season two

Things just got a helluva lot more complicated in Charming, CA.

FX announced today that Henry Rollins has joined the cast of Sons of Anarchy for a six episode arc. Season two, which begins filming later this spring on April 27th, will undoubtedly pick up following the shocking events of Opie's (Ryan Hurst) wife Donna's (Sprague Grayden) murder. Unfortunately, there's no indication as to what type of role Rollins will be taking on - just that he's a "new antagonist" who "poses a deadly threat" to Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and the rest of his SAMCRO buddies.

FX has dubbed SOA as a worthy successor to The Shield and based Sons' season one ratings, I couldn't agree more. The freshman season started out flat but picked up steam as it progressed. As for Rollins? Look at the guy! If there's one person out there that looks like he belongs on this show, it's him.

The cable networks have been very, very good to women over the last few years. Particularly strong, independent women who are on par, or many times above, the men in their lives. This has been exemplified by characters like Brenda Johnson in The Closer, PJ Franklin on My Boys, Nancy Botwin on Weeds, Patty Hewes on Damages, and the ladies from HBO's Sex in the City.

Last year, someone new joined Leigh, PJ, and the rest of the women of cable. Her name was Grace Hanadarko -- the smoking, drinking, and sexually promiscuous Oklahoma City police detective from TNT's Saving Grace. Grace is played by Holly Hunter, the award-winning actress who has appeared in such films as Raising Arizona, The Piano (for which she won an Academy Award) and The Incredibles. Late last week, Holly spoke to members of the press concerning the second season of Saving Grace (premiering tonight at 10 pm) and what's in store for the hard-living detective.

A few days before an advanced copy of Robot Chicken Season Two arrived in the mail, I had been watching my Mission Hill DVD. For those who don't know, Mission Hill was the creation of Simpsons writers Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley. It focused on a college graduate named Andy French, living the typical slacker existence of an aimless college grad. The series aired when I myself was an aimless, slacking twentysomething, so I found the series funny, poignant, and often heartbreakingly real.

I realized while watching it that Adult Swim hasn't had a series with that kind of substance in a long time. Series like Baby Blues and Home Movies have been replaced by weird post-modern fare like Aqua Teen Hunger Force* and the works of Tim and Eric, with very little programming left with any real emotion.

We like to complain when networks don't give series a fair chance, so it's nice to see NBC getting behind the new season of Friday Night Lights with such enthusiasm. Teaming with HouseParty.com, the network is sending out party kits to 1,000 Friday Night Lights fans, including an advance copy of the season opener. The season officially begins on October 5 at 9:00 p.m. You can apply for a chance to host one of these parties on September 14 on the House Party site. The party kits will include various trinkets and ephemera, as well as episodes from season one and a sneak peek of the new Bionic Woman series.

We knew it was coming back, we just didn't know when. Well, we still don't know officially, but Paul Scheer, one-third of the sketch comedy trio Human Giant along with Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel, blogged yesterday that the series would likely return in January 2008. Paul's exact words were: "we are looking towards an air date of Jan 2008," which is not the same as "you will definitely see new episodes in January," but I'm not going to complain. It's coming back, that's all that matters.

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader kicks off its second season next month with four one-hour episodes and a two-hour season premiere.

The premiere airs Thursday, September 6 at 8:00 p.m., followed by a new episode every Thursday, save for one episode airing on Friday, October 5.

I've only watched a few episodes of this series, but I can only take so many minutes of a yammering jackass behaving in a manner that proves he's not only less smart than a fifth grader, he's also vastly more immature.