TV News and Reviews

I was going to do a post on nice family-friendly programming that was on for those who celebrate Easter, until I realized that there isn’t any nice family-friendly programming for Easter. Looking at the TV listings, you’d think it was just any other day. NBC isn’t even bothering to show the excellent primetime drama Kings, that has a biblical theme and spiritual tone.

I realize that the country, and certainly TV, has gotten more secular over time. TV execs also no doubt consider Easter to not be a very commercial holiday, so they don’t bother hyping it as much. It just seems a little sad that the networks and cable can’t manage to have one day without Rock of Love or a violent Batman movie out of respect for those who do celebrate Easter. The afternoon schedule on Nickelodeon starts with The Naked Brothers Band. I realize it’s only a teen drama, but still. Couldn’t we try just a little bit?

The History Channel has a couple religious history segments on in the afternoon, but it’s once again not exactly family friendly stuff. If you do celebrate Easter and feel the desire to watch TV, your best bet is to stick with sports programming on the main networks. If you have HBO, the George Clooney, Renée Zellweger movie Leatherheads is on at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central. And no, despite TV trends on Sunday, Leatherheads is not an S&M film. It’s a very nice, old-fashioned romantic comedy that takes place during the early days of pro football. It’s got style and snappy dialogue and it covers love, friendship, morality, and patriotism. It’s an entertaining, funny, and pleasant film to watch at any time, but it’s also a nice movie for the holidays.

If you’re looking for religious or holiday-themed movie suggestions to pop into the DVD player, head over to see About.com’s Top Christian Easter Movies, or CD Universe’s ecclectic Easter holdiay DVD list.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend, and Happy Easter wishes to all who celebrate.

Well, we finally have news of the air dates for the final episodes of ABC series’ Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, and Dirty Sexy Money. Critical favorites with strong fan followings, these primetime TV shows got axed in their prime and didn’t even get to finish out their runs during the regular season. The only good news is that ABC seems to be holding to their promise to finally get the finales out this summer. All three shows will air in the Saturday night 10/9c timeslot on ABC:

May 30, June 6, June 13: The final three episodes of Pushing Daisies.

June 20, June 27, July 4, July 11: The last four episodes of Eli Stone (which may include an actual finale).

July 18, July 25, August 1, August 8: The final four episodes of Dirty Sexy Money.

So mark your calendars, fans, to finally see the last of the series’ episodes of your favorite shows.

(Thanks to Zap2It for the scheduling info.)

Last night was the season, and perhaps series, finale for Life. The episode “One” was definitely saving the best for last in the Life season. Ordinarily I would give a recap of the episode, but it was just so perfectly done, every little bit in its rightful place, that to try and recreate it seems foolish. I recommend instead that you head over to NBC.com for the full episode and watch it for yourself.

One thing I will say is that I think Sarah Shahi’s pregnancy was the best thing to happen to Life this season. Creator Rand Ravich said in an interview with Zap2It that the end result of the show was as originally planned, but Shahi’s pregnancy required they do some out of the box thinking to get to that end result. I think what came out of that off-the-cuff redo was pure gold, or pure Zen for Charlie’s sake. Having the two partners separated, seeing what Crews did without Reese by his side, showed so much about his character. How she checked in on him, told the others which of his quirks to watch for and how to respond to them, was also an interesting peek into her psyche. And how Crews reacted to Reese being missing became the driving force of the last episodes and finale.

The addition of Gabrielle Union as Crews’ overachieving uber skilled temporary partner Jane Seever was also a wonderful stroke of luck/genius. If Life comes back for another season, I’d really like to see more of Seever. Union made her sharp, funny, and real…and most importantly, made what could have been an arrogant know-it-all into a sassy and likable character. Seever’s dynamic with Crews set up a nice balance to the one Crews has with Reese, and Seever’s unique skill sets were an asset to the cases they worked together.

This last episode “One” put together all the elements of both seasons, giving us moments with all the main players in the squad, in Crews’ personal life, and in the conspiracy. Questions were answered, including a very important one about Crews’ murdered business partner–a man he thought he knew, and it turns out that he did. There are great twists with Rayborn (William Atherton) and Roman (Garret Dillahunt), and I was happy to see Agent Bodner (Shashawnee Hall) get another turn in the game. We also get some great scenes with Ted (lovable Adam Arkin) and Amanda (Damian Lewis’ wife in real life, Helen McCrory).

Crews puts it all on the line in season finale “One”, taking two big chances to try and get Reese and himself out of this mess alive. And all the while, the action is intertwined with Charlie’s Zen tapes, the theme being: one plus one does not equal two…it equals one. I’ll leave you to watch the episode to discover why that is.

Stay tuned to TV News and Reviews to find out when and if this quirky, thoughtful, unique, and heartfelt show Life has been renewed for another season.

PHOTOS: Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews and Sarah Shahi as Dani Reese, Life, “One” screencaps, c2009 NBC Universal Television.