Unlike 'Happy Days' or 'Fame' or 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' kids today do not remain in high school for life on television any more. No, today, the actors and their characters are chewed up and spit out in real time, just like life. That means we have to accept that 'Friday Night Lights'' Landry is leaving the show, and with that, Jesse Plemons is off the NBC show. Well, not totally. He'll be out of East Dillon High School, but still living in Dillon, Texas.
Executive producer Jason Katims says that Jesse will be on 'Friday Night Lights' for the fifth and final season, but not a regular. It'll be part-time, which isn't the worst situation. However, with his status as recurring and Taylor Kitsch as Tim definitely gone -- along with Zach Gilford as Matt and Scott Porter as Jason and Gaius Charles as Smash before them -- they're definitely breaking up that old Panther team from the first couple of seasons.
Sigh ... is it too soon to hope for a Dillion Panther Championship team reunion in the next decade?
Unless you've been like able to enjoy the complete fourth season of 'Friday Light Lights' that just wrapped up on DirecTV last night (click here if you don't mind spoilers), you may not get as excited news from Michael Ausiello in Entertainment Weekly that there will be a fifth season of 'Friday Night Lights' to end the run of the award-winning drama series about Texas high school football.
However, you should be ecstatic. Quality TV like 'Friday Night Lights' deserves to be given its due and given the time to complete the stories it's been telling.
So, you can count on the Dillon football teams to mature with new players, the Taylor family to deal with Julie's impending leaving for college while Eric and Tami make it work back home, the Riggins men to face upheaval and a bunch of new characters to continue to fascinate, including Becky, Vince, Jess and Luke.
The television gods have spoken. Okay, not really. But the people in power at HBO have had their say and 'Big Love' will be back for a fifth season. Ten more episodes have been ordered as the fourth season continues to unfold. Hallelujah! The story of the Hendricksons goes on and on.
Unlike some other HBO drama series, 'Big Love' has not been a sky-rocket. It's been more a slow boil, gradually picking up fans and followers as the show evolves. Perhaps it was the very nature of the situation, a polygamist family living in plain sight in modern day Utah while keeping their way of life a closely guarded secret.
Bill and his three wives and passel of children try to keep to the principle while blending with suburbia, but they're continually pulled into controversy based on their individual pasts and the choices they've made. It all adds up to great drama.
Robot Chicken is its own bizarre, wonderful little world, usually coming to you 15 minutes at a time on Adult Swim. It always seemed to me a show that probably only worked in small doses, but Robot Chicken: Season Four on DVD was consistently funny over two discs of near-continuous watching (and the extras are at least as entertaining). Here are my thoughts in a short video.
You know how excited I am about the new season of Big Love? I'm calling DirecTV to restart my HBO subscription. I'd taken a little break from the pay service when I was pinching pennies this fall. But now that Big Love is returning ... well, pennies be damned!
In anticipation of Big Love's return, I found this recent interview with co-creator Will Scheffer in which he revealed some info -- not really spoilers, but if you're at all squeamish about knowing what's going to happen in even the broadest terms, don't jump to the next page. However, if you want a little preview -- including a really good trailer that's been airing on HBO -- follow me.
When we last saw Betty Draper, she was on a plane to Reno with Henry Francis by her side. Was that the end of her story, especially since Don Draper's undoubtedly going to go on without her? Well, Matthew Weiner doesn't like to give away much about the future, but January Jones has renewed her contract with Mad Men.
Weiner confirmed it and spoke about some other bits and pieces from the Mad Men finale. He was in a giving mood. It wasn't just the holiday season, either. Mad Men had a great week in award nominations -- Golden Globes, Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild.
Over the weekend, the promo video from HBO's Big Love hit the web and we shared it here... wondering if that's all there is? The video was sort of metaphorical, but not very substantive. Today, however, there's some Big Love scoop to report, plus a new poster from HBO (right).
First, about the poster; yes, the family appears to be united. But is it just me or do Nikki and Margene's heads look weird? It could be the Photoshopping, but HBO is too slick for that. I think it's subliminal advertising. They're trying to convey that something is off with two of Bill's wives. Nikki has always been a headcase, but Margene? She's been so loyal and true and... normal!
One of the most integral and interesting characters on Friday Night Lights may be out of the lineup for much of the rest of the season. And he may not be back for next season, either. Taylor Kitsch could be out of Friday Night Lights after the next few episodes. Michael Ausiello is reporting that executive producer Jason Katims confirmed that Taylor's conflicting schedule with a big screen project has mucked up the works.
Taylor's playing the title character in John Carter of Mars, a big screen adaptation of the famous Edgar Rice Burroughs' books, which isn't slated to be released until 2012, but will require extensive filming. It doesn't look like he'll be able to fit more of Friday Night Lights into the mix. And a lot of the predicament could be on the Disney side; will they free up his shooting schedule for John Carter to let him play Tim Riggins.
Entering into its fourth season (and second since the NBC/DirecTV deal), Friday Night Lights is a show in transition on numerous levels. The high school football drama returns tonight to DirecTV's 101 Network at 9 p.m. ET (NBC won't air this season until next summer) and for fans of the show, it's an episode they've long been waiting for.
Ever since the season three finale, as Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife Tami (Connie Britton) stepped on to the East Dillon Lions decrepit football field, Eric's new home, the tension has been at an all time high in Dillon, Texas. How can Coach Taylor, a man whom many consider to be a high school football wunderkind, start from scratch with a team that doesn't even exist yet?
It feels like forever since Bill Hendrickson announced that he and his family would form their own religion and live apart from Juniper Creek and LDS and the rest of the state of Utah. And we also know that Roman Grant is dead, and unless Big Love is going in the direction of resurrecting the prophet like he's the real deal, that means Alby will be taking over for his father. Then there's all the business with the casinos, Nicki's teenaged daughter and her weird former husband, not to mention Margene's new business, Sarah getting married to Scott...
This should come as no surprise to even the most casual of TV Squad readers. Mad Men has been picked up for a fourth season, assuring that Matthew Weiner's engrossing and demanding tale of Don Draper and the people at Sterling Cooper will be played out for at least another year.
When a show like Mad Men comes along, not unlike The Sopranos in quality and pop culture appeal, the question usually isn't whether the network will stand behind it for the duration, but whether or not the creative team envisions a long run.
Earlier this month, we asked you if you wanted a season four of Torchwood. Early responses seemed to say yes, and then we got deluged with people who were fed up with their favorite characters dying and who weren't entirely impressed with theTorchwood: Children of Earthmini-series that was season three.
Well, there is going to be a season four, and Torchwood Magazinegot the scoop (Dammit! How'd they manage that?). According to the magazine, Torchwood creator and writer Russell T. Davies already has several storylines worked out, and knows what happens to the characters that did survive seasons two and three. He's not sure if it will be another mini-series or a 13-episode season, but he does know what he'd include.
Looks like NBC is really trying to relaunchHeroes. They have a whole new plot and series of characters (a weird carnival), and these videos seem to want us to get involved with the show again, and get to know the characters we love.
The Sylar and Claire videos give a good background/recap of the characters, but the "Heroes in Love" one doesn't really make sense (some characters aren't even on the show anymore, and the Matt/Daphne thing didn't really happen), but they're good promos. (Here's the trailer for season four.)
There's a lot of news coming out of Comic-Con already, and one piece of news for Dexterfans is the debut of the season four trailer.
But that's not the only Dexter news. Showtime also announced that they are making a prequel to the show. A cartoon prequel titled Early Cuts, It will be a 12-episode, web-only series, but Michael C. Hall will indeed do the voice.
As Bob wrote the other day, NBC has assured fans that Heroes will be back next season. Isn't that great? Well, no, not to me. I would like to assure NBC that I have had it with Heroes. I'm exhausted and fed up. Do you feel like me? Do you have Heroes fatigue?
The changes have been detrimental to the original premise, ruining what was once the most exciting new TV show on the air since Lost. Quite simply, I don't like the new "book"; I don't like the characters that have been mangled beyond recognition; I don't like all the story lines that were dropped in favor of this new paradigm that has the government hunting down Matt and Peter and the other familiar heroes and treating them like terrorists. At the end of the last episode, I just felt bad about Heroes. What have they done to my show?
Unlike 'Happy Days' or 'Fame' or 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' kids today do not remain in high school for life on television any more. No, today, the actors and their characters are chewed up and spit out in real time, just like life. That means we have to accept that 'Friday Night Lights'' Landry is leaving the show, and with that, Jesse Plemons is off the NBC show. Well, not totally. He'll be out of East Dillon High School, but still living in Dillon, Texas. 
Unless you've been like able to enjoy the complete fourth season of 
The television gods have spoken. Okay, not really. But the people in power at HBO have had their say and 
When we last saw Betty Draper, she was on a plane to Reno with Henry Francis by her side. Was that the end of her story, especially since Don Draper's undoubtedly going to go on without her? Well, 
Over the weekend, the 
One of the most integral and interesting characters on 
This should come as no surprise to even the most casual of TV Squad readers. 
Earlier this month, 
As 
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