TVSquad

Matthew Modine will be joining the cast of the Showtime series Weeds when the program returns for its third season on August 13 (the second season ended last October). Modine will appear in ten episodes of the fifteen-episode season as Sullivan Groff, a land developer for a Christian mega-church.

I've been a fan of Modine since Full Metal Jacket, so it'll be nice to see him as a regular on Weeds. He's appeared on television before, most recently in The Bedford Diaries and in roles on The West Wing and Law & Order: SVU.

Zooey Deschanel and Carrie Fisher will also make cameo appearances in the third season.

(S02E12) Stop-motion animated sex is kind of disturbing. While watching this episode I wondered how much needed to be cut to make it suitable for air. Perhaps nothing needed to be cut, but this was certainly one of the more sexually graphic episodes.

The series was renewed for a third season recently, but I wonder how deep the "idea well" is for a series like Moral Orel. The city of Moralton and the denizens therein are trapped in their own little world, and it's not a world like Robot Chicken or Family Guy where gags can just come from anywhere, and it's not a satire of everything like The Simpsons. I'm obviously a fan of the show and its menagerie of characters struggling to appear righteous while committing all the sins us "normal" folks do, but the Moral Orel universe is so specifically constructed to represent a certain way of life I can't imagine it continuing further without starting to repeat itself.

Here's a few specials airing over the next few days for you science and history types:

Tonight at 8:00 p.m., Crash Science: Trains premieres on the National Geographic Channel. The special looks at how scientists have made trains safer.

On May 6 at 10:0 p.m., the National Geographic Channel delves into new evidence regarding King David and King Solomon in Lost Kings of the Bible. Did they really exist, or is it just mythology? I'm sure I don't know, but I'm a firm believer in David's anti-giant policy.

(S11E07) When I was attending high school in a small Iowa town, two people who worked at my church, each married to different people, had an affair that quickly became public knowledge. It's impossible to keep those things quiet in any small town, because they tend to be populated with people who feel everyone else's business is their own.

The relationship between Bill and his pastor in this episode wasn't as seedy as an extra-marital affair, but I couldn't help but notice some parallels. At my church, the woman who was having the affair was almost fired because of it, and Reverend Stroup's congregation does not respond well when she tells them she and and Bill are dating, either.

(S02E07) The first thing I noticed about this episode was the opening. As far as I know, this is the first time creator Dino Stamatopoulos wasn't credited with writing the episode. Instead, that credit went to Mark Rivers, who composes the music for the series.

At this point, I think fans of Moral Orel have come down off the high of the first season and have settled in to simply enjoying the show. We're more familiar with it now, but it's still smart and funny, and manages to go places you don't expect. When this latest episode began, it had a very "first season" feel to it: Orel hears Reverend Putty's sermon and takes the lesson to heart. I settled in for an enjoyable if not familiar episode, but by the end of it I was laughing so hard I had to take anti-laughing pills to stop.

(S02E04) Sadness is nature's spankings. - Clay Puppington

Those of us who have been watching Moral Orel since the beginning know that the show is more complex than it appears on the surface. The inner tensions within his own family and the other grown ups in Moralton were hinted at in the first season and have come more into focus this season. I'm not a television writer, but I imagine trying to meld the funny and the emotional into an eleven-minute amalgam can't be easy, which is why I think the "slow reveal" approach has worked so well for Moral Orel. In this episode, when Orel finds out his mother might have another family, the scene doesn't feel like it was suddenly sprung on us out of nowhere, because Bloberta's unhappiness and detachment has been part of the show's subtext since it first aired a year ago.

(S06E07) To paraphrase a line from Woody Allen, the only love that truly lasts is unrequited love. That's a good way to sum up this episode where Bart falls in love with Reverend Lovejoy's daughter, Jessica. Another great summation comes from Lisa, who tells Bart, quite wisely, "It's naive to think you can change a person." Of course, this being The Simpsons, Lisa qualifies her advice by insisting the hunky boy who works at the library might be changed if only he gave Lisa a chance.

(S10E11) Just because a place is big doesn't mean it's bad. The Pentagon's good. --Hank Hill

I wouldn't have though I could ever become nostalgic for those days when I was forced to wake up early, don uncomfortable garments and too-tight shoes, get shuttled off to church, and then try to stay awake through some boring sermon. I don't recall ever actually enjoying church, but it was part of our routine, and last night's episode managed to touch on all the ups and downs of attending church in a small town.