[Televisionary]

It's only fitting that a frustrating and uneven season of Bravo's Top Chef should have yet another frustrating twist in the final challenge in Washington D.C. I've been extremely vocal about my dislike of this season of Top Chef , which is strange to me as I've been an obsessive devotee since the very first episode of this culinary challenge series, which is also the first reality series to dethrone CBS' The Amazing Race from its Emmys perch. But while last season rightly snagged an Emmy Award, this season of Top Chef has been almost painful to sit through and several times I nearly walked right out without paying the bill. Lackluster casting, poor editing, and some head-scratching challenges have left me questioning whether there needs to be a shake-up behind the scenes of this series, or whether they just need to cast better next time. Bravo would appear to be launching an All-Stars edition of Top Chef for next season, which Reality Blurred reports ...

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Hollywood Reporter 's Borys Kit and James Hibberd are reporting that Warner Bros. Television is in the process of acquiring television rights to Neil Gaiman's DC/Vertigo comic series "Sandman" with the view of adapting it as an ongoing television series. Among the contenders to tackle the project: Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. It's not the first time that Hollywood has courted the mythopoeic comic series: HBO nearly had a version in development at one time with James Mangold attached; Roger Avery attempted to get a feature film version off the ground in the mid-90s. It's still early days for the project as Kripke is said to be cautious about treading on such hallowed ground and attempting to translate the deeply complex and layered narrative for television. [Editor: Personally, I'd rather that Kripke and WBTV didn't: the plot of "Sandman" isn't a strict narrative in the traditiona...

I'm back from break, which meant racing home to watch this week's episode of True Blood , the season's penultimate installment which left devotees on the edge of their seats after a gripping cliffhanger designed to keep us hungry for more over the Labor Day weekend. (Which, yes, means we'll have to wait another week for the season finale.) This week's episode of True Blood ("Fresh Blood"), written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Daniel Minahan, pushed several characters past their breaking points--particularly Sookie, Tara, and Sam, among others--and seemed to deal heavily with themes of sight and blindness. After all, we can see without understanding, just as we can finally open our eyes to certain uncomfortable, glaring truths. The sun might be a pleasant glowing orb in the sky and warm our skin, or it's a painful reminder of things lost, of burning and unbearable torment. In a series where so many characters want to be more than ordinary, something...

Yes, I'm back from my holiday-slash-birthday-weekend-extravaganza and catching up on what I missed while I was gone, including news about three of my favorite series, all of which happen to hail from the other side of the pond, and a fourth that is likely to become a new favorite when it launches next year. (Hint: it involves the creators of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes and novelist Kate Atkinson.) Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has indicated that Season Six of the time-travel drama series will be split into two separate segments, with seven episodes to air in the first half of 2011 and six episodes to air in fall 2011. What comes between? Well, a "game-changing cliffhanger," according to Moffat, speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival . (You can watch video of the session over at The Guardian as well.) "Looking at the next series I thought what this show needs is a big event in the middle," said Moffat. "I kept referring to a mid...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Eddie Izzard ( The Riches ) has signed on to appear in Season Three of Showtime's dark comedy United States of Tara . Izzard is set to appear in eight episodes of Tara , where he will play "Tara’s brilliant psychology professor who starts as a DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) skeptic, but becomes fascinated with Tara as a subject, leading him to explore the condition further." Production is slated to begin this month for a 2011 premiere. ( Deadline ) Joan Cusack has been cast in Showtime's upcoming drama series (and Televisionary personal favorite) Shameless , where she will play Shiela, an agoraphobic mother to a sexually active teenage daughter. Cusack, who is set to appear in twelve episodes of Shameless , replaces Allison Janney, who appeared in the pilot but had to withdraw from the role due to her commitment to ABC's midseason comedy Mr. Sunshine , sta...