Hale Storm: Buster Bluth Hired at Buy More

I can't help but get excited when an Arrested Development alum drops by a current television series, so imagine my pleasant surprise when said alum joins the cast of one of my favorite series.

It seems like it's been forever (well, January, in fact) since we've even mentioned NBC's action/comedy series Chuck, which I've missed terribly since the series wrapped its freshman year way ahead of the normal timetable due to the writers strike.

While the series will relaunch on NBC this fall (complete with, one hopes, a massive marketing and promotional campaign that ties into a DVD box set of the first 13 episodes of Chuck), there is one notable cast addition for the sophomore season: Arrested Development's Buster Bluth himself, Tony Hale.

Hale, who has turned up on other series since Arrested Development (most notably as a co-star on the short-lived Andy Barker, P.I.), will recur on Chuck next season as Emmett, the new assistant manager at the Buy More (filling the position vacated by Harry Tang) whose skills as an efficiency expert make him a dangerous workplace adversary for Chuck and Morgan. Hired by corporate to whip the Buy More into shape, he ends up staying on permanently when he sees just how badly the outlet is being run and figures they need a helping, er, hand.

I've missed seeing Chuck squirm at work and I hope that Hale's Emmett can be the one to turn the screws a little on our Mr. Bartowski, who's gotten a little too complacent under Big Mike's thumb.

And if that's not enough Hale for you, he'll also join the cast of another sophomore series: ABC's Samantha Who? There, Hale will play Samantha's new doctor, Andy Adams, in a recurring capacity.

Let's see: Jessica Walter on CW's 90210; Hale on NBC's Chuck; Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Henry Winkler on FOX's Sit Down, Shut Up? (Even Portia DeRossi and Alia Shawkat have pilots under consideration for midseason and David Cross just shot one at HBO.) This might just be the best time for Arrested Development vets on television since those rumors of a Bluth movie first surfaced...

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS; 8); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Beauty & the Geek (CW); According to Jim/According to Jim (ABC); Moment of Truth (FOX)

9 pm: 48 Hours Mystery (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Reaper (CW); Samantha Who?/Samantha Who? (ABC); Hell's Kitchen (FOX)

10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8-10 pm: Britcoms on BBC America.

I don't know about you but by Tuesday night, I'm usually in need of some comedy in my life. Why not stick around on Tuesday nights for BBC America's new comedy lineup, consisting of classic episodes of Coupling, new comedy Not Going Out, and Absolutely Fabulous? You'll thank me in the morning.

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

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In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj...

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