Friday, Part I: News and Stuff

It was both a good week and bad week for TV.

The best news of the week comes from NBC, which announced Thursday that "Heroes" (Mondays, 9 p.m.) would get a full season run of 22 episodes, the first new show of the season to get that commitment. I plan on posting a bit more on "Heroes" in Monday's blog. "Heroes" has been kicking butt in the 18-49 demographic that advertisers so crave.

Fans of the Sci-Fi Channel show "Eureka" will be happy to learn the series was renewed this week for a second season. I tried the first few episodes of "Eureka" but didn't find it all that enjoyable. It tried a little too hard to be quirky.

The bad news is that other shows don't appear to be as lucky. "Kidnapped" will end after 13 episodes, and NBC is shifting the show from Wednesdays (where it had a terrible lead-in with "The Biggest Loser") to the TV Wasteland that is Saturday nights. The news isn't all bad, though. The producers will be able to at least wrap up "Kidnapped's" storyline.

Additionally, "The Nine" (ABC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.) lost a big chunk of viewership from its "Lost" lead-in. It's a bit puzzling, since ABC did a good job of promoting the show and the pilot was A-plus. "The Nine" has enormous potential so long as the writers give out the right amount of information about the robbery each week, not too little and not too much. I'm hoping positive word-of-mouth reviews will help this show along.

DVD PICK OF THE WEEK: "Nowhere Man" was one of the coolest series ever to debut on network TV. As part of UPN's original lineup and running as a companion show to "Star Trek: Voyager," the series was about a photographer who has lost his memory and may or may not have shot a picture that could compromise a lot of secretive types.

Bruce Greenwood starred as the title character and Megan Gallagher was his wife (or was she?), at least until the memory loss. The spirit of "Nowhere Man" was very similar in tone to "The Prisoner." Unfortunately, like most UPN shows, "Nowhere Man" never found an audience and was canceled after the first season, leaving the viewers with a terrific puzzle of a cliffhanger that was never solved.

FRIDAY'S BEST BET: See Part II, in a separate posting.

WEEKEND'S BEST BET: Hopefully, we will see the Mets clinch their NLDS on Saturday, though for this area, Georgia's annual war with Tennessee (ESPN, 7:45 p.m.) is the big sporting event of the weekend. Georgia will be without kicker Brandon Coutu, who is injured for the rest of the year, another reason why I'm not optimistic about this game.

Non sports fans may want to give "Masterpiece Theatre" (PBS, Sunday, 9 p.m.) a look. Airing this week is the BBC miniseries "Casanova," starring Peter O'Toole and written by "Doctor Who" executive producer Russell T. Davies. The newest Doctor Who himself, David Tennant, plays the younger version of the title character.