Zachary Quinto, Heroes
p>TV Guide's Senior Critic Matt Roush takes your TV questions. Have a rant, rave or burning question about your favorite show you'd like addressed? E-mail him here.
Question: What shall we do with Heroes? NBC must be asking itself the same question. Its first season, the show was a breakthrough hit, and then its season finale disappointed many. The abbreviated second season disappointed many more. Its producer publicly apologized for mistakes in that season. Then it comes back, supposedly rejuvenated and better than ever. NBC promotes the hell out of it and, almost unbelievably, viewership is down. The episodes that have aired so far have certainly been pretty good and even promising. I have to wonder if NBC made a blunder by airing the premiere against the Dancing with the Stars premiere. Maybe they should have come back a week earlier. Regardless, we need some explanation as to why the show can't get back on track to where it was in its best first season moments. My conclusion is that there was one colossal blunder made by the show's producers that has caused most of the problems, and that decision was to keep Sylar around after the first season. — Kelly H.
See Matt's response and questions on The Mentalist, Crash, Flashpoint and more after the jump.
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Minnie Driver
Minnie introduces one-month-old Henry Story to the world, via the magic of MySpace
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Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard, The Riches
Looks like the money's run out for The Riches.
After several months of deliberation, FX has canceled the series, which starred Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as the parents of a family of thieves who move to a wealthy suburb and assume new identities.
After two seasons, failing ratings and the cost of promoting and producing new shows like Damages and Sons of Anarchy (which the network just picked up for another 13 episodes) were too much to overcome.
More details on the cancellation after the jump.
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Henry Ian Cusick by Bob D' Amico/ABC; Marg Helgenberger by Robert Voets/CBS; Mariska Hargitay by Michael Parmalee/NBC
Every Wednesday, senior editors Matt Webb Mitovich and Mickey O'Connor answer your questions!In what capacity we will be seeing Desmond and his constant, Penny, next season on Lost? Any word on that? – MajaMatt: Maja, this is an excellent question. I even rewatched the season finale to confirm my own POV: "Why would we ever see Dez again?" I mean, he and Penny reconnected just before sendind the Oceanic Six on their (actually not-so-)merry way. However... I have it on good authority that Henry Ian Cusick is still a part of the cast, and that Sonya Walger is likely to resurface as well. As one setsider reminds me, "Just like when people die on Lost and you see them again, just because everyone reunited doesn’t mean you've seen the last of them."I was wondering what fans of CSI could look forward to for some of the other characters? There's been a lot of talk about Grissom and Sara but nothing about, say, Catherine or Nick. – JocelynMatt: The good news, if you did not g...
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Question: I just read a report about how DirecTV was thisclose to picking up Season 3 of The Riches with FX Networks in a deal similar to NBC and Friday Night Lights. However, it seems that the deal fell through. Do you have any further information on this? Is The Riches doomed for a Season 3? I am really dismayed that FX has chosen to delay any announcement, and it's unfortunate because this show is phenomenal. Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver and incredible and Emmy-worthy, as is the show itself. I don't think I've read a review from you, but what is your critique of the show?
Answer: The way I read the situation: DirecTV's experiment with Friday Night Lights is going to give producers — and no doubt fans — of any number of endangered shows false hope that this could be their salvation. Friday Night Lights is probably the perfect show to test these waters, with its Americana sports milieu as an entry point for beautifully observed small-town character studies. It's a brand-enhancing
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Question: I'm loving the facts that Mad Men might actually get an Emmy nomination and Jeff Goldblum will be joining Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But while updating my personal TV grid with the latest schedule updates, several random thoughts went through my mind. Have the networks (or whoever it is that counts how many people watch a TV show) started taking into account DVR and online viewing, and, if not, when will they? I do think it would have helped a couple of shows that deserved to stay on the air. Also, do "save this show" campaigns work anymore? And why is there so much more interesting scripted programming on cable, basic and pay, than the networks? I watch network shows, but am more willing to invest my time and heart in a cable show because I feel it will be less likely to get yanked as quickly as a network show. Oh, and do you know if The Riches is coming back for a third season?
Answer: Anything else on your mind? Whew. Briefly: Yes, the networks are taking into account
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When a show gets to its sophomore year, it gives you a chance to reassess your first impressions. So it is with two high-profile cable dramas midway through their second seasons. I find I’m even more enthralled by Showtime’s costume melodrama The Tudors than I was a year ago, while FX’s bizarre family saga The Riches leaves me colder than it did initially.
It helps that The Tudors has such rich source material, even if this frat-boy take on 16th-century royal romance and intrigue sometimes goes so far in its graphic bodice-ripping that it might as well be called Masterpiece-of-Tail Theatre.
But sex isn’t all that’s on the menu. Religion and politics swirl murderously in the wake of the Henry VIII-Anne Boleyn love/lust match, brought to smoldering life by buff Jonathan Rhys Meyers and coquettish Natalie Dormer. As Henry gains supremacy over both church and state, his most intimate advisers—including the pious Sir
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Shannon Woodward, The Riches
If Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver are the big names among TV's favorite identity thieves on The Riches (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET, FX), then the enchanting Shannon Woodward, who plays levelheaded 15-year-old daughter Di Di, is the secret weapon. And that's no con.
TVGuide.com: How would you describe Di Di?Shannon Woodward: When you have parents who are a little out of their minds, somebody has to take responsibility. I think she's a rather normal teenager who faces ridiculous circumstances and has to take responsibility for their decisions. But at the same time she's still a teenager, so there's this really great duality between the impetuous girl and the totally sane woman.
TVGuide.com: Can you relate to her?Woodward: I didn't kill people and take over their lives, but I had a very similar life to Di Di. My p
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Minnie Driver by Jesse Grant/ WireImage.com
All eyes were on mom-to-be Minnie Driver at the Season 2 premiere of the FX drama The Riches, held Sunday night at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Dressed in a form-fitting navy Calvin Klein dress that showed off her small baby bump, Driver was all smiles as she talked baby with TV Guide. The actress told us that she has no plans to find out the sex of the child until she gives birth, and that she's dealing with both exhaustion and morning sickness — but still couldn't be happier. "I'm sick as a dog, absolutely horrific, but so happy and... so into it. I don't care about getting fat, I love it. It's fun," she said. Driver's costars had nothing but good wishes for the actress, and all wholeheartedly agreed that she would make a terrific mother. Aidan Mitchell, who plays son Sam on the show, said of Driver, "She's going to be an amazing mom." Margo Martindale, who plays Nina, told us, "She'll be a perfect mother to a girl. Or to a boy. She's just such a girly girl, a...
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Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard in The Riches by Prashant Gupta/FX
NBC has greenlit a sixth season of The Biggest Loser, to premiere in the fall. The plan is to repeat the current cycle's concept of casting teams of two.... FX has announced a March 18 Season 2 premiere for The Riches, which this time around will serve up only seven episodes.... Shrek: The Musical brings the big green guy to Broadway Dec. 14, with previews starting Nov. 8. Shrek and Donkey have yet top be cast, while Sutton Foster (currently Young Frankenstein's Inga) is onboard as Fiona. My wallet already feels $500 lighter.... OK, this is fun.
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