Alan Ball just can’t get enough of dead people. The Six Feet Under creator’s creepy seriocomic new series, True Blood, based on the Sookie Stackhouse books, is set in a world where vampires have come out of the coffin and are trying to integrate into everyday, er, everynight society. Anna Paquin plays a telepathic Southern waitress who befriends Stephen Moyer‘s (pictured) charismatic bloodsucker. But not everybody’s happy about having Dracula (un)living next door. Ratings and reviews have been so strong for the first two eps the series has already been picked up for a second season.
Airs Sundays at 9 pm on TMN.
The always colourful Mr. White makes the switch to the small screen. Harvey Keitel stars as a good lieutenant in Life On Mars, a crime drama about a detective who wakes up from a car crash to find himself in 1973. If you’ve seen the BBC original, you already know that walking the mean streets sans CSI technology and wearing bell-bottoms and big collars is serious business. Here’s hoping this remake plays the fish-out-of-water elements just as straight. Jason O’Mara (pictured), Michael Imperioli, Lisa Bonet and Gretchen Mol also star.
Airs Thursdays at 10 pm on ABC starting October 9.
Christian Slater takes aim at a Kiefer Sutherland-style career revival with My Own Worst Enemy, a slick Jekyl-and-Hydeish spy thriller. The one-time heir to Jack Nicholson (thanks to Heathers, True Romance and an eerily similar physical presence) who’s been his own worst enemy (DUI and gun charges) plays family man Henry, who also happens to be the Jack Bauer-like secret agent Edward, but neither knows about the other because of a government experiment. Then Henry starts popping up in the middle of missions and Edward shows up for parent-teacher day. With Sydney Bristow in retirement and the return of 24 still months off, here’s hoping Slater can fill our action hero needs. Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell and Saffron Burrows round out the cast.
Airs Mondays at 10 pm on Global and NBC starting October 13.
While you wait for Rome’s Kevin McKidd to join McDreamy and McSteamy on Grey’s Anatomy, catch up with Karev’s amnesiac girlfriend, Elizabeth Reaser, who stars in The Ex List. This unlikely rom-com casts Reaser as the annoyingly named Bella Bloom, a beautiful, successful single gal with guy troubles. Then a psychic tells her she’s already dated the man she’s supposed to marry, and she starts ringing up her exes looking for second chances (and male validation, apparently).
Airs Fridays at 9 pm on Global and CBS starting October 3.
Before The Hills there was Beverly Hills 90210, and before Heidi Montag and Lauren Conrad there was Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth. Well, the Peach Pit’s original Betty and Veronica are back – as role models for a whole new gang of West Bev student hard bodies in just plain 90210. Degrassi grad Shenae Grimes and Tristan Wilds star as the new-to-school siblings this time around, while sideburns only play a supporting role. Oh yeah, and the Pit’s Nat (aka Joe E. Tata) is also back.
Airs Tuesdays at 9 pm on Global and CW.
Not to be confused with the CTV journalism drama Eleventh Hour, this Jerry Bruckheimer-produced series with the vaguely Watchmenesque doomsday title stars Rufus Sewell (Dark City, A Knight’s Tale) as a scientist who investigates crimes of a scientific nature while accompanied by his hot blond bodyguard (Sin City’s Marley Shelton).
Airs Thursdays at 10 pm on Global and CBS starting October 9.
If you miss X Files’ Mulder and Scully – or Pacey, for that matter – Fringe is for you. What’s it about? Well, two episodes in it’s still not clear. There’s a global conspiracy, mind-melding, reanimated corpses and Blair Brown with a mechanical arm that Cameron over on the Sarah Connor Chronicles would envy. Anna Torv is awesome as the up-and-coming FBI agent trying to discover if the truth is out their. Joining her cause is a lunatic scientist (John Noble) and his estranged genius son, played with scruffy George Clooney-like appeal by Joshua Jackson. With J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) pulling the strings, expect plenty of twists before it all gets sorted out. If it all gets sorted out.
Airs Tuesdays at 9 pm on CTV and Fox.
