Doctor Who

• James Strong to direct Easter special

Film

• Steve Carell to play Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard?
• Pics from Star Trek XI
• Trailer for Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson's Bride Wars

Art

• Welsh national art gallery delayed by four years

Canadian TV

• New channel for women, Viva, to show Lost in Austen
• CTV picks up Merlin

British TV

• BBC's Out of London plan moves Casualty to Cardiff
• Odeon to install IMAX screens at Greenwich and Wimbledon

• NBC picks up David E Kelley father-daughter legal drama
• HBO Film boss quits
• New Witchblade anime on iTunes
• Will Arnett signs seven-figure deal with Fox
• CBS orders full season of The Mentalist
• Tuesday ratings good
• Three more episodes of Medium ordered
• Amy Sedaris to write and star in a comedy series
• Simon Fuller looking for new Monkees
• CBS to make one of three Tribeca pilots
• James Van Der Beek to guest on One Tree Hill
• Jason Priestley to play Brandon on My Name is Earl
• Patrick Swayze in The Beast
• My Own Worst Enemy gets 7.3 million viewers

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In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC
In the UK: E4, Channel 4, at some point. Assuming there aren't any cutbacks

My Name is Earl used to be quite a cool show. Well, maybe not cool. Sweet maybe. Maybe a little patronising to red necks, but the general idea of nice things happening to a guy who decides to make amends for all the bad things he's done was lovely and usually enjoyable to watch, even if it was a little low on the belly laughs.

Season three messed that up, by sending Earl to prison and generally looking at the darker side of things. No one liked that much. I believe that a UK TV executive even cited it as a show that had lost its way - "it's like a road movie but it's forgotten to have any jokes" was his general summing up of it.

Is season four back on the right side on the road?

Continue reading "Review: My Name is Earl 4x1-4x2"

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Film

• Guillermo del Toro booked until 2017
• Ashley Judd to star with the Rock in Tooth Fairy
• Trailer for Gus Van Sant's Milk
• Forest Whitaker and Renee Zellweger to star in My Own Love Song
• Stephen Sommers to direct Tarzan
• Matt Lucas to voice Tweedles Dum and Dee for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland?

British TV

• Sarah Lancashire and Neil Pearson to star in BBC1 choir drama
• ITV3 acquires CTV/CBS's Flashpoint

US TV

• Leisha Hailey to star in L Word spin-off
• 90210 gets CW's best ever ratings
• ABC orders pilot of US version of Dragons' Den
• TNT working on spin-off from The Closer
• A&E commissions drama The Lost Son
• Oprah Winfrey in final talks to guest on 30 Rock
• Who's going to be in the BSG movie
• David Arquette to guest star on My Name is Earl
• Raising the Bar gets record cable ratings
• Kim Bauer to return to 24
• Gossip Girl casting

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Film

• No Jon Favreau for Iron Man 2?
• Hugh Grant up for another rom-com shock
• New Three Musketeers adaptation/prequel

Art

• 'Mr Darcy' portrait to be sold

British TV

• A pantomime and a Gavin & Stacey sketch for Comic Relief from Ruth Jones and James Corden?
• Beeb to build web page for every show ever
• Third season of Heroes to be simulcast with the US
• US producers to bring pilots to the UK for buyers
• Sky One audiences drop 14% since leaving Virgin Media [free registration required]
• Casualty to move to Cardiff?

Irish TV

• Bill Cullen to start looking for his Apprentice

US TV

• Gossip Girl spin-off?
• Sarah Paulson to be female lead in Cupid
• Francis Capra joining Heroes
• Jamie Kennedy to replace Jay Mohr on Ghost Whisperer
• Seth Green to appear on My Name is Earl [spoilers]

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Film

• Sam Raimi talks about Spiderman sequels
• Josh Zetumer to write Dune?
• Another Muppet movie on the way
• Dark Knight featurettes

Theatre/Comedy

• Leonard Nimoy among performers at the Edinburgh Fringe

British TV

• The Inbetweeners gets a second series [free registration required]
• Robert Llewellyn dropped from Scrapheap Challenge
• Richard Hammond to make a kids science show
• Sky planning comic version of Snow White for Christmas [free registration required]

US TV

• Dennis Hopper to star in Crash
• Seth Rogen to write an episode of The Simpsons
• Jimmy Smits joins Dexter
• David Schwimmer directing segments of Little Britain USA
• Fox Fall premieres moved back a week
• Jenna Elfman to appear in My Name is Earl

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Doctor Who

• David Tennant, John Barrowman, Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori all leaving Doctor Who and Torchwood??
• Eve Myles wants Sweet FA to return to Torchwood

Film

• Alison Lohman to replace Ellen Page in Drag Me To Hell
• Djimon Hounsou to play Conan?
• Rose Byrne to star opposite Nick Cage in Knowing
• Michael Bay to remake Rosemary's Baby?
• Joan Cusack and John Goodman to be Isla Fisher's parents for Confessions of a Shopaholic

Commercials

• Monkey to explain the history of tea

British TV

• Brits want on-demand programming, but only if it's free [free registration required]
• Discovery Science rebranded [free registration required]
• Next Sky Pratchett adaptation to be Going Postal [free registration required]
• ITV1 wants full series of Mumbai Calling

US TV

• Adam Carolla to host Top Gear remake?
• Dexter gets a Shield exec and a video game
• Paris Hilton to cameo in My Name is Earl
• David Simon answers questions about The Wire
• Lost cast ask producers questions about the plot
• Spoilers for 30 Rock
• The CW greenlights Filthy Rich Girls pilot…
• …while downsizing and ditching its comedy division

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Film

• Ellen Page drops out of Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell
• Donnie Yen to play Ip Man
• Tron 2 to be 3D in 2011, Pirates 4 on the way...

British TV

• Peter Fincham wants to poach Beeb stars, including Lucas and Walliams
• Samuel L Jackson to promote Virgin Media's VoD service

US TV

• Family Guy spin-off planned
• Therapists either love or hate In Treatment
• Changes to stories, particularly My Name is Earl's, caused by the strike [minor spoilers]
• ABC Family to renew Lincoln Heights
• The Rutles reunite for 30th anniversary

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Film

• Bootleg copy of new Indiana Jones trailer
• Al Pacino to be head Bond terrorist?
• Nicole Kidman to play Valerie Plame in Doug Liman biopic
• Star Trek XI pushed back to Summer 2009
• Corey Haim will be in Lost Boys sequel

British TV

• Philip Glenister to play American vampire killer who wants to stake Mackenzie Crook in The Last Van Helsing (working title)
• Beeb looking for more studio-based comedies [free registration required]
• No more CITV for Wales [free registration required]
• Shane Ritchie to play Arthur Daley in Minder remake for Five?

US TV

• NBC renews Chuck, Life and Heroes, but Bionic Woman, Journeyman and Friday Night Lights look dead
• CBS orders more episodes of Shark and Rules of Engagement
• Save Cavemen - send hair to ABC
• Chuck Lorre and co to work 24/7 to get episodes of Big Bang Theory, etc made
• My Name is Earl creator spent strike working in fast food restaurant
• Hugh Laurie upset by end of strike

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In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC
In the UK: Channel 4, some time in the year 2357 at this rate

Characters re-cast: 0
Major characters gotten rid of: 0
Major new characters: A prison full
Format change percentage: 25%
Number of shanks made: 1

Ooh, this is tricky. How to review this without giving the game away for UK viewers, who are still trundling through season two.

Can't. Sorry. Don't read further than this point if you've not seen the finale for season two.

Continue reading "Review: My Name is Earl 3.1"

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Doctor Who

• A certain new Who monster will appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures, as will Jane Asher, Phyllida Law and Floella Benjamin [minor spoilers]

Film

• Steve Coogan to star in high school comedy Hamlet 2
• Journeyman's Kevin McKidd may be Thor. But probably not
• Set footage from The Hulk

Commercials/Music

• Brian Ferry appears in a Carling ad

British TV

• Wall to Wall up for sale
• BB8 had to play it safe after Celebrity BB fall out

US TV

• Glen Morgan quits Bionic Woman because of creative differences
• Apple would like to cut iTunes TV prices to 99?Ǭ¢
• Alyssa Milano to join My Name is Earl as a love interest for Earl
• Edie Falco to appear on three episodes of 30 Rock
• Californication renewed

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