[Televisionary]

Our lives can best be described as the sum of all of our experiences leading up to this specific point in time. The same was true for the three master chefs--Hubert Keller, Rick Bayless, and Michael Chiarello--facing down the gauntlet on last night's season finale of Top Chef Masters ("Top Chef Master"), in which the trio squared off against one another in a perfectly fitting final challenge. This series is after all called Top Chef Masters , so I wanted to see what these incomparable master chefs could do when the gloves were off and there were no vending machines, microwaves, or mise-en-place relays to get through. In other words, I wanted to see what they could do with larger budgets, limitless imagination, and unfettered ambition to draw upon. Their challenge: to prepare a four-course meal that best represented their entire careers thus far (and into the future), with each of the courses representing a specific crucial turning point in their lives. For these masters,

Welcome to your (very early) Thursday morning television briefing. John Hawkes ( Deadwood ) has been cast in Season Six of ABC's Lost , where he will play Lennon, described by The Hollywood Reporter 's Nellie Andreeva as "the scruffy, edgy and charismatic spokesperson and translator for the president of a foreign corporation who is far more powerful than it seems from his position." Just what that means remains to be seen... ( Hollywood Reporter ) Syfy has ordered a second season of sci-fi dramedy Warehouse 13 , with thirteen episodes currently on order for next year. However, Syfy was quick to point out that that number could increase in later seasons. "We took a look at doing 20 episodes, but for logistic and financial reasons," Syfy's Dave Howe told Variety , "it didn't make sense to do that right now, but I wouldn't rule it out." ( Variety ) Holy comedy casting news! The Wrap's Joe Adalian is reporting that comedy legend Shelley

Back in April, I had the opportunity to watch the first three episodes of British teen comedy series The Inbetweeners , created by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, and instantly fell in love with the series' quirky charms. Since then, I've had the opportunity to watch the entire first and second seasons of this side-splitting teen series, which will air Stateside later this year on BBC America. Thanks to some Region 2 DVDs picked up in London, I was able to blaze through the painfully hilarious twelve episodes that exist thus far. (It's worth noting that digital channel E4 recently announced that it had commissioned a third season .) Over the course of twelve half-hour episodes, Morris and Beesley manage to paint a painfully precise picture of a group of four teenage social rejects teetering on the edge of adulthood. They might not be the most popular kids (far from it) or the basest of pariahs, but they're miserably average in every respect, belonging to a group hovering

Tonight is more or less a perfect storm of food-oriented television programming for foodies. Just a quick reminder to tune in to tonight's season kick-off of Bravo's brand-defining culinary competition series Top Chef: Las Vegas , which joins the schedule at an earlier-than-usual time of 9 pm ET/PT before relocating to its normal timeslot at 10 pm ET/PT next week. (In the meantime, you can read my advance review of the first episode here .) Plus, the super-sized season premiere of Top Chef leads right into the final showdown on Top Chef Masters at 10:15 pm as finalists Hubert Keller, Michael Chiarello, and Rock Bayless square off in the kitchen to see just which one of them will walk away with title of Top Chef Master. Just which of these master chefs will emerge the ultimate champion? Find out tonight. And if that weren't enough culinary cravings for you, BBC America's own fascinating foodie magazine program F Word is brand new tonight as well, with an episode at 9

It's a good day at Jeff Lewis' office. Longtime readers know that I have an indelible love for the kooky cast of Bravo's addictive and hilarious docusoap Flipping Out , which returned last night after a far-too-long hiatus. The season opener of Flipping Out ("Beware of Falling Houses") featured a strangely calm Jeff (well, calm for Jeff Lewis, anyway) struggling to stay afloat in the sinking real estate market by taking renovation jobs (rather than his typical speculation-based business) yet continued to expand his entourage to include another assistant (poor, doomed Rachel), clown-haired house assistant Jett, and a design intern Trace, who appears to be a mini-Jeff in the making. And let's not forget about the aforementioned Zoila, who continues to keep Jeff on his toes with her hysterically haughty put-out attitude and who wants to find a boyfriend for herself... leading her to inadvertently flirt with a married man working on the Valley Oak property. (Mean

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Buffy and Angel 's James Marsters--who appeared last year in Season Two of Torchwood to boot--has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica . Marsters, who is slated to appear in at least three installments, will play Barnabus Greeley, a dangerous terrorist leader who is described as being "driven by desires both moralistic and carnal" and is "as lethal as he is unpredictable." Caprica premieres January 22nd on Syfy. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) ABC has given a script order to Clive Barker's Hotel , described as a "series of ghoulish incidents at a haunted hotel," from writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. Project, from Warner Bros. Television and Wonderland Sound and Vision, will be executive produced by Clive Barker and McG, who could direct the pilot episode if the network moves forward with the pro

Cabler TNT has announced that it has extended the run of its drama series Leverage this summer. Leverage will air two additional installments on Wednesday, September 2nd and Wednesday, September 9th. The latter episode, which features guest star Jeri Ryan ( Shark ) will serve as the series' so-called "summer finale." The two additional episodes are entitled "The Ice Man Job" and "The Lost Heir Job." The full press release from TNT, announcing the two additional episodes, can be found below. TNT Adds Two More Episodes of Hit Series LEVERAGE to Summer Lineup Summer Finale, Guest-Starring Jeri Ryan ( Star Trek: Voyager ), Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) TNT has added two episodes to the summer run of its hit series LEVERAGE , starring Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton ( Ordinary People ), Gina Bellman ( Coupling ), Christian Kane (TNT’s Into the West ), Beth Riesgraf ( Alvin and the Chipmunks ) and Aldis Hodge ( Friday Night Li