Don't forget to watch the alternate ending for tonight's Veronica Mars.

TiVo does Taiwan!

Apple may be developing TiVo-like functionality for the Mac mini.

Fall Finale

On a tip from squishie -- Prison Break back in March

Wow, a bunch of shows have just bitten the dust, including Reunion, Threshold and Hot Properties. I guess we'll be getting a bunch of new midseason replacements.

I loved Bring It On, so will I love this? I'm not sure I can bring myself to actually watch something on Lifetime...

There's a reason that Logan and Duncan always wear a specific color on Veronica Mars, and it doesn't have to do with the plot... (second paragraph)

Alias will end in May.

Also, even Joshua Jackson, who really sold me as someone who could love Joey Potter, who was not all that lovable, and was basically just kind of whiny, could not carry the ABC Family movie. And interestingly, Claire Forlani with broken English + Italian accent is somewhat less annoying than fluent English Claire Forlani. No, I didn't watch the entire thing, although I cut to the end to see the train-wreck of a resolution for the story. Damn you, ABC Family, for not giving me a Pacey-resurrection.

So I finally read Robin Hobb's newest book Shaman's Crossing (The Soldier Son Trilogy, Book 1) (it took a while to get to the top of the waiting list at the library). I have to say that I wasn't that excited about it. It was kind of an Ender's Game set in a fantasy world, but I felt like I didn't know where the book was going. Lots of things happened and then the book ended. I'm not quite sure where the next book is going to go, in the sense that I don't feel like there's a grand climax to the story. It seems like it's just going to be more adventures of the main characters. Maybe I'll persuade one of my friends to read it first and then tell me if I should bother. Or maybe I'll wait until the trilogy is done before and find out if there's reasonable resolution before committing to another 1,000 plus pages...

Unfortunately, while looking for the Amazon page to link to Shaman's Crossing, I discovered that Tad Williams has a somewhat newish book out, which I now feel compelled to read. I enjoyed the Thorn, Shadow, whatever trilogy, was mystified and yet captivated by the talking cat book, and was sad that I somehow felt compelled to read the entire VR soul-sucking Internet trilogy (yeah, not good, and really long - the worst combination). I'm going on a long plane ride and I'm currently contemplating going down the street to the bookstore to buy the book right now. Oy.

Prison Break could be back in late Jan/early Feb, in late Feb, or in May. Nobody knows for sure....

Amy Sherman Palladino will have another show on the WB next fall - "a Manhattan-set Tracy & Hepburn-esque series"

Totoro's favorite actress Heather Graham's show Emily's Reasons Why Not premieres on Jan 9

It sounds like the Amazing Rac 9 will start in late March, which means that I'll get to catch up on lots of House episodes until then. (You can kind of work out the dates by looking at the show which is temporarily in its time slot, which has an eight episode order.)

More information about TiVoToGo on iPods and PSPs.

Sounds like the Lost podcasts are "funny and informative", so if you're into the show, you might want to check them out. (middle of the page)

If Britney was in a musical, would I go see it? I'm sad to admit that I just might.

An FAQ about what those Nielsen rating numbers really mean

Harry Potter the 4

Here's my quick review of the new HP movie, Harry Pottah and the Goblet of Fire.
I attended an early screening of this thanks to my pal the guitar-playing quad-saber-wielding EA employee, and I have to admit that this was the biggest let-down in the series thus far.
Most of the characters got very little screen time, the students from the visiting schools were way over the top for their respective cliques, and the action in the various Triwizard events seemed very truncated. There wasn't enough Snape or basically any character not named Harry.

The biggest problem, I suppose, is that if movie5 is going to be anything like book5, it will consist of a lot of Harry angst/whining and I was hoping movie4 would be good enough to at least tie me over until 6 hits (what, 2008?).

I suppose the biggest points of this movie were Cho Chang's interesting accent and the beginnings of Harry's angst at being the 'chosen one.' Sucks to be the protagonist. Then again, even with all my complaining, it was still pretty entertaining and a requirement for anyone keeping up with this series.

To conclude, please replace all Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff with Emma Watson.

Also, I want you to know that I have finally cut the cord with Lost, and revoked its season pass. It's just too much like Alias, in terms of slow/non-existent resolution of plot points/twists, and without Marshall or the random funny stuff. Reading recaps will suffice. Veronica Mars, you have my Wednesday 9 pm time slot!

As my first post in forever, and as an addundum to nyanko's previous two posts (she always beats me to these things of course), I'd like to add that the SFgate link below also contains news of TivoToGo on PSP. A reference to this story on slashdot mentions real-time transcoding, which suddenly makes this so much more appealing.

PSP > iPod Video.

The number of people using TiVo2Go surprised the TiVo company

Ooh, Tivo + video iPod! Yay! I wonder how long the battery will last when playing video... How long a flight can I take, and watch video for much of the flight?

Oh dear. Penguins don't deserve this.

There won't be any new episodes of Lost between Nov 31st and Jan 11th.

Alias moves to Wednesday 10 pm for two weeks, starting Dec 7

Julian Sands, he of A Room with a View swooniness, is going to be joining the cast of 24. Don't read the blurb (fourth item) if you don't want to see small spoilers about the characters they will play.

Sigh. One of the drawbacks of business travel is that you end up flipping through USA Today. It's not as informative as the New York Times, nor as campy/funny/blatantly untrue as the NY Post. But it does give us random features, such as the fact that American focus groups are idiots, and thus we have a different, longer, more craptacular ending for the newly released remake of Pride & Prejudice.

Oh no. NBC has no taste. They have a script commitment to a show called 5-0, a comedy about a 5 foot tall rookie cop who takes on jobs that take advantage of his short stature.

AOL will have a bunch of old TV episodes as video on demand (from tvattle)

Lost is expanding to overtake the universe, or at least the neighboring time slots.

Reviews seem decent for Keira Knightley's Pride and Prejudice.

And an article about Colin Firth v. Matthew MacFayden as Mr. Darcy.

I was totally going to swear off watching any more ABC Family movies, and then they do this! Joshua Jackson is in Shadow in the Sun, which premieres this Sunday. The downside is that Claire Forlani is also in the movie, and she never seems particularly emotive. I was wondering what happened to Pacey's career.

BTW, have you noticed that it's Dawson's Creek baby season? Joey (Katie Holmes) is (duh!) expecting and Jenn (Michelle Williams) just had her baby. Maybe Dawson will have a baby soon.

I'm in denial, but TV Guide is saying that the reduction of episodes for Arrested Development pretty much means that the show is canceled.

Arrested Development has been cut back to 13 episodes. I'm so sad.

Dude, Mandy Moore is going to be on Scrubs.

Kendra of Freddy & Kendra from the Amazing Race is having a baby. Wow.

The episode order for Arrested Development has been cut back so they will be making less than 22 episodes. Things aren't looking too good for Kitchen Confidential either, and both shows have been pulled off the schedule for sweeps. Damn you, Fox.

You can watch an episode of Kitchen Confidential on MySpace

Season 6, Part I of the Sopranos will start in March; Part II of the Sopranos, and the Wire will air in September. Also, the Shield will start in January.

You can get Lost podcasts. It sounds like there will be actual content, as opposed to the Arrested Development podcast which is just a verbal summary of the episode.

Integration between Yahoo and TiVo.

Apparently the Rome episodes you see in the UK are the not the same as the ones you would see in the US. More sex, actually.

Comcast will offer The Amazing Race, CSI, Survivor, and NCIS on demand.

So I had an Undeclared "incident" on Wednesday night in that I had two discs of episodes as well as the bonus disc from Netflix. I intended to finish at least one disc so I could get a disc of the Amazing Race for the weekend. Then it occurred to me that I could watch the second disc and get two discs of the Amazing Race for the weekend. And then it occurred to me that I could finish the bonus disc and have three discs of the Amazing Race for the weekend. And Undeclared is very funny show, so it's not hard to convince yourself to watch more. Anyway, the final outcome was a 2:30 am bedtime and a lot of alarm snoozing in the morning. And the confirmation that I still am a moron.

Rachel Nichols says that Jennifer Garner is the nicest person ever. And that's why I heart Jennifer Garner. She seems so sweet!

Kitchen Confidential has gotten an order for additional scripts, so it's not dead yet. And the Office will probably get picked for a full season.

The Winter Olympics start on February 10, right in the middle of sweeps, which I'm sure will wreak havoc on the sweeps schedule.

There are additional rumors that Scrubs will be on soon. And they will be shooting 24 episodes, rather than the usual 22.

A rundown of good shows on the BBC, for the tomcat.

Jennifer Love Hewitt denies being the inspiration for John Mayer's 'Your Body is a Wonderland'. Heh.

Turner Movie Classics to Air Nine Miyazaki Films, including My Neighborr Totoro, Whisper of the Heart, Spirited Away and Porco Rosso (courtesy of AICN)

Apparently, David Cross (Tobias on Arrested Development) is part of a running gag/feud on the Colbert Report.

Yes, there's a TiVo Blog

TiVo is now being smart about shows that run a minute or two over the hour or half hour, so if you have a show that ends at 8:31, it will still record a show that starts at 8:30 if that show has a higher priority season pass, and will just clip some time off the previous show.

CBS will stream entire episodes of Threshold, five days after they air. It's not a show I watch, but is an interesting development, since this might be a future trend of posting other shows online.

The Wire could get two more seasons, and probably will come out in late 2006.

NBC will be launching a new channel full of Miami Vice, A-Team and other sleuth shows.

FX has cancelled Over There.

Prison Break's remaining 9 episodes won't be airing until May (it will run through June so it will be part of their year-round programming), so if you're waiting to find out what happpens, you've got a long time... Luckily, I tore myself away from that show, although it is one of the shows that Totoro is actually watching.

Battlestar Gallactica will probably get renewed for a third season.

Grey's Anatomy will air after the Super Bowl, which basically just means that you need to set your DVR to record for an extra four hours to make sure you get the actual episode.