Catch up with Thursday night TV.
After-all, if last night’s disappointing ratings for FRINGE, COMMUNITY and PARKS AND RECREATION are any indication, many of you were otherwise occupied. Seriously, what is up with that?
Watch UGLY BETTY.
A show which not only has enjoyed a creative resurgence this season thanks to some interesting story-lines for the always awesome Ana Ortiz, Michael Urie and Vanessa Williams. But thanks to the time-slot that viewers forgot, now finds itself on the verge of cancellation.[Update] Thanks to frequent contributor John who responded, “I WOULD watch UGLY BETTY, but it’s preempted tonight for Shrek the Third. Instead, how about MONK, WHITE COLLAR, SMALLVILLE, LAW AND ORDER and MEDIUM.”
MAD MEN
For us every-day TV Addicts who let’s face it, don’t always pick up on the subtle subtleties of every look, nuance and intricate line of dialogue that are packed into each and every hour of the Matthew Weiner masterpiece, Sunday’s game-changer of a finale that had Don leading Roger and Bertram (Sterling and Cooper respectively) in a coup d’état in an effort to take control of their own destiny by secretly starting their own agency was plain and simple mad mad fun. Now, if only we had some assurances that we haven’t seen the last of Ken, Paul and Sal!
90210
After almost a season and a half, this week’s installment of 90210 finally delivered that missing piece of the puzzle. The spark of genuine friendship between our leading players upon Liam finally revealing to Dixon, Teddy and surfer chick Ivy the reason why he looks like he’s ready to ‘Hulk smash’ at a moments notice. Seriously. All that was missing from this next gen gang’s vow to help Liam take Naomi’s duplicitous sister Jen down was an iconic Brandon/Steve/Dylan fist-bump.
It’s all about the little things.
Be it the running gag that highlighted Jay’s penchant for making t-shirts to celebrate special occasions (see above), Dunphey daughter Alex’s hilarious habit of making her siblings look stupid (Note to self: Cell phone battery cannot be charged via static electricity) or Cameron ending the episode off, no doubt much to Mitchell’s chagrin, in a bright yellow t-shirt, MODERN FAMILY is the only series we’ve started watching twice for fear of missing the little things.
Zorro Reincarnate
There’s a reason we’ve already put in our order for one of Jay’s “Who Da Manny?” t-shirts (or would have, had somebody on cafepress got their act together!) His pint-sized portrayer Rico Rodriguez can do no wrong. From his momentary retirement from fencing, “defeating a woman will be a mark on my honour” to his championship defeat of a poor girl who unbeknownst to him turned out to be a diabetic orphan whose cheering section included her nurse and a gaggle of patients in wheelchairs, Rodriguez, with apologizes to THE MIDDLE’s Atticus Shaffer continues to raise the bar for child actors on the small screen.
On this morning’s edition of THE EARLY SHOW, MURPHY BROWN star Candice Bergen revealed that Heather Locklear was in fact the network’s first choice to play the show’s titular character.
This Thursday, WILL & GRACE alum Megan Mullally will drop by PARKS AND RECREATION to play the ex-wife of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), who according to the Pawnee politico himself may-or-may-note-have been “programmed by someone from the future to destroy all happiness.” More surprising still, Mullally is Offerman’s wife in real life.
Now pay attention, because this one’s a doozy: Teri Hatcher’s fictional small-screen son MJ played by Mason Vale Cotton on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is the real-life brother of Rachel Griffiths fictional TV son Cooper Whedon played by Maxwell Perry Cotton on BROTHERS & SISTERS. Got that?
The mystery surrounding LOST’s schedule.
This week, our good friends over at airlockalpha.com decided to get LOST fans all-a-tizzy over whether or not the final season of the show would be forced to take an unscheduled break during the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics. Or as we like to call it, the biggest non-issue ever. Seriously. Putting aside the fact that Fancast’s Matt Webb Mitovich already made clear — that all of this is utter speculation considering ABC has yet to even release a schedule — who cares! Hiatus, no hiatus, ABC already went where no network has gone before by allowing LOSTerminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to end the show on their terms. Do we really care if it ends one or two weeks later? Especially keeping in mind that the sooner LOST airs, the sooner it ends… forever.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE PLAN.
After sitting through the Edward James Olmos direct-to-DVD movie released this week, this TV Addict thinks he’s discovered what NBC/Universal’s ultimate plan was: To FRAK us fans by milking as much money as they can from the franchise with a glorified clip show. Not cool.
Sara Rue.
Sure, at first I was annoyed that she isn’t one of the leads, but as second-banana/gal pal Penny, her bubbly personality shines far more than it probably would as one of the witchy women.
Magic is sexy.
Paul Gross. Matt Dallas. Jon Bernthal. Johann Urb. Jack Huston. Hello, Hunkapalooza. And of course, the ladies are well-represented thanks to Jaime Ray Newman, Lindsay Price, Rebecca Romijn, Ashley Benson and the aforementioned Rue.
Apparently we’re not the only ones who are obsessed with THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. Turns out, when she’s not busy acting, singing and promoting her hit show GLEE, star Lea Michele is hooked. “Getting ready to pick Mr Groff up from the airport! Let the week of fun begin!!! But first Vampire Diaries. Why is this show SO good!” Now all that’s left is for @msleamichele to publicly proclaim her loyalty: Team Damon or Team Stefan?
Did actress Leven Rambin (TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) just spill the beans on yet another GREY’S ANATOMY/PRIVATE PRACTICE crossover? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing’s for sure: According to this tweet, the actress, who is on the set of GREY’S ANATOMY as we tweet speak is poised to be hitting up both shows in the not-to-distant-future, “The Lord answered all your prayers! Thank you all so much! I’m going to be on Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice this season, y’all!” Hmmmm, perhaps @shondarhimes would care to shed a little light on this?
DOLLHOUSE
What is with those Whedon’s and their ability to always leave us wanting more. Fresh of the heels of this week’s DOLLHOUSE debacle that has FOX benching the ratings anemic series for November sweeps, comes a harrowing Sierra-centric episode that recounts the terrifying circumstances in which the Aussie beauty found her way to the Rossum Corporation. Both gripping and gut-wrenching, the episode was not only right up their as one of the series’ bests, but showed the few who bothered to watch, just how much potential this show has if given the chance.
MODERN FAMILY
Erik Estrada eat your heart out. For what FAMILY’s two “E’s” (Ed O’Neil and Eric Stonestreet) lack in the matinee idol looks department, they more than make up for by delivering the laughs. Yes, five episodes into the freshman series, O’Neill and Stonestreet, alongside the rest of the ridiculously talented cast, continue to raise the bar when it comes to L.P.M. (Laughs per minute). So much so that we’ll forgive showrunners Lloyd and Levitan (Christopher and Steven respectively) for leaving out the obvious ‘Four touchdowns in a single game’ shout-out many MARRIED WITH CHILDREN fans (okay, this TV Addict) was waiting for.
If Paul Ballard spent all of last season attempting to bring down the Dollhouse, how does he justify working for them this season? Tahmoh Penikett: Obviously he still wants to bring down the Dollhouse, but when we left him at the end of last season, he made an agreement to work for them. Why? Not only did he ensure November/Mellie’s release which gives Paul some peace of mind, he now gets to do some good. Which is where we found him at the beginning of the season. In “Vows,” he used Dollhouse technology to bring down a nemesis of his, Martin Klar (Jamie Bamber). What’s interesting though is what exactly is Paul’s hidden agenda? He has now made a deal with the devil (The Rossum Corporation) and continues to put Echo in harm’s way. And the questions of course are: When is he going to stop and when, or will his conscience get in the way?
What was it like reuniting with your BATTLESTAR GALACTICA co-star Jamie Bamber for the DOLLHOUSE season premiere?
It was awesome. When Joss [Whedon] told me that he had hired Jamie for the job, I didn’t believe him. For ten minutes I sat there going, ‘No you did not!’ and Joss would say, ‘Yeah, I did!’ Having worked with Jamie for five years, he is like family and I loved having him on the show, on my set, playing a completely different character. Obviously we have a lot of BSG fans amongst both the cast and crew and you’d be surprised how many people were like, ‘I can’t believe that’s his real accent.’ His British accent worked so well for an evil gunrunner, I thought he was perfect.
Hey, we love Sarah Drew as much as the next EVERWOOD Addict, but after casting her in PRIVATE PRACTICE, INSIDE THE BOX (which for those not in the know was Rhimes ABC pilot that wasn’t picked up this season) and now GREY’S ANATOMY, we can’t help but wonder, where your infatuation stems from?
Do you think it was fair to loyal fans of GREY’S ANATOMY that you dropped a fairly large bombshell about Bailey’s personal life during last week’s crossover episode of PRIVATE PRACTICE?! With a difference of around four million viewers, that’s a whole lot of GREY’S ANATOMY fans who just missed out on the fact that Bailey’s husband Tucker was ‘emotionally’ cheating on her.