(S02E02) My husband tells me that Heather Havrilesky has written in Salon that Brothers and Sisters is manipulative. She writes, "'Brothers & Sisters' is emotional Frogger. Luckily, I loathe these beautiful, wealthy, loving, empathetic humans and so it brings me deep joy to watch them suffer."

I, however, persist in liking Brothers and Sisters, manipulation and all. That isn't to say that I don't get irritated with the show, as readers who followed my posts last year can attest. I was irritated tonight with the blatant manipulation of opening the show with a funeral, when last week's episode left us in some doubt about whether or not the youngest Walker (oops, second-to-youngest), Justin, was killed in Iraq.

There's good news, and slightly not so good news, for Battlestar Galactica fans. First the good news: SyFy Portal is reporting that the SciFi Channel is expected to give the go-ahead for a fourth season of the acclaimed drama. The announcement may be made even before the show returns to the SciFi schedule in its new Sunday night slot.

The news is not so good for the Battlestar prequel spinoff, Caprica. According to unconfirmed sources at SciFi there are still plenty of things to be worked out about the series, which will take place about fifty years prior to the current run of Galactica. The source says that a premiere of the series in 2007 is probably unlikely.

The article at SyFy Portal brings up an interesting fact: SciFi Channel is known for announcing potential new series that never see the light of day. Anyone remember the big plans for the Quantum Leap remake? Hopefully Caprica will not go this way. Personally, the concept of a science-fiction based family drama interests me.

Eddie Izzard is one of those comedians who I've always thought was funny in theory. What does that mean? It means that every critic has told me he's a riot, and I recognize his act and personality are unique and creative. But, for some reason, I find myself not laughing all that much when I see him perform.

So I'm curious to see what his new FX series, The Riches, is going to be like. The network just picked up 13 episodes of the show; billed as a "drama" by this TV Week article, it seems like it might be more of a dramedy. In the series, Izzard and Minnie Driver play the parents of a con-artist family. When the family finds that another family has died in an auto accident, they take the dead family's identity and move to the suburbs. Like every other FX show, it'll have its fair share of adult situations and profanity, but it'll definitely be lighter in tone than the network's other shows. I'm just hoping that I'll watch it and laugh; Eddie owes me a few.