[Televisionary]

Christmas has once again come early. Fans of British import drama Life on Mars can look forward to the launch of its sequel Ashes to Ashes on BBC America in the new year. The digital cabler announced today that it had acquired sixteen episodes of Ashes to Ashes , starring Keeley Hawes, Philip Glenister, Dean Andrews, Marshall Lancaster, and Montserrat Lombard, and plans to launch the series in March 2009. Ashes to Ashes , from creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah, is set after the events of Life on Mars . The series follows Detective Inspector Alex Drake (Hawes), a London police profiler who finds herself seemingly sent back in time to 1981 after she's shot in the head. In 1981, she comes face to face with none other than Gene Hunt (Glenister), whom Alex recognizes from Sam Tyler's descriptions after his "return" to the present day, and becomes enmeshed in solving the mystery of who murdered her parents, even as she attempts to return home to her young daughte...

New details have emerged about NBC's post-Super Bowl hour-long episode of The Office , which will guest Jack Black ( Tropic Thunder ). The special one-hour Office installment will be titled "Stress Relief," and is set to air at 10:30 pm ET (and air simultaneously in all time zones) on Sunday, February 1st. In a meta-theatrical twist, Black will play himself in a Hollywood film alongside several other "notable Hollywood actors," according to an NBC press release. In one of the hour-long episode's plots, several Dunder-Mifflin employees attempt to screen a bootlegged version of the film at the office during the day. The Office 's "Stress Relief" will air immediately after Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday, February 1st.

Best. Christmas. Episode. Ever. It's clear that Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz enjoys a good Christmas episode. After all, The O.C. 's "The Best Chrismukkah Ever" is still to this date one of my all-time favorite holiday television episodes (along with A Charlie Brown Christmas , of course) and tonight's installment of Chuck ("Chuck Versus Santa Claus") doesn't disappoint on any level, as an episode of the best darn action-comedy hybrid series or as a Christmas tie-in. Thanks to the generosity of Josh Schwartz and Warner Bros. Television, Christmas came early to the Televisionary household as I was able to take an advance look at tonight's episode of Chuck , written by Scott Rosenbaum (who also wrote "Chuck Versus the Break-Up" and co-wrote Season One's "Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami"), in which Chuck and the Buy More gang--along with Ellie, Devon, and Sarah--get taken hostage at the Buy More on the day before Ch...

With the premiere of the final batch of episodes of Battlestar Galactica slated for next month, those of us addicted to BSG have been grasping at anything to fulfill our next fix. Luckily then, that Sci Fi have chosen now to release a new batch of Battlestar webisodes entitled "The Face of the Enemy," new installments of which will launch each Monday and Wednesday leading up to the January 21st premiere of Battlestar Galactica 's final episodes. The premise? A Raptor, carrying a morpha-addicted Felix Gaeta, a few members of the Galactica crew, and some Cylon Model Number Eights, makes an unexpected detour when it seemingly jumps away from the fleet. When one of them dies under mysterious circumstances, everyone aboard the ship is a suspect. And, oh, we get to see who Gaeta has been dating. Missed Part One? No worries as you can watch it in full after the jump. I thought it interesting that Tigh would be so merciful as to give Gaeta some time away from the CIC, giving h...

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing. I'm still in shock after last night's jaw-dropping episode of Skins on BBC America; fortunately, I've already got the season finale in my possession. Otherwise, I think I would explode from anticipation. Lost fans can look forward to watching Season Five of the ABC hit without interruption, according to sources. However, the network has expressed some interest in stretching out the fifth season with one or two weeks off, in order to have the finale air closer to the end of May sweeps, so don't count this a done deal quite yet. ( TV Guide ) It looks like One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn will write the script for the CW's update of Melrose Place , after all. That is, one a deal closes. Schwahn is currently under a deal at Warners, which produces One Tree Hill, and although he recently signed a deal with CBS Paramount Network Television, that deal does not start until June. Additionally, his current Warners deal ...

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 was all about looking forward, with advance reviews of Season Two of FX's Damages and the pilot script for ABC's Flash Forward , which could just be the next Lost . I was also excited about ABC developing a television series based on DC Comics' Fables and that the right team won the latest edition of The Amazing Race , baffled about NBC's decision to give the 10 pm weeknight timeslot to Jay Leno , and happy that Bryan Fuller would get a chance in post to add an appropriate ending to Pushing Daisies . And I criticized the Hollywood Foreign Press for omitting Lost from its picks for Golden Globe nominees . All this and discussions about the latest episodes of Gossip Girl , Chuck , Pushing Daisies , and 30 Rock . Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, membe...

And that's how you do a Christmas episode. I'm speaking, of course, about last night's brilliant episode of 30 Rock ("Christmas Special"), written by Kay Cannon and Tina Fey, in which Liz attempts to do something good for mankind by participating in a charity program that pairs disadvantaged kids' letters to Santa with "lonely white ladies" who buy them presents, Jack runs over his mother Colleen (guest star Elaine Stritch) and is forced to spend Christmas with her in New York, and the TGS gang has to put on a last-minute Christmas special. In true 30 Rock style, the episode featured allusions to nude sunbathing in Rio, Liz putting her foot in her mouth and exhibiting symptoms of mild racism with some non-rapping "rapping Black Santas," and Jack and Colleen singing a duet of "The Christmas Song" after reconciling. I'll admit that I love it each and every time Elaine Stritch drops by the set of 30 Rock : her Colleen is so ac...