[Televisionary]

HBO's Boardwalk Empire , Game of Thrones , Bored to Death and other TV shows have recently featured incest storylines or themes. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "TV Breaks the Incest Taboo," in which I examine this troubling trend in scripted programming. In 1990, Twin Peaks gave the world a nightmare vision into the seediness beneath the placid veneer of small-town America. But while one of the many puzzles embedded within Twin Peaks ’ narrative was the identity of the murderer of teen queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), the true secret lurking at the heart of the mystery was the incest and abuse suffered by Laura at the hands of her father, Leland (Ray Wise) and the psychic damage this secret caused his wife, Sarah (Grace Zabriskie). It’s a reveal so horrific, so destructive, that the creators represented it in terms of the supernatural, having Leland possessed by a demonic entity in order to explain the cruelty and lack of humanity that suc...

Bad news for Caprica fans. Syfy has axed the Battlestar Galactica prequel spinoff and will be pulling the remaining episodes from the schedule, effective immediately. Which doesn't mean that you won't get to see how the season ended. Syfy also announced that it would air the remaining five episodes sometime next year, according to the press release: "The remaining first run episodes of Caprica -- airing Tuesdays at 10/9c -- will be removed from the schedule as of next Tuesday, November 2. These final five episodes of the season will be re-scheduled to air at a to-be-announced time in the first quarter of 2011, and will conclude the run of the series." News comes on the heels that the cabler has ordered a pilot for another Battlestar Galactica prequel series, entitled Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome , which will return the series' setting to war-torn battles and Viper maneuvers. (I had wondered just what Syfy would do with Caprica last week when that ...

HBO's deliciously madcap comedy Bored to Death returns Sunday evening for a second season and not a moment too soon. Created by Jonathan Ames, the noir-tinged comedy revolves around another Jonathan Ames, a failed writer moonlighting as an unlicensed private detective, played to perfection by Jason Schwartzman. In an even more improbable meta twist, the real-life Ames guest stars in one of the second season's early episodes as, well, a naked man. If that's not a metaphor for the sort of zany navel-gazing that Bored to Death excels at, I don't know what is. With its return, the series ushers in a hysterical and absurd second season that's far more focused on the triangle of friendship existing between Schwartzman's Jonathan, comic book writer/illustrator Ray (Zach Galifianakis), and pothead magazine publisher George (Ted Danson). While the troika spend the first half of the freshman season split apart, the writers have wisely thrust all three into a group dynam...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. A few things to get through before I hit the road for San Diego and Comic-Con. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Olivia Munn (the newly minted Daily Show correspondent) will guest star on NBC's Chuck this fall when the series returns for its fourth season on September 20th. Munn, who is a series regular on NBC's midseason comedy Perfect Couples , will play "an impossibly cool, smart, and pretty CIA agent who intimidates and schools Chuck and Morgan" in the same installment that features Dolph Lundgren. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) In other scoop, Ausiello writes that former Friday Night Lights star Scott Porter will be joining the cast of CBS' The Good Wife this fall. Porter, whose CW pilot Nomads was not ordered to series, will play Blake, described as "Kalinda’s private-eye counterpart at the D.C. firm that’s merging with Lockhart & Gardner" w...

"I will not have a three-way cuddle with a struggling comedian!" I think it's fairly safe to say that those words could only have emanated from the twisted mind of author Jonathan Ames, creator of HBO's deliciously loopy private investigator comedy Bored to Death , which returns for a second season in September. But Bored to Death 's Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis aren't the only ones headed back to HBO this fall as the pay cabler also brings back Danny McBride's Kenny Powers to the lineup as Eastbound and Down returns for a second season in September. The teaser promos for the second seasons of Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down , as well as the image campaign for HBO's Summer/Fall 2010 series, can be found below. Bored to Death Season Two: Eastbound and Down Season Two: HBO Original Series Summer/Fall 2010 Image Campaign: Season Two of Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down return to HBO in September.

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm leaving Vancouver today after an extremely action-packed day that saw me tour the sets of Syfy's Caprica, Stargate Universe , and Sanctuary . More on that to come in the next few days... On to the headlines now. Wowzers! Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that talks have broken down between Helen Hunt's reps and producers for NBC midseason drama Parenthood . But the fantastic news is that Ausiello is saying that Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham has been offered the role of single mother Sarah Braverman (played by Maura Tierney in the original pilot episode) and that she "recently met with Parenthood boss Jason Katims... to discuss the plum part." ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) HBO has given an early series renewal to freshman comedy Bored to Death , handing the Jason Schwartzman-led series a second season order following its third episode, which landed its largest au...

Anyone fancy a glass of white wine? You had the chance to read my advance review of HBO's new detective comedy Bored to Death , starring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis), but now that the pilot episode has aired, I'm curious to see what you thought of the series. Did you think that Schwartzman made for a particularly hapless private eye? Did you dig the kooky relationship between Jonathan Ames (based on the series' creator, novelist Jonathan Ames) and his boss George (Danson) and his best friend Ray (Galifianakis)? Did the mix of hard-boiled noir, modern neurosis, and whimsical absurdity win you over? And, most importantly, will you tune in again next week to watch? Talk back here. Next week on Bored to Death ("The Alanon Case"), Jonathan tries to win back Suzanne and gets a new case when a woman named Jennifer (guest star Kristen Wiig) wants him to tail her boyfriend Gary to see if he’s been unfaithful; George has a bizarre request for Jonat...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Following the departure of Maura Tierney from the cast of NBC's Parenthood , producers have reportedly approached Helen Hunt about replacing Tierney on the Jason Katims-executive produced drama series. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Hunt "is said to be considering the offer, which would mark her return to series television and to NBC, where she starred on the comedy Mad About You for seven years before segueing into features." ( Hollywood Reporter ) Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Denis O'Hare ( Brothers & Sisters ) has been cast as a series regular next season on HBO's True Blood , where he will play the Vampire King of Mississippi. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) (For more on Season Three of True Blood , you can read my exclusive one-on-one interview with Alan Ball here. ) Despite rumors to the contrary, the Futon Critic is reporting that ABC has not ye...

"When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand." - Raymond Chandler The twin specters of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett preside over the action on HBO's new comedy series Bored to Death . The series, which launches later this month, stars Jason Schwartzman as alcoholic novelist Jonathan Ames, a struggling writer who, after getting dumped by his girlfriend (Olivia Thirlby), takes out an ad on Craigslist as an unlicensed private detective. As portrayed by the charismatic Schwartzman, Jonathan is a lovable loser of a 30-year-old man and he seems to drift through life in a state of arrested development, much like his boss George Christopher (Ted Danson) and comic-book illustrator best friend Ray (Zach Galifianakis) to varying degrees. The best word to describe him would be hapless: between his white wine and pot addictions and emotional adolescence, he's the portrait of 21st century malaise. The series, created by real-life novelist Jonatha...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing, on this the first day back to work after the Labor Day three-day weekend. Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Angie Harmon ( Women's Murder Club ) has been cast as a guest star on NBC's Chuck . She'll appear in the third season's fourth episode--slated to air sometime around late March/early April--where she will play Sydney, a covert agent for the enigmatic organization The Ring who wants to eliminate Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin). ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Former Middleman star Natalie Morales has been promoted to a series regular on USA's upcoming crime dramedy White Collar , where she will play Lauren Cruz, described as "a smart junior FBI agent in the white-collar division who holds her own with her superiors and the master thieves she's investigating." Morales was originally meant to guest star in two episodes. Elsewhere at USA, Eric Lively ( ...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Confirmed: Jane Lynch will NOT be reprising her role as ditzy actress Constance Carmell in the second season of Starz's comedy series Party Down due to her involvement on FOX's Glee , where she plays cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Cabler Starz was said to have hoped that Lynch's schedule could have accommodated both series but they were unable to make that happen. "It looks like I can't do the second season," said Lynch of "blessed event" Party Down . "So I'm not happy about that all ... but I'm in Glee , so I'm thrilled about that." No word yet on what Party Down producers will do now that Lynch is unavailable; Jennifer Coolidge appeared in two episodes of Season One as Constance's roommate Bobbie St. Brown, likely due to scheduling conflicts. ( Variety ) "Y: The Last Man" creator Brian K. Vaughan won't be returning to the writing staff for the sixth an...