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Talking Smallville with Tess Mercer

2009-05-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

As we get ready for the season finale of Smallville this Thursday, May 14, on The CW, IGN got a chance to chat with Cassidy Freeman. Her character, Tess Mercer, has come a long way since the beginning of the season, going from a search for Lex Luthor to gathering forces to help Clark (Tom Welling) find (and maybe kill) Doomsday (Sam Witwer).

Freeman gave us a sneak peak at the finale, her throwdown with Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and a preview of her upcoming horror film YellowBrickRoad which also stars her brother Clark.

ANTM crowns a winner!

2009-05-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

So, it's Kris Allen versus Adam Lambert for the title of American Idol. Crazy! Like I've been saying, I adore Kris but I thought Danny Gokey had more star power. Do I think Kris can beat Adam in the American Idol finale? No. But the way things have been going on the show, who knows! Not that it really matters as all three of them are sure to have fine careers going forward after American Idol.

Reality TV Magazine's Britteny Elrick tells us all about Adam Lambert's Entertainment Weekly cover here!

America's Next Top Model crowned a winner last night - the sweet Teyona took home the prize over Allison. I didn't feel invested in either girl, so it was an anticlimactic ending.

Check out Reality TV's Elrick's full run-down here!

Last night's America's Next Top Model was also the last we'll be seeing of Paulina Porizkova, too. She told Craig Ferguson on The Late, Late Show that she was fired -- over the phone and on her birthday. I'm good with that. Porizkova adds nothing to the show and I'd rather see Jay Manuel sitting in the last chair. He'd make a fine judge!

Tonight there are seven season finales! Tonight’s must-watch leads with the Grey’s Anatomy season finale:

Grey's Anatomy
As if last week's episode wasn't heart breaking enough, we have tonight's stunning finale. Izzie must decide whether or not to undergo the cancer surgery while several of the gang have big announcements to make. Are they really going to kill off Izzie? Does it matter?
Like Supernatural, dead doesn't always mean dead on Grey's. It would simply mean that she and Denny can now haunt the place, together.

Deconstructing Lost's season finale: Does Jesus Christ run the island?

2009-05-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

Besides being a little freaked to find the guy who played an abusive ex-husband on Dexter now playing the mysterious figure who runs Lost's island, Jacob, I had a few thoughts about Wednesday's appropriately mind-bending, two-hour Season Five finale, "The Incident."

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

--Somehow, dark-shirted Titus Welliver -- who popped up in the episode's opening moments as a politely murderous foil to Jacob -- morphed into John Locke to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob.

--Vowing to find a "loophole" allowing him to kill Jacob, Welliver's character must somehow be prevented from killing Jacob himself. Thus the manipulation of Ben, until now the show's best manipulator. Ironies abound.

'Supernatural': Is Bobby kicking the bucket?

2009-05-14T20:46:00.001-07:00

Tonight, “Supernatural” wraps its fourth season and the finale promises to bring the mayhem that's been brewing to a boiling point. The race is on to prevent the final seals from being broken and there will be causalities.

One person whose future isn’t looking so bright? Bobby.

Yes, I know. It breaks my heart, too. But when I caught up with Jim Beaver (Bobby) at a signing to promote his new book this week, I questioned him on the rumors that his character isn't long for the "Supernatural" world, and his words weren’t promising. “I wish I had something encouraging to say about Bobby,” he told me. “There are some big surprises coming up.”

And if this is Bobby’s swan song, fans will be disappointed to hear that he’s not even a major part of the episode. “Bobby’s appearance in the season finale is relatively brief,” Jim shared. “He comes in and then kind of disappears.”

But whatever the outcome for Bobby is, Jim believes it’s all good. “[Creator] Eric [Kripke]’s going to do what’s best for the show,” he said. “He’s very attentive to the fans [and their wishes], but the fans don’t ever have to worry about him bending the show just to accommodate what they would like [to see]. At the same time, he cares what they would like, and I think the very fact that Bobby is still around this long is very much in part because he picked up that the fans liked him.”

If Bobby does end up meeting his maker, Jim isn't sure how that would impact his role on the show. “People do worry an awful lot about characters dying on "Supernatural" even though we’ve pretty much proven [death] doesn’t mean all that much,” he mused. He pointed out that characters that have died often pop back up on the show, long after they were killed off.

So, would you be okay if they axed Bobby?

Don't you think the boys need a father figure around? Someone that doesn't put up with their crap? Especially given their recent problems?

-Reporting by Marisa Roffman

'Grey's,' 'Supernatural' sign off for the season

2009-05-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Before last week's episode of "Grey's Anatomy," yours truly was once again making empty threats.

If Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) didn't walk down the aisle — if the writers found some way to delay the big day once again — that would be it for me. I'd give up altogether on the show, which was remarkably annoying for much of this season.

And yet I have to give credit where credit is due. Creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes, who also wrote the episode, managed to put the wedding off for at least a while. And I'm not even considering going through with my threat to remove "Grey's Anatomy" from by DVR recording list.

If you haven't been watching, neither Meredith nor Derek really wanted a big wedding. But they allowed Izzie (Katherine Heigl) to plan one for them because it kept her occupied while she fought a potentially fatal form of cancer.

When Izzie's condition took a turn for the worse, Meredith and Derek turned the big wedding Izzie had planned over to her — and Izzie married Alex (Justin Chambers).

I didn't shed any tears (really), but my two daughters were both openly crying as the scenes played out.

Bryan Q. Miller Talks Teen Titans, Batgirl

2009-05-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Bryan Q. Miller pulled a rabbit out his hat earlier this year when he introduced Zatanna to the “Smallville” mythos by writing the Season 8 episode, “Hex.” DC Comics obviously thought Miller had a handle on scripting young heroes, because after penning three episodes of the CW hit series, the publisher gave him a multi-issue arc on “Teen Titans” for his first assignment in comics.

For Miller’s debut effort, he serves as co-writer on “Teen Titans” #72 with Sean McKeever (who also scripts Ravager back-up stories), and finishes the next two issues on his own. The writer says the fill-in story serves as a “pivotal narrative bridge” for the title moving forward.

But that’s not all for the relative newcomer.

DC revealed via its blog The Source that Miller will launch “Batgirl” in August – the final piece to the puzzle that is the Batverse post-“Battle for the Cowl.”

CBR sat down with Bryan Q. Miller to talk about these projects and more.

New Smallville season finale clip blames Chloe for everything

2009-05-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not even gonna try to guess who will die in Thursday's season finale of Smallville. If the show wants to line up with Superman lore, then Clark will definitely bite it and be resurrected next season. If not, then almost anyone could be dead by episode's end (except Lois, Erica Durance has already signed on for season nine).

Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing Chloe go. I don't hate the character, but it seems like she's caused nothing but problems for Clark this season. It looks like the latest preview clip for this week's season ender, "Doomsday" agrees with me.
"And now because of Chloe, you cannot defeat him." Oh, that's hilarious. I love how Cosmic Boy blames the rise of Doomsday and the future death of Clark all on poor little Chloe. His list of Chloe's mistakes seems to go on and on and it basically ends with, "Everything's gonna go to hell because Chloe, you know, exists!"

Of course, this probably means Chloe will not die in the finale. It's more likely that somebody like Tess Mercer, The Dark Arrow or another Justice Leaguer will meet his or her end. Check out this spoiler page for more clues.

Lots Of Grand Finales On Television This Week

2009-05-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

It's the biggest week of the year for TV series finales.

Dozens of shows say farewell for now, either by tying up their action or leaving stories gaping wide open with cliffhangers.

Prominent among them tonight is the finale of "Brothers & Sisters" (ABC, 10 p.m.), which promises a resolution to its most recent crisis (a brother missing in Mexico, even before flu is detected).

The second half of a two-part murder case on "Cold Case" ( CBS, 9 p.m.) closes that show's season. And a nuclear crisis is part of the fourth-season finale of "The Unit" (CBS, 10 p.m.).

Eddie Kaye Thomas cast in 'America'

2009-05-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Eddie Kaye Thomas has joined HBO's upcoming comedy series "How to Make It in America" as a regular.

Additionally, Misha Collins has been upped to a regular on the CW drama "Supernatural," and Stephen Dunham has been added to TBS' comedy "The Bill Engvall Show."

Thomas guest-starred on the pilot for "How to Make It," which revolves around Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and his friend Cam (Victor Rasuk), enterprising twentysomethings who hustle their way through New York determined to achieve the American dream.

Thomas plays a guy who went to high school with Ben. He now runs a hedge fund and is extremely rich but wants to be cool -- at any price.

Thomas, who starred on Fox's " 'Til Death" and voices a character on "American Dad!" is repped by Gersh and Untitled.

Collins had recurred on 12 episodes of "Supernatural," morphing between otherworldly angel Castiel and hapless family man Jimmy Novak. He is repped by SMS and Framework.

On "Bill Engvall," Dunham will play Engvall's brother Kenny, a likable ne'er-do-well who gets by on his charm. Domain-repped Dunham ("What I Like About You") joins as a recurring this season with an option to become a series regular.
Eddie Kaye Thomas cast in 'America'
Misha Collins becomes 'Supernatural' regular
By Nellie Andreeva

May 10, 2009, 11:00 PM ET

Eddie Kaye Thomas has joined HBO's upcoming comedy series "How to Make It in America" as a regular.

Additionally, Misha Collins has been upped to a regular on the CW drama "Supernatural," and Stephen Dunham has been added to TBS' comedy "The Bill Engvall Show."

Thomas guest-starred on the pilot for "How to Make It," which revolves around Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and his friend Cam (Victor Rasuk), enterprising twentysomethings who hustle their way through New York determined to achieve the American dream.

Thomas plays a guy who went to high school with Ben. He now runs a hedge fund and is extremely rich but wants to be cool -- at any price.

Thomas, who starred on Fox's " 'Til Death" and voices a character on "American Dad!" is repped by Gersh and Untitled.

Collins had recurred on 12 episodes of "Supernatural," morphing between otherworldly angel Castiel and hapless family man Jimmy Novak. He is repped by SMS and Framework.

On "Bill Engvall," Dunham will play Engvall's brother Kenny, a likable ne'er-do-well who gets by on his charm. Domain-repped Dunham ("What I Like About You") joins as a recurring this season with an option to become a series regular.

Supernaturally sexy

2009-05-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Like Buffy Summers before them, brothers Dean and Sam Winchester carry a heavy load: protecting the world from evil.

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer spent most of her time warding off demons and other supernatural creatures that emerged from the Hellmouth beneath her high school, Dean and Sam have no such geographical restrictions.

In the cult hit Supernatural, Dean and Sam crisscross the US in their distinctive 1967 Chevy Impala, following up reports of unusual and/or paranormal activity and hunting for the demon that killed their mother.

Since the show’s debut in 2005, the brothers have fought off everything from demons and shape-shifters to zombies and vampires.

Supernatural was recently ranked at No. 11 on The Times Online’s list of the top 50 recent US TV shows, ahead of Law and Order, ER, House and Mad Men and not far behind The Shield, 24, The Sopranos and list-topper, The Wire.

The show has a well-credentialled creative team — one of its executive producers, McG, directed the soon-to-be released Terminator Salvation.

Director and executive producer Kim Manners, who died in January after battling cancer, earned four Emmy nominations for his work on The X-Files

In the US, season four of Supernatural increased its audience by 13 per cent and attracts about 3.3 million viewers against Grey’s Anatomy and CSI.

Although you are unlikely to find Supernatural listed among Australia’s top-rated TV shows, it has a devoted cult following here, just as it does overseas.

Last year when season four was fast-tracked from the US it was attracting an average of 652,000 viewers nationally and just under 100,000 viewers in Perth.

More important for Ten, Supernatural last year attracted a 41.2 per cent share (48.9 per cent in Perth) of viewers in the 16 to 39 age group and pulled a 34.7 per cent national share and 41.8 per cent Perth share on its return last week..

Although many sci-fi inspired shows skew towards young males, having handsome leads in Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki has brought in a 54 per cent female audience.

It was the show’s strong female fan base that helped bring the stars to Sydney last month for the Supernatural convention All Hell Breaks Loose.

Perth fan Renae Nahajski says she doesn’t consider herself to be a sci-fi fan and never watched Smallville or Buffy but was immediately hooked on Supernatural.

“It’s scary, I like a bit of a scare every now and then and I really like the relationship between the brothers,” says the Mt Hawthorn teacher and mother-of-three.

Mrs Nahajski is among the thousands of fans who frequent Supernatural fan forums and websites to find out the latest gossip and express their thoughts on plot-twists and casting.

One criticism of shows such as Supernatural and Lost is that mythology and back stories make it hard to follow for casual viewers. But Supernatural’s standalone episodes, often with a humorous twist, have made it easier for the casual viewer to enjoy Dean and Sam’s adventures.

While the majority of viewers tune in because of Sam and Dean and the recurring theme of good versus evil, others love the show because of its pop culture references, the soundtrack and that cool Chevy.

Supernatural returns to Australian screens tonight at episode nine of season four, with Sam explaining how he became so close to Ruby (played this season by Genevieve Cortese) while Dean was in hell. This has been regarded as a landmark and daring season because it is also quite likely to be the penultimate one.

Creator and executive producer Eric Kripke has always maintained he only wants Supernatural to run for five seasons.

Hunky stars Ackles (Dean) and Padalecki (Sam) have also expressed a desire to see the show come to its natural end after five seasons, with Ackles stating recently he’d rather see the brothers go out in a blaze of glory than happily ever after.

Supernatural has made household names of the pair but they barely get to see family and friends while filming on location in Vancouver.

The pair carry a heavy workload, appearing in almost every scene and attempts to introduce other series regulars to lessen their workloads have not always been welcomed by vocal fans.

That changed somewhat this season with the arrival of Misha Collins as Castiel, the trench coat-wearing male angel responsible for helping Dean escape hell. Dean was dragged to hell kicking and screaming at the end of the third season as part of an earlier deal to save Sam’s life.

Mrs Nahajski says most fans have not liked the brothers having potential love interests — some have accused producers of hiring attractive females to boost young male viewers — but have accepted the arrival of Castiel.

Later this season fans will also be tested by the arrival of a third Winchester brother, Adam (Jake Abel).

Supernatural airs tonight at 9.30 on Ten.

SUE YEAP

Preview of 'Smallville' Season 8 Finale: Doomsday

2009-05-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Through the just-released preview, Clark finally comes to knowledge of what he has to do in the final battle against Doomsday. The season finale of "Smallville" airs May 14, bringing back one of the Legionnaires as well as other Justice Leaguers.

Oliver tells Clark he must kill Davis, as Doomsday is a serious threat and must be stopped at all costs. However, Clark struggles with taking a human life, so the Green Arrow and his team decide to take matters into their own hands. Lois takes on Tess, but the fight takes a shocking turn. Meanwhile, Chloe gets caught in the middle of Oliver and Clark's battle over killing Davis.

Based on some scoops released in prior weeks, the members of Justice League that will assist Clark in defeating Doomsday are Bart Allen aka Impulse, and Dinah Lance aka Black Canary. While the Legionnaire that returns is reportedly Rokk Krinn aka Cosmic Boy.

"Smallville" has been picked up for a ninth season. Co-executive producer Brian W. Peterson said that they have had some preparations on who will be back in the new season. He said, "We introduced several this year that we'll probably bring back next year. We loved Zatanna. We looked at a few others that we want to introduce, but we're going to wait for Comic-Con to release all that."

TV Review: SMALLVILLE - SEASON EIGHT - 'Injustice'

2009-05-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

It’s drama drama drama drama drama followed by more drama on SMALLVILLE, “Injustice”. Next week is the season finale, so they had to throw some extra spice in this episode for the final build up. I’m sure die hard fans of SMALLVILLE thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Me, I was entertained, but not blown away.

was caught off guard by Chloe’s (Allison Mack) seeming 180 turn around on what should be done about Davis (Sam Witwer, who, incidentally, did not make an appearance this episode). She turned from his sole advocate into one of the lynch mob out to execute him. The presence of Bette (Jessica Parker Kennedy), AKA Plastique and Parasite (Brendan Fletcher) added to my suspicion that something was very wrong with Chloe.

In what felt like a lazy bail out, it turns out that it wasn’t really Chloe at all. It was Eva (Anna Williams), Tess Mercer’s (Cassidy Freeman) personal assistant, who just also happens to be a shape shifter. It seemed week, being that I don’t remember any mention of her having any abilities, much less that of a shape shifter. No matter, this little sleight of hand finally allows Tess to confirm that Clark (Tom Welling) is really of alien origin, and the one mentioned in the prophecy to battle Doomsday.

I suppose what we can take from “Injustice” is that all the cards are laid out now. Davis will not be saved (anyone who has read the comics knows that, but at least now it’s official on SMALLVILLE). The battle between Clark and Doomsday will happen.

On TV this week, May 11-15

2009-05-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

SEASON FINALE Supernatural, 9 p.m., CW What's with these TV shows? The apocalypse is always nigh just as the season is coming to a close.

True Blood: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Review

2009-05-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

It isn't easy being a bloodsucker in the twenty-first century. Mass media has made their seedy behavior impossible to hide, lore and legend have revealed their snazziest tricks, and armed religious zealots have equipped themselves with better weapons to jab through their unbeating hearts. Gone are the days of romantic delusions of grandeur... gone are the days of prowling on unsuspecting weaklings who foolishly separate from the herd... gone are the days of rule. Such are the challenges faced by vampiric society in creator Alan Ball's True Blood, an ongoing HBO series based on bestselling author Charlaine Harris' nine Southern Vampire Mysteries novels. In Harris and Ball's intriguing alternate reality, vampires have come out of the coffin to a slack-jawed public and began to request equal rights (no subtext there). But even though the invention and widespread distribution of synthetic blood has relieved the creatures of their need to kill, the vamps find it increasingly difficult to integrate into society. Lawmakers debate the extent to which the supernatural beings should be considered citizens, staunch traditionalists demand blood of their own, and everyday people are forced to choose between tolerance and extinction.

'Supernatural' 4th Season Finale Preview: Lucifer Rising

2009-05-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

The season finale of "Supernatural" will air next week, May 14 with the apocalypse finally arriving. Sam and Dean prepare for the fight in very different ways. Sam joins Ruby on a final run to kill Lilith (guest star Katherine Boecher), while Castiel and Zachariah (guest star Kurt Fuller) tell Dean it's time to play his part in stopping Lucifer.

Creator Eric Kripke who directs the episode, has shared some hints to TV Guide regarding the characters on the verge of Apocalypse. He said, "The Apocalypse is coming down to the wire, and it's time for Dean to play his part. While we're on the subject, besides Zach and Cass, a lot of the Angel gang are coming back. Anna makes an appearance, and even the Prophet Chuck pops in for a bit."

He also confirmed that there will be a "big cliffhanger" as well as major deaths that will affect the storyline of the fifth season.

NCIS' Final Four: Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool & More

2009-05-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

The much-talked about final four episodes are finally upon us, and for fans of CBS' kooky clan of Naval criminal investigators on NCIS, that means we get to see the backdoor episode to the planned spinoff featuring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J.

Chris and LL show up in tonight's episode, "Legend Part 1," and in next Tuesday's "Legend Part 2." But contrary to published reports, the spinoff—which has yet to be picked up (wait for after the May 20 CBS Upfronts in New York for that)—is not titled NCIS: Legend, according to show runner Shane Brennan.
Legend's Meaning: "Legend is a word coined by the East German secret police, the Stasi, and it means deep background. If you're going undercover, you need to have a legend, a backstory that holds up under scrutiny. The new show, which takes place in Los Angeles, takes a look at what it's like to be an undercover agent. That is, how it differs from NCIS. No one from NCIS is moving over to this new show. We'll announce the spinoff title when the show gets picked up."

Comment: Heigl, 'Grey's Anatomy,' have ruined Izzie

2009-05-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

This year, however, in Season 5, Izzie outdid herself: She had sex with a dead guy. More precisely, Izzie slept with Denny's ghost. After a bout of supernatural lovemaking, however, Izzie grew irritated with his lingering presence, leading him to apologize to her for having died.

"No. No, (expletive) you!" Izzie yelled. "No, you don't get to apologize for dying. You don't get to apologize, because I killed you!"

I don't care if she was venting a guilty conscience — only Izzie Stevens would berate the ghost of her dead fiancÃ© because he said he was sorry for dying. We later learned that Denny was an apparition caused by skin cancer that has metastasized to Izzie's brain. This does not excuse the writers for having subjecting us to ghost sex, however, in case they were wondering.

Now Izzie is undergoing treatment for her cancer, which has made her sympathetic and vulnerable. But don't be fooled. Annoyance is ready to strike at all times, as Izzie's frenetic planning of Meredith Grey's wedding has so clearly demonstrated.

Who's fault?

Hot author: Charlaine Harris bites back into vampire series

2009-05-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

On the appeal of vampires and other supernatural creatures: "We are so obsessed with youth that the idea of creatures that can remain eternally young, never have to worry about wrinkles or arthritis, is the ideal in our culture."

The other reason: "They're sexy."

Fun fact: Harris' blood type is B-negative.

First supernatural thrill: "I read Edgar Allan Poe at an early age, and that left an indelible impression."

Fringe Renewed for a Full Second Season

2009-05-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

In a move long expected, Fox had decided to bring back the supernatural thriller Fringe next year for a full 22-episode season.

We’ve had our issues with it, but the series has the considerable good fortune to be branded as part of J.J. Abrams’ creative legacy—stock that’s about to soar even higher when Star Trek opens this weekend. The show has been among the top-rated new series this season, including in advertiser-friendly demographics.

Summer movie season begins

2009-05-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Star Trek' - The movie to beat this summer is a bracing overhaul of the classic franchise that shouldn't - and so far hasn't - disappoint the faithful legions. The whole thing feels meticulously worked over and is polished to a blinding sheen, like a candy-apple red Ferrari. It runs that well, and that fast, too. Best of all, it does its kinetic ballets and gripping sci-fi intrigue with scoops of humor and sprinkles of self-aware cool. Opening tonight at some theaters and wide Friday.

'Angels & Demons' - 'The Da Vinci Code' was a walkout affair for us, so hopes are slim for this supernatural thriller sequel that's sure to tweak the Vatican's nose. What's not slim? Box office potential. 'Da Vinci' hauled in nearly $800 million worldwide. Demonic. (May 15)

'Terminator Salvation' - Wherein Christian Bale berates cast and crew and anyone who trespasses into his sightlines ... and that's behind the scenes. In this fourth chapter in the lucrative series, Bale plays an adult and action-packed John Connor in 2018 (is the future really that near?). Battles remain to be fought. Someone ferocious is needed. Here's your man. (May 21)

'Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian' - Ben Stiller, Amy Adams and Robin Williams team for institutional mayhem, this time in the titular corridors and not the Museum of Natural History as in the original. Funny, we can tell exactly how this family fare will play out (frantically, exhaustingly). (May 22)

'Up' - One of these days Pixar will make a hit movie. The dazzling animation factory's at it again, this time with an old man (voiced by Ed Asner) who attaches balloons to his house so he can float away to South America. Certain to inspire many Americans facing foreclosure. (May 29)

Spoiler Chat: Is Trek Star Quinto Leaving Heroes for Good?

2009-05-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Erica in Dallas: I'm really worried about Susan after last night's episode of Desperate Housewives. Dave is out for blood. What's the scoop?
Never fear, Teri Hatcher doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon. "I intend on having a job on Desperate Housewives next year, but it's definitely [a] dramatic [finale]," she tells us. As we teased before, Susan's not the only one in trouble on Wisteria Lane, so the real question you should be asking is, How far does Dave cross the line?

Sabrina in Carmel, Calif.: Any word on if they're going to replace Edie on Desperate Housewives next season?
While that does seem to be a common occurrence on our favorite fictional street, Teri Hatcher wants to make sure fans know that Nicollette Sheridan's Edie cannot be replaced. "I don't think you can go at it like 'replacing her.' It will open up an arena for new, imaginative things to happen." But Brenda Strong teased, "I think Wisteria Lane will definitely be shy of an Edie. I don't think anything is written in stone, but there's room for a new neighbor." Thoughts on who should move in this time around?

Lonnie in Chicago: Any hints on what villains are coming to Smallville?
A few fan faves will be back next season, but we'll have to wait a while to find out the rest. Says Brian Peterson, "We introduced several this year that we'll probably bring back next year. We loved Zatanna. We looked at a few others that we want to introduce, but we're going to wait for Comic-Con to release all that." One hero you won't see stopping by is Batman. Though the producers really want to have him on the show, Kelly Sounders says there's still trouble with the franchise crossovers: "Obviously everybody wants to keep all the franchises going and give the fans what they want in each. If that opening ever, ever occurs, we'll be all over it."

NBC goes back to basics after season of failures

2009-05-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

Definitely coming this fall: Heroes, new cop drama Southland, Amy Poehler's comedy Parks and Recreation and the Thursday editions of Weekend Update which proved so popular in the fall's election season, now dubbed Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday.

NBC executives also told reporters Monday that cop drama Life was canceled and supernatural drama Medium hasn't been renewed. And, despite being barred by a judge from competing, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich remains in promotional photos for the reality show I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, somehow.

What they didn't reveal: The fate of Chuck, the Monday adventure comedy which has mobilized a serious cult following among TV nerds and critics (okay, often the same people). Also left hanging: the fate of NBC senior citizen, Law & Order. Spinoff Special Victims Unit is expected to return — with or without its two stars, now seeking more money — along with The Biggest Loser.

This writing has been on this wall since NBC gave its 10 p.m. hour to Jay Leno for the fall and benched ambitious drama Kings, curbing a stream of expensive productions mostly designed to show that entertainment head Ben Silverman could play with the big boys.

It's back to basics for NBC, which will announce May 19 which of its current series survives to fall and where all this new stuff will land.

That's when we'll get a better look at the future of network TV — which is starting to look a lot like the past.

24's frenzied finish

2009-05-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

Gossip Girl has Blair and Georgina hatching a revenge plot while Dancing with the Stars dances towards a final fourThe CW's Gossip Girl has the gang plotting a little revenge while the lovechild that was supposedly dead of Lilly and Rufus appears to be alive and well. Blair puts Georgina on notice to make amends for her past that plays into the aforementioned revenge plot. The rivalry between Chuck and Nate over Blair reaches an explosive point. Meanwhile, remember Dan’s having trouble with paying for Yale. Lily’s going to do something about that tonight on Gossip Girl. After Gossip Girl, you're invited to Peyton's baby shower on One Tree Hill.

Hugh Jackman Looking To Scare Up Another Hit With ‘Ghostopolis’

2009-05-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --
Despite being panned by many critics, Hugh Jackman’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” made a killing at the box office over its opening weekend, and the Aussie star hopes to continue his success with “Ghostopolis.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hugh will leave the world of mutants behind for ghosts in an adaptation of Doug TenNapel’s graphic novel.

The story reportedly centers on a government agent working for the Supernatural Immigration Task Force, whose job it is to send escaped ghosts back to Ghostopolis. When a living boy ends up in the spirit world, Hugh’s character must rescue him.

A director has not yet been selected for the project, but Hugh will produce the supernatural action movie.

Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

'Supernatural' questions and answers as the finale approaches

2009-05-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I greatly enjoyed Thursday's Castiel-heavy episode of "Supernatural." I thought Misha Collins gave a great performance (well, two very different and excellent performances), and the ending -- what a kicker that was.

Here's a clip from the episode:

So, two things. First, I'm interviewing Jim Beaver, who plays Bobby on "Supernatural" on Monday. In the comment area below, leave any questions you may have for Beaver (regarding his roles in "Supernatural," "Harper's Island" or "Deadwood," though I'll focus most on "Supernatural"). Thanks!

Second, I've got episode summaries for the final two episodes of "Supernatural's" addictive fourth season below (spoiler alert, yada yada).The season ends on the CW on May 14. By the way, for an interview with co-executive producer Sera Gamble about the second half of the season (the interview is non-spoilery but assumes you've watched Season 4), look here.

Here are network-provided summaries of the final "Supernatural" episodes of the season:

May 7: “When the Levee Breaks”

DEAN AND BOBBY TRAP SAM IN THE PANIC ROOM — Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Bobby (Jim Beaver) lock Sam (Jared Padalecki) in Bobby’s panic room so he can detox from the demon blood. However, as Bobby sees more seals are being broken he tells Dean they should let Sam out to help them fight the impending apocalypse. Dean disagrees and goes to Castiel (Misha Collins) for help. Sam and Dean have a big blowout confrontation. Robert Singer directed the episode written by Sera Gamble.

May 14: "Lucifer Rising"

THE BATTLE BEWTEEN HEAVEN AND HELL BEGINS — The apocalypse is coming, and Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) prepare for the fight in very different ways. Sam joins Ruby (Genevieve Cortese) on a final run to kill Lilith (guest star Katherine Boecher), while Castiel (Misha Collins) and Zachariah (guest star Kurt Fuller) tell Dean it’s time to play his part in stopping Lucifer. Eric Kripke wrote and directed the episode.

TV Review: SUPERNATURAL - SEASON FOUR - 'Jump the Shark'

2009-05-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Was it me, or was it Dean (Jensen Ackles) crawls through tight spaces week?

I love that SUPERNATURAL and its writers are so self-aware.

Two new episodes ago, they took pots shots at themselves and all the good (and bad) episodes they have done and the craziness of some of the plotlines, ripped the fanboys and fan fiction writers a new one (but in a funny, fairly nice way). Earlier this year they had an episode entitled “Criss Angel is a Douchebag” having nothing to do with anything during the episode – other than it was about magic. And now they have proclaimed that they are “jumping the shark” by introducing the third – yes third – Winchester brother into the mix.

“Jump the shark” is the coined phrase for when a show had reached a point in its history where it veers into absurd storylines or out-of-the-ordinary characterizations. Originally was pointed out in HAPPY DAYS when Fonzie literally jumped a shark while water skiing.
Here, they are poking fun at themselves because after four years and introducing a potentially major new character into the mix – a brother no less – is a little hard to imagine. Luckily, by naming the episode “Jump the Shark” they realize this and are giving us the nod once again that they know, they know.

But in true SUPERNATURAL fashion, they took the premise and made it their own – aw damn I’ve been reviewing too much AMERICAN IDOL, I’m sounding like Paula Abdul. Instead of introducing a lame character everyone will hate because he’s the third (or fourth, or fifth) wheel. Sure, we were introduced to Sam (Jared Padaleki) and Dean’s brother, Adam, but it is a ghoul that assumed his identity – along with his mother and another ghoul. And they feasted on the real Adam and his mother for a long time before ending their lives and stuffing them in a crypt and stealing their identities.

See John Winchester – the boys father and also father to real Adam – killed the ghouls father and, well, pay back’s a bitch. So they took revenge on Adam and gunned for the other Winchester brothers by posing as their long lost brother seeking their help. A good ruse but luckily for us, the writers did the right thing and made for a decent filler episode.

But next week it is straight back to business with angels and demons back in action and a furthering of the mythology. That’s a good thing since there are only three episodes left still the season is over and we have many questions to answer.

Gay Tube: Smallville Season 8 on DVD, Lost's 100th Episode

2009-05-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

It's always sad to see the end of the line for a long running TV show.

When shows like Smallville, CSI, and Law & Order appear in our living rooms, year after year, there's solid comfort in the familiarity of the story and the complexities of the characters who seem to grow with us in every season. Over time they develop a history and we begin to talk about these characters as if they were real.

If our own lives are falling apart around us we can take comfort in the knowledge that our favorite cast of characters will never let us down or beat up on us. Television writers are careful not to BS the fan base with lame Dallas-like dream plots or heroes getting over death and destruction as quickly as the commercial break ends. Seeing a character leave a show feels as bad as having to say goodbye to a much loved work colleague or secret love who dares not speak his name.

When the end is near and characters are left dangling without ever getting the boy or receiving a resolution, we are left with an empty void that begs comparisons to the end of relationships. Only a new lover or fresh new TV show can fill the void. And so it is with Smallville, now in its eighth season and arguably its last. It is time to cut the cord and let this one go.

Smallville's Season Finale Introduces Next Season's Big Villain

2009-05-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

We know that the season finale of Smallville - Doomsday - will feature the first time that Clark and Doomsday really get to throw down, and that two major characters will die. Now, according to Entertainment Weekly's Mike Ausiello we also know that there will be a major special guest who appears in the episode - and that same guest will be a source of major problems in Smallville's ninth season.

Ausiello says about the guest "He shows up in the final scene, and he's going to cause big problems next season." He continued on to say "I can confirm that there is a twist, but it doesn't involve anyone coming back to life." This suggests that the special guest is not, in fact, Michael Rosenbaum, returning to menace Clark as Lex Luthor. The emphasis placed on the word "big" suggests that the guest might be another hulking monster, but since he says that "it doesn't involve anyone coming back to life", most likely that won't mean that Doomsday somehow survives.

Other possibilities exist, of course. There are still a multitude of villains that the producers could bring to the show, or other major baddies like Braniac may end up returning. The guest might not even be a villain - certain heroes, such as Green Arrow, Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter have all caused big problems for Clark.

We'll find out for certain when Doomsday airs on May 14. Smallville airs Thursday nights on the CW. The drama about the early days of Clark Kent stars Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Aaron Ashmore, Justin Hartley, Cassidy Freeman and Sam Witwer.

Prime choices

2009-05-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

Lauren Conrad plays a genius on a new episode of "Family Guy." She told reporters she studied up for the role: "I had to research some of [the words] because the acting coach I worked with told me if I really understood what I was talking about, it would come through a little more true." Tune in to see if she pulls it off. (Fox, 9 p.m.)

VH1 loves itself some Tiffany "New York" Pollard. The former "Flavor of Love" contestant is back in yet another series, "New York Goes to Work," where each week America will vote on what they want her to be -- i.e. a Caltrans sewer worker, a mortuary beautician or a fast-food employee -- and if she gets through it, she'll get a cash prize. (VH1, 10 p.m.)

TUESDAY

The stars of a possible "NCIS" spinoff -- Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J -- go undercover to bring down a terrorist cell during the conclusion of the show's two-part event. (CBS, 8 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY

It's the last episode of "Scrubs" on ABC: J.D (Zach Braff, below left, with Donald Faison) bids Sacred Heart farewell. Will he score that hug from Dr. Cox? Learn the Janitor's real name? He's got one hour. (ABC, 8 p.m.)

THURSDAY

Can Bravo possibly replace "Project Runway" (which relocates to Lifetime this summer)? It's going to try. In "The Fashion Show," 15 professional designers compete for a chance to have their designs sold in the retail market and win a $125,000 prize. Isaac Mizrahi hosts alongside singer Kelly Rowland. (Bravo, 10 p.m.)

FRIDAY

Where does the fourth-season finale of "Everybody Hates Chris" leave our intrepid 10th grader (Tyler Williams, above)? Possibly repeating his year? For tardiness? That's no way to go! (KTLA, 8 p.m.)

SATURDAY

It's "Intervention" meets "The Biggest Loser." In "I Want to Save Your Life," Charles Stuart Platkin goes undercover to help people whose friends, family or co-workers could stand to change their ways. (WE, 10 p.m.)

TV is a social surrogate, studies say. Which show is yours?

2009-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure how to take it when my editor sent me the link to a Variety story with the headline "Studies: TV pushes away loneliness," the subhead "Viewers have illusion their social needs are being met," and the note, "Can you do something with this?" But he assures me it wasn't a comment on my personal life (or lack thereof) but on my "uncanny knack for making those kinds of stories into relatable PopWatch items." Right.

So according to four new studies reported in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and distilled by Variety's James Hibberd, viewers can experience a profound sense of belonging, a "social surrogacy," when watching their favorite programs. Subjects reported feeling "less lonely" when viewing the shows. They "verbally expressed fewer feelings of loneliness" after writing about the shows. Even just thinking about the shows "buffered subjects against drops in self-esteem, increases in negative mood and feelings of rejection."

All that is normal, right? TV is supposed to be an escape. If you're not thinking about yourself for an hour, it would make sense that your self-esteem isn't going to drop. It's also supposed to engage you. What's the point of watching a show every week if you're not going to get to know the characters well enough that you can call out the writers when they have them do something that they never would have done? I suppose the finding that "subjects whose 'belongingness needs were aroused' wrote longer essays about their favored TV programs" is a little worrisome. Maybe I want to belong at the Jeffersonian and that's why my Bones recaps are always twice as long as they need to be for a PopWatch recap. That could also explain why I used the "we" in my lengthy Brothers & Sisters recap yesterday -- as in, Kitty and I were both having an emotional affair on Robert -- and talked about going to Happy Hour with Kitty, Kevin, and Sarah. Now that I'm thinking about it, I also recall imagining myself in bed with Richard Castle and his daughter, Alexis, watching TV, and eating ice cream for breakfast in an item about Nathan Fillion's new show. And didn't I once do a Valentine's Day-themed post about which TV character I'd date? (I was going to end with the question 'When does your TV officially become a surrogate?' but then I remembered how I recently named my DVR "Peter" and spent, like, 15 minutes during a morning commute pondering whether or not he was gay, and I got my answer.)

Let's all pretend that our relationship with "our shows" is healthy for a moment, and that we've never missed out on a real-life experience to stay in and watch one of them (The PopWatch Confessional that started it all!). Which show is your social surrogate and what needs do its characters fulfill?

16 TV shows we'd like to see next season

2009-04-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Shows we'd like to see
A handful of pilots -- spinoffs of "NCIS" and " "Gossip Girl"," The CW's "Melrose Place" update and ABC's "Flash Forward" -- are all but certain to wind up on their respective networks' schedules for 2009-10. That's not what we want to talk about now, though. We wanted to highlight a few of the other 70-plus pilots that, based on interesting premises, strong casts or some combination … Read More

Two-parter lets fans meet new NCIS team

2009-04-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

As an NCIS fan, LL Cool J knows what needs to be retained for a spinoff to succeed.
"The chemistry between the characters is incredible: the banter, the way they've developed over the years," says the rapper/actor. "That is probably the best thing about the show."

MORE: 'NCIS' spinoff could ride on original series' coattails

Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J and the rest of the NCIS Office of Special Projects (OSP) team will get their chance to impress viewers in two episodes (CBS, tonight and May 5, 8 p.m. ET/PT) that could result in a new series.

LL Cool J says it was great to work with Harmon, and he appreciates this opportunity. "I let him know I respect the franchise and want to do it justice. I don't want to be the one to wreck it."

The spinoff, whose title will be revealed if and when CBS announces a fall pickup next month, also features a tight-knit NCIS team, but it spends more time undercover on national security, including terrorism.

The episodes highlight the units' differences: The murder of a Marine, the kind of case the original investigates, evolves into an attempt to thwart a security threat, the specialty of the OSP.

NCIS's Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and McGee (Sean Murray) head to Los Angeles to team with OSP's G. Callen (O'Donnell) and Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) to investigate.

Callen, a loose cannon with a mysterious past, was fired by other agencies before finding a home at NCIS, while Hanna, a former Navy SEAL, is a family man with four kids, executive producer Shane Brennan says.

Callen "moved around to a lot of foster homes as a kid, had a lot of different influences," O'Donnell says. "That's part of what makes him unique; (he can) slip into so many different roles."

The two report to special agent Lara Macy (Louise Lombard), with another agent (Daniela Ruah) and a psychologist (Peter Cambor) rounding out the team. "Gibbs isn't particularly happy to be working with Macy. They have some history," Brennan says. "People will find out something new about Gibbs."

The two hours, besides introducing the new team, figure significantly in the season's conclusion, Brennan says.

Fans will see the return of Michael Rivkin (Merik Tadros), a mysterious Mossad agent with ties to Ziva (Cote de Pablo), and they need to watch the episodes "if they want to see what happens to Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva." Their relationship, which has been heating up this season, is at the core of the final episodes, Brennan says. Rivkin's return "causes friction between Tony and Ziva. He has an integral part in the last four episodes

NCIS' Final Four: Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool & More

2009-04-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

The much-talked about final four episodes are finally upon us, and for fans of CBS' kooky clan of Naval criminal investigators on NCIS, that means we get to see the backdoor episode to the planned spinoff featuring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J.

Chris and LL show up in tonight's episode, "Legend Part 1," and in next Tuesday's "Legend Part 2." But contrary to published reports, the spinoff—which has yet to be picked up (wait for after the May 20 CBS Upfronts in New York for that)—is not titled NCIS: Legend, according to show runner Shane Brennan.

We caught up with Shane to give us the lowdown on what's in store for these explosive last episodes of the season and what the spinoff is all about...

Ziva's Wild Ride: "It's an emotional rollercoaster for Ziva [Officer Ziva David, played by Cote de Pablo], but it's also physical. It's the most physical she's been, and Cote does all her own stunts. It gets very intense, and Ziva's character is taken right to the edge emotionally in these last four episodes. She is in extreme jeopardy, and no one can help her. It's the nature of the work she does. Basically, Ziva's loyalties are tested, and she is forced to make some life-changing choices, both professionally and emotionally."

Tony's Tragic Tale: "[Michael Weatherly's Special Agent Tony DiNozzo] has his own set of problems in these last four episodes. Tragic things happen to Tony and Ziva together, and to them separately as well. It definitely does not end up OK for either Tony or Ziva."

Michael Rifkin's Return: "Michael Rifkin [Merik Tadros] was set up in the first episode this season in the Moroccan bar. He didn't utter a word. Then we revisited him twice with photos and phone calls. On [tonight's] episode, he arrives on the scene, and he definitely speaks. He's handsome, charming and dangerous. And he's also clearly someone Ziva really cares for."

Jaime Murray's Role: "She comes in the second-to-last episode of the year. She's a strikingly attractive woman, and she causes some jealousy, but not between the people you think. Let me say that Abby [Pauley Perrette] gets jealous in that episode."

Legend's Meaning: "Legend is a word coined by the East German secret police, the Stasi, and it means deep background. If you're going undercover, you need to have a legend, a backstory that holds up under scrutiny. The new show, which takes place in Los Angeles, takes a look at what it's like to be an undercover agent. That is, how it differs from NCIS. No one from NCIS is moving over to this new show. We'll announce the spinoff title when the show gets picked up."

Chris O'Donnell's Character: "Chris plays Special Agent Callen, who has worked undercover for CIA, FBI and DEA, and he's been fired by all of the agencies. He's very good at what he does, but he doesn't like to be told how to do his job. And he's found a home here because Louise Lombard [who plays Special Agent Lara Macy] understands his value and his worth, and she knows he can be a loose cannon, but is willing to work with him." (Fun fact: Callen speaks Russian.)

LL Cool J's Character: "LL plays Special Agent Sam Hanna, the only married member of the team. Sam is married with four kids and is a former Navy SEAL. He's very close with Callen; he's like his big brother, and he looks out for him and protects him. He's a wiser guy—an older guy with a different perspective on the world."

Louise Lombard's Character: "We set up straight away that there is tension between Louise's character, Lara Macy, and Special Agent Jethro Gibbs [Mark Harmon]. You will go, 'Oh my God' and you'll get goose bumps. There is an emotional connection between the two of them that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. We learn more about Gibbs through Macy. They go back 18 years. I'm not going to eliminate romance and not going to confirm romance. They could've worked together."

NCIS' May 19 Finale: "These four episodes are really four finales in a row. Everything is designed for the fifth episode in this arc, which is the first episode of next season. Over the summer, people are going to wring their hands and wonder what's going to happen. The first episode next season will be unexpected. People's expectations of what they see in the first 30 seconds will be stood on their head."

What do you think is going to happen to Tony and Ziva? How does the spinoff sound to you? Chat about it below and sneak a peek at the season finale in our Snapped on the Set: TV gallery

NCIS Spin-Off Preview: Inside the Making of a "Legend"

2009-04-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

Just as JAG begot NCIS, CBS' NCIS is poised to produce its own progeny. In a two-part arc airing April 28 and May 5 and titled "Legend," Gibbs and the gang will interact with the Official of Special Projects, a Los Angeles-based agency populated by Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, Louise Lombard and other familiar faces. If all goes well, CBS will order this "backdoor pilot" to series for the 2009-10 TV season.

Here in Part 1 of our Q&A with Shane Brennan, the NCIS executive producer shared a look at what fans of the original series can expect from its offshoot, and in what way it will be like nothing ever seen before on TV.

TVGuide.com: Before we get started here, I wanted to tell you that Rocky Carroll is one helluva celebrity blogger for TVGuide.com.
Shane Brennan: Yeah, he's a great guy. One of the great things that happened to the show this season was bringing Rocky on [as a series regular], and I think he has delivered in spades. He's a great actor.

TVGuide.com: He's secretly hoping that Vance occasionally pops up in the NCIS spin-off.
Brennan: Well, you never know. Let me say something — no one will leave the current show. Everyone is staying. So everyone can relax on the NCIS front! You never know, someone like the director of NCIS might end up having to work with the other agency at some point. That could very well happen.

TVGuide.com: So let's talk about the spin-off's backdoor pilot. How good are you feeling about it?
Brennan: We put together a two-parter that really does everything that I hoped it would do, and then some. It was very important to me that these were episodes of NCIS first, and I made that clear to everyone. I didn't want fans of the show feeling alienated by having to sit down and watch these new characters they knew nothing about. That's why I made it a two-hour episode, so that we could integrate the new characters into the story and still give people their dose of NCIS. I am very, very happy with it. The cast and crew did an amazing job, working extremely hard under a tight deadline. When you make a pilot episode you [typically] don't have an airdate, there's no ticking clock. Well, we've had a very loud ticking clock, but it's come together beautifully.

TVGuide.com: Will the spin-off be tonally the same as NCIS?
Brennan: The audience, when they hold these two shows up, will see that nothing has changed from the original. The new show reflects some of the tone of the original show in that, you've got a group of people working closely together in sometimes quite extreme conditions, in terms of jeopardy and the intensity of the operations.

TVGuide.com: But this is not a simple case of, "If you like Gibbs, you'll love Chris O'Donnell's Agent Callen!"
Brennan: I'm a little careful about holding up comparisons. We could have mixed up any bunch of characters and made them as different as we can, but they're still going to be held up to the original team, and that's fine. I understand that. What people will find is that this ensemble is different because the cases they handle are different, and the way they approach their stories are different. And yet at the same time they are a group of people working together having fun together and being in danger together. It is still very much a family; it's just another part of the family. It's the neighbors down the street, and the audience will fall in love with them.

TVGuide.com: Do we have a title yet? Will it invariably be NCIS-colon-something?
Brennan: We haven't officially come out with a title. We will do that if the show is picked up.

TVGuide.com: I hear that you show off some nifty technology at the OSP.
Brennan: In "Legend" Part 1 and Part 2, we get insight into some technology that to the best of our knowledge hasn't been seen on television before. Back during the election, there was a touch screen where they dragged images around using their hands; we actually have that technology, and this is the first time it's been used in a scripted drama. But we also have some technology that's never been seen where we actually shoot through the screen, so you can see the image on the screen and the person standing looking at that image.

TVGuide.com: Kind of like, say, Minority Report.
Brennan: But it's real technology. Ninety percent what people are going to see on this show is realistic, and it's the actors doing it. It's not a special effect. It's hand-on and it's all happening in front your eyes. Everyone who has stepped onto that set has been blown away by it. In fact, when McGee learns that he is going to the OSP, Ziva says, "OSP — what's that?" And McGee's face just beams: "Cool toys." He's a kid in a candy store and has a lot of fun in both episodes. But the audience also is going to be pretty blown away by what they see.

Next week, in Part 2 of our Q&A: Shane Brennan finally broaches the topic of "Tiva" and hints at why he'll probably take some heat — as he did a year ago — for NCIS' season finale.

Who Will Die in Smallville's Season Finale?The StoryEmail This Submit Scoops Discuss It Lists

2009-04-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

Souders and Peterson also provided the following hints that in the following season we will continue to see the trend of introducing more heroes and villains from DC continuity into Smallville. "We started what will hopefully be a new focus of the show that we'll be bringing in allies for Clark next year," Peterson said. "We had a lot of DC villains this year and a lot of DC heroes, and we're hoping to continue that into next year. We teased a little piece of Chloe and her arc and how she might play a role in that next year." For fans of Chloe and Allison Mack, this is a good time to point out that if she has a role in the events of next season, we likely won't be seeing her depart the screen in this year's finale.

For the final word on what Season nine of Smallville might hold, Peterson says "Clark may have some significant obstacles in his destiny next year. It may be the darkness before the rise of Superman. He's going to face probably his darkest hour I would say. He really was on a trajectory this year, but he's made some decisions that put him down a different path." Souders finished up by ominously hinting "He's going to be paying the price for some rather large mistakes from the finale."

Smallville airs Thursday nights on the CW. The drama about the early days of Clark Kent stars Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Aaron Ashmore, Justin Hartley, Cassidy Freeman and Sam Witwer.

Erica Durance: The "Smallville" Death Will Break Your Heart

2009-04-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

With only four episodes left this season on "Smallville" every moment counts -- especially since it's been revealed that at least two characters aren't making it to year nine alive!

And to any fans who think the characters that were transplanted from the comics -- Jimmy, Lois, Lex -- live in an immunity bubble, think again! To hear Erica Durance tell it, every single actor has been left hanging over the season ending cliffhanger that's so big, it makes The Fortress of Solitude look like a melted icicle.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's focus on tonight's Lois-centric installment which sees the scrappy reporter slip back into another one of her miraculously materialized costumes. I got the scoop on Lois' sewing skills, Erica's future on "Smallville" and her habit of almost killing Tom Welling.

PopWrap: When we talked at the start of the season you said year eight would blow our minds, and you have not been wrong!
Erica Durance: Oh good, I'm so glad to hear you say that because I am biased. I have been so excited by what they've given Lois to explore this season. And I had no idea about some of the little surprises that they've thrown in along the way. Like "Stiletto!" When I read that script, I had a good laugh.

PW: Yes, that's tonight's episode -- and you play a superhero?
Erica: Yes, basically Lois gets in a fight to protect Chloe and she beats up this mugger while wearing spiked heels. And he gives her an idea by asking, "What are you a superhero?"

PW: And that gets her gears turning?
Erica: Well, Lois has hit a bit of a cold patch professionally, she's not succeeding in the way she wants, so she hears this and thinks, "Great! I can get more stories this way!" But then it all starts to unravel and she gets caught in a tailspin trying to undo the damage she's caused.

PW: And naturally we get a wacky Lois costume, right?
Erica: Of course! And Lois apparently has a side hobby because she's quite adept at sewing together this pleather outfit!

PW: Well, if The Daily Planet doesn't work out, there's always "Project Runway."
Erica: You never know! She seems to have all these hidden talents that come out of nowhere when she needs them the most. She's got all these great accents and sewing skills, it's hilarious.

Post Game: Smallville 8.19 - 'Stiletto'

2009-04-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

posted 04/25/2009 09:52:48 AMsphinx69 wrote:

This episode was garbage. However, I will admit I am intrigued by the Intergang/Mannheim set up.

I will also say it is about time for the Smallville producers to get off the air (I do realize they are renewed for season nine.) or break their cardinal rule and put Tom Welling in the Superman suit.

If Clark becomes Superman and they decide the explore the Intergang/Mannheim thread next season I will turn in, but I think I will be done watching Smallville after this season

THE CW

2009-04-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Data dive: Looking at the network’s core programming block of Monday-Thursday, The CW is up 8% in adults 18-34 (1/3/4) and ahead by 6% in women 18-34 (1.7/5), its target demographic. Among all adults 18-34, on every night it programs, The CW is averaging a 1.0/3, down 9%. The decision to dump wrestling has hurt the network’s overall numbers.

Freshman series: The network poured all its energies into launching the new “90210,” and the effort paid off with a huge debut. Since then the show has faded a bit, but it has improved the network’s Tuesday ratings by 47% in adults 18-34 and has already been renewed. Fellow fall newcomer “Privileged” didn’t fare as well, but it has fans at the network. Reality show “13: Fear Is Real” was dead on arrival, as was a Sunday night lineup leased by Media Rights Capital.

Long-term assets: “Gossip Girl” exploded in season two, gaining 32% in women 18-34. “One Tree Hill,” in its sixth season, managed a 15% uptick in the same demographic, while Thursday player “Supernatural” gained 8%. “Smallville” and “America’s Next Top Model” are hanging in there, but “Reaper” and “Everybody Hates Chris” were down notably in women 18-34.

Internal affairs: Dawn Ostroff still oversees the entertainment division, with input from co-owners CBS Corp. and Warner Bros.

Self-evaluation: “The real goal of the year for CW was launching franchises, and we did that with ‘90210,’” Mr. Kahl said. “We knew by getting rid of wrestling, it was going to be tough to see plus signs. But it didn’t fit the brand.”

Overall grade: B-. The CW is surviving, which, given the odds against it, is impressive.

Supernatural: Jump the Shark

2009-04-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

This week’s episode just gives the brothers Winchester more to cry about. It’s a long running joke that female fans love to see these two guys cry. So now if they weren't carrying enough emotional baggage, they have a brother to deal with, another reason for an emo breakdown. It is however always interesting when the creators of the show are able to work in themes and characters relating to Sam and Dean’s father. Their father is at the center of who both of these buys have become and his influence is on every decision they make. For a long time, it seemed that Dean was more like his father in the way he acted and in the decisions he made but now the tables have turned. The reality is that Dean has always tried to hard to be like his father but now after a little trip to hell, he’s not so keen on completely following his father’s path. Sam is different now too. He’s apparently embraced who his father was and now more than ever, he understands his father.

One of the better scenes in the episode comes when Dean confronts Sam over Sam’s desire to make their younger brother a hunter. Dean explains that he accepts the life they have but he believes that the kid still has a chance, a chance to go to college and have a life. It’s a shame Sam didn’t think that way back in season one. If he had, Sam would be leading a much different life himself. The scene ends with both of the brothers contemplating their jealousy over the kid. They are jealous of him for very different reasons. Easily the best scene comes when Dean is investigating the grave robberies and he’s asked if he’s ever thought about how he would like to spend eternity. His response is classic Dean, it’s meant to be a joke but it’s also probably true.

They discover their brother when their father’s cell phone rings and he’s on the other end of the line looking for help after his mother disappears. This episode deals with a couple of thematic elements; family and revenge. These elements are portrayed on both the side of Sam and Dean and on the side of the monsters of the week. Even ghouls can have families after all. In the small town of the week, not only has Sam and Dean’s newly discovered brother’s mom disappeared, but a local bar owner has also went missing. At the same time, bodies are disappearing from graves. Sam’s father came to this town twenty years ago to stop a grave robbing monster and now it appears the cycle has started again when Sam and Dean arrive in town.

The episode features a minimum of action and no classic rock blasting from the car. It does however feature some nice twists and turns and dramatic moments. The episode is a single story that doesn’t really play into the overall story arc but the discovery of a brother and the realization by Sam and Dean of who they’ve become will most likely be factors in some way over the next few episodes. It’s time to get serious about the bigger story though. Often this season’s episodes have felt like false starters. An episode appears to be the beginning of something important only to be followed by a few episodes that don’t really matter. I’m not talking about single story episodes I’m talking about episodes tied in some way to the bigger story but what happened in them doesn’t carry over in the story arc. By the end of this season, there’ll be many things that seemed important at the time they happened that won’t matter when it’s all said and done. This week’s episode isn’t as epic as most of this season’s installments have been but it was a nice way to ease back into the world of Supernatural after being away for a few weeks

Making the case for 'Reaper'

2009-04-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

There are still many reasons for The CW to want to stay in the "Reaper" business. The first is still Harrison, who I continue to maintain will eventually find the vehicle that will make him a TV star. There's no reason why "Reaper" shouldn't be that vehicle and maybe The CW should just keep him around in case the right project moves into the development pipeline and they want to have him handy. The other main reason would be Wise, whose Devil is one of TV's singular creations, dapper, charismatic and vicious when he needs to be. I argued that Wise deserved an Emmy nomination last year and while I don't know if he's had the perfect showcase episode, he's every bit as deserving.

That's part of the problem. The two reasons to watch the show are a 27-year-old leading man and its 61-year-old villain. If I were to expand my list, I'd go to Gonzalez and then Labine. The CW, with its love of young female viewers, isn't going to go to the mattresses for this sort of supernatural sausage-fest unless the "Supernatural" men have the last name "Winchester."

When asked, a CW source stuck to what would logically be the party line: The fate of "Reaper" has not yet be determined and nothing will be made official until the upfronts. Of course not.

The signs of pending demise are myriad. "Reaper" went unmentioned when The CW renewed "Gossip Girl," "One Tree Hill," "90210," "Smallville," "Supernatural" and "America's Next Top Model" in a single pen-stroke. The perception has been that despite low ratings, "Privileged" is where "Reaper" is last year -- a ratings-starved first-year series with a passionate fanbase and an up-and-coming lead (Joanna Garcia) -- with the logic saying that the chances of such a show breaking out in its second season is better than in its third go-round.

TELEVISION: 12 Shows That Are Not In Danger of Cancellation

2009-04-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

t’s the time of the year where the networks and fans gather together in an annual dance of Save our Show-itist. Everyone is stressed and upset at the unsettled nature of everything – is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles gone? What’s going on with Chuck, Reaper, etc. Instead of wasting energy being worried about things we have little control over, let’s appreciate the programs that survived. I thought it’s time to take stock and see what “genre” shows are in no danger of being cancelled. I’ll start by saying for some reason Navy NCIS is still going. Who watches this show?
I’ll start with a show that I could be proven wrong on, but come on Cold Case gets over 10 million viewers a week, this despite the fact that it’s an amazingly hard show to watch. It’s never airs on time due to CBS Football and other sports coverage so it’s almost impossible to DVR. And it will most likely “never” be on DVD due to the incredibly high cost of music licensing so there’s no DVD business. But really, CBS is already invested in the show, what else do they have to put in that horrible “floating” timeslot?

Critic's Corner Thursday

2009-04-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

n preparation for the upcoming sweeps, ABC is sweeping out In the Motherhood (tonight, 8 ET/PT) and Samantha Who? (8:30 ET/PT) a week earlier than planned. Motherhood won't be much missed, but it is a shame that the much-better Samantha is getting the bum's rush — after already suffering from a bad time slot and an unsuitable slot mate. At any rate, tonight's exit features a guest turn by Billy Zane, stepping in for Timothy Olyphant as Sam's billionaire boss.

REVIEW: 'Grey's Anatomy' finally snaps back
•Unhappy with the course of her career, Lois invents a new Smallville (CW, 8 ET/PT) superhero and pretends to be getting super-exclusives. Clark is worried she'll get hurt, when clearly he should be worried she'll get fired. Reporters do not make up sources, at least not if they want to work for Perry White.

•Look what they've found on Supernatural (CW, 9 ET/PT): a third Winchester brother, Adam, who comes out of the woodwork, much to his newfound siblings' surprise. Don't panic: The writers clearly know just how cheesy that sounds. The episode is titled "Jump the Shark."

FIND MORE STORIES IN: AmerisourceBergen Corp. | Adam | Winchester | Beast | Smallville | Shark | Patrick Swayze | Supernatural | Samantha Who | Barker | Lois | Motherhood | Timothy Olyphant | Billy Zane | Perry White | Unhappy
•The Beast (A&E, 10 ET/PT) ends its first season with Barker hunting for the people who are hunting him. For fans, star Patrick Swayze may be incentive enough to watch.

Idol’s’ run of changes make disjointed season

2009-04-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Is there something wrong with "American Idol"?

Lately, something seems off, like the show is fidgeting and can't quite find its groove. Since the start of the current season, "Idol" has been peppered with a steady diet of small changes that subtly suggest a newfound crisis of confidence.

How else to explain the events of movie-song night, when it was decided that each contestant would face the wrath of only two judges? The official explanation was that it was to prevent the show from running long yet again. For that to make sense, though, you'd have to assume that nobody who works for "Idol" has ever heard of such concepts as "editing" and "cutting down on the filler." (It's "Idol," so they may not have.)

Love is in the air on TV

2009-04-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

It’s springtime and love is in the air.

But, much like life, we don’t always agree on who should be together. I really like P.J. and Bobby together on "My Boys" but I’ve learned many of you don’t. So I thought we would take a look at the new couples who have popped up this season and discuss . . .

Juliet and Sawyer on "Lost:" One of the smartest decisions "Lost" made this season was the role reversal between Jack and Sawyer. Sawyer is in charge and Jack is surprisingly okay with that. While this quadrangle (Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet) was brewing last season, it was with Jack being torn between the two women and Kate being torn between two men. But when the timeline advanced three years and showed Juliet and James (as she and Locke call him) in domestic bliss it somehow made perfect sense. And their union was a nice departure for the show in that it was free of angst. I’m rooting for them to stay together, how about you?

Charlie and Chelsea on "Two and a Half Men:" Even in comedies, characters need to evolve so they aren’t perpetually stuck in a revolving story line. We had seasons of Charlie’s womanizing, it’s been great and very funny to see him commit to one woman.

Owen and Cristina on "Grey’s Anatomy:" I really like this relationship because it made sense to me that Cristina would wait to date again after her break-up with Burke and it made sense to me that she would be drawn to someone as complex as Owen. Sometimes it really does seem like this is the only adult relationship on the show. I fear their relationship has the potential to become melodramatic but so far it's been the season's bright spot.

Barney and Robin on "How I Met Your Mother:" I’ve been a fan of this pairing since it was first hinted at and this season Barney’s silently pining for Robin has added depth to his character (Barney has feelings!) while placing him in an unfamiliar situation (he doesn’t have confidence to declare his love). Plus it’s allowed the show runners to write more scenes between Barney and Lilly, who became Barney's exclusive confidant. Now I’ve heard the concerns that if Barney starts dating Robin, he won’t be Barney anymore. But I have faith that the show runners won’t let us down.

Penny and Leonard on "The Big Bang Theory:" The comedy has successfully avoided letting the series wallow in a "will they or won’t they" dynamic. I kind of think they should let Penny and Leonard date for more than five seconds and see what happens. I don't think it will take away from the show at all.

So that’s how I’m feeling about some of the new couples who have gotten together (or almost gotten together) this season? How about you? Also want new couples have you liked this season? Talk about it below.

Spoiler alert: Is House going to the l*y n?

2009-04-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

Stop reading if you don't want to know what may possibly happen in the May 11 season finale of House. Everyone else, onward and downward...

For the asterisk quiz-challenged, the above headline poses the provocative question, "Is House going to the loony bin?"

And the answer is... I honestly don't know, but it sure looks like it. Let's review the evidence:

• House is currently seeing dead people (in this case, Wilson's cutthroat bitch of an ex, Amber).
• The logline for the May 4 episode says, "House is willing to do the unthinkable to make his visions stop."
• Last week, the show set up shop at New Jersey's abandoned Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital to shoot scenes for next season.
• I'm told something happens in the finale that is so shocking cast and crew were forced to sign confidentiality agreements.

The verdict: Duh. The only question is, will the Huddy sex happen before or after Dr. Crabby Crazy gets fitted for a straitjacket? Post your theories below! And if you can think of some other plot twist that would have prompted the show to travel 3000 miles to shoot scenes at a funny farm, I'm all ears!

House, M.D. Builds Toward the Season Five Finale

2009-04-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

After the shock of Lawrence Kutner’s (Kal Penn) suicide in the last episode of House, M.D., it’s hard to think of what might happen next. The shock of Kutner’s abrupt departure is the sort of thing usually reserved for season finales. However, there are still four more episodes to go! I can’t even imagine what the House brain trust has in store for us in the weeks to come. But I can tell you a one or two things I do know for certain. First, expect to see more of Cameron and Chase in the coming weeks, and look for House to react to Kutner’s death in unexpected ways. And--a television icon makes an appearance in the season finale.

In the aftermath of Kutner’s suicide, House (the brilliant Hugh Laurie) suffers from apparent insomnia. Or could it be something more serious? House, M.D. builds up to its May 11 season finale over the next several weeks, as the folks at Princeton Plainsboro continue to deal with tragedy of Kutner’s death.

The entire staff reacts to the suicide, but none more so than House, himself. In “House Divided” (April 27), Ryan Lane guest stars as Seth, a deaf teenager who “hears” explosions, while House’s insomnia play tricks on his mind.

In “Under My Skin” airing May 4, House and his team treat a ballerina (Jamie Tisdale), whose lungs collapse during a performance. House, still unable to sleep, tries desperate measures to find rest. And in the season five finale, written by Doris Egan “Both Sides Now,” comedy legend Carl Reiner appears as a clinic patient.

House airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. (ET).

In Plain Sight: Gilted Lily (season premiere

2009-04-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

(S02E01) After the harrowing conclusion from last season, Mary Shannon was back and after 30 hours of sleep, she actually seemed ready to return to work. However, as Marshall soon found out, looks can be deceiving. Mary and Jinx and Brandi were still together and coping, but the effects of one of them nearly being raped, killing a man, concealing drugs, having their home turned inside out and suffering the indignity of the FBI invading every corner of your life took a toll. They thought they had come out the other side unscathed, but as the episode unfolded, damage was evident.csi ncis
For Mary, getting back on a case, even as Marshall's sidekick, was a welcomed relief from administrative leave. Her denial of post-traumatic stress disorder was typical for her. In fact, she was suffering, but it manifested itself as a happy, chipper and congenial Mary. Stan, Marshall and Bobby D. were baffled by this alternate universe Agent Shannon, but for viewers wise to the ways of TV, it was clear that something was amiss.

Mary's breakdown was triggered by the kind of thing that she would normally let roll off her back, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Her hyperventilating, unending walking it off, crying jag was like a dam breaking. Marshall, in his Zen like mode, tried to make her visualize the experience as a river flowing. Mary didn't heed Marshall's advice; she only heard the word peach which is nothing like river, but then that explains a lot between the two partners. Mary McCormack and Frederick Weller were excellent in this sequence.

What ultimately proved therapeutic for Mary was working the case. It was a good one, involving a family that had been in Witness Protection for 17 years, a mother's suicide that turned out to lead to a weird case of gold coins that were stolen by a biker gang. As the one surviving -- and reformed -- member of the gang put it, there was some serious bad ju-ju to those gold pieces, even if a single one was worth $45,000. It turned out that it wasn't voodoo that made the coins evil, but poison. When two of the three grown kids were nearly killed by the poison, Mary and Marshall sprinted to save the innocent children who were playing hide and seek, oblivious to the danger.

Getting back to work was the therapy Mary needed, but Brandi had to confront the corpse of her dead boyfriend to get some resolution. It wasn't a tearful goodbye for Brandi; she wanted to let the SOB know that she would have killed him herself if she had had the chance. And Jinx was obsessed with finding Mary and Brandi's dad for the same reason, or so she claimed.

U.K.'s Sky 1 grabs keys to 'House'

2009-04-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

LONDON -- The U.K.'s Five channel is done making "House" calls.

Sky 1 has snatched up rights for the fifth season of the Hugh Laurie medical drama from Five, after the terrestrial net said it had pulled out of the bidding for "commercial and scheduling reasons."

The decision reflects the growing difficultly that broadcasters here face when bidding for top-flight U.S. fare as a result in the collapse in the advertising market.

Sky 1, which is driven by subscription revenue, said it has signed a deal with NBC Universal International Television Distribution for first-run rights to "House" in the U.K. Second-run rights will be retained by Hallmark Channel.

Five, which has held rights to the show since 2005, said the "difficult decision" to not renew the show will free up cash for incoming director of programs Richard Woolfe to commission Five's own programs.

"We have been proud to be associated with the drama, but have taken this difficult decision for commercial and scheduling reasons," Five said in a statement.

The channel said that long-running acquired series including the "CSI" franchise and "NCIS" as well as recent addition "The Mentalist" made it "very difficult" to find a suitable slot to schedule "House."
U.K.'s Sky 1 grabs keys to 'House'
Five drops bid to Hugh Laurie medical drama
By Mimi Turner

April 20, 2009, 07:53 AM ET

LONDON -- The U.K.'s Five channel is done making "House" calls.

Sky 1 has snatched up rights for the fifth season of the Hugh Laurie medical drama from Five, after the terrestrial net said it had pulled out of the bidding for "commercial and scheduling reasons."

The decision reflects the growing difficultly that broadcasters here face when bidding for top-flight U.S. fare as a result in the collapse in the advertising market.

Sky 1, which is driven by subscription revenue, said it has signed a deal with NBC Universal International Television Distribution for first-run rights to "House" in the U.K. Second-run rights will be retained by Hallmark Channel.

Five, which has held rights to the show since 2005, said the "difficult decision" to not renew the show will free up cash for incoming director of programs Richard Woolfe to commission Five's own programs.

"We have been proud to be associated with the drama, but have taken this difficult decision for commercial and scheduling reasons," Five said in a statement.

The channel said that long-running acquired series including the "CSI" franchise and "NCIS" as well as recent addition "The Mentalist" made it "very difficult" to find a suitable slot to schedule "House."

Supernatural: Sam and Dean Meet Their 'Brother' in a New Video

2009-04-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

On this week's episode of Supernatural the question isn't whether or not Sam and Dean could have a brother - not if you ask their supposed kin Adam. He wants to know whether it's possible that he himself has brothers, whether John Winchester could have had sons other than him.

Earlier in the week The CW released two new clips from "Jump the Shark", Supernatural's none-too-soon return to the air after another tedious break. At least it's the last break of this season. One of those clips revealed that Sam's research on Adam validates his story, with college records and other official documents on file. In the other, Dean seethed with jealousy when he found out that John took Adam to a Minnesota Twins game, a day that would have meant the world to him.

Today we have another clip from "Jump The Shark," portraying the further developments in the relationship between the ghost fighting duo and their supposedly-long-lost brother, another piece in the puzzle of whether or not this goofy kid could really be who he says he is, and whether or not Supernatural has jumped the shark.

MOVIE NEWS: Brand New Fugly Star Trek Ship Models

2009-04-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Buzz up!
Ok, I’m not sure what this is, the folks who run the Paramount Webmaster program sent over four brand new photos of Star Trek ship models. But what is this? Is it for eventual toys, is it part of some contest? Are these amateur models? I don’t know but they look pretty fugly to me. Someone please tell me what this is all about…. I do like the brown and the white one though. Not sure what’s going on with the Garden or Pink one.

A franchise is reborn, at warp speed.

2009-04-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

n Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s inspired universe, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise set out to “boldly go where no one has gone before.” If only the same could be said of director J.J. Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

Considering the franchise began on TV in 1966, spawned the first theatrical release in 1979 and nearly expired with the last edition, Star Trek: Nemesis, a worldwide flop in 2002, the creative team behind the 11th movie faced two major challenges.
In sum, Star Trek is a big, loud, fast-paced, spectacular and intermittently exciting sci-fi adventure. What it isn’t, in my view, is emotionally involving. Early US buzz indicates some Trek fans are hailing the latest incarnation for packing more thrills, energy and humour than anything the franchise has yielded since the 1980s. Paramount has already commissioned a follow-up.

'One Tree Hill' looks for a 7th Season

2009-04-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Many people thought that "One Tree Hill" was going to jump the shark last year when it jumped four years for its fifth season.

Season four highlighted the senior year of high school for the main characters and it ended with all the characters on the river court where the first episode of the series mainly took place.

The finale showcased songs of the '90s era like "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, and hit at the idea of splitting ways with best friends when it comes time for college.

The show worked parallel with the high school graduating class of 2007.

Nostalgically, the Season four finale would have been the perfect series finale, but creator Mark Schwan wasn't ready for the show to end yet, and neither were cast members Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Sophia Bush or Bethany Joy Gaelotti. And so with that the show went on to a fifth season, placed in time, four years later.

And the jump worked. Ratings remained high, the forums on the Web site OTH Fans was filled with hundreds of thankful posts for a fifth season.

Of course, there were still negative Nancies, but for the most part it worked. New storylines opened up, fans got to see their favorite television actors and actresses portray roles closer to their own age--even though it was nice to dream that Murray was a high schooler at the same time as a lot of the fans, even if he wasn't--and Kate Voegele's singing career got jumpstarted. Overall, it was an awesome season leading to sixth season.

As the sixth season began, fans were pumped and began to assume that this would be the last season of "One Tree Hill."

All of the actors' contracts were for six seasons. This meant that unless the actors were offered new contracts, there was a slim chance for a seventh season.

Some people expressed disinterest in a seventh season, alleging storylines would get old, and that the show should go out before it got to be too repetitive.

One Tree Hill's Skills Pleads Innocent in Fake ID Scam

2009-04-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

t looks like some mad skillz have landed Skills in big trouble.
Antwon Tanner, One Tree Hill's Antwon "Skills" Taylor, has pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court to participating in a Social Security scam, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office confirms.
The 34-year-old actor, whose credits include Coach Carter with Samuel L. Jackson and that catchy "Da Da Da" Volkswagen commercial, was busted in a sting operation and charged with selling 16 Social Security numbers and three counterfeit cards to a middleman between December 2005 and last July.

Television: Supernatural Behind the Scenes - Catching Up With Traci Dinwiddie

2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Traci Dinwiddie has been keeping busy since we last saw her on Supernatural in the season 4 episode ‘Death Takes a Holiday’ where, unfortunately, death did not take that holiday for her character of psychic Pamela Barnes.

The vivacious and beautiful Dinwiddie has been involved in a number of projects both personal and professional including writing quite a bit and looking into the Women’s Directing program at AFI and she has an upcoming guest starring role as Madame Flanagan in the CW series 90210 in an episode titled ‘Between a Sign and a Hard Place’ which will be airing this Tuesday, April 21st and repeat Wednesday, April 22 on the CW at 9pm.

“Please do tune in, if you’re able! She’s a fun character! A British fortune teller/counselor for the Stars,” Dinwiddie says of her character on the upcoming 90210 episode.

Aside from acting, Traci Dinwiddie has been keeping quite busy as a drummer for yoga classes and is often a guest musician for the world fusion band, ‘Yeh Dede’.

“I’m also a part of a very special community theater outreach group called ‘Turning the Wheel Productions’ (TTW). We are in the midst of a major residential project right here in LA.”

Traci describes TTW as a sweetly inclusive form of artistic expression on all levels including music, theater, dance, poetry and visual art within the community and it’s power transcends age, gender, race, economic status…all of it. “Basically, it rocks one’s socks off! Which is the way I like to roll, yo! Fierce artsy fartsyness!” Dinwiddie says with undisguised enthusiasm for this project.

Weekly TV Wrap Up - April 16th, 2009

2009-04-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

As if this is a surprise to Stargate fans, but Stargate Universe will be having a few notable guest stars in the form of a few veterans reprising their Stargate SG-1 roles.

Yep, you read that right.
We’ll be seeing Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Gary Jones reprising their roles we’ve come to love over the years. Additonally, we’re going to see Christopher McDonald (U.S. senator Alan Armstrong), Janelle Monáe (plays herself. She and her band will perform) and Carlo Rota (Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory) will also make an appearance.

If this is anything like the way Stargate Atlantis started, we’ll see them in one quick scene, making it an official Stargate send off. I can’t imagine anything else, unless there’s a holodeck on the Ancient’s ship.

Stargate Universe stars Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na and is set to premiere on SCI FI in October with a special two-hour episode.

Source: SciFi Wire

Southland

TONIGHT ON TV — THURSDAY, APRIL 16

2009-04-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

ABC is for the ladies tonight with In the Motherhood, Samantha Who?, then reruns of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

CBS goes for thrills with a new Survivor and a very sci-fi CSI, while someone else bites the big one on Harper's Island.

The CW has repeats of Smallville and Supernatural.

FOX has another new Bones, this one about a death in a heavy metal band. That's followed by Hell's Kitchen.

NBC is all new with My Name is Earl, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock, wrapping it all up with a dramatic hour of Southland.

Which shows are renewed, canceled, or on the bubble?

2009-04-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Over at ABC, it's a no-brainer that shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy will be renewed, but Samantha Who? is on the bubble. NBC's 30 Rock, The Office, and Heroes are coming back (and I would bet that Parks and Recreation will be back too), but Chuck (noooooo!) and My Name Is Earl are both in the bubble category. As for CBS, you can guarantee that The Mentalist, Two and a Half Men, and all of the various CSI shows will be back, but it looks like longtime favorites Cold Case, Without A Trace, and The Unit aren't a sure thing to come back at all. It looks like FOX is going to cancel Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but most of their other shows will be back.

As for The CW, the only show there's a question about is Privileged. Gossip Girl, 90210, Smallville, Supernatural, and One Tree Hill will all be back next season.

GLAAD Nominates 'Supernatural,' 'True Blood' for Awards

2009-04-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

oday the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation released its nominees for the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Aside from the usual television nominees like The L Word and Ugly Betty, there was one atypical nominee: Supernatural.

The GLAAD Media Awards have a special category for an individual episode of a show that doesn't feature a regular gay character. Supernatural was nominated for “Ghostfacers,” the faux reality TV series episode that featured intern Corbett (current 90210 jock Dustin Milligan) who had a gay infatuation with Ed, resulting in the classic line, “Ed, you have to go be gay for that poor dead intern.” n this category, Supernatural will compete against:

“My Maharishi is Bigger Than Your Maharishi,” Life on Mars - In this episode, Sam investigates the murder of a Vietnam

'Twilight': Full 'New Moon' Volturi cast revealed!

2009-04-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

Christopher Heyerdahl is a great choice! He played Alistair in a few episodes of "Supernatural" this season and he is fricken awesome and creepy!
I am thrilled with The cast! Amazing job!

New Yankee Stadium means new beginning

2009-04-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

The notion of the Yankee ghosts grew to insane proportions over the past decade, eventually reaching the point that whenever something special happened in the Bronx the credit always went to those darned supernatural forces. It's shocking there hasn't been a Yankeeography on the stadium ghosts yet.

Maybe there was something supernatural behind Aaron Boone's ALCS winning home run in 2003 or those thrilling game-tying home runs by Scott Brosius and Tino Martinez in the 2001 World Series.

But, if you look at Yankees history in that vein, then you have to question where Mystique and Aura disappeared to in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox became the first team to come back from a three-games-to-none deficit in a playoff series - and completed the task in the Bronx.

Or what happened to the ghosts in the playoffs in 2005, 2006 and 2007 when the Yankees looked as if they lost their superpowers once the calendar hit October? And how could these ghosts have possibly allowed the Yankees to miss the postseason in the final season of the stadium's illustrious history?

Was That Terminator's Last Shot?

2009-04-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Did Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles make a Nielsen case for coming back next season? What about Life? What was last week's biggest series premiere—and why should you think twice before answering?

The answers—and more questions—in the latest TV ratings pop quiz:

1. How do Terminator's chances look, post-season finale? Not better than they did pre-season finale. Its season-two closer finished in 95th place with 3.6 million viewers, per the latest Nielsen broadcast TV standings. The episode neither matched the show's season average (4.6 million), nor Fox's season average (9.7 million), nor Fox's pre-American Idol season average (7.9 million). Good luck with that.

2. Well, how about Life? The NBC drama's season-two finale placed 74th, with 4.6 million viewers. Like Terminator, the show ran well below its own season average (5.4 million) and its network's (8.1 million).

3. Is it fair that Friday Night Lights gets renewed just because dumb ol' DirecTV likes it? Ignoring for a moment that there is no fair, and ignoring for another moment that satellite TV is a gift to viewer-kind, FNL, unlike Terminator and Life, actually closed out its third season in epic fashion for a, well, really low-rated show. Airing opposite fellow bubble show Dollhouse (3.5 million), the finale scored 4.1 million viewers versus the 4 million the show averaged over its spring run.

4. What's so tricky about figuring out which new show got off to the biggest start? Parks and Recreation and Southland got more attention, but Surviving Suburbia got more viewers (11.2 million)—as you would, too, if you aired after Dancing With the Stars. Without a DWTS lead-in, Southland ruled the newbies among adults 18-49, placing 21st; even with a DWTS lead-in, Suburbia ended up tied for 25th in the demo with Parks and Rec.

5. What were the week's top five shows? Last week's top four—Wednesday's Idol (23 million), Tuesday's Idol (22.8 million), Monday's DWTS (19.9 million), NCIS (17.8 million)—plus one, the men's college basketball championship (17.6 million).

6. Why was Hannah Montana: The Movie a good thing for iCarly? Apparently wanting to keep Miley Cyrus' fans focused on the multiplex, Disney Channel didn't air a new episode of her TV series. So Nick's iCarly got to be the top-rated prime-time cable series (5.1 million), per those Nielsen rankings. The show was sandwiched between USA's pro wrestling (5.9 million for back-to-back episodes) and Bill O'Reilly (4 million for Wednesday's show). Other standouts: South Park (3.1 million) and House of Payne (3 million).

7. Is true that totally fake love conquers The Hills? Yes! Rubberneckers Romantics helped make the penultimate Rock of Love 3 cable's most watched reality show (3.2 million) and For the Love of Ray J the second most watched reality show (3.16 million). The premiering Hills (2.9 million for back-to-back episodes) settled for third.

Hungry Sharks circle elusive Stanley Cup as playoffs loom

2009-04-14T23:05:00.001-07:00

SAN JOSE — As the NHL playoffs begin today, it's not the usual hockey hotbeds of Detroit, Philadelphia or Boston that enter as the top seed.
It's the Silicon Valley skaters from San Jose — a team in its 17th season and seeking its first Stanley Cup — who not long ago were hitting milestones that were laughable more than laudable.

In 1992-93, the team set the NHL loss record (71). Despite 12 trips to the playoffs, the Sharks haven't made the Finals.

"We didn't have the talent to win," says Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, who played defense for the team's first two seasons. "Guys like Mario Lemiuex averaged six points a night against us. Even if Mario hadn't played in a while, he always seemed to get healthy when we played him."

But fans embraced the team that features an unusual signature color (teal), and now those times seem about as far away as the antiquated Cow Palace, which opened in 1941 about 40 miles north of here and was the team's home during its first two seasons.

San Jose enters the playoffs vs. the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday with first-year coach Todd McLellan, veteran experience from past Cup winners and loftier expectations thanks in part to a team-record 32-5-4 mark at home.

Despite losing their last two games, the Sharks (53-18-11) earned their first Western Conference title and Presidents' Trophy, the award given to the team with the best record during the regular season.

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"You walk down the street, and people know what's going on," defenseman Dan Boyle says. "They really want this thing. Three-quarters of the questions I get asked is about whether we're going to win the Stanley Cup. It's been, 'Great job this year. Bring home the Cup.' "

Early on, the Sharks pulled off huge first-round playoff upsets — against the Detroit Red Wings (1994), Calgary Flames (1995) and St. Louis Blues (2000). But in those dozen playoff appearances, they advanced to the conference finals once (2004), losing to the Flames in six games.

Of the five expansion teams that entered the league from 1991-93, the Sharks are the only one that hasn't made the Finals. Two of those teams (the Tampa Bay Lightning and Anaheim) have won Cups.

"They better this year," ESPN analyst Barry Melrose says. "That's a great team they have, and they had great teams before. But they were missing guys who knew how to win. Now they have those guys."

The Cup-winning additions include:

•Boyle and Brad Lukowich (Tampa Bay, 2004 Cup): The defensemen were acquired via a trade with Tampa Bay last summer. They often are grouped together. Boyle is the more offensive-minded of the two and was tops in the Pacific Division and sixth overall among defenseman with 57 points. Lukowich was injured much of the season.

•Rob Blake (Colorado Avalanche, 2001): The 39-year-old decided against retirement and has given San Jose punch on the power play with his blistering slap shot. His 44 points rank him second to Boyle among Sharks defensemen.

•Claude Lemieux (Montreal Canadiens, 1986; New Jersey Devils, 1995, 2000; Colorado, 1996): Five years after retiring, the gritty forward, 43, returned to the NHL in January. He has a reputation for stepping up in the playoffs.

•Travis Moen and Kent Huskins (Anaheim, 2007): Moen, a forward, and Huskins, a defenseman, give San Jose more depth. Both were added at the March trade deadline.

"On paper, they're better than Detroit," Melrose says. "But Detroit has won (a Cup), while the Sharks have been disappointing."

Championship or bust

McLellan can be counted in that group of Cup winners. He was an assistant with the Red Wings, a veteran club that won the title last season, marking Detroit's fourth Cup since 1997. The Sharks, meanwhile, have seen second-round exits the past three years: to the Dallas Stars (2008), the Red Wings (2007) and the Edmonton Oilers (2006).

Those short playoff appearances cost coach Ron Wilson his job.

"The Sharks' approach appears to be much different," says former NHL defenseman Larry Murphy, a TV analyst for the Red Wings and the NHL Network. "It seems like the last few years they were hoping to succeed. Now they're determined to succeed."

McLellan looked to simplify the team's philosophy. He's not one to give wordy instructions or complicated plays but instead preaches throwing pucks at the net and capitalizing on chances.

The mastermind behind the Red Wings' potent power play helped the Sharks elevate their man advantage from 10th in the league last season to third, thanks to a 24.2% scoring rate.

"We had a plan coming in on how we thought this team should play and how we could put the players in the position to succeed," McLellan says. "We implemented it in training camp, and at that point it could go either way."

One thing he didn't alter was who wears the captain's C. That remained on the jersey of forward Patrick Marleau, who owns every major offensive franchise mark after 11 seasons in teal. He shares top billing on the Sharks' No. 1 line with All-Star center Joe Thornton.

Both have been tagged as underachievers in the playoffs. While Marleau has been consistent in the postseason, averaging 0.7 points a game — about the same as his regular-season output — he was ridiculed last year for jumping out of the way of a shot against the Stars that resulted in a goal. NBC analyst Mike Milbury coined the move "the double flamingo" because Marleau curled both of his legs to avoid the puck.

Thornton has been unable to shake the perception since his days with the Boston Bruins, when he went to the playoffs five times and never got past the second round. His points-a-game output is 31.6% lower in the playoffs.

"I watched the team a lot in the past, and those guys were responsible with carrying the whole load along with (forward Jonathan) Cheechoo and a few others," Lemieux says. "It's too easy to shut two or three guys down in the playoffs. It's got to be coming from a lot of different angles, and I feel we have that."

'This is the year'

The Sharks lost twice in October and in November, compiling the best start in league history through 30 games (52 points). San Jose also began the season 20-0-2 at home and remained atop the Western Conference from start to finish.

The Sharks sold out all but one game at HP Pavilion, also known as the "Shark Tank," which seats 17,496, and have been below 96.2% capacity once in their 15 seasons there.

Sheldon Perry, owner of a San Jose mortgage company, says he has seen fans at the Tank get more anxious.

"Everybody who sits around me thinks this is the year," says Perry, a season-ticketholder for more than a decade. "If they don't make it past at least the first couple rounds, there will be a revolt."

McLellan concedes that the road toward the best record in hockey hasn't been without its detours.

"We had our share of adversity," he says. "In the second half, we had to fight back from a rash of injuries. We played more on the road than at home and had some mini-slumps. I think that's going to help us in the long run."

Goalie Evgeni Nabokov missed 13 games to lower-body injuries and flu. Speedster Torrey Mitchell missed the regular season after breaking his leg in training camp, and veterans Jeremy Roenick (39 games), center Marcel Goc (27), Lukowich (21), right wing Mike Grier (20), Lemieux (18) and Cheechoo (16) also missed time.

The team is as healthy as it has been since the season's opening weeks.

"You have to like our chances," says Thornton, who won the Hart Trophy, the NHL's version of the MVP, in 2006. "We're first in the NHL for a reason."

Lost season finally over for Avalanche

2009-04-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

DENVER, Colorado — This recently completed Avalanche season was brought to you by Oceanic Air Flight 815.

Thanks in large part to injuries to top-line centers Joe Sakic and Paul Stastny, substandard goaltending and a consistent lack of consistency, the Avs were a crew that might as well have been stranded on a remote island.

For much of 2008-09, they were simply lost.

“Very lost season,” forward Milan Hejduk said. “Lost everything.”

Six months of pain and misery came to an end Sunday with a 1-0 loss to the playoff-bound St. Louis Blues. The Avs missed the postseason for the second time in three years, raising plenty of questions about how the franchise moves forward this offseason.

Will general manager Francois Giguere and/or coach Tony Granato take the fall for the worst season since the team moved to Denver in 1995? Will Sakic be optimistic enough about Colorado’s talent to return for a 21st NHL season? Will the Avs be able to find a top-line goalie after investing three seasons in Peter Budaj?

When analyzing a season-gone-wrong, it’s best to start at the top.

As the team’s executive vice president, general manager and alternate governor (whatever that means), Giguere now has presided over the only two nonplayoff seasons in Avalanche history. He opted to let goalie Jose Theodore and power forward Andrew Brunette leave as free agents last summer, putting his faith in Budaj and signing forward Darcy Tucker to a two-year, $4.5 million contract after the veteran was kicked to the curb by Toronto.

Budaj struggled to provide consistent play in net, finishing with a 20-29-5 record and a 2.86 goals-against average, while Tucker managed just eight goals and eight assists in 63 games. To his credit, Giguere did sign 23-year-old center Paul Stastny to a five-year contract extension that will kick in next season.

It remains to be seen whether Granato will be around to aid in Stastny’s development. The team lost 19 of its final 22 games and finished with the third-fewest points (69) in the NHL, leaving the coach on the proverbial hot seat as offseason evaluations begin.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Granato said. “I’ll be ready to go next year.”

In fairness to Granato, it would have been difficult for any coach to succeed in Colorado this season. Sakic played only 15 games before a back injury derailed his season, while Stastny missed 37 games with a broken forearm and a broken foot. In all, the Avs lost more than 360 man-games to injury, prompting 11 players to make their NHL debuts this season.

“They had a tremendous amount of injuries to their key players,” said former NHL coach and current ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose.

“No team is able to overcome something like that. I remember watching them this year and they had eight or nine guys out.”

More telling for Melrose was the effort Colorado put forth while notching road wins against top-tier teams such as Detroit, Washington and Vancouver in the final weeks of the season.

“They never quit on Tony,” Melrose said. “If you’re looking for a reason to get rid of a coach, you’d say they quit on Tony down the stretch. … I know Tony Granato and I know he’s a great leader and a great person. When you have young players, you want a guy like Tony Granato working with them.”

Should Granato return, he would love to have Sakic back in the dressing room and — more importantly — on the ice. Sakic, who turns 40 on July 7, is nearly recovered from surgery to repair a herniated disk and said last week that he plans to make a decision on his future soon.

If Sakic comes back, he and Stastny will anchor the top two lines along with proven scorers Hejduk and Ryan Smyth. Second-year left wing Cody McLeod (15 goals, 5 assists and rookie Chris Stewart (11 goals, eight assists) also showed promise this season, giving Colorado a nice young nucleus going forward.

Even if the Avs can implement the up-tempo offense that Granato and Giguere envision, they still need someone who can stop the puck. Given the chance to prove himself as a No. 1 goalie, Budaj was inconsistent for much of the season. He tried to make a good final impression by stopping 119 of 123 shots in his last four starts.

“I tried to show, not just the fans, but the coaching staff and the staff upstairs that I can play here,” Budaj said. “I did everything that I possibly can and I was able to play well for the last stretch of games.

“I was trying to do everything I can to take this opportunity that they gave me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fulfill my expectations. I know this season wasn’t the one that I hoped for. I had a chance to prove that I can be a No. 1 goalie in this league. Just got to learn from it and work for another chance.”

Among the goaltenders who will be free agents this season are Detroit veteran Ty Conklin and New Jersey Devils backup Scott Clemmensen. Conklin, 33, went 25-11-2 with a 2.52 GAA, while Clemmensen performed admirably after the Devils lost Martin Brodeur to a biceps injury for much of the season. Clemmensen, 30, went 25-13-1 with a 2.39 GAA in his first real opportunity to be the top guy and he could come at an affordable price in free agency.

“Clemmensen played very, very well,” Melrose said. “A lot of people have changed their thinking on whether he can be a No. 1 goaltender.”

Among other housekeeping items for the Avalanche will be decisions on veteran right win Ian Laperriere and enigmatic center Tyler Arnason.

Laperriere, 35, will be an unrestricted free agent and negotiations between his agent and the Avalanche have not progressed in the past two months.

“There’s no talking right now,” Laperriere said. “I want to stay here. They know that. I’ll do what’s best for my family, too.”

Next to Sakic, Laperriere is Colorado’s most popular player, and his leadership in the dressing room is unquestioned. He had seven goals and 12 assists in his 15th NHL season, and it will be interesting to see if the Avalanche is willing to give him a multiyear contract based on the intangibles he brings to a franchise.

“I know my value,” he said. “I know what I bring to the team. It’s not like I’m a 22-year-old who tries to hit a home run. I know I still can play. I proved this year that I’m not done.”

Arnason, however, likely has played his final game in Colorado. He was a healthy scratch for the last five games of the season.

“I think overall, this season hasn’t gone very well, but I can’t complain about how I was treated the first two years here,” he said. “I have no bad feelings about the Avalanche at all.”

There was a tone of indifference as Arnason left the Pepsi Center. The rest of the Colorado organization can ill afford to take a similar stance as it tries to avoid drifting further into obscurity.

2009-04-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

So I have to say Hex is one of this year’s highlights in season 8. I’ll give you a brief rundown of events.
The show starts with Chloe’s birthday party and Lois has to cut out early. Cue Zatanna! And how beautiful she is! Zatanna decides to grant Chloe a birthday wish and in that moment it just so happens her biggest desire is to be like Lois. So when she wakes up the next morning she IS Lois. And comedy ensues. Chloe finds out what it’s like for Clark to work with Lois and she can tell that he is in love with her. So eventually Chloe figures out how she got this way and tells Clark what is going on. So they go to find Zatanna and when they do she tells Chloe she will go back to normal when she no longer wants what she wished for. Then she grants a wish to Clark, who in that moment just happens to be thinking about what life would be like if he didn’t have those pesky powers. UGH another powerless Clark episode. But this time it is actually done pretty well. I love the part where he whips out his phone and calls 911. Then of course when Chloe tries to tell him he has powers and attempts to hit him with a big metal bar. Classic
Meanwhile Zatanna is looking for her father’s spell book which she has learned that Lex acquired before his untimely demise. So she goes looking for Oliver who has recently merged Queen Industries with LuthorCorp. She tells Oliver that if he can get her that book in the next 24 hours she will grant him a wish. (Because that has worked so well for everyone else.) Anyway so Green Arrow manages to finagle his way into Lex’s personal collection and steal the spell book and decides that he is gonna burn the book because of all its dark power. Well Zatanna has other plans so she ties his ass to a pole with chains by saying a little chant backwards. NICE! She then attempts to use the book to bring back her dead father. So there she is on the top of the Daily Planet Building resurrecting her dead pappy when Chloe is still trying to convince Clark he has superpowers when she gets so frustrated that she must have wished she was herself again so she could show Clark what is really going on, because then BOOM she was Chloe again. So then Clark snaps out of it and realizes he has his powers. He then proceeds to either Superjump or Fly to the top of the Building. It was never said which he actually did. The reason I suspect he flew is because the last time he crouched down and the ground around him cracked was in season 4 when he flew. So I guess we will never know. Anyway I did enjoy the Up, Up, and Away line Chloe threw in there. So then Clark gets up there and manages to stop Zatanna from bringing her father back from the dead and killing Chloe in the process. Dammit!

Then we get to see Zatanna talking to Oliver at the end. She tells him she is going around the world to learn more about the book and her skills. She gives him a card and says you can use this to call me if you need me. And Oliver is like is this a magic word or something and Zatanna says no it’s my phone number. HAHAHAHA and we all have a good laugh!

All in all I really enjoyed this episode. I love when they bring in characters from the comic books especially well known ones who can add a lot to the show such as Zatanna and Black Canary. It’s just a shame we don’t see them too often besides Oliver. As for Serinda Swan, I thought she did a great job. I do believe this is one of her first if not the first acting role she has had and I thought she was wonderful and would absolutely love to see her more Smallville episodes or even her own spin off series. Anyway Stay tuned for my review of “Eternal” and let me know what you thought of “Hex”

True Blood Lust: Who's Fanging Who in Season 2?

2009-04-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

Will Sookie dump Bill for Eric?

Despite the fact that True Blood stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer are a rock-solid twosome in real life, the show's Bill-Sookie-Eric triangle was the question of the hour as the cast and producers of HBO's vampire drama hit the Paley Center for Media's 25th Annual TV Festival Monday night.

Happily, Blood boss Alan Ball and his stars, including Paquin and Alexander Skarsgård, dished to us exclusively on the red carpet about the Viking vampire getting a hot spotlight, who's getting a serious beatdown and who's playing with the new supernatural creatures.

Moyer even told us his real feelings about the other man leering at his lady...Get our exclusive interview goodies and a sneaky peek of season two of HBO's True Blood.

Alan Ball, executive producer

Anna won a Golden Globe for playing Sookie over the hiatus—what are you doing to up the ante and keep her challenged?
Anna loves it when she's getting beaten up or kicked or smacked around, and lucky for her, Charlaine Harris put a lot of that stuff in the second book.

Does Sookie interact with the new supernatural creatures much this season?
She spends the first half of the season focusing on vampires and vampire politics in Dallas, as a sort of favor to Eric, and she spends the last half of the season cleaning up the mess that some new supernatural creatures have created in her town—and she is pissed. She is not going to take it anymore.

And what changes about Eric this time around?
Eric has more of a presence in season two—you get a little of his backstory, you find out a bit of what's important to him, what is meaningful to him, what makes him cry.

Alexander Skarsgård (Eric Northman)

How are you playing Eric differently this year?
Everything becomes more private and personal in season two. In season one, the situation started out being business-related, and Eric's attraction to Sookie was "All right, I might use this." But the stuff between them now is much more personal. He's very much emotionally involved now. And I'm not just talking about his relationship between Eric and Sookie and Bill, but other things as well. A lot of the fans who have read book two, they know that the reason they go to Dallas is because Eric's maker has gone missing. That's a very, very personal quest for him.

What about reports that you'll play Thor in the major motion picture version of Thor?
No, I don't think so. I haven't gotten the call, so...

Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse)

What does the mission to Dallas mean for Sookie's situation in Bon Temps?
I haven't seen any further in the scripts than from when we come back from Dallas, so I don't know what we're doing in Bon Temps.

And does Jason get into trouble again this season?
He gets into different kinds of trouble this season, because he's off with his church.

How are you feeling about the Bill-Sookie-Eric triangle right now?
It's really only just sort of slightly hinted at, as of yet—we're shooting seven right now. But Eric's definitely leering down from his heights.

Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton)

How does Bill feel about Eric moving in on his lady?
That's a good question. I'm not going to lie, when I see those little things in the script, those little moments when Eric's pouting at her from across the room, I'm like, I'm going to have a word with that scamp later. It does make me step back a little bit and be upset, which is exactly how Bill reacts as well..."F--ker."

And now for a very special sneaky peek at True Blood season two. Check out the video below to see what badness happens when Sookie helps Jessica at Bill's expense.

Mega Buzz on Grey's, CSI, Mad Men, Lost, Dexter & More!

2009-04-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

Every week, senior editors Matt Webb Mitovich, Mickey O'Connor and Tim Molloy satisfy your need for TV scoop. Please send all questions to mega_scoop@tvguide.com.

Could you give me any scoop you have on Grey's Anatomy, ideally something about Mark and Lexie? I need my fix! — Frances
MATT: Does McSteamy "do" parents? That's the big question in the April 30 episode, when a now-sober Thatcher Grey invites his daughter and her new beau out to dinner. Now, just supposing that Mark is down for some dining, can the reformed cad put on a good show? And this just in: A source tells me that on Mer and Der's wedding day, airing May 7, the groom gifts his bride with (incurable romantic alert!) her first solo surgery. How that fits into a little blue Tiffany box, I do not know.

The past two seasons of CSI have ended with a cliff-hanger. Season 7 ended with Sara left in the Vegas desert by the Miniature Killer, and Season 8 ended with Warrick being accused of murder (and eventually murdered himself). Will Season 9 follow that same pattern? — Jocelyn
TIM: Wow, nice rundown! Wallace Langham tells us the self-contained season-ender features Laurence Fishburne's Langston in the line of fire: "You see him put into some situations that are new for him, as far as being out in the field and having to deal with perpetrators." Langham's Hodges, meanwhile, gets to stay in the lab, where he's happiest. (Coming Thursday: Read our full Q&A with Langham about this week's sci-fi-themed episode.)

Is there a premiere date for Season 3 of Mad Men yet? — Misti
MICKEY: Tell you what, I can officially narrow down the "summer" return date to early August. As with last season, don't expect tidy resolutions to the finale's cliff-hangers — e.g., Peggy's revelation to Pete, Betty's pregnancy, Joan's rape — since the show will most surely jump ahead in time again. Can you think of any 1960s historical events that might serve as a juicy metaphorical backdrop (as the Cuban Missile Crisis did in Season 2)? I can.

I love Lost! But I am still wondering why Miles was blackmailing Ben for $3.2 million, and why/how Ben had that much money on the island? — Sara
MATT: You will get the answer to at least the first half of your question in this week's Miles-centric episode, "Some Like It Hoth" — when a dollar amount other than $3.2 mil is brought up. I'm hearing that in the subsequent episode, airing April 29, the long-MIA Daniel Faraday will demonstrate just how well he knows the Island. (Hint: They are much more than Facebook friends.)

What ever happened to Dexter? Is there going to be a fourth season? — Rachel
TIM: Of course, he's a serial killer. Season 4 goes into production in late May/early June and will probably premiere toward the end of September. If you couldn't guess from last season's wedding finale, the next cycle focuses on Dexter as a family man: How does he balance his role as a husband and father of three with his grisly nocturnal endeavors? Most parents can't find time to catch a movie, much less mete out bloody vengeance.

Who do we have to bribe, beg or threaten over at Fringe to get Joshua Jackson more screen time? I am getting very frustrated at how little he is used in each episode. What gives? — Cheri
MICKEY: First of all, you have to bribe me. I like Hendrick's gin, dark chocolate, bibimbap and shiny things. Once I receive your hypothetical generous "donations," I will probably be able to tell you about a big Peter Bishop reveal in the season finale (my mole breathlessly called it "major major major" — and it is). Before then, though, we're going to get a bit more information about Olivia's twisted childhood brush with scientific testing, the unmasking of Dr. William Bell and the mysterious, robot-armed Nina Sharp. And as with most things on Fringe, these are all related developments.

I know that Fox starts airing the final six episodes of Prison Break this Friday. But why aren't Episodes 23 and 24, which presumably wrap everything up, on the schedule? I'm baffled. — Al
MATT: You're not baffled, just understandably confused. Episodes 21 and 22, airing May 15, will offer "a completely satisfying ending" to the Break — including a where-are-they-now, flash-forward coda, series creator Matt Olmstead tells the Buzz. That which you call "Episodes 23 and 24" is actually a two-hour standalone movie produced on the studio's own dime, but neither ordered nor scheduled by Fox. Explaining the origin of Prison Break: The Final Break — which tells the story of another imprisonment/breakout — Olmstead says, "This is a cool story we want to tell ... so we went ahead with it, not knowing for sure where it would air." At the very least, you can pre-order it on DVD.

Any word on when the new season of Sons of Anarchy will start? I've heard as late as October and as early as May! — Sherri
TIM: We'd bank on closer to October: The first episode of the new season's 13 episodes wraps in mid-May. And while no exact return date is set in stone, look for Henry Rollins to join the cast as a member of a rival gang (who, we hope, vents his hostility through extremely hardcore spoken-word).

When does In Plain Sight come back? Please tell me that Jinx and Brandi will be gone. — Mario
MICKEY: I'm sorry; I cannot tell you that, Mario. But it's a good thing that the ruesome twosome is sticking around because Mary is going to need them. She might be tough as nails, but her recent trauma will have repercussions — of the PTSD variety. But how is her erratic behavior related to those mysterious letters that she's been getting from her dad? Check out the season premiere on Sunday night (10 pm/ET, USA) to find out.

Mega Buzz got me hooked on Harper's Island! Now give me scoop on my new guilty pleasure. — Maria
MATT: Before you pin Uncle Marty's gory gutting on the father of the bride (Richard Burgi), consider this: A moment left on the cutting room floor positioned comely Chloe's British beau, Cal, as just as big a suspect. In the snipped scene, Harry Hamlin told me, "Marty happens by as Chloe is naked and wet, coming out of the water. I hand her my handkerchief and say, 'I wish this was a little bigger, but... ..' And then her boyfriend shows up." During the gents' never-to-be-seen scrape, Marty's gun falls out, prompting him to claim he's FBI. But was he?

Any Gossip Girl scoop? Nate and Serena aren't hooking up for season finale, right? — Daniel
MICKEY: No! That would never happen! I mean, Nate and Serena would totally be the least likely couple in all of Gossip-dom, especially considering their sleazy history. It would be totally unexpected, right? Plus, when I mentioned that the producers should fix Gossip Girl by dirtying up fuzzy bunnies Serena and Nate, it's not like the powers that be were listening. Right? Right?

I remember the Supernatural producers saying last summer that we'd be seeing Steven Williams' Rufus this season — yet so far, nothing. Is that still happening? — Alexandra
MATT: In a word, sorta. The boys will hear from Rufus in Episode 21, which is titled "When the Levee Breaks" and airs May 7.

Mickey's Mega Rave: My love for Tina Fey is deeper than my bedroom voice, but lately it's hard to overlook her gifted cohorts over at 30 Rock, in particular the unlikely comedy duo of Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski. You can point to the show's always pitch-perfect writing, but without the actors' very different comic chops, a storyline about avicide doesn't exactly spell comedy gold. "Birds are like little dinosaurs!" Indeed.

Matt's Mini Rant: Yes, I love CBS' How I Hid Your Pregnancy. But no, I cannot swallow the plot twist that found Ted quitting his job with a prestigious architecture firm in order to open his own shop. Really — in this economy?

Tim's Micro Riff: Rejoice, Trekkies: a CSI episode, a new movie, and this.

Reader Quote of the Week: "[Mel Gibson has a] 'gold-digging wife'? I'm trying to picture this. Yes, I've figured out her master plan: 'I'll marry this unknown guy, have a bunch of kids, and just shy of 30 years of marriage I'll dump him and get his money!' Give me a break." (ems823, addressing a fellow reader's comment on Mel Gibson's divorce)

Crave scoop on your favorite TV shows? E-mail Matt, Mickey and Tim at mega_scoop@tvguide.com. Remember, the question you don't ask is a question we can't answer!

Bye, George! Is 'Grey's' killing off T.R. Knight?

2009-04-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Whatever cliff-hanger Grey's Anatomy has in store in its May 14 season finale, it'll probably pale in comparison to the one T.R. Knight is experiencing in real life.

Last fall, the actor -- frustrated by his lack of airtime -- asked to be released from his multiyear Grey's contract. Now, as I first reported in Ask Ausiello, his wish may be granted by an upcoming story line that finds (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) George marching off to war as an Army medic. Just as the season wraps up, George gets injured in the line of duty, leaving his fate up in the air for viewers -- and even Knight himself. "T.R. doesn’t know whether George lives or dies," explains a source close to the show. "And, as a result, he doesn't know whether or not he has to come back next season."

Legally speaking, Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes has until mid-June to decide whether to drop Knight -- and all indications are she will use every last second of that time. Some are suggesting she may be forcing Knight to sweat it out as payback for wanting to jump ship. (The two have had a strained relationship since the Isaiah Washington blowup in 2006.) While Knight's rep and Rhimes both declined to comment, a Grey's insider scoffs at such a notion. "At the end of the day, Shonda is going to do what's best for the show," maintains the source. "Everything else is just idle gossip."

What do you think is best for the show at this point: Cutting Knight loose via a season-ending tragedy, or forcing him to return next season for an indeterminate period of time (thus dragging out this off screen soap opera even longer)? Sound off below!

FREE FOR ALL Weekend

2009-04-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

Eggcitement for all the family ...
W5 has the 'eggs' factor next week with loads of Easter fun for all the family. Join The Great Eggscape -- Intergalactegg Invasion (until Sunday, April 19) when alien eggheads touch down at W5. Meanwhile Titanic: Designed and Built in Belfast continues until April 19. The exhibition featuring the famous ship is a dynamic celebration of Belfast's rich and illustrious maritime past. We have five family passes up for grabs so you can catch up with the action at W5.

Q: Where was the famous ship Titanic built?

* It's all about the money ...

Chill out in front of the TV with the latest DVD releases. We have three copies of two very different movies to give away. The first is comedy Mad Money (released on April 13), starring Diane Keaton, Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah, which tells the tale of three women from very different worlds who plan the world's most unlikely heist. Meanwhile, Dean Spanley (out on April 27), is described as an adult fairytale with an all-star cast of Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill and Jeremy Northam.

Q: Who is Mad Money star Katie Holmes married to?

* Tantastic shoes to be won...

What better way to perk yourself up for Spring than a fabulous pair of shoes and a gorgeous sun-kissed glow? Local sassy shoe brand Minette (minetteshoes.com) is once again strutting into the season with a sexy new palette of fresh designs. Complement your shoes with great tanned legs and you're ready to go. To achieve your perfect tan, try new company Tan2U. The service sees an expert arrive at your home, hotel room, office with a fold-up tanning tent and an airbrush system which takes you from the skin colour of Nicole Kidman to that of Eva Longoria in 20 seconds.

Q: In which TV series does Eva Longoria currently star?

* Supernatural movie is just the ticket ...

If you like a car-chase movie with some supernatural mystery thrown in for good measure, then Race To Witch Mountain could be right up your street. Showing at the Odeon in Belfast, the story revolves around a mysterious location in the Nevada desert known for unexplained phenomena. Las Vegas cab driver Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) gets caught up in the action when he encounters two teens with supernatural powers in his cab. Working together, Jack and his young passengers end up attempting to save the world.

We have four Race To Witch Mountain goody bags up for grabs along with movie merchandise and a family ticket to see the film.

Q: Who plays the taxi driver in Race To Witch Mountain?Send answers on a postcard marked with the competition name and your details, including a telephone number, to: Helen Carson, Features Department, Belfast Telegraph, 124-144 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 1EB. Closing date for all entries is Saturday, April 18. Usual Independent News & Media rules apply. Winners: Divine Chocolate: P Hewitt, Markethill. McGuigans: H Barr, Richhill. Shearer Candles: J Tinsley, Portadown; G Ashfields, Ballymoney; M McMurray, Belfast; A McMullan, Saintfield and U Gilmore, Carrickfergus. Bacofoil: S Hagan and C Steele, both from Belfast; R Gallagher, Ballygowan; J McClintock, Londonderry; E Reynolds, Newtownards and A McMullan, Saintfield.

(c) 2009 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

Easter

2009-04-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

BEGINNING WITH the sunrise services attended by many in our community, today, Easter Sunday, is the most holy day in the Christian faith. It is the day, Christians believe, when a crucified Savior arose from the dead, assuring the faithful of forgiveness from sin and of eternal life. Why, then, is the cross the pre-eminent symbol of Christianity? Why not an open tomb or a sundered sepulcher?

Perhaps the answer is that the cross--a place of suffering and humiliation--is a token more resonant with the human condition. We, all of us, know or will know hurt. The scourging and the thorns and the painful lonely spectacle are not alien to us; they are much the stuff of mortal life, the trappings of calvaries custom-made. Just as Christmas is accessible to our imaginations because everyone is born, the Crucifixion is an event understandable because each of us sometimes agonizes. But resurrection--that is something outside our experience. That is--dare we utter the word?--supernatural.

So that's why there is a kind of hush in believers' souls on Easter. It is the sound of a searching silence, a muted attempt to grasp the ungraspable--that a man, both like and unlike us, died, descended into hell, conquered death on behalf of billions yet unborn, then took off his burial shroud to walk once more in the land of the living. Not that the Easter story pioneered metaphysics. The entire drama unfolded during Passover, which celebrates the time that the Death Angel spared Jewish households that marked their door frames with the blood of a spotless lamb. But even angels are easier to apprehend than the act of undying.

Spring helps. From nature come intimations of the supernatural. Empty dawns fill with robin song. Fields and trees, bare and brown-scorched by winter's cold fires, erupt into flowers and green leaves. Pond ice sunders, fish leap like lovers' hearts. The season is a parable for the senses, a facilitator of faith.

But not a substitute for it. Today, in little country chapels and mighty cathedrals, millions of Christians will exercise irrational, wonderful faith. They will resist what writer Rod Serling called "the strange and perverse disinclination to believe in miracles." They will imagine tombs ajar. And in so doing, they may see that a cross, viewed from a certain angle, looks much like a key.

--Paul E. Akers, 1997, with permission of E.W. Scripps

'Supernatural': Sexy. Scary. Over?

2009-04-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

In the intense universe of fandom surrounding Supernatural — the CW series that follows the chisel-jawed Winchester brothers as they drive around the country snuffing out demons — there are ''Sam girls'' and ''Dean girls.'' Websites chronicle every scrap of minutiae (including the fellas' sweet ride, a '67 Chevy Impala), and bloggers dig around casting directors' sites looking for snippets of scenes to post online (they've even managed to spoil entire scripts). There's also a unique and very creepy subset of romantic fan fiction dedicated to siblings Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) called ''Wincest'' — the less said about it the better. One creative fan actually showed up on set in an orange vest, pretending to be a production assistant. ''They gave her a walkie-talkie!'' recalls Ackles. ''She worked the entire day there until somebody finally figured it out. Obviously now they've stepped up the protocol.'' Meaning, the stars have a bodyguard when they're working. Says Padalecki, ''I guess the network or the studio said, 'We [only] have two guys on this show. We'd better protect them.'''

It might be time to beef up the security detail even more, because the Supernatural cult is swelling. Sure, the show may not crack the top 10, or even the top 80 — ''You go to a dinner party and someone asks you what show you work on and you say 'Supernatural,' and they've never heard of it,'' says creator/exec producer Eric Kripke. ''Then they say, 'What network is it on?' and you say 'The CW,' and they've never heard of it'' — but lately it's been making almost otherworldly gains in viewership. Season 4, which has centered on the brothers battling angels as well as their usual demon enemies, is up an impressive 13 percent over last year, with new episodes averaging 3.3 million viewers a week — and that's against Thursday-night stalwarts Grey's Anatomy and CSI. All those new Supernatural acolytes, however, may find themselves wishing they'd showed up sooner: The cast and crew's ''godfather,'' executive producer and director Kim Manners (The X-Files), passed away in January; Padalecki, 26, and Ackles, 31, are exhausted; and Kripke has long maintained that he wants the series to last only five seasons — that's one more, then they're done. As Kripke told his writers at the beginning of this season, ''Let's be bold. Let's delve into the stories headlong. Let's not tap-dance around them because we're scared, or because we have to save something for tomorrow. Because we don't know if there will be a tomorrow

Why Do People Love Supernatural?

2009-04-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a pretty strong fanbase for the CW series Supernatural. I’ve never seen an episode of the show and a good part of that is probably because it’s on The CW. That said, I’m not above considering a series based on the hype but I’d need a reason to watch it. So I’m curious, Supernatural fans: What’s the big deal with this show?
I don’t know anyone who watches Supernatural but I do know there are plenty of people out there online who love it, which is why I’m opening up the discussion here. I’m not asking to be spoiled. I don’t want specific details about the show. What I want to know is; What is it about this series that people just love? I know it follows two brothers who investigate supernatural-related mysteries. And something about a missing father. I can’t say I’m a person who loves supernatural-type series, but I did love Buffy and Angel because both of those shows had other things to offer, including compelling character arcs, frequent comedic moments and all around great writing. To those of you who’ve seen the mentioned Joss Whedon series, does Supernatural measure up in those areas? Is it even comparable? Or is this the kind of show that really just caters to people who like vampires, werewolves and the like?

I’m putting it to you, die-hard Supernatural fans. I’m strongly considering Netflixing the first season to check this show out. If you think it’s worth the time, for me (and anyone else reading this), post a comment below and let me know why you think Supernatural is great (or why it isn’t). What does this series have to offer people who like good TV?

Supernatural: Repeat of Afterschool Special

2009-04-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

No new eps for a couple more weeks, but you can get your fix by watching Sam take down a bully tonight. Again. As in it's a repeat, not as in he takes down the bully's ghost, though he does that too. Nevermind.
Anyway, I thought this one was entertaining, though personally I wish they would show some episodes from previous seasons. Specifically, I think this would be a great time to show the Pilot episode, plus the final 2 episodes of Season 1, Salvation and Devil's Trap.

Feel free to use the comments to talk about tonight's repeat, your favorite episodes they never replay, where you think things are going, or whatever else Supernatural-related that's on your mind.

In other news

Our favorite junkyard owner, Bobby Singer (not Fred Sanford!) shows up on another network and show tonight. Or rather, the actor who plays him, Jim Beaver, has a new show. Harper's Island - a 13 episode murder mystery mini-series (try saying that 3 times fast) - premieres tonight, thankfully after Supernatural's timeslot. The series has been redone and delayed for quite a while, but it's a go now. You can see it at 10 pm on CBS.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the series also stars our favorite Ruby (or mine, at least), Katie Cassidy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harper's Island' Review: A Killer New Series

2009-04-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

CBS is often derided by TV critics for being a network entirely built on boilerplate procedural crime dramas. The new drama Harper’s Island, premiering tonight at 10pm, goes against that trend in the polar opposite direction. As serialized as TV can be, the 13-episode horror show chronicles a doomed wedding party on a remote island as a serial killer picks them off one by one.
It’s a lot like Friday the 13th, but as a series. The cast starts out huge at 25 major characters, but Harper’s Island promises to kill at least one off every episode, slowly whittling the cast down until the killer is revealed. With the fate’s of the characters unknown, it plays more like a reality show than a typical scripted drama
The story begins when Henry (Christopher Gorham) and Trish (Supernatural’s Katie Cassidy) set sail for Harper’s Island where they will be married. She’s a rich girl with a wealthy, ruthless father (Richard Burgi) and he’s from a poor, working class family, being guided through life by his wacky uncle (Harry Hamlin).

Between their families, bridesmaids and groomsmen, the cast is a bit too large, a necessary problem when you plan to kill off most of your cast in 13 episodes. The hour-long pilot is way too short and it’s almost impossible to remember all the characters, but a few pop out, mostly Trish’s ditzy friend Chloe and her foppish British boyfriend.

The story is primarily driven by Abby Mills, Henry’s best friend and a former resident of Harper’s Island. She left a long time ago when a serial killer named John Wakefield killed a lot of people, including her mother. While Abby is reluctant to return home, her father, the local sheriff (played by another Supernatural star, Jim Beaver) is happy to see her.

The first episode gets off to a very promising start, despite the unwieldy cast size, thanks to some gruesome deaths and classic soap opera intrigue. Veteran older actors like Burgi, Hamlin and Beaver are all perfect as the stereotypical caricatures of their classic horror film roles. It’s impossible to make a show based on the premise of any horror film seem realistic or genuinely dramatic, so going over the top is the only way to do it.

It be a bit difficult to get into the large cast and intensely serialized nature, but for fans who start following along now, there will be a wonderfully satisfying conclusion during June when every other scripted show has gone off the air.

And you can follow along at BuddyTV all season long and play our new Fantasy TV league for Harper’s Island. Instead of predicting eliminated reality show contestants, now you can predict who will get killed off every week, so make your picks and try to figure out who’s the killer.

Once more into the Suffolk abyss

2009-04-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

AND so our trip to The Land that Time Forgot looms before us again. I can't say that I look forward to these visits to Suffolk's Smallville, and this year promises to be as unpleasant as any.

The Man, ahead of today's game at Swansea, is quite prepared for the **** game to be one of the most miserable days of his football supporting existence.

From the moment the fixture list was published the date seemed to have something ominous about it.

After the Coventry defeat at home a few weeks ago, when all seemed lost, The Man wondered if he could even face going to the Norwich Union Stadium at all.

But as one Ipswich fan put it to me, in typical mockney phraseology, I had to “front it up”. Too right.

Let's get into them, let's get behind the team, and who knows what could happen? OTBC.

LET'S be honest - the atmosphere against Sheffield Wednesday was crap.

Yes we didn't play well, yes the sun was on the Barclay, yes it's all just a bit rubbish nowadays - but come on.

We are on the verge of a potentially catastrophic relegation, and if we can't get behind the team now then we never will.

Against Sheffield Wednesday it just felt to me that Carrow Road was too easy a place to come and play, off the pitch as well as on it.

Nice surface, sunny, their fans having a party in the corner of the ground - hardly a bear pit.

Of course, this is Norwich's traditional charm.

As an away fan, you have a nice pint by the river, toddle down to the ground in your colours, and invariably watch your team win. Especially if you are Sheffield Wednesday.

Hell, we'll even be nice to you (most of the time) in the pubs after the game too.

But while Carrow Road will never be La Bombonera, we can at least try to make it a little bit intimidating for the opposition, especially in the current predicament? Just a little bit?

WE'LL TAKE THE HIGH ROAD TO WATCH CITY

AS THE Carrow Road credit crunch continues to bite, supporters hoping for a relatively exotic pre-season tour are set to be disappointed.

My Colney spy tells me that a one-week trip to Gunny's native Scotland is being lined up, with provisional plans for games against Hibernian and Falkirk.

Gunny's contract only runs until the end of the season of course; nudge, nudge, wink, wink…

Another trip to Jockland (we were last there in 2006) won't be the end of the world, but for a hardy band of City supporters a European pre-season “tour” - somewhat perversely - has become something of a highlight in recent years. The prospect of trekking to a foreign field to watch your team play has assumed an increased charm, especially if you can have a beer and sit in the sun. In a sense it is a way of escaping the banality that the rest of a joyless season will inevitably hold.

During last season's pre-season The Man found himself stumbling through a field in the middle of nowhere (Sweden) desperately trying to find where we were playing.

After regaining my balance and avoiding the cowpat, I had the football fans' equivalent of what alcoholics call a moment of clarity. At least I think it was. The Man said to himself: “So let me get this straight. You are a grown man, in a field, in the middle of agricultural Sweden, in July, trying to find out where Norwich City are playing the local village team. You have travelled hundreds of miles and paid hundreds of pounds to be here. And you just dropped your packet of salt and vinegar crisps. What, in the name of Kevin Drinkell, are you doing?”

I pondered whether I had finally gone insane. Realised I had, laughed, and carried on until I met up with all the other lunatics who suffer from a similar affliction. Scotland won't quite be the same, but we can but try.

HATTERS' FANS MUST SHOULDER SOME OF THE BLAME

FOOTBALL fans can be a sanctimonious bunch.

We'll point the finger at overpaid players, agents, owners and Sky for the problems our clubs face; but very rarely take any responsibility ourselves.

That's why The Man couldn't fully embrace all the thumb-sucking and supporter indignation that surrounded Luton Town's trip to Wembley last weekend.

We were told The Hatters, armed with 40,000 fans, were showing the FA and the Football League exactly what they were missing out on by effectively pushing such a great club into the Conference.

The Man has sympathy for those Luton fans who've seen their club plummet through the divisions since singing “we are invincible” while 2-0 up at Carrow Road in 2006.

But the simple fact is that, even if just one quarter of the Luton “fans” who made the trip to Wembley last weekend had regularly visited Kenilworth Road in the past couple of years, they would not be in anywhere near the financial trouble they find themselves in now. They only averaged 8,500 in our division and crowds have plunged since.

Yes, the club was clearly poorly run from the top down, but taking 40,000 fans a few miles up the road to Wembley is one thing, having the passion to sustain decent support and keep the club going week-on-week is another. So while those Luton fans were busy vilifying the football authorities last week for “destroying” their club, they could have equally taken umbrage with a few people sitting next to them too.

Harper's Island' Review: A Killer New Series

2009-04-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

CBS is often derided by TV critics for being a network entirely built on boilerplate procedural crime dramas. The new drama Harper’s Island, premiering tonight at 10pm, goes against that trend in the polar opposite direction. As serialized as TV can be, the 13-episode horror show chronicles a doomed wedding party on a remote island as a serial killer picks them off one by one.

It’s a lot like Friday the 13th, but as a series. The cast starts out huge at 25 major characters, but Harper’s Island promises to kill at least one off every episode, slowly whittling the cast down until the killer is revealed. With the fate’s of the characters unknown, it plays more like a reality show than a typical scripted drama.
Don't Miss

* Predict Who Will Die on 'Harper's Island'
* 'Harper's Island' Review: A Killer New Series

More on...Harper's Island >>

The story begins when Henry (Christopher Gorham) and Trish (Supernatural’s Katie Cassidy) set sail for Harper’s Island where they will be married. She’s a rich girl with a wealthy, ruthless father (Richard Burgi) and he’s from a poor, working class family, being guided through life by his wacky uncle (Harry Hamlin).

Between their families, bridesmaids and groomsmen, the cast is a bit too large, a necessary problem when you plan to kill off most of your cast in 13 episodes. The hour-long pilot is way too short and it’s almost impossible to remember all the characters, but a few pop out, mostly Trish’s ditzy friend Chloe and her foppish British boyfriend.

The story is primarily driven by Abby Mills, Henry’s best friend and a former resident of Harper’s Island. She left a long time ago when a serial killer named John Wakefield killed a lot of people, including her mother. While Abby is reluctant to return home, her father, the local sheriff (played by another Supernatural star, Jim Beaver) is happy to see her.

The first episode gets off to a very promising start, despite the unwieldy cast size, thanks to some gruesome deaths and classic soap opera intrigue. Veteran older actors like Burgi, Hamlin and Beaver are all perfect as the stereotypical caricatures of their classic horror film roles. It’s impossible to make a show based on the premise of any horror film seem realistic or genuinely dramatic, so going over the top is the only way to do it.

It be a bit difficult to get into the large cast and intensely serialized nature, but for fans who start following along now, there will be a wonderfully satisfying conclusion during June when every other scripted show has gone off the air.

And you can follow along at BuddyTV all season long and play our new Fantasy TV league for Harper’s Island. Instead of predicting eliminated reality show contestants, now you can predict who will get killed off every week, so make your picks and try to figure out who’s the killer.

Season 2 of 'Sanctuary' starts shooting

2009-04-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 7 (UPI) -- The second season of the TV series "Sanctuary" has begun production in Vancouver, Canada, Sci Fi Channel said.

The show is the first based on an online series to be picked up for a second season, the channel said.

Slated to return this fall, the one-hour drama's 13-episode sophomore season will include the addition of Agam Darshi as Kate Freelander, a witty and sarcastic con artist and thief.

Darshi has appeared in TV's "The L-Word," "Supernatural," "Criminal Minds," "Dead Zone," "Stargate Atlantis," CTV's "Custody" and the Lifetime Original Movie "The Haunting on Sorority Row." Her feature film credits include "Final Destination 3" and "Snakes on a Plane."

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TV Review: SUPERNATURAL - SEASON FOUR - 'It's a Terrible Life'

2009-04-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love the alternate universe episodes. Seeing the characters we know so out of character always makes you smile. For Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) seeing them in the roles in “It’s a Terrible Life” was even more to the extreme given the history they have and that whole, you know, demon hunting thing.

Dean is the douche of a manager inside any corporate office and Sam’s the nice guy of the office but a lowly pee-on in the corporate world. Sam begins to see dreams of his reality and Dean is beginning to see things as well affecting the office.

But something is happening inside the illusion beyond just Dean and Sam not knowing who they are or their past, but something where employees after a meeting with HR are oddly affected and begin to kill themselves. And there appears to be a ghost or some sort of other-worldly force at work here (of course, duh, it’s SUPERNATURAL).

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While the “let’s show our characters in an alternate reality” is a staple of good TV for decades, I loved that they made something happening inside the alternate reality that’s also kooky as well so not only was it just the fact they are unable to remember their pasts but they have a purpose and along the way learn who they really are.

Plus, how can you not love the GHOST HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL/MYTH BUSTERS rip-off on the Internet including the bit about the Winchester Bros sucking major assage.

Turns out the ghost inside the alternate reality was the owner of the building from years past who shows up when the economy turns south – the first time during the Great Depression and now in modern times. However, this still doesn’t explain why the brothers can’t remember their past even as Sam tries to explain to Dean that the life they are leading is not the reality they live in – both started working at the office three weeks ago both with reasons as to why they joined.

Ah ha but instead of a demon, it was a new angel, Zacharia, Castiel’s boss. It was a test by the angels in order to see if Dean still had it in him to be the hunter he is in order to fight the upcoming battle against Lilith and the demons of hell as they continue to unlock the gates of hell to bring on the apocalypse.

The hook of the angels rather than the demons creating the fantasy world wasn’t as much of a shock as it was a pleasant surprise as it fit in perfectly with the breakdown Dean had at the end of last episode. And the angels attempts to rebuild his self-confidence in their own unique way. I also enjoyed that Zacharia for the first time of any of the angels showered Dean with positive reinforcement something he desperately needed.

Where we go from here it looks as if Sam and Lilith have a date with destiny and that, for sure, should be extremely interesting.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supernatural: The Monster at the End of His Book

2009-04-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

People either love or hate episodes of television series where the characters spend a great deal of time winking at the audience. I typically am a hater of such stories, unless it’s done extremely well. This episode of Supernatural is one of those very well done wink and a nudge types of episodes. In the first couple of acts of the episode, nearly every real life fetish out there for this series gets referenced and even some complaints about the series get spoofed. It all starts in a stereotypical comic book store. The store could be the sister store to the one that appears in Heroes. The brothers appear in the store investigating a possible haunting. The sudden investigation seems to start off quite awkwardly but it soon begins to make sense when the real reason the brothers are in this town, in this store, becomes apparent.

Lately, the writers of Supernatural have been building single episode stories into the main storyline with a few quick scenes toward the end of the episode. Initially, I expected this episode to be similar but what actually occurs in the episode is important to the larger story. This writer who just happens to be writing Sam and Dean’s story sometimes as it happens and sometimes before it happens isn’t just a psychic; he’s a prophet. The idea that everyone has a destiny and what will be can’t be changed has been done a ton in movies and TV but when it’s done here, it is hilarious. No matter what Dean does to try and change what the prophet has written, things keep happening as he wrote them. All of this makes for an extremely humorous first half of the episode.

One could argue that the episode is tonally off balance. The first half is complete comedy while the second half goes to really dark places. For my money, the shift in tone makes the darker stuff hit with more impact. At first, everything just seems like a funny story of the week and then Cass shows up and the truth of everything gets revealed. The final showdown is fairly anticlimactic but it’s not time for that big fight yet. That won’t come until the end of the season. Dean is the chosen one to fight the final battle. Sam believes that Dean has lost his fire, pun unintended, but I believe Dean will do what he has to when the time comes. It’ll be interesting to see what price he has to pay during that fight though.

There are some really classic moments in this episode. When Dean learns about slash fiction that involves him and his brother being “together”, his reaction is priceless. The scene in the Laundromat when Dean reads that Sam thinks that he is a dick just as Sam is thinking it is also hilarious. Along with the humor, Sam and Dean learn that Lilith is in fact scared of the doors that she is opening. The deal that she offers Sam is a bit weird though. Her reasons for offering this deal don’t make much sense. There has to be more to it and I’m sure we’ll learn more about her motivations over the next few weeks. This is easily one of the strongest episodes of the season, if not the strongest period.

Supernatural: Who is the Monster at the End of This Season?

2009-04-08T23:55:00.000-07:00

The latest episode of Supernatural featured meta jokes on top of meta jokes, so it stands to reason that the title of the episode might also include some hidden secrets. Fans were quick to notice that The Monster at the End of This Book is actually the title of a Sesame Street children’s book featuring Grover. Could this harmless piece of kiddie lit hold the secret to the entire Supernatural mystery?

In the book, which is itself a piece of meta fiction, Grover talks directly to the person reading the book, warning them about the monster at the end and urging the reader not to continue reading. It’s a rather adult concept, but if you reach the end, you get a surprise.

SPOILER WARNING: Read no further if you don’t want the end of this children’s book spoiled.
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At the end of “The Monster at the End of This Book,” it’s revealed that the monster is actually Grover himself and was all along. Though Grover never realized it, he is the monster. But how does this factor into Supernatural?

Applying the book’s ending to this season of Supernatural, maybe the “monster” of the season has been there all along. The monster is Lucifer, who Lilith revealed is trapped in a cage. If the cage is just metaphoric, maybe Lucifer is actually lying dormant in a person. Maybe Lucifer is Sam Winchester.

Before I’m burned at the stake for suggesting such an idea, there may be a sound basis for this theory. The breaking of the 66 Seals this season has mirrored Sam’s own descent into darkness, drinking demon blood and becoming more powerful.

In addition, Lilith wanted to make a deal to stop breaking the Seals in exchange for Sam’s head on a spike. If she has seen the end and knows that she won’t make it to see the good part, maybe she knows that when the final Seal is broken, Lucifer will take over Sam’s body and kill her, fulfilling Sam’s own promise to be the one to kill Lilith. It could also explain the angels’ trepidation over Sam using his powers.

Obviously letting Sam be overtaken by Lucifer would be a controversial move, but as Chuck Shurley said, he does put Sam through plenty of suffering for the sake of artistic symmetry. A life that started with a demon dripping blood into the baby’s mouth as part of a deal is one that could end with the ultimate revelation that the entire deal was designed to bring forth Lucifer.

There’s also some beautiful artistic symmetry if Dean is the one chosen by God and his own brother is Lucifer’s vessel. That’s the kind of storytelling Chuck Shurley would enjoy.

Also Read:
"The Monster at the End of This Book" Recap
The Fiery Demonic Passion of Sam and Lilith
Supernatural Fans Twitter About "The Monster at the End of This Book"

TV Review: SUPERNATURAL - SEASON FOUR - 'The Monster at the End of This Book'

2009-04-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

I love that the creators, writers and producers are willing to poke fun at themselves. No doubt they crafted “The Monster at the End of This Book” with the idea of bashing the Internet fan sites and fan faction that pair both the brothers together – sexually – among other adventures. But along the way they probably thought … hey, why not give ourselves a jab and give a few cracks about the writing and the less-than-stellar ideas that have come across the show over the years (although season four as been pretty rock solid from pillar to post so far).

But what began as an interesting plotline about comic books, psychics and a jab at just about everyone that’s a fanboy, turns serious as we find out that Lilith is coming … and she’s got a little kinky dental hygienist possessed in order to seduce and offer up a deal to Sam (Jared Padalecki). A deal that would end the war and she’d stop unlocking the seals if Sam and Dean (Jensen Ackles) sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity. Why would she do this after such a long time? Because she found out she doesn’t survive the journey to the apocalypse and as self preservation is her top priority she offers up the deal. One that Sam initially agrees to but he was never planning on following through on it.

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Luckily, Castiel drops a nice little hint that Prophets of God (which it turns out the psychic really is) have an Archangel that tags along so that if any bad guys get around them the wrath of God is laid upon them. Something Dean uses to get Lilith to get the hell outta dodge leaving Dean and Sam alive and the gates still being unlocked.

Of course, knowing the future is a double-edged sword – you can try your best to allow it to happen or you can avoid it try and alter what you are already doing only to have it defeat you anyway (as Dean finds out).

But we have a few questions about the future that we won’t get answered any time soon (and probably will be saved for the finale) including what did the Prophet Chuck see in his last vision? Why was Zachariah so interested in one, what he saw and two, not on allowing him to warn the Winchester brothers? Is Zachariah also an angel that has rebelled against God and he wants whatever happens to happen because it will unleash Hell? Because if he was truly trying to stop Lilith and apocalypse wouldn’t given the boys a head’s up be a good thing? Or would it throw them for too much of a loop in trying to avoid what would happen that it would confuse the situation? Interesting indeed and we will have to wait and find out but that’s definitely something to look forward to.

And wait, the Winchesters have another brother? What the hell that has to be some sort of a joke or ploy by demons, right? Cause otherwise at least on paper (and in a preview) that’s just lame.

A Ball with the supernatural

2009-04-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

True Blood deviates from mainstream TV into a world of telepaths, vampires and other non-human characters.

The cast of True Blood.

A NEW 12-episode drama True Blood, from the same creator as HBO’s Six Feet Under, debuts over the MAX (Astro Channel 412) at 10pm today.

It is based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels of Charlaine Harris about perky waitress Sookie with telepathic gifts and her attraction to a 173-year-old vampire Bill.

In conjunction with the show’s premiere, Life & Times has a question-and-answer session with creator Alan Ball.

QUESTION: What was it about Charlaine Harris’ novels that made you want to turn them into a series?
ALAN BALL: I was browsing in a bookstore one day and I saw this book titled Dead Until Dark, which had the tag line “Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn’t such a bright idea.”

I thought that sounded like fun, so I bought the book — the first in Charlaine Harris’ series — and I could not put it down.

I loved the way it was funny and scary and sexy and romantic, and it had a lot of interesting things to say about what it’s like to be other than mainstream.

And it’s not just the vampires; Sookie is a telepath, and there are other non-human characters in the story.

I became addicted. And once I finished the book, I thought, “Where’s the next one?” I’d been wanting to pitch a new series to HBO, and I thought this would make a terrific series.

Q: How do you see the series unfolding over the course of the first season?

A: Basically the first season is the first book in the series, with some new stories created for the characters to provide balance.

One of the things I love about Charlaine’s books is the way she treats the supernatural world so matter-of-factly.

We’re trying to do the same thing in our production design and the way we shoot everything. We want to keep the supernatural rooted in nature, so that it’s just more nature than we’re used to in everyday life.

I’m trying to avoid all the vampire clichés. I watched just about every vampire movie, and most of them told me what I don’t want to do.

I wanted to avoid the crazy contact lenses, the opera music, the blue light.

True Blood takes place in a small town in rural Louisiana. It’s hot and humid and there’s not a lot to do there. I want it to be rooted in the characters, and seem like it could be really happening, and not some fantasy world.

Q: What made you want to do another series?

A: I was looking to do another series because Six Feet Under was such a great experience.

TV, especially with the advent of the premium cable channels, is in many ways a much better place to work as a writer than movies.

In a movie, you’ve got to pack it all into two hours, and movies are becoming more and more like amusement park rides. I enjoy a good amusement park ride as much as the next guy, but TV is more like a novel.

You can stay with characters over a long time and really see the subtle and interesting changes that life visits on a person.

You can dramatise their struggle with life, rather than dramatising the struggle with a particular issue that gets resolved over two hours.

Q: How do you approach directing, as opposed to writing?

A: I love to direct. Directing is similar to being a writer, in that I’m a storyteller. It’s all about the stories and the characters.

Q: How do you think viewers of Six Feet Under will respond to True Blood?

A: I think fans of Six Feet Under will like the show because there’s a lot of moral complexity in it, which is something that always fascinates me.

We grow up with notions of good and evil, and the belief that good will always triumph, but if you take a look at the world around you, that’s obviously not the case.

Also, one of the things we kept coming back to on Six Feet Under was the idea that when you do the right thing, the moral thing, a lot of times it makes your life harder and more complicated. And that’s interesting.

But True Blood is different from Six Feet Under in that it has a much lighter tone. It’s more of an adventure. It’s a story you’ve never seen before and a world you’ve never seen before. It’s fun. It’s a show I would watch.

Catch four back-to-back episodes of True Blood’s Asian premiere today. Subsequently, you’ll catch two back-to-back episodes every Thursday. Repeat episodes will be aired every Saturday at 2pm.

(See TV News (pg15) for more on the show).

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Supernatural: The Show Might Go On, But Eric Kripke Won't

2009-04-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

Fans of Supernatural have known for quite a while that executive producer Eric Kripke envisioned their favorite series to have a five season story arc. Rather than allowing Supernatural to become a shell of its former self, Kripke is determined to make the episodes that remain very strong and leave audiences wanting more. Recently rumors have begun circulating suggesting that the series might continue; but Kripke was recently crystal clear with Entertainment Weekly that even if the series went on he would not.

''Despite what the network and studio may or may not want, I don't have more than five seasons of story," he said. "I certainly would be willing to make sure there are enough villains and heroes around to continue a new story line, and I would be around to answer a few questions — that's it. I'm outta here. There's no way I'm doing season 6."
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To further halt speculation, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki both spoke negatively about the possibility of moving forward. EW asked Ackles whether a big money contract could lure him to stay.

''They'd have to back up a Brinks truck," he said. That may sound very cynical but he has his reasons. "We don't live at home. We don't sleep in our own beds. Our families aren't here. Our friends aren't here. Our girlfriends aren't here."

Jared Padalecki couldn't offer fans much more hope.

''I enjoy working, but what's the point? Do I want to just keep on doing photo shoots and work so I can get more famous so I can do even more photo shoots and work and fly to more places to do more press?... I get sick of talking about myself.''

Game over, right? Supernatural is flatlining? Not necessarily. It's not Kripke's decision to cut life support, or Ackles', or Padalecki's. It's the network's; and just as Supernatural's key figures seem to be trying hard to provide fans closure its the network who is leaving ambiguity.

"If the show's doing well, we would go on, I'm sure,'' said CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff. When asked whether she would try to convince Kripke to come back for it she said, ''It's premature for us to even address that.''

If Supernatural continued but Kripke, Ackles and Padalecki left what would the series be about? Even if Sam left but Dean stayed or vice versa the central character dynamic would be lost. If that happened would Supernatural really be Supernatural at all?

Perhaps that's where the final right of refusal on the series continuation comes into play, the authority even Ostroff alluded to as controlling their decision. Ultimately Supernatural's audience would have to decide whether or not a series without the people who embody it is truly the series they love. As bittersweet as it may be to see the series end, would Supernatural's continuation in a drastically new, network driven direction be a fate worse than death?

Katherine Heigl will stick with 'Grey's' if they'll have her

2009-04-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

Katherine Heigl, the Grey's Anatomy star known for speaking her mind, is happy to stick with the show as long as they will have her. At a party yesterday celebrating Grey's 100th episode, Heigl said she did not know whether her character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, who is battling cancer, was going to be killed off at the end of this season. According to an AP report, the actress said, "I was assuming that at one point and I got a lot of shrugged shoulders and shakes of the head, so I don't know if that's a yes or a no. No one will tell me and I don't know how this is going to go. I don't know if I live or die. I don't know how Izzie fares." If Izzie does kick cancer, Heigl said she'd gladly remain on Grey's -- "I'm there," she told the AP -- and called the set "one of my favorite places to be." She also said that she had no problem juggling a television and movie career. "I'm more than happy to make that compromise. As my agent likes to say, 'High-class problems.' I don't know if I want to continue for five years working 12 months a year, but I can take at least another year or two." Perhaps this is the beginning of a kinder, gentler Heigl?

Katherine Heigl: "I'm There" if Grey's Anatomy Wants Me

2009-04-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Despite ongoing reports that she wanted out of her Grey's Anatomy contract and that she was being killed off the show, Katherine Heigl said she wants to stay on the medical drama if her character, Izzie, survives brain surgery.

"I was assuming that [Izzie would die] at one point, and I got a lot of shrugged shoulders and shakes of the head, so I don't know if that's a yes or a no," she told the Associated Press Friday at a party celebrating the ABC show's 100th episode. "No one will tell me and I don't know how this is going to go."

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She noted that the decision rests with the show and series creator Shonda Rhimes, who is known to value plot secrecy.

"I don't know if I live or die,"Heigl said. "I don't know how Izzie fares."

On the medical drama, Izzie has metastatic melanoma -- skin cancer -- and it has spread to her brain, giving her only a five percent chance of survival, which is a scoop Usmagazine.com first reported eight months ago. On Thursday's episode, she was seen surviving brain surgery.

Still, Heigl said, "I'm there" if Izzie remains part of Grey's Anatomy, for which she has starred since it debuted in 2005. She called the set "one of my favorite places to be" and said her colleagues are also friends.

Rhimes, who is also an executive producer for the show, declined to comment on what will happen to Heigl's character, but she did reveal a clue about the 100th episode, airing May 7.

Check out the love lives of the Grey's Anatomy stars.

"The only thing I'll tell you about the 100th is that it takes place on Meredith [Ellen Pompeo] and Derek's [Patrick Dempsey] wedding day," Rhimes said. "That's big ... and that's all I'm going to say."

Last month, fellow cast member James Pickens Jr. told Us that Heigl was leaving the show, along with T.R. Knight, both of whom declined comment at the time.

Heigl, who some thought was wanting out of the show to focus on her movie career, said she's comfortable balancing film and TV by working on big-screen projects during the show's summer hiatus.

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"I'm more than happy to make that compromise," Heigl said. "As my agent likes to say, 'High-class problems.'"

She added: "I don't know if I want to continue for five years working 12 months a year, but I can take at least another year or two."

Dempsey also said he intends to fulfill the remaining two years on his contract with the show and "then we'll see what happens after that."

Katherine Heigl will stick with 'Grey's' if they'll have her

2009-04-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

Katherine Heigl may live to win another Emmy for 'Grey's Anatomy'

2009-04-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

On last week's episode of "Grey's Anatomy," Katherine Heigl's character Izzie survived iffy brain surgery. Yikes! That may mean that the rumor isn't true that the program's producers have been secretly plotting to kill off the role of the past Emmy champ (Heigl won best supporting drama actress in 2007) to punish her for a gripe she made against them last year. If they really wanted Izzie dead, they just missed a big chance. So what's ahead?

"I don't know if I live or die," Heigl told the Associated Press. "I don't know how Izzie fares." But she wants Izzy to endure her bout with cancer, which recently seemed to be a fatal case when it spread to Izzy's brain. "I'm there" if Izzie remains part of "Grey's Anatomy," Heigl added, because she says she's great pals with her colleagues and the set is "one of my favorite places to be."

Blame Gold Derby for how this whole flapdoodle started. It was in June 2008 that we noticed that Heigl's name wasn't on the list to be considered for another Emmy. That could only mean one thing: She didn't put her name up for nomination. Why? When we inquired, her response to us triggered a huge media uproar: "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination."

Some gossipmeisters claimed that Heigl was suddenly acting like a pompous diva one year after her break-out film success in "Knocked Up," which earned $219 million worldwide. Why couldn't she be grateful for what TV screen time was given by the series' writers who obviously felt they had to be conservative with her involvement due to her growing film career.

At least one "Grey's Anatomy" insider was furious about her public complaint, fuming to Entertainment Weekly: "The show bent over backwards to accommodate her film schedule and then she criticizes the show for lack of material? It's an ungrateful slap in the face to the very writers responsible for her Emmy win in the first place."

E! Online reported that the "Grey's Anatomy" writers were really angry at Heigl: "They want Izzie dead."

But Izzie, hurrah, seems to be surviving a death threat on the series right now.

"On Friday, Heigl said she's comfortable balancing movies and TV by working on big-screen projects during the summer hiatus for 'Grey's Anatomy,'" reports the Associated Press.

"I'm more than happy to make that compromise," she says. "As my agent likes to say, 'High-class problems. I don't know if I want to continue for five years working 12 months a year, but I can take at least another year or two."

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Photo: Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

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Grey's Anatomy: Kevin McKidd Needs a Nickname

2009-04-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

According to Kevin McKidd, the fans haven't really given his Grey's Anatomy character, Owen Hunt, a nickname.

Hardly! As any true fan knows, the problem is that the fans have given him too many nicknames—so many, in fact, that no one has really stuck.

So, since we love us some Kevin McKidd and we want to show the man a little love and appreciation, let's settle this once and for all.

What should we be adding to the Grey's Anatomy hot-guy nickname lineup: McDreamy, McSteamy and...?

Spoiler Chat: What's Izzie Doing on Her Deathbed?

2009-04-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

The members of the George-Izzie-Alex love triangle on Grey's Anatomy turn out to be key players in this last run of season five G.A. episodes. Find out how Izzie's screwing up Alex's game and giving George a nudge forward; plus, what huge project will occupy Iz's final days? (Hint: It's not just knitting a ginormous green scarf for Bailey.)

And who's getting a big shiny engagement rock on 30 Rock? Did Serena really get married on Gossip Girl? (And who is Georgina back to torture?)

Also, which Ocean's Eleven castmember is guesting in the House finale?

Donna in Las Vegas: Any news on Gossip Girl?

Dara Kushner/INFphoto.com
Check out the spoiler section for more dish on Serena, Mr. Serena and Georgina! We actually have to wait until April 20 for new Gossip Girl episodes, but that just means we're going to have to while the hours while we wait with a new Love Debate. If you're a fan of either Nate-Blair or Blair-Chuck, we're now taking arguments in favor of both sides. Write up 250 words or less about why Blair belongs with a certain guy, email it in to tvdiva@eonline.com and in the near future, we'll post the best, most persuasive points of view and open the floor to discussion about which pairing is best. Get your submissions in by Friday if you have something to say about Blair's one true partner.

Jamie in Newport Beach, Calif.: Any truth to the story that 90210 producers are trying to get the rights from Josh Schwartz to use his character from The O.C., Luke Ward (Chris Carmack), so they could bring him onto the show as Ethan's cousin?
Wow, great rumor. Unfortunately, we won't be seeing good ol' Luke on 90210. A source close to the show tells us that's a solid "not true."

Lydia in Pennsylvania: Do you know when the season one DVD will be released for True Blood? I'm waiting patiently since my friends are raving about this show and I don't have HBO!
Mark May 19 on your calendar, because that's when True Blood's S1 DVD drops. But here's an early present. The trailer! Check it out here. And we just heard we'll have to wait until August for Sons of Anarchy. (Everyone needs "The Pull" within clicking distance, and it isn't on Hulu anymore. Bah!)

Greg Gayne/FOX
Vicky in Midland, Mich.: Is it true Stephen Fry is returning to Bones?
Yes, there will be a bit of Fry in the April 16 ep, and Bones boss Hart Hanson tells us, "Stephen Fry is wonderful. He has a great chemistry with David Boreanaz, and he has scenes with John Francis Daley, who is ostensibly the guy who replaced him. It was a thrill to have him here." Holler!

Mark in Phoenix: Can we get any info or scoop on the new CBS show Harper's Island? It looks awesome!
The first of Harper's Island's 13 episodes premieres Thursday, April 9, at 10 p.m. on CBS. But don't get too attached to any of the characters: At least two (members of a wedding party) will die before the end of the first ep, and plenty more follow until the killer is revealed in the last ep (July 2). Sadly, it looks like the annoying flower girl, Madison (whom the producers want you to believe is "spooky"), is one of the survivors. Get a sneak peek into the show at its much-creepier companion website, Harper's Globe, which delves into the town's historic mass murders—and why they are (dun, dun, dun!) happening again!

Doctor Who’s lost season 23: full line-up announced

2009-04-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

As previously detailed on Den of Geek, Big Finish, the producers of audio plays featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors have recently announced a plan to resurrect the ‘Lost’ Season 23 of Doctor Who that was abandoned when the programme entered its mid-eighties hiatus.

We knew that ‘Mission to Magnus’ and ‘The Nighmare Fair’ were both going to be in the seven story strong Lost Season Line-up, but as for the others, we had to settle for guesses. We presumed that Wally K. Daly’s ‘The Ultimate Evil’ would also be a part of the season due to it having already been novelised. Our other guesses at what would comprise the septet were Christopher H. Bidmead’s ‘The Hollows Of Time’, Michael Feeney Callan’s ‘The Children of January’, Pip and Jane Baker’s ‘Gallifrey’ and – perhaps – a revamping of Robert Holmes’ enigmatic ‘Yellow Fever (And How To Cure It)’

And oh, how wrong we were!

‘Mission’ and ‘Nightmare’ are certainly there, as is Bidmead’s ‘The Hollows of Time’ (which has just finished being recorded). These have, however, been coupled with four stories that were never meant for Season 23. First up is ‘Leviathan’ by Brian Finch which emerged after the writer’s son contacted Big Finish and produced a recording script that had been abandoned since the 80s before it reached production. It is not known which Doctor this script was originally intended for.

We do know that Sapphire and Steel creator PJ Hammond’s ‘Paradise 5’ was originally intended for Colin Baker (and Mel), however. The adaptation to audio has apparently been completed by Andy Lane. The story was originally nixed by John Nathan Turner who is reported to have disliked the idea. The premise of the story was that the Doctor decided to investigate the long dead planet of Paradise 5 due to the finding of five humanoid corpses – in business suits – floating in space around the planet and its nine moons that had since been transformed into leisure complexes for the uber-rich. The Doctor hides whilst Mel goes undercover to investigate the goings on.

It was Colin Baker’s predecessor as the Doctor, Peter Davison, who was the original intention for Barbara Clegg’s ‘Point of Entry’ script. It originally only made it to story line stage before its development was ceased. Big Finish dispatched ‘Ghost Light’ writer Marc Platt to work with Clegg to bring the story to completion. The story was to face a race of beings, the Omnim, who – just before they died out – projected their dying energies into a rock. A rock that eventually ended up being carved into the blade of an Aztec knife. Calling for blood in order to achieve the species’ physical resurrection, the knife eventually ends up in Elizabethan London where the Omnim finally take form in the body of a Spaniard, just as the Doctor and Peri arrive and encounter their new friend, playwright Christopher Marlowe.

The sixth story; Pat Mills’ “(Song of) The Space Whale)” had been hanging around since Tom Baker’s day, and was revamped for both of his successors. As for the seventh story, no further details are yet available, but it seems that playing the guessing game is really not going to work, given how inaccurate we managed to be last time ‘round!

Review: Smallville Eternal

2009-04-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

This episode really blew my mind. Secrets were revealed and things made more since. This episode is about how Davis/Doomsday and Kal-El came to earth at the same time.

This episode starts with Tess reading Lionial's Veritas book. The book says that in the Meteor Shower, two Kryptonians fell to earth that day, Doomsday and the Traveler. It seems when the Kents found kal-El... Well how the Kents say it, he found them, Doomsday was hatched out an egg. At the Daily Bugle, i meant Daily Planet(LOL) Clark comes to Tess with a front page story. The story was about killings made by the same person. But Tess says that she can’t print the paper because there were no facts. At Chloe's place, Davis is cooking her dinner and accidently cuts his finger. Chloe runs to him and puts a towl over his finger. When she pulls it off, PRESTO, the blood and cut is gone. All Davis has to say is quick reflexes. Then clarks bust in on them. Clark always bust in and Chloe doesnt say a word, but now it's "call much." The episode shifts to Davis putting a bloody shovel in his trunk and goes in his truck to repent.

Then Tess calls Davis phone and she blows his truck up. Clark and Chloe start talking about how fast she's moving on from Jimmy. Wright, what does she see in him? Everything about Davis is secret, theres not a record of his childhood and this guy goes somewhere and can’t explain where he went. Well... That’s how Clark acted in the first few seasons of Smallville. Later, Davis wakes up wounded and finds Tess. Tess tells Davis how he crashlanded and his history with the Luther’s. It seems that Lionial knew where to find the Traveler but instead found Davis. Kid Lex finds kid Davis and they play together. It was funny when Davis takes off Lex’s hat to reveal his baldness and asks him is he warrior angle. Clark and Chloe go to where Davis Truck was blown up. They figured out that there were no remains and that he is still alive. But then Clark x-rays the ground and see’s dead people. Later when Davis heals, he finds another vision about him and Lex when they were young. They are sword fighting and Lex opens a led chest that contains Kryptonite. Davis cries and screams “IT HURTS, IT HURTS.” Davis thinks that is the way to kill himself. Davis then finds Tess and she tells him that his story is like Jesus and Judah. Jesus would have never fulfilled his great destiny until he meets his greatest enemy. In order for Clark to become the world’s hero, he needs to face his greatest Challenge, Doomsday. Davis is to betray Clark and they are supposed to kill eachother. She then tells him that Clark is the traveler. He then back hands her into the table. Chloe then tells Clark that Davis blacks out regularly. I bet Chloe is salty that she didn’t believe Jimmy.

Clark then goes to Tess and asks her about Davis. Tess tells Clark the rest of the story of the meteor shower. Clark is still trying to deny that he is from another planet. When Lionial figured out he found the wrong boy, he puts Davis on the street. Davis shows up at the Isis foundation. This is the part when everyone thought Chloe was going to die in the trailer but it wasn’t. Chloe and Davis go to the lab and Davis is in the Kryptonite cell. Then Clark bust in and stops Chloe from pulling the lever. Davis is about to transform and Chloe pulls the lever. Then it rains Kryptonite on Davis. It looks like those Gatorade commercials (LOL). To see, go to the video at the bottom and go to 31:58. Then you see Tess with the orb that takes away clarks powers. Seen in season finale of Smallville season 7. Chloe then finds Davis in her basement and shes knows that whatever kills him makes him stronger. Davis tells her that she can only calm Doomsday down and aks her to stay with him. I thought She wasn’t going to do it, but she locks herself down there with him.

WIN Smallville : Season 7 on DVD!

2009-04-05T23:18:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Warner Home Video, Moviehole has 10 copies of the terrific "Smallville - The Complete 7th Season" to Give Away.

The town of Smallville is mostly inhabited by ordinary folk looking to live a peaceful life. But among their number is Clark Kent (Tom Welling), the future Superman who faces a daily struggle to control his special powers and keep his true identity a secret.

This seventh season of "Smallville" offers plenty of surprises for the young Man of Steel, plumbing the vast store of Superman mythology to introduce two characters from the comic books: Clack's cousin Kara (Laura Vandervoort), also known as Supergirl; and Bizarro, an evil Clark Kent look-alike. Meanwhile, as Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) becomes infatuated with Kara, Clark comes ever closer to the truth about his parents and his home planet Krypton. Included here are all 22 episodes of the seventh series, including guest appearances by past Super-stars Dean Cain and Helen Slater!

Competition Open to Australian Residents Only
TO WIN: Fill out your details below and tell us a cast member of the original "Superman" movie that hasn't appeared on "Smallville"?

Post Game: Smallville 8.18 - 'Eternal'

2009-04-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

"I need you to help me die." -- Davis Bloome (Sam Witmer)

After some serious narrative speedbumps in recent weeks -- the spiked kind where if you back up your tires get blown out -- Smallville regained more sure footing last week where Zatanna made her live-action debut (special thanks to Lan Pitts for handling the hosting duties for "Hex"). Despite the fact that he's yet to fully embrace his ability to fly, Clark at times still seems like he's got his head in the clouds as to the depths of his destiny and subsequent responsibilities. Whether intentional or not, Chloe Sullivan can only do so much, and for a while now Clark has lacked any valuable guidance from his various parental units. Jonathan is now long since dead, Martha has been reduced to a mere one-way phone conversation ("Infamous") as she serves in Washington as a senator, and Jor-El has been mostly M.I.A. with the Fortress of Solitude being out of order the better part of the season. As much as Clark needs to do some more growing up to do, lacking those positive influences may be slowing the process some.

Which brings us to "Eternal." Without a doubt, this episode addressed the "nature over nurture" concept. The opening of the episode gives us some glimpses of almost-forgotten old friends, the same mothers and fathers mentioned earlier (including Lionel Luthor). The initial arrival of Kal-El is revisited, including the lifelong impact it had on Lex Luthor. What is seamlessly added is how Doomsday, that is DAVIS BLOOME, represented one of the meteors as well, and he landed right next to Kal-El's rocket. A charred pod opens up and schmutz oozes out and forms into a young Davis. What's unexpected, cut to present day, is that Tess Mercer is discerning this information my way of an illustrated journal depicting those events, and she determines that there were not one but TWO Travelers who descended upon Earth.

Back again to the present, at the Daily Planet, and Clark approaches Tess, his editor, with a vital story he's working on. He's on to the fact that there are missing people disappearing over similar circumstances, but she blows him off due to his lack of concrete facts. In doing so she taunts him somewhat over her certainty that he is super in nature. Elsewhere, at Chloe's house, she's hosting a little dinner with Davis, apparently cool with moving on after her ugly breakup with Jimmy Olsen. According to her, his responses to her attempts at reconciliation have been harsh at best. Not to say I blame the guy since she repeatedly took bullets for Clark and Davis over him during the history of their relationship. During their food prep, Davis cuts himself, but when Chloe tries to help it's fixed itself a little too quickly. An interruption from an unexpected Clark distracts her from pondering the matter more.

Davis gets himself out of there when things get too close, but he can barely contain himself and almost "Hulks out." Cut to a cold, desolate farm ground, in Smallville, I'm gonna venture. A hooded guy tosses a shovel in his trunk after apparent work's been done burying something in a field. It's Davis, clutching beads, working on a disposal. He gets a call on his cell phone, and it's from Tess from yards away from the truck, and all signs point to success on her end as she pushes a button and blows his SUV up in the middle of the field.

At the Talon, Chloe is helping Clark with his mystery regarding the missing people. "I hope you have the safety cocked on your heat vision," she says when she gathers that he is not cool with how close she is with Davis so soon after her breakup. Chloe throws it back at Clark that she favors Davis' support since he hasn't been coming through. This conversation is cut short when the Davis' "mishap" hits the police reports.

But not before Tess discovers Davis' value. We get to the Luthor mansion and Davis is bedridden and covered in bandages. How could he possibly survive that truck explosion?? Oh, right... We get a battle of wills between the now-invalid Davis and his host Tess and it is compelling stuff. She busts out a Lex diary that suggests that Davis was there when Kal-El was picked up by Jonathan and Martha, and a flashback sequence ensues. From there, on his own, he was chased by agents and caged, and we find that they were not federal agents but LuthorCorp guys. He becomes a pet of sorts for Lionel, and they show where he is isolated at the mansion at one point but approached by an equally lonely young Lex. Of all things, they bond over a superhero. Lex is a huge fan of the fictitious "Warrior Angel," and he introduces Davis to his favorite comic book. Trust me, the irony was not lost on this viewer.

Chloe goes to the site of the "accident" to see if Davis' body is claimed and it was ruled abandoned. Clark shows up soon after, and a quick x-ray vision scan shows him tons of bodies buried in the field. Adding to the gravity of this is the fact that it's where Kal-El first landed in the meteor shower from Krypton. Back to the mansion, and take one guess who is all healed up. Wandering around the mansion, Davis starts to recall his time as a boy there. In another flashback, Lex and Davis are playing make-believe, and ironically Lex deems Davis the dragon and slays him, not a first for Davis. For fun Lex opens up a box with kryptonite and Davis unexpectedly reacts like Clark normally would and freaks out from the pain.

Tess turns up the moment Davis realizes what may be the only way out of his predicament. She waxes biblical suggesting that he is there to get in Clark's way of being the world's savior. In revealing that Lionel thought for a while that Davis was the prophesized Traveler, she hypothetically pits him and Clark against each other, and the prodding makes him "Hulk out" again, evidenced by his glowing red eyes. He knocks out Tess and makes a hasty retreat. Need I remind anyone that Tess has figured out more about Clark in an incomplete season than Lex did as the series lead for seven years?

Back to Clark and Chloe doing some more investigating, ("It's not that bad, Chloe, it's worse.") and Davis' killing indicates vigilantism. He's only targeting relatively deserving victims. They deduce that Tess has an idea what's going on, but their trail leads to her at the hospital (this show ALWAYS ends up at the hospital!!!) recovering from Davis turning into Doomsday. She calls Clark out about Davis and he being there the day of the meteor drop, even implying that the Traveler was 2-headed beast. Earlier she suggested to Davis that he was Judas to Clark's Jesus. And let us pray...

Back at her office, Chloe looks over the carnage, and she knows it was Davis. He shows up to defend himself and they struggle. One would assume that he was gonna eat her up or whatever, but he's actually there to get her help to kill himself. When he recalled the playtime incident with Lex, he realized that kryptonite was probably the one thing that could kill him. Clark gets there too late but quickly figures out that Chloe and Davis are at Dr. Grohl's lab where there is a kryptonite deathtrap set up, just what he needs to put himself out of his misery.

Clark shows up in time to stop the euthanization, but Chloe and Davis fight him on it. Always opting for the less fatal option, Clark fights this fate, much like with saving Chloe's life in "Legion." "We should've been brothers" is the sentiment shared between the two guys. Clark wonders how it would've been if it was HE that ended up with the Luthors, but Davis divulges that he was sent to destroy Clark. When Davis gets ready to unleash Doomsday again, Chloe pulls the lever to open the kryptonite shower. Before apparently dying, Davis has a final memory of an agent of the Luthors dropping him off at a random spot in Metropolis (I assume it was there) and abandoning him to fend for himself. At some point Lionel knew Davis was not what he was looking for and discarded him like bad rubbish. Sans dialogue, Davis says goodbye to Chloe and it is much like Kirk and Spock at the end of Star Trek II.

Later, Clark consoles a grieving Chloe while Oliver (off-camera) is taking care of the business of disposing of Davis. Attachment-free as Davis was, it's not that hard to do. Clark confesses that his nightmare was Davis' life. After that at the Kent farm, Tess shows up while Clark is doing chores and taunts him with Kal-El facts. She says "I'll wait for you to come to me," whatever that means, but he replies that "it's gonna be a long wait." Back at the mansion, Tess pulls out a 4-point star from a case as if it's her ace in the hole. What the hell is this thing, and how are we only seeing it for the first time??

"Eternal" ends with Chloe at the Talon, she hears something in the shop and takes a look in the basement, hearing noises along the way. She sees a bedroom setup and Davis pops up. He confides that he is immortal, and he thinks the murderer inside him is calmed around Chloe. He asks her to stay. Just when it looks like she's going to turn around and leave, she hits the latch to close them in. Uh oh.

So was this a sharper, more focused episode of Smallville? Did Chloe undo the goodwill of a week ago as the Watchtower only to now ally herself with Doomsday? Does Clark have a more formidable foe in Tess than he ever did with Lex? Can you wait another 3 weeks for the next episode ("Stiletto")? Will a kryptonite shower be a new feature at your neighborhood gentlemen's club?

TV Review: SMALLVILLE - SEASON EIGHT - 'Eternal'

2009-04-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

It was a bit of a history lesson in SMALLVILLE. Some of the mysteries behind Davis’ (Sam Witwer) origins are cleared up, and now it seems certain where this season is headed. After the rash of aimless filler episodes of recent weeks, it’s good to see some direction again. Season eight is on the final stretch, and a showdown between Clark (Tom Welling) and Doomsday seems inevitable. The only question now is who is sitting in whose corner.

Since his introduction, we all knew that Clark and Davis were eventually going to have to duke it out. Davis is Doomsday after all, so that battle was never in question. But after a strong presence in the first half of the season, Davis abruptly dropped off the map after “Bride”. But a few episodes ago he started his comeback, and now Davis is back at full strength.
It’s a good direction for SMALLVILLE to go in. Witwer himself is a solid actor. He delivers his less than Shakespearean lines with confidence and believability. But more importantly, SMALLVILLE needed a focus. Since the whole Lana (Kristin Kreuk) thing (here I go harping on that again) SMALLVILLE as whole seemed to lack purpose. There was nothing of real interest to make me want to tune in to the next episode.

Let’s face it. Chloe (Allison Mack) and Jimmy’s (Aaron Ashmore) relationship wasn’t all that interesting. It certainly doesn’t have enough weight to carry an episode. Clark and Lois (Erica Durance) have some chemistry, but after the Lana sidestep that Clark took, bringing Clark and Lois back together would just seem too forced. Tess (Cassidy Freeman) and Oliver (Justin Hartley) work best as minor supporting characters. That leaves only one person worthy of elevating to main storyline status: Davis.

“Eternal” itself wasn’t a spectacular episode, but it does set up the final run nicely. The truth about Clark and Davis’ past is discovered by Tess through some old Luthor journals she discovers. She finds out that two beings landed in Smallville that fateful day, and that Clark is the reason that Davis ended up having such a horrible upbringing (well, one of the reasons. The fact that he was destined to be an instrument of doom doesn’t help either). Lionel Luthor searches the field looking for Clark, the savior, but instead finds Davis. Mistaking Davis as the savior he was looking for, the Lionel has him captured. Lionel soon figures out, however, that Davis was not the person he was looking for, and callously has Davis abandoned.

Flashing forward to present day, Davis, realizing that he is destined to kill Clark and destroy the world, asks Chloe to help him die. After some back and forth, Davis is finally doused in kryptonite, killing him. Except, of course, since he is Doomsday, he doesn’t die and instead comes back even stronger. In fact, he is pretty much immortal now. Not good news for Clark or planet Earth.

But SMALLVILLE keeps it interesting by having Davis go back to Chloe and asking her to stay with him. His rationale? “There’s something about being around you that seems to calm the murderer inside me,” he says (I know SMALLVILLE has never been known for its brilliant dialog, but seriously, that is one of the most absurd lines I’ve ever heard spoken on television. Kudos to Witwer and Mack for being able to perform that scene without bursting out in laughter). By the looks of it, Chloe decides to stay.

Some bad dialog, yes, but real story and character development keep this episode afloat. And for the first time in a while, there seems to be promise for the upcoming episodes. The Clark and Doomsday saga will pan out, have no doubt. With Doomsday becoming immortal, we’re talking about one epic battle sure to be full of carnage and destruction. There is one last issue that needs to be resolved: who will Clark fight Doomsday as? The Red/blue blur, or you know who? I have my hunches. In either case, the season finale is glimmering with potential.

Chasing 'Lost' Season 5: Whatever Happened, Happened

2009-04-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Just where in the world is LOST? Each episode, we're looking at the real and fictional locations of LOST from a travel perspective, and plotting them on our Google map. Be sure to check out all the map points, updated weekly!

This week, the drama surrounds little Ben and what happens to him after he's shot. It involves Sawyer, a pouty trek through the jungle, and a handoff to Richard Alpert. Also, we see flashes of Kate leaving Aaron with his grandmother before returning to the island. If all of this makes you want more, you might consider heading to Hawaii and checking out a few of the LOST set tours.

LOST SET TOURS
Kualoa Ranch offers tours in the Ka'a'awa Valley which features all of the creepy and mystical locations like the jungle, forest and World War II bunkers. If you've ever dreamed of visiting the Pearl, this could be your best bet. This two hour tour costs $93 per person, and may be booked online in advance. Big Kahuna Hawaii offers two different eight hour tours. One focuses on the rainforest, beach camp and crash site, the alternate tour focuses on the Others experience.

LOST Virtual Tours
These are updated only through the season 4 finale, but still worth a look. It's a fairly complete index of the Oahu filming locations for the series, and includes screencaps from the show and corresponding locations on the island.

Vintage DHARMA Ads
Any fan of the show will want to check out these cool retro ads promoting the DHARMA Initiative.

Making 'Doctor Who's Lost Season

2009-04-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

Tucked away in a quiet side street in London's Ladbroke Grove, Moat Studios is playing host to something rather special - the Big Finish audio recording of Doctor Who's legendary 'lost' season. Before the show was controversially taken off the air for 18 months in 1985, a series of scripts was commissioned for the planned 23rd season - only for them to be scrapped and a new slate of stories revolving around the 'Trial Of A Time Lord' theme used instead. For over two decades, many have wondered what might have been.

Cult Spy was fortunate enough to be present for the second and final day of the recording of Christopher Bidmead's 'The Hollows Of Time' and spent some quality time chatting to the very friendly and talented cast and crew, including The Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker, and his companion Peri - Nicola Bryant. Those two particular interviews will be published in full later in 2009 to coincide with the launch of the 'lost' season on audio.

It was a joy to behold the duo bring the time travelling characters to life along with guest stars Susan Sheridan as Simon/Mrs Streeter and Trevor Littledale as the intriguingly titled Foxy. Unusually recorded out of sequence, it's hard to grasp exactly what's going on, although this serves to whet the appetite for the story's release in several months. Do keep your ears peeled for some sparkling interaction between The Doctor and Foxy, plus an epic sentence packed full of 'Bidmeadean' technical jargon that poor Colin Baker has the unenviable task of tackling. It almost makes Raxacoricofallapatorius roll off the tongue in comparison!

Occasionally, in conjunction with director John Ainsworth, Baker and Bryant suggest slight alterations to suit their character. Would The Doctor really let a child walk before him into a time corridor, and would Peri really say 'real cool'? After all, as Bryant later points out, "Colin and I have been having this relationship as Doctor and Peri for so many years with Big Finish - 12 years - as well as all the television times". It's pleasing to see the creative process evolve in the studio through the dedication of all involved, constantly striving to turn out the best story possible.

Going back to the aborted 23rd season poses its own challenges for the pair, with Bryant observing that "it feels like literally travelling back in time to the 80s to recapture the relationship that we had then, so that is strange because we are playing it differently from the way that we would play the current stories that we've been doing."

Dexter season 2 DVD review

2009-04-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Season one of Dexter was a stunning debut, and set the pattern for the following two seasons, wherein great characters and plotting abrade against trite characters and plot-holes. The show veers dangerously off-course on a regular basis, only to have you enrapt again an episode later. Season two has nothing as great as the ice-truck killer, unfortunately, but enough new faces, ideas and thread resolutions to keep fans happy...

S2 finds our favourite philanthropic serial-killer in a quandary. Sgt. Doakes (the delightfully paranoid and wired Erik King) is more convinced than ever that Dexter (the glacial yet loveable Michael C. Hall) had something to do with the carnage caused by the ice-truck killer in the previous season, and now he's stuck to our hero like cellophane. With this round-the-clock surveillance curtailing his need to kill, Dexter's getting twitchy, and even his bowling is suffering. Finally his show of boring domesticity throws Doakes off the scent, and off he goes to exact revenge on a downtown witch-doctor whose death-spells work for rather more mundane reasons than he claims.

The plastic walls are up, the victim is bound, the knives are out, but...oh no! Our hero can't do it. With no compassion for his intended victim, he's still got a case of killer's droop, and slinks away confused.

In the meantime all the grisly detritus of Dexter's secret career has been found by the police out in the bay area dumping ground, and it's all hands on deck as Dexter must join his colleagues in a new man-hunt - for himself.

The 'Bay Harbour butcher' (as the media dubs Dexter) even develops a fan-base, when it slowly becomes clear that all of his victims were really worth killing, and Dexter has to contend with a fan who has turned his secret identity into a comic character.

Elsewhere Dexter's adoring girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) begins to suspect her beloved of nefarious activities, prompting a full confession from Dexter...about his drug addiction. Well he had to say something, didn't he?

Soon Dex is attending a hanky-wringing support group, and his gradual involvement with Brit looney Lila (Jaime Murray) through these meetings reminds me a bit of Edward Norton hooking up with Helen Bonham-Carter in Fight Club.

Back at work, it's not quiet by comparison. Angel (David Zayas) is having an emotional epiphany and descends into Oprah-speak at a moment's notice, while poor old Debs (Jennifer Carpenter) is having trouble re-adjusting to dating after her run-in with the ice-truck killer. Since her carnal urge is as strong as her brother's murderous one, this isn't something she can wait to solve itself.

Back in Dexter's love-life, things are hotting up. Rita may have put her foot in it by putting her foot down with her boyfriend, as she realises when she sees Dex meeting up with his new 'counsellor', the evil but very sexy Lila. Is Lila just another diverting nut? Is she another killer-in-disguise? Or is she Dexter's best-ever chance to find a woman who really understands him...?

If the series has an emotional heart under its pathological dissociation, all three runs so far have identified it as the desperate search of the 'real' Dexter for understanding. He maintains his cover with a pleasant if distracted character, a good job, a sweet girlfriend with two kids that like him, and an awful lot of scurrying about in the dark. But it's a fake life, if a necessary one.

What our Dex truly yearns for is someone who could see him in all his blood-stained glory and still love him. In series one, that possibility came up with his long-lost brother, in two with the sulphurous Lila, and three also pursues this theme. But that's just the clockwork around which the show's bizarre events entertain us, and I have no complaints. Just so long as Dex doesn't get 'cured'.

The question is, how nice can Dex become without becoming anodyne? S2 finds a lot of his imitation of goodness turning into real goodness, and the casual fan might fear, for this and many other reasons, that he's losing his edge. This motif is not going to go away in S3 either, so Dexter fans will just have to live with it and delight in those moments when he gets all those pesky do-gooders out of the way and gets back to some honest murdering again.

It's interesting to see the excellent character of Angel toying, in his own aggravating way, with a nervous breakdown; excellent also to see Keith Carradine enter the show with one of the series' best police characters in the form of FBI beagle Special Agent Frank Lundy.

I'm afraid that Lauren Vélez still irritates me as Lt. Maria LaGuerta. Even when she's being a bitch (very often), I find the character unconvincing and a sop to demographics. Vince Masuka continues a sterling job of comic relief as Dexter's sex-maniac friend and colleague C.S. Lee, whilst Jennifer Carpenter (lovelorn sigh) maintains her edgy turn as Dexter's hyperactive and profane sister/colleague.

Ultimately it's Hall's show, and his magnetism and fascinating restraint that keep us tuning back in (wouldn't you like to see Dex helping out Monk one time?). It's a fantastic character in the hands of a first-class actor who, I fear, may never escape association with the role. But what the hell, you could be associated with far worse things.

Beautiful as Jaime Murray is - and she is quite a beguiling draw for Dex fans who are not into Jennifer Carpenter - she drops more aitches than a palsied stenographer. She inserts aitches into sentences where there are no aitches, just so she can drop them; just so everyone understands that she is British. Arghhh! Stop it. To boot, her performance is carried by the superior work of Michael C. Hall, so it's lucky that nearly all of her scenes involve him.

S2 has plot holes and problems, and doesn't live up to the great start made by the previous season. However, better is yet to come, and there are enough grisly laughs, great characters and bloodshed to carry even a mildly-interested viewer through. This is some of TV's best black-comic drama, and there's as much to love as to forgive.

Extras:
I vigilantly started making detailed notes about the extras, but after the sixth item it was pretty clear that they are not special enough to be worth that kind of effort. Junket-style interviews (short), an appropriated FX special (superficial), a crap trivia game and no commentaries. There are a few other cobbled-together items, such as an image-gallery, victim IDs and - bemusingly - four episodes repeated from S2 with added fact-titles (could they not have just grafted those titles onto the episodes on the other discs?), but it's mostly superficial list-fodder with little substance.

The only really good extra is a great (though short at just over 4 minutes) interview with Dexter's Brit composer Rolfe Kent, who talks about how the theme music was developed.

Top 55 TV Programs for April 5-11, 2009

2009-04-02T00:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday’s Oklahoman, which includes TV Week, hits the newsstands in the Oklahoma City area on Saturday afternoon. And it arrives at the doorstep (or hopefully nearby) early Sunday morning.
But for those who can’t wait to begin planning the upcoming week around the best TV has to offer, here is a sneak peek at programs worth watching the week of April 5:

SUNDAY, APRIL 5
◊The 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards (7 p.m. on CBS): Reba McEntire returns as host (for a record 11th time) for the event airing live from MGM Grand in Las Vegas. She is also scheduled to perform, along with Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts and Miley Cyrus. Artists with Oklahoma ties up for awards include Carrie Underwood (entertainer of the year, top female vocalist), Brooks & Dunn (top vocal duo, vocal event with McEntire), Miranda Lambert (top female vocalist, single of the year), Toby Keith (top male vocalist), Rascal Flats (top vocal group) and Trish Yearwood (vocal event with Josh Turner).
◊“Explorer: Inside Guantanamo” (8 p.m. on National Geographic): This two-hour special takes viewers inside one of the world’s most famous prisons for a look at day-to-day life. A film crew spent nearly three weeks inside the prison, chronicling the interaction between guards and detainees.
◊“Fast Machines With Funkmaster Flex” (9:30 p.m. on SPIKE): Funkmaster Flex, reknown car customizer in the music and sports world, hosts this new series that will showcase his talents in updating and modifying cars.
◊“Good Buy, Bad Buy?” (11:30 a.m. on HGTV): This new series features housing experts coming to the rescue of overwhelmed house-hunting families. Each episode will profile two different homebuyers as they struggle to determine which of their favorite two potential homes is the better buy.
◊“Hometown Heroes” (8 a.m. on DirecTV): Joan Lunden (“Wickedly Perfect”) returns as host of this special series that focuses on everyday people from across America whose extraordinary work and humanity are transforming the lives of those in their community.
◊“In Treatment” (8 p.m. on HBO): In Season 2 of the half-hour drama, which will premiere new episodes on Sunday and Monday nights, the newly divorced Dr. Paul Weston has relocated from Maryland to Brooklyn, and now runs his therapy practice out of the living room of his brownstone. Among his new patients are Mia (Hope Davis, “Six Degrees”), an attorney; Walter (John Mahoney, “Frasier”), a CEO; and April (Alison Pill, “The Book of Daniel”), an architecture student.
◊“Kings” (7 p.m. on NBC): When King Silas sacrifices Port Prosperity to reach peace with Gath, David Shepherd must decide where his true loyalties lie. Leslie Bibb (”Popular”) guest stars.
◊“Last Cake Standing” (7 p.m. on Food Network): This competition series throws six pastry chefs into a grueling four-round cake competition — from creating one-of-a-kind wedding creations to undergoing a 24-hour cake-making marathon. Each week, judges eliminate one cake artist, and the winner takes home $50,000.
◊“My Mother’s Garden” (9 p.m. on MSNBC): This new documentary offers a daughter’s eyewitness account of her mother’s compulsive disorder and the way in which one family comes together to cope with a mental illness that affects millions.
◊“River Monsters” (9 p.m. on Animal Planet): Extreme angler Jeremy Wade explores the murky waters of the globe to debunk fish tales. His weekly quest catapults him in search of piranha, alligator gar, wels catfish and bullsharks, piraiba/candiru — all supposedly deadly creatures shrouded with mystery.

Give me a Kleenex stat! The series finale of 'ER'!

2009-04-02T00:25:00.000-07:00

Never has the phrase you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone been more appropriate.

For years I’ve bemoaned the storylines on "ER" and threatened to break up with the show (always unsuccessfully). I was livid at times (see how Ray exited the show), perplexed at times (exactly how many of Sam’s storylines did they drop sans explanation) and bored at others (I just couldn’t care about Simon). And then what did the show do in its final hours? Lure me right back in.

They did this, of course, by going out in the classiest way possible. The brought back familiar faces and letting us know they’ve been doing fine since we last saw them. But the trip down memory lane did not overshadow the current characters and the end of the series didn’t become all about characters of the past. Also the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to allow the writers to accelerate story lines that had been languishing. How wonderful to see Archie in love! How much sense does it make that Neela would need to go to a new hospital? How great to see Sam getting her life together. They are writing the playbook for how a long running series should say goodbye.

The farewell begins tomorrow night (April 2) at 8 p.m. with a one hour retrospective followed by a two hour episode. We know that Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield), Dr. Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes), Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston), Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq LaSalle) and Mark’s daughter Rachel Greene will be back to celebrate the opening of Carter’s (Noah Wyle) new medical center. Alexis Bledel guest stars and Ernest Borgnine returns. And since you know I love fearless predictions, I’m going to go ahead and say I think we’ll see Doug (George Clooney) and Carol (Julianna Margulies) again. You can get a look at tomorrow’s episode here and here.

Mostly I think the series will end as it began – with the doctors of County General seeing patients. I’ve got my Kleenex ready. Are you prepared for tomorrow night?

Other Goodbyes

"Damages" ends its second season tonight at 10 p.m. on FX. I don’t think Ellen really shot Patty, do you? I kind of think there’s been someone sitting next to Patty this whole time and that's who shot Patty. Remember the FBI agent watching her is corrupt. The thing I’ve really learned is to be patient with the series. I thought it was silly that the FBI agent was talking to his estranged wife all the time and it turns out he wasn’t. I thought William Hurt’s Daniel Purcell wasn’t as complex a villain as the show needed but then it’s revealed that he has a conscious and that he didn’t, in fact, kill his wife. I’m so happy this show has already been picked up for season three. How about you?

"Life on Mars" also comes to an end tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC. While I’m happy we will get some closure, I’m still so sad to see the series go. Especially when it was getting better and better with each passing episode. I’ll miss the funky 70’s soundtrack that was totally reminiscent of actual 70’s TV shows. I’ll miss the burgeoning romance between Sam and Annie. I’ll miss Jason O’Mara’s riveting performance – let’s hope another show snatches him up soon. I’ll miss seeing Michael Imperoli in such a different and distinct role. And I’ll definitely miss Harvey Keitel chewing the scenery with his bravado style. The producers have said we’ll learn what happened to Sam and why he’s in 1973. They’ve also said it won’t be because he’s been in a coma. I think I’m good with any explanation as long as it’s not that he’s delusional. What’s your theory? Talk about it below

Smallville Preview: "Eternal"

2009-04-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2009 - With Smallville's eighth season winding down, it's nearly time for the big showdown between Clark (Tom Welling) and Davis (Sam Witwer). Tess (Cassidy Freeman), in fact, jumps the gun a bit this week by trying to blow Davis to smithereens with the aid of some explosives. Tess is forced to turn to Clark for help when the explosion doesn't have the results that Tess had hoped for.

Tune in to Smallville when it airs this Thursday, April 2nd, at 8:00pm ET on The CW.

Preview: First Season Finale of 'Eleventh Hour'

2009-04-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

"Eleventh Hour", the CBS crime drama, is close to wrapping up its first season. On April 2, the series will wind down with the episode called "Medea" which preview is available.

A high level FBI agent is accused of stealing a woman's child and Dr. Hood is the only one who believes it. Helen Slater ("Smallville", "Supernatural") guest stars.

Run at 10/9c, "Eleventh Hour" will face a stiff competition from "ER" which is also having a finale on the same time slot on NBC. In the past few weeks, "Eleventh" have ruled the Thursdays 10/9c ratings, on top of "ER" but the medical drama is having its show finale after 15 years of airing on TV.

Also, there has been no word yet on whether "Eleventh Hour" will be ordered for a second season.

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