After the major hit JetBlue took this week when a snowstorm caused them to cancel flights for almost a week, this news can't bode well for them: the other airlines are catching up to them in the department of in-flight entertainment.

Delta Air Lines and HBO have struck a deal to provide the pay network's programming on the airline's longer flights. The programming, which includes movies as well as episodes of HBO series like The Sopranos and Deadwood, will be an on-demand feature that will become available on flights of over four hours. Of course, the plane will need to be equipped with Delta's new in-flight entertainment system before being able to offer the programming to passengers.

(S04E15) It's starting to feel very final isn't it? I'm really impressed with the way the series is wrapping itself up. Some of the cheese factor still exists (Seth getting help from the homeless folks again), but for the most part the characters and their paths are falling into place.

I think this may have been the first episode of The OC that took place entirely at night. As a result, the whole episode was lit in shades of dark and light blues. It reminded me a lot of a season one episode of CSI: NY.

Overall though, what the episode really emphasized for me is how far Ryan has come. This is probably the biggest tragedy that could have possibly occurred in Newport Beach and despite that, the group remained intact with Ryan right in the middle of it. Not bad for someone who came into their lives as an outsider.

Rumor has it that filming begins in March for music-comedy duo Flight of the Conchords' 12-part HBO series and that they've got a second album in the works to be released this year. New Zealand's Flight of the Conchords (Jermaine Clement and Brett McKenzie) made waves on U.S. shores with their 2005 HBO One Night Stand.

I wish I had something more clever to say about them, but they're just freaking adorable, funny, refreshingly self-effacing and one of the best things going in comedy today. (And, I'm not just saying that because they're every hipster girl's dream come to true.) Don't believe me. Check them out for yourselves. Most of their One Night Stand is available via YouTube and elsewhere online. You can keep abreast of their goings-on at Conchords' fansite What the Folk!

Flight of the Conchords' "Business Time" after the jump.

HBO has plans to launch its HBO SVOD service in the UK, marking the first time the cable channel has launched its own channel in the UK market. The new on-demand service will be available on BT Vision, Tiscali TV and Virgin Media and will feature original miniseries; television series, comedy specials and documentaries. No dates have been set just yet as to when the new service will be available.

Here's a question for the UK readers: what do you think of this new service? The press release reads that HBO programs are popular in the UK, and I'm curious as to which shows you like and which ones you don't. Or, if you even give a flying fig newton* about HBO at all.

*Please excuse my language.

Ana Claudia Talancon has been cast as the lead in Whitney, a new comedy for HBO about a group of sexy women in Miami who take advantage of men by making each men think they're the only ones in the women's lives. The pilot was written by Lisa Schrager and will film in Miami. Ana Claudia Talancon was last seen in theaters in Richard Linklater's film Fast Food Nation.

There's not much information on this new series, so all I can say is I hope it doesn't fall into the newish cliche of smart, sexy women manipulating stupid men. I'm not saying women can't be smart and sexy, and I'm definitely not saying men can't be stupid, I'm saying that mix has been done before. I want to know what Whitney will bring to the table that hasn't been done before.

This Tuesday, February 6 at 10 p.m., HBO will air a documentary that attempts to chronicle the history of gangs and gang violence in Los Angeles. Bastards of the Party, directed by former gang member Cle "Bone" Sloan, pinpoints the origin of gang formations as far back as the 1940s, when blacks began moving from the south into mostly white areas of Los Angeles, a fact unknown to many who assumed it was the turbulent '60s and '70s that gave rise to the gang culture. Of course, that era will also be chronicled in the documentary, along with the escalation in violence that continued throughout the '80s and '90s.

Sloan, who now works in the film business, became a member of the Bloods at the age of 12 and learned about the history of the gangs from older gang members, and also read about that history while in jail. This isn't the first documentary to cover this subject, and it certainly won't be the last, but what will make it worth checking out is seeing it through the eyes of someone who actually lived it.

HBO continues to prepare for a post Sopranos world. There has been a lot of talk about their upcoming shows lately, including adapting George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, David Milch's John From Cincinnati, and the untitled Kanye West project. We can now add two more to that list.

The network has picked up a one-hour comedy from producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (Designing Women) called 12 Miles Of Bad Road. The show will star Lily Tomlin as the matriarch of a rich Texas family. Add in the family real estate business and a collection of relatives and hilarity will ensue, hopefully. The idea almost sounds like a Dallas spoof. With Tomlin on board, it will certainly be worth a look. Look for Gary Cole, Mary Kay Place, and Leslie Jordan to also appear.

Well, I didn't get my "Snowcrash" mini-series for Festivus, but there are now a trio of projects that make for a damn fine substitute. Kevin mentioned the other day that George Clooney and Sci Fi are adapting Neil Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" for the small screen. Now comes word from Variety that George R. R. Martin's epic "Song of Ice and Fire" series has found a home at HBO.

Martin is currently at work on book five of the seven book series with the network planning to adapt each book into one season of the show. The stories take place in the seven kingdoms of Westeros and chronicle the violent history of the politics of the land. It's often very dark and, if given the same kind of scope as HBO's Rome, has the potential to be an amazing series. The project will be executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The plan is for Benioff and Weiss to write all the episodes each season, except one, which will be written by George R. R. Martin himself.

Well, the dates have been swirling around like crazy (I incorrectly reported the return of Entourage here), but now it's official. Tony Soprano and Vincent Chase are both making their return to HBO starting on Sunday, April 8 at 9PM.

The Sopranos comes back for its final episodes; the second half of its sixth and final season. Originally, HBO only ordered eight concluding installments from David Chase and Co., but it was bumped to nine a few months ago. Plenty of questions need answering. Is Phil Leotardo going to be healthy enough to lead while Johnny Sack is still imprisoned? What about Carmela's suspicions about Tony and his connections to Adriana's death? And who the heck is Kevin Finnerty?

Entourage will kick off the remainder of its third season following The Sopranos and there are tons of things up in the air there as well. Is The Ramones project completely dead? What's Ari going to do to try and win back Vince as a client?

I'm not sure I can wait until April. As much as I love HBO, Rome and Extras just aren't doing it for me.

[via ComingSoon.net]

Apologies for being a few days late with this news, but I thought you'd all like to know that the second season premiere of Extras is available for free at the iTunes music store. The new season kicks off tonight on HBO at 10pm, too, but if you're like me and love Ricky Gervais but don't have HBO, this is a nice option. Actually, it's pretty much the only option. I actually prefer to only have one option, as it makes it easier to make decisions. Someday I hope to open a restaurant that serves only one dish, but that's neither here nor there.

The second season of the popular series will feature guest stars such as Orlando Bloom, Daniel Radcliffe, David Bowie, Chris Martin, Sir Ian McKellen and Jonathan Ross.

(As a brief aside to those of you who have been reading these all day - TCA is the Television Critics Association, a twice yearly event that brings TV critics together with networks, show creators, and actors to find out all about upcoming shows, films, specials, and what have you. I'm a newbie to it all as well, so now you know. And knowing is half the battle.)

Life Support is somewhat based on a true story about a woman who contracts AIDS from her intravenous drug-using husband, and becomes an angry voice an activist in her community. She hands out condoms, doesn't pull punches, and is modeled after the sister of director Nelson George, who was even more outspoken than Queen Latifah, if you can believe it.

Fresh off of Deadwood (does anyone else think that left the air too soon?), David Milch and the cast presented their new surfing drama John From Cincinnati to the TCA. Most surprising was the fact that there are some mystical elements to the show ... although they weren't really elaborated on at the panel. The clips offered up contained scenes of levitation and a bird seeming to come back to life, but seeing them out of context makes us unsure to label them just yet.

Milch did get a bit esoteric though, and said that the show takes place on "the edge of the coordinates of reality." It has a vague aura of Six Feet Under around it, even though the subjects are entirely different, and I tend to like shows that aren't laid out for you in black and white.

Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, who also directed the doc about the Presidential campaign of George W. Bush Journeys with George, tackles evangelicals in Friends of God, an original film for HBO. It's a startling look deep inside the conventions, beliefs, and personalities that make up this larger than you would think demographic in the United States, which contains an estimated 50 to 80 million Americans.

Some of the subjects in the film are some wrestlers who describe what they do as "Taking TV wrestling, cleanning it up, and putting Jesus in it," and a minister who brags about the amount of sex he has with his wife. He also dubiously claims that evangelicals have "The most satisfying sex lives out of any group." He also asks two of his constituents how often they have sex with their wives, and they both claim every day. Two times a day, sometimes ... and they climax every time. Wow. Not exactly what you'd expect to see in a documentary about evangelicals, and that's what makes this look appealing.

Bill Maher appeared at the TCA to tease the upcoming fifth season of Real Time with Bill Maher (that's already four Bill Maher mentions between the headline and this -- I hope the check's in the mail). He let us know that he wishes (hopes?) that he could get Bill or Hillary Clinton as a guest, and that they have trouble getting a lot of conservatives to appear because, "most of them are in bed by 8PM on a Friday night, getting ready for church."

Real With Bill Maher (*cha-ching*) premieres on February 16th.

Quotes from Bill:

• "Truth is like sex. It's best when it's a little painful."
• "HBO pays me the same whether I listen to the guests or not. It's all: bullshit, bullshit, bullshit -- my line."
• "Fox News hates us, for good reason, I make fun of them a lot ... and for good reason, they suck."

This original movie from HBO Films is based on Dee Brown's famous book of the same name, stars Anna Paquin, Aidan Quinn, and Adam Beach, and was executive produced by TV veteran Dick Wolf.

Beach is sort of Hollywood's go-to-guy who portrays a Native American character in everything from John Woo's WIndtalkers to Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers. Now don't get me wrong, I think he's a good actor, but aren't there any other Native American actors out there who can step into roles like this?

The movie, like the book, is about the massacre at Wounded Knee, and the extremely heavy-handed attempt of the U.S. government to assimilate Native Americans and homogenize them, much like the Borg does on Star Trek:TNG.

They did this by moving them onto reservations and giving them "Christian" names, and allowing them to "hunt" for food ... by chasing penned calves around with a rifle. It's a heart-breaking and tragic story, and according to the creative team has ties to the current U.S. situation in Iraq.

Quote of the panel:

• Anna Paquin: "Sadly, stories like this are not unique in the United States." She can act, and she's political. Watch out folks.
• Fred Thompson, former U.S. senator and actor who has is always typecast as a hard-assed senator, admiral, and politician in general plays President Ulysses S. Grant. When aproached by executive producer Dick Wolf and asked if he wanted to play him, Thompson replied: "Not if I have to grow the damn beard."