Television

A Return for Babylon 5?

Actor Walter Koenig suggested that the television show Babylon 5 may return to television.  Koenig told fans at a Las Vegas Star Trek convention that Producer J
Michael Straczynski is working on reviving the show.

Koenig reports “He told me he is in negotiations to re-acquire the rights to Babylon 5 and
it looks pretty good.” Koenig added: “Now what that portends I am not
entirely sure. It could be a new series or it could be a feature film,
but he (Straczynski) was quite animated about it. He seemed very excited
and Warner Brothers is dealing with him in good faith. So you might see
another Babylon 5 in the not too distant future.”

They Died So Young: 5 Great Three Season Shows

Alright. So three seasons is not all
that young when it comes to the lifetimes of television shows, but
that’s my tagline. And just as with the ones from the first two
features, these series were also killed off before their time. In
this final installment I’ll cover five more series that were still
taken from us too soon, despite them lasting longer than many great
shows. There’s an old show about futuristic space, and a recent show
about the old west. A dramedy about a teen detective, and a comedy
about a dysfunctional family. And no list of great three seasons
shows would be complete without a cult classic featuring a tattoo
named Petunia.

A Little Less Fringe for Joshua Jackson

Fringe
star Joshua Jackson has claimed that he will play a reduced role in the
upcoming fourth season of the show. Jackson, who portrays Peter Bishop,
told IGN that he will appear in “less” episodes than usual in a
continuation of the story laid out by the third season’s finale.

Jackson
said, “Our show is not a star-driven show, it’s a character-driven
show. I know [the producers] want me to be a part of Fringe, but I know
they also want to tell the story in the best possible way.” Jackson also
described Peter’s decreased role in the Fox sci-fi drama as “ballsy.”
“It’s so unusual to take one of the three leads… and to break them out
of the show,” he said. “Particularly on network television where a lot
of it really is personality-driven. There’s a lot of nervousness about
upsetting the apple cart.”

True Blood – Spellbound

After doing quite a bit to redeem itself last week following several sub-standard episodes, True Blood still
had a ways to go this week with “Spellbound.” After finally getting to
the point and letting us know exactly what has been going on for weeks
past, it had to not only keep up the tempo of the back half of the
season, but continue to add drama to an otherwise drama-less and
all-around messy season. What ultimately came to the screen with
“Spellbound” did its best to meet those criteria, perhaps helped by the
fact that Alan Ball decided to pick up the pen and put out a script that
wasn’t incomprehensible garbage like much that had come before it, but
there were still problems. Pacing for once wasn’t one of them, but
instead those timing issues were replaced by substance problems.

Comedy Central Releases Fall Schedule

Comedy
Central announced their fall lineup of shows and stand-up specials
Tuesday, as well as the highly publicized roast of Charlie Sheen. In
addition to its original series, the network has picked up the
syndication rights to the NBC comedy, 30 Rock;
which will be making its premier on cable television. All air times
are Eastern Standard Time(EST).

Breaking Bad Renewed For Sixteen Episode Final Season

After tense talks between Sony and AMC,
an agreement was reached for Breaking Bad’s fifth and final
season. Consisting of 16 episodes, it is unknown at this time if the
season will air as a whole or be split into two shorter installments
like many other cable series. Production for all episodes will begin
in early 2012, with premier dates still to be determined.

The official announcement was made by
the president of AMC, Charlie Collier, who said; “While it is sad
to even contemplate the end of this series, we are so happy to have
had the chance to go on this ride, and truly look forward to
presenting the rest of this amazing story.”

Entourage – Whiz Kid

After three weeks of fairly top of the line material from Entourage,
it was inevitable that the show would eventually live up to the
expectations that it has formed throughout its run and deliver an
episode in which not very much of anything happened. In saying that,
however, just because there wasn’t very much plot progression does not
mean that “Whiz Kid” wasn’t a good episode, or at the very least, far
more than tolerable to watch.

If
you were coming at it as a first time viewer I wouldn’t blame you for
asking “what the hell is this show about?” But if you’re familiar with
the show or more specifically the current season, the episode worked
just fine for its 20 minutes on air (comfortably the shortest episode of
the season thus far). On a side note, the episode marked the first
writing effort for actor Jerry Ferrara who plays Turtle on the show (in a
co-write with series creator Doug Ellin), and even though I mentioned
that the episode didn’t necessarily meet the standards of the season
thus far, it kept in very well with the tone of the show and felt just
as much an episode of Entourage as any other; it was a commendable effort indeed.