Dude, Ellen's a Cylon!

Okay, she's not. She's a Viper pilot. But it's still Samantha Ferris, who plays Ellen on Supernatural, in the uniform.

Yep, I'm catching up on Battlestar Galactica. I had fallen behind by about a half-dozen episodes, so I thought I'd finish off Season Three. Next season, as we all know by now, will be this show's last, and the showrunners promise a wrapup of the storylines, and possibly a spinoff prequel.

In the meantime, I'm noticing fandom collisions. Aside from Samantha Ferris, there's Kandyse McClure, who plays Dualla (aka Mrs. Apollo). She played Annie, Joshua's doomed love interest, in two episodes of Season Two of Dark Angel. And Nickie Klyne, Callie on Battlestar, was Fixit in another Season Two Dark Angel episode. Grace Park (Sharon), also did a brief turn as a transgenic on Dark Angel. Maybe she's typecast as a genetically engineered person? That could really limit an actor's career.

Now...off to find out what the heck is up with Starbuck.

The Tudors—1-1

The show opens with the assassination of a political figure in Italy, stabbed to death by several French people in a scene reminiscent of Julius Caesar's murder at the end of the first season of Rome. Except, you know, for the French people. This person turns out to be King Henry's ambassador and uncle. King Henry is Jonathan Rhys Myers, and the fact that this role requires him to wear tights strikes me as a very good thing. I wonder if he knows one of his kids is going to be a vampire. Oh, sorry. Wrong show.

Catherine of Aragon (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Henry's wife, pines rather for her husband while he tumbles other women, most of them blonde, and plays some kind of tennis whilst wearing funny pantaloons. In the meantime, the Duke of Buckingham plots to gain Henry's throne for himself. Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Niall) spends a good deal of time cleaning up Henry's messes, like the fact the king has knocked up Catherine's lady in waiting. He also tries to convince Henry not to go to war with France, and to secure his place in history by forging peace, instead. Although when it comes down to it, Wolsey's kind of a badass. And also could become Pope Badass. Elsewhere, other plots begin to unfold as Anne Boleyn's father works up his own political intrigue.

Overall assessment: Guys in tights and big boots! And? Jousting! What's not to love?

Weeds—Cooking With Jesus

One of the fun things about Season Two of Weeds is that each week the title song, Little Boxes, is performed by a different artist. It's worth checking out the different renditions at the Showtime website. For this episode, the song's performed by Death Cab for Cutie.

Nancy continues her quest to become a grower without Conrad. Conrad, in the mean time, tries to find a financer to back his own quest to grow his own strain. He finally returns to Nancy's fold when Nancy assures him she's broken things off with Peter and Peter knows nothing.

Celia continues her quest for City Council election, but her family isn't cooperating.

Megan gets accepted into Princeton. Silas decides, with Andy's encouragement, to drop out of high school and follow her to New Jersey. But Megan shoots him down, and they break up.

Andy continues his quest for Hebrew School by comparing his Judaism to Ghostbusters. He finally makes it into Hebrew School, provisionally, with an essay he writes while high in the girls' bathroom at the marijuana expo.

Peter refuses to accept the breakup, and tells Nancy he knows she's a drug dealer.

This episode seemed a little less funny than previous episodes, with time spent laying down groundwork for plotlines that will undoubtedly be built on later down the road. I'm interested to see how things will pan out with Peter, since that's a major not-good development.

Rolling Stone From Texas—Don Walser



Jah Be For Us—Rocky Dawuni



Jammin Nation—Rocky Dawuni


Crazy Dazy—Chris Ligon



Weeds at iTunes:

Moonlight—Early Thoughts

Moonlight is a new show for CBS, premiering this fall, about a vampire private investigator. I have my doubts about this one. First, I loved (deeply) and lost (painfully) a show about a vampire private investigator (Angel), and nothing will ever compare. It just won't. The fact David Greenwalt is on board with Moonlight is either good or painfully ironic.

From the video clips, this show looks rather nice. Alex O'Loughlin, an Aussie actor, is pretty enough as Mick St. John, our vampire PI. The cinematography looks nice, although several of the cityscapes, and the way they're being used, is a bit too much like Angel for my immediate comfort. My biggest problem with this show, though, comes from the script excerpts I ran across a few days ago. The scenes in question are, in my opinion, bland and cliche-driven. Nothing about them struck me as particularly original or compelling.

Realizing this might not be a fair representation of the final show, I'll give this one a shot, if only because of my love for vampires in general, and because Greenwalt has a hand in it. Moonlight will be airing Friday nights at 9 Eastern on CBS.

Check out the preview clip here: Moonlight
Note: Must have popups enabled, and there's a brief ad right before the clip.