Thursday, December 06, 2007

Still More Quick Hits

Busy day, so just some quick stuff:

--"24" star Kiefer Sutherland entered jail in Los Angeles County Wednesday, beginning a 48-day sentence for DUI. Sutherland will get his own cell while there. (Hey, would you want to be a criminal incarcerated with Jack Bauer?) Thi shouldn't affect "24's" production schedule, since no one in Hollywood is shooting anything right now.

--Billy Connolly, Xzibit and the lovely and talented Amanda Peet have been added to the cast of the new "X-Files" film, showing a diversity in casting, if nothing else. No word on what their roles will be.

--Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin ("The French Connection," "The Exorcist") directs tonight's new installment of "CSI" (CBS, 9 p.m.)

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: Most of the fall shows are pretty much wrapping up this week if they haven't already, so enjoy the new episodes while you can.

"Ugly Betty" (ABC, 8 p.m.) returns Freddy Rodriguez as a possible boyfriend for Betty, while "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC, 9 p.m.) wraps up a two-parter. They are followed by a new Barbara Walters Special, "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2007." (I'll save you some time, the TVGuy didn't make the list.)

A new "Survivor" precedes "CSI," while "Without A Trace" (CBS, 10 p.m.) follows it.

With the exception of "The Office," all of NBC's lineup is new, with "My Name Is Earl," "30 Rock" and "Scrubs" leading up to the 300th episode of "ER" (NBC, 10 p.m.) Wow, it seemed scant years ago when this series just turned 200. Well done, County General.

Finally, while I rarely promote reruns, tonight's second-run "Supernatural" (CW, 9 p.m.) is one of the best of the entire series, as Dean meets a kid who may or may not be his son. It follows a rerun of "Smallville" at 8 p.m.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am grateful for more new TV episodes for at least tonight - you never mention it but also all new tonight is "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" on USA.

It's the only 1 of the 3 L&O series my wife and I actually watch. You couldn't PAY ME to watch Mariska Hargitay, the worst actress around, on SVU.

But there appears to be a beacon of light in this horrible writer's strike and apparently there are now 2 good days of negotiations - giving me hope this thing will be resolved this month so that we can have real TV around in 2008.

Jonathan said...

I'm actually really excited about "The X-Files" movie, and I'm glad to hear that this will be more of a stand-alone story, which makes the most sense. Almost everything after Season Five got so convuluted and ridiculous (Aliens wrote the freaking Bible?) that it was really hard to care about the show anymore. Occassionally you would get a good "Weird Creature" of the week type story, but for the most part it was all downhill.

I think taking this long of a break before attempting to do another film was a brilliant idea, and hopefully Carter and company have come up with a story that is worth the wait; I have faith. The only problem is how many people think like me? The first film did fairly well at the box office, but was definitely not the goldmine they thought it would be.

It could be the suprise hit of next Summer and lead to a post-television film franchise (ala Star Trek), or it could be a big dud that everyone will forget two days later. Here's hoping for the former.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit that after the mediocre last few years of "X Files" and with the show being off the radar for several years by now, but interest has pretty much waned in the franchise.

Phillip Ramati said...

Though I was a big X-Files fan, the series did get too convuluted for its own good, and it's not a series I think about very often, not like I do with Star Trek or Buffy, for example.

That said, a standalone film after being out of the public eye for seven years or so could be a good thing, and I'm a little eager to see what they will do with it.