[Televisionary]

I was beyond excited to see BBC's new drama offering Bonekickers , an archeological mystery/thriller/action-adventure series. After all, the six-part series--which launched on BBC1 last week--came from Ashley Pharoah and Mathew Graham, creators of that iconic Brit series Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes . So it had to be fantastic, right? Sadly, that statement couldn't be further from the truth. I was expecting Bonekickers to be an amusing romp that didn't exactly hew closely to the actual, you know, science of archeology by any means; I didn't expect that it would be a moronic assemblage of hackneyed dialogue, unsympathetic and ridiculous characters, and painfully hammy acting. To call Bonekickers inane is to let it get off easy; it deserves to be buried under six feet of ground. Let's backtrack a bit and talk about Bonekickers ' whisper of a plot. Created by Pharoah and Graham, Bonekickers takes a look at a team of archeologists led by the brilliant Dr. Gil

Buh-bye, Henry. That's the word from ABC this morning as Ugly Betty co-star Christopher Gorham, who plays Betty Suarez's hapless romantic interest Henry, has signed on to star in CBS' midseason slasher drama Harper's Island . Gorham will replace Ryan Merriman ( Veritas: The Quest ), who appeared in the original pilot presentation of Harper's Island . Gorham will play groom Henry Dunn, whose friends and family depart for a destination wedding on the bride and groom's island childhood home, only to be picked off one by one at the hands of a psychotic killer, long thought killed by the island's sheriff... who happens to be the father of wedding guest Abby (Elaine Cassidy), Henry's best friend whose mother was one of the killer's victims during their childhood. (A nice cheery series, no?) Personally, I loathed the original pilot script and thought that the pilot presentation that CBS assembled (which was basically a chunk of scenes from the pilot script

Doesn't it seem like a year since we've seen a new episode of NBC's action comedy Chuck ? I feel like I only half-remember how the series' freshman season even ended . Fortunately, NBC will be relaunching Chuck this fall and I hope that the Peacock's marketing and promotional budget is well spent driving viewers back to this hilarious and gripping series. Plus, we've got Arrested Development 's Tony Hale joining the cast as Emmett, the new assistant manager at the Buy More (filling the position vacated by Harry Tang) whose skills as an efficiency expert make him a dangerous workplace adversary for Chuck and Morgan. But that's not all. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jordana Brewster ( The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and, if you caught it last year, the botched pilot for Mr. and Mrs. Smith ) will join the cast of Chuck next season in at least three episodes. Who will Brewster play? Why Chuck Bartowski's l

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation. This week, I gave a rare second chance to HBO's upcoming vampire drama True Blood (from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball), taking another look at the pilot installment's revised version and the series' second episode , kicking off this September. But did I change my tune about the series this time around? Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the following items... Buzz was pretty delighted by her first glimpse of NBC's Kath and Kim . ( BuzzSugar ) This week, Sandie shared her visit on the set of The Closer . ( Daemon's TV ) Getting ready for Burn Notice's second season, Rae shares her talk with Props Master Charlie Guanci, Jr. ( RTVW ) Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, kids of all ages, Scooter McGavin p

Missing The Office ? After a sub-par season (and one hell of a great season finale guest starring Amy Ryan ), I didn't think I'd be missing NBC's once-great comedy series The Office , but I am feeling nostalgic for the good old days. I'm still hopeful that the series' writers can pull it together (as evidenced by the aforementioned finale episode "Goodbye, Toby") and lure me back to what was one of my favorite series. In the meantime, NBC has just launched the second webisode series based around The Office , this time entitled "Kevin's Loan." Like before, it doesn't feature the series' lead actors (the core four, anyway) but if you're craving a trip to Scranton, here's the first installment ("Money Trouble"): Oh, Kevin, when will you learn? I'm seeing now that there's a reason why it was so easy for Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) to believe that he's, er, special.

Mario van Peebles is heading back to Damages . The legal drama-turned-labyrinthine mystery series has been quietly filling out its cast for its sophomore season, set to kick off on FX sometime in early 2009. After all, a series that kills off most of its freshman year characters definitely needs to fill out its ranks in time for its return to the airwaves. Joining Damages for its second year of legal briefs, backstabbing, and betrayal so far are William Hurt, who has been cast as a new high-profile client of Patty Hewes who also shares a link to her secret past (could it be her first husband? or the father of the child she lost?), and Timothy Olyphant, who will play an ambitious attorney and potential love interest for Rose Byrne's Ellen Parsons. Additionally, Mario van Peebles will reprise his role as FBI Special Agent Harrison, involved in an ongoing investigation of Patty Hewes herself. Van Peebles guest starred at the end of Damages ' first season and, given Ellen's de

Back in May, I wrote a pretty negative review of the original pilot for HBO's upcoming Alan Ball vampires-in-the-South drama True Blood , based on the novel series by Charlaine Harris. (You can read my original review here .) Since then, I was contacted by HBO, who asked me to take another look at True Blood 's revised pilot ("Strange Love"), which recast one major character and altered a few scenes, and the series' second episode. Always willing to take another look at something, I agreed, especially when the project in question is the next HBO Sunday night lynchpin and comes from such storied auspices. So did writer/director Alan Ball ( Six Feet Under ) and producers manage to fix some of the problems I had with the original pilot for True Blood ? Let's discuss. For those of you who didn't read my original review of True Blood (and shame on you if you didn't!), here's the quick recap of the plot of True Blood : vampires have "come out of t