Skip to main content

Posts

Channel Surfing: Evan Rachel Wood Bites into "True Blood," Mary-Louise Parker Not Leaving "Weeds," "Lost" 100th Episode to "Flash Forward," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Evan Rachel Wood ( The Wrestler ) has been cast on HBO's True Blood , where she will guest star in two episodes as Sophie-Anne, a 500-year-old French vampire who is the Queen of Louisiana. Woods will turn up towards the end of Season Two, which kicks off on June 14th, but is expected to reprise her role should True Blood be renewed for a third season. Her character, Sophie-Anne, is described as "who is charming, wily, ruthless and wise. She's a consummate diplomat who has (or had) many of history's most famous people on speed dial." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Nancy Botwin may have left Agrestic behind but Weeds ' Mary-Louise Parker isn't going anywhere. "No. That's not true," said series creator Jenji Kohan when asked whether Parker would leave Weeds now that Jennifer Jason Leigh had been cast in the series. Leigh's character will appear in just a handful of episo

Bad Dreams: Olivia Has Murder in Mind on "Fringe"

Memory is a funny thing. Last night's episode of Fringe ("Bad Dreams"), written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, offered us some insight into just what might have happened to Olivia as a child, providing a past connection between her and Walter Bishop even as Olivia is drawn into an intense mental connection with a man she can't remember ever having met. While it still involved a standalone investigation, this week's installment furthered the overarching mythology of the series as it relates to Olivia Dunham's childhood and her exposure to Cortexiphan, the abilities she seemingly displayed in "Ability," and the enigmatic Z.F.T. terrorist cell, which preaches about a coming war between Earth and the denizens of a parallel dimension. Could it be that things are finally coming together now as the walls close in on Olivia? That the forces rallied around her--the Bishops, the Fringe Division, Massive Dynamics--are all aware of her own involvement in The P

The Sea Bass is Actually Oysters: Teams Struggle to Get the Details Right on "Last Restaurant Standing"

I thought that last night's episode of BBC America's deliciously addictive culinary competition series Last Restaurant Standing ("Masterclass") was a fantastic way for the three remaining teams to prove their mettle to the master chef himself. For far too long this season, the chefs--and indeed their front-of-house counterparts--have been able to hide in the confines of their kitchen without Raymond looking over their shoulder too much. No more. This week, Raymond put each team through a mini-masterclass, with the chefs cooking with him in the kitchens at the exquisite Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons (and undergoing an impromptu blind herb taste test) and the front-of-house staffers working a busy lunch service at perfectionist David Moore's London restaurant. It was a suitable challenge for both teams, who would have to make sure that they got all of their details right, whether that meant cooking their turbot to the very point of perfection or making sure the cha

Channel Surfing: NBC Dethrones "Kings" Until June, Team Darlton Talks "Lost," ABC Circles "Old Christine," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. NBC has pulled freshman drama Kings from its schedule, effective immediately. The drama was originally set to air on Thursday evenings but the Peacock shifted it to Sundays, where it aired four low-rated episodes before being pushed to the graveyard on Saturday nights. NBC has once again managed to surprise, this time by pulling Kings from its lineup altogether, although the network has pledged to return Kings to the schedule on June 13th, when it will begin to burn off the remainder of the series' unaired installments on Saturday nights at 8 pm. In the meantime, NBC will air repeats of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Southland, and Law & Order on Saturdays. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Variety 's Season Pass has a brand-new Q&A with Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse as they look back at the five seasons that have gone by and the final season yet to come. "I think our hope is that

Colonel of Truth: Chuck Faces the Future on "Chuck"

Was it just me or was last night's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Colonel") as action-packed and emotionally taut as many season finales? This week's installment marked the penultimate episode of Season Two of Chuck , written by Matt Miller (who also scripted "Chuck Versus the Beefcake," among others), and found Chuck and Sarah squaring off against John Casey (ahem, sorry, make that Colonel John Casey, who was promoted to the titular position after the demise of the human Intersect project) as they worked to free Chuck's dad Stephen (Scott Bakula) from the clutches of Fulcrum. "Chuck Versus the Colonel" would have been a fantastic season ender as it featured some shocking plot twists (more on those in a bit) that have perhaps forever changed the dynamic of the series, should we be lucky enough to have it continue beyond next week. The fact that the writing team was so willing to alter the series' main format--and complicate many of t

Televisionary Exclusive: Showrunner Jane Espenson Talks About "Caprica" Series

While Battlestar Galactica may have ended about a month ago, fans of the award-winning Sci Fi series have been eagerly awaiting Caprica , the next (or is it previous?) chapter in the BSG saga, set roughly fifty years before the start of BSG 's mini-series. (You can read my advance review here .) With Caprica 's two-hour pilot now available on DVD and as a digital download, I had a feeling many of you would be curious about what to expect when the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica returns in 2010 as a full-fledged series of its own on Syfy. To that end, I caught up with Caprica 's showrunner/executive producer Jane Espenson a few weeks ago to find out what is in store for the residents of the doomed planet, how the series will be different from the two-hour pilot, how the notion of the One True God plays into things, and what fans of BSG should anticipate from this sleek series. Televisionary: How would you pitch Caprica as a series to viewers of BSG who ar

First Look: "True Blood" Season Two

Hungry for a second bite? HBO's True Blood doesn't return for a second season until June but you can take a look at a rather scary new clip from Season Two below. In the nearly two minute clip, generously provided by the good folks at HBO, Sookie (Anna Paquin) has a nasty row with Bill (Stephen Moyer) and storms off into the woods, where she encounter a... Well, I don't know rightly what to call that horned and clawed thing in the woods, but suffice it to say that there's more than a little blood in the following scene from the vampire drama. Season Two of True Blood is set to premiere on June 14th on HBO.