thanks for spoiling what i imagine is a pretty important scene from law and order, special victims unit by putting it as your front page story on nytimes.com one night after the finale aired.

don’t you have real news to report?

freddie prinze jr, or who i like to call mr. sarah michelle gellar, will be head of field ops of CTU on 24. at the very least, i’d call this “creative casting.”

call me presumptuous, but i’d put my money on kiefer sutherland over freddie prinze in any competition. including a dance-off.

i’m looking forward to this trainwreck.

does anyone think it’s weird that FNL’s tim riggins (taylor kitsch) is playing gambit in the wolverine movie? i guess i see it?

or not.

Lonely Hearts Find Comfort in TV Characters

Don’t feel delusional for turning to favorite television characters on “Lost” or “Brothers and Sisters” for comfort – new research suggests that such illusory relationships can buffer people against loneliness or sadness.

Subjects in one study who felt down from remembering unhappy moments of social rejection soon perked up upon writing about their favorite TV shows and characters.
…
Sometimes even enthusiastic TV viewers can’t believe how attached they are to their favorite stories, Gabriel said.

“They think it’s almost illogical – you watch a show or get a book and you think, ‘Stupid, these people don’t even exist,’” Gabriel said.

i have never thought my relationship with tv illogical. the average real person is probably a lot dumber than your average tv writer, and hence tv characters are probably a lot smarter than real life people. i often find myself asking, “will hanging out w/ X person be more interesting than watching a new episode of friday night lights?” the answer is almost always “no.” sorry blog readers, i would much rather hang out with matt saracen than you.

speaking of tv mimicking real relationships, i dumped heroes a couple weeks back, and i’m finding the experience to resemble past bad relationships. the courtship started off beautiful, but when the honeymoon was over, it was disturbingly hard to let go. i just kept hoping things would improve and it would be like it was before. i broke up with heroes recently, but let’s be honest, it was really over more than a year ago. i hear heroes has gotten better without me, but i just have to move on with my own life from now on.

hold on. i need a moment.

leandro: glad a story about unhealthy relationships w/ tv characters made you think of me.

been gone for many weeks and i’ve finally caught up with almost all my shows. still behind on kings and terminator.

1. finally watched the finale for friday night lights. i like to joke that i can gauge the quality of an FNL episode by how many times i cry. too bad the finale was just one long sustained cry for me, punctuated by commercials watched in superfast mode. the set up for next season is fantastic and really deals well with the whole “everyone is graduating” problem. grade: A.

2. word is that life is probably going to get canceled. that sucks. this is jay leno’s fault, for taking up all the 10pm spots on NBC. who wants talk show BS at 10pm? no one. and who wants it to be jay leno? idiots. life finale: A-; NBC decisions: F.

3. watched two episodes of southland and i was impressed enough by ben mckenzie, but i find the bleeped out swear words way too distracting. why write cuss words into the script, and then bleep them out? my working theory is that this show was made for a different network, perhaps cable or premium cable, but then got picked up by NBC, and had to be cleaned up. can anyone confirm or deny? show: B; script planning: D-.

4. law and order: criminal intent is back, with jeff goldblum playing a jollier version of vincent d’onofrio. i’m kind of annoyed w/ the eccentric male paired with the stone-faced female partner, but i forgive l&o b/c goldblum is so badass. i’d just like to see the flighty female lead detective with an uptight male partner at some point. it’s the scully/moulder dynamic, and i’m sick of it. d’onofrio: A- (for getting fat); goldblum: A; show: B+.

5. speaking of unhinged women, in plain sight is back. no one watches this show, but they should b/c fred weller’s character holds the whole ship together. weller: A+; show: B.

6. anyone watch my boys? i obviously can relate to the lead character’s mantourage, and the midwestern feel makes me wistful. i like talking cap and trade, but sometimes conversing about nothing is comforting, too. the midwest: A; show: B+.

7. bones is awesome, as usual. i hear bones and booth have sex in an upcoming episode. oddly, i’m not looking forward to that. show: A.

8. i got three episodes behind on 24, so instead of actually watching them, i read the great synopses on the FOX site. can’t beat plot descriptions like this: “She questions what he’s talking about. “You’ll find out,” he says mysteriously as he is led away.” why even watch tv? show: B; recaps: B+ (for time saved).

9. for some reason, i watch lie to me and criminal minds. these shows are mediocre, at best, yet i just wanted to put it out there if someone else had commentary. ::crickets:: both shows: B-.

10. i still watch reaper, but the show is starting to suck. i was definitely not into the whole subplot about the dude lusting after his FOB stepsister. just made me uncomfortable on so many levels. FOBs = uncomfortable. incest = uncomfortable. ick. subplot: D-; show: B-.

11. lastly, i’ve deleted heroes and 90210 from tivo completely. the episode of 90210 where annie is annoying as usual, silver screens a glorified sex tape then wants to burn down her teacher’s house, and naomi goes drag racing has “jump the shark” written all over it. then i heard tori spelling is planning an appearance, and i’m so out of there. heroes just kind of has sucked for a while.

and that’s it. expect more about kings and terminator later.

SPOILER ALERT if you watch obscure tv.

most people do not know who dean winters is, but that’s because most people have no taste and watch bad tv. yet dean winters has appeared in three great/pretty good shows i watch — all in the past week. WEIRD. even weirder, dean winters has died of gunshot wounds on two of those shows. lastly, i would just like to point out dean winters’s range:

terminator: sarah connor’s righteous and adorable ex-bf. shot in the chest trying to protect john connor.
life on mars: main character’s deadbeat dad. shot in the chest trying to kill the main character, who happens to be his son from the future (work with me here, people).
30 rock: liz lemon’s self-diagnosed sexaholic ex-boyfriend. does not die. yet? just kidding, i don’t know any spoilers for 30 rock.

all this is to point out i watch a lot of television. and i love dean winters.

did some research on this new show that has the budget to blow up a boat in the potomac: the creator is ed bernero from criminal minds fame, and he also was heavily involved in third watch. both of these shows are pretty mediocre, so i won’t expect much more.

the cast is as follows (how diverse!), from left to right:

cole hauser — i have no idea who this person is and nothing in imdb really jumps out at me.
teri polo — she’s been on EVERYTHING it seems, including the cover of playboy. for this reason it was very difficult to find a pic of her.
michael yang king — asian!
gina torres — a joss whedon favorite on both firefly and angel. she was also a female on 24, filling that archetype nicely.
eddie cibrian — he is very familiar to me, probably from third watch. sorry about the gratuitous shirtless pic, but whatever. my blog.

washington field looks pretty crappy when compared to body politic, granted they are nothing alike except that they are both based in dc.

UPDATE 1:51pm: more on the showrunners, from we love dc:

IMDB lists the series’ director as Jon Cassar, who has directed more episodes of 24 than any other director, so if we’re very lucky, the main characters won’t know where the Washington Field Office is either.

in addition to minka kelly and jason dohring, body politic will also feature brian austin green and gabrielle union. this basically guarantees my unwavering loyalty, no matter how godawful it is. i’ve been a big gabrielle union fan since the underappreciated classic bring it on (i’m also enjoying her turn on life), and brian austin green is so dreamy in terminator. if only this show can reach the heights of gossip girl, but i’m sure they’ll mangle government type stuff so badly it will be nearly unwatchable. nearly.

from tv guide:

The CW’s Body Politic is shaping up very nicely, with the addition of Brian Austin Green, Gabrielle Union and others to the Washington, D.C.-centric pilot’s growing ensemble.

Should Body Politic get ordered to series and Fox’s Terminator is unplugged, Green will play the “boy wonder” adviser to the president of the United States, says the Hollywood Reporter.

Union, in turn, will bring it on as BAG’s girlfriend, a legislative director.

Also feeling the CW’s Body are Jay Hernandez (Six Degrees), playing a naval officer, and Reaper’s Jenny Wade, as an idealistic D.C. up-and-comer.

so is brian austin green supposed to be like jon favreau? will there be hillary clinton cutouts on this show? as fake favreau’s gf, has gabrielle union ever appeared in maxim? oh wait, she has.