TVSquad

(S06E04) "Yes! She punched me in the face with her breasts!" - Christian

This is really starting to shape up into one of Nip/Tuck's best seasons in quite some time. Not only did "Jenny Juggs" put an excellent twist on the season's main plot (Teddy's plan), but it also added life to a plot that has, up until now, been pretty stupid (Matt, the bandit mime). Add in the laughs from Christian and Jenny and you've got some vintage McNamara/Troy action. Remember that? Nip/Tuck always used to be this good.

(S06E03) "I don't know... she must've thought I was someone else." - Teddy

Season six of Nip/Tuck, congratulations -- you have arrived. After two enjoyable, but largely disposable episodes to start the season, the focus has finally returned to the one dangling plot from season five -- Rose McGowan's Dr. Teddy Rowe. While it took some guesswork to recall everything the two-faced (three-faced?) anesthesiologist has done (the "previously on" sequence lacked anything to jog your memory since the season five Teddy was played by Katee Sackhoff), "Briggitte Reinholt" did a pretty decent job of explaining her past sins.

(S06E02) "Watching them bleed makes me feel less... alone." - Vivian

Despite being depressing as hell, "Enigma" was still a refreshing episode when compared to last week's light-hearted pseudo-documentary take on Sean and Christian's financial troubles. Nip/Tuck doesn't always focus solely on one of the main characters, but when the show does take that angle, it's often quite good. This episode could have just as easily been called "Sean McNamara II." (The first Sean-centric ep was back in season two.)

(S06E01) "For Sean McNamara, a man wound tighter than a hummingbird's asshole..." - Narrator

Is it wrong that the sight of a wrinkled and saggy breast being sliced open and having a slimy silicone implant shoved into it no longer makes me flinch in quite same way as it did when Nip/Tuck premiered in 2003? That seems to be the endemic issue with Nip/Tuck, in general - the show as a whole is no longer the "disturbingly perfect drama" that it once was because it's just not shocking anymore. In some ways it feels like we've seen it all.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean plots are being recycled, and as we begin our journey through the series' final 19 episodes (this season has 10), there are certainly still plenty of good stories to tell. I made it clear in yesterday's early preview that if there's one show out there with that sort of potential after five seasons, it's definitely Nip/Tuck.

Over the span of its first five seasons, Nip/Tuck has had some spectacular highs and some even greater lows. Regardless of how you feel about them (personally, I liked season three and The Carver), as viewers we've all watched Dr. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) slowly lose the battle to the one thing they're paid to combat - aging.

Entering its penultimate season, Nip/Tuck could use a little nipping and tucking of its own after the mediocre fifth season that saw a lengthy hiatus at the hands of the writers strike. Fortunately, it seems that things might be getting back to "normal" for McNamara/Troy. And by normal, I mean no more serial killers, organ thieves, or weirdo lip-synching musical montages. Beyond that, it's freak show as usual.

Alec Baldwin is a very complicated, very smart, and very talented guy. In two interviews just a month or so apart this fall, he was complaining about his career, contemplating other things he wanted to do with his life ... and that was all before winning the Emmy for 30 Rock.

Whatever he envisions for a professional life away from acting, if that's to be the case, Alec Baldwin has signed on to co-host Turner Classic Movies' The Essentials, a weekly analysis of a classic movie with co-host Robert Osborne. The show, which airs every Saturday at 8 p.m., most recently featured actress Rose McGowan, and before her Carrie Fisher and Molly Haskell shared the duties with Osborne.

It's one of my favorite TCM programs, giving the hosts a chance to set up a great movie, offer commentary and stimulate conversation. Considering the fact that Alec is very opinionated and pretty funny, he should add a lot to The Essentials.

The show, written by Josh Miller and Mark Fortin, will star Rodriguez's fiancee, Rose McGowan. She'll play one of five women central to the show. It's rumored to have a 70s exploitation feel, and there's talk of mud wrestling. Alan Ball's Bad Girls most likely takes HBO out of the equation, but I'd certainly prefer Showtime over any of the normal networks, just for the freedom it would provide. The linked article mentions NBC and FX as receiving the spec script. Should it end up at either of those, it will be interesting to see how what looks to be an envelope pushing show plays out under the tighter restrictions.

[Thanks to J for the tip.]

Turner Classic Movies has asked several well-known celebrities to pick their favorite movies, which will be shown every night throughout November, and I have to say I'm very impressed with their picks.

Some of the choices fit the celeb. For example, Martha Stewart picked Enchanted April, Madame Bovary, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and Anna Karenina, which you can imagine Martha watching at home, a bowl of popcorn in her lap (and critiquing the job Mr. Blandings did), and James Ellroy's picks (Stakeout On Dope Street, The Lineup, Armored Car Robbery, and Murder By Contract) stay along the lines of his noir/mystery background. But a few picks are interesting. Access Hollywood co-host Maria Menounos picked the 1932 cult classic Freaks, and Food Network icon Alton Brown picked the Lee Marvin classic Point Blank. As for non-human celebs, Kermit The Frog picked Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon.

(S08E22) No sir, I didn't like it. Didn't like it one bit.

I'm talking about the series finale of the WB's Charmed , which ended its eighth and final season on Sunday night. What should have been a great sendoff by producers and writers for the Halliwell sisters Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan) was flat, disappointing, and focused more on the secondary players than The Charmed Ones.

However, that's not the reason why I disliked the episode. The thing that ticked me off was the magical device that Piper, the oldest sister, used in order to save Phoebe and Paige form a horrible death that they encountered last episode. A device that, in my opinion, is the lazy way out of resolving issues.

I'm talking about . . . .wait for it . . . time travel. Aarrrgh!

As I mentioned in a previous post back at the beginning of April, the WB's Charmed is ending its eight-season run in a few weeks and a few of its cast members, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan, to give examples, are not happy at all about the way the network treated them. They say that, even if the show went on for a ninth season aboard the new CW network, they would not renew their contracts.

Despite this news, the support for the show has been pretty overwhelming. From the comments made on the post, there are still many passionate fans of the show who would like to see it continue. This got me to thinking, which is always a bad sign.. there must be a place on the Internet where fans of the show can go to and show their support. Well, after a lengthy Internet search (OK, it was five seconds after I entered 'Save Charmed' in Google) I may have found such an outlet.

The Petition Spot web site currently has a ongoing petition to save Charmed from the cancellation axe. At this moment, there are nearly 1400 signatures on the list. The goal listed is 5,000 signatures. Once they reach that goal, they will present the petition to Warner Brothers, the company that distributes Charmed. So, all of you fans who sent comments to my previous post, get started on that petition!

The cast and crew of the WB's Charmed, which is finishing up its eighth and final season, are pissed at the network that housed them for so long. According to Holly Marie Combs (Piper), who became producer on the show halfway through the series, the network has treated them like the ugly stepchild pretty much from day one.

Another member of the cast, Rose McGowan (who joined as Charmed sister Paige when Shannen Doherty departed after the fourth season), added that the cancellation of the show as their network and the UPN merged was the icing on the cake to the way to they were treated. McGowan said that even if her contract was renewed for a ninth season (her and Combs' contracts ended this season) she would not return due to the poor way she and her castmates were handled.

The full interview can be found on SciFi Wire. By the way, with the completion of this season, Charmed makes history as the longest running television show with female leads; it beats out the classic Laverne & Shirley by a half season and Buffy the Vampire Slayer by one full season.