[Televisionary]

With Heather out of the running, I'm really not too sure who to root for on America's Next Top Model , which wraps its ninth season (ahem, cycle) tonight after a runway showdown between the final two girls in Beijing. While the final three girls are certainly beautiful in their own rights, I have to say that I am amazed (shocked, even) that Chantal is still there. Yes, she's cute and bubbly and screams Seventeen magazine, but I don't really think of her as top model material, even if that's print modeling. Chantal's pictures, to me, just come across as pretty flat (or even flatly pretty) but there's nothing original or striking about her. She's the equivalent of a blonde paper doll: pretty but ultimately blandly one-dimensional. Saleisha seems to be the one with the most raw talent but, while she's the most confident on the runway, her pictures don't seem to capture the intensity and skill that she possesses. Also, I don't care what you call

So hopefully you all tuned in and watched last night's two-hour installment of Life on Mars (well, two back-to-back one-hour episodes anyway), so here's your chance to talk back about the second season opener. If you haven't yet seen the episodes in question, beware as there are spoilers lurking here. (If you missed my advance review of the two episodes, click here to read.) What was with that near-kiss between Annie and Sam? So tantalizingly close! I am happy, however, to see Annie join the CID as a plainclothes detective (a difference between the UK and potential US version, which already has Annie as a full detective when the pilot begins) as hopefully this will mean she finally gets a little bit of the respect she deserves. One word: stinger. I was completely stunned by that shocker of a telephone call in which Sam connected with the mysterious caller from Hyde, who promptly told him that he should not be contacting him as it's not part of "the plan." Hm

Just in the nick of time (what with the holidays upon us and the strike in no signs of wrapping up any time soon), BBC America is finally bringing the second season of Life on Mars to this side of the pond. For those of you who don't know, I'm absolutely obsessed with Life on Mars , which stars John Simm ( State of Play, Doctor Who ) as Sam Tyler, a police detective who--following a car accident in 2006 during the pursuit of a serial killer who may have taken his girlfriend prisoner--wakes up in 1973 Manchester to the sounds of David Bowie, bell-bottom pants, rampant sexism on the force, and a general lack of policing savvy. The first season of this groundbreaking series focused on Sam's attempts to get home and to determine whether he had (A) gone mad, (B) fallen into a coma, or (C) truly traveled back in time to the year 1973 and joined up with the Manchester police force under the steely and often pigheaded gaze of DCI Gene Hunt (Phillip Glenister). At the end of the fi

I'm still recovering from the past few days of junkets and press days for some of my favorite series, but one of the highlights has got to be hanging out with Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin from Chuck . Yes, I spent yesterday with the troika from NBC's spy-themed action comedy while they shot some promos and photos to publicize the first season of Chuck , currently sold into more territories around the world than I can count. While I still have to sift through my notes and transcribe the several hours worth of digital tape, I'll just tell you now that this threesome is just as hilarious and dynamic as they seem on the television screen. While last week's episode of Chuck was the last one we'll be seeing for now, there are two more completed episodes in the can (the cast wrapped this past week), but it's anybody's guess as to when we'll be seeing these comedic gems. (My thoughts: it's February sweeps.) What we do know is that the n

If one positive programming-related development comes out of the networks' sudden and terrifying need for mass quantities of reality TV, this is it. CBS has quickly ordered another season --the series' 13th--of reality stalwart The Amazing Race , a series many had written off after it failed to find a place earlier this year on the network's fall schedule. The Tiffany Network had originally intended to hold Season Twelve of The Amazing Race until sometime in 2008 but, after the swift and justified guillotining of musical-drama Viva Laughlin , went ahead and gave that timeslot back to TAR . The strategy has paid off as Amazing Race has racked up its best ratings since 2005 and CBS' decision to quickly pick it up for another season makes me believe we'll be seeing another edition of the Phil Keoghan-hosted series before the 2007-08 season is out. (According to Reality Blurred , casting on the 13th season is already complete.) Let's just hope it's not another

I heart Gina Torres. It doesn't matter what she's in or what role she's playing, whether it be kickass Russian superspy Anna Espinosa on Alias , the steely second-in-command Zoe on Firefly , or demon goddess Jasmine on Angel , I'll follow this woman just about anywhere (except maybe to her FOX series last season, Standoff ). So I was so happy to see Torres turn up this week on one of my favorite new series this season, Dirty Sexy Money ("The Nutcracker"), where she seems to be recurring as a graceful African princess who just happens to be the ex-wife of Darling nemesis Simon Elder. While I knew Torres would be turning up on the primetime soap, I had no idea it would be such a juicy role, given Elder's prominence in the plot at the moment. While Torres only appeared in one scene--in which Simon introduces new paramour Karen Darling to his, er, darling ex-wife--it hinted at things to come. Why exactly did Simon need his ex-wife's blessing to begin datin

While I've been really enjoying this season of The Amazing Race (especially after the evil, evil blondes got cut), I am really quite curious about whether or not there will be a non-elimination leg. After all, I was convinced that this week's episode ("Cherry on Top of the Sundae That's Already Melted") would prove to be a non-elimination but I was dead wrong. This week's installment took the teams to the stunningly beautiful city of Dubrovnik, Croatia... after a series of irritating airport-related problems that separated the teams into three clumps that removed all tension and mystery from who would be eliminated. That said, I was surprised to see Azaria and Hendekea catch up to Nicholas and Donald, who took forever on the Road Block task and allowed the sibs to nearly catch up with them (or so it seemed from some sneaky editing, anyway). While the airport-related snafus are always a part of Amazing Race , the editors seem to telegraph them far too easily t