[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that Starz is developing a US adaptation of Aussie crime series Underbelly , which has aired Stateside on DirecTV's Channel 101, following a deal to acquire the U.S. rights to the gritty crime drama, which some have likened to Australia's answer to The Sopranos ... which Starz topper Chris Albrect himself oversaw when he headed up HBO. "Albrecht is clearly hoping Underbelly ’s phenomenal success in Australia (its 2008 premiere drew more viewers there than any other non-sports broadcast, and the show won the country's equivalent of the Emmy for best drama) can be replicated here," writes Adalian. "Since the show is based on real events that took place in Australia starting in the 1970s, Starz can't simply film the original scripts using American actors. But the network is currently researching various American crime families that they can build effective story arc

It's official: HBO has renewed True Blood for a fourth season. It's hardly a surprising twist of fate for the vampire drama series, which has brought the pay cabler some of its highest ratings since The Sopranos and has tapped into an insatiable public appetite for all things vampiric. "The new season of True Blood is off to a terrific start, as enthusiasm for this unique show continues to build among both subscribers and critics,” said Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming, in a statement. "We’re looking forward to more chills from Alan Ball and his gifted team next year." "I am beyond thrilled to be able to continue working with this amazing cast and crew," said creator/executive producer Alan Ball. "This is the most fun I have ever had." Production on Season Four of True Blood is slated to get underway next January, with the fourth season set to air next summer. The full press release from HBO, announcing the renewal, can be fou

Suffering isn't just the provenance of the living within the world of True Blood . In fact, everyone--whether human, vampire, or shifter--must make their way through the world carrying their own pain and misery in their bones. That truth--one spoken ages ago by the Buddha himself--is the underlying thread within this week's episode of True Blood ("Beautifully Broken"), written by Raelle Tucker and directed by Scott Winant, in which several characters attempt to come to grips with the sources of their suffering: anguish over a lost loved one, abandonment during childhood, and the haunting of some bitter memories better left buried. When the Buddha wrote that life was dukkha , he didn't mean "pain" or suffering precisely (though Lafayette quotes him as saying such). Rather, he posited that life was analogous to disquietude--to interruptions--the way a potter's wheel might skip rather than turn smoothly. But the intent is the same. What we're seein

What do we have when even memories fade? When our own past is brutally ripped away from us, when time itself is so malleable that it can be rewritten to erase the memory of a loved one from existence itself? The Doctor has traveled throughout time and space, arriving at fixed points in time and others that are far more changeable. He's witnessed beautiful and terrible things but likely none more heartbreaking than being forced to remember it all, even when those around you forget, waking up to a false dream that's far too real and far too tragic. On this week's episode of Doctor Who ("Cold Blood"), the second half of the installment established in last week's "The Hungry Earth," the Doctor attempted to launch a desperate rescue mission under the surface of the Earth to recover those taken by the Silurians to their civilization down below--including Amy Pond herself--while on the surface, Rory and a ragrag group attempted to gain information from the

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. It's official: former Life on Mars star Jason O'Mara has signed on to topline FOX's new action-adventure series Terra Nova , following the successful close of his deal, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. Series revolves around a family from the future who travels back in time to the Earth's prehistoric past in order to save mankind. O'Mara will play Jim Shannon, described as "a devoted father with a checkered past who guides his family through this new land of limitless beauty, mystery and terror." (The role was reportedly offered to Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler prior to O'Mara.) Alex Graves ( Fringe will direct the pilot. ( Deadline ) Back Stage's Jessica Jardine has an interview with True Blood 's Mariana Klaveno, who plays Bill's maker, the devious vampire Lorena. "That's one of the really brilliant things about the show," said Klaveno. "[The wr

Julia McKenzie's intrepid armchair detective Miss Jane Marple returns to Masterpiece Mystery this Sunday evening with the first of two brand-new installments of Marple that are bound to delight connoisseurs of crime. The two spellbinding installments, "The Mystery of Chimneys" and "The Blue Geranium" follow last month's "The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side," which kicked off a new collection of Six By Agatha , Masterpiece Mystery 's pod of Agatha Christie-based programming that includes three installments of Marple and three of Poirot , including an adaptation of Christie's classic potboiler, "Murder on the Orient Express." Here, McKenzie returns as Miss Marple, the elderly spinster whose kindly exterior belies the rapier wit of a first rate detective... and who finds herself often crossing paths with murder itself, whether it be in amid the hedgerows of a postcard-perfect English village or in the faded ballroom of an ornate

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. The Hollywood Reporter 's James Hibberd is reporting that Showtime has renewed Billie Piper-led dark comedy Secret Diary of a Call Girl for a fourth season, which would be the series' last. The series, which airs on ITV2 in the UK, is expected to return in early 2011 and the final season would likely focus on the relationship between Piper's Belle/Hannah and her best friend Ben (Iddo Goldberg). ( Hollywood Reporter 's The Live Feed ) UPDATE: According to Showtime's press release, "Season Four, which will be comprised of eight, half-hour episodes, will follow Belle (Piper), an internationally successful author, torn between her career and her feelings for her best friend Ben (Iddo Goldberg). Additionally, Season Four will feature a storyline where the high-end London call girl visits New York City." The Wrap's Hunter Walker has details on HBO's latest pilot, Tilda , the Diane Keaton-led comedy wh