TVSquad

Good news, Goonies fans. Or LOTR fans. Or 24 fans. Sean Astin has bigger plans than just a meerkat soap opera. He's reportedly in negotiations to star in an ABC comedy pilot called The Guys. It's about five dads who become friends when their kids have a playdate at one of the fathers' homes. If two of the four Hobbits are on ABC, can we start calling it Middle Earth?

Sean Astin is lending his voice to an intriguing new series from Animal Planet. It's called Meerkat Manor, and it's part documentary, part soap opera. I'm not sure how exactly they're going to pull this off, but Astin will narrate thirteen episodes that follow the life and times of a meerkat family. The press release promises all the goodies we've come to expect from soap operas: from backstabbing to love affairs to family feuds. Apparently meerkats are quite the dramatic bunch. The writers even gave all the little fellas names like Zaphod (Beeblebrox?) and Shakespeare, and they're all part of the 'Whiskers' family.

The series begins Friday, June 9 at 8 pm (ET) on Animal Planet.

In what is already the fifth (fifth!) hour of this season of 24, there were a few stress points that were definitely going to break. Audrey and Diane were bound to meet up with each other, given the proximity within the CTU premises, Spenser is getting the gasface from Chloe, and Mrs. Logan is bound to either break down or get herself in some trouble. Of course, I have Monday Night Quarterbacking going on and can point those things out, but they were all left hanging at the end of last week's fourth hour.

Frankly, I'm still flabbergasted at the casting of Sean Astin, and the waxing of Michelle and President Palmer. Leading into this week's recap, I figured to notice something that would catch me off guard or perhaps show something I needed to think more about. There wasn't too much big stuff, but after re-watching the first hour a few nights ago, I definitely see the concern that Palmer has on his face before commenting to his brother about being distracted because of his memoirs - clearly that's not all of it. Was he foretelling what was going to happen with the Russians and the treaty? Was he aware of the plot against him? So many questions!

And Chloe, with a tattoo! Jack leaves town for 18 months and the whole place comes crashing down!

Hey, here's some precious casting: Sean Astin is joining 24! He'll play a new member of the team battling the bad guys.

The show is coming back on January 8, which is sort of a happiness/torture scenario for fans. It's too bad fans have to wait until January instead of September for new episodes, but it's good to have it start late (a la Alias last season) because that means a solid 5 months of new episodes with no repeats.