Fringe Season 3 - its here.....

Waiting for this too....starts Sept 23rd....

Welcome back Chuck.....

Heroes to Kill Off a Major Character?

First there was last night's same-sex kiss and now it seems that the producers of Heroes are shaking things up some more. According to E! Online, an important character will be killed off on Heroes sometime this season. While the site wouldn't offer the exact character, a few hints were dropped, including a cryptic picture that might or might not feature the killed-off character.

However, I will tell you that this leading character is a male, and he is not necessarily pictured above. (He might be, he might not be.) And he is one of the original cast.
And you thought Hayden's same-sex kiss was surprising, eh?

Clearly the producers are pulling out all the stops this season in an effort to ramp up storylines and pull out a big watercooler-worthy surprise.

Although he isn't pictured, it seems possible that either Zachary Quinto's Sylar or Adrian Pasdar's Nathan Petrelli (even though he's technically dead...) could either meet their fate, due to the bizarre circumstances that are currently playing out this season.

Heroes Will Feature Claire and Gretchen Kissing

Things will be heating up in next week's episode of Heroes, entitled Hysterical Blindness, which will air on Monday, October 12 at 8 PM ET on NBC, and we have a new image to prove it. Take a look at Hayden Panettiere's Claire and guest star Madeline Zima's Gretchen locked in their first kiss.



The episode will also feature guest-starring stints from Ernie Hudson and Oscar-winning actress Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Take a look at the new synopsis for the episode below.

Samuel (Robert Knepper) prepares for new additions to his family, while Lydia (guest star Dawn Olivieri) warns him of the consequences. Claire (Hayden Panettiere) discovers that her roommate Gretchen (guest star Madeline Zima) may have a hidden agenda. Meanwhile, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) finds an unexpected way to connect with Emma (guest star Deanne Bray), who would prefer to stay distant. Elsewhere, a different side of Sylar (Zachary Quinto) emerges as he desperately tries to remember the person he used to be.

Heroes Season 4 Promo Poster

Hayden Panettiere Teases on Heroes' Next Season

It seems that we might be going on quite a ride with an NBC hit series next season... a carnival ride. MTV Movies Blog recently spoke with Heroes star Hayden Panettiere about the upcoming fourth season of the show.

"The next season of Heroes has a lot of characters that are coming in," says Panettierre, "There's something called The Carnival... which is kind of the opposite of what The Company was. There's a lot of new, cool characters."

There have been a spate of new actors signed on to the show, including Prison Break's Robert Knepper, who has recently signed on to portray the villian Samuel. According to Next On Heroes, it seems that Samuel is a carnival barker, and Ray Park is in talks to portray the mysterious knife-throwing carnival character.

We'll be sure to keep you posted on any and all Heroes updates as soon as we have more information.

'Life' is over at NBC - Too bad..it is a good show..

The fates of "Chuck" and "Law & Order" may still be up in the air, but NBC was definitive about one on-the-fence show at its upfront presentation Monday: "Life" will not get a third season.

"It will not be coming back," was NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman's short and to-the-point statement on the show's fate, which came in response to a question about it at the network's upfront presentation in New York Monday. The LA Times and numerous others reported the cancellation.

It's not a huge surprise. The series, which starred Damian Lewis as eccentric L.A. detective Charlie Crews, averaged only about 6.2 million viewers in its second season, where it split time between Wednesday and Friday nights (along with a brief tryout on Mondays at the beginning of the season).

The show had faded from discussion of NBC's bubble shows over the past week as reports focused attention on "Chuck," "Law & Order" and "Medium" -- which isn't officially renewed, despite earlier reports. All three of those shows are reportedly still in contention for spots on the NBC schedule. The network says it will announce additional pickups, along with its lineup for next season, on Tuesday, May 19.

NBC renews Chuck for 13 episodes

NBC and Warner Bros. have hammered out a deal that will bring back Chuck, Sarah et al for a third season of at least 13 episodes, sources tell TVGuide.com.

As reported on Sunday, this new life does come with a price, however. Or, specifically a lower one. Chuck, which had already trimmed its production budget going into Season 2, will now need to be even leaner and meaner for its next cycle. That could result in a scenario similar to the one seen on ABC's Scrubs this spring, where certain cast members "went missing" for a week at a time.

One factor perhaps playing into Chuck's pick-up was NBC's decision to take a pass on David E. Kelley's Legally Mad. That incurred a financial penalty from Warner Bros. TV, and there was talk that to "make good" on the amount due, NBC would grant a renewal to Chuck, which is also a WB production.

NBC is not confirming any new pick-ups until its upfront "comedy showcase" event on May 19. -- Matt Mitovich

Life: Was that the Last Episode or Will There Be More?

It’s no secret that NBC’s Life has been struggling in the ratings this year. What happened? And, did we just see the season or series finale?

Life follows the days of Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis), a detective who was released from prison after serving 12 years of a life sentence for murders that he didn’t commit. Crews has lost everything dear to him but survives thanks to his studies of Zen philosophy. He sues to get his job back and rejoins the LAPD a very different man. Others in the cast include Sarah Shahi, Adam Arkin, Brent Sexton, Donal Logue, Brooke Langton, Robin Weigert, Jennifer Siebel, Victor Rivers, and Jessy Schram.

The NBC drama debuted on September 26, 2007 to 10.15 million viewers and a 4.1/11 rating/share of the 18-49 demographic. The second episode slipped to 8.8 million and a 3/10 rating/share. Later episodes sank to a low of 5.72 million and a 2/6.

In a typical year, NBC very likely would have cancelled Life but, thanks to the crazy writers strike, the year wasn’t typical. The season was cut short to 11 episodes and, based on limited pilot prospects, the execs decided to take a roll of the dice and give Life another chance.

That strategy didn’t work out for ABC shows like Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone and it didn’t work for Life either. NBC didn’t help matters by scheduling Life in a little-watched Friday night timeslot.

Life’s season two premiere was given a special Monday night timeslot and it attracted 6.94 million people and a 2.7/7 rating/share in the demo. When it moved to Friday nights, it sank to 5.54 million and a 1.7/5. Strangely enough, the following Monday night, the numbers were about the same.

Lipstick Jungle, which was occupying Life’s old Wednesday timeslot, wasn’t doing very well either. So, after six episodes, NBC moved Life back to Wednesdays, hoping that its performance would improve. That didn’t really happened and, with the exception of one ratings spike in December, Life averaged just 5.3 million and a 1.7 rating in the demo.

Sadly, with ratings like these and NBC’s need for far fewer shows next season, Life has very little chance of returning for a third season.

Thankfully, after tonight, NBC has aired all 32 episodes of the series. Had Life been on ABC and gotten these numbers, it probably would have only received a 13 episode order and we’d have to wait until Summer to see the final installments.

Tonight’s episode, “One,” gave us a bunch of answers to the conspiracy that put Crews behind bars. Obviously there a plenty of more stories to be told but at least we have some answers.

If this turns out to be the last episode, do you find it satisfying enough?

Heroes Will Have a Shortened 4th Season

April 23rd, 2009

While it seems likely that there is going to be a fourth season of NBC's superheroic drama Heroes, fans will get somewhere between five and seven fewer episodes. NBC plans to cut back on the number of episodes for the upcoming season, according to a report in TV Guide.

By all account, there are several reasons for the delay. First off, there is the fact that the show, while still showing respectable rating numbers, has lost a number of viewers since it's debut season in 2006. Additionally, there is the fact that NBC will have five fewer primetime hours to find programming for in the 2009-10 season, due to the program featuring Jay Leno that will be on at 10:00 p.m. weeknights. NBC also isn't alone in experimenting with shortened seasons - CBS's Harper's Island follows a 13-episode format, and ABC's Lost has had between 16 and 17 episodes per season for the past several.

The writers and producers on the show have already begun work on Heroes' fifth volume, which will involve a seres of mysterious deaths among those with abilities. The question, of course, is are the deaths natural? Or are they murders?

Heroes is an epic drama that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. The show airs Monday nights on NBC.

The 10 Shows That Deserve to Return Next Fall

1. "Chuck"
In short, this show is clever, all-around fun, with a great cast, stellar writing and lots and lots of heart. And Chuck and Sarah may be the TV couple we most enjoy seeing almost hook up, but not quite. Save that for season five or six.

2. "Life"
Charlie Crews, the fruit-loving L.A. detective with a Zen attitude, has become one of our favorite TV cops ever in just under two years, thanks to Damian Lewis' deceptively placid, quirky charisma. This season, the weekly cases got more creative, the supporting cast got stronger (partly due to the addition of Donal Logue and Gabrielle Union) and the underlying conspiracy plot got twistier.

3. "Fringe"
We tuned in because of Joshua Jackson, stuck around despite a slightly sluggish start, and were finally rewarded with some fun science fiction. We're just getting to the interesting mythology, and we're finally warming up to Anna Torv, mostly because she kicks butt. It's a little bit of Alias and a little bit of "X-Files", with some really gross/awesome monsters of the week, and just turning out to be a pretty enjoyable action series.

4. "Better Off Ted"
We need a good workplace comedy to make us laugh again, since "The Office" has been disappointing us lately. This one is more akin to "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" and is filled with that quirk and innate silliness that turns off the general public who prefer the more straight-forward sitcoms like "Rules of Engagement".

5. "Dollhouse"
We're still iffy on this show, but it took a while for "Angel" to really hit its stride, too. Even "Buffy" had some less-than-stellar first season episodes. Perhaps that's just part of Joss Whedon's style. It seems like Joss and Co. are making an active effort to work out the kinks to really get this series to meet the high standards his fans hold him to. It's getting there, but without a second season, we may never get to see that vision realized.

6. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"
We've already lost one show with robots this season with the end of "BSG". Don't take our other one away from us. We need some robots kicking butt to really round out our weekly TV viewing. Seriously though, we love the idea of this show and every time it starts to wear our patience thin with family drama, they hook us again with more cool Terminator technology.

7. "Kings"
This ambitious series is bringing a whole world to life, and the twisted tale just started to get really juicy, with backstabbing and dirty deals. It may be based in history, but this tale of a rich, powerful, corrupt monarchy has an epic feel about it that shouldn't be confined to just a few episodes. Plus, we're so grateful to have Ian McShane back in a starring role again; to take the show away now would just reopen our old "Deadwood" wounds.

8. "Rock of Love"
Sure, Bret said that this "Bus" installment was his last chance at finding love, but we're not sure we love, or even like, any of the girls that are left. He can do better than that, for sure. And even if he can't, it would be great for us to see him try, because there's something disgustingly engrossing about his sweet nature and the skanky girls who compete for him.

9. "Celebrity Apprentice"
"The Apprentice" was getting to be a tired format. The addition of celebrities makes it infinitely more interesting, and these last two seasons have succeeded in making us actually enjoy this franchise again. But apparently we're in the minority, since the ratings are shrinking. Perhaps the problem is that they need a higher profile of celebrities to draw more viewers in the future, although the C-listers and sports stars (aside from Dennis Rodman) seem to be a scrappier bunch, willing to do what it takes to get 15 more minutes of fame.

10. "Southland"/"The Unusuals"
Neither of these shows have even premiered yet, but while they both have promising pilots that have us hooked, it is unlikely that they'll actually last. "Unusuals" has police cases with a healthy dose of comedy, which might be a little too oddball for the general public. And "Southland" is twisted and gritty, but with NBC's new schedule next fall, there's not really a lot of space for this show that needs to be in the 10 PM hour. We like them, but we're worried that they're doomed before they started.

Bryan Fuller Discusses the Future of Heroes

Bryan Fuller worked on the first season of NBC's hit series Heroes, before leaving for ABC's Pushing Daisies. When that show ended, Fuller was snatched back up by NBC for Heroes. Now, Fuller has spoken to SCI FI Wire about the show and where he sees the future of the show going.

When asked what he wanted to accomplish with the new scripts, Fuller answered "I just really wanted to get everything back to a character base. I think character was shoved aside for plot. The second year with the virus was interesting, but then it got complicated and techno-babbly. With "Villains," it started out interesting and then became about formula. When they started talking about how we were injected with our powers and it became sci-fi ghetto storytelling, I became disconnected." Fuller continued "Mohinder went from a noble scientist to being a mad scientist with Jeff Goldblum hair and wardrobe. Claire became so strident and unlikable because she was just whining, bitching and holding a gun. I was just concerned the wheel had been jerked so sharply in the wrong direction with what had worked about the first season, which was ordinary people with extraordinary powers. Everything ordinary about their lives went out the window, and everything was extraordinary. That was my frustration."

Fuller also addressed Ali Larter's new character, Tracy Strauss, who seemed to die in the climax of Cold Snap. Asked if that was the last we would see of her, Fuller said "Oh, no. There was a lot of debate over whether she's winking, but no, she's not winking. She's blinking, and a tear comes down. There was miscommunication with the visual effects, where you were only supposed to see one of her eyes. It was definitely a blink and a shedding of a tear. Tracy comes back in a really big way later on in the season." Fuller went on to say that Tracy had a journey ahead of her which was going to be about regaining her humanity. "What she learned from her encounter with Micah/Rebel made a huge impact on her," Fuller said. "She is going to be following that through-line the next season. There is that realization she has been approaching politics from the wrong angle. In the fourth year, Tracy will have a new perspective that may not be right, but it's more understandable than before.

Finally, Fuller offered the following teases about the final four episodes of the fourth season:

There's actually a lot of really fun character work happening in the last four episodes that the writing staff is proud of. We'll see Matt retaliate against Danko in a very interesting way. We'll also see Sylar strike at the heart of HRG's life in a way that causes things for him to unravel. The episode after that is essentially "Company Man" for Angela Petrelli, where we'll be doing a flashback to her life in 1961 and the events that happened there, which really motivates who she is now. In episode 24, we get to the heart of Sylar's identity crisis, and we clearly understand what his agenda is, what he's after and who the people in his life are that made the biggest impact. Episode 25 is our big finale.

Chuck - Returns!!!

• Airs Next:NBC at Monday February 2,2009
  
• Status:Returning Series
• Premiered:September 24, 2007
• Show Categories:Comedy, Action/Adventure

The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz and director McG (We Are Marshall) bring us Chuck, a new series laced with humor about young twenty-something spies.

Zachary Levi (Less Than Perfect) plays Chuck Bartowski, a nerdy computer tech who has a database of government secrets downloaded into his brain. Chuck soon finds himself recruited by John Casey (Adam Baldwin), a veteran NSA Agent, for espionage work with his new partner (and first date in ten years) Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) - leading Chuck to live a split life of computer geek and secret NSA missions.

Lost Season 5

• Airs Next:ABC at Wednesday 9:00 PM (60 min.)
• Status:Returning Series
• Premiered:September 22, 2004
• Show Categories:Drama, Science-Fiction
• Official Site:ABC.com

After Oceanic Air Flight 815 tears apart in mid-air and crashes on a Pacific island on September 22nd 2004, its survivors are forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive. But they discover that the island holds many secrets, including a mysterious smoke monster, polar bears, housing with electricity and hot & cold running water, a group of island residents known as "The Others," and a mysterious man named Jacob. The survivors also find signs of those who came to the island before them, including a 19th century sailing ship called The Black Rock and the ruins of an ancient statue, as well as bunkers belonging to the Dharma Initiative -- a group of scientific researchers who inhabited the island in the recent past.

Life Season 2 - Re Entry

• Airs Next:NBC at Wednesday February 4,2009
  
• Status:Returning Series
• Premiered:September 26, 2007
• Show Categories:Drama

Damian Lewis stars as a former police officer who, after years of false imprisonment, returns to the force with a decidedly different philosophy. Deadwood's Robin Weigert has been added to the cast of the series. She'll play the boss of Lewis' character, Lt. Davis. Brooke Langton will play the lawyer who got him out of prison that despite the fact that she is married, has a spark with Lewis.

Fringe - when in Malaysia??