American Movie Classics is really getting into original scripted programming, eh?

First the network brought us Mad Men and Breaking Bad, two of the most critically-acclaimed shows from last year, and now it has been announced that AMC has two more dramas in the works. The first one is Carter Beats The Devil, about a mysterious magician in the 1920s, and the other show is Ice, which is about the inside goings-on at a family owned diamond company in New York City.

I have no idea what Ice could be like (though with AMC's track record I'll definitely be watching), but I am familiar with Carter Beats The Devil. The show is based on a really intriguing novel from Glen David Gold, and Gold is going to work on the show as a consultant, so hopefully the series will have the same color and intelligence and mystery that the book had.

(S01E08) The teaser at the beginning of this episode is excellent. We're up in Alaska, at the Arctic Ice Core Project where the scientists are either dead or out of their minds. One guy is shirtless and bloody and he transmits a message to HQ, repeating, "We're not who we are.". He's attacked by another guy. They wrestle, point guns at each other, and then end up killing themselves.

Part 6 of 7? You know what that means... we aren't going to find out who the winner is until Thursday next week.

This episode was really a drag. And when I say "drag", I mean that they really dragged this one out to fill an entire hour without actually announcing the winners. The episode began with a recap of who got voted off when, and then all the skaters returned for encore performances. Todd Bridges is awkward and mechanical on the ice, reminding everybody why he was the first one to be booted off this competition. Kurt Browning is sporting a bald head? In the middle of the show all the teams resurrected previous routines that they skated, an element otherwise known as a time suck.

Michelle Kwan, you just gave up your Olympic dream. What are you going to do next? After Michelle dropped out of the Olympics this week (because of strained muscles), she turned down NBC's offer to stick around as a commentator, but she accepted Disney's multi-year offer to be its spokesperson. 25-year-old Michelle will appear in Disney television and print ads and will even be included in some original programming, though it's not clear what that entails. I didn't realize this, but Michelle Kwan has a history with Disney which includes a series of fictional books called, Michelle Kwan Presents Skating Dreams.

We're down to three teams: Kristy Swanson and Lloyd Eisler, Jillian Barberie and John Zimmerman, and Bruce Jenner and Tai Babilonia. I think it's pretty obvious who the weak skaters are here, but we'll see what happens on the ice.

Just a quick recap: last week we bid farewell to the not-very-graceful Dave Coulier and Nancy Kerrigan. Before that, Deborah Gibson and Kurt Browning were out, and the first team eliminated was Todd Bridges and Jenni Meno.

Now that Deborah Gibson and Kurt Browning are gone, the playing field seems pretty evenly matched. It looks like the remaining teams had a lot of falls during the last few practices.

Did host Scott Hamilton get taller since last week? Summer Sanders doesn't seem to tower over him as much tonight. Or, maybe I'm just used to seeing them together now so the height difference doesn't bother me as much. Well, the "witty" banter still sucks.

Let's get it on...

Before we begin, I have a couple of notes about the contestants on this show:

Isn't it sad how the announcer refers to Dave Coulier as being from Full House? I guess it could be worse. He could say, "Dave Coulier, allegedly the subject of Alanis Morrisette's very bitter You Oughta Know." I actually think he may be more famous for that.

Anyway... on with the show.