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After last season’s horribly uninteresting Heroes finale, I was fully prepared to cut my losses and walk away from the show altogether. Unfortunately, Kristin Bell’s loveliness has thwarted my plans once again with its beautiful blonde locks and snappy come-backs by joining the cast (for a few episodes anyway) in its second season (so says TV Guide.com). Not nearly as exciting as the almost-news a few weeks back that she would be spending time on the Lost island, it is nonetheless good to know that we won’t have to wait until her movie with Jason Segel to catch a glimpse of Ms. Veronica Mars acting all sassy.

Her character on Heroes is described as a “sexy, myserious young lady” which sounds like a role she could play while in a coma. I for one can’t wait until next week when we find out this news was bogus and that she’ll actually be joining the cast of Jericho.

Thanks Andrea for the tip!

Here’s a piece of awesome news: it’s being reported that Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars) is going to have a role in the coming season of Lost. According to the story, she’ll play Charlotte, who is “attractive in a natural and athletic way, precocious, loquacious and funny. Charlotte is also said to repress her emotions and have a hard shell to crack.” What? Repressed emotions on Lost? Now they’re really breaking new ground. Next thing we’ll find out is that she has a dark secret.

The news isn’t that much of a surprise when you consider Bell just finished filming the new movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” with Jason Segel, which was shot in part in Hawaii. If we’ve learned anything from three years of Lost production, its that the series producers, like the Native Americans, use every part of the islands. The presence of the lovely Kristin Bell is a no-brainer. Maybe Lost can do a cross-over with How I Met Your Mother so that Jason Segel can also make an appearance (he can play someone with a dark secret… and who is tall).

Every six months or so I try to watch Arrested Development — a lot of Arrested Development. When you live through something incredibly brilliant, it’s nice to revisit the material just to remind yourself that it was as good as you remembered. Sometimes you realize the show was more flawed than you once thought it was. In the case of this series it holds up with just as many laugh-out-loud moments as the first viewing. This is not news. Anyone who is a fan of the show knows this.

Last week myself and fellow hardcore Arrested Development fan (and former MagneticMediaFed Podcaster) Matt approached a friend at work about having a season one marathon. Having seen little of the show, she agreed to the proposal (22 episodes over 8 hours, with Bluth Bananas and candy-beans to fuel the entertainment). If you’re going to re-watch an entire season of television, I find it’s best to do so with someone who is new to the material. You get a fresh take on the episodes and get to know if your own laughter is sparked from the actual material or simply a byproduct of knowing what’s coming next. I was pleased to hear as much laughter coming from her as from myself. More on Arrested Development after the jump…

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“Hey Now” Hank Kingsley and George Bluth Sr.

I’ve been working my way through The Larry Sanders Show. It’s relentlessly brilliant, and not just because it’s so painfully realistic. The series seems to be one of the few comedies in the history of television that really relied on the skills of its actors more than the wit of the writers (which isn’t to say the writing isn’t incredibly sharp — it is). In most television comedies, acting frequently takes a back seat to the comedy. The Larry Sanders Show had the balls to say, “no, they’re the same thing.”

When you look at the traditional model for television comedy, series have been built around performers. Whether it was I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Newhart or any number of the “schluby guy with a hot wife” shows from the 90s and aughts. More after the jump…

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It all comes back to the Canes.

Now that felt like vintage Veronica Mars. For perfectly logical reasons, the show has always been at its best when the character had something on the line. In last night’s finale, Veronica was trying to save her reputation and sometime in the process completely destroyed her fathers career. It’s a dark note for the show to go out on, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right note. More thoughts on the episode and the end of the series after the jump…

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I’m Vinnie Van Lowe and I want your vote.

Some quick thoughts on a so-so V-Mars. Again, the mystery of the week wasn’t particularly interesting in terms of actual mystery and trying to figure out who did what. The story seemed to have much more purpose in that all of our characters are going to be disbursed throughout the world come summer.

Quick nitpicky item: Piz gets an internship with Pitchforkmedia and says he’ll have to move to New York. Aren’t they based out of Chicago? Sorry, I don’t want to be “that guy” — the guy who doesn’t understand television physics. More troubling was that he was actually considering taking an internship at a local radio station instead so he could remain close to Veronica (a total LC move if you ask me).

Things I loved: the Vinnie Van Lowe political ad, the way Veronica shook her head when her dad was talking about her “gentleman callers,” Dick showing some emotion, Keith positioning his P.I. test neatly at the top of the drawer, and the fact that again, Piz got an internship at Pitchfork despite having a Jet poster in his room.

As the network upfronts are set to get underway, information has started to leak, and minds can be put at ease. Take for example this bit of news: Friday Night Lights is going to get a second season. In an unofficial announcement by NBC, the network has given the go-ahead to the brilliant series as well as early word on four other dramas that will be making the fall schedule (The Bionic Woman, Chuck, Journeyman and Life).

Last month NBC went ahead and ordered six new scripts for Nights, a sign things looked promising. Looks like the writers are now slightly ahead of the game.

Now we’re just holding out hope for Veronica Mars and How I Met Your Mother. Is it possible we score a hat trick?

“Variety” reports more on the NBC pickup.

A V-Mars Ruddtacular!

That was another fun one. Maybe not the episode perfection I was hoping for, but good nonetheless. Can’t go wrong with some Vinnie Van Lowe intrigue.

The problem, I hate to say, was the weakness of the mystery. I love the teen-soap elements they’ve been pumping up the past two weeks, but it’s certainly been to the detriment of the mystery writing, which was always so damn sharp in previous episodes. Honestly, the name was on the bag!

Still, you can’t go wrong with Paul Rudd. He’s the avocado of narrative entertainment. Sure, that turkey sandwich you’re eating is might tasty, but add a little avocado and it suddenly got a whole lot tastier. He’s a flavor enhancer — like Splenda or Brigitte Nielsen.

I have to admit, as far as the romances are concerned, I’m much more interested in the new Mac/Max trist than Veronica and Piz. Perhaps that’s because Mac never seems to get any action and also because I feel bad for Piz since Veronica will inevitably tear his heart out.

For the indie-rock fans out there, Stereogum breaks down who exactly wrote the music for “My Pretty Pony”.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Oh-so good to have old friends back, even if they’re stuck in an episode splattered with 9th grade patriotic rah-rah nonsense. Outside of the can’t-we-all-just-get-along mini-mystery, there were some delicious developments involving Veronica, Piz, Logan and all the rest. Sure, if you think too hard about it and read too many trade publications you might think that the future of the show will ultimately render these romantic entanglements moot, but why throw cold water on otherwise spicy teen drama?

And speaking of all those teens, props must be given to the V-Mars casting department for finally getting everyone together in one episode. Season three has been void of many things and most of the time those things involved secondary cast-members. Wallace and Mac would disappear for weeks on end, which is what made last night’s buffet of familiar faces so charming. Add that to the numerous references to storylines from previous seasons and you “got yourself a stew goin’ on.”

The rest of the episodes from here on out all fit into the one-and-done mystery format. This is a good decision, especially if what we saw this week is an indication of how the narratives will be linked. Sure, the overarching mysteries are far more sophisticated, but good teen melodrama has its place as well.

This week was by no means classic Mars, but for a show that could very well be marching itself to the sea, it was a comfort to watch. That being said, my super secret source tells me that next week’s episode with Paul Rudd is the tits.

Whoo! We did it! We did it!

As the 2006/2007 TV season winds to a close, it’s kind of interesting/sobering to look at the network schedule and see which of those “highly toted” new shows from last fall actually made it all the way. Even more interesting is to try to figure out which of those shows impressed people enough to get second seasons.

According to my count the following were clearly strong enough (or at least received well enough by critics) to make it from the fall to the spring mostly intact: Jericho, Shark, Ugly Betty, Heroes, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, ‘Til Death and The Game. Of those, you can really only grant the distinction of being a “hit new show” to Heroes, Ugly Betty and Shark — all of which are expected to return next fall.

Also interesting is that Heroes is the only true serial (perhaps Ugly Betty to a lesser degree) that caught viewer’s attention this year despite “the serialized drama” being the hot genre going into the fall of 2006 (The Nine, Six Degrees, Other Number Based Drama anyone?). Apparently people who are not myself only have so much tolerance for interweaving storylines.

As for those shows that didn’t make it out alive, they’re numbers are too plentiful to count. Not like we’re really missing anything too significant. Outside of Friday Night Lights, which made it from start to finish despite still being on the bubble for a season two, there really weren’t that many new shows this season that broke any significant ground artistically. Are there people out there still wiping away tears because Kidnapped didn’t make it past its fourth week? Probably, but we didn’t really want to be friends with those people anyway, did we? Look, at least they’re got a DVD release, which is more than I can say for fans of Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

Well, for those of you holding your breath, you shouldn’t be blue for too much longer. Apparently Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the holier than thou take on the THRILLING lives of those working behind the scenes at a show similar to SNL, but far more pretentious. The return date is slated for May 24th, which is a Thursday. The show will take ER’s timeslot, the more or less the timeslot it was suppose to have taken when it premiered last fall before being scared away by Grey’s Anatomy.

Matthew Perry fans probably shouldn’t get their hopes up, as the series’ post-sweeps return is likely only to serve as a schedule filler and to burn off the episodes that had all ready been shot.

But who knows, stranger things have happened.

More via TV Squad

OK, this is highly speculative, but Kristin (whoever that is) over at E! Online is reporting/gossiping that Drive has been pulled from FOX’s schedule, despite having two episodes left to air. While this news troubles me, I find it unsurprising as the show’s ratings have been less than stellar. Oh FOX, how you love to destroy the dreams of many.

Despite this troubling news, I’m going to continute to review this show each week based on how I imagine the episodes would have been (in my mind). Not to spoil anything, but you can expect next Monday’s episode to feature Nathan Fillion and a space ship.

Another take over at TV Blend.

Where do you think I could get a good deal on a late-model Taurus?

If you’re in the market for some cliffhangers, Drive is your one stop shop. Four episodes in, this show really knows how to delay gratification until the next week.

Elsewhere, the episode brought us some good news and some bad news. The good news is that my least favorite pairing (the army guy and his girlfriend in the white Corvette(?)) seem to be out of the race, and thus off the show. The bad news is that despite getting a clear sign from God and finding the tossed “Race-Phone,” the two Katrina survivors are now just one. I find this moderately annoying as they made a pretty good, if underdeveloped, pairing, and the wrong one was killed off. “Mrs. Barksdale” should still be in the race. I guess the lord giveth and the lord taketh away.

Also bad news is that the one brother is still saying the word “homes” at the end of most of his sentences. That nonsense needs to come to an end. It’s like his character is racing away from 1993.

As always the good news is Nathan Fillion’s character Tully is still a badass and totally elevates the show from horribly acted Mad Mad Mad Mad World derivation to awesome Mad Mad Mad Mad World derivation where the mads don’t mean “crazy” so much as they mean “Nathan Fillion is amazing and I want him to be my friend.”

Back to the bad news category, Dillon Baker was absent and/or sleeping through most of the episode, which is a shame since I’d probably categorize that car as my second favorite… homes.

AAA can help you on your road-based travels.

We’ve been through this one before, but the Veronica Mars rumors have started again. This time word on the street is that the show is CANCELLED.

From a USA Today viewer mailbag segment with writer Robert Bianco:

San Francisco, CA: How come Veronica Mars wasn’t included on the USA Today “save or axe” survey? Has it’s fate already been decided?

Robert Bianco: Yes. According to our reporter Gary Levin, the show has been cancelled. And he’s almost always right about such things.
READ

So Mr. Levin things he’s hot stuff, eh? Let’s hope in this case his sources are incorrect.

I wonder if this car is death-proof?

After spending most of my waking hours telling everyone I came in contact with that Drive was in fact the lord’s second coming, it probably was cosmic justification that half of last night’s episode left me a little cold. But only half.

The other half was again awesome, helped in large part by my rapidly developing man-crush on Nathan Fillion. He gives off an aura of someone who actually might have been a get-away driver for a group of bank robbers. His characters rarely speak unless they have to, but when the words do come out, they’re always the sharpest of anyone around. It’s like he has a whole team of writers crafting his lines and then the rest of the show written by some fifteen year old who makes sure Winston always ends his sentences with Bro or Homes — y’know something ethnic-y!

Really that’s the problem with Drive at this stage of the game, there are only about three cars worth of characters that I’m interested in following and leaning about, but the time is divided up by at least twice as many. I guess that gives the show something to work on and to hopefully develop, but right now I just want to see Tully driving really fast while making quips.

Oh, I think we can also all agree that at this stage in the game, everyone who shouldn’t know about the race probably does and is actively trying to involve themselves in it. Since Lost has The Others, I’m going to refer to the Race-Alumnati as The They, and The They seem to be everywhere.

Sidebar: was anyone else a little uneasy when in yesterday’s premiere the only two black characters were eliminated from the race and haven’t been seen from since? Even a cross-country illegal road rally should have an accurate cross-section of the American populace, no?