[Televisionary]

Last night's episode of Lost ("Lockdown") turned up the suspense and drama as writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse gave us some new mysteries to ponder while simultaneously drawing others to a close. This week, Jack and Sawyer discover a mutual interest in card games, Ana-Lucia, Sayid, and Charlie go on a stroll in the jungle, and Locke bonds with the captive. Oh and the station seems to go crazy. Almost forgot about that. Picking up where we left off last week, Ana-Lucia, Sayid, and Charlie continue to hunt for their prisoner Henry Gale's smiley face balloon, following a map that he drew. A map that might just lead them into a trap. However, the troika manages to find the balloon, caught up in the trees, exactly where Henry told them it would be. And just beneath it, a marked grave where Henry said that he buried his wife after she died. So then Henry Gale isn't an Other, right? His story checks out. Well, more about that later... Meanwhile, back at camp, Hur

For fans of Arrested Development , it looks like the fat lady just sang. Or at least the spokesperson for 20th Century Fox Television. The studio behind Arrested Development issued a statement earlier today that confirmed that the brilliant-but-not-yet-cancelled comedy about the exploits of a certain dysfunctional Orange County family would now unfortunately be referred to as merely brilliant-but-cancelled. A 20th Century Fox Television spokesperson told Variety this morning that the studio had no plans to continue production on the show, which ignominiously ended its third-season run last month with a glorious two-hour death that unfortunately no one watched as it was on up against the opening ceremonies of the Olympics (shame on all of you!). In an official statement printed by Variety, a studio spokesperson tried to cast some doubt that this was in fact the end of the road for the beseiged Bluth family: "While there are no plans to resume production at this time, we know all

I was planning on writing this column for a while now but with the recent death of Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis on Monday, I figured that now would be the best time to take a look back at one of television's most seminal shows, Dark Shadows , and its many incarnations over the years. After all, what other television series can boast a long-running daily soap, a nighttime drama, two features, and a pilot among its checkered past? I first discovered Dark Shadows in its 1991 incarnation, a nighttime drama for NBC that had the unfortunate distinction of airing--and getting preempted--during the network coverage of the Gulf War. I immediately fell in love with the show and its blend of campy horror and soapy drama and set out to immerse myself in the show's lore, seeking out VHS tapes of the original serial from the 1960s and 1970s and scouring the bookstores for books about the series. And later, while watching Buffy 's resident vampire-with-a-soul Angel struggle with his

Variety is reporting today that Arrested Development showrunner Mitch Hurwitz would not continue with the show, should a deal between studio 20th Century Fox and Showtime go through, putting a spanner in any potential deal to save the beleaguered comedy, which recently concluded its (truncated) three season run on Fox. Showtime president Bob Greenblatt had said in the past that Hurwitz was a crucial part of any deal involving Arrested Development . If Hurwitz is no longer part of the package, then there's no possible way for any deal to go forward at Showtime. The reason behind the split? According to Hurwitz, the decision was based on both financial and creative concerns. (Why, Mitch, why?) Hurwitz told Variety: "The fans have been so ardent in their devotion and in return... I've given everything I can to the show in order to try to live up to their expectations. I finally reached a point where I felt I couldn't continue to deliver that on a weekly basis. Of course

Anthony Bourdain is commonly referred to as the enfant terrible of the culinary set. The author of the critically acclaimed foodie memoir "Kitchen Confidential" (itself the basis for an unfortunately failed FOX single camera comedy this season), Bourdain is a chef (at the world famous Brasserie Les Halles restaurant in Manhattan), writer, critic, and life-long cynic. He's also the host of the Travel Channel's brilliant series No Reservations (gotta love that culinary pun). No Reservations isn't a cooking show or a travel show. Really, it's a travel show about cooking. But even that designation doesn't really capture the essence of the show. Bourdain's previous show, A Cook's Tour , on the Food Network also depicted Bourdain traveling the world in search of exotic foodstuffs. But that series relied more heavily on the shock value of witnessing Bourdain eat anything that came his way (see Anthony eat a still-beating cobra heart!) than No Reservati

I was more than a little impressed by how much I enjoyed last night's episode of The Simpsons . But then again, considering it was written by (and guest starred) comedy legend Ricky Gervais, I shouldn't have been all that surprised. He is, after all, the man who brought us David Brent, HBO's Extras , and a certain Guinness Record-holding weekly podcast. (First off, I have to take a moment and just gush about the live-action opening that Fox used last night for The Simpsons . In an episode featuring one of Britain's top comedians, it's only fitting that producers used the live-action opening sequence created by a bunch of Brits for a promo that aired on the UK's Sky network. From the opening images of the nuclear plant's smoke stacks to baby Maggie getting scanned at the grocery check-out and little Lisa whailing away on her saxophone, it was sheer genius. Every moment tracked beautifully and in three-dimensional brilliant color. Having seen it online, I had

Somehow I've managed to miss out on the Doctor Who craze for most of my life. I've caught a few episodes here and there of the Tom Baker incarnation and of course I am familiar with the Doctor's most famous villains, those salt shaker-shaped aliens called the Daleks. Yet, I've never really connected with the character or the show (that might have something to do with the way sub-par special effects). So I was wary but open-minded about the BBC's new Doctor Who series, which premiered in the States last week on the Sci-Fi Channel. Re-envisioned by Russell Davies (creator of the original British Queer as Folk ), this Doctor Who is several worlds away from the original 26-year-running cult series. Managing to retain the original's sense of camp and whimsy, the new Doctor Who features Christopher Eccleston as the latest incarnation of a being known only as the Doctor, the last of an alien race called the Time Lords. He travels through space and time in a ship