[Televisionary]

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. "We have to move the island." This week, I was once again obsessed with Lost , but paused from my island-induced stupor to remember why I love Battlestar Galactica (offering another season of religious, political, moral, and emotional conflict amid amazing special effects and a kick-ass plot), and ponder whether Gossip Girl was burning through too much story too quickly . I also celebrated the far-too-delayed elimination of Dominique on America's Next Top Model AND that a certain cheftestant on Top Chef , and offered a rundown of what series the networks might be announcing next week at the Upfronts. Oh, and I am still saddened that 30 Rock 's second season is already over, especially when faced with a funny if slightly disappointing season ender . Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed sect

"We have to move the island." If you didn't leap out of your seat upon hearing THOSE words at the end of last night's episode of Lost ("Cabin Fever"), you're in the wrong place, because I was on the edge of my seat throughout the fantastically taut (yet never overwrought) Locke-centric installment of the serpentine drama which did the nigh impossible: made me care about John Locke again. Locke was always one of my favorite characters, yet this season he has taken a backseat to the complex machinations of Benjamin Linus. I was happy to see that this episode, which painted a more intriguing and destiny-charged picture of Locke's life before the island, from his premature birth to his departure for the walkabout in Australia. Along the way, his path intersected with not one but two pivotal figures in the Lost mythos... while on the island Locke finally and wholeheartedly accepted his destiny: to save the island. So has Locke supplanted Ben as the most

I can't believe that the second season of 30 Rock is already over, just when we finally got the series back on the air after the end of the writers strike. While I found last night's episode ("Cooter") to be pretty damn funny, it didn't quite coalesce at the end in the streamlined fashioned I had hoped for. After all, this was a hugely ambitious episode, cramming in no less than four separate storylines that didn't intersect at all. Would it be possible to juggle the demands of so many competing stories in the space of approximately 21 minutes? Sadly, not quite though it gave it the old college try. Liz. I really enjoyed the A-storyline in which Liz thinks she's pregnant due to a false-positive on a series of home pregnancy tests (including one swiped from Jenna's dressing room drawer) due to the "evaporated bull semen" that gives Liz's favorite off-brand Mexican snack, Sabor de Soledad, its distinctive flavor. While everyone (including

I have always loved the "Restaurant Wars" challenge on Top Chef . It's creative, dynamic, and revealing, allowing the teams of cheftestants to create and work in their own original restaurant concepts and go head to head to prove to the chefs which of them is the best competitor and the strongest leader/chef. I was happy, however, that the producers decided NOT to include this challenge on this season of Top Chef and instead keep things more spontaneous and intriguing. Even though there were eight contestants remaining and they were separated into two teams... they would instead be competing against each other by catering for 125 people each at a wedding. Now I'm getting married in, oh, exactly five weeks from today, so I know how much work and preparation go into the Big Event (my fiancée and I have been planning for nearly a year now), so to give these teams a day and a budget of $5000 is a huge ask. I was curious to see just how they'd devise the menu, work to

I cannot even tell you how happy I am this morning after watching last night's episode of Top Model ("Ready for My Close-Up"). The competition was down to the final four girls and, while I was sad to see Kat go last week, I was (mostly) happy with the remaining models. That is, with the notable exception of Dominique. Over the past season, Dominique has transformed herself into an unlikeable, overly-confident, agressive candyholic who thrives on conflict and pushing people's buttons. I think she photographs extremely old and, while she has shown some signs of improvement, her photos--even when the judges praise them--seem extremely lackluster and flat. Her appearances at judging are comical... and terrifying. Just take a look at last week's, er, Flashdance-inspired ensemble to see what I mean. She just doesn't look like a model, not even for a second. Her revamped hairstyle make her look like a soccer mom and her clothing selections make her seem not so much g

This has been an odd development season, to say the least. While networks claim to be moving towards year-round development, it's put an odd crimp into this season, which struggled through the writers strike and truncated the time necessary to develop and produce a whole slew of pilots for network and cable, many of which will now be shot this summer... after the network upfront presentations next week. Which means that while the broadcasters will announce their fall schedules--which stand to include quite a few familiar faces along with a few new, high-profile projects--look for them to be deliberately coy about plans for midseason as they'll likely wait to make decisions about midseason pickups until late summer when these late pilot orders will be completed. So, other than NBC (which made their announcements about fall, winter, and next summer already, ordering most projects to series directly from the script stage), what can we anticipate will end up on the networks then? L

And then there were two. I was on the edge of my seat while watching last night's penultimate episode of BBC America's Last Restaurant Standing (the finale airs next Tuesday), though it was remarkable to see how much was cut from the US telecast from the original British version, including some scenes that further painted challengers Grant and Jess as slightly coming apart at the seams. But more on that in a bit. In this week's episode, married marketing professionals Grant and Laura and twin children's entertainers Jess and Laura entered Raymond Blanc's latest Challenge: to cook two of their restaurants' dishes in the kitchens of Raymond's fabled restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and serve it to 30 of Raymond's guests while their teammates worked the front of the house, making sure everything ran smoothly out front. While professional chefs like those on Top Chef could have had this in the bag, it was a quick reminder that the players here are