and that’s a huge part of his life. In a lot of ways I think that’s more interesting than Teddy is a gay athlete, a gay famous guy’s son and a blonde and hunky gay gentleman." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that former House star Jennifer Morrison--who may or may not return to the FOX medical drama--will guest star on NBC's Chase this fall, where she will appear alongside current boyfriend Amaury Nolasco. Morrison is set to make an appearance in the sixth episode of the new procedural drama, where she will play Faith, described as "a single mother-turned-fugitive who embarks on a bloody killing spree across Texas with her innocent little daughter in tow." (TV Guide Magazine)

File this under sickening: The Hollywood Reporter's Leslie Bruce is reporting that Jersey Shore's The Situation (a.k.a. Mike Sorrentino) will make $5 million by the end of the year, according to an unnamed source familiar with the reality star's personal finances. "We are really excited about all the opportunities coming Mike's way," Sorrentino's manager, Mike Petolino of Gotham Entertainment, told THR. "He has been able to secure many endorsement deals, business opportunities and additional television offers based on the success of the show. Our goal has always been to try to build a brand if the situation presented itself." (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Tia Texada (Third Watch) will guest star on NBC's Chuck this season, where she will play Hortencia, the wife of Armand Assante's Costa Gravan Premier Alejandro Goya. "We'll meet Hortencia, who (no surprise) is harboring a secret," writes Keck, "when Chuck and the gang visit the Premier's beautiful island in his native Costa Gravas." Texada will appear in the fourth season's fourth episode. (TV Guide Magazine)

Worked for NBC? Anyone and everyone who worked for the Peacock at one time or another is eligible to attend the 15th Annual NBC Reunion Dinner, which will be held at the Lakeside Golf Club in Burbank on October 23rd, according to a Variety report. (Variety)

Stay tuned.