Link Tank: TV Blog Coalition Roundup for April 10-12

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation.

This week, after thinking about a particularly shocking character death this week, I talked to former BSG and Buffy writer and current Caprica showrunner Jane Espenson and some other television industry insiders about the role of death on television today.

I had advance reviews of NBC's new comedy Parks and Recreation (and offered a Talk Back), ABC's new drama The Unusuals, NBC's latest police drama Southland, the return of Fringe on FOX (and offered a Talk Back), and ABC's new comedy Surviving Suburbia.

I also discussed the most recent episodes of ABC's Lost, NBC's Chuck, NBC's 30 Rock, BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing, and shared news about FOX's Dollhouse getting its episode order cut down to twelve (sort of) and Leonard Nimoy being cast on FOX's Fringe.

Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the following items...

Buzz got to wondering about the TV shows that are sort of the opposite of guilty pleasures, the ones you don't even like very much but can't seem to quit watching. (BuzzSugar)
Not willing to let go of the show without a fight, Give Me My Remote dedicated the week to Chuck. We had special features, polls, soundtrack listings and viewer testimony. Did you lend your voice? Here's top hoping NBC orders a third season soon. (Give Me My Remote)
Rescue Me was back in fine form with its fifth season premiere. And as an added bonus: an Alex P. Keaton sighting. (Scooter McGavin's 9th Green)
In case you didn't know, Vance goes to the theatre a lot, and then blogs about it. He also likes to stalk celebrities like James McAvoy after the show. (Tapeworthy)
Sara was all aflutter over the BBC reality show Any Dream Will Do, which is possibly the campiest thing she's ever seen. Hear that Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber? (TiFaux)
Kate was oh-so-pleasantly surprised by Southland. (TV Filter)
Matt didn't love the premiere of Parks and Recreation. But he won't give up on it yet! [TV Fanatic]
This week, the TV Addict wondered if casting Leonard Nimoy in FRINGE is well, highly illogical (The TV Addict)

Comments

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

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In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj

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