Question: Do you know when the final season of Life on Mars will air on BBC America? Let me tell you, it's hard to avoid spoilers for a show that finished its run months ago in Great Britain when I'm searching the Internet for an airdate. I greatly enjoyed last season and have been looking forward to watching its concluding second season. Is the new version being developed by ABC causing the holdup?
Answer: Can't really comment on the timing except to say that word from BBC America during its recent press event in L.A. was that the second season will premiere in December. David E. Kelley has finally found the lead for his adaptation (Jason O'Mara of The Agency), so it sounds like the American version is getting closer to reality. Back in England, there's also a spin-off in the works, titled Ashes to Ashes, set in the '80s and built around the character of DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister). Don't even ask me about an airdate for that one ...
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Who's the first date from hell? Who's utterly desperate? Who is this year's comeback kid? And who have we seen just a bit (OK, way) too much of? TV Guide calls 'em like we see 'em in our wacky Reality TV Awards. Did your favorites make the cut?
Roughest RidersThe men of American Chopper (Thursdays at 7 pm/ET, TLC) Mikey, Paul Senior and Junior build custom bikes — choppers — for stars, movies, Web sites and basically anyone who'll pay. Sometimes they're cool. Sometimes they're not (we still don't get Junior's green dream Web bike). But it's fun watching them fight their way through the process.
Fiercest BacheloretteTiffany Pollard of
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With The Sopranos bowing out this spring, TV no doubt is in search of the next great family crime drama. After seeing five hours of The Black Donnellys (Mondays, 10 pm/ET, NBC), a feeble urban fable of doltish brotherhood in which blood runs thicker than brains, I imagine TV will have to keep looking.
The Donnellys are four Irish-American street punks dragging each other down as they recklessly stir up violent clashes with the Irish and Italian mobs in New York City. To say these guys are stereotypes does insult to the clichés they clumsily represent.
The centerpiece of this heavily serialized (uh-oh) story is Tommy (Jonathan Tucker, all dewy-eyed Tobey Maguire boyishness). He's the sensitive one, an art student whose ambitions are stalled because he has to keep cleaning up his brothers' messes. Making most of the messes is eldest bro Jimmy (Thomas Guiry), a hotheaded junkie who limps
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