24: Even when a character played by Eddie Izzard is recast, his spirit lives on in the role
30 Rock: Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin speak pretty good German. Inbreeding jokes never get old.
CSI: Left to his own devices for too long, William Petersen will always grow an unfortunate beard.
Daybreak: Was cancelled way too soon. Be patient, networks!
Heroes: Just get on with it will you. Plus Christopher Eccleston really can act when given a grumpy role to play.
House: Sooner or later, the crankiness of a character needs an explanation. He can’t be cranky for no reason at all.
My Name is Earl: Some Americans actually think the US won the 1812 war.
Smallville: Red Kryptonite needs to be in every script from now on.
Studio 60: It’s no use applying the rules of reality to anything Aaron Sorkin writes. You just have to sit back and enjoy it.
24
News
Tuesday’s news, you lucky people
It’s all just so exciting. And Spartan.
Doctor Who
- John Simm might be appearing as… Go, on, spoil yourself, remembering it’s The Sun. There’s also a potential spoiler about Derek Jacobi’s character, the Professor.
- A brief, slightly spoilery interview with Freema Agyeman.
Film
- Shrek 3 is out on June 29th
- Handmade Films is to do a biopic of SAS founder David Stirling.
British TV
- Miss the Celebrity Big Brother evictions? You can watch the final three at YouTube: Dirk, Jermaine and Shilpa. Isn’t it nice the final three were all non-Brits?
- Channel 4 is to have a season/year of environmental programming.
US TV
- 24: More spoilers and Kiefer changes his story about why daddy Donald isn’t his 24 daddy.
- Green Wing writer Victoria Pile’s new project has been picked up by ABC.
- Heroes: George Takei talks about doing his first Japanese-language role.
Things I learnt from last week’s television
24 (Fox)
There are ways to make family reunions bearable.
Celebrity Big Brother (Channel 4/E4)
People will watch anything. Judging by the ratings, racism is entertainment.
CSI (CBS)
Sometimes, the plots of even the best shows make absolutely no sense.
Heroes (NBC)
A week is a long, long time when a show is really, really enjoyable. I want the next episode now! Also, Christopher Eccleston will never be cast as anything except an angry northerner, no matter where in the world he’s employed.
Psych (The USA Network)
Give a show six months’ rest and when it comes back, sometimes, just sometimes, it will be better than when it went away.
Smallville (The CW)
Even when a plot has been done well by countless other TV shows, it’s still possible to do it again and still make it good, creepy and interesting. Also, actors who have been in shows for six years will remember how to act when they’re given something new to do for a change. Things we already knew: Clark is an idiot – go with Chloe, you nutter.
Studio 60 (NBC)
If you’re the hero of a TV show, you can act like a stalker and the girl will still want you by the end of the episode. It’s also really easy to learn Mandarin Chinese from a phrase book.
Supernatural (The CW)
If you’re doing a “monster of the week” show, don’t bring the same monster back – twice – unless you can actually make it interesting.
The Class (CBS)
If you piss off sitcom producers, they can excise you from the titles and publicity material faster than Stalin.
The news that is Tuesday’s
Doctor Who
- You could win a place at the series three launch night party in central London.
Film
- Clive Owen is to play Philip Marlowe.
- Little Man and Basic Instinct 2 topped the Razzie nominations this year.
British TV
- Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre’s going to slag off the Beeb in a speech. Bit of a busman’s holiday, surely?
- Big Brother: The show’s up for review but hasn’t been cancelled. Ooh, there’s brave…
US TV
- 24
- The city of Valencia is annoyed (spoilers)
- You can now buy a Jack Bauer adventure bag
- The Class: A member of the cast has been unceremoniously shed, as predicted.
- Heroes
- Ali Larter talks and spoils
- Eric Roberts is joining the cast
- An online companion for the show launched last night
- E!’s Kristin has lots of spoilers, too.
- Lost: A dead ‘Lostie’ is returning for another episode
- Prison Break: Third season, shmird season. Wentworth Miller’s heard it’s going for five.
- Smallville: There are no plans for a Justice League or Green Arrow spin-off
- Supernatural: More spoilers for the rest of the season
The weekend’s news
Doctor Who
- March 17th sees four of the Doctors plus other guests appear in Barking for Invasion 2007.
- Love Don’t Roam failed to get into the charts this week; Honey to the Bee made it to number 17.
Film
- The Mummy 3 is coming packed with spoilers.
British TV
- OTT previews the Lewis episodes coming to ITV1 in February.
- Jade’s out the house. Anyone see that coming?
- Channel 4 denies coaching her on how to avoid being an evil racist bully.
- They would, wouldn’t they? The execs are going to have defend themselves to the board today. [registration required]
US TV
- Christopher Eccleston talks for the first time about being on Heroes.
- Another spoiling interview with Tim Kring of Heroes.
- And here’s one from Hayden Panettiere.
- And here’s one from Greg Grunberg.
- More spoiling clips from tonight’s episode of Heroes. Only clips two and three are new.
- Supernatural‘s exec producer John Shiban spoils, too.
- Tricia Helfer from BSG is to appear in Supernatural.
- Weird online 24 stuff related to deodorant advertising.
- For some reason, Fox is trying to give Til Death a scheduling boost. Let it die, Fox.
- Linda Park talks about Raines.
- McG tries to defend the Pussycat Dolls’ new reality TV show.
- Guy Ritchie is going to do a show for ABC. What do you think? Bit Rashomon? Bit Boomtown?
- Liev Schreiber talks about working on CSI. There’s a vid, too
- Aaron Sorkin really is venting about Studio 60, isn’t he? He bain’t be liking those bloggers, either.
- Everyone’s going green. Or pretending to.
- Daniel Dae Kim thinks Lost will be lighter in tone when it comes back next month.
- Lennie James spoils a bit of Jericho for you.