There's so much cool stuff on SlashControl, it's hard to choose what to feature. But since I get to do this every day, that'll make it easier. Today, I'm featuring a clip from one of my favorite new shows, Mercy. It's not like we don't have enough hospital/doctor/nurse shows on right now, but there's something about Mercy that's different.
Maybe it's the actors, which include Taylor Schilling, James Tupper, and Michelle Trachtenberg. Maybe it's the fact that the main character, Veronica, has just come home from Iraq and is still wounded from that experience. And yet she keeps moving forward, despite issues like smashing a windshield with a cinder block when she's angry.
Whoa! I did NOT see that coming. One of the cases on last night's episode of Mercy was a woman suspected of having rabies after feeding a raccoon. So they brought the raccoon in to have it checked out. It was supposed to be dead, thanks to a poison apple and some peanut butter, but when the lid came off the styrofoam cooler, the coon jumped out and started running around the hospital floor.
Just the idea of a raccoon with rabies is creepy enough, but add in letting it loose in a hospital and the creep factor goes way up.
(S03E03) "Please tell me it was Blair and not Georgina." - Vanessa and Serena in unison to Dan
Dan may be on a new path since he arrived at NYU, but he hasn't changed enough to be Blair-worthy. Funny that both girls hoped that he slept with Blair and not Georgina. I get that they prefer Blair over Georgina even if both can be rather evil, but Dan and Blair will happen when pigs fly. Now I have to try to remove that mental picture of Blair and Dan making out from my brain!
In any case, this week's episode of Gossip Girl continued the Dan and Georgina hooking up storyline, put Chuck and Blair at odds, and put Carter and Serena at odds, while having Scott make some true and false revelations.
The synopsis of Mercy, the new NBC medical drama, says it's about three nurses at a hospital, but most of the previews have focused on the one played by Taylor Schilling. Here are two clips from tonight's premiere (at 8 on NBC), one Schilling-centric and one with all three.
(S03E02) The scene we've been waiting for all summer long has finally aired: Blair discovering that Georgina is her college roommate! Even if the scene fell flat a tiny bit because it quickly cut to commercials after Georgina announced she was coming to NYU and was Blair's roommate, the rest of the episode Gossip Girl delivered the evil and backstabbing we've grown to love from both ladies. I do not wish any new TV show to get canceled -- Michelle Trachtenberg is on NBC's Mercy -- but admit that it would be great to have Georgina stick around for most of the season, eh?
Previewing NBC's fall offerings has been a long process. First I gave you Community and Trauma, then Parenthood. Now, I have NBC's second medical drama that's premiering this year: Mercy. While Trauma follows first responders in San Francisco, Mercy follows nurses in a hospital in New York.
While it's true that I've seen the pilot and should be able to give you some insight into what to expect when it premieres (Wednesday September 23, at 8 PM ), the fact is, every single thing you need to know about Mercy is summed up in its synopsis:
"Nurse Veronica Callahan (Taylor Schilling) has just returned to Mercy Hospital from a tour in Iraq and knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined. Together with fellow nurses Sonia Jimenez (Jaime Lee Kirchner) who turns the heads of everyone at Mercy hospital and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg) a naïve newcomer who learns to deal with the difficulties of working in a challenging and sometimes unsettling profession, they navigate the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out."
It's getting hard to remember all of these TV shows, isn't it? Right now we have both The Mentalist and Mental, and this fall we'll have CBS' Miami Trauma, which shouldn't be confused with another show, NBC's Trauma. And then there's The Good Wife, which isn't the same as The Goode Family.
We have about 27 new medical shows to keep track of this fall. Here's the other NBC hospital show coming this fall, Mercy. It stars Michelle Trachtenberg, James LeGros, Delroy Lindo, Jaime Lee Kirchner, and Taylor Schilling and follows each story through the eyes of the nurses. Maybe they'll like this show more than they like Nurse Jackie.
This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our tips form or by emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.
This week we have: 24, Dexter, Gossip Girl, Heroes, Lost, NCIS, and Psych. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
We may still not know who Gabriel really is and what his end game is, but it's clear now (as most of us thought last week), that Gabriel is no an angel. Blair and Chuck's spy work to find out what Gabriel was up to led them to Georgina Sparks (played by Michelle Trachtenberg). For those of you who were looking forward to seeing sparks fly with the return of Georgina on the show were in for quite a surprise when a new and improved version of Georgina Sparks first appeared on screen. But will her old self come back, as was the case for Serena? Next week will probably tell.
Cox, who was most recently seen on her FX drama, Dirt, is returning to the small screen for a three-episode arc as Sacred Heart's newest Chief of Medicine. The position was left open after Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins) retired at the end of last season. Since Cox is only going to be on the show for a handful of episodes, something tells me that she's not going to do well in her new position. Her character is said to "ruffle some feathers," and it sounds like she's ruffling the wrong ones right out the door.
(S01E18) That's it. Gossip Girl is done for the 2007-2008 season.
The show's season finale left me on my appetite. It didn't end with a huge bang, it didn't left me with tons of questions I wanted answered now, it didn't make me want to rush to the water cooler to chat about it with my friends. Actually, it made me wish that the series had concluded its first season with "All About My Brother," an episode that ended with a huge bang and would have served as a better season finale.
(S01E17) "We're here to help Serena no matter what the problem is." - Blair
After a "wow" episode last week, expectations (at least mine) for this week were pretty high. I had loads of questions about the video and hoped that answers would be giving in "Woman on the Verge." The episode definitely met my expectations and set the scene for what could be an action and drama packed season finale next week.
What I liked most about this week's episode is the "no matter what" friendship seen between Chuck, Nate, Blair and Serena. They were able to put their problems aside and work together. As the saying says, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." The quartet definitely proved that saying this week.
Trachtenberg has gotten fair reviews about her portrayal of bad teen Georgine Sparks so far, and her addition to the cast did create some, err, sparks! The character is there to generate some waves and is not worried about hurting people along the way (see "All About My Brother" if you need proof). So what will this permanent addition mean for the show? More drama? More secrets? More backstabbing? Serena going back to her evil ways for good? No matter the answer, you can bet that Sparks will see her name in print on the Gossip Girl blog more than once.
Kristin Dos Santos also says that the show will have a second season of 24 episodes and that the first few episodes back will see the characters on vacation in the Hamptons.
(S01E15) "I made one mistake. It doesn't mean I need a human ankle monitor." - Jenny
Back in early February, I told you what I thought of Gossip Girl so far. Starting this week, I'll review GG on a weekly basis. What an episode to start reviews with! Since I've never read the books the series is based on, I had no idea who Georgina Sparks was but I had a hunch that she was not daddy's little girl. I didn't expect her to be so twisted and evil.
From March 14th to March 27th, The Paley Center for Media is presenting the twentieth-fifth annual William S. Paley Television Festival. The Paley Center, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio, says that the festival celebrates "television's rich and diverse programming and the creative process behind the medium." This year the festival includes Chuck,Friday Night Lights, Pushing Daisies, and Gossip Girl among others.
Last night, I attended the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion. For what happened during the panel discussion and some pictures, read on past the jump...
There's so much cool stuff on SlashControl, it's hard to choose what to feature. But since I get to do this every day, that'll make it easier. Today, I'm featuring a clip from one of my favorite new shows, Mercy. It's not like we don't have enough hospital/doctor/nurse shows on right now, but there's something about Mercy that's different. 
Whoa! I did NOT see that coming. One of the cases on last night's episode of 
I'm a sucker for stunt casting. Sure, it can get annoying after a while, (hello Will & Grace) but I still love seeing a Michelle Trachtenberg on 
(S01E17) "We're here to help Serena no matter what the problem is." - Blair
Word on the Upper East Side streets is that evildoer Georgina Sparks will elect residence in NYC permanently next fall. 
From March 14th to March 27th, 
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
