Kiefer Sutherland and Kim Raver
You know that nasty smell permeating throughout TV land? It's most likely the stench of death. As if regular readers of Ask Ausiello needed to be reminded, many of our favorite shows will be bidding permanent farewell to pivotal characters in the coming months — capping a bloody TV season that has already claimed lives on Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Las Vegas, 24 and Lost. Who's next on the Grim Reaper's hit list? Let's sift through the latest evidence and see if we can ID the victims.
24 The buzz: As exec producer Howard Gordon made pretty clear when I spoke to him in early January, Palmer and Michelle won't be the only 24 MVPs getting clocked this season. "I would say it's a pretty good bet that we will have another major loss… or two," he said. "No one
read more
T.R. Knight and Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy
Question: How awesome was Grey's Anatomy last Sunday? For an hour I forgot all about losing shows like Threshold, Arrested Development and Love Monkey. The shower scene near the end echoing, but so starkly contrasting, the fantasy the week before — fantastic! There were way too many great details to mention them all. I was so glad that Bailey's husband didn't die. The whole widowed-while-giving-birth thing just seemed so gimmicky. My only beef is that once the bomb was out of the body, it just seemed so obvious that it would blow up the bomb guys. It's hard to forgive anyone for blowing up Kyle Chandler, but all in all it was pretty amazing and I guess that with the other surprises they gave us, I shouldn't complain if there was some predictable stuff.
Answer: No, indeed, this is not the time to nitpick. That sensational two-parter was, I think, the turning point in Grey's Anatomy's already sensational success story. As you may have heard, Sunday's episode was the first time Anatomy
...
read more
Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler is exec-producing Super Scout, an animated pilot for Nickelodeon for which she will voice an obsessive Girl Scout-type, Variety reports.... Connie Britton will star opposite Kyle Chandler in NBC's TV take on Friday Night Lights — making me worry about the fate of Jack's Bakersfield booty call on 24.... Meet the Parents' Teri Polo will topline CBS' Welcome to the Jungle Gym, playing a TV journo and part-time stay-at-home mom.... Nancy Travis and Spy Kids' Daryl Sabara will play a single mother and her son on TBS' Boy's Life.
read more
Fox may have buried the final (and some of the finest) hours of Arrested Development against Friday's Opening Ceremonies of the (yawn along with me) Winter Olympics, but the show's devoted core fan base got a gold-medal treat.
To the very last moment — an inspired cameo by exec producer (and heretofore never-seen narrator) Ron Howard, saying, "I don't see it as a series. Maybe a movie." — Arrested never compromised its extravagantly peculiar vision, its dense narrative style or its twisted sense of humor. The last four episodes, bundled together and thrown away by a network that had finally given up the good fight, were deliriously funny for those precious few with a taste for such inspired absurdity.
Just a partial list of things you'd never find anywhere else: A ventriloquist puppet wearing a "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black Puppets" T-shirt. A
read more
Grey's Anatomy Let me get this out of the way. Best line of 2006 so far, of any show I watch, was definitely Bailey to George while he was helping her give birth: "Stop looking at my va-jay-jay!!" My roommate Jason and I screamed so loud with laughter that we had to rewind the TiVo immediately. What an unbelievable hour. And I thought last week was out of control! I've said several times before how much the music enhances this show. Utilizing Anna Nalick's "Breathe (2 am)" during the three simultaneous climactic scenes was brilliant: Bailey's labor (Shut up about the baby's middle name being George!), her husband's surgery and Meredith removing the bomb from a man's body. And then we got good news and bad news at the same time: Bailey's husba
read more
Grey's AnatomyRemember the year Alias followed the Super Bowl? ABC made sure Sydney Bristow was scantily clad so that all the testosterone-fueled football fans would keep their network on, hoping for boffo ratings. I was wondering how they would achieve the same effect tonight with Grey's, so how perfect was it to start the episode with George having a steamy dream? Hilarious. Of course, his dream ended with him confessing his love for Meredith. Oh, George. I loved how Cristina went from saying to Meredith "This is me being supportive," to "Whatever! Everybody has problems!" Cristina's second statement certainly summed up the episode. Now we all know what a Code Black is, and if you're ever in a hospital and you hear someone scream those words, leave! You
read more
