TVSquad

(S07E06) Any time Muse Watson returns to NCIS as Gibbs' mentor Mike Franks, there's usually something special in the works. Tonight's episode was no different.

With Franks involved in what looked like a heinous act of double murder, Jethro was thrust into the middle of what appeared to be an open-and-shut case.

Not so fast, Probie. The Kelly adrift with two dead bodies -- two ex-military men with ties to a private military operation -- was the first and biggest clue to the mystery.

One of my favorite actresses is joining the cast of America's most watched drama series. That means about 20 million viewers a week will get to see her in action. The actress is Rena Sofer and she's been cast on NCIS as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense lawyer. The role could be long term or recurring, they're not saying yet.

In fact, they're not giving much away at all. Not even the character's name or when she starts. Thus far, it's hard to see where a lawyer would be needed in the current storylines, so it's likely that there's an arc on the way that will bring her along as a key element.

Rena has a load of primetime experience, having appeared on Heroes, 24, Couples, Blind Justice, Just Shoot Me... but for me she was never better than when she was on General Hospital as Lois Cerullo.

(S07E05) Happy Halloween from your friends at NCIS! There was definitely some creepy stuff going on with this case, and for the first time in weeks, the concentration of the show was strictly on the mystery. No Ziva flashbacks, no Gibbs questions about Mossad, no Vance at all. It was just about how a Marine recently back from Afghanistan wound up dead in his car on the night before Halloween.

Over the summer, spoilers were leaked that the NCIS season premiere would begin with a bang. They weren't kidding. Last night's show was a spine-tingling puzzle of an episode that unraveled scene by scene, building suspense to the ultimate -- satisfying -- conclusion. If you were thinking that, like last year, the team was going to be torn asunder after the way things ended with Ziva being returned to Israel, you were pleasantly surprised. More after the jump.

However, there's another story to report. The overnight ratings are in and the viewers have spoken. Twenty million of them! The return of NCIS zoomed to the top of the ratings with 20 million viewers tuning in. That helped CBS launch NCIS: Los Angeles, opening with 18 million, and also bolstered The Good Wife with nearly 14 million. Any way you slice it, those are stellar numbers. The folk at the Black Rock must be dancing in the hallways.

Only 42 days to go. That's how long until the season premiere of NCIS. According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, quoting exec producer Shane Brennan, the first minute of NCIS is a mindblower. What could this possibly mean? Will someone die, or will we discover what happened to Ziva? Was that her being beaten and tortured in the closing scene of last season's finale?

After all the discussion there's been over the finale of The Sopranos, it surprises me that nobody has commented on the superb parenting skills shown by Tony and Carmella over the past seven years. Why, in just the finale alone, there were a number of parenting tips that I was able to take to heart. If you're a parent, I think you might find them useful as well.

Don't let your children park their SUV in the forest.
When I was a kid, nobody had SUV's. Also I grew up in the desert of Arizona, so piles of leaves were hard to find. I don't know if the dealer warns you about the fire-causing catalytic converter when you buy the car, but I'm glad I found this out before my kids started driving.

Several of American Idol's disgruntled ex-contestants, including Jennifer Hudson and most recently, Paris Bennett, have slammed the reality show in the press. But as far as I can recall, 80-year-old crooner Tony Bennett is the first celebrity mentor to publicly criticize the mighty Idol.

Bennett reportedly called the show "too cruel" in an interview with Time Out London. Bennett, who coached this season's hopefuls during the first week of April, said, "I had it out with Simon when I met him and suggested that he should open up tiny clubs across the countries so the kids could break in and learn properly."

The other day I talked about the questions I got asked during The Sopranos premiere on Sunday evening, and how "Who's that Gene guy?" was the reigning champ. Since then, I could easily add "What did Junior say before he shot Tony?" to the list of growing curiosities. So, after some intense research (called a friend who called a friend who speaks italian, and whom I apparently owe a drink to at a bar now), I've discovered just what he said. Even turning on the subtitles for the episode didn't help, they just read Junior: (mumbles in italian) Malanga!, so it may not have been the clearest recording that I emailed, but I was told that it sounded like Junior said "Cazzata Malanga!"

So what does Cazzata Malanga mean? Cazzata translates (I was told) into "worthless" or "piece of garbage", definitely derogatory. Malanga, for those long term and keen-eared fans, you'll remember as being the guy that Junior wanted to whack all the way back in season 1. Junior wanted the deed done at Vesuvio's (Artie's place) and Tony didn't, which is what led to the fallout between uncle and nephew. To me, this is just to further the point that Junior is finally senile; he's not faking, he's not lying, he just actually is crazy. Let me know what you think.

Ok, if you haven't watched Sunday night's season premiere of The Sopranos, stop reading. There's plenty of other TV Squad goodness, so just skip on to something else. For those of you that are still with me now, you know that Tony is, at the very least, out of commission for a little while. This is going to lead to a power struggle of absolutely epic proportions. Now, most Mafia familys are set up with the Boss who's in charge, the Underboss, who's his second-in-command, and then the Consigliere, who actually fits somewhere between the two since he's a "personal advisor" to the boss. After those three, there's the Capos who each lead up their own crews of made men. If what I just said was making your head spin, trust me, it's not that bad.

Being the TV guru in my group of friends and family, there were many questions that I got rapid-fire during last night's sixth season premiere (Did you know Adrianna's still alive? Is Tony Dead? Is Johnny Sack still gonna be in prison?), but the most frequent one I got was "Who is this Gene guy?" You know who I'm talking about-- Gene was the one who inherited the millions of dollars from his dying aunt. He was the one who killed himself (in an incredibly graphic scene). He was the one who no-one had seen before last night's episode. Well, that's where people were wrong. You see,  Robert Funaro has been playing the character of Eugene Pontecorvo since early Season 3. Sure, he hasn't had a huge role in the series so far (he's been one of the family's generic soldiers, normally answering to Paulie or Sil) but he's been there. Would the writers really just introduce him for the sake of killing him off though?

The countdown is under way; after almost two years, The Sopranos new season will be upon us in a scant 18 days (Yes, I'm counting, I'm having a party with a huge italian feast). Like most fans of the series, I devour every bit of  "The Sopranos knowledge" that HBO wants to drop on us. The past couple of seasons, the release of that season's poster has been the catalyst for massive amounts of speculation. Who's gonna die this year? Who's going to turn on the family? Look at the way the salt has spilled in front of Paulie! So, I'm sure it will be no different with the new poster that we've been sent by HBO. You may have seen it around so far, but check out our high quality version and let the speculation begin. A couple of things that I notice right off the bat, are obviously: A) Dr. Melfi, very ghostly in the reflection of the door. B) Silvio glaring and Christopher out of the corner of his eye, seem to be the only two looking at Tony and C) Bobby is the only person sitting  besides Tony. Does any of that mean anything? Probably not. It sure is fun to wonder though. Let's hear what you have to say.