[Televisionary]

TNT has renewed freshman drama Leverage for a second season. The cabler announced today that it will launch Season Two of action drama Leverage , which stars Timothy Hutton ( Nero Wolfe ), Gina Bellman ( Coupling ), Christian Kane ( Into the West ), Beth Riesgraf ( Without a Trace ), and Aldis Hodge ( Friday Night Lights ), later this year. TNT has ordered fifteen new installments of the series for its sophomore season. “We’re thrilled that audiences and critics have responded so positively to Leverage and made the show a solid hit,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president of TNT, in a statement. “We look forward to another great season of fun and exciting storylines brought to life by the outstanding cast, led by Timothy Hutton, and the incredible production team, headed up by executive producers Dean Devlin and John Rogers.” “We had an amazing experience shooting the first season of Leverage with such a talented cast and crew and with the full support of TNT behind us,” sai...

I originally watched last night's episode of Big Love ("Prom Queen") late last year but when I rewatched it last evening, I was once again struck by the episode's beauty and grace and the undercurrent of denial and despair that runs beneath its surface. Written by Eileen Myers and directed by David Petrarca, "Prom Queen" ranks as one of my favorite episodes of Big Love to date, as it escalates the intersecting storylines of Roman's trial, Nicki's deception at the DA's office, the fractured marriage between Joey, Wanda, and Kathy, the murderous standoff between Lois and Frank, and some long-buried secrets about just what happened to Bill's sister Maggie... and what may have happened to Nicki as a teenager on the compound. The episode is really at its heart about the nature of denial, the cardboard boxes that the characters all shove into the back of their closets in their own way. For Sarah, it's the belief that she can push her trouble...

I'm very curious to know what people thought of last night's post-Super Bowl episode of NBC's The Office ("Stress Relief"). On the one hand, I thought that the cold open was perhaps one of the most hysterical (if far-out there zany) sequences in the series' history. The look of terror on Angela's face as she removes her cat--hidden in a nearby file drawer (a la Carol's kids on The Brittas Empire )--and then proceeds to throw him to Oscar in the ceiling crawl space... only to have him crash through another ceiling panel was genius. While it certainly wasn't exactly super-realistic, the entire sequence could happen with these characters in this highly charged situation and it was filmed magnificently by the episode's director, Jeffrey Blitz. Sadly, the rest of the episode was pretty much downhill from there. I thought that the subplot that had Andy watching an illegally downloaded Hollywood flick--starring Jack Black, Jessica Alba, and Cloris ...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I hope everyone's now well rested from Super Bowl weekend and a slew of first-run series programming. Let's dive into the headlines. Bad news for the belly button-less: ABC Family has canceled teen sci-fi drama Kyle XY . The cabler did however renew Greek , Lincoln Heights , and The Secret Life of the American Teenager for additional seasons and handed out ten episode orders for new series Ruby and the Rockits , Perfect 10 , and 10 Things I Hate About You . ( Variety ) NBC announced that it will stream both the 3D and 3D versions of tonight's episode of Chuck live at NBC.com starting at 5 am PT tomorrow. Viewers will also be able to choose between watching the 3D installment in either HD or standard definition, with or without closed caption subtitles, and stream while chatting using NBC.com's Viewing Party function. (via press release) The New York Times profiles Chuck 's Adam Baldwin, who returns to the airwav...

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 next week's episode of NBC's Chuck , presented in box-busting 3D and an early look at the latest episode of Damages , reviewed TNT's new drama series Trust Me and the second season of BBC America's culinary competition series Last Restaurant Standing . I also discussed the latest episodes of ABC's Lost , Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica , HBO's Big Love , BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing , FX's Damages , and wondered why Fringe 's Astrid still hadn't gotten some needed character development . All this and news about FOX ordering a pilot for a US adaptation of Absolutely Fabulous , BBC America bringing Torchwood to New York Comic-Con , ABC ordering a pilot for a remake of classic sci-fi series V , Lauren Graham's new comedy pilot ...