(S02E03) I don't watch Castle because I really need another New York-based police procedural in my life. I watch it because it's funny, quirky, and because Nathan Fillion is dreamy. So while I would be hard-pressed to ever find a bad episode of Castle, this one wasn't my favorite. It just wasn't fun enough.

I'm not really enthralled with models, so the whole "behind the scenes at Fashion Week" thing really doesn't appeal to me very much. However, I do like how the theme of youth and beauty plays itself out throughout the show; first with the obsession over these qualities inherent in the modeling world, then with Castle's realization that he is at the age in which the beautiful young woman he meets isn't someone he met at a party, but rather the gawky girl who babysat his daughter and watched High School Musical with her. All the while, Castle's mother is dealing with the fact that she is no longer getting the ingenue parts, but is instead being offered that of the the crazy granny who dies offstage.

Piper Perabo's most recognizable roles have been in the Cheaper by the Dozen films, as well as a turn in Coyote Ugly. And yet, hers is one of those names unique enough to remember. Someone at USA recalled Perabo well enough to cast her in Covert Affairs, a pilot about a young CIA trainee abruptly called up as a field operative. While she thinks it's because she's so awesome and all, it turns out that it has more to do with some secret in her past.

In other words, she may be woefully unprepared for the cases she finds herself involved in. At least she'll have Christopher Gorham (Harper's Island) on hand to help her navigate, though I wouldn't trust him. Plus, he's blind which limits his abilities in the field.

For those of you tracking which of the Harper's Island alumni would be the first to land regular work elsewhere, it looks like it was the most unstable of the bunch. I guess that means Gorham won't be available for that Weekend at Bernie's style reunion special.

'Harper's Island' sounded like the perfect recipe for cheesy summer fun -- a 13-episode Agatha Christie style whodunit where wedding guests gather in a lush locale only to be killed off one by one. Unfortunately, CBS was swifter with the ax than the show's mystery serial killer. After just three episodes, the network yanked it from its sweet Thursday slot and buried it in the Saturday primetime wasteland.

Thanks to the DVR "record series" option, some indulged in their weekly hour of TV horror uninterrupted (gotta love technology), but the majority of viewers were left confused and annoyed when the show was relocated with little fanfare. It was a boneheaded move by the network that cost them ratings: 'Harper's' average viewers dropped a steep 50% -- from 7 million to 3.5 million -- in the Saturday slot.

'Harper's Island''s may be killed off, Neil Patrick Harris will host the Emmys (for real this time), Maura Tierney explains her mystery illness and more of today's top TV headlines.

I know Harper's Island has been panned by everyone from television critics to deranged psychopathic killers with a penchant for islands, but I don't care. For eleven weeks now, I've followed along on this silly ride, and I've been enjoying the hell out of it. It's the horror-mystery aspect of it. Sure, I'm a little disappointed that the killer (so far) isn't one of the main cast members, but I'm having fun watching the cast get taken out "one by one," as creepy-little-girl says each week in the intro.

I was always a huge fan of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None. Plus, I'm a sucker for a long-form story in television. I think this is one of those things television has over the movies. You can't take thirteen hours to tell a mystery in the theaters. That's one of the reasons I'm never as impressed with the done-in-one shows. You have this format that allows for these massively detailed long stories so why not use it? I don't care if you don't think Americans have the attention span for it; I do. And aren't you supposed to be programming for me?

On the heels of yesterday's cancellation of 'The Unit,' CBS is now saying goodbye to 'Without a Trace' and 'Eleventh Hour.'

'Eleventh Hour' ran for one season in the network's 10PM slot, which will now be filled by ratings juggernaut 'The Mentalist,' according to Variety.

Meanwhile, the Ausiello Files says 'Without a Trace''s cancellation came down to the wire. 'Trace' battled 'Numb3rs' for the network's final spot, but lost out because 'Numb3rs' is reportedly "less expensive to produce."

J.D. and Turk's "guy love" may live on for at least one more year.

ABC is in talks to renew 'Scrubs' for a ninth season, and some or all of the original cast may be back -- yes, that includes Zach Braff.

In other news, 'Chuck' fans are encouraged to eat $5 Subway footlongs in order to save the show from cancellation, Lisa Rinna decides that she actually doesn't want a role on the new 'Melrose Place,' and 'Harper's Island' gets relocated to the graveyard known as Saturday night.

See more of today's TV headlines, casting scoops and premiere dates after the jump.

When Ugly Betty moved production to NYC, not everyone made the jump to the east coast. Most notably, Christopher Gorham, who played Betty's geeky-hot boyfriend, Henry, left the show. However, Michael Ausiello is reporting that Gorham, who has been seen recently on Harper's Island, is reprising his UB role this season.

As Betty fans know, our titular heroine has moved on to her Yeti classmate Matt (Daniel Eric Gold). Since Betty can't seem to focus on one guy at a time, Henry of course has to come back to New York. What confuses me about this entire storyline is that it seems very... familiar.

(S01E01) Look, I'm going to just cut to the chase: You should be watching this show. Well, let me add a caveat to that. If you don't mind watching people get eviscerated, you should be watching this show. I put this on my DVR because it was new, but I didn't know much about it. Just watching the pilot, though, has got me totally hooked.

I love horror movies, and this is basically a thirteen-episode horror movie. It doesn't pull any punches either. Harper's Island isn't like most TV shows, where minor characters get killed off and the main cast always manages to survive: at least one character will be killed off each week. In the pilot episode, we had two deaths. Suffice it to say, they did not go quietly in their sleep.

Warning: Spoilers about who dies in the pilot are ahead.

'Parks & Recreation'
(8:30PM, NBC) series premiere
Fans of 'The Office' will recognize the comic sensibilities of this Amy Poehler mockumentary (co-created by U.S. 'Office' producer Greg Daniels).

Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, the Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department in fictional Pawnee, Indiana. The overeager government employee has big plans: She hopes her project to turn an abandoned lot into a town park will eventually lead her to the White House, as the first female President.

Standing in her way: Her crabby boss (Nick Offerman), a public official who hates the public; her equally ambitious assistant (Aziz Ansari); and her office crush, who has a crush of his own ... on a local nurse (Rashida Jones).

With the new year comes a whole new batch of shows to watch -- everything from Whitney's big move to 'The City' to Edie Falco's big return to primetime.

Think your DVR can handle it all?

Check out our guide to what's new in midseason and see what everyone will be talking about in 2009.

There are two things that I find disturbing about the news that there's a reality show in the works for married actors Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna for TV Land. Number one, do we really need another show biz couple exposing their personal lives for the cameras? Number two, why is TV Land getting away from celebrating TV history by broadcasting great old shows to do banal entertainment like this kind of unscripted drivel?

Are audiences really clamoring for more of this stuff? I know I'm not, and I don't know anyone else who is! Seriously, this is not reality TV. There's nothing real about it except that they're using their real names. (Yes, those are their real names!)

When CBS presented their upfront last May, one of the more intriguing dramas was a murder mystery/slasher film/whodunit about a wedding party on a Seattle island. It was called Harper's Island and projected for mid-season. The preview played like a cross between Ten Little Indians and Twin Peaks to me, and I liked what I saw. I certainly plan on giving it a try when it shows up on CBS.

It's still slated for early 2009, only now the actor playing the groom's loud, fun-loving and duplicitous uncle is going to be Harry Hamlin. He has been added to the Harper's Island cast as Marty.

Ugly Betty's Henry is going to Harper's Island. Actor Christopher Gorham has been cast on the new mystery Harper's Island. Good for Chris, but what about his other character, Henry, the lovable geeky accountant on Ugly Betty? That remains in question.

On Harper's Island, which CBS is calling a Ten Little Indians/Twin Peaks-style horror mystery in which a wedding party on a Seattle island find themselves cut off from the mainland with a murderer on the loose. The killer is doing away with characters week after week and everyone is a suspect or a victim.

In addition to Christopher Gorham, actor Bill Pullman (Sleepless in Seattle) is also in the show as a jovial, drunken Uncle Marty.

Of all the networks, CBS has the most new shows on deck, including two new comedies, Worst Week and Project Gary, and two new dramas, The Ex-List and The Mentalist. Another drama is set for mid-season, Harper's Island.

We've had a chance to look over these new TV shows, and by and large, it's a fascinating bunch. Also adventurous. No procedurals. More character-driven programming it seems. CBS seems determined not to rest on their laurels.

Read what we thought about these advance screeners, bearing in mind that things are liable to change before the shows start to air.