First look at Zooey Deschanel in Bones

The first promo shots of Zooey Deschanel in Bones have been released which has got me very excited for this December 10th Christmas episode, The Goop in the Girl:

The episode will also see the return of Bones' Dad Max (Ryan O'Neal) which means that there will a considerable focus on Brennan and her relationship to her Dad, I always find these ones to be particularly strong, including the season three Christmas episode 'The Santa in the Slush'.

Fox have also released an interview with the Deschanel sisters discussing this episode and working together for the first time:

Bones and Avatar

Spoilers ahead for the next Bones 'The Gamer in the Grease':

My reason for writing about this unaired episode is due to the somewhat weird crossover between the world of Bones and the real world. As the promo shows (you can see this at the end of the post) one part of the episode involves Sweets, Hodgins and Fisher queuing for tickets for the new film Avatar. First of all, Avatar the film is being released by 20th Century Fox and Bones airs on the Fox network, there is an obvious synergy that can be exposed here to promote the film to Bones fans and maybe even those who are looking forward to the movie to the show Bones. Where it becomes a little more interesting is that Joel David Moore (in the photograph above) also stars in the movie Avatar. I'm intrigued whether they will allude to this as the film looks like it will feature in a significant part of the episode. I also bring this up as some of the Star Trek advertising that was used in both Lost and Fringe this year was seen as being a cheap play by the makers to promote their movie further. I for one in those cases didn't mind the referencing to Star Trek, but I guess it is a  little different when the star of the movie is also in the TV show. I will however reserve judgement until I see the episode, as from the promo I think it looks like it could be quite funny and I enjoy the Bones episodes where the characters get to really use their pop culture knowledge to assist the investigation (especially as Bones is normally oblivious to this- unless it is about the Smurfs). Mr Fisher is also one of my favourites out of the rotating interns (my other favourite being Mr Nigel-Murray) and this is his first appearance this season, so I'm looking forward to that at least.

Here is the promo:

Lost Season 6 return date

Now whilst I am super happy to have a return date for Chuck, the major TV announcement yesterday belongs to Lost with ABC announcing that it will return with a two hour premiere on Tuesday February 2nd (this is Groundhog Day- coinkydink?). They have also said that there will be no break for the Winter Olympics which is a good move as it will be good to have a season that has no breaks, especially when it is the final one. I am attempting to stay as spoiler free for this series as I can, I'm going to attempt to not see any promo clips as I want to remain as surprised by the events in the series as I can and I find that promo clips always have me anticipating moments that will occur. This proves very irritating if the moments that they show in the promos don't occur till the final scenes of the episodes (this has happened recently with episodes of FlashForward and Friday Night Lights) so this is why I am abstaining from all Lost promo videos. Role on February 2nd, I really am super excited and I'm looking forward to watching Lost with the same people that I have done for the past five seasons as it is always a pleasure to watch with friends (and yes I sound like some Kodak ad).

Chuck return date and a special preview

It seems like Christmas has come early with the TV news that was announced yesterday, Chuck has a return date which makes me want to cheer especially as they will be airing two episodes back to back on Sunday 10th of January, followed by a third episode on Monday 11th of January (Monday will be the regular day it airs on again). Over at Alan Sepinwall's blog he has an interview with Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak that is worth checking out for reactions to this exciting Chuck news as well as some hints as to what they have been doing regarding Chuck production (though he is pretty elusive so no spoiler warning really needed).
As if this news wasn't enough to please the Chuck fan in me a preview clip has also been released by NBC, this features a very happy Zachary Levi thanking the fans for saving the show, a few clips of the new series as well as a full scene from a new episode. The whole thing has put a big smile on my face and here it is:

I'm very excited

About this second trailer for The Pacific:

Mad Men- Shut the Door. Have a Seat

Spoilers for the Mad Men season 3 finale ahead:

First off I want to say what an enjoyable and thoroughly satisfying season finale that was especially after the last few melancholic episodes that seemed to suggest that all our characters were doomed to ending the series in a much worse position to where they started the year. Instead a rebirth was offered, with loss of a personal and professional means being acknowledged and then the hope of something new and better being attainable. There was varying degrees of this, with Don having the most upheaval in his professional and personal life, finally succumbing to the end of his marriage but also being revived with his career in advertising. Relationships were both severed and repaired in this final hour of season 3.

The end definitely seems nigh on the Draper marriage, Betty demanding a divorce which at first is something that Don won't even acknowledge as a possible option especially when he finds out about Henry. This news causes him to have a drunken and violent outburst, calling Betty a whore and an awful mother, it is in this moment that he can either continue this path and become like his father who was a violent drunk or that he can realise that this really is the end. Luckily he opts to let Betty go and in a heartbreaking scene Betty and Don break the news to the kids that Don will be moving out, this scene is all the more painful when Bobby thinks it is because he lost his Dads cuff links and Sally (the wonderful Kiernan Shipka) blames her mother. These children really have been through some tough times this season and it will be interesting to see how they will react next season to their parents divorce and to the introduction of Henry will go. It was quite telling that the final scene that we saw them in they were watching TV with Carla, the only two stable influences in their lives.  

Business wise, Don is informed by Conrad Hilton that Sterling Cooper is being sold off again which becomes the catalyst to the start the company anew, with this piece of news he then had to go to all those he wanted to be in business with and sell not only his idea but himself as a commodity as well as pitching to each person why he also needed them. With Bert he reinforced the idea that with his age he would be seen as being nothing but dead weight to a new buyer, Roger was a harder sell after a year of practically ignoring him he was told that "You're no good at relationships because you don't value them." This sentiment seemed to be the case but when Don has to fight for his colleagues it appears that this is not true. Though with Peggy it is a lesson that he has to learn after he barks at her and them expects her to follow him "like a poodle", she rejects him which seems to be a perfectly reasonable reaction considering how he has treated her all season. Next up is Pete who is pretending that he is sick from work as he has an interview, he too after feeling rejected from the company that he has worked so hard for needs validation from Don who he has been trying to impress since season 1. Lance Pryce is another person they must win over, which seems at first to be a non-event until he finds out that PPL are also being sold and his hard work has been completely ignored. Possibly the best scene in the episode (this is a tough proclamation in an episode of many fantastic scenes) though is when Don goes to Peggy's apartment and lays it all out, why he has been harsh to her, why this is unfair and why he needs her. Scenes between these characters are always pretty charged and this just demonstrates why Don and Peggy are so intertwined as characters and ends with the line that affirms Peggy's worth to Don when he states "I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you."

The moment in this caper that actually had me cheering at the screen was the moment I, like many viewers realised that Joan would be joining the team as she is the only one who knows the Sterling Cooper system inside out. It was really quite fantastic to see all the pieces fall in to place, the only omission being Sal, though with Lucky Strike being their biggest client it will be hard to get him back as part of the team. Also what will become of the members of Sterling Cooper that were left behind? If there is no place for them it will be a shame but I guess you can't take everyone with you. It will be interesting to see what happens between Joan and Roger, and with Pete and Peggy having to work in such close quarters, though I have really started to like  the marriage dynamic between Pete and Trudy, and she does bring sandwiches and cake which is a good point scorer.

With this new family having been created it will be interesting what will happen next season, to get rid of the central location of a show can be tricky (after SD-6 got destroyed in Alias it was seen as both a blessing and a curse) however it will give the show an exciting edge as they further progress in to the 1960s. I for one can't wait until season 4 and knowing that it is so far off is tough, I will probably have to binge on seasons 1 and 2 again and watch Revolutionary Road again.

For an excellent interview with Matthew Weiner about the season finale head over to The Daily Beast  for what will be the only information we will get about the series for a while I would imagine.

Mad Men-The Grown Ups

"What is going on?!" (Betty Draper)

Spoilers for episode 3.12

Instead of leaving the Kennedy assassination to the final episode it occurred in this penultimate episode of the season, by doing this it means that next week will be all about character and with the fallout of the events in The Grown Ups which showed many of the characters at a cross roads in their personal and professional lives.

What I wanted to concentrate on regarding this episode is how despite a vast change in technology since 1963; mobile phones, the internet, digital cameras, the actions of people when an historical event like this occurs is still pretty much the same. Everyone gathers together, phone networks can't handle all the calls and so they crash, people have photographs of events happening and live cameras will capture moments that you don't expect that will played over and over even years after the fact. The parallel between this and 9/11 are overt in the sense that no-one was expecting either and how people try and take in as much information as to why something like this occurred  by watching television. It also seems that the Kennedy assassination was probably the first major news event that occurred when most people had a television making the use of the TV reports in this episode even more relevant.

Where this episode will lead us for the finale is anybody's guess as every week surprises me and after both the final episodes of seasons 1 and 2 I have no idea in what direction Matthew Weiner will take us; will Betty leave Don for Henry? Will Pete leave Sterling Cooper and join Duck? Is Sterling Cooper going to be sold again and if so where does this leave our ad men and women? Will we see Joan and Sal (I really hope so)?

James Franco's return to TV on General Hospital and 30 Rock

James Franco is an actor who's resume is a complete mix bag, from biopics to superhero movies to stoner flicks, he can not be easily categorised. With TV being the arena in which he had his first major role in Freaks and Geeks (a show with many of the ensemble cast doing pretty well since its first and only season) it is good to see him return to this medium in two very different programmes. First up is the soap opera General Hospital which had many people wondering why he has chosen to be in this, especially as it is for a two month stint. Though he is not the first film actor to want to star in soap opera despite their movie star, Oscar nominated status; Ian McKellen stared in 10 episodes of Coronation Street in 2005 as it was always an ambition to do so. There have been little details of what Franco's role will entail on the soap but a promo shot of him looking particularly soap sinister has been released:

His other TV appearance this season will be on 30 Rock as exclusively reported by Michael Ausiello, the scoop is that:

Franco (playing himself) will be involved in a faux romance with Jane Krakowski’s Jenna — a relationship engineered by their respective agents.

This sounds like it will be awesome, especially as Franco has demonstrated that he is pretty darn good at doing comedy in his film and funnyordie contributions (watch at the end of this post) and this story line with Jenna sounds like it will work to his strengths in this genre. Franco is becoming somewhat of a favourite actor of mine and I think that these two appearances will add to my appreciation of him. 

Acting With James Franco Episode 1: "Sense Memory" from James Franco