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TV on DVD: "Doctor Who: The Complete Specials"

Prepare to say goodbye all over again. I've only finally just gotten used to the idea that there won't be any more Doctor Who episodes starring David Tennant. Tennant departed the British sci-fi series after a handful of seasonal specials between December 2008 and January 2010 that depicted the Tenth Doctor locked in his final battle. A battle that resulted in the death of the Tenth Doctor and his regeneration. Doctor Who has always been a series that not only endures after the departure of its lead actor but seems to revel in the new possibilities that an incoming actor can bring to the role of the Time Lord. Still, Tennant has carved out a sizable place in the ongoing mythos of Doctor Who for his portrayal of the lonely traveler and he'll be much missed. BBC Video today releases Doctor Who: The Complete Specials , featuring David Tennant's final episodes as the Tenth Doctor. This five-disc set features all five of Tennant's Doctor Who specials, as well as a ho...

Channel Surfing: Lilly and Fox to Quit TV After "Lost," Broderick Finds "Beach Lane" for NBC, Kurtzman and Orci Sign 20th Deal, and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Lost co-stars Evangeline Lilly and Matthew Fox plan to quit television after the end of the ABC drama series and that Lilly wants to leave acting behind altogether. "I think this will be the last time you see me on TV," Fox told Dos Santos. "I'm either going to do the kind of things I want to do in the film world, or maybe I'll just do something else entirely... I've done almost 300 hours of [TV]. It's been two really great experiences between Party of Five and Lost . I'm ready to take it to the next step and see what I can do in that [film] world." As for Lilly, she is looking to continue in the film world in a capacity other than being in front of the camera and focus on philanthropic work in Rwanda. "I just haven't found where that is yet. I don't know if anything has gelled yet. I don't know if it fits," she told D...

A Yellow House: Unquiet Souls on "Big Love"

"There's no law against crazy." - Bill Do we become our parents in the end? Regardless of the rights and wrongs of our forebears' actions, are our fates sealed from the moment we're born? Are we forced not to follow our own paths, but rather to fall into old patterns determined by those who have come before us? These are questions brilliantly unearthed and examined in the latest episode of HBO's Big Love ("The Mighty and Strong"), written by Melanie Marnich and directed by Dan Attias. Throughout its four seasons so far, the drama series--created by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer--has done an incredible job at painting the struggles between multiple generations of believers, setting in motion an exploration of family destiny and a personal journey. Last night's episode brought these conflicts to the fore, exploring the relationship between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and offering a shocking reveal at the episode's end that mig...

Sweet Tart: An Advance Review of Season Three of Showtime's "Secret Diary of a Call Girl"

The musings of ambitious call girl Belle de Jour (Billie Piper) have made for some tongue-in-cheek and witty narration but the third season of Showtime's British series Secret Diary of a Call Girl finds art imitating life as Belle--or Hannah as she's known outside of the bedroom--authors a tell-all book about her life as one of London's most sought-after, er, companions. Season Three of Secret Diary of a Call Girl , which begins tonight on Showtime, finds Hannah grappling with her newfound notoriety while also attempting to remain anonymous. It's a conundrum tantalizingly set up in the season's opening episode, in which she goes undercover at her own book launch party, only discover that her publisher Duncan (James D'Arcy) has hired a staggeringly stupid blonde bimbo to pose as "Belle de Jour" and read an excerpt from her book. It's a nice moment that challenges both Hannah and our own preconceptions about who prostitutes are and who they should ...

Channel Surfing: NBC Renews "Parks and Recreation," John Barrowman to Wisteria Lane, "Being Human" Gets Third Season, "Chuck," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Great news for fans of NBC's killer comedy Parks and Recreation : the Peacock has renewed the series for a third season, set to launch this fall. News of the renewal was broken by The Wrap's Josef Adalian, who reported that due to "certain production timing issues," an early renewal was required on the Universal Media Studios-produced comedy, which is executive produced by Greg Daniels and Mike Schur. ( The Wrap ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Torchwood 's John Barrowman is joining the cast of ABC's Desperate Housewives for at least five episodes this season. Barrowman, who is slated to appear beginning in April, will play "the Big Bad at the center of the Angie (Drea de Matteo) mystery," writes Ausiello. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) BBC Three has commissioned a third season of supernatural drama Being Human and announced that all three of the ser...