My shameless bit of boasting about the season 5 Wire screeners HBO just sent out seems to have struck a nerve. Maybe we need to have a mini Wire Discussion Group to get us limbered up before the series returns on January 6. In the meantime, this HBO preview that gives the slightest taste of the new season, which is going to focus on …

SCI FI Channel Photo: Art Streiber

We’re getting into December now, which means less and less original-run watercooler programming to discuss the morning after. And if the strike continues, every month will be like December. It’ll be like nuclear winter, the TV version. The gnarled, dead branches of the networks searching the sky, their …

HBO photo: Paul Schiraldi

Yeah, I’ll say it: I have seven new episodes of The Wire sitting right here.

I’m not going to jump the gun. I’m not going to spoilerize anything. I’m not that big a jerk. I’m just a big enough jerk to say it again, and let it play.

I have seven new episodes of The Wire sitting right here.

You all have a great evening.

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, whip yourself up a batch of chilaquiles and watch Heroes.

NBC photo: Adam Taylor

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, so in the spirit of holiday generosity, I will kick things off by finding something nice to say about the volume-two finale of Heroes:

Well, at least it’s over!

I don’t …

So we all know that the writers’ strike has shut down some of your favorite shows and that it’s cost the jobs of numerous below-the-line workers in the TV business. (The writers are making a counteroffer as negotiations resume today.) But it may claim a bigger casualty: TV critics may not have an excuse to go to L.A. in the middle of …

NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater

…and so the Nerd Herd takes an unscheduled vacation, thanks to the writers’ walkout. It’ll be some time before I catch up with this on TiVo, so feel free to offer your performance evaluation here.

NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater

Tonight, as NBC is promo-ing, “two heroes will fall” as “Volume 2: Generations comes to an explosive, bloody finish.” Judging by recent history, I think we can definitely take that as an ironclad promise that two characters will fall, downward, and substantial portions of their body will come in contact with …

Discovery Channel

The New York Times reports that NBC has struck a deal to acquire a ton of programming from outside producers including Thom Beers. You probably don’t know who Beers is, but you very likely know his shows: he specializes in cable shows about people in extreeeeeeeeem circumstances, like Deadliest Catch and Ice Road …

SCI FI Channel Photo: Art Streiber

I panned Tin Man, the Sci Fi Channel adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, in the print TIME magazine this week. But as you know, I write all kinds of asinine crap, so Tuned In’s substantial sci fi contingent may well have disagreed with me. Did you watch the first night? Were you captivated by Kathleen …