[Televisionary]

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alanis Morissette will return to Weeds for the Showtime dark comedy's sixth season, set to launch August 16th. Leigh will reprise her role as Nancy's sister Jill in one episode, with Morissette due to appear in two episodes as Andy's girlfriend Audra Kitson, who also happened to be Nancy's doctor. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Jamie Foxx has shot a trailer for a potential television project entitled Tommy's Little Girl , which features Paul Sorvino, Selma Blair, James Russo, and Tony Sirico. Project would revolve around the relationship between a mobster (Sorvino) and his daughter (Blair) and will be pitched to cable networks. ( Deadline ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello has an interview with newly promoted Grey's Anatomy series regular Sarah

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 Thursday morning television briefing. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Amy Ryan ( The Office, The Wire ) has landed a role on Season Three of HBO's psychiatric drama In Treatment , where she will play the new therapist for Gabriel Byrne's Paul. That role was formerly supplied by Dianne Wiest's Gina, who was Paul's mentor/psychotherapist for the first two seasons. (Wiest has departed the series.) [Editor: it's about high time that Ryan had a regular gig on a series. She's been a favorite since her turn on The Wire as Beadie, so it's only fitting that she returns to HBO for In Treatnment .] ( Deadline ) E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos has an interview with Glee 's Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays Will's scheming ex-wife Terri. So will Terri be returning for Season Two of Glee ? And just what was up with her potentially inappropriate interest in Finn (Cory Monteith)? While Gilsig admits that she hasn't yet received her

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Could ABC be dipping its toes back in the Alias well? According to a story by E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos, ABC Studios is said to be considering a reboot of J.J. Abrams' Alias , which starred Jennifer Garner as superspy Sydney Bristow. "It's only very initial talk at this point, but I'm told that the development folks over at the Alphabet network are considering doing a new version of Alias that would borrow some elements of the original series," writes Dos Santos. "But the series would most likely not include any sort of complex mythological throughline such as the Rambaldi prophecy (a storyline that lost some of the fans). According to this source, ABC is hoping to hold onto its lost Lost audience with a re-envisioned J.J. Abrams series, in light of FlashForward not working out so well. (It was canceled last week.)" [Editor: Interestingly, ABC seems slow to get back into the superspy game,

There are some series that manage to wrap their arms around you and never let go, making you laugh and cry in equal measure. British comedy Gavin & Stacey , which returns to BBC America for its third and final season after way too long of a break, is just one of those series, the sort that makes you laugh and cry in equal measure, filled with characters that you can't get enough of and whom it will be very hard to say goodbye to forever in just a few weeks' time. Revolving around the titular star-crossed lovers, the series--created and written by co-stars James Corden and Ruth Jones--has charted their courtship and marriage over the course of three bittersweet seasons and the reactions of their friends and family to such an unexpected match: Gavin (Mathew Horne) is, after all, an Essex lad while Stacey (Joanna Page) hails from Barry, Wales, making their marriage a union of two nations, cultures, and life philosophies. Season Three finds the pair struggling to adapt once mor

BBC America was originally meant to air Season Two of genre-busting drama series Ashes to Ashes last May, following their run of the first season of the Life on Mars sequel series starring Keely Hawes, Philip Glenister, Dean Andrews, Marshall Lancaster, and Montserrat Lombard. Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out that way. A year later, BBC America is finally bringing Season Two of Ashes to Ashes to American shores, with the first episode slated to air tonight at 10 pm ET/PT. (It's also the perfect jumping-on point for viewers who may not have seen the first season.) Thanks to a region-free DVD player and a friend in the UK, I've been writing up episodes of Ashes 's phenomenally mind-bending third season on a weekly basis over the last few weeks (the series is set to end its three-season run next week in the UK), but I wanted to resurrect my review of the first two episodes of Season Two of Ashes to Ashes , which I wrote last May and which I heaped much praise

When it came time for Steven Moffat to revisit the Weeping Angels, I didn't know how he'd be able to top their jaw-droppingly creepy debut in Season Four's "Blink." Yet, in this week's episode of Doctor Who ("The Time of Angels"), written by Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, Moffat manages to not only make the terrifying "Blink" seem like child's play in comparison, but he creates a whole new level of dread and suspense involving these otherworldly creatures, taking Doctor Who 's fairy tale ethos into a very dark place indeed. Since their introduction in "Blink," The Weeping Angels have remained my favorite Who villains to date as their very horror stems from the fact that they're quantum locked: we can't see them move or about to pounce until it's too late for us. Look away, or even blink, and they'll consume the full potential of your life. While that was already a particularly unnerving proposi

"You took it upon yourself to save me from that. That was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know." - The Doctor Despite his kindness and benevolence, The Doctor has always been a figure of immense pride that borders on hubris. As a 900-year-old Time Lord, he might risk life and limb to save Earth time and time again but it's his belief that he knows better than the planet's inhabitants, that he's better equipped to make the monumental decisions than the mere mortals whose continued existence is in his hands. The Doctor, to put it bluntly, has a bit of a God complex. This week's episode of Doctor Who ("The Beast Below"), written by Steven Moffat and directed by Andrew Gunn, found the Doctor and Amy together on their first adventure in the TARDIS and encountering the numerous secrets of Starship UK, the future of Great Britain, now a fused-together spaceship looking for a new home among the stars. As a first outing for the Doctor and his

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Mark your calendars, Mad Men fans: Season Four of the period drama is set to launch on Sunday, July 25th at 10 pm ET/PT while new drama Rubicon will launch with two back-to-back episodes on Sunday, August 1st at 8 pm before it moves into its regular 9 pm timeslot the following week. "Sunday nights are where you find the best of premium television so it should be no surprise that AMC -- the home of premium television on basic cable -- is stacking our original dramas there as well," said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, in a statement. "We welcome back Mad Men and look forward to introducing Rubicon all on Sunday nights this summer." Rubicon stars James Badge Dale ( The Pacific ), Dallas Roberts ( Walk the Line ), Jessica Collins ( The Nine ), Christopher Evan Welch ( Vicky Cristina Barcelona ), Lauren Hodges ( Law & Order ) with Arliss Howard ( The Sandlot ) and Miranda Richardson ( Sleepy Hollow ). (via

The Doctor might travel through time and space in his trademark TARDIS, a little blue police call box, but the true time machine is Doctor Who itself. When the series truly clicks, it functions as a way to travel back to our own childhoods, to recapture that feeling of awe and surprise that are unfortunately usually lost on the long road to adulthood. What Doctor Who can do is transport us back to our younger selves, to a time where we saw a very different world: one that's full of possibility and magic. I thought that the opening sequence of this weekend's season premiere of Doctor Who ("The Eleventh Hour"), written by Steven Moffat and gorgeously directed by Adam Smith, managed to achieve just that as it introduced both the Eleventh incarnation of the Time Lord known only as the Doctor (Matt Smith, taking over for David Tennant) and his latest companion, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), the girl who waited. Arriving to seemingly rescue Amy, the only Scottish girl in a sm

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. Looks like we're at the halfway point for AMC's Mad Men , at least according to creator Matthew Weiner. Speaking at last week's National Association of Broadcasters, Weiner stated that he would like to wrap up the period drama after six seasons as he couldn't see the series, produced by Lionsgate Television, going past that point. [Editor: Personally, I think that this is a good thing as an end date would allow Weiner to not only go out on a high note but begin planning the back half of the series' run while knowing just when it will end, much like Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had requested an end date for Lost /] ( The Weekly Blend via The Wrap's Weekly Blend ) Elsewhere at AMC, The Wrap's Josef Adalian is reporting that Breaking Bad is likely to be back on the cabler for a fourth season, following news that executive producers were told that the series is ready for a renewal. However, there is curren

"Trust me. I'm the Doctor." With just a few hours to go before the US premiere of Doctor Who , now starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and written by Steven Moffat, I thought I'd remind you one last time to tune in tonight to BBC America when the Doctor regenerates and sets out for a whole new series of adventures among the stars and the sands of the hourglass. You can read my spoiler-light review of the first two episodes of Doctor Who here , as well as my feature article for The Daily Beast about the Eleventh Doctor , as I interview Matt Smith and Steven Moffat about what's coming up for the Doctor, the challenges and joys of working with a character that continues to endure, romance, wardrobe choices, and much more. And, if that weren't enough Who goodness, I've got the outtakes from my feature piece, presented on this site as two Q&A-style interviews, one with Matt Smith and the other with executive producer/head writer Steven Moffat . I'll

Geronimo! The eleventh hour is upon us as the US premiere of Doctor Who , overseen by new head writer/executive producer Steven Moffat and starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, is set for tomorrow on BBC America. (I caught up with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Steven Moffat, and Russell T Davies at last night's fantastic BAFTA/LA screening, Q&A, and cocktail party here in Los Angeles.) I had the opportunity to speak to Doctor Who 's Matt Smith (who replaces David Tennant as the Time Lord known only as the Doctor) and Steven Moffat a few weeks back for a feature piece for The Daily Beast (which you can read here in its entirety ), but I wanted to dive back into both interviews to bring you the stuff that you didn't get to read in my original feature. (You can also read my review of the first two episodes here .) With Doctor Who set to premiere on Saturday on BBC America (with an extended-length episode with limited commercial interruptions), I thought I'd apply even mo