[Televisionary]

Only a few weeks into its run, Showtime has already renewed dramedy Californication for a second season. The pay cabler has ordered 12 episodes for Season Two of the David Duchovny starrer, which revolves around a novelist with a soul-crushing case of writer's block who contends with bedding any number of Los Angeles women while struggling to understand the other women in his life, ex-girlfriend Karen (Natascha McElhone) and daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin). It's thought that Californication will begin production on its second season in April 2008 for a summer launch. What's On Tonight 8 pm: Jericho (CBS); 1 vs. 100 (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown (CW; 8-10 pm); America's Funniest Home Videos/Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown (ABC); Hollywood Homicide (FOX; 8-10 pm) 9 pm: Fashion Rocks (CBS; 9-11 pm); Las Vegas (NBC); George Lopez (ABC) 10 pm: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); 20/20 (ABC) What I'll Be Watching 8 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi. This we

Emily Gilmore , prepare to meet your successor. FOX has announced that it has cast Dianne Wiest in a recurring role on Amy Sherman Palladino's midseason comedy The Return of Jezebel James . What's that? Dianne Wiest in a weekly comedy? Yep. Wiest will play Talia, the mother of children's book editor Sarah Tompkins (Parker Posey) and bohemian sister Coco (Lauren Ambrose). Wiest is best known for her roles in such films as Hannah and Her Sisters , Bullets Over Broadway , Edward Scissorhands , and The Birdcage (among many, many others). While I really hope that the series has been majorly reworked before its midseason launch (you can read my review of the pilot here ), I'm still a little curious to see what Sherman-Palladino does with her troika of indie stars in a multi-camera environment...

I like hors d'oeuvre. The whole idea of a tiny little bite, passed along on a carried tray butler style, is one that always resonates with me, as it gives chefs an opportunity to wow party guests with some elegant and creative fare in miniaturized form. The possibilities, even with a limited budget, are endless. Sadly, that's not the same aesthetic shared by the seven remaining competitors on Bravo's culinary competition Top Chef . This week's episode ("Chef Overboard") tasked the chefs with catering a cocktail party for some of Miami's most beautiful people aboard a beautiful ship. The catch: they'd only have a budget of $350 to split between all seven of them. Personally, I love when this competition forces the chefs to work together but I didn't feel they were a cohesive unit at all last night. Not because of the leadership of Brian, per se, though he didn't help matters by creating a far too egalitarian environment, but because they didn&#

Ah, the days of vertical corporate integration. Makes you nostalgic for when companies only had that one broadcast platform. But lately, it's been that media conglomerates seem to have entire portfolios of channels to manage and spread their programming (especially when it's created in-house from their wholly owned studios) across multiple networks. Such is the case with NBC, which announced that it would schedule weekly second windows for new series Bionic Woman and Life on Sci Fi and USA respectively. Bionic Woman will reair its Wednesdays at 9 pm episode on Sci Fi on Fridays at 7 pm, beginning September 28th; Life will encore at midnight ET, early Monday mornings, after its initial bow on NBC Wednesdays at 10 pm. If that weren't enough, USA and Bravo will air special blocks of programming on October 6th and 7th, offering viewers another opportunity to catch their dramas, including Journeyman and Chuck , which don't come from studio sibling NBC Universal: USA: Sa

Ruth Rendell, in her dozens of crime novels, explores how murder spreads inexorably outwards, infecting everyone from the victim to everyone the crime touches, spreading outwards until no one is safe from the contagion of sin. Damages works rather the same way and, if next week's scenes are to be believed, not one or two, but all of the characters' lives will be, well, damaged by the war between Patty Hewes and Frobisher. In this week's installment of Damages ("She Spat at Me"), the plot shifts forward again as controlling Gregory Malina (Peter Facinelli) becomes an even bigger advantage to all involved, Ellen and David's relationship hits the skids, and we see the skull beneath the skin of Arthur Frobisher's blustery arrogance. All this and repeated nightmares which might finally add some depth to Zeljko Ivanek's icy Southern lawyer Ray Fiske. Color me enraptured. Frobisher. Um, hello? This guy is completely unhinged. Yes, I get his struggles with a

My Name is Earl 's third season might not premiere until September 27th, but in the meantime, I thought you might enjoy seeing this promo, featuring Randy, a gum-chomping Joy, Catalina and Crab Man putting on a music video in an attempt to shine the light of justice on poor, incarcerated Earl Hickey. And, um, starving African babies, suburban megastores, and the hot-button illegal immigration situation. Free Earl Music Video Add to My Profile | More Videos Aw, doesn't it just make you want to link hands across America right now?

Wondering just when FX will launch Season Five of its plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck ? (Or at least when they'll stop running those slightly creepy commercials with the Hollywood sign and that eerie cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game"?) Look no further. FX has announced that it will launch Nip/Tuck 's fifth season--featuring Christian and Sean making the move to beauty-obsessed Los Angeles--on October 30th at 10 pm. Season Five will feature Portia de Rossi, Rosie O'Donnell (returning as Dawn Budge), Bradley Cooper, Oliver Platt, and Lauren Hutton in guest roles. What's On Tonight 8 pm: Power of 10 (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); According to Jim/According to Jim (ABC); 'Til Death/'Til Death (FOX) 9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); Just for Laughs/Just for Laughs (ABC); Bones (FOX) 10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Dateline (NBC); NASCAR in Primetim