[Televisionary]

“Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience.” - Schopenhauer There are few series that I've found myself as invested in, emotionally and mentally, than FX's dynamic serpentine legal thriller Damages , created with crackling wit by Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, and Daniel Zelman. Damages offers a chance to go down the rabbit hole, to enter a world of high-stakes courtroom intrigue that is a dark mirror to our own, in which millionaire litigators plot murders with the efficiency and ease one might reserve for making a car payment and in which first year law associates can turn the tables on their masters. It's a series filled with betrayals, double-crosses, and neck-snapping plot twists... and one that I simply cannot get my fill of. So it was with a certain relish that I sat down last week to watch the brilliant first two episodes of Damages ' sophomore season, which kicks off on January 7th on FX. Season One, of course, memorably ended with

Last night brought us the conclusion of the latest cycle of CBS' reality franchise The Amazing Race and, while this past season hasn't been the series' best, I do have to say that I was caught up in the action, tension, and Peter Pan-high flying escapades of last night's installment. (Additionally, my wife is originally from Portland, Oregon so it's likely that there was a fair amount of nostalgia for PDX going on for the final leg of the million-dollar race. Not to mention cheering when they showed that iconic Made in Oregon sign.) I have to say that, while I wasn't the biggest champion for this lackluster season, I was happy about the final outcome of the race and pleased as punch that mistake-prone frat boys Dan and Andrew didn't walk away with the top prize. (Come on, even if you haven't yet seen last night's finale, you know they had a snowball's chance in hell of winning this thing.) I knew from the very start that Nick and Starr would win

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I'm still exhausted after a weekend filled with holiday walks, holiday drinks, and, well, more holiday drinks. But I rallied myself last night for the Amazing Race season finale and another superlative episode of BBC America's Skins , which only has two installments left this season. Hold onto your hats, fanboys and girls: ABC has given a put pilot commitment to Fables , a series adaptation of the popular DC comics title about characters from various fairy tales who live in exile in modern-day Manhattan. Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner ( Six Degrees ) will write the pilot script and executive produce, though no word on which characters from the comic will turn up in the series other than Snow White and Big Bad Wolf. David Semel ( Heroes ) will direct the pilot for the Warner Bros. TV project, which had been previously set up at NBC during the 2006-07 development season with Craig Silverstein attached to write. ( Hollywood Rep

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 took a look back at those five suggestions to improve Fringe that I made in October to see if the writers had addressed any of them since then . I also posted advance reviews up of TNT's Leverage and BBC America's bittersweet Gavin & Stacey season finale , as well as my thoughts on this week's installments of Chuck , Pushing Daisies , 30 Rock ,and Top Chef: New York . All this plus news about the first footage from Season Five of ABC's Lost , CW developing a spin-off of Gossip Girl , Bryan Fuller heading back to Heroes and Mad Men 's John Hamm heading to 30 Rock , NBC's midseason lineup (including less Knight Rider !), delays with that planned Veronica Mars feature film , and Sci Fi ordering BSG spin-off Caprica to series . Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed

Ah, 30 Rock . You're always good for several dozen belly laughs after being let down each week after yet another tepid episode of The Office . Last night was no exception to the rule with the latest episode of 30 Rock ("Reunion"), in which Liz debated the merits of attending her high school reunion and gets dragged there by Jack, reeling from Don Geiss' decision to remain CEO possibly forever, who tags along for some booze when he's stranded in Liz's dry-docked hometown of White Haven. And, oh, we learn that nerdy girl Liz was actually the school bully. (Nice twist, that.) Meanwhile, back at TGS, Tracy is irate when Kenneth gets more laughs than he does in the NBC elevators and enlists Jenna to enact a bitter revenge. While still a great episode, I do have to say that I enjoyed the first half of "Reunion" more than the latter part, which dragged more than a little with the White Haven stuff after we learned that Liz was a mean girl in high school. S

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I'm now seriously behind on my telly-viewing as I was out last night at the West 3rd Street Holiday Walk, where I bumped into Anne Hathaway and Alan Rickman, but I did manage to watch The Office and 30 Rock , naturally. Today's biggest headline is that CW has announced that it will pursue developing a spin-off of teen-centric drama Gossip Girl . Rather than shoot a pilot, however, the CW will use an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl to function as a backdoor pilot in order to save costs and test the concept before committing to a series order. One caveat: the untitled spin-off will not be an adaptation of novel series "The It Girl" and will not focus on Jenny Humphrey. So who could be the focus of said spin-off? It's likely that producers would select one of Gossip Girl 's main cast members to spin-off but it's difficult to figure out who the most likely candidate would be. Or producers could introduce a

I've always been a huge fan of Pushing Daisies , ever since I read the pilot script way back in the fall of 2006, but last night's aptly-named episode ("Comfort Food")--written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Douglas Petrie--was perhaps one of the very best installments of our quirky and beloved series to date, as comforting as a warm apple pie and a cup of milky tea. (That's saying a lot when you have a series as consistently great and rewarding week-to-week as Pushing Daisies .) From the opening sequence, in which Young Ned first discovers that his homemade pies make other homesick students as comforted as they do him, to the end of the episode where Ned discovers that Chuck has dealt him a most cutting betrayal, "Comfort Food" elevates Pushing Daisies ' bag of tricks to new levels. Yes, there's the usual adorable lovey-doveyness between Chuck and Ned (loved the plastic partition--with an arm for snuggling--separating their beds) and the witt