Then gets cancelled, along with Men in Trees, Shark, Journeyman (though I knew that one already), and Bionic Woman (that too) among a smattering of others that I felt I ought to watch because of the cast but which were too dumb out of the gate (Big Shots) and a sprinkling that I no longer have to feel guilty about not even trying.

Too bad about Moonlight–it was just picking up steam and making the most of the characters. The scene where Mick begged Joseph to turn him back into a vampire so that he could save Beth (again!) was masterful and showed why people need to keep casting Jason Dohring.

I’ll miss Men in Trees. Cuteness without saccharine and with just enough substance is hard to come by, and there are a few people in there who need to be hired again right away as well, notably Emily Bergl.

…by being as rock-solid in her dance routines as she ever was in her figure skating. I’ve never seen a physical performer less liable than she is to slips, trips, or goofs. Fantastic!

Dancing with the Stars finals last night; results tonight. Kristi Yamaguchi for the win is nearly a foregone conclusion, but those have been upset before. We’ll see.

Their newest finals mechanism is a faceoff-style dance, in which one dance and one song are selected and each of the three couples dances one minute of it. It was entertaining and, as the judges remarked, definitely allowed them to see who’s the best, but it seems to build in a hefty amount of unfairness–as was pointed out right on the show, cha-cha-cha is so far away from being Jason’s best dance that you’d never know how he got to the finals if that dance was the only one of his that you saw. Shouldn’t the finals be the moment when the couples choose their strengths for themselves and bring out the very best they have, rather than dancing a preselected style that may set their opponents up to shine at their expense? Even Kristi has an Achilles heel–it was samba, but they’d never choose that dance for the finals because it’s a killer for everybody. So her weakness is off the table out of the gate.

They’ve tried a number of different finals styles, including having the judges pick which dance each couple would do. By far the fairest and leading to the most robust competition is allowing each couple to pick their own.

**SPOILERS** for the Bones season finale below.

Perhaps the best two episodes of Bones, ever, were the last two: Bones’s father’s trial showed us both sides of the Boreanaz coin, the breezy Booth and the choked-up Angel, and last week’s hilarious open-micfest seemed like it would open the way for Brennan to get in touch with a few of her feelings.

Tonight they brought down the balloon with a sniper’s bullet. Brennan falsely thought Booth was dead for two weeks and everybody’s supposed to go on and be okay with it, and Zack is revealed as Gormagon’s apprentice.

Zack Addy.

Hey, writers? Some of us actually like this show. If the kid needed to depart, just kill him. You certainly wrote the rest of them as if Zack is dead. I assume he’s not returning; that’s merciful enough, given the horror of what he’s headed for, but the demolition of everything he was seems totally unnecessary and as gratuitous as all the gore shots of melting intestines and bugs crawling through eye sockets.

To add insult to injury you made one tremendous bloomer, almost as bad as during the trial when you made Russ Brennan out to be a witness for the prosecution. Bones’s “logic” conversation with Zack babbled about killing members of secret societies as good for the experience of humanity, yet Gormagon and his apprentices constituted a secret society, as the people they targeted did not.

Just because we like the chemistry between Boreanaz and Deschanel doesn’t mean we’re stupid.

Hire better writers.

Update: Eric Millegan isn’t leaving the show of his own accord, but he is leaving. In one of the most unbelievable, disbelief-unsuspended maneuvers ever. The character of Zack as drawn for the last three years would have amputated both his own arms rather than betray his mentor, Dr. Brennan. It’d be nice if the writers could at least pretend to have watched the show before. Zack’s character had a lot of completely untapped possibilities, all now wasted.

Recount being an HBO film written by Danny Strong of Buffy Evil Nerd Mastermind fame. So why is Warren Christopher upset at his portrayal in the film? Ah–because he is shown as not aggressive enough to get Gore the win.

“I was stunned by the excerpt,” he said in an interview. “Much of what the author has written about me is pure fiction. It contained events that never occurred, words I never spoke and decisions attributed to me that I never made.”

The film portrays Mr. Christopher as blocking attempts by other Gore advisers to rally protesters and to take the fight over disputed ballots to court. He is depicted as backing away from confrontation during a meeting with Mr. Baker, seeking compromise and negotiation as the Republicans prepare for war.

And what does it make you, exactly, when you seek compromise and negotiation while your opponents “prepare for war”?

“I think a lot of the strategizing in the script that I saw was somebody’s hindsight rather than what we had to deal with in the immediate aftermath of the election,” Mr. Daley said. He added: “The perception that Warren Christopher was some wuss who got hoodwinked by Jim Baker is absolute fantasy in the mind of somebody who is trying to make themselves out to be bigger than they were.”

…

Writing on huffingtonpost.com, Jeffrey Wells calls it “a thoroughly engaging, first-rate political drama.” But, he added, “I can’t see how this film won’t be seen as having done serious damage to the reputation” of Mr. Christopher, whom Mr. Wells says is portrayed “as one of the great all-time wimps.”

Oh. It makes you a “wuss” and a “wimp.” I believe that right there is something known as “irony.”

Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don’t get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony’s not really a, a high priority. We haven’t had any irony here since about, uh, ’83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.

As for the Nerd Mastermind himself, I’ll leave you with his idea of Warren Christopher’s characterization:

Mr. Strong disputes that characterization. “It was our goal to show him as a noble statesman who held a deep concern at how the rest of the world would be negatively affected if the United States was not able to handle a disputed election in a nonviolent manner,” he said.

Come on, now, Danny/Jonathan. Even your erstwhile HuffPo reviewer is not buying that.

And Gib marvels in fascination at the spectacle of a former Secretary of State taking on … Jonathan from Buffy.

Via Whedonesque.

I cannot speak of it.

Surprise of the night, besides Hillary practically losing Indiana, was Mario’s exit from Dancing with the Stars while Marissa Jaret Winokur, game but still a somewhat awkward dancer, remained. Her sunfire smile and exuberant enthusiasm will carry her through to another week while Mario’s saggy jive, singularly bad amid a very creditable collection of smooth, energetic dances, carried him off.

But a bigger surprise than his exit was the manner thereof: Referring back to a comment of head judge Len Goodman that his youth and niche position him as an excellent role model for young people, Mario declared, “The real brave ones are our young men and women fighting for our country overseas.” Wow. Class, grace, and bravery, considering the Hollywood stage. Good for you, Mario.

Confidential to Mario’s partner, Karina Smirnoff: Stop rolling your eyes. If you want to quit the show, do it. Don’t stay in it and exhibit a snotty attitude. Shame on you. You’re supposed to be a professional.

Possible tenth-anniversary DVDs of Sports Night.

H/t Daddyman.

Called Castle, created by Andrew Marlowe and directed by Rob Bowman of The X-Files: Fight the Future. Fingers crossed for both a good show and a hit this time.

H/t Whedonesque.com.

Dancing with the Stars returns tonight, sans Maks (sob!), but with Marlee Matlin, Priscilla Presley, Kristi Yamaguchi and–get ready for it–Steve Guttenberg. One fourth of Three Men and a Baby will dance for Carrie Ann, Len, Bruno, and of course a TV audience of millions. This I gotta see.

To the auction house with his “pretty cunning, don’tcha think?” hat, once again to benefit the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Adam Baldwin continues to part with his mementoes for a good cause. Good man.

Via Whedonesque.com.

The writers’ strike is officially over. Hallelujah.

Off-track topic. Bear with me here. You ever see a show or movie in which a man took steps to turn himself into a woman–or already had taken them–in which that person was played by a man? Where the woman was supposed to be serious and believable, that is, not obviously a man in drag.

Because if it’s so realistic that men can do this, why are they so frequently (always, in the ones I’ve seen or can think of off the top of my head–Veronica Mars S1-03, Ally McBeal, Transamerica) played by women?