Elizabeth Reaser, Grey's Anatomy
It's Sunday, and on a stylish strip of Hollywood's Melrose Avenue, Elizabeth Reaser has her choice of two popular coffeeshops — one that's packed with self-consciously hip Nicole Richie look-alikes, the other with a more serious sweats-and-Sunday-paper crowd. She makes a beeline for the latter. "It's such a scene at that other place," she says, pouring soy milk into her coffee.
This preference for depth over superficiality makes the Michigan native a natural for a scene-stealing role that has nothing to do with her good looks: a nine-episode stint on ABC's Grey's Anatomy (Thursdays at 9 pm/ET) as Jane Doe, the pregnant ferry-crash victim with severe facial injuries.
"Elizabeth can communicate so much with her voice and eyes — she has incre
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The emotionally unstable residents at Seattle Grace are finally getting just what the doctor ordered: a shrink. Sources tell me that Elizabeth Reaser — most recently Tom Everett Scott's leading lady on TNT's Saved — is joining the cast of Grey's Anatomy as a psychiatrist. My spy says Reaser will start off as a recurring guest star, but the gig could become full-time. I have to confess, I never watched Saved and, therefore, am not familiar with Reaser's work. Do we like her? Any thoughts on which character she's being brought on to, um, psychoanalyze? Post your thoughts below!
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TNT is in talks to grant series orders to the drama pilots Grace (starring Holly Hunter as an Oklahoma City police detective at times visited by an angel) and Heartland (Treat Williams as a heart surgeon). In other TNT news, sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that Tom Everett Scott's Saved has perished after one season. Seriously, they used the paddles and everything.
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Question: Is the TNT drama Saved coming back for a second season? I've been dying to know ever since the finale of last season. Please say yes!
Answer: If we knew, we'd have told you already. TNT still hasn't made the call on this one ...
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Question: I really enjoyed Saved on TNT. I was wondering if it was coming back like The Closer is? Would it come back in December, as well? I have to say, I was surprised to see the ad for The Closer coming back in December, since it didn't last year. Please give me good news!
Answer: Too soon to know if Saved will be renewed. I checked with TNT earlier this week, and there was no news yet. But neither show is likely to begin a new season until next summer. The ad you saw regarding The Closer in December involves a two-part episode, directed by Kyra Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon, which will air that month as an original special. That will be the official season finale for The Closer, and it won't return with new episodes until next June or thereabouts ...
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Question: Are you pleased with how terribly Desire and Fashion House did during their first week? Ratings are horrible! I can't imagine anyone wanting to tune in to these series five or six times a week when there are already daytime soaps and Spanish telenovelas. It reminds of me when NBC tried a soap called Sunset Beach. It always ranked near the bottom because who has the time to invest in a new five-hour-a-week series? What were MyNetwork TV's expectations? I'm sure they weren't met!
Answer: Especially considering that these shows launched in early September, without the real competition of most regular network series, the early numbers are probably as disappointing to the network's powers-that-be as the programming itself is to the public at large. But you asked if I'm pleased, and the answer is no. I'm never pleased about failure; I want TV to succeed. But I am gratified to think that the public won't necessarily swallow junk delivered this cynically. Dead air would be preferabl ...
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Question: I think it's really interesting how Psych became such a hit on USA. The same with Saved's success on TNT (although I find the show a dull Rescue Me knockoff). Some channels (both cable and network) have found certain formulas that really work, and then stick with that brand. Psych, for instance, fits seamlessly into the USA brand by being a cross between The Dead Zone and Monk. In fact, I want to further compliment USA on the best ad campaign I have seen in years. I actually stop fast-forwarding on my DVR to watch those hilarious USA ads featuring their wonderful array of characters. My wife and I love them! But my question goes back to the failure earlier this year of Love Monkey (also a wonderful show) on the stodgy, serious CBS network. CBS puts on this wonderful, sweet and quirky show and it fails; so they go back to their dull formula with the ridiculous The Unit, and it's a ratings smash. Do you feel that networks and cable channels (after a scenario like this for CBS) ...
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Question: Flash back to a few weeks ago when everyone was in an uproar over Tommy raping his wife on Rescue Me. Now move ahead to this week's episode, where we have Sheila, Tommy's ex-girlfriend (and widowed cousin-in-law), drugging Tommy, raping him while he is unconscious, then wrecking his place and planting booze on him to make it look like he had been drinking. I'm not sure if that first episode was any more difficult to watch than this week's. I bet the old double standard is going to show up big time here. I doubt there will be very few cries of outrage. In fact, there may even be a few comments that he deserved it. The difference here is that Janet did enjoy herself, no matter how strange the situation. Tommy, on the other hand, was unconscious and unaware of what was being done to him, and Sheila could get pregnant. To top it off, he now thinks he has fallen off the wagon and is having violent blackouts. I love this show with all of its hard-to-take personalities, and I ...
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Question: I am a firefighter/paramedic, and I have to say that I and all of my coworkers have removed Saved from our TiVo season passes. What a bunch of poorly written, poorly plotted, hackneyed tripe! "I am 911!"? Please. And that's on top of laughable medical inaccuracies and embarrassing Hollywood portrayals of paramedics. Compared to Rescue Me, this has to be the most crap-laden show on TV. And we are not slaves to accuracy, either. Certainly we don't watch Rescue Me for its realistic depictions of firefighting. The difference is the writing, the heart and the emotion. Rescue Me is a thick porterhouse steak. Saved is cheap gas-station beef jerky.
Answer: Ha. Thanks for the entertaining, and presumably informed, opinion. Makes me feel wishy-washy for not having been more frank about my feelings in my comments in Monday's column. I thought Episode 2 was noticeably worse than the pilot, which also didn't blow me away. Something tells me TNT is going to have to keep shopping for a
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Question: My question has to do with the new TNT show Saved. So far I like what I've seen. Wyatt Cole appears to be an interesting antihero. At first, the gambling and daddy issues seemed a bit obvious (not to mention the fact that they've been done to death), but when I thought about it further, I realized that they make perfect sense if you consider the privileged life he was able to lead because of his brilliant doctor father. It'll be fun to see where they take this character. I also liked the photomontage sequences that provided a small glimpse into each patient's life. I thought it was a fresh and interesting way to tell their stories. What do you think?
Answer: I'm going to give this one a few more episodes before I make a final judgment, but I agree more with your initial impression. To me, it's a poor man's Rescue Me. Saved seems ponderous and pretentious, where Rescue Me is provocative and shockingly entertaining. I've always liked Tom Everett Scott, but I find the particulars
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