[Televisionary]

"Who is Don Draper?" It's those very words that are asked at the start of Season Four of AMC's slick and stylish period drama Mad Men but the question isn't just asked of Don Draper himself but posed to the audience as well. Just who is Don Draper? Is he a man so desperate to create a life for himself that he borrowed an identity from someone else? Is he an adulterous family man and distant father? Is he a divorced man attempting to navigate the uncertain waters of dating once more? Is he a modest Midwesterner or is he the public face of the fledgling Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency? In the fourth season opener ("Public Relations"), written by Matthew Weiner and directed by Phil Abraham, Don wonders the answers to those questions as well, finding no solace in the quest of self-discovery. Throughout the series, Don Draper has been an enigma, a man whose purpose in life is to sell products, to craft deliciously beautiful creative work, but he's l...

This season of True Blood has continued to kick into overdrive, delivering yet another taut and disturbing installment that not only advanced the overarching plot of the fourth season but also pushed several characters past their breaking point, revealing the skull beneath the skin quite literally in some cases. Last night's episode ("I Got a Right to Sing the Blues"), written by Alan Ball and directed by Michael Lehmann, should serve as a prime example of the sort of dizzying storytelling that True Blood excels at, juggling multiple subplots and weaving together several story strands as the direction that Season Four is taking becomes all the more clear. But the main narrative throughline would appear to be the characters' individual quests for their humanity, between the desires of the flesh and the fulfillment of the spirit, the insubstantial, and the ethereal. For the supernatural creatures that populate the shadowy world of True Blood , humanity is a vestment t...

One of the most indelible--and therefore indescribable--moments of this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con was the Chuck panel, which debuted a brand-new music video from the international smash hit Jeffster! Performing a hysterical rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," the music video (entitled "Jeffster Dance Video Take 73") served not only as a truly memorable introduction to the panel itself but also segued into the appearance of the cast en masse to the tune as Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky led the cast in a bit of impromptu dancing as they made their way onto the massive stage of Ballroom 20 on Saturday. (A clip of the Chuck crew dancing their way to massive cheers--seriously, turn down your volume if you watch--can be found below.) The big news of course coming out of the Chuck panel was that Linda Hamilton--yes, she of the rippling physique from T2: Judgment Day has been cast as the mysterious and missing Mary Bartowski, mother to Chuck and Elli...

I came home from San Diego Comic-Con to discover the first six episodes of HBO's new period drama Boardwalk Empire , from Terence Winter and Martin Scorsese, waiting for me in a glittering stack of DVD screeners. While I haven't been able to sink my teeth into them yet (that will come later today), I can share with you the latest promo for the series--which stars Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar comin'!), Michael Shannon, and a host of others, which HBO released last night. The promo can be viewed in full below and I'm curious to know what you think, as Boardwalk Empire is one of the series I'm most eagerly awaiting. (Okay, that's an understatement of the highest order: I'm positively salivating over it already!) Preview Trailer #4 Boardwalk Empire premieres Sunday, September 19th at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.

There's no possible way to be everywhere at once at San Diego Comic-Con, which is why I'm always chuffed when the studios and networks release video for the panels that I missed. One panel that I would have loved to have seen was that for NBC's gleefully absurd comedy Community , but I was actually moderating the panel for ABC's V over in Ballroom 20 at the same exact time that creator Dan Harmon and the Greendale kids were discussing Season Two of the Sony Pictures Television-produced comedy. But, alas, it was not meant to be. Many thanks then to NBC for releasing the video for the panel itself, which can be viewed in full below, even if I didn't see any Human Beings roaming the halls of the convention center. Which would have been far more scary than any Cloverfield monster, really. Season Two of Community begins this fall on NBC.

Missed the hordes of zombies at this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con International? Or the actual walking dead themselves? Worry not, zombie fiends, as AMC has released highlights from its panel for its upcoming zombie drama The Walking Dead --based, of course, on the comic book series by the one and only Robert Kirkman--so you can get a look at the cast and crew of the horror-filled series even if you didn't make it to San Diego. The eleven minute video--which picks out the best bits from the Walking Dead panel on Friday--can be viewed below in its entirety. The Walking Dead launches in October on AMC.

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's the brief calm between the dual storms of Comic-Con and the TCA Summer Press Tour and there oh so much to do. Let's hit the headlines. Chuck 's executive producers Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak stunned audiences at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend by announcing that Linda Hamilton ( Terminator 2: Judgment Day ) would be playing Chuck's mama Mary Bartowski, the oft-mentioned missing mother of the Bartowski siblings who was briefly glimpsed in the season finale. Hamilton will recur throughout Season Four of Chuck , though producers are being cagey about saying just what Mary has been up to since she walked out on her family, though they do admit that espionage runs in the family. "Hamilton will appear throughout the season, leading Chuck to discover that her life was shrouded in secrets," said Warner Bros. Television in an official press release about the casting. "She was a spy, a CIA agent ... and t...

As Comic-Con 2010 wraps up today (and I head back to Los Angeles to prep for the TCA Summer Press Tour), HBO has released the absolutely killer teaser reel it lovingly crafted for its True Blood panel (which you can read about here ). The two-minute-and-twelve-seconds clip depicts upcoming scenes--and MAJOR reveals--coming up in the back half of the third season and had the crowd in Ballroom 20 cheering and screaming at the top of their lungs. Yes, True Blood fans, things are about to get really, really crazy in Bon Temps. (And Jacksonville, of course.) You can watch the full clip below but be warned that there are MAJOR SPOILERS for the rest of the season contained within. Yes, seriously. I'm not kidding: MAJOR. Watch below at your own risk and come back tomorrow to discuss tonight's episode... Season 3: Comic-Con Second Half Preview True Blood airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.

HBO's panel for True Blood is always a highlight of the Comic-Con schedule and yesterday's offering of vampiric delights did not fail to disappoint, particularly as the pay cabler opted to introduce the panel by screening a teaser reel of footage from the back half of the third season... and it looked smoking hot. (We'll put the trailer up as soon as it becomes available but it gave away LOADS of upcoming plot twists, so watch at your own peril.) While Alexander Skarsgard and Ryan Kwanten weren't free (both are shooting films at the moment), nearly the entire rest of the cast joined showrunner Alan Ball and novelist Charlaine Harris on stage to celebrate True Blood , field questions from moderator Tim Stack, and attempt to not give anything away when asked some rather piercing questions from fans. While we already knew that Howlin' Joe Manganiello had been promoted to series regular on True Blood , there was a real sense of electricity in the air as he offic...

"I was not really honest with you. I am a serial killer; that's what I am." Showtime has released the action-packed video for the trailer for Season Five of Dexter , which it showed to a packed house in Ballroom 20 on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con. Missed the panel? No worries as you can check out the full trailer for Season Five of Dexter below. But warning: it contains serious SPOILERS if you haven't seen the fourth season finale... and you might want to lower the volume for the first bit. Season Five of Dexter launches Sunday, September 26th at 9 pm ET/PT on Showtime.