Yesterday, we delved into seasons one through four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's birthday episodes. Let's just say you really, really don't want to celebrate Buffy's birthday with her, as catastrophe, drama, and heartache are always center stage.

Season Five, episode 13, "Blood Ties"
Buffy's 20th birthday goes no better than the previous ones. "Blood Ties" is all about how Buffy and Dawn share the same blood, "Summers blood," even though Dawn was created by monks to be The Key. Yes, it was a somewhat syrupy solution to Dawn's incessant whining in this episode, but it is so important for the resolution to the season, and the defeat of Glory, the Big Bad (Buffy can die instead of Dawn to save the world. Again.).

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Hot from this morning's Variety: NBC has purchased the rights to a new script by O.C. writer John Stephens. Warner Brothers TV will produce the show under a previous deal Stephens made with the peacock network.

The premise of the show? What starts as a normal cop-show takes a "hilariously horrifying" twist when the not-so-super police officers have to face the likes of vampires, mummies and other supernatural ghouls -- return of werewolf man?

HBO is developing a one-hour series based on the late 1990s comic, called Preacher. The story is about a small-town Texas preacher who is possessed by a Genesis, a half angel/half demon entity. As The Hollywood Reporter describes, "the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God." The series was considered edgy for its commentary on American religious and political issues. The Irish and British creators of the comic are co-executive producing the series. It's being written by Mark Steven Johnson, the screenwriter who adapted Daredevil for the big screen.

If the series can be as clever in its observations on Americana as the comic was, it sounds like a great fit for HBO. The network is in desperate need of something that is going to make people talk. The Sopranos and Sex and the City used to be that for HBO, but one has fizzled while the other is long gone.