MONDAY, DECEMBER 5

'Gossip Girl' (8PM ET, The CW) midseason finale
Lily throws Charlie a party to officially introduce her to New York society. Meanwhile, Charlie's ex-boyfriend, Max, throws a wrench into Charlie's future as an Upper East Side princess. Dan decides it may be time to tell Blair the truth about his feelings for her.

'MAD' (8.30PM ET, Cartoon Network)
The satirical cartoon spoofs 'Captain America,' 'Supernatural' and 'My Super Sweet Sixteen.'

'Neverland' (9PM ET, SyFy) miniseries finale
This new prequel to J.M. Barrie's classic, 'Peter Pan,' comes to a close. Starring Rhys Ifans as James Hook, Keira Knightley as the voice of Tinker Bell, Anna Friel as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Oscar nominee Bob Hoskins as Smee (who previously played the character in Steven Spielberg's feature 'Hook'), and Charlie Rowe as one of literature's most cherished characters, Peter Pan.

The sheer volume of coverage surrounding Michael Jackson's untimely death has reached such a solid density that you can actually take a hammer to it (and believe me, I've tried).

The man's death was tragic and newsworthy, and the recent memorial was also deserving of some extreme attention, but some of the bits and pieces almost scream for the story to stick around. Mark my words, Michael Jackson will replace Jesus and the Virgin Mary as the holy face that some yahoo will see in their morning batch of French toast.

One of those stories reached such a fever pitch that the network that spawned it tried to put a stop to it. An overly vigilant CNN viewer spotted a shadowy figure walking across the camera during Larry King's visit to Neverland Ranch. The video found its way to YouTube where it garnered over 4 million hits and sparked a wave of news coverage not seen since, well, Michael Jackson's death.

(S01E11) "My family will be the death of me."

What an opening act! What a set up! This seemed to be the first of the two-part finale for season one, and in this penultimate episode, the writers really delivered a knockout. I think we're finally getting that clash of Mary's personal and professional life that's been building from the pilot when Brandi showed up.

The abduction of Mary was well done because they chloroformed her. If she weren't drugged, she would have not been overpowered. As it was, she nearly got away. Of course, they thought they were grabbing Brandi so why did they need to knock her out? Also -- continuity error -- Russell said they grabbed the first hot blonde that came out of the house. That's not where Mary was snatched; she was in the alley outside the theater.