Have I mentioned lately how much I love Tricia Helfer?

The Battlestar beauty turned up on last night's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Broken Heart"), written by Allison Adler, where she played the deadly Agent Alex Forrest, a ruthless NSA agent assigned to conduct a 49B appraisal of whether Chuck and Sarah's feelings for one another had impacted their ability to successfully perform their jobs.

Whereas Chuck and Sarah often take a more, uh, thoughtful approach to their work, Alex is all blazing guns, tranquilizer darts (hell, she even takes out an elderly nurse at the hospital), and stripper moves. She would argue she gets the job done and is proactive rather than reactive (and she makes a quick admirer in Casey); she's stealthy, effective, and, well, rather heartless.

Which makes things far worse when General Beckman removes Sarah Walker from her assignment as Chuck's handler and replaces her rather quickly with Alex herself. She won't be holding hands with Chuck (literally or figuratively) and they certainly won't be talking about feelings or anything remotely not related to national security.

Helfer was so fantastic as Alex Forrest in this week's installment that I wished she would have stuck around on Chuck for longer than one episode. In this single episode, she managed to test our heroes' allegiances and relationships with one another in a compelling and meaningful way; it was great to see Chuck saddled with a handler who wasn't going to baby him or care about whether he was okay and I loved the simpatico interplay between Alex and Casey. Two peas in a pod, those two, as they clean their guns, take a no-nonsense approach, and remain hilariously unflappable.

I'm glad, however, that Alex and Sarah didn't have a smackdown over Chuck but the tension between them remained just under boiling throughout the episode. And for her part, Sarah didn't take her dismissal lying down. Instead, she went out of her way to offer Chuck a proper goodbye, breaking into his apartment to leave him a note, and using government resources to track down Chuck's missing father. If that's not the definition of friendship--or of love--I don't know what is. She's proven time and time again that she does care for Chuck in her own way and that their relationship isn't a liability at all, as Alex indicated, but a strength. It's Alex who's easily fooled by Chuck's tracker watch in the courtyard fountain, Alex who wants to blow up the bank vault where Chuck and Zamir are holed up (getting high off of nitrous fumes, I might add), Alex who seduces Captain Awesome and drugs him, and Alex who's quick with her gun but less quick to let down her formidable defenses.

And I'm glad that Casey supported Sarah in this episode. Not in a "I've got my gun drawn and I've got your back" sort of way (which he does, unfailingly every week) but he proved he really did have her back in front of General Beckman, making it clear that Chuck is right about Sarah: she is resourceful, efficient, and, yes, she does care about her assignment. She also happens to be the best damn partner he's ever had. (Sniffle.) Could it be that Major John Casey has a heart, after all? This episode proved just that.

What else did I love? The bait-and-switch with Alex at the Orange Orange at the beginning; Jeff and Lester possibly destroying Ellie's belief in her fiance from some totally inappropriate pictures (even if it was 100 percent clear that Devon was passed out in all of them); Alex's stripper routine and her strip search of Devon; the scene at the trailer with Chuck and Sarah (was that an almost-kiss there?); Morgan describing Ellie's scent as "sugar cookies"; Devon calling Morgan "General Beckman" and Morgan's bewildered reaction; the video conference software in Chuck's television triggered several times by Devon; the return of the "Ex Machina" comic; the use of "Harry Lime" as a pseudonym (Third Man shoutout!); Jeff's sister and the, uh, less-than-appealing strippers; the kidnapping dry-run at the beginning; Devon denying Alex's advances because of his love for Ellie; the weapon-cleaning scene; Chuck cutting himself with the scapel and his fight in the vault with Mohammed Zamir... and his nitrous-induced camaraderie. Which did allow him to learn the location of an Osama bin Laden-type.

All in all, this was another fantastic episode that built on the tension and provided yet another link in the increasingly rewarding overarching mythology of the series. (Also, Adler is quickly becoming one of my favorite Chuck writers and her writing once again shone this week.) While Alex Forrest might be out the picture, Chuck and Sarah aren't out of the woods yet and I imagine that what the creators have in store for this duo will truly put the would-be couple to the test.

My only wish? Please, NBC, do us a favor and pick up this winning series for another season. Or do I need to send Alex Forrest after you?

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Dream Job"), Chuck's dreams seemingly come true: his father (guest star Scott Bakula) returns to his life and he lands a dream gig at the computer company run by genius Ted Roarke (guest star Chevy Chase), which naturally means everything is going to come crashing down around poor Chuck.

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A lot of what goes right with love can be attributed to Cupid (a lot of what goes wrong can be too). After all, as the myth tells us, it's his arrows that strike the hearts of true lovers and unites them. He's a cosmic matchmaker with a penchant for archery, really.

It's no surprise then that so many writers have taken inspiration from the Cupid/Eros mythology and sought to use the deity as the springboard for all sorts of romantic-related mischief.

Rob Thomas is one such writer. He had a short-lived series entitled Cupid on ABC in 1998 which starred Jeremy Piven as Trevor Hale, a man claiming to be the ancient deity stranded on Earth until he can complete his penance, bringing 100 couples together, and Paula Marshall as Claire Allen, a psychologist who is assigned to keep an eye on Trevor. The series was canceled after just one season. And, for all accounts and purposes, that seemed to be the end of Thomas' Cupid. Until now.

ABC is once again launching Cupid with Rob Thomas at the helm. Tonight, in fact. This time around, the possible-love god (now called Trevor Pierce) is played by Bobby Cannavale (Cold Case), taking over for the dynamic Piven, while Sarah Paulson (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) replaces Marshall as Claire. And this Cupid shifts the action from Chicago to New York (though the original pilot script set the action in Los Angeles), where the series is shot.

Other than the casting changes, the premise remains the same: Cannavale's Trevor either is the ancient god of love... or he's a crazy man with delusions of grandeur whose belief in his deityhood manage to bring people together. But the one heart he can't melt seems to be that of his psychologist, Claire McCrae (Paulson) who is a relationship expert and self-help author who seems to lack anything resembling love in her life. Once again, Trevor must unite 100 couples in true love before he can return to Mount Olympus.

Rounding out the cast are Rick Gomez (What About Brian) and Camile Guaty (Prison Break), who play siblings Felix and Lita, owners of Tres Equis Cantina, who rent Trevor a room above the bar. Romantic hijinx ensue.

Or they should, anyway. In the hands of Piven and Marshall, Trevor and Claire had an easy sexual tension that thrived on the screwball banter between them. Here, Cannavale and Paulson don't charm as they should. Their Trevor and Claire seem about as fun as a heart attack and have virtually no chemistry together whatsoever. Which makes the series rather painful to watch as they engage in the sort of staged cookie-cutter cuteness that seems far more clever on the page than it does on the screen.

It's hard to care about Cannavale's Trevor, especially as he seems so woefully miscast in the first place. Whereas Piven brought a manic energy to the role, Cannavale seems like he's going through the motions, not a man who might be Cupid but perhaps one who's seen a few too many cartoon Cupids over the years. Claire meanwhile has no place overseeing a singles support group or really giving out any advice about love or relationships; she seems to frigid and icy-cold dull that it's hard to imagine even the real Cupid being able to pierce her shield with his bow and arrow.

Which is a real problem, especially when fans of the original series--which aired not all that long ago--still have images of a very specific Trevor and Claire in their minds, images that are only a decade old. Complicating things is a glacial pacing that left me losing interest in what was going on screen and I found myself wondering what I needed at the grocery store several times while watching. (Also missing besides Trevor's proof that he's Eros? Any of the romantic whimsy of the original series.)

I'm not sure why ABC would seek to redo a series that failed the first time around but, given the series' troubled production, I think ABC realized halfway through shooting the seven episodes that comprise Cupid's season that they too had been under some sort of divine enchantment when they attempted this Grand Experiment. Prognosis: this Cupid's got a troubled ticker.

Cupid premieres tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on ABC.

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Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

NBC and DirecTV have reached a deal to renew drama series Friday Night Lights for two more seasons of 13 episodes each. Following the same model as the air structure this season, DirecTV will get the first window of the fourth and fifth seasons of Friday Night Lights before NBC airs them. Look for current cast members Taylor Kitsch, Matt Gilford, and Adrianne Palicki, who all play seniors, to potentially leave the series but the trio may reprise their roles on a recurring basis in order to wrap up their characters' storylines. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, E! Online)

Lucy Lawless will star in Starz' upcoming gladiator series Spactacus: Blood and Sand, from executive producers Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, and Josh Donen. She'll play gladiator camp owner Lucretia, opposite Aussie series lead Andy Whitfield (The Strip). Project, which start shooting next month, is expected to air in January 2010. (Variety, Entertainment Weekly)

Dustin Milligan, who plays jock Ethan, won't be returning as a series regular for Season Two of CW's 90210, reports Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Milligan's option for a second season has not been picked up but there is a possibility that he could reprise his role to wrap up some storylines this fall. Conversely, Matt Lanter--who plays bad boy Liam--has been upgraded to series regular next season. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting alert: James D'Arcy (Virtuality) will star in CBS drama pilot The Eastmans; Nick Kroll (Cavemen) and Nora Zehetner (Heroes) have joined the cast of FOX comedy pilot Cop House; and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) will co-star in FOX drama pilot Masterwork, where he will play an FBI agent on the trail of some international art thieves who works closely with Matt Passmore's character. (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Watch with Kristin has a first look at Season Two of HBO's True Blood, which kicks off on June 14th and will follow the second Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris and feature vampiric Viking Eric. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

MTV has renewed reality mainstay Real World for another four cycles, bringing the total number of seasons that the series has aired to a staggering 26. The cabler also ordered another four cycles of reality competition series Real World/Road Rules Challenge, bringing that series' total to 21 cycles. "MTV is proud to continue our relationship with Bunim-Murray that stretches back over 15 years," said MTV programming president Tony DiSanto. "With each new season, the Real World franchise continues to evolve and captivate our ever-changing audience." (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Angel star Andy Hallett, who played Lorne on the WB series, passed away Sunday evening in Los Angeles after a five-year-long battle with heart disease. He was 33 years old. (E! Online)

Mark Burnett Prods. and Lionsgate TV will team up to produce a US version of Italian reality format Parenti talenti, which pits family against one another as they perform song and dance numbers and comedy sketches after spending a week with pro coaches. The companies will jointly pitch the project to networks, while Lionsgate will retain format rights in English-language territories and distribute the US version worldwide. (Variety)

ABC has acquired mini-series Diamonds, starring Judy Davis, James Purefoy, Derek Jacobi, Louise Rose, and Joanne Kelly, from Alchemy TV and Films and plans to air the project, originally developed and produced for CBC, in May. (Variety)

Nikki Finke is reporting that CBS has allegedly "demanded that each existing TV show -- even the hit ones -- reduce their budgets for next year, if renewed." Which she believes could lead to smaller writing staffs next season. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Sony Pictures Television has signed a deal with RelativityReal, the reality television arm of Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity, to co-distribute projects from the shingle, said to have 20 series and pilots in development, outside of the US. (Variety)

44 Blue is development a reality series following party planner Jes Gordon, whose clients include the likes of the Golden Globes, Sting, and Bono, as she puts together successful soirees. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

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Is anyone else as suddenly addicted to The Amazing Race again as I am? Or is it just me?

My enthusiasm had waned considerably with the series' most recent cycles but I have to say that the current season seemed reinvigorated and both the casting and the challenges had grabbed my attention once again.

Last night's episode of The Amazing Race ("Gorilla? Gorilla?? Gorilla???") found the teams racing for their lives in Phuket, Thailand, found one team quite literally sabotage everyone else during a Detour, and saw one team member collapse on the elimination mat.

Which might very well be the first time that that's happened on the Race.

I'm really loving Margie and Luke and was totally stunned to see her collapse from exhaustion and dehydration upon reaching the Pit Stop. Not that I blame her. She proved that she truly was the "Bionic Woman" dragging her deaf son Luke on a rickshaw through the sweltering streets of Phuket.

Which would have been tricky and tiring enough had pint-sized stuntmen Mark and Michael not deliberately hid the wheel pumps before the challenge. Would the task have been a hell of a lot easier had the teams had full tires? Youbetcha. Instead, they were dragging less-than-filled tires along the road. Seeing that Margie passed out from lack of hydration, I hope Mark and Michael are happy with their decision to sabotage the teams.

They did receive a one-hour time penalty, one half-hour for not reading the clue properly and paying their taxi to lead them to the Pit stop and another for throwing all of the pumps and equipment into a box.

I haven't been anti-Mark and Michael at all during the season but this seriously made me not like them at all. Given that they are such physical powerhouses, as they like to constantly remind us, shouldn't they also be good sportsmen? I'm all for trickery on the Race and misleading teams but they deliberately altered a producer-created challenge to their advantage.

And that's just not right. (Nor was Jaime screaming at the poor spice shop owner and terrorizing every non-English speaker she has encountered so far on the Race. Shudder.)

Meanwhile, I actually got teary as Margie collapse and Luke looked on, absolutely terrified about what was happening to his mother. It was a very emotional moment and it was equally amazing just how involved Phil was in making sure Margie was all right, physically carrying her over to a shady spot, demanding water for her, and cooling her down by wetting her head. I dare say that not many reality series hosts would have gone to such lengths to make sure one of the contestants was so comfortable.

To add insult to injury, Mike and Mel got eliminated on top of the Margie and Luke crisis. I really loved seeing Mel and Mike go so far and with their sense of humor intact the entire way. While I didn't think that they'd win the million dollar prize at the end of the race, they ran with integrity, love, and fun and they transformed their father/son relationship into a supportive teammate dynamic.

It's a reminder of why the series endures and hopefully a sign that the producers made some smart decisions this season in cranking up the tension, casting some interesting and inspirational teams, and pitting the contestants against some truly tricky tasks.

Me, I'm absolutely hooked again.

In two weeks on The Amazing Race ("Rooting Around In People's Mouths Could Be Unpleasant"), the teams learn the joys of karaoke in Singapore; Mark and Michael make a potentially disastrous mistake.

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"Dumela, Mma."

You've read my advance review of the first few episodes of HBO's joyous and addictive new mystery series, No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, based on the best-selling novels of Alexander McCall Smith, and heard what series star Jill Scott and executive producer/co-writer Richard Curtis had to say about the production.

But, now that the two-hour pilot has aired, I'm curious to see what you thought of the HBO/BBC co-production. Did you fall in love with Scott's intrepid investigator Precious Ramotswe as much as I did? Did you fall under the beautiful charms of the Bostwana setting and want to set out on a safari as soon as possible? Did you dig the unusual uplifting energy that the series projects? Were you absolutely terrified by Idris Elba's turn as Charlie Kgotso? And captivated by the work relationship between Precious and Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose)? And, most importantly, will you be watching again next week?

Talk back here.

Next week on No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ("The Big Bonanza"), Precious Ramotswe is still putting herself out there as the sole investigator at The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency but business is floundering financially; Makutsi creates a flier to drum up business and Precious finds herself investigating a disturbed dentist, a missing dog and a missing husband.

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Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

After airing just one episode, ABC has cut its episodic commitment for midseason comedy In the Motherhood from thirteen episodes to seven, just slightly more than half of its original order. The network had ordered the comedy, based on a web series, during the writers strike. (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

Alicia Witt (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) will guest star in the season finale of CBS' The Mentalist, where she will play pianist Rosalind Harker, a woman who used to date serial killer Red John, the enigmatic serial killer who killed Jane's family. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

E! Online has confirmed that NBC has canceled drama series Lipstick Jungle, after all. "It was going to stay and we just were officially told it's finally not coming back," series star Brooke Shield told E! Online's Cristina Gibson. "It's very sad. I think a lot of people were really sad, but I think we hung on a really long time. It was three great years that we've been working on it." (E! Online)

Pilot casting alert: T.J. Miller (Cloverfield) and Nick Thune (Knocked Up) have been cast as the leads in CBS comedy pilot Waiting to Die; Leslie Bibb (Confessions of a Shopaholic, Crossing Jordan) and John Michael Higgins (Kath & Kim) will star in NBC's untitled Justin Adler comedy pilot; Ryan Stiles (Two and a Half Men) will star opposite Anita Renfroe in her untitled comedy presentation at ABC; Skylar Astin (Hamlet 2) and Darien Provost (Sanctuary) will star opposite Adam Carolla in CBS comedy pilot Ace in the Hole; and Bobby Lee (MADtv) has joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot State of Romance. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere, Mary Steenburgen (Four Christmases) will star opposite Jason Biggs and Richard Dreyfuss in CBS comedy pilot Happiness Isn't Everything, where she will play Audrey, Dreyfuss' "unbelievably sensitive" wife and the mother of Jason Biggs' character. (Hollywood Reporter)

New York Post's Popwrap has a first look at Kristen Bell's upcoming guest star role on Starz's Party Down, from executive producer Rob Thomas. The site talks to Thomas about his on-screen reunion with his former Veronica Mars lead, who will play the leader of a rival catering team called Valhalla Catering. And, no worries, Ryan Hansen fans: he'll be back for Season Two of Party Down, should the series be renewed, regardless of his role--which is only recurring--on the Gossip Girl spinoff. (New York Post's Popwrap)

The New York Times talks to Amy Poehler, star of NBC's upcoming comedy series Parks and Recreation, where she plays Leslie Knope, the deputy parks director of Pawnee, Indiana. "She’s naïve and narcissistic, completely deluded and completely out of touch with reality," said Poehler of Leslie. "I think we’ll be the first TV show to win an Academy Award. And the Nobel Peace Prize." (New York Times)

ABC has ordered seven episodes of reality competition series Shark Tank, a US adaptation of British series Dragon's Den, in which "eager entrepreneurs pitch their business ventures to five multimillionaire tycoons." Series, executive produced by Mark Burnett, is expected to air sometime next season. "We have made bigger deals and more deals in our pilot than [other versions] make all season," said Burnett of the changes to the format. "What country on earth is more entrepreneurial and risk taking than the United States of America? Here we have businesses and jobs being created, and it's a great feeling." (Hollywood Reporter)

Michael Ausiello is reporting that Kathleen Turner has joined the cast of Showtime dramedy Californication for a multiple-episode story arc in the series' third season, expected to air next fall. Turner will play "the ball-breaking, foul-mouthed, outrageous boss of Evan Handler's literary agent." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Fremantle has signed first-look deals with such producers as Paul Abbot (State of Play), Bob Cooper (Mr. Woodcock), Mike Tollin (Smallville), Irwin and David Winkler (Rocky Balboa), and Kiwi producer Roger Simpson (Satisfaction). Under the terms of the deals, Fremantle will provide overhead in exchange for having a first crack at any projects developed by the producers, which would then be pitched to US cable outlets. (Variety)

Could Katherine Heigl be sticking around on ABC's Grey's Anatomy after all? The actress, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens, says she doesn't know whether her character lives or dies, though she did say "I'm there," should Izzie make it through her medical crisis. "I'm more than happy to make that compromise. As my agent likes to say, 'High-class problems,'" said Heigl of being willing to balance her feature work with her role on Grey's Anatomy. "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." (Associated Press)

FOX has ordered reality competition series More to Love, featuring overweight contestants looking for love. Series, executive produced by Mike Fleiss, will feature a format similar to The Bachelor, where a group of women will compete for a single man. "This show is going to get a lot of people talking," said Mike Darnell, president of alternative at FOX. "It may be a little controversial, but I think it will mostly be positive. This is so simple and so obvious, yet it has never been done." (Hollywood Reporter)

MTV has today launched AMTV, a six-hour block of music videos that will air from 3-9 am Monday through Thursday and will feature "music videos, news, interviews and performances, harking back to the network’s origins as a 24-hour home for music videos." (New York Times)

Discovery has ordered thirteen episodes of real-life crime series On the Case With Paula Zahn, in which the former CNN anchor will pursue in-depth investigations of real-life mysteries and interview those closest to the case. (Hollywood Reporter)

Daytime continues to get hit: CBS may opt to cancel long-running soap Guiding Light, as the network's deal with the daytime drama ends in September. The network is said to be looking at possibilities for new programming in the series' afternoon timeslot, such as game shows or a talk show. Guiding Light is the lowest-rated daytime network soap series currently on the air. (TV Week)

Scandinavia's Nordisk Film TV World signed a slew of format deals with US production companies this weekend at MipTV, pacting with Reveille on dating series Don't Date Him Girl, Renegade on Construction Nightmares, Scott Stone on Celebrity Devil Race, Phil Gurin's Gurin Company on music format Melody Challenge, and Dave Broom's 25/7 on 71 Degrees North. Sales mark first US format deals for the company. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

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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, I took an early look at the two-hour pilot of Sci Fi's new drama series Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica, which will be available as a DVD or digital download next month.

I also took an early look at the first few episodes of HBO's new drama series No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, spoke to Sci Fi Channel president Dave Howe about the channel's planned rebranding as Syfy, shared the fact that I was quoted in The New York Times, and reviewed the five-part Masterpiece Classic adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit.

And I discussed the latest episodes of ABC's Lost, FX's Damages, BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing, NBC's Chuck, and the season finale of HBO's Big Love.

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

• American Idol contestants keep getting criticized for their song choices, so Buzz whipped up a few guidelines to help the singers make their picks. (BuzzSugar)
• This week, Sandie found out just how crazy French TV is. (Daemon's TV)
• With the show coming back Tuesday, Scooter is hosting a My Boys Giveaway as well as a preview of the new season. (Scooter McGavin's 9th Green)
• Is it Vance or is The Real World: Brooklyn actually watchable this year? 11 episodes in and Vance doesn't really feel compelled to smack anyone yet. Prank yes, smack no. (Tapeworthy)
• Marisa's not ashamed of her school girl crush on Demitri Martin. He can totally rock the neck brace. (TiFaux)
• Considering the casting of Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, Matt thinks The Vampire Diaries will be as big as Twilight. Not that he's ever seen that movie. (TV Fanatic)
• This week, theTVaddict.com put together our ultimate guide to TV stars on Twitter (The TV Addict)

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HBO has become synonymous with high-end dramas that are typically pretty dark, rather bleak, and usually pretty darn violent. Series like The Sopranos, Rome, Carnivale, True Blood, Big Love, and In Treatment all offer gripping if often disheartening looks into the darker elements of the human soul.

So what should audiences make of the fact that HBO is launching the far sunnier No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency this weekend?

Set in Botswana, No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, based on the series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, follows the adventures of Precious Ramotswe (the incandescent Jill Scott), a woman who has left her abusive jazz musician husband Note (Colin Salmon) and, after the passing of her beloved father, uses his cattle to raise cash to start a detective agency in the capital city of Gaborone.

I had the opportunity to watch the first four episodes of No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, including the gorgeously produced two-hour pilot episode written by Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis and directed by the late Minghella, and instantly fell in love with the series' upbeat charms and what will surely become its trademark blend of mystery and magic. It's a series that's filled with joy and never falls prey to the sort of tea-cozy tweeness that populates a lot of whodunits.

Scott's Precious Ramotswe is quite a detective. She has an unerring sense of intuition, a headstrong nature, and a nose for danger. Unlike other gumshoes, she's also warm and charismatic and has a love for bush tea; Precious strives to make her clients feel welcome. That is, if she actually had any clients. Converting the desolate post office into her HQ, she sets about to offer her services as a private investigator... and ends up landing, not a client, but a high-strung secretary (who graduated at the top of her class with a 97 percent score, as she likes to remind us) in the form of bespectacled Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose).

The entire cast is top notch and the pilot alone features guest turns from such actors as Idris Elba (The Wire), terrifying here as a local crime lord with a penchant for witchcraft "medicine," Colin Salmon (Doctor Who) as Precious' trumpet-playing ex-husband, and David Oyelowo (Spooks) as the target of Precious' first investigation, a philandering husband whom she lures into a honey trap. (Look for The Shield's CCH Pounder to turn up in the fourth episode.) Each of them are given moments to shine as actors and they feel wholly integrated into the cast, a real feat for any ongoing television series, much less in a pilot episode.

As for the main cast, Scott and Rose are absolutely sensational as Precious and Makutsi respectively. Scott radiates a warmth and openness that is rarely--if ever--seen on a television series, imbuing Precious with an inquisitive nature and an almost Zen-like calm in the face of danger (and, yes, she does often end up way over her head). Contrasting with the warm roundness of Scott (her "traditional" figure), Rose is all angles and tension. Her Grace Makutsi is wound as tightly as a spring yet she's very eager to please, even tapping away at two typewriters procured by Precious' patient would-be-suitor JLB Matekoni (played with aplomb by Lucian Msamati), neither of which have all of their keys. Rounding out the fantastic cast is the fantastic Desmond Dube as flamboyant hairdresser BK of the Last Chance Hair Salon. In a way, they are all outsiders in the cosmopolitan environs of Gaborone and they quickly form a makeshift support system for one another... and wind up quickly drawn into Precious' investigations themselves.

While their relationship is cordial and professional (if more than a little strained due to Grace's interference), both Precious and Grace are hiding dark secrets from one another and therefore can't be completely open and honest. For Precious, it's the truth about what happened with the abusive husband she left behind and the child she lost. For Grace, it's her efforts to conceal the fact that her brother is afflicted with AIDS. Will either come clean to the other about their situations?

But as I said earlier, No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency doesn't put its main focus on the dark side of life (though the cases are often rather tragic, dealing in the first few episodes with kidnapping, witchcraft, poisoning, murder, medical fraud, AIDS orphans, etc.) but rather on the spirit of community and openness that categorizes the nation of Botswana. And Botswana really is a character unto itself here, presented in all of its gorgeous majesty and color. It's a swirling landscape populated with colorful characters, vibrant sunsets, and lush landscapes. It's easy to see why Precious is so at home here: the land is as bountiful and inviting as she is.

Ultimately, the transcendent No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a rare beast, the sort of television that invites you into a world that is overflowing with an infectious joy. And in these dark economic times, anything that's this soulfully uplifting and remarkably genial, from Scott's marvellous turn as Precious to the series' adorable animated credit sequences, deserves your attention. Even if it doesn't inspire you to take that trip to Botswana (and, believe me, it will), spending your Sunday evening with Precious and Grace might just be the perfect way to end your weekend.

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency launches with a two-hour premiere on Sunday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on HBO.

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Many viewers have been either skeptical or outwardly critical of Sci Fi Channel's recent announcement that it would rebrand itself as Syfy, with a new logo and tagline, beginning in July.

I had the opportunity to speak with Sci Fi President Dave Howe, who took the opportunity earlier this week to talk to journalists about the rationale behind the name change, what he hopes to accomplish under the new rebrand as Syfy, what the future holds for the channel, and an alternative rebrand name that they looked into.

Howe responded to the comments made by Syfy Portal's Michael Hinman, who sold the rights to the Syfy trademark last year to NBC Universal and rebranded his site as Airlock Alpha, stating that the company wasn't being totally honest about the origins of the Syfy name.

"I don’t think [...] we’re not acknowledging it," said Howe. "We’ve been actively working on this brand evolution for the last two years. And we’ve explored a lot of name options. And I think at the point at which there are any short list of names the first thing we do obviously is look at the URLs and look at whether any of the names are trademark protectable. I think once we looked at alternative names and we also looked at whether there was a way of taking ownership of our existing name through, you know, an addition of extra letters or changing the order of the letters I think once we settled on Syfy it became apparent to us that the Syfy Portal existed."

One thing that many skeptical viewers are wondering is why Sci Fi would opt to go with name change based around a spelling change (or misspelling, as some have pointed out), rather than a whole new identity, given how far Sci Fi has expanded on its original brand identity.

"I think the honest answer to that actually is that we didn’t come up with a name that we liked any better than what we’ve gone with which was Syfy," explained Howe. "Naming is an incredibly incredibly tough exercise. I’ve been at SciFi for eight years, I’ve been in the TV business, a marketing head for about 20 years. And, trust me, the hardest and toughest thing to ever get to is a name that everybody likes; it’s incredibly subjective. It’s never going to solve all of life’s problems for you. There will always be things that it does communicate, things that it doesn’t communicate. But at the end of the day, people watch content, people watch shows. And they’re not going to be drawn to something or alienated from something necessarily just because of the name. So, we didn’t come up with a short listed name that we liked."

Still, said Howe, much of the impetus to secure the name came from URL availability. "We were able to secure syfy.com before we even entered into a conversation with Syfy Portal," he said. "So although that name was taken in relation to Syfy Portal, syfy.com was available and we secured that very early on this process."

Howe is the first to admit that there has been a "feeding frenzy" from the online community as a result of the rebrand announcement but is quick to point out that it's likely far less than if the channel announced an entirely new name rather than a mere spelling change.

"The feeding frenzy in the chat rooms and online, etc., would probably be considerably greater if we changed the name completely, if I’m honest," admitted Howe. "But naming is incredibly difficult. And if you look at [new] brands that launch [...] they have to have a name which is completely made up so it will be a word that you’ve never seen before. You see this particularly with drugs; you look at a name like Celebrex or Viagra or Cialis, any of these drugs you have to invent a word that doesn’t exist and you have to do that because clearly it’s incredibly critical for you to secure the URL. So any real word is going to be completely ruled out from the trademark perspective not just in the US but probably anywhere in the world and from a URL perspective. So straight away you’re confined by having to invent a word."

"That’s the first challenge and then once you’ve invented a bunch of words, what you have to look at is the pros and cons of that word," explained Howe. "So, the word may communicate something which you think is good but then it may communicate something which is kind of less good or is misleading or takes you in a direction that you don’t want to go in or ultimately takes you back to where you were. And in lots of respects some of the short listed names that we came up with actually didn’t really move us any further forward than where we are now with Syfy."

As for the new name and logo, Howe believes there's something beneficial to be gained from the mere presentation of this new name format.

"There’s something about the letter form in particular [of the new logo] that we believe--and we’ve had this confirmed in our testing--makes the logo very accessible and relatable, the symmetry of it, the letter forms of the two Ys together with the S and F which are very rounded. We actually see that yes, there is a word; yes, you could argue it’s a misspelled SciFi but actually it’s a new word. It’s a new word and actually it’s a logo in itself. Part of the exercise that we went through is we wanted obviously to let go of the Saturn logo but actually to do that we needed to have a letter form which in and of itself from a design perspective was unique and brandable and trademark ownable."

Regarding the moniker itself, Howe said, "It’s a word that no one’s seen before. I think, you know, smart people who know sci-fi get it; people who don’t just look at it and think actually it’s kind of interesting, it’s cool and contemporary" and he reiterated his earlier point that "a lot of people in the testing kind of said well if I was going to text sci-fi that’s how I’d spell it.So it delivers quite a lot of things that we like and we think will be quite powerful in the future."

"Just actually to give you an example of a name that actually we did test--and I can tell you what this name is because this was a name that is not trademarkable and there’s no way we would have got the URL or even been able to trademark it I think in any territory--the other name that we put into testing was Beyond," said Howe (funnily enough, referring to a rebranding name that I actually suggested when the news broke). "We tested SFC, which is the obvious contraction from SciFi Channel which has been knocking around for probably 10 years. And that’s what a lot of other networks have done, TNN, TNT, CNN, TLC; all of those are contractions of longer names. We tested that. We tested where we are now. We tested Syfy and we tested Beyond. And what was interesting about Beyond is to the point I was making earlier, it solved some of the problems; it doesn’t solve all of them. So Beyond did create a sense of, well, it’s about the future, it’s about something which is, you know, far and away beyond me and over my head. And maybe not something that I could relate to that, you know, connected with my life as it is now."

Responding to a question about whether the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov would have approved of the name change, Howe said: "I honestly suspect not. [...] I suspect if we took [the writers of a article critical of the name change] through the rationale as to why we were changing they would probably get it because if you read that piece it kind of says that when [Sci Fi] launched it was launched as the Science Fiction Channel exclusively. And that it was primarily about space about technology and the future and essentially Star Trek. And I think that is something that we're in no shape or form want to get away from but I think what we want to do is move to a position where we can earn the broad sci-fi fantasy landscape and include in there fantasy and paranormal and supernatural and super hero and some speculative action and adventure. I think that’s absolutely the object of this exercise so it’s about how do we embrace the broader sci-fi fantasy landscape as opposed to how do we escape from our past? That isn’t the object of this exercise."

Howe also pointed out to the broad range of programming offerings on Sci Fi at the moment.

"If you look at the range and diversity of our programming on air," said Howe, "we still have Star Trek on air, we have still have Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Atlantis, soon to become Stargate Universe. But alongside that there’s Eureka, we’re launching Warehouse 13, [we have] Chase, Estate of Panic, Who Wants to be a Superhero. We have a very broad range of content and the challenge that we have is if you talk to consumers who don’t watch our channel the expectation and the anticipation around when they do surf up the dials to Sci Fi is that all they’ll find there is Star Trek. And clearly that isn’t something from a branding perspective and from a future perspective that enables us to do what we want to do which is becoming inclusive and bring more people in who we know will enjoy a broader range of shows and hopefully we can kind of cross sell and cross promote and cross convert to other shows once they come to us. But the challenge for us is if they don’t think that space opera is for them then they’re not going to come."

But don't think that Howe and the other executives at Sci Fi are unaware of the mostly negative reaction to the new name and rebrand.

"Yes, we are tracking it," said Howe of the online reaction. "And we’re reading all of the message boards and Twitter and we’ve got people basically monitoring it all. I get like a summary of what people are saying. I’m not surprised at all by the comments that we’re hearing. I mean I think the points I would make is that none of us particularly like change; none of us like the idea of a new name. I mean, a lot of new names out there were not particularly well received when they were announced. Nintendo Wii was not exactly great and Tivo and all the rest of those names."

"The thing that disturbs me most about some of the comments, but if I’m honest didn’t really surprise me, is that this is not about abandoning our past, this is not about alienating our existing core viewers because frankly we are still the sci-fi fantasy channel and we’ll continue to be so," continued Howe. "And this is absolutely about embracing our heritage and embracing our future and figuring out how we can bring even more people into the camp. And the thing that I think disturbs us most was people as we expected saying, well, this is just another opportunity to put more [ECW] on our air or this is another opportunity to do even more reality. That isn’t true. [...] We picked up Caprica, we’re bringing in Caprica and it’ll launch in the New Year. We picked up Stargate Universe, the next exciting chapter of the longest running space opera I think in TV history. This isn’t about retrenching, this is about absolutely embracing the totality of not just our core audience but actually a new audience in the future."

So what does Howe believe the channel will be able to accomplish via the rebranding with Syfy as the new name?

"I think what it does do and actually in all that testing we were sort of surprised and actually it confirmed what we wanted to do here [is that] this new name makes more sense of our existing range of programming," he explained. "It makes more sense if you put this brand on a Ghost Hunters or a Destination Truth or Eureka because it doesn’t scream so loudly the science fiction genre it makes more sense for me [from] a program range perspective. So we were very excited to hear that. We do think it sort of gives us the best of both worlds. It keeps our heritage and it enables us to broaden and become more inclusive and create a sense that this is a unique brand name that you can expect a broader range of what we’re calling imagination-based entertainment which is going to be everything from Caprica and Stargate Universe to Warehouse 13 to Eureka to the kind of broad fun human relatable aspect of the genre that we really want to embrace."

As for the future of the channel, whether it might be called Sci Fi or Syfy, Howe says that they want to reimagine the boundaries between linear television and new media.

"What we want to get to in the future and that’s part of this rebrand is how do we become more platform-agnostic because to us the TV screen is clearly important but in this day and age a screen is a screen is a screen," explained Howe. "And I think certainly with convergence and with the fact that you can watch TV series on Xbox and Playstation and all the rest of it the notion of a TV show is somewhat anachronistic. I think we need to get to a point where we create things, stories and characters and intellectual property that can start on any platform and migrate to another."

One step towards that direction is the experiment that the network is undertaking next month with the launch of the two-hour pilot episode of Capricafor sale on DVD and digital download. (Editor's note: You can read my advance review of two-hour pilot here.)

"I think it to some extent is an experiment for us; we haven’t done this before and I actually don’t believe any other cable network has done this before," said Howe. "I think our audience in particular will get this. [...] We have a very techno-savvy pre-early adopter audience that is going to be streaming shows, that is going to be downloading shows, that really is locked into that kind of 24/7 on demand digital world. And it seemed like a valid experiment for us knowing that we’re not going to actually launch the weekly series until the New Year because obviously we have to go into production and write the thirteen episode scripts and shoot it and post-produce it, etc. It seemed like an opportunity for us to get the DVD out there early and also get it up on iTunes so that people can kind of watch it, think about it, you know, pass it onto the friends, tell their family."

"There’s the potential if we get this right for there to be nine months of early momentum leading up to the launch of the series in early next year," he continued. "And that’s kind of a pre-marketing window for us. So it’s a grand experiment but we’re very optimistic that it’ll do what we want it to do which is actually introduce a bigger and broader audience to Caprica when it launches."

Sci Fi's relaunch as Syfy will take place on July 7th.

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Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I had a fantastic evening last night at a WGA event for the writers of ABC's Lost, which included Team Darlton, Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis, and Elizabeth Sarnoff.

After just three episodes, NBC has cut culinary competition series The Chopping Block from its schedule, effective immediately. In lieu of the Marco Pierre White-fronted reality competition series, which landed a 0.9/2 share among adults 18-49 and 2.6 million viewers overall, NBC will air repeats of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and NBC said that Chopping Block could return at a later date. (But don't hold your breath.) (Variety)

Paul Wesley (24) will star opposite Nina Dobrev (Degrassi) and Ian Somerhalder (Lost) in the CW supernatural drama pilot Vampire Diaries, from writer/executive producer Kevin Williamson. Wesley will play Stefan, a "gloriously, amazingly, epically beautiful young man" who is a 200-year-0ld vampire locked in a battle with his brother Damon (Somerhalder) for the love of a young girl named Elena (Dobrev). (Hollywood Reporter)

Branka Katic will reprise her role as Ana when Big Love Season Four launches in early 2010. "I'll be back to cause some trouble," Katic told Michael Ausiello. "I think she's somewhere out there licking her wounds. I think she divorced out of pure compassion because the damage she was causing the family was something she certainly didn't want to happen." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has announced its plans for summer, which include the launch of medical drama Mental on Friday, May 22nd at 9 pm ET/PT, the return of So You Think You Can Dance on Thursday, May 21st, and the launch of a new season of Hell's Kitchen on July 21st. (via press release)

Aussie actor Matt Passmore (The Cut) has been cast as the lead in FOX drama pilot Masterwork, from Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring. He'll star opposite British actress Natalie Dormer (The Tudors) and Brit actor Tom Ellis (Suburban Shootout). What's with all of the foreign casting on the project? It's just the tip of the iceberg, according to Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva, who looks at the sheer numbers of non-US actors scoring roles in this season's pilots. In fact, pilots Flash Forward, Maggie Hill, Inside the Box, and untitled US Attorney each have three non-US actors in major roles. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC has acquired US rights to four-hour mini-series Ben Hur, from Alchemy Television Group, who will co-produce with Spain's Drimtim Entertainment and Antenna 3, Canada's Muse Entertainment, ABC, and Germany's Akkord Films and ProSieben. Project, which has no airdate, was written by Alan Sharp (Rob Roy) and will be directed by Steve Shill (Rome). (Variety)

Pilot casting alert: Stephen Rannazzisi (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) has joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot State of Romance, where he will play the roommate of romantic lead Mike (Steve Howie). Elsewhere, David Call (Canterbury's Law) has been added to ABC's drama pilot Empire State, where he will play the younger brother of blue-collar Romeo Sam (Mike Vogel). (Hollywood Reporter)

Production has begun in New Orleans on HBO drama pilot Treme, from The Wire creator David Simon. "This is an American story," said Simon. "This is about an American city trying to pick itself up and doing it without a great deal of help." Project, directed by Agnieszka Holland, stars Wendell Pierce, Peter Clarke, Steve Zahn, Kim Dickens, Khandi Alexander, Melissa Leo, and Rob Brown. (Associated Press)

In a rather unusual twist, 1st Call Equipment has signed on to be the exclusive provider of heavy equipment for Universal and all of its productions... as it segues into TV programming development, specifically daytime television. Under the new leadership of former King World executive Erni Di Massa Jr., the company will use its revenue to finance development efforts. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

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The past has a nasty way of catching up to us and no series has dwelt on that notion more regularly (or spectacularly) than Lost, which continues to use its character's past mistakes as a rubric to understanding why they make the choices they do in the present. (Or, er, time-tossed distant past, as the case may be.)

Last night's episode of Lost ("He's Our You"), written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by Greg Yaitanes, centered squarely on the character of Sayid Jarrah as the audience is given a glimpse into his childhood and the events leading up to his return to the island. (Along with a simply jaw-dropping kick to the head from Zuleikha Robinson's Ilana, but more on that in a bit.)

While we've seen Sayid struggle with his nature in the past, most notably his time as the castaways' resident torturer, it's never been handled in quite such a complex fashion as it is here, folding itself inwards on the shared experiences of Sayid and Ben and some very, very bad blood between them. Could these two be more alike than they'd like to admit? Hmmm.

So crack open a Dharma beer, put on your jumpsuit, and let's discuss "He's Our You."

Sayid and Ben. Throughout the five seasons of Lost so far, Sayid has remained a tantalizingly complicated figure. On the one hand, he's proven himself to be a loyal friend to Hurley and the others but on the other, the cool heart of a killer beats in his chest. He's had to wrestle with his dark impulses since the beginning of the series and he's been the one to carry out some truly heinous acts of torture and murder. Is it in his nature? In this episode, Sayid seems to argue that you can't escape your past and the choices you've made, nor can you escape the very essence of yourself that "defines" you. For Sayid, it's the blood on his hands. We see this at a young age when Sayid doesn't hesitate to snap the chicken's neck while his older brother waffles, unable to take the creature's life.

Is it this lack of hesitation that Kelvin Inman sees in him in "One of Them"? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's the fact that Sayid is regularly called upon to carry out actions that others would shy away from. It's this quality that binds him to Benjamin Linus, a sort of compartmentalization that both share when it comes to human life. Sayid kills because it's "necessary." Whether to save his friends or save his brother from a beating, he makes the choice to snuff out the lives of others. He's a dark reflection of our own murderous impulses made into flesh. And yet he feels he needs to perform penance. Why else does he escape to Dominican Republic to help build houses for charity? Why remain in the Dharma holding cell? It's clear that his actions do weigh heavily on him, after all.

It's interesting to me that the tables should so be turned on Sayid in this week's episode, as he finds himself the unwitting prisoner of the Dharma Initiative, tortured by his counterpart in the DI (the wholly creepy Oldham), and interrogated, as it were, by twelve-year-old Benjamin Linus. And just as Ben worked his mind games on Sayid in Season Two, so too does Sayid manipulate Ben into freeing him, with the promise that he'll take him with him to the Others. But Sayid has other plans as he accepts his inner killer: they escape, Sayid knocks out Jin when he catches them along the road, and he shoots twelve-year-old Ben in cold blood, after uttering some truly heartbreaking words: "You were right about me. I am a killer."

Is the shooting payback for for all of the awful things that Ben has done to Sayid? Did Ben truly corrupt Sayid by instructing him to kill all of those men, whom he claimed wanted to harm the Oceanic Six? Perhaps. After all, Sayid did promise Ben that if they saw each other again, it would be very unpleasant for them both... and he did follow through on that promise.

Young Ben, meanwhile, is desperate to escape the oppressive atmosphere in the Dharma Initiative's camp, made all the more unpleasant by his boorish, abusive father. It's a situation that gets all the more worse when Roger Linus discovers Ben taking Sayid a sandwich and beats the holy hell out of him. Sayid claims to feel for the boy, saying that he had a difficult father as well but it all smacks of lip service, given what happens next. I knew that it would be Ben who would organize a diversion and break Sayid out of the holding cell but I never imagined that Sayid would repay the favor by shooting Ben. But, after all, he wasn't a member of the Hostiles so couldn't have taken him there. So is what Ben puts Sayid through--all of the assassinations, all of the lies, and the betrayal--pay back for what HE did to Ben as a child?

Obviously, there's no way that twelve-year-old Ben will die as it would create a rip in the space-time continuum that would likely destroy the world or the universe itself. Ben can't die because he has to lead The Purge of the Dharma Initiative and take over control of The Others and interact with the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. But I literally gasped out loud nonetheless when Sayid pulled the trigger. The attempted murder of an unarmed child is not something you can come back from easily, so I am very intrigued to see where they take Sayid next... and how this incident further spurs Ben to follow through on his deal with Richard, which we learn happened four years earlier in 1973.

Sawyer. Meanwhile, Saywer's lie is starting to fall apart at the seams. He's not helped by the confession that Oldham manages to coax out of Sayid thanks to the use of a truth serum or LSD-laced sugar cube that's crammed into his mouth. While Sayid reveals that he came to the island on Ajira Airways Flight 316 (returning there after arriving for the first time via Oceanic Flight 815) and knows about the Flame, the Pearl, and the as-yet-unbuilt Swan, he also reveals that he's from the future, which makes most of his confession rather unreliable in the eyes of the Dharma Initiative.

And poor Sawyer is in a bind: if Sayid does cave and doesn't go along with the plan, his life with the Dharma Initiative is over. Everything he's build will come tumbling down around his ears... but it has to eventually. We know that the past has a way with catching up to everyone, even LaFleur. He gives Sayid multiple opportunities to either go along with the plan or escape but Sayid doesn't take them and Sawyer reluctantly turns him over to Horace and the others for more radical interrogation. Sawyer is in a tough place and yet he's still trying to work towards the Greater Good, protect as many people as possible. If that's not the definition of a true leader, I don't know what is.

Juliet and Kate. I was glad to see that this week's episode didn't feature some sort of catty showdown between romantic rivals Juliet and Kate. Juliet believes that her life with Sawyer, "playing house," is over now that the others have returned but Sawyer claims that it's not. Still, it would be very hard for Juliet not to express some concerns about Kate's reappearance on the scene. And the way that Sawyer paused outside his home and then headed over to Kate's barrack points very much for things not being over between them. Poor Juliet is in for some rude awakening, I'm sure.

Ilana. While I wasn't sure whether I liked Ilana yet, this episode cemented my fascination with her. She's not quite a US Marshall, it would seem. Rather, she claims to be a bounty hunter tasked with bringing Sayid back to Guam in order to receive punishment for the murder of Peter Avellino in "The Economist," whom Sayid shot to death on a gold course in the Seychelles. She easily seduces him and gets him into a hotel room, which she quickly kicks him in the head with one of her hooker booted legs and points a gun at him. But who does Ilana really work for? The family of the murdered Peter Avellino, as she claims? Benjamin Linus, as Sayid suspects? Or Charles Widmore? I loved that he tried to convince her to take a different flight to Guam after seeing the rest of the Oceanic Six assembled at the gate but she refused. Did she anticipate something would happen on the flight? Did someone want Sayid on that specific flight, knowing what would happen?

Amy. I don't trust Amy at all. She claims that she wants to protect baby Ethan and that she would be sleeping with one eye open if Sayid were to remain at the barracks but she comes round to the idea of killing him WAY too quickly for my liking. Could it be that she believes that the reason Sayid is there is to take her away to the Others? After all, the last time some Hostiles were around, her husband got killed, Amy got a sack over the head, and it definitely looked like they were planning on kidnapping her? Does Amy believe that if she has Sayid executed she can avert this latest plot? And if we believe that the Others do want Amy for some reason, why? What do they have to gain by taking her specifically? And does it point to how Ethan ends up a valued member of the Others? Hmmm...

Ann Arbor. Horace meanwhile goes along with Amy's plan, as does everyone except Sawyer. After all, he wants this taken care of quickly and quietly and doesn't want to have to "call Ann Arbor," as the shrill Radzinsky suggests. So, just who is in Ann Arbor? Why Dharma headquarters, of course. After all, Gerard and Karen DeGroot started the Dharma Initiative at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1970, with some funding from the Hanso Foundation. It would make sense then that the DeGroots could still be based there now.

Lost Literary Reference of the Week: "A Separate Reality," by Carlos Castaneda, which twelve-year-old Ben gives to Sayid in his holding cell. Allegedly a non-fiction book, it's meant to be an account of a man's experiences with a sorcerer and a mind-altering plant that can let people see things. Rather like the stuff that Locke puts on Boone's head back in Season One that allows him to glimpse a possible future, no?

Best line of the evening: "A twelve-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I'm doing?" - Sayid

What did you think of this week's episode? How will Sayid's actions come back to haunt him and what does it mean for his relationship with the other castaways? Just where will he go now that he's stuck in 1977 and an enemy of the Dharma Initiative? Do we trust Amy at all? Discuss.

Next week on Lost ("Whatever Happened, Happened"), Kate goes to extreme lengths to save the life of twelve-year-old Ben when Jack refuses to help and she begins to tell the truth about the lie in order to protect Aaron.

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Murder will out.

It always does in the end and secrets, long buried, have a nasty way of being unearthed when you least expect it.

This week's penultimate episode of Damages ("Look What I Dug Up This Time") ratcheted up the tension as we finally learned the truth about what happened to Christine Purcell the night of the gala, Ellen made her move against Patty and dragged Tom Shayles into the FBI's orbit, and Patty confronted Phil about the damage he had done to her and engineered a face-to-face with Walter Kendrick himself.

I wondered just when things would start to come together and last night's installment did just that as the Purcell's dog literally dug up the past, a charred universal remote that unleashed a domino effect that threatens to topple UNR's entire case and send at least one man to prison.

We now know what's been withheld from us for so long: just what happened that night between Christine and Daniel after the gala. He told Christine that he was going to go along with UNR and take their money after they threatened Erica and he had to abandon his moral principles in order to protect their daughter. Christine was furious and refused to go along with this plan, even at the cost of their daughter's safety. She threatens to call the EPA and report to them what UNR has been doing with the Aerocyte in West Virginia... and when Daniel advances towards her, she throws a universal remote at his head, cutting his forehead. (Aha!) He then proceeds to strangle her and then, realizing what he had done, goes crazy and runs out of the house with the bloody remote, calling Wayne Suttry, and leaving Christine for dead.

Or did he? It would appear that Mrs. Purcell didn't die as a result of Daniel's efforts to strangle her but was still clinging to life when The Deacon arrived at the couple's brownstone apartment. In fact, she whispers "help me" as The Deacon removes her ruby ring and sets the stage for a robbery. So while Daniel did attack Christine and attempt to kill her, he was unsuccessful. Which means then that UNR and The Deacon finished the job, snuffing out Christine's help even as she pled for help. That scene gave me the shivers as the inhuman Deacon calmly bent over her body and silenced her for good.

Daniel, meanwhile, has been haunted by the guilt that he killed his wife... or thinks he did anyway. It's clear that he has no knowledge that UNR actually, er, finished killing her and he's plagued by the realization that he needs to atone for his actions or he'll end up in one of the nine circles of hell, as Daniel recounts to an incredulous Kendrick before he turns himself in at the police precinct. Burning that remote in the backyard 5 1/2 months earlier was an effort to pretend that what happened didn't really happen. That object was a reminder of what had truly transpired and he sought to destroy it and assuage his guilt after the murder. And yet there it is again, unearthed by the family dog: a twisted object that no longer resembles what it one was. Much like Daniel Purcell himself.

It's guilt that propels him to help Patty. Kendrick betrayed him as much as he did Claire Maddox. He made the deal with the devil in order to ensure that the damage in West Virginia would get cleaned up and Kendrick went back on his word. Which is a good thing as Patty might have the GPS coordinates that Kendrick passed along to Finn Garrity but no rubric with which to break the code. Which is where Daniel comes in and he's able to break the cipher, realizing that the first set of numbers refer to the plant location where the brownout would occur, the second to the military time of the brownout, and the third to the day of the week when the event would take place. (A rather canny code system, really.)

The problem is that because Patty and Co. stole the car and obtained the GPS data illegally, none of it is admissible in court. Which could be a problem as the entire case hinges on Kendrick manipulating the energy market by shorting out the power and driving up demand and passing along the details to Garrity in advance. So how can they get around this? By bribing the judge, naturally, and he's only too eager to please as Ellen makes it clear that Patty will take care of him for allowing the data to be entered as evidence in the trial.

So why does Patty pull Ellen off of the bribing of the judge? After all, this is the woman whom she once tried to kill for knowing the truth about Ray Fiske's suicide, who caught Phil cheating on her (though she seems to view this as a kindness rather than a betrayal), and whom she has shown no compunction about using in the past. Could it be that Michael's words do hit home? He says that people either leave Patty (like Phil) or die (like Ray or Uncle Pete) and that she'll ultimately be alone. Does she finally find some compassion in her heart for Ellen? Does she want to protect her and not use her, as Ellen believes? Could it be that Patty Hewes is actually human?

The scene between Patty and Phil as she learns just how much he has betrayed her while being used by Dave Pell was absolutely riveting. Glenn Close's performance was stunning as she threw that mug against the wall and turned on her lecherous husband, realizing not only that he bet against her by buying UNR stock but that he had been used and duped the entire time: that Phil had been told to warn her against pursuing the UNR case and been tipped about the FBI investigation against Patty and nominated for the Energy Secretary chair by the same person: Dave Pell. And that he had invited Pell into their home and had him sit at the table with Patty and her friends. Phil had crossed that line in the sand and their marriage is truly over for good.

This week, Ellen showed that Patty had rubbed off on her in more ways than one, engineering a plan that would bitterly use Tom Shayles, just as his wife is giving birth. Ellen rather brilliantly (and viciously) concocts a scheme around the botched infant mortality payoff that forces Tom to flip against Patty. And not only does he agree to wear a wire but Ellen and the feds force him to tell Patty that he refuses to bribe the judge in the UNR case, that he can't right now. And, oh, does Patty go ballistic, screaming "I understand" in a fashion that makes it abundantly clear that she really doesn't understand at all... and firing Tom on the spot. (Which is rather foolish as Tom could fire back with an unlawful termination suit alleging that Patty fired him because he wouldn't participate in an unethical and illegal action.)

Ellen has turned into just as much of a master manipulator as her mentor, really. She is far too willing to destroy Tom's life and job in order to position Patty into a corner. And we now know why Tom was fired from Hewes & Associates, although he does go back to try to warn her about what's coming.

As for what's coming next, I'm still not sure. Tom helping Ellen obtain the gun would seem to be either an effort for revenge against Patty for firing him or part of the FBI's plan. Yet Agent Werner is definitely shocked when Ellen pulls out the gun and shoots in the hotel room. So just what are they trying to do in the hotel room? It's clear to me now: it's a sting operation to catch Patty on tape instructing Ellen to bribe the judge and handing over a suitcase full of cash to make the payoff... but why does Ellen suddenly transform the meeting into a murderous rampage? Why fire the gun then? What does she learn between now and then that escalates things so terribly?

And how do things come together with Wes? It's obvious that his feelings for Ellen prevent him from following through on his orders to kill her, though he has the perfect opportunity to do so in the woods. But rather than pull the trigger, he hands her the gun and tells her to fire away at a tree... and then packs up his stuff from his apartment and moves into Ellen's hotel room. Is it an effort to protect her from Messer, whom Wes tells he needs another try at killing her? Or is he going to make his move? Likely the former over the latter, I think.

Still, I can't believe next week's episode is the season finale and there are still so many dangling plot threads to tie up. I have a feeling that the ending will leave us quite breathless next week and dying with anticipation for Season Three. Let's just hope the break between seasons is mercifully short. Or more merciful than any of the characters on this gripping series, really.

Next week on the 90-minute season finale of Damages ("Trust Me"), Patty pulls out all the stops to win the cast against UNR while Ellen's quest for revenge reaches a dramatic conclusion.

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Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Ian Somerhalder (Lost) has joined the cast of CW's supernatural drama pilot Vampire Diaries, from writer/executive producer Kevin Williamson. Somerhalder will play Damon, a "smug vampire who can go from playful to evil in a split second." Also cast: Zach Roerig (Friday Night Lights), who will play jock Matt, and Kayla Ewell (Entourage), who will play Matt's sister. The trio joins the previously announced Michael Trevino, Katerina Graham, Nina Bobrev, Steven R. McQueen, Sarah Carey, and Candice Accola in the Warner Bros. Television-produced pilot, based on a series of Ally Entertainment novels. (Variety)

Dirty Sexy Money's Donald Sutherland will star in CBS drama pilot The Eastmans, about a clan of physicians. He'll play the family's wealthy patriarch, a rogueish cardiologist. Project, from Warner Bros. Television, stars Jesse Bradford, Jacqueline Bisset, Saffron Burrows, David Wilson Barnes, and Gaby Hoffman and will be directed by Jason Ensler. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jeri Ryan (Boston Public) has been cast as attorney Patrice Larue in a multiple-episode story arc on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Ryan will appear in at least three episodes as Larue, beginning with the series' April 7th episode, entitled "Baggage," about the murder of an artist that is linked to a series of unsolved serial murders. "Jeri Ryan's the real deal," executive producer Neal Baer told TV Guide. "She brings a compelling intensity to her roles and we're lucky to have her as a kick-butt attorney on SVU." (TV Guide)

Pilot casting alert: Allison Munn (Carpoolers) been cast as one of the leads in NBC's untitled Justin Adler comedy pilot, where she will play the girlfriend of Nick D'Agosto's character; Joy Suprano (Law & Order) has joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne, where she will play Charlotte's best friend; and Joaquim de Almeida (Crusoe) has landed a recurring role in CBS drama pilot Three Rivers, where he will play the director of the transplant medicine institute. (Hollywood Reporter)

24 co-creator Joel Surnow will write The Kennedys, a ten-hour mini-series about the Kennedy clan that is said to "unveil secrets" about the political family, including alleged conspiracy and fraud on their part in order to secure ascension to the White House and investigate the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis, mob connections within "the context of personal, Kennedy-family dramas." Project, executive produced by Surnow, Stephen Kronish, Michael Prupas, Jonathan Koch, and Steven Michaels, will be shopped by Canadian distributor Muse Entertainment to networks this weekend. (Variety)

Logo has ordered a second season of drag queen competition series RuPaul's Drag Race, just a few days after the series' first season wrapped. The network has yet to comment on the renewal, which doesn't come as a surprise considering the series' strong showing in both the media and in the ratings. (TV Week)

Canadian Broadcasting Company will eliminate up to 800 jobs beginning in May, splitting the reductions among its English-language divisions and its French-language counterparts in both new media, TV, and radio, as well as cutting 70 corporate positions. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

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“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; / When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; / And when Rome falls - the World.” - Lord Byron

While the mourning period for the end of Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica has just begun, following the recent two-hour finale, there are more than a few Battlestar-related things to look forward to on the horizon, one being the Jane Espenson-scripted, Edward James Olmos-directed two-hour telepic "The Plan" (set to air this fall on Sci Fi) and the other being the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica, which is set roughly fifty years before the start of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series.

Sci Fi plans to release Caprica's two-hour pilot, shot last year and written by Ronald D. Moore and Remi Aubuchon, as a DVD and a digital download next month. I had the opportunity to see a rough cut of the pilot episode for Caprica a few weeks back and was captivated by the pilot's tantalizing glimpse into a civilization sliding out of control.

Set before The Fall, the plot of Caprica might be a foregone conclusion: we know that, like Rome, this society will be obliterated in fifty years' time by the nuclear holocaust unleashed by the Cylons. However, that's part and parcel of the dark beauty that the series offers, as it holds up a ticking clock to the depravities and excesses of a society on the brink of annihilation. It's only a matter of time before these privileged individuals self-destruct, erased by the instruments of their own making: a slave race of robots, designed to serve their every whim, who rise up and massacre their masters.

But that time is still five decades away. In Caprica, we're seeing the seeds of that destruction as we witness the birth of the Centurions, a military project overseen by defense contractor Daniel Greystone (Eric Stoltz), a brilliant inventor responsible for the creation of holoband technology, a virtual reality module that allows the users to escape their mundane lives to experience, well, anything they desire. It's a technology that, like most things, has been corrupted by its users, which include Caprica's jaded teenage population, including Daniel's genius daughter Zoe (Alessandra Toreson) and her friends Lacy Rand (Magda Apanowicz) and Ben Stark (Avan Jogia).

They use the technology to access a virtual club that's teaming with subversive and stomach-wrenching excesses; everything goes here from group sex and Fight Club brutality to human sacrifice. In the midst of this depravity, Zoe and her friends are conducting their own experiment. Bored of the sin and perversion they experience and see around them, Zoe and her friends have turned to the One True God and are attempting to give life to a virtual reproduction of herself, a fully functioning avatar that lives and breathes in the reality of the nightclub. A perfect copy that shares its memories and experiences with another but who might be tormented by the thought of free will? Sound like anything we've seen before?

(Beware: SPOILERS ahead!) For Zoe, it's an effort to use her considerable gifts by playing creator before she and her friends run away from home to find a new life on the distant planet of Gemenon. But it's a journey that none are destined to take. Lacy, at the last second, decides not to go with them. Ben, acting on the orders of an unknown employer or employers, detonates a bomb aboard the train, killing everyone on board. That includes Zoe Greystone as well as the wife and daughter of lawyer Joseph Adama (Esai Morales).

The terrorist attack is blamed on a radical monotheistic cult and two families attempt to move past their grief. Joseph Adama is left a single father, forced to care for his young son William (who will later grow up to be Admiral Adama himself), even as he tries to find his way among a morass of corruption and intrigue. Adama might be a lawyer, but he's a crooked one, with ties to Tauron organized crime and a tendency to bribe judges to get the criminal scum he defends acquitted. Daniel Greystone is left an embittered wreck and his wife Amanda (Paula Malcomson) withdraws into herself, blaming herself for her daughter's death as the last moments they shared together they were locked in a vicious argument.

So what happens next? Lacy goes to the Greystone's house and uses Zoe's computer paper (I can't even describe how frakking awesome this technology would be) to access the club, where she sees that the avatar Zoe is still alive, despite her creator's death. Daniel and Joseph bond over their shared losses and Daniel hatches an insidious plan to use his technology to bring their daughters back to life... in a way. (However, he needs Joseph to use his mafia connections to steal a piece of vital technology from his competitor, Thomas Vergis.) The investigation of the bombing on the train leads to Zoe and Sister Clarice Willow (Polly Walker), Zoe's teacher at the private academy, who isn't quite what she seems.

And that's all I'll say about the pilot's plot without giving too much more away than I already have. Like Battlestar Galactica before it, Caprica explores the themes of free will, identity, and what it means to be truly human. Using both Zoe and Daniel's experiments, the writers create a rubric for understanding the building blocks of creation, of humanity, of artificial intelligence. Through their actions, the audience sees the birth of a new race and how that very creation spells the end for the human race as we know it.

Caprica is very much a different series than Battlestar Galactica. Unlike BSG, which took place in the dark recesses of space, Caprica is much more grounded. There are no Viper dog fights, no Battlestars jumping to coordinates. It's set in a world that's very much like ours, with characters that are hauntingly similar to you or me. The design work is absolutely breathtaking, with modern sets daringly juxtaposed to vintage suits. Both Joseph and Daniel wear clothing that would be right at home in the confines of AMC's Mad Men, with beautifully tailored suits and fedoras, while the Greystones' home is all sleek, clean lines, glass and steel, and robot attendants.

Likewise, Caprica feels much more grounded in reality as well, promising more a drama about the "extraordinary" than a just strict space opera. Personally, I think it's a narrative approach that works; by placing the plot in a more "real" setting (literally grounding it on a planet), the dramatic uses of technology stand out more as surprising and innovative than they would in a full-blown sci-fi action piece.

Eric Stolz, Esai Morales, and Polly Walker are all absolutely phenomenal here and bring a gravitas and range to the series that is definitely similar to the quality of acting on Battlestar Galactica. Paula Malcomson is also equally fantastic as Amanda Greystone but doesn't have much to do in the two-hour installment. (A subplot involving her and Thomas Vergis was removed entirely from the rough cut I saw.) Still, I have every hope that subsequent installments will move Malcomson's Amanda more front and center.

Given the fact that the teenagers play such a huge role in the pilot, especially in the first half-hour or so, I was pretty disappointed by their performances, particularly Alessandra Toreson, who plays Zoe Greystone and her avatar. Toreson seems to deliver all of her lines with the same sort of bratty bite and she doesn't seem to demonstrate much range here, which is a shame as Zoe is a rather pivotal character in the Caprica mythos. It's also especially difficult to quite accept her as the daughter of the pale Eric Stoltz and Paula Malcomson and the scenes they share together shine an especially strong light at their disparate acting strengths as well. (Likewise, Avan Jogia's turn as Ben Stark isn't particularly memorable, though I did have to question the producers' decision to cast a vaguely Middle Eastern-looking guy as the suicide bomber.) However, Magda Apanowicz's Lacy seems a non-entity at first but she shows considerable grit in her scenes within the virtual club, where her Lacy transforms from meek schoolgirl mouse to strong, confident woman, and in a revealing scene with Polly Walker's Sister Clarice Willow.

Ultimately, Caprica is a very different beast than its predecessor Battlestar Galactica, but the two-hour pilot is absolutely gripping and offers a haunting exploration about the complicated nature of humanity and the notion of identity, faith, and free will. It's more than a worthy successor to Battlestar Galactica and I cannot wait for 2010 to reenter its dark universe.

The two-hour pilot of Caprica will be released by Sci Fi as a DVD and digital download on April 21st.

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