Good Morning, World

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A happy 42nd birthday to the actor and pretty person Brad Rowe, who as it turns out has never had a single picture of himself posted here at MNPP. Weird, right? Okay it's not that weird, I've still never even seen his big gay breakthrough Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss - I simply cannot abide Sean Hayes. I've been meaning to watch his 2008 gay movie Shelter, which got a lot of good notices, but haven't made it there quite yet. So basically what I'm saying is I have never really seen him in anything (I probably saw the episode of the super crazy sadly short-lived TV series Drive, made by the brilliant Tim Minear and starring Nathan Fillion and Amy Acker, sigh I wish that show had lasted) but I do know who he is. You make a point of knowing who people that look like this are, am I right?

I Am Link

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--- Happiness Where Are You - Here it is! One of the best films I saw last year was when I saw Todd Solondz's pseudo-Happiness sequel Life During Wartime at the New York Film Fest - my review - and I've been dying to hear word of its proper release. Not for all y'all who haven't seen it but for me, again, I wanna see it again dammit! Me! Anyway finally word's come - IFC bought it (of course they did, they fucking rock) and will release it in theaters and VOD this Summer. So good y'all. Charlotte Rampling alone is worth the ticket.

--- Lady Lovelace - The duo that just got Jimmy Franco gay again as Allen Ginsberg in Howl are turning their attentions to the original Deep Throat herself, Linda Lovelace next. You might recall, I do, that once upon a time Anna Faris was gonna have the guts to play the part. I wish she'd reconsider and try to do it. Come on, Anna! Challenge yourself!

--- Bot Buzz - I'd heard about Spike Jonze's "robot love story" short film I'm Here a lot these past few weeks - Slash has been covering it pretty thoroughly - and it sounded cool, sure, it's Spike Jonze. But today I find out via AICN that Andrew Garfield is the star and my ears really perks up. Andrew Garfield for the win.

--- Inner Space - An old Gene Roddenberry project from the 70s called Questor Tapes - about an adroid searching for his purpose - might be finding new life, says AICN. The part that caught my eye is it's apparently gonna be produced by Tim Minear, a fine fellow whose hands have been all over everything from Angel to Dollhouse to Wonderfalls... he's so fine he's got his own label here at MNPP. I like him muchly and his name alone makes this something to pay attention to (more than Roddenberry for me, honestly).

--- Good Ghost - More word on Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer after all those images I posted yesterday - there's the poster to the right, and apparently some sites have already seen the film, and word is sounding pretty dang good. First via AICN:

"[Polanski's] most accomplished thriller since THE TENANT... Polanski is back in a big, big way... Though the story is something of a slow burn, Polanski runs the film at a brisk pace, eschewing opening credits in favor of getting into the duplicitous goings-on as quickly as possible. There are the usual intrigues (double-crosses, infidelities, carefully scrubbed pasts), but Polanski and Harris approach these conventions with a self-aware cheekiness: i.e. the characters are cognizant of the part they're playing in this oft-told drama, but they're powerless to opt out - so they wearily give in. At its best, THE GHOST WRITER feels like Polanski's lightly absurd take on ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. And it's an unusually vigorous film for a seventy-six-year-old director."

And next via Cinematical:

"Polanski has assembled a very strong cast with McGregor, Pierce Brosnan as Adam Lang, Kim Cattrall as Amelia, Lang's right-hand woman, and Olivia Williams in a stand-out performance as his wife Ruth. The Ghost Writer is a meticulously crafted, stylish film that brings an old Hollywood, noir sensibility to this story by Robert Harris that I liked more, the more I thought about it afterward."

It's out on the coasts on February 19th, and I am so there.
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I Am Link

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--- Washed The Spidey Out - The big news today is of course Spider-Man 4 getting squashed, Sam Raimi and Tobey and the rest of the gang getting ditched, and the studio deciding to reboot the franchise with younger fresher meat (meat tba). For news on the reboot's script, which is apparently sorta done already, head over to Slash. They're calling it "gritty" and "contemporary" which naturally are things that Spider-Man's always been about (uhhh).

For word on what Raimi might be doing next then, head over to AICN. Here's a hint: it rhymes with Schmar-Schmaft. I wish it rhymed with Schmevil-Schmed Schmour, but alas.

--- Crazy Folk - Over at BD they've got a series of three creepy posters for the remake of Romero's The Crazies. I was hoping that a shirtless Timothy Olyphant would factor in but again, alas.

--- Not Baggins - James McAvoy's really turning out to be a real boner-stomper. He's denying anything to do with The Hobbit again. But you're perfect, James! 4 out of 5 MNPP readers agree! So I demand that you march right into Peter and Guillermo's love-den and cast yourself in the part, with much haste. I mean, have some backbone, man!

--- Horrible Horrible - In a charming interview at PopWrap with Neil Patrick Harris - and is anything ever having to do with NPH anything but charming ever these days? - he admits to be all rarin' to go for a Dr. Horrible sequel. You and the world, Neil.

--- K O - Another day, another kick-ass addition to the cast of Steven Soderbergh's Knockout. Today it's Michael Angarano, whom I have grown quite fond of over the past couple of years. See his romance with darling Olivia Thirlby in Snow Angels and you'll understand.

--- Top Boos - Over at Final Girl Miss Stacie listed her favorite horror films from the 00's. I've seen most and the ones I ain't I will seek out because the ones I have I concur with their inclusion. Right? Right.

--- And finally, there's a chat with the writer/director of the latest episode of Dollhouse, Tim Minear, over at io9 that's worth reading. It's alternately enlightening and infuriating, in equal measure. It's hella spoilery too, so beware if you're not caught up on the show. But good gravy I am curious to see what's coming up in the final two episodes, ain't y'all?
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Holy...

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... shit.
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I Am Link

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--- LA Here I Come - I wish I could go, or that he'd bring the show to NYC, but Paul Reubens' run of "The Pee Wee Herman Show" live shows start out there on that other damned coast next month. Argh! The secret word is THIS BLOWS.

--- Long Time No Tim - It's been awhile since I've heard what Tim Minear's been up to other than working behind-the-scenes in various roles on Dollhouse. Minear's been behind the scenes on bunches of great but short-lived projects that I've paid attention to through the years, from Angel and Firefly to Wonderfalls and Drive and The Inside (those last two barely aired any episodes but I still ruminate on them both). Anyway, via AICN comes word he's going to be running the show for a new private-dick show on FX called Terriers, and also that he's working on an update of Alien Nation for SyFy. You make it, Tim, and I will follow.

--- Not Cast Casting News - Here are a couple of casting teats to suckle upon for the time being, see if any milk shows up or not: Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro and the whole Hobbit gang are gonna begin casting for that flick this week in LA and London. Somebody see where James McAvoy is right now!

And secondly, rumors a'swirl that John Malkovich might be playing a villain in the fourth Spider-Man film. And that Annie Hathaway is definitely the lady for the job of the other lady. We will see! Oh yes, blah blah.

---TV Tops - Newsweek made a list of the ten best shows of the 2000's and I'd rearrange it some but they made some pretty stellar choices. When I tell you that both Pushing Daisies and The Comeback made the cut you see I speak the truth.

--- And finally, over at PopWrap Jarett got his chat on with... deep breaths... Eli Roth. Insert another jealous rant o' mine here, about me skinning him and wearing him so I can do his job, et cetera. Choice bit from my beloved Eli, regarding that little "social experiment" he had earlier this year with his Blueberries:

"When I was in college I used to work as an online operator for Penthouse, posing as a woman. That's how I paid for my student films. They hired guys because guys know what other guys want to hear. So I was on an 800-speed modem in my dorm room with three other guys and, dude, I could type like 120 words a minute! So having cybersex with hundreds of people at once is actually a skill I already had. I just hadn't busted it out since college. It was like, "Hey, I haven't lost my touch!""

He also tells about a recent screening of Inglourious Basterds that was held just for rabbis and how they came up to him exclaiming how good it must've felt to shoot Hitler in the face. Love.
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Welcome Goodbye To The Dollhouse

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Does anyone actually have any hope left in their heart that Dollhouse will get a second season? I'm just not allowing myself the possibility. We got an entire season (well mostly sort of, besides that mysterious 13th episode second finale extra thingamajig that will be on the DVDs of course) that they played all the way through and I am taking that as a happy thing in and of itself and beyond what we ought to expect from a whore-pit-viper like the FOX network.

Speaking of an entire season running its course, tonight is the finale! And I find myself completely swept up in it, don't y'all? The show's gotten goddamned terrific these past few weeks and I am wholly wrapped up in what's going down. I mean sure, there's still some clunkiness, mostly due to network interference (make it sluttier!) as well as a bit of exposed acting limitations (as much as I love them, Dushku is seeeeeeeriously hit-or-miss and as much as I like swooning over Tahmoh's hot ass he's been stiff as a fucking board most of the time), but that's more than made up for by some really solid and surprising story-telling and the acting going on by the MVPs - Olivia Williams is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G in every single second she's on-screen.


Amy Acker is always a delight of course (and everybody else caught the phonetic-alphabet word for W "Whiskey" being flung in her direction last week, correct? The same phonetic-alphabet that all of the Dolls are named using? Mmmhmm.), and the other three dolls - Miracle Laurie as Mellie, Enver Gjokaj as Victor, and Dichen Lachman as Sierra - all have been great fun. Speaking of Enver...


... am I nuts? Does no one else see this? I mean, I love him and think he's been a great discovery but all I see is Dopey when I look at him. Well, Dopey the DILF (that is, Dwarf I'd Like To Fuck, of course).

You can read a review of tonight's finale, written and directed by geeenius Tim "Wonderfalls and Drive" Minear, over at AICN (with some slight spoilerage). Sounds killer. I can't wait!
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Some Dollhouse Clarity... Kinda

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Via AICN comes a little clearing up of what the deal is with that Dollhouse stuff I posted on yesterday, now coming from the lips of Dollhouse writer-producer Tim Minear (sigh... whenever I hear his name I mourn Drive anew):

"Okay. So maybe I can help clarify this somewhat. Because we scrapped the original pilot -- and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps -- we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it’s awesome."

And we'd all be smart to take Minear's word that the episode is awesome, because he's created so much awesomeness in his awesome career that he knows from it. Air this fucker, FOX! Do it. God. What the hell else you got going on a Friday night?
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Welcome To The Dollhouse

Earth-shaking, throat-throttling, orgasm-inducing news this morn! From ONTD:

Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku team up for new series

I'm thrilled to tell you that just this afternoon, Joss Whedon rang me up to break the news that after a long, Whedonless TV drought, we Buffy fans are finally getting another TV series created by Mr. Whedon himself. Hell. Yeah.

While you scream, hyperventilate and then (hopefully) recover, I will tell you this: The news gets even better.

Whedon's new Fox series, called Dollhouse, stars Miss Eliza Dushku, best known as Faith to you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. And this show isn't just a pilot. It's already been given a seven-episode commitment by Fox. Woo!


Here's how Fox describes the series:

"Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse."

So, how did Dollhouse come about? When will it start, given the impending strike? And what are the chances a few Buffy alums might make it onto the show? To find out, read on for my exclusive one-on-one Q&As with creator and executive producer Joss Whedon and star and producer Eliza Dushku. (Pinch me.) You honestly won't believe how fast this all happened, or where the idea first began!

Oh, and P.S. to all you fans of writer/producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls, Firefly, Drive). He tells us: "Joss has pathetically begged me to be involved. And I hate to see a slightly younger man weep like a girl. So I said, 'm'kay.' I'll be playing with dolls one way or t'other."

This might be too much goodness to bear, no?!

There's much, much more where that came from at ONTD, including interviews with Joss and Eliza about how it all came about, so head over and read it up there. I'll probably comment more after I've had caffeine and read through it all and stopped geeking out so very very hard.
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Drive Sputters, Totally Dead

Poor Tim Minear. I ought to send the guy a bunch of chocolates or something, he just can't catch a break. At least he does keep getting a shot and is generally recognized as one of the more talented, if consistently unlucky with shit-headed television executives, guys out there and will probably get another, hopefully longer lasting, show on the air in the future.

As for his last unfairly canceled flop, Drive, FOX is being their usual shit-headed selves and kept moving the final two remaining episodes around the schedule before completely removing them altogether.

Now, it appears, the only way we're going to see them is by watching them at fox.com where they'll, again supposedly, show up sometime in the next week or so. This is according to AICN, where they've also posted, via the lips o' Minear himself, everything that would've happened on the show if it'd been allowed to exist and not been stamped out cruelly by shit-heads. If you scan through the spoilers, close your eyes and imagine the greatness that could've been.

Sigh. Now Nathan Fillion, star of Drive, is going to show up on, of all horrors, Desperate Housewives. Goddamn he is so much better than that. What a world, what a world.
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The Drive Will End When?

I can't imagine that this'll end up being in any way satisfying in the least, but well, it is what it is. From AICN:

Did You Miss Orientation??
Learn When Fox Airs The Last Two Episodes of DRIVE!!

July 4, 2007!! That's a Wednesday.

I sure hope Amy Acker gets rescued in time!!

The website for Tim "Genius" Minear's seventeenth cancelled-too-fucking-early show confirms the news. The two episodes air back-to-back starting at 8pm.

Golly, thanks FOX! I oughta send you guys a teddy bear laced with explosives to say how much your constant ineptitude dedication to interesting work by really fucking talented people matters to me.

Well, the boyfriend and I keep saying that Nathan "Captain Tightpants" Fillion just needs to show up on Lost and become Matthew Fox's boyfriend anyway, so let's just hope that happens now that Fillion's calendar is once again freed up.
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I Give Up

Seriously. I'm not going to start watching any new television shows ever again. The shows I watch now are it, and when they end I am never going to watch television again. From AICN:

"Fox Tows DRIVE To the Scrapheap!!!!

Faster than you can say “Firefly,” Fox appears to have cancelled “Drive,” the acclaimed new action-adventure series that reteamed writer-producer Tim Minear with actor Nathan Fillion.

It looks like “House” repeats inherit the pre-“24” slot effective Monday. The last two completed episodes may get burned off on two Fridays in May.

Find Michael Ausiello’s exclusive here."

Poor Tim Minear.
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Happy Birthday, Nathan Fillion!

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Captain Tight-Pants, aka Malcolm Reynolds, aka evil, eye-gouging not-Father Caleb, aka Nathan Fillion turns 36 today. Which seems about as good a justification as any to post this picture --> from the episode of Firefly titled "Trash". Birthday suit!

Mr. Fillion will be gracing our tiny picture boxes again in about two weeks - April 15th - for Drive, a show that I hope hope HOPE will be Tim Minear's Lost - see, JJ Abrams had this show nobody really watched called Alias that I totally loved, just as Minear had this show nobody watched called Wonderfalls that I LOVED, so I'm hoping Minear's second (okay, fourth, after Angel and Firefly... have I mentioned Tim Minear is god-like?) time will be the charm.

I ramble. Fillion should be this generation's Harrison Ford (though Ford's obviously unwilling to stop being anybody's Harrison Ford). Fillion's got a fantastic sense of humor and perfect comic timing, he's charming, he's got an offbeat sort of handsomeness that totally works, he's strapping and heroic-like and yadda yadda... he's the man. I wanna be Nathan Fillion when I grow up.
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Acker-riffic

I already reeled with hysteria yesterday about the news that Amy Acker was set to be cast in Tim Minear's new show Drive; today comes some more information about her role, via AICN:

"Amy Acker will play the missing wife of Nathan Fillion’s character on Tim Minear’s Fox action-adventure-suspense-mystery-comedy-drama series “Drive,” according to timminear.com.

Both Acker and Fillion have worked with Minear previously, on “Angel” and “Firefly,” respectively.

Minear tells Ain’t It Cool that Acker will not be a regular on the show (her character is, after all, missing), but she will appear in multiple episodes. "

So she's not a regular, which is semi-disappointing, but she'll show up more than once, so that's still exciting. And maybe she'll be found! And become a superstar!

Sigh. It's hard loving obscure-ish actors. Ya take what ya can get.
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Officially The Greatest Not-Aired-Yet Show Ever

I've already expressed my mounting excitement for the new television show by TV Genius Tim Minear (Firefly, Wonderfalls) called Drive, but now... now... I am literally twitching with excitement... after reading these first three words of casting "news" at the show's official message board:

"Amy Acker cast... I'm sure it will be confirmed in the next couple days."

EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Fred! Winifred! Amy Acker! EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Okay, breathe, breathe, breathe.... must not get hopes too high... But now it's got Nathan Fillion AND Amy Acker! My god! I don't know if my heart can take it! It's like Angel and Firefly mated and this is their baby! Now we just need the spectacular Caroline Dhavernas from Wonderfalls to show up and my heart will literally explode. Boom.

Ahem. Here's the info for when the show will start:

"The Tim Minear/Ben Queen-created drama "Drive" will kick off with a special two-hour premiere on Sunday, April 15 at 8:00/7:00c. The series will then settle into its regular Monday, 8:00/7:00c slot the following night as a lead-in to "24."

I've caught the promos that FOX is airing already (anybody got a link to one online yet?) and it looks terrific, really. CANNOT WAIT. I'm this excited and I haven't even mentioned again how Melanie Lynskey (of Heavenly Creatures fame) is in it too! I need to go put a paper bag over my mouth now, 'scuse me.
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Fillion's Drive

TV Genius Tim Minear - a writer and show-runner for Firefly and Angel, and the creator of the perfection that was Wonderfalls - has a new show, called Drive, that's probably hitting our screens in the Spring on FOX, which I already spoke of here.

But today AICN is floating the rumor now that one Capt. Mal Reynolds (aka Captain Tight Pants) - that's actor Nathan Fillion to those less geeky than I - is going to replace Ivan Sergei as the show's lead! Eee! From AICN:

"We’re getting reports from a couple of untested sources suggesting that Nathan Fillion, “Firefly’s” Capt. Mal Reynolds, is about to sign on as the male lead in “Drive,” the brilliant “Lost”-ish, “Amazing Race”-ish new action-suspense-comedy-drama from “Firefly” writer-producer-co-showrunner Tim Minear.

One gathers Fillion would play Alex, which means he would replace “Charmed” hunk Ivan Sergei, who starred in the original pilot.

We’ve been told in the past that Fox could begin airing “Drive” as early as spring."

Fillion should be a major movie star, but seeing as how both Serenity and Slither tanked a wee bit, well, this (i.e. him still working) is the next best thing. I want him all the time!
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Minear's Drive

Looks like there's another show coming down the turnpike that I'll have to turn my attentions to in the near future: the brillaint Tim Minear, writer on Angel and Firefly, and showrunner of the missed-something-wicked-by-me Wonderfalls, has got his next project lined up for this Spring. From Variety:

"Fox has greenlit series production on "Drive," an hourlong actioner from creators/exec producers Tim Minear ("Angel") and Ben Queen.

Net has ordered 12 episodes on top of the already-filmed pilot. Goal is to get the 20th Century Fox TV-produced show on the air in time for a spring debut, possibly taking advantage of the net's "American Idol" lead-in...

[The show] has been described as a sort of "The Amazing Race" on acid, focusing on an illegal cross-country race in which every participant needs to win, but only one can. Minear told Daily Variety the show also has elements of "Cannonball Run" and the Michael Douglas starrer "The Game."

"I described it to Joss (Whedon) as 'Magnolia' on wheels," Minear said. "It's really about the people in those cars."

Scribe said the tone of the show is "deeply action, deeply funny and deeply emotional," all at once.

"It (can) be as silly as 'Rat Race' or as scary and cool as 'The Game,' " he said. "It's a canvas on which we can do anything we want."

"Drive" features a large ensemble cast that Minear said can expand or contract at will. In addition to the drivers in the race, skein will eventually explore the people staging the race -- "the puppetmasters," as Minear calls them."

Members of that "large ensemble cast"? Well, from IMDb I see listed for the pilot all sorts of familiar names, including Alan Ruck from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Shawn Hatosy from The Faculty, Taryn Manning from Hustle & Flow, oh and a one-two punch of somewhat dated crushes of mine, Brian Bloom and Ivan Sergei, seen below when they were in top-form:


But most exciting, most thrilling, is Melanie effin' Lynskey, a little gal who endeared herself to me 12 years ago as Pauline, the other-murderous-teen, in Heavenly Creatures. Why Lynksey hasn't been cast in everything filmed in the past 12 years I don't know, but she shows up far-too-little on my radar, and hopefully she'll be an integral part of this show - Minear knows from good casting.
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Watch The Inside Please

Besides being an avid film-geek, reader of fine prose, horticulturist and all-about-scamp, I somehow find the time to watch a lot of television. I know, I know, like Superman I have so many strengths. I have a huge recovering Buffy and Angel obsession, for one, and this past season watched Lost and Alias religiously. My love for Alias was late blooming, from what I hear I missed the show's best material, but I still enjoy it's constant layering of preposterous situations (not to mention the wigs!). I was somewhat irritated by the Lost finale's refusal to answer any questions, but will still watch next season, sheep I am. Also, whenever I got the chance (which wasn't often enough), I watched Veronica Mars, which rocked.

Anyway, I am here to make a plea: everyone should watch the new show The Inside, which began last night on Fox (9pm). It's being run by Tim Minear, the man responsible for very good Angel and Firefly episodes as well as the best show last season that didn't survive, Wonderfalls. Only one hour in and I already really like this show. The writing has that Buffy snap crackle ("Lurk much?") as well as being sharp enough to keep shifting your expectations and surprise you. Also, Adam Baldwin is in it and he is The Shit. Not to mention Katie Finneran who was wonderful on Wonderfalls.

I'm already interested in the world Minear's created, and from what I hear it's only going to get better in the next few episodes. So watch this damn show, people. American Idol is over, you can turn on your brains again.