I think United States of Tara has the best pilot I've seen since The Sopranos. Most pilots are well, not boring, but kind of.

Cheerios: If anyone really wants my thoughts on Entourage season 6, they're here. [link] You don't have to, obviously.

I've loathed Jay Leno ever since the Arnold announcing thing; I'd forgotten about VC being on it. It is always interesting to see something like that from a backstage point of view though.

Yes, that waif E is dating has very odd characteristics. Ashley. She reminds me of someone but I'm not sure who. Fiona Apple, maybe? Who is she anyway? [link] Alexis Dziena. She was on 2 eps of Joan of Arcadia. She comes across as way psycho.

Have you gotten to the part that Melinda Clarke is in? It's short but they open up to some interesting backstory about Ari, Mrs. Ari, and Melinda.

I really like Sloane. I'm rooting for E and Sloane. Also very glad that they gave Turtle a life, finally.

they're here. [link]

I could not believe someone living in LA and dating someone in the movie biz wouldn't know the name Rupert Pupkin. For that matter, I can't believe Vinnie would use it at hotels either. It makes sense on the phones, sure. Is Ashley supposed to too young to know the reference? Okay, 1982... wow, it's really 28 years ago? (I R OLD.) It still seemed a reach.

Oh! I was wondering if any of the security team were krav maga people that ita would know? Dude from Prison Break, actor with lines, but the restof them looked like they were real security people.

Yeah, Vinnie did do an awful lot of random humping. Doesn't he always, though?

I liked the Lloyd subplot, except that the worst of Ari's abuse was really awful.

I ran through Season 1 of Hung last week and weekend.

It's an odd amalgam of tones.

Tim Goodman: [link] Created by Dmitry Lipkin ("The Riches") and his wife and writing partner, Colette Burson, "Hung" is part sad-sack drama, part sociological study of a decaying American city (Detroit) and, well, partly about a man with a large penis.

I didn't like it all that much, but my neighbors are loving it. My annoyance with Tanya just kept growing, almost to the point of overshadowing everything else.

The subplot with Jemma was really interesting, though. (Who is the actress? She's very good. Oh! She was Karen Darling in D$M: [link] I hope they continue with her story.

eta: looks like HBO started running back to back eps last Sunday, to continue. Thomas Jane and Jane Adams were nominate for GGs? [link] Really? Old news, [link] Network executives addressing the critics at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour said "Hung" will get a second season, "True Blood" a third and "Entourage" a seventh. The new seasons will debut sometime next year, with "Blood" firmly planned for summer.

I liked The Riches, but the ads for Hung do not make me want to watch it. Random note: Dmitry Lipkin was in my Algebra class in middle school. Not that we were friends, I just remember his name.

The new season of Big Love is already pretty gripping.

"Pupkin" was a funny alias in that the name seemed familiar, but I didn't know why. So I'm thinking "Techie joke? Or was that one of the security guys?" I've seen "King of Comedy" quite a few times, on cable during the '90s(one of the many ways in which Ellin and I apparently share a brain) but it's been a while:I've obsessed about many things since. Ellin would probably laugh at me for wondering where I know Rupert Pupkin. But I'm a geek who is not very self-conscious about knowing the hottest and latest.(I did take points off for Ashley when E. gave the title of the movie and she didn't recognize it. Because I'm bitchy and snobbish in ways that don't show very much.) She wasn't a great character anyway, though. Yeah, I like Sloan too. She's great. But they couldn't have picked an actress who looks less like my image of a "Sloan McKeswick" but comic timing and chemistry with Connolly make up for it.Every time she gets introduced to someone new, though, I have that thought again. Yeah, who knew Ari was part of a triangle that existed outside his own mind? I would have never guessed this. Although there are plenty of other reasons for them to be rivals. Yeah, Vinny fills a lot of needs with his dick, but when they were all off meeting strippers and courting three-ways, it didn't seem like such a disadvantage.(I mean, I'm happy to look, once and a while at least, and I'm definitely not the sort of person who thinks about Chase's godless lifestyle and wants to throw a telethon for him...he's fine.) But I really like that character too, and I think that Grenier would actually be up to facing more than yet another round of reverse cowgirl, but then, I don't really watch the show for that *particular* bit of wish-fulfillment.(Although I love the episode where he picks up the girl in the bookstore and finds out he is "on her list....though I have watched it three times and wonder if, like Ross, she had her list laminated.) Hung: like, don't love it like "Tara". This guy's life so sucks that even though the acting is really good, and some of the situations are intriguing, though as yet not as erotic or sexually fraught as I might have expected, it's not necessarily fun to watch. It's good to watch, if you'll follow me, but not really in that "fun reward for a hard day," kind of way. And I haven't seen two more repellent, surly teens on a show in a long time, if ever. This guy is not going to find out he was the richest man in town when you add up all the love, is he? Tanya....I feel for Tanya, and relate to her more than I am happy with, but as I'm watching disc 2, I can see that there are many ways she creates and feeds her own drama. For instance, I get that her mom is a bitch, in that really chick-specific way that a guy is not going to understand even if he is right there, but, much like me in college,she is so dedicated to finding and parsing every dig that she lets the opportunity to have a decent evening pass.

Interview with Julia Frey - the VFX producer for Game of Thrones.

And Teaser trailer for treme.

The new season of Big Love is already pretty gripping.

::jealous:: I'm going to have to try to find a way to see what's aired about half-way through. I won't be able to wait, for sure.

OMG, erika, have you seen Big Love? Even though I am often guilty of having the last thing I watched and liked be "my favorite show," Big Love might actually really be my favorite show. Sooooo good. I might be able to hook you up if you are interested.

I watched Season 1. I liked it fine, but I haven't missed it.