TVSquad

(S06E01) FOX is easing us into this new fall season of So You Think You Can Dance with only one episode per week for the first three. Then, the show will settle into its regular Tuesday/Wednesday timeslots; keeping them warm for American Idol in the winter.

Things kicked off in LA with Adam Shankman joining Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy on the dais. I wouldn't mind Shankman taking that slot permanently, as he's the most consistent of the rotating "third judges." With the shorter one-hour premieres, there was little focus on the terrible; instead they chose to show us more of what was great -- a smart move.

If SYTYCD is to be the showcase for the most talented amateur dancers on the planet, we need to see how great they are. Like American Idol, there have been seasons where SYTYCD went too deep into the bad dance, but anyone can do that. What's amazing is seeing people do things you could never in a million years achieve.

I've talked at length in the past about how much I've loved all the creative taglines Entourage has featured over it's previous five seasons. They're short and witty, yet the brevity always gets across the point of the season too. The latest promotional campaign for Entourage's upcoming sixth season is no exception:

"Life changes. Friends don't."

When we last left Vinny and the boys, they were gearing up for Marty Scorsese's Great Gatsby re-imagining and it began with moving home to Queens. Speculation seems to be leaning towards Vince finally getting his due and being recognized for what's sure to be a stand-out performance in a Scorsese classic.

Rescue Me fans have been waiting far too long for this news. It was announced yesterday that the FX trademark drama will finally begin airing its 22-episode fifth season on Tuesday, April 7th at 10PM ET. And yes, the season will air uninterrupted, with the finale scheduled to air on September 8th.

Season four, which finished back in September 2007, received some of the drama's poorest critical reviews of the series to date. Season five, which has been delayed by over a year because of the WGA Strike, promises to be much better.

FX President John Landgraf said that, "...the quality of episodes...are some of the best they've ever produced," and when I spoke with Denis Leary by phone last June, he said the opening six episodes of the new season was some of the best stuff they'd written yet.

Excited? I sure as hell am. Keep reading though because the news gets even better.

The wait is finally over. After having its last season cut short from 22 episodes to 14 due to the WGA Strike, Nip/Tuck is set to return in January 2009 and FX has been airing some great promos to get fans ready.

However, because of the strike, episode number counts, renewal news, and other tidbits of info all sort of got mashed together. So here's what I'm guessing is going to happen after the New Year...

For a reputedly lackluster season, I'm impressed with how well Jordin Sparks seems to be developing her career. I hate to say it, but you kind of have to put it down to her being young and somewhat bland. As such, since she hadn't really discovered her own unique style and approach she was able to be molded into whatever record producers (and Idol) wanted her to be.

That said, she's a fairly standard R&B/Pop artist, but she's got a nice voice and "Tattoo" has a great hook. In fact, I was digging the song for a few days before I knew who sang it and was surprised to hear it was her (I know, I'm old and out of touch but radio stations barely tell you what song they're playing anymore). Now the video has dropped for her latest single, a duet with Chris Brown. You can watch and let us know what you think after the jump.

(S06E13) Valentine's Day comes to Smallville about two weeks before the rest of the country. Why can't these episodes come on closer to the actual date of the holiday? Okay, I'm griping too much. We've got the return of Red Kryptonite, and it's about darn time. It comes at the right time, too ... given the fact that Lois has gotten a bit itchy in her relationship with Oliver Queen, and Lana is about to go fully over to the dark side and marry Lex Luthor, not to mention have his baby. That's getting a bit too close to the whole Anakin/Padme relationship, ain't it?

The whole little Zoltar machine slash Gypsy slash matchmaker woman who just gives Lois the magical lipstick was wayyyyy to much of a plot device for me. It's like the writers were in a post-Chinese food coma and decided to just have some character waltz in and hand it over. Was it too convenient? Am I griping about the small stuff too much again? Most likely. Granted, the alternative was probably having a department of LuthorCorp working on cosmetics, and some wacky scientist decides to add meteor rocks and yadda yadda yadda. K-powered shampoo and shaving gel for the world.

(S06E12) Or as I like to call it, "The Martian Manhunter Show!" All Martians, all the time. Either that, or "One Flew Over the Clark Kent's Nest," except we didn't get a Nurse Ratchett, unfortunately. You can tell right from the beginning that this is all taking place in Clark's mind, so it has the ring of "ripoff" to me. Basically, it's like holodeck episode of Star Trek: TNG. Although some good things came out of those (Dixon Hill, Moriarty, Minuet) so I'm not going to declare full shenanigans ... maybe only halfsies.

Someone needs to YouTube together all of the scenes of Clark working on farm equipment and make it a commercial for Clark's Tractor Repair. We must have seen him work on that thing a million times, but I don't remember him ever turning over any soil in the north forty. What gives, Smallville? The writers need to think about dropping the whole Kent Farm charade and just have them live on the land. Martha's a senator, which must pay fairly decent wages, right?

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.