Eliza Dushku is returning to TV, but this time the sci-fi/fantasy darling is getting a gun and a badge. Dushku has been tapped to play the lead in TNT's pilot 'Bird Dog.'

According to Deadline Hollywood, Dushku will play Gail McGrath, a young cop who has a fractured past with her police officer father. The character is living a seemingly normal life until her cop father turns up on her doorstep as her new partner. The name of the mystery series, 'Bird Dog,' is also the duo's call sign.

D.B. Sweeney has also landed a pilot role. 'The Event' actor has been tapped to star in TBS's 'Brain Trust' as Detective Billy Doyle. The character goes from rock bottom to a career high after he gets unexpected help from three geniuses who work for a private company.

In other TV news ...

• The Blues Brothers are getting back together -- but this time on CBS's 'The Defenders.' Aykroyd will play a corrupt judge over two episodes that are scheduled to be shot in January. [Variety]

• 'The Walking Dead' saw its best numbers yet on Nov. 28. The season's fifth episode brought in 5.5 million total viewers and 3.7 million in the 18-49 demographic. The ratings were 15 percent higher than episode four's viewership. [Live Feed]

• Marc Singer, star of the original 'V,' will appear on ABC's 'V' reboot this winter. Singer has been tapped to play Lars Tremont, a member of a secret society of high-powered humans who believe the Visitors are not on Earth to spread peace. [TV Guide]

• Fox has released the first teasers for Simon Cowell's 'The X Factor.' However, the series is still close to a year away from airing. Watch the promo after the jump. [Deadline Hollywood]

It's still too early to tell whether the reimagined 'V' will be a hit or not, since only a handful of episodes have aired to date -- but a nearly 30% decline in viewership (to a still-respectable 10.7 million) from the premiere to second episode could indicate the show is in trouble.

Reviews of the new series starring Elizabeth Mitchell, Joel Gretsch, Scott Wolf, and Morena Baccarin have generally been favorable, but critics also argue the show feels rushed and doesn't really offer much that's new from the original aside from superficial things such as tone, pacing and effects. Yes, the acting is in a totally different galaxy, but is that enough to make the new series a success? We think not. And while we still think the series has plenty of potential, it could stand for some improvement. Here are seven geeked-out ways to make 'V' the kick-ass show it deserves to be:

To prepare for next week's debut of the remake of V, I picked up the V: The Complete Series DVD of the weekly 1984/85 series that followed the original two mini-series, V and V: The Final Battle. I remember loving the original as a kid, sparking my imagination that anyone I saw could be an alien lizard making plans to haul my carcass to a warehouse for storage.

I tore the plastic off of the package with a bit of trepidation. Not everything you loved as a kid holds up to your scrutiny, or even your tastes, when you watch it all grown up. Which is why I'm sure some people cringed when they heard about the remake.

Would it stink? Would it be just as good as I remembered it? Should I have left well enough alone and saved my fifteen bucks?

Remember when the networks hardly did anything with their TV shows online? Heck, remember when we didn't even have official web sites and fan sites for our favorite shows? If we wanted to talk about, say, Knot's Landing, we had to open our windows and yell to our neighbors, "Can you believe Val did that last night?!" Either that or send a letter via mail, and that took days.

But now we have web sites for every show, and fans of ABC's remake of V have already put up a bunch of sites for that show (which premieres November 3 ):

The 4400 co-creator and producer Scott Peters is remaking the 1980's V miniseries for ABC. The article expressly states that the original creator, Kenneth Johnson, will not be involved.

I'm somewhat dreading this remake because Peters says he will pretty much revamp the human story to something completely different (although an alien invasion will probably still be involved). The theme of the new version will more be about having blind faith in leadership rather than being an allegory of the Nazi occupation of Germany.

It's entirely possible this new version would work. The current Battlestar Galactica is not very much like its predecessor and represents science fiction at its finest. The original V terrified the crap out of the much younger me. Then the network wussed out with the concept and tried to maximize profits by tacking on a happy-ending sequel miniseries and shortly-lived continuing series.

On the other hand, the revamped Flash Gordon was a pile of suck. Here's hoping V is better.