[Televisionary]

Personally, I enjoyed Jason Reitman's satirical feature Thank You fo r Smoking and, well, would prefer to leave it at that. Not so cabler USA, who has ordered a pilot script for a TV spinoff version of Smoking that would pickup where the feature--which starred Aaron Eckhart as an amoral lobbyist-- left off. According to Variety , "Nick Naylor, having kicked some of his more evil lobbyist habits, will use his rhetorical skills to help people more deserving of aid." Ick. Or as Jeff Wachtel, USA's programming head, put it, "He'll live somewhere between the morally ambiguous character of the movie and Robin Hood." Is it just me or should USA throw in a OCD-prone detective or a fake psychic into the mix there? What worked so well about the original was that moral vaccuum that Nick and his colleagues existed within; take that away and you have another smarmy series about a do-gooder attempting to find himself while helping others. Albeit with slightly more e...

I'm back now from London after a whirlwind week of gastronomic (not to mention liquid-based) excess and rushed home to catch the season finale of Top Chef that I had missed. (Note to self: when taking a business trip abroad, avoid scheduling it during the live finales of one of your favorite series.) I have to say that I was pretty surprised with the ultimate result; this season has had several contestants that I thought would make it all the way to the end and walk away the ultimate victor (ahem, Tre) but it looks like it just wasn't in the cards for some. Going into this finale, I was really rooting for Casey to walk away the winner of Top Chef 3 , but it wasn't too be. Sadly, I was also hoping that Dale would manage to pull this victory out of his hat after he seriously wowed me with his dishes. Sigh. In the end, the judges picked Hung. Yes, his sous vide duck with truffle-scented broth and mushroom ragout was "three star Michelin" worthy (according to guest ...

They like me, they really like me. Televisionary has been nominated as one of the best TV blogs by Hey Nielsen , a new online entity/social networking site created by (you guessed it!) those fine folks at Nielsen. The site, which allows users to submit opinions and views on various TV series, films, music, and websites, is currently in beta test mode, so you'll have to register in order to vote and comment on other's opinions. Once you do register, be sure to vote for Televisionary here and let me know what you what you think of the site by expressing your opinion.

Yes, I'm still in the UK but thanks to the Herculean efforts of one London-based Televisionary reader, I was able to watch this week's installment of FX's stunningly brilliant series Damages only a few hours after you lot. I'm so lucky that I didn't have to wait nearly a week to catch up with Patty Hewes and Company. If I hadn't already been dangerously hooked on this series, this week's episode of Damages ("Sort of Like a Family") would have done so in a heartbeat. In a single hour, this serpentine legal drama advanced the plot and made us question each and every character's motivations and allegiances. Is Tom starting to come round to Ellen's side? Perhaps. But what shocked me more what what Ellen had the guts to say to Patty Hewes. (You go, Parsons.) Ellen. Our little shrinking violet has transformed herself into a red-blooded lion over the last few episodes. I was completely gobsmacked by what Ellen said to Patty (my fiancee had to p...

What's on my mind grapes? Naturally, it's tonight's second season premiere of Emmy Award-winning comedy 30 Rock , even though I am currently half a world away. Thanks to the fine folks at NBC, I was able to take an early look at 30 Rock 's season opener ("SeinfeldVision") last week and I certainly wasn't disappointed. The episode features the return of Jerry Seinfeld to the Peacock, but I have to say that his appearance, while funny, was probably the least interesting element of the episode. So what do we get to see when 30 Rock (and its fictional show-within-a-show TGS) returns from its hiatus? In addition to Seinfeld popping up at the Rockefeller Center offices of NBC (thanks to a dastardly plot of Jack's to insert the funny man into episodes of Medium and Heroes ), there's the gargantuan (literally) return of Jenna to the show after a summer spent eating pizza on stage eight times a week as part of the cast of Mystic Pizza: The Musical . Liz Le...

It might not be the return of Veronica Mars , but ABC has brought back a Rob Thomas-created series from the dead. The broadcaster has signed a deal with Rob Thomas to develop a brand-new version of romantic comedy procedural series Cupid, about a man who believes that he is sent to Earth by Zeus in order to unite unexpected lovers. That man was played by Entourage 's Jeremy Piven, but don't expect Ari Gold to turn up in the newly fashioned Cupid project. The original series, which aired 15 episodes during the 1998-99 season, came from Sony Pictures Television; studio has given its blessing to a new version from ABC Studios, part of Thomas' one-year deal with the studio. "For the last couple years, I've been talking to ABC about how to do an anthological romantic comedy a la Cupid or Love Boat ," said Thomas. "We kept beating around ideas and kept coming back to Cupid as the best of the group. So they said to me, 'Why not go back and do Cupid aga...

I am sure that several of you, my readers, are just as excited as I am that ABC's quirky new drama Pushing Daisies , that eagerly anticipated "forensic fairy tale," launches tonight. While I've already seen the pilot (or "Pie-lette") for Pushing Daisies about eight times or so over the last five months or so, I can't wait to hear all of your reactions to what I deem to be one of the more groundbreaking and inventive (not to mention wholly imaginative) series to have come around in many, many years. (I believe I used the words "breathtaking, resplendent, and whimsical" at one point.) To that end, I've included below a round-up of all the important Pushing Daisies content that has run on Televisionary over the past few months to whet your appetite for tonight's series premiere. So sit back, snuggle up with your favorite monkey statuette, and prepare to fall in love with Pushing Daisies . Pilot Inspektor: Pushing Daisies : The first publ...