Television

Charlie Huston and Michael Dinner Led PI Drama In Development For FX

Described as a private detective/prison
drama, details are thin on the potential new series Furlough.
Deadline was first to announce that FX had purchased the
concept, with Michael Dinner(Justified) on board to direct the
pilot, which would be written by Edgar Award nominee, Charlie Huston
if picked up. Sony TV and Circle of Confusion are set to produce.

Huston is best known for his crime
novels, but has also worked in the comic book field. He recently
flirted with television when one of his novels was adapted for a
pilot. Alan Ball(True Blood, Six Feet Under) came on
to direct and executive produce, but HBO ultimately declined to take
on The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death as
a series.

Nerd Affinity – Rise of the TV Geek

To
many of us over the age of 25, the term was probably used in a
derogatory sense while we were at school. But the times have changed,
and now “geek” is something of a trendy subculture, thanks to
movies such as Scot Pilgrim, the rising
masses of girl gamers and, yes, television shows.

Now, it
seems that almost every show has a likeable geek or nerd character,
who are usually used to inject humor into situations. It’s hard to
pick five as the best examples of lovable nerds in currently airing
TV shows, as there are so many. But, in order to examine what makes
geek characters such a popular facet of modern TV, that’s exactly
what we’re going to do.

Breaking Bad – Crawl Space

Chickens were coming home to roost for
Walter White in the latest episode of Breaking Bad, and he was
the one ending up in the fryer. With “Crawl Space” no matter
what the doomed chemist did, he couldn’t escape the fate he’s been
fearing since even before he saw what Gustavo can do with a box
cutter. Powerful doesn’t begin to describe the performance we
received from Bryan Cranston as he portrayed the meltdown that has
been building for more than a season and that can only be described
as nuclear.

How I Met Your Mother – Ducky Tie

Lily’s boobs, another Barney-Marshall bet and Ted’s encounter with a Season 1 girlfriend as told in flashback — score more points early in the game for the seventh season of How I Met Your Mother.

Person of Interest – Pilot

If you’ve decided to take the first steps with CBS’ new primetime drama Person of Interest, you can’t be blamed. For one thing, the track record of J.J. Abrams’ name and his company Bad Robot have been stellar, especially if you forget about last year’s Undercovers. With the creator of Alias, Lost and Fringe involved, you can’t help but be interested. Throw in Jonathan Nolan, brother of Christopher and co-writer of The Dark Knight and The Prestige, and things really get interesting.

Haven – Business as Usual

 “Business as Usual” was not business as usual. In fact, it was completely the opposite. The episode was, unlike any other before it, built around a story with a personal connection to all three leads, which explains why it did very well. But ultimately, the reason why it came very close to becoming the best episode to date is simply because much of what happened advanced the overarching story arc in a dramatic way.

After watching the episode, I can comfortably discuss the story now, but when things started rolling, there was no clear sense of convergence in the various, apparently unrelated events. At first, the hour did not seem to start that well. To me, a man collapsing and losing all the water in his body in a few seconds doesn’t have the same visual appeal as, say, a house being consumed by a fire (without flames) in a few seconds. The second image is fascinating without the creepy details (people inside?) jumping to the viewer’s face. Being used to creepy doesn’t mean watching it with indifference. So, when we move from the dried out body to a conversation apparently shelving the shooting (and subsequent death) of a major antagonist in a couple of sentences, we don’t necessarily think we are on our way to a memorable hour.

Game of Thrones to Return in April 2012

Following the return of Boardwalk Empire, HBO has released a short teaser trailer for the second season of Game of Thrones. In addition, the cable giant has revealed via their Twitter feed that the show is set to return in April 2012. After its pick-up back in April 2011, it had been long since announced that the show would return at some point in the spring of 2012, but with the month now tied down, fans can mark their calendars.

As for the mini-trailer, it reveals nothing in the way of new footage from the ten episode run of the second season, but does provide something in the way of mystery that helped make the first season so successful. You can check out the trailer below.