Top TV Pairings Part 5

Sorry for the slight delay but here's the fifth installment in my TV Pairings.

Desperate Housewives - Gabrielle Solis/Carlos Solis

If I had done this list a couple of years ago, there's no way in hell these two would've been my favourite pairing but unlike nearly every relationship on the show nowadays, Gabby and Carlos are the only ones who have actually grown, so they get my vote for that alone.

Lost - James Sawyer/Juliet Burke

When I found out these two were going to be become a couple in the fifth season, I had my doubts but damn, they so worked as a pairing. Far better than Jack/Kate or Kate/Sawyer and their reunion in the series finale was just lovely as well.

Skins - Naomi Campbell/Emily Fitch

Yeah, this one might have been a cliche choice (my other one would've been Chris/Jal) but apart from the choppy treatment they got in the fourth season, I actually do like Emily/Naomi. Both actresses have genuine chemistry with each other and they rightfully became the popular couple of the second generation and considering the dull as dishwater triangle between Cook/Effy/Freddie, is anyone surprised?

Life On Mars - Sam Tyler/Annie Cartwright

Being stuck in another time cannot be all that bad after all. Sam certainly might have been desperate to get home but he ultimately chose to stay in 1973 with the Guv and the lads and most importantly, Annie too. Personally, I've never seen anything with Sam/Gene but Sam/Annie were a nice pairing.

Nip/Tuck - Sean McNamara/Christian Troy

No, they're not gay, no, this isn't a slash entry but six seasons of mostly toxic relationships, Sean and Christian's friendship is the closest to something decent and even that was marred with problems from time to time.

Skins US - Yes, It's Been Canned

In news that's unlikely to shock anyone, the US version of Skins will not be returning for a second series. MTV pulled the series after lacklustre ratings and I have to admit that I'm not too shocked to see it go.

After being pleasantly surprised by both SyFy and Showtime commissioning second seasons for their versions of Being Human and Shameless, I was pretty certain that Skins would be the unfortunate show not to get another chance.

In some ways, it's a shame because while it started off badly, miscast the role of Tony (sorry, James Newman) and mucked the Tea arc around the place, it did improve in it's final episodes and might have continued to improve if it had been renewed but I guess with the terrible ratings and controversy surrounding it, MTV decided to cut their losses.

Still, there's at least the sixth (and more than likely, final) season of the UK series to look forward to in 2012.

Article On The Cancellation: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2001844/Controversial-television-Skins-cancelled-MTV.html

Red Rain

And here are some more highlights over the last few weeks ... V: I watched most of the first season on and off because after a rather good start, this show kind of became a little middle of the road. The first episode of Season 2 that aired last Thursday served well enough catching people up with the basic premise of lizard alien creatures Visitors pretending to be of peace but at the same using healing centres, blue energy and now red sky and rain as weapons for turning the Earth into a breeding ground. Erica and the 5th column really do need to get off their backsides and be a little more assertive in trying to tackle Anna and her race but the most discussion worthy of this episode was obviously the return of Dianna from the original series, imprisoned in this one as Anna's mother. Here's hoping Jane Badler gets some good moments to shine. Grey's Anatomy: Season Seven has also been something I've been watching off and on and to be honest, I've never been the biggest die hard fan of this show. It can be entertaining but it also be damn frustrating and this episode that aired on ABC and RTE2 within the last week maintained that. This has been a season devoid of Izzie, no baby for Meredith and Derek, a speedy marriage for Cristina and Owen, more developing for Jackson, April and Teddy and their various love interests and apparently one where Alex wants to date a snarky girl named Lucy and Bailey's screwing a sexist nurse named Elijah. Even more frustrating is that Callie/Mark/Arizona have become a source of tedium now that Mark has gotten Callie pregnant and Arizona's mission on the show is to look pissed off all the time. The girly baby shower aside, who didn't see both Callie and Arizona winding up in a car crash? This week's musical episode should be interesting or disastrous. Desperate Housewives: Ah, now there's some needed improvement. The last two episodes saw Bree and Keith breaking up as the latter grappled with becoming a father, Lynette gaining and losing a father in law in a short space of time as well as the show reminding us for the billionth time how pathetic the men in her life are, Carlos and Gabby trying harder to deal with their loss of Grace, Susan gaining a stalker but no kidney and some development on Paul, Zach and Beth but not nearly enough sadly. Still, there's some improvement. Skins US: While I side with most people criticising this show, I actually thought the last two episodes of this were rather decent. Tea finally faced up to her responsibilities with both Tony and Betty, Abbud and Daisy's relationship deepened, Stanley and Cadie did a great version of Shout and there's a mildly interesting triangle with them and Michelle while Tina and Eura got decent centric episodes, with Tina actually having to suffer consequences for her relationship with Chris, thanks to a spiteful Dave. Only Chris and Tony didn't seem to fare as well from these ones though. I still can't warm to Tony and I've been somewhat put off Chris in this one too. Being Human US: It's taking me longer to watch the episodes and when I do, I'm liking them but I'm not being impressed by them. Which is odd, because the writing has gotten better, the acting is definitely tighter and the shows attempts of fleshing out Bishop, doing the dog fights and dealing with Bernie's death have all been handled nicely but I don't have the same emotional connection to any of these characters as I do with the UK series. Maybe it's time I realised that this version isn't for me. White Van Man: Another week, another BBC3 comedy series being dolled out. It's not a bad one but it's not a great one either. Will Mellor is good enough in the role of a guy taking on his dad's business and lusting after a woman who is literally the Doctor's daughter and soon to be wife in real life but I guess it's just not my bag, show wise, though some of the supporting cast show promise.
- AMC have confirmed that Mad Men will not return for a fifth season until 2012.
- Glee's April 26th episode on FOX will be a 90 minute episode that will feature Lady Gaga's Born This Way in it. An Adele song may also appear in the second season's last few episodes.
- Both Elizabeth Mitchell and Jeremy Irons will appear in an upcoming episode of Law And Order: SVU.
- Fringe has been renewed for a fourth season.
- John Rothman, Cristine Rose have been cast as Cooper's parents while Tess Harper has been cast as Charlotte's mother as they all take part in the couple's upcoming wedding in Private Practice.
- Shonda Rhimes has promised that this season's finale to Grey's Anatomy will be a more quiet affair compared to the previous year.
- Balthazar Getty and Sonia Braga will be both back for the finale for Brothers And Sisters.

Give It Up For An Original Song That Is

And here's a jumble of some of the stuff I've been watching over the last few weeks ...

Being Human US: I need to catch up with the ninth episode (and I will) but episodes seven and eight are showing me that the show can improve. Dedicating one episode to Josh's family and Sally's attempts of getting Bridgette away from Danny was good but the other episode's attempt of retooling the paedophile storyline from the UK series wasn't as successful. The cast are gelling better with each other and Josh's developing relationship with Nora is a nice piece of normalcy for the series as well but Bishop isn't drawing me the same way that Herrick would do in the UK show and Aidan needs to be darker. He's too twee at the moment.

Desperate Housewives: Oh Lordy, we're in a dearth of uninteresting plots. You know something it worrying about a series when you have Gabby using a doll to cope with her grief as the strong point. The rest has been rubbish - I didn't care for Lynette's passive aggressive attempts of getting back at Tom and nor do I care for her mother's racist new boyfriend. Similarly, Susan's kidney plot is tedious, Renee still isn't gelling that well as a character, Bree just became a massive bitch by concealing Keith's kid from him and the return of Zach isn't doing much right now to kickstart this storyline with Paul and Beth. Damn it, show, get a flipping move on already. I don't want to be bored by you.

Glee: I've already kind of talked about the last two episodes pretty extensively already but keeping things simple, I loved the sex education courtesy of Holly and I loved that New Directions actually won for a change at Regionals, so for me, these last two episodes have been a blast. While I also think Santana's realisation of her feelings have been better handled than Blaine suddenly fancying Kurt, the show should be praised for forwarding these storylines at long last. Now if only Finn could grow a backbone and pick between Rachel and Quinn and Sue could suffer some actual consequences for her monstrous behaviour, then everything will be right with this show.
Modern Family: I haven't been catching up on this as much as I should have but the last episode I watched was the one with Chloe from 24 in it and I enjoyed it. Often I find Cameron and Mitchell too stereotypical for my liking but I really liked this episode. I sort of guessed that the child that Mitchell thought he fathered would end up being his ex-girlfriend rather short boyfriend but it was handled pretty well and I might try and make more of an effort to try and watch the remainder of the season.

Skins UK: Ah, not one but two great final episodes. I love the way certain fans went apeshit over the idea of Grace and Rich actually getting engaged. I knew they wouldn't actually tie the knot and even if they had, it wouldn't have bothered me. This finale managed to be better than either finale the second generation had and while I'm not keen on a pairing between Franky and Matty, I really am finding it interesting that Mini's attitude towards Franky has dramatically changed since the start of the season. I just hope that low ratings aside, we do get a sixth year so this lot can be seen out in style.

Skins US: I need to catch up with Tina's episode but both Michelle and Daisy's ones were enjoyable, surprisingly. Or maybe I'll just never tire of seeing Tony getting socked by Michelle, regardless of incarnation but either way, this show is improving. Michelle's episode was pretty faithful to it's UK version but Daisy's deviated quite a lot from the Jal one it was inspired by. I'm not sure about Daisy and Abbud but seeing as he's improved greatly as a character, I'll keep an open mind. I hope the last two are great.

- Kristin Chenowith and Leslie Bibb are amongst the actresses signed up for a new ABC series called Good Christian Bitches about a woman who returns to her old town after her marriage collapses.
- Being Human US has been picked up for a second season while the UK version has deservedly bagged a fourth year.
- Matthew Morrison has revealed that he thinks both Will and Emma will eventually get together in Glee. Meanwhile watch for Sue assembling her own legion of doom against Will towards the end of the season.
- It's been revealed that Season 4 of True Blood will take place a year after the events of the previous year.
- Jeri Ryan will be guest starring in Law And Order: Criminal Intent soon.
- Sonia Braga will be reprising her role as Gabriella for the season finale of Brothers And Sisters.
- Andrew Lincoln has revealed the second season of The Walking Dead will be more emotionally charged.
- Merlin has now been picked for a fourth season of 13 episodes instead of 10 as originally reported.

Skins And It's LGBT Sexuality

Five seasons in and with the finale only six days away, you have to hand it to Skins. It really has explored as many facets to sexuality for LGBT characters along with heterosexual characters in a way that a lot of it's adult counterparts have not.

Let's look at Maxxie Oliver for instance. One of the things I liked about Maxxie as a character was that we finally had a gay teen on a series without the angst. The consequence of this might have led to him either doing very little from time to time or dealing with a creepy female stalker like Sketch but as a character, he was the first of a succession of LGBT characters that this show could get right. Pairing him up with Tony Stonem briefly was more innovative than what the US version tried to replicate with his lesbian equivalent in Tea but giving him a boyfriend as the second season came to it's conclusion and the first generation left was probably good in some ways. Like no overbearing angst if it had happened earlier.

Then there's Emily Fitch and Naomi Campbell from Seasons 3 and 4 of the series. The amount of furore these girls have caused was unprecedented but once again, this show mostly got them right. Their slowly but surely relationship was a good step and while the fourth season went overkill on keeping them apart, only to hastily bring them back together was tedious, it did only serve to highlight that a gay couple can have as much clout in a series aimed for teenagers as the straight couples can too. Were people this fanatical about Thomas/Pandora or Cook/Effy/Freddie during the much praised 2nd Generation? Were they hell? Naomily wins and yes, I am embarrassed to be referring to a successful couple I liked by their shipper name. I will absolve my sins in a reasonable fashion.

However the show's most complex strand of sexuality (and it's most innovative to date) has come from Franky Fitzgerald. Here is a young girl who does not want to be labeled anything sexually. She's not gay, she's not straight and she's not bisexual but she does like people and one of those people happens to be Matty Levan. Over the last few episodes we've seen Franky fawn over the guy while Olivia 'Liv' Malone has been seething about it. In a bizarre twist of events, Franky got to kiss both Liv and Mini whilst rehearsing and performing Grace's take on Twelfth Night but while kissing Liv only ignited bittersweet angst that Matty seemed to make ten times worse, kissing Mini was something different. Mini's whole attitude towards Franky throughout this season has been more interesting than anything else concerning her. She went from virtually humiliating the poor girl in the opening episode to smiling after they had to do a kiss in this week's episode and in the finale, clips have been released of Mini being rather protective of Franky. I don't honestly know what to think with the situation between Franky/Mini. There's no actual indication that anything sexual can or will happen between them but the writers in true Skins style have definitely added another interesting layer between them and it's one that neither girl have had with any of the men they've interacted with this season. Will this show buck a trend and give a triangle between Franky, Mini and Matty or is it Matty and Franky all the way?

And then there's the issue of Matty as well. I really wish that Sebastian DeSouza who plays him hadn't let slip that the character was intended to be bisexual because right now, I'm annoyed the show is not venturing down that trope with him. It would've been better than watching him emotionally dick both Liv and Franky about the place and bisexuality is the one area the show hasn't completely explored yet, unless next season either outs Matty, Franky or Mini as definitively bisexual but either way, Glee aside, this show certainly has a more interesting and somewhat realistic-ish depiction on teen sexuality compared to it's glossier rivals. More importantly, what do fans thinks - should it be Franky/Matty, Franky/Mini or something else? I personally don't want to see the former, unless Matty stops acting like a jerk and I'm not sure about the middle to be honest. Maybe something else. Give Matty a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend. Interesting how both Glee and Skins this week pushed sexual boundaries.

Don't Blow Up A Cow Man

Okay, it's been a fortnight since the last jumble but here's some of the stuff, I've been watching over the last 14 days.

Glee: It's that kind of an episode. The one where everyone drinks and it's bad, right? Except not really to be honest. Sure there's plenty of commentary on the consequences of excessive drinking and the fact that Brittany's version of Tik Tok resulted in her and Santana vomiting on stage but other than that, this episode isn't as moralising as it could've been - thankfully. Bonus points awarded to the continued friendship between Will and Beiste but the whole possibly bisexuality saga between Kurt/Blaine/Rachel seemed a little tacked on. Hopefully the bisexuality arc with Brittany and Santana is better tackled in the next episode.

Desperate Housewives: Fecking hell, RTE2 - three months since the last episode? Um, I liked this one quite a lot. Bree and Keith have a great banter and it was nice that a returning Orson didn't overall damage that but I'm not sure I like the passive aggressive way in which Lynette is trying to deal with Tom and Renee though. Why not just have it out with them? Susan's kidney problems were also surprisingly effective and while I feel for Juanita, I have to admit that I do have a certain amount of sympathy for Gabby as well. She's not coping with Grace being gone all that well as buying that creepy doll displayed and perhaps Carlos should be a tad more sensitive. Better still was the ruling out of Felicia and Mike as suspects for Paul's shooter and Paul realising who exactly Beth is related to. Is it too much to hope that after a shaky start that Season 7 is finally getting it's shit together?

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: Note to writers - Belle is not Carrie Bradshaw and this show, while liked will not have the same type of fashionista influence that Sex And The City seemingly has. That aside, I did like the fact Poppy had a realistic reaction to learn about Belle's profession and Steph's too. Unfortunately the subsequent whining and lashing out has been far less entertaining to watch. I get Poppy being furious at her mother but how can she act like a bitch to Belle in one episode and then worship the backside of Charlotte in the next one. As for Ben, he's behaving like a douche I almost wish Belle would go off with fanatical copper Harry. As for the movie stuff, a little metatextual but fun enough though. Only three episodes to go.

The Big C: Another episode of this show and I might like it more. It's definitely good stuff and Cathy's an interesting enough protaganist but I always think it could be a little better. Last week's episode where Cathy was trying to discipline her son as her estranged husband played sport was amusing though. I'll stick with it for a while longer.

Being Human US: Okay, I have to catch up with the seventh episode but the last two that I've watched were actually good if still treading UK show territory. Josh discovered the truth about Ray making him a werewolf, Bishop's plotting a vampire takeover, Danny's been exposed as Sally's killer and despite initial friction, both Josh and Nora are being drawn to each other along with Rebecca continuing her quest to sink her fangs into Aidan. The only differences here were the return of Emily and her being attacked by Marcus and Sally's interactions with a poltergeist. It's not as good as the UK series but it's definitely interesting enough though.

Skins UK: Definitely getting better. I enjoyed both Nick and Alo's episodes and while neither are classics, both of them were extremely entertaining and drew some much needed scope for both characters. Alo's episode however was the strongest because not only did it draw on his own failings (and the death of Bessie the cow), it actually forwarded stuff. Rich and Grace took their relationship to the next level, both Mini and Liv challenged Franky on her sexuality (Matty, do not pit Franky and Liv against one another) and it also had a rather nice scene or two between Mini and Alo. For a girl who's such a bitch, Mini can be surprisingly sensitive and she's becoming my favourite female character of this new set. Can't wait to see what the last two episodes give us but in terms of parents, I hated Nick and Matty's father but I could believe in Alo's parents, even if his mum was a total bitch in parts of his episode.
Skins US: I need to catch up with Michelle's episode tomorrow but I didn't mind both Stanley and Abbud's episode, no matter how similar to their UK equivalent they were. The writing is still patchy in places though and I really could've done without Tony and Tea actually sleeping with each other. Tony is now the weakest link of the kids from this show. No disrespect to James Newman but he's just really miscast for the role but given how badly this is doing in the ratings, I'm thinking a second season will be a no go.

- Ryan Devlin will be reprising his role as Seth in Brothers And Sisters later in the season but has admitted that he isn't certain if the show will be picked up for a sixth year.
- Brian Austin Green has left Desperate Housewives but Bree will be getting another love interest later in the season.
- Elizabeth Hurley has been cast as a bisexual villain for the new Wonder Woman series that's due to air on NBC.
- Shameless US has been renewed for a second season while the UK version will be going on a break for a bit.
- There are rumours that the UK version of Skins will be getting 10 episodes for it's sixth season.
- James Callis is the latest Battlestar Galactica alumni to sign up for Ron Moore's new show, 17th Precinct.

Skins - Season 5 Second Half Trailer

Okay five episodes and I'm not gonna lie - I like this new lot. I didn't think I wouldn't but more than that, I've liked the writing for the series again. Skins has managed to recapture it's surreal moments with comedic flair and has mostly given us dramatic situations that actually seem to be true enough to the characters. In other words, Series 5 is nowhere near the depressing over angst fest that was Series 4 and with the US version looking increasingly likely to be cancelled, the trailer for the second half of the UK version is promising pretty interesting stuff. Alo's finally getting some characterisation, Mini's twisting the knife with Franky/Matty/Liv while Grace and Rich are seemingly love's young dream. Only Nick seems to be doing very little at the moment. Other than that, the final three episodes look like they're going to be eventful.

Trailer: http://www.spoilertv.com/2011/02/skins-episodes-506-to-508-promo.html

Searching For The Lack Of Love

And if you can spot what or where that title comes from, you're a genius.

Skins UK: Okay, so far, I really do believe that this series is showing so much improvement. So, why are ratings and Twitter hits less big for the series then? It's a puzzler. The new generation continue to be interesting and both Mini and Liv had some pretty damn interesting episodes between them. Much as I found Mini's double standards towards Nick and Liv frustrating, I hated her for the way she chose to deal with it in regards to Liv. As for Matty and Nick being revealed as brothers - nice one. We were lacking siblings and with that taken care, we can see where their dynamic develops in the next four episodes. The trailer for the second half of the season certainly promised a lot of awesomeness to come our ways. Ratings or not, this show is certainly back to being it's fine self.

Glee: In the space of nine days, I've managed to see three of the current US aired episodes of the series and this one was a bit weird but good. I hated every bit of Justin Bieber related nonsense in this one and if I never heard a song from that kid, it'll be a moment too soon. On the plus side, I did enjoy the breather from Kurt/Blaine, loved Sue's attempts of sabotage before she headed off to join Aural Intensity, the diva-off between Rachel and Mercedes was amusing and I did like Sam dumping Quinn, though I can't see him and Santana lasting long. Only thing I had issue with was that Rachel raised a good point about doing an original song and everyone shot her down without giving her a chance. That was definitely a sour point in this episode.

The Big C: Okay, it's been airing on More4 for the last fortnight and I wasn't sure about watching this show but I'm kind of glad I gave in. Laura Linney is a fine actress and her character Cathy's plight with cancer is certainly tackled in interesting enough ways - kicking out her husband, making new friends, attending weird support groups and riding tandem bikes (a plot that was better done on The Simpsons many moons ago) but while the series has a sense of humour not too dissimilar to Weeds, it's probably going to take some more episodes for this show to 'wow' me if I'm being honest.

Shameless UK: As I continue to watch this current eighth season on and off at different times, a thought occurs to me - it's seen better days. Even though the writing/acting still outclasses it's American version (hardly a difficult task), I don't think there's much else the show can really go to be honest. How many times do I need to see carl shagging every available within breathing distance? How many loonies are going to appear to cause trouble for an episode (in the last few for Libby, Patty and Lillian)? And how many more fecking times are the writers going to treat Mickey's sexuality as a joke? I keep hoping that Mimi's latent homophobia was either a bizarre from her to get Mickey to open up about being gay or it would be something for him to man up against her but that's never going to happen. Five seasons in and it's no longer funny. How can anyone in the Maguire family not know Mickey is gay? Are they brain dead or something? And new neighbours the Powells aren't shaping up to be that interesting an edition to the series.

- Amber Benson is returning to Supernatual but it's not known if she'll be reprising her role from 2006 in the series or playing a new character.
- Adrianne Palicki has been cast as Wonder Woman for an NBC pilot.
- Expect Santana's bisexuality to be a focus in an upcoming episode of Glee. Blaine is also set to question the nature of bisexuality in an episode too.
- Jennifer Carpenter has admitted that she's ready for her character Deb to find out about her brother's dark side in Dexter.
- BBC are moving sci-fi drama, Outcasts to a late Sunday slot after the series began to slip in the ratings.
- Ioan Gruffud has joined the CBS pilot, Ringer, featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Nester Carbonelli. He'll play the husband of Siobhan.

Thriller Superbowl

And here's another TV blog to savour with some of the shows I've been catching up on over the last few days.

Bedlam: Ooh, SkyLiving decide to do a spooky series and while this show will win nothing in terms of originality, it is rather decent. Okay, so maybe there's plenty of gratituous shots of Theo James's character, Jed Harper in states of undress but the spooky goings on of an old asylum called Bedlam and Jed's mission to deal with the ghosts along the way is interesting enough. The rest of the characters are a mixed bag so far, though Will Young is pretty decent as the nerdy Ryan. It's not the best thing I've seen but there's definitely potential there at least.

Being Human US: Okay, I am beginning to fall out of love with this series. It's not like the last two episodes haven't been uneventful (Sally's mulling over Danny/Bridget, Josh meeting both Ray and Nora/the Nina character in this one and Aidan dealing with both Garrity and Rebecca's bloodlust) but it's beginning to take itself a little too seriously for my liking. The reason why the Uk version works so perfectly is because there's a sense of fun attached to it. This show could do with implementing that a lot more, otherwise it's just going to be like any other vampire themed show out there.
Glee: It's been two months since my last fix of the series and the show's come back fighting with two bizarre but brilliant episodes in it's own right. The superbowl episode definitely saw Sue going too far with the cannon antics but I did like the temporary truce with the Glee and Titans for the Thriller bit and points for attempting to humanise Karofsky, though it's going to take more than this for me to sympathise with him. The Valentine's episode was a lot better though, especially with Santana in full bitch mode (exposing Finn/Quinn sneaking around by giving the former mono was an extreme move) and heck, even Blaine was made somewhat more believable as well but less of the Dalton numbers because they're not overly adding to the series at the moment. Oh and more of the Rachel/Mercedes/Kurt sleepovers and Puck's pursuit of Lauren.

Skins US: Another set of mixed episodes here, I'm afraid. On one hand, there was Chris's episode, which was completely the same as the UK version but surprisingly, nearly as effective. The actor playing Chris in this one is the only male actor on this version that can actually act and I'm liking the friendship between Chris and Daisy as well. Unfortunately the Cadie episode was a hot mess that bored me senseless and the less said about Tony's fixation on Tea, the bloody better. Here's hoping Stanley's episode is a cracker this week.

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: Not a bad second episode, actually a lot of fun. Amusing to see that Belle's client this week was one that needed his homosexuality confirmed but what was more interesting was the introduction of Ben's mother. I was expecting her to be a harridan, so the more liberated version we got here was a nice surprise. I'm not sure if Belle and Ben will actually last but the pool scene at the end is certainly making me hope so.

Shameless US: In Ireland, the second and third episodes have aired and I can safely say that this show is not improving. The storylines aren't flowing as well as they did in the UK version, like Frank in this one being sent to Canada wasn't as funny as his UK version being shipped to France and Steve is just boring in this one too. William H. Macy is a great actor but he's just miscast as Frank and the last two episodes almost seemed to emphasise that point even further. Here's hoping that this show does improve soon though, because there are some signs of it becoming good.
- Michael Rosebaum will be returning for the series finale of Smallville. Great news, right?
- Stockard Channing has joined NBC magical based series, 17th Precinct from Ron Moore.
- Wentworth Miller has joined the cast of ABC drama, Identity which sees a police unit dealing with identity theft. Didn't ITV do that last year?
- Hilarie Burton is becoming a regular for the third series of White Collar.
- A previously known gay character on a US show may become bisexual. The shows that are possibly it are True Blood, Glee and Southland but which is it?
- The second half of Desperate Housewives seventh season will continue on RTE2 from March 1st. I assume Channel 4 will air it around then as well.

Music To Go Deaf By

Okay, there will be two TV jumble blogs this week. The second will be up on Friday/Saturday.

Skins: I am really liking the fifth series a lot right now and this was another great episode. Even though I am not a heavy metal at all, I did enjoy Rich throughout this one and it was nice that him going deaf gave him more of an appreciation for Grace and her ballet. I wasn't surprised that they didn't hook up just yet, seeing as we've got six more episodes to go but I can wait. It's also nice to see a continued friendship between Grace, Franky, Alo and Rich, even though it's clearly rubbing Mini up the wrong way though. Still the series does need to develop Nick, Liv and Matty though.
Primeval: After a pretty disappointing fourth season, this episode sure as hell was something of a wimper. After Jenny's lacklustre return in the previous episode, I was hoping that Danny's would be a better effort but it wasn't. It also didn't help that him, Ethan/Patrick and Emily all decided to go into anomalies as well towards the end of the episode. The reveals of Matt being from the future and Philip being a baddie should've made more of an impact but who didn't see them coming? Here's hoping the fifth series is a lot better than this.

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: Um, interesting first episode, liked the antics with the lawyer. This show is coming to an end and it's still managing to be both racy and ludicrous in equal measure. Of course, Stephanie would be in the cushiest prison going and of course Belle would be roped into being a guardian to Poppy and a madam in one fell swoop. Not that I'm complaining but it just wasn't much of a shocker is all. On the plus side, it does seem that progress between Belle and Ben is also being made. So, she'll choose him over her profession by the finale, yes?

Shameless: I've been watching the 8th season on and off and while the show has had better days, it still shows how bloody inferior the US version is nonetheless (just watched the second episode of that). Monica's return wasn't the greatest of things but if it helps keep Frank with Libby, then I guess it served a good purpose (and I liked the Doctor Who spoof as well). It does seem that the Maguires continue to be more vocal than the remaining Gallaghers though. In recent episodes, we've had Jamie/Karen reunited, Shane/Kelly pulling scams, Mickey humiliating teachers and Mimi battling serious insomnia and nearly endangering baby Cilla. Not too keen on the new neighbours but I do like Lillian's new girl though. Overall, the series isn't as good as it used to be but it's still one of the best things that Channel 4 produces nonetheless.

Marchlands: Not one but two spooky new series on TV (I have to catch up with Bedlam later in the week), I wasn't overly impressed with this one to be honest. It's not a bad series as such and it definitely has an interesting cast but it just didn't jump out to me to be honest. I liked that there was a story that's connecting three generations but the series is lacking something. Maybe the next few episodes will be stronger.

- Debra Messing is apparently being lined up for a musical pilot called Smash about a group of people who decide to stage a broadway show about Marilyn Monroe.

- Smallville's two part finale, will be titled, erm, Finale Parts 1 and 2 and will air on the CW on May 13th.
- Glee will be doing a sex education episode. It's the one that returns Holly and has Santana discuss her bisexuality as well. Oh and Kurt/Blaine aren't happening any time soon, folks.

- Brothers And Sisters 18th episode of Season 5 will feature the death of Ida as well as Justin's 30th birthday.

- Grey's Anatomy's musical episode will revolve all around Callie, who is recent US episodes has been revealed to be pregnant by Mark.

- Rose McGowan will play a violent grifter in an upcoming episode of Law And Order: SVU.

- NBC have reported to have given the greenlight to their own version of Prime Suspect.
- Paul Adelstein will direct an upcoming episode of Private Practice. Both Nicholas Brendan and Alex Kingston will also be appearing in future episodes as well.