[Televisionary]

You've got to love when a network obviously shows so much pride in their product that they push a launch date for a series endlessly, dump the thing during the summer months (read: burnoff), and then mess around with the scheduling. In a move, post- Veronica Mars cancellation , that surprises no one, the CW has announced that it will "condense" the airing structure of newbie drama series Hidden Palms and wrap the series on July 4th. The CW will therefore air back-to-back episodes of Hidden Palms on Wednesday, June 20th and June 27th, from 8-10 pm ET/PT, with the series finale (a.k.a. Episode Eight) planned for Wednesday, July 4th. Because the CW's teen audience will doubtlessly be inside watching the network rather than, you know, watching fireworks or being outside on the Fourth. Additionally, effective immediately, the CW will drop the Sunday night replays of the teen drama, replacing it with repeats of, yes, Seventh Heaven . ( Seventh Heaven 's slot will lik

I'll admit it. I was rather sucked in by the CW's eight-episode teen drama, Hidden Palms , the latest offering from Kevin Williamson ( Dawson's Creek , Scream ). For those of you who missed my original review of the pilot last May, below is an updated version of that review, now that I've seen the actual series. While Williamson's last few series have failed to click with viewers ( Wasteland , Glory Days ), he's returned with this series to the blend of thriller/mysteries and teen angst that he's best known for. The result is something along the lines of Desperate Housewives crossed with The OC . (Though I am seriously baffled by critics' recent usage of Twin Peaks as a reference.) Back in Seattle, Johnny Miller ( The OC 's Taylor Handley) was the perfect son: studious, well behaved, and clean-cut. But that was before his drunk father (guest star Tim DeKay of HBO's Carnivale ) shot himself right in front of Johnny's eyes. Two years and a s

Remember a time when network promos made you want to watch a show? When they didn't just spoil everything in a single episode (thank you, ABC promo-meisters!) or just... confuse you? I'm talking about the blink-and-you-missed it 15-second promos that CW has begun to air for its summer series, Hidden Palms , which kicks off on May 30th at 8 pm. For those of you who haven't seen the mind boggling awfulness that are these promos, I urge you to check out the series' "grassroots" site at 08nova.com . Having seen the series, I can say that these promos fail to capture the tone, characters, or mystery in Hidden Palms . Instead, they confuse, irritate, and bore... all at the same time. I'm all for mystery and intrigue. The more the better when you only have an eight-episode summer run to entice people with before disappearing off the schedule once the temperature starts to drop. But unlike the Oceanic site launched by ABC and Touchstone for Lost (which intrigued

Those titular palms just got a lot less hidden. The CW's freshman drama Hidden Palms , created by Kevin Williamson of Dawson's Creek and Scream fame, will finally launch on May 30th at 8 pm, taking over America's Next Top Model timeslot. The eight-episode series, which stars The O.C. 's Taylor Handley (yes, creepy Oliver!) and Michael Cassidy, Amber Heard, Gail O'Grady, D.W. Moffett, Ellary Porterfield, Tessa Thompson , Sharon Lawrence, and Leslie Jordan (a.k.a. Will & Grace 's Beverly Lesley), can best be described as The O.C. meets Desperate Housewives . A newly scruffy Johnny Miller (Handley)--recovering from alcoholism as well as the suicide of his father--moves with his mom and her new hubby to Palm Springs, where he encounters the enigmatic Greta (Heard), rival Cliff (Cassidy), and a mystery involving Eddie, the former resident of his bedroom. (A review of the original pilot can be found here .) For those of you looking for a steamy summertime'

I decided to switch gears a bit today and take a look at two pilots that the new CW network ordered to series: Runaway , which premieres this fall, and Hidden Palms , which the CW has decided to hold until mid-season. While both deal with a mix of teen and adult actors and storylines, the two shows couldn't be more different and I would have swapped Runaway for Hidden Palms . I'm no network programmer, but Hidden Palms is easily the superior of the two series and could have used the visibility of a fall launch to gain an audience early on. Runaway From executive producer Darren Star ( Sex and the City ), Runaway is the story of the Rader family, on the run after papa Paul Rader (Donny Wahlberg) is framed for the murder of his assistant/girlfriend. When it becomes clear that his family's lives are in danger from the people who set him up, Paul packs up wife Lily ( 24 's Leslie Hope), teenage kids Henry (Dustin Milligan), and Hannah (Sarah Ramos), and eight-year-old so