TVSquad

At first I thought this was a movie, but it's actually a weekly series. NBC has picked it up for 13 episodes. It's about a group of people who are mysteriously kidnapped and wake up in an apartment building being watched and studied by...someone. Personally I don't know what they're complaining about, the apartment and the town look pretty nice to me. People are so hard to please these days.

[via Pop Candy]

In an effort to promote his new movie The Rocker, Rainn Wilson has "kidnapped" his co-star of The Office Jenna Fischer. On a post on Jenna's MySpace page, Wilson promises that she will be released if his movie grosses 18.7 million dollars (presumably the cost of making it).

There's even a website up detailing the progress of the kidnapping: FreeJennaNow.com. The first question I have is: what happens to Jenna if the movie doesn't reach the $18.7 million goal? That answer is left intentionally vague. My guess is he'll let her go anyway.

I'm glad Jenna is being a good sport about all this (watch the videos to see how Jenna is playing along), otherwise I would find any sort of image involving tying up a woman and leaving her in a vehicle somewhat disturbing. I guess he needed to "kidnap" someone America cares about in order for this Dwight-like scheme to work (and a co-worker who would go along with this silly promotion in the first place). Of course, for better publicity,he could have kidnapped Michael Scott. I think more people would have noticed if Steve Carell was missing.

(S04E03) You know, I really don't know what to say about tonight's Office that isn't going to sound like the same old song that I've been singing since the start of this season. As I was watching the second half of the show tonight, I was actually worried about what I was going to say in my review. On the one hand, I feel the need to be honest. But, on the other hand, I'm much happier when I don't have an inbox filled with comments telling me how much I suck.

It's quite the moral dilemma. Of course, you'll have to follow me over the jump to see which decision I made...

(S02E05) In much the same way as series one of Life on Mars dragged out the is-he-or-isn't-he-in-the-past component of the over-arching storyline, series two continues to keep the mystery of Sam Tyler's presence in 1973 a bit of a mystery, teasing us with glimpses of the future -- and the past.

When this week's episode started, it was as surreal as you could get, with Sam on sick leave in his bedsit, hallucinating images of his fellow-police officers on his television, and generally seeing things on his way in to the police station where a kidnapping crisis had developed.

It turned out Sam had been overdosed in the future (or was it the present?), and the doctors were desperately trying to restore his brain activity to normal.

Duane Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter and star of his own show on A&E, is probably going to be extradited to Mexico to face criminal charges of kidnapping.

He'll face charges of "deprivation of liberty" in Mexico for his 2003 capture of Max Factor heir Andrew Luster, who fled America after being convicted of 86 counts of rape. When Dog got him, Mexican authorities arrested Dog for kidnapping and returned Luster to the U.S. themselves. Chapman was released on $300,000 bail. He could spend up to four years in a Mexican prison if convicted. Although, it's hard to imagine how anybody could send a guy to prison for trying to return a serial rapist to America for justice. When Mexican authorities raided Luster's hotel room, they found his date-rape drug of choice, GHB, and plans to get revenge on those who testified against him.

By the way, it's this Luster case that got Dog so much attention in the first place and led to his reality show on A&E.

(S03E13) Well, it seems that setting Mike free had a symbolic meaning for Susan as well as a literal one. When Susan was embracing a distraught Ian at the end of the episode, she had her eyes closed. There was no lingering glance, no eye rolling, nothing to indicate that she was anything less than sincere in her love for Ian.

Oh, I'm not buying it for one second. But there it was. And now that Susan isn't flinging herself in his direction, of course Mike seems interested.

Kidnapped fans were upset when the show was canceled, but given 13 episodes to wrap up the plot. Then they were more upset when the show was taken off of Wednesday night and put on Saturday nights. And then they were absolutely ticked off when NBC pulled the show from Saturday nights because of low ratings (gee, low ratings on a Saturday night...what did they expect?). But now, fans can at least rejoice in the news that there might be a box DVD set of the show coming in 2007.

Anna told you earlier today about NBC pulling Kidnapped off of the Saturday schedule (wow, how bad do ratings have to be to have that happen twice in a matter of weeks?), and now comes word over at TV Guide that the remaining eight episodes of the drama will be shown on NBC's web site.

The show is being pulled and will not be seen again on the small screen after sweeps (we're at the start of the all-important sweeps period right now), but will be shown on your even smaller screen, your computer.

The show is filming its 13th episode even as you read this. Oh well. At least fans won't have to wait and see what's going to happen to the show and will be able to see the kidnapping plot reach its conclusion and not left hanging.

(S02E01) After a summer of anticipation, I was thrilled My Name Is Earl was back on the air beginning last night. I really enjoyed last season and am chomping at the bit to see how Earl Hickey continues to go about righting his past wrongs and crossing them off his list.

I managed to get a copy of the first three episodes of the new season of My Name Is Earl yesterday, and I watched the first episode "Very Bad Things" last night. After a successful first season and a summer of wondering how the show will evolve, I, at the very least, got a chance to get some perspective on how things will go.

(S01E03) There were two great things about this third episode of Standoff. One was a joke at the start of the show, when Matt says to Emily that he "feels like Lindsay Lohan," and Emily replies "oh come on, you're not that drunk." Matt was actually talking about everyone looking at him.

The second great thing about the episode was the commercial for a new Victoria's Secret bra. Something called the "Infinity Edge" bra. Awesome commercial. The rest of this episode? Meh.

CNN's Nancy Grace, the most heinous woman on television, needs to be unplugged. She is a contemptible being who gets her kicks off of lashing out at people and flat-out accusing them of crimes that are still being investigated. Earlier this week, Grace verbally accosted a woman over the telephone about her two-year old son, who had allegedly been kidnapped. The next day the woman, 21-year old Melinda Duckett, shot and killed herself just hours before her interview was scheduled to air. Apparently, at the end of the interview, Grace pounded the desk and said to the distraught mother, "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?" Grace denies any responsibility, saying, "I do not feel that our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett. The truth... is not always nice or polite or easy to go down. Sometimes it's harsh, and it hurts." So... once again Nancy has decided that someone is guilty.

We'll never know if uber-bitch Nancy Grace pushed this mother over the edge. And that's not even the issue. The problem here is Nancy Grace believes she can investigate cases better than the actual investigators. Maybe the mother is responsible for her son's disappearance. Is it Nancy Grace's job to get a confession?

The most famous kidnapping victim ever will appear on, and then disappear from, Veronica Mars. Heiress Patty Hearst will play the granddaughter of the founder of Hearst College (the fictional university on the show). Patty's character, a member of the Board of Trustees, will mysteriously disappear the night before a big vote regarding the university's future. The episode airs during ratings, November 21. Hearst has made a number of guest appearances on shows such as Frasier, Boston Common, and Son of the Beach.

Eh. I like Veronica Mars, but if they're really scrambling for ratings, I don't think the power of Patty Hearst is going to help them much. I'm more excited about Ed Begley, Jr.

(S05E10) Okay. In the interest of full disclosure here, I will admit that I was an English major. And so maybe I am trying to find a narrative arc that just doesn't exist. I have struggled all season to find some kind of continuity in these episodes-- and I have so admit that maybe there just isn't any.

(S01E06) The very fact that you were willing to set a monkey on fire for us, that means a lot. - Kevin Beekin

This episode begins with the team talking to an image consultant about making Kevin look better when he's on camera. It seems most viewers don't find him very attractive and one even sent an e-mail saying his skin was so pock marked it looked like a Band-Aid. The consultant, like everyone else on the show, has no idea the news team is really a bunch of comedians, but she does manage to maintain her cool even when Marty tells her everything she's saying is wrong.

Tillie gets a call during the meeting about a girl who has been kidnapped in Florida, and the team begin to cheer and high five each other since this could be a story that gets them national exposure. It's also good news that she's a young, pretty white girl and not some Mexican grandfather, because no one tunes into the news for that sort of thing. Marty adds that the girl must be either found or killed before a certain date if it's to work into Kevin's schedule. It's a funny scene made even funnier by the fact that there's a woman in the room who has no idea it's all a gag.