Eureka came back last night with a new episode (”Show Me The Mummy” ran two weeks in a row in the same Tuesday 9 PM slot). Sheriff Carter found himself dealing with a masked hero who’d picked the lawman’s sister for his Lois Lane (if he doesn’t accidentally kill her first), while Zoe and her friends became lost in a secret underground chamber under Eureka. Oh, and Fargo has plugged a malfunctioning phone directly into Carter’s skull (the best part!). Guess things are back to normal (for Eureka) after the shocking events of the last two episodes.

While Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles left off with a cliffhanger in the spring, I didn’t expect the resolution to be very interesting. After all, you blow up a Terminator, and they just keep going. Fortunately, Sarah Connor found an interesting way to do just that. Continue reading →

Tonight, I watched the 100th episode of Monk. At the end, when homicide detective Adrian Monk wanted to give up on a nice round number, Natalie did some math to show him the error of his ways. While she was doing that, I remembered Monk had a pair of two-parters, so he’s only cracked ninety-eight cases on-air. And Disher got the credit for at least one, taking it down to ninety-seven. And weren’t there two episodes without homicides, taking it down to ninety-five? (Actually, I remember that Monk solved cases incidentally in “Mr. Monk and the Paperboy,” so the writers could call that whatever number of cases they needed to come up with an even hundred.) More puzzling given Monk’s obsession with round numbers, USA Network didn’t think to hold next week’s episode till December or January to round the summer season to an even number.

Seriously, though, it had a nice twist and a good running gag about neither Monk nor Stottlemeyer wanting to watch the profile of Adrian Monk on TV (Monk because he’s embarrassed, Stottlemeyer because there’s a good basketball game on).

“I feel like I’m on a roller coaster–and I hate roller coasters.”

Anna (Rosario Dawson) is speaking to a “friend”–me–via video e-mail from Paris. It’s a Web-age version of that favorite literary conceit–the first-person narrative–augmented with video clips that Anna supposedly took while involved in an increasingly strange situation. Good thing she’s a cop and somehow learned to take good pictures while in shock.

No, I’m not really getting e-mails from Rosario Dawson. It’s the first four chapters of a new online serial, Gemini Division, accessible from NBC or Sci-Fi Channel online. In the first chapter, Anna’s happy that boyfriend Nick has just proposed to her–until she starts seeing a strange man watching them and Nick starts acting strangely.

The first four chapters come in bites of less than seven minutes, each in the form of a message or messages from Anna. I’m glad I came in slightly late, because an individual short chapter doesn’t tell you very much. With four, I get an image in my mind of where this is going–Nick’s an android who needs plugged in regularly and is being chased by Star Wars villains with lightsabers–to be reinforced or shot down in later episodes.

It did draw me in by parceling out its information so sparingly, but as with old media serials, the reality may not live up to the anticipation by the end of the story. I can also see that the e-mail conceit could get tiresome after a while. The story is augmented by “viral” messages from Anna that don’t really add much and, from the two I saw, could be skipped.

It’s worth a look. We have full episodes and extras for you, after the jump.

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This week’s Eureka memorialized Nathan Stark (yeah, I’ll spoil it; it’s been a week) with a playful subplot that teased viewers with the possibility of something out of The Prestige but had a simpler explanation. It wasn’t the normal maudlin mourning, but then Eureka never takes itself too seriously–or very seriously at all. The main plot, with a mummy who might have had a rebirth, echoed Stark’s accident nicely.

I watched this ep online and SciFi.com delivered the best picture I’ve ever seen for a TV show via computer–free of freezes and herky-jerky motion. The only flaw was a slight timing problem with the ads. I’ve had worse viewing experiences on regular broadcast TV.

You may remember explorer Josh Bernstein from Digging for the Truth, a History Channel show that looked into legends and myths to find the reality behind them. Well, he’s back in a new Discovery Channel show, Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein. And you know, it feels like he never left.

I just watched a preview disc of “The Secret Life of Gladiators,” an episode of the series seen Mondays at 10 p.m. Eastern (I believe this episode ran last week, but I’m sure it’ll be on again). If you’ve seen Bernstein Digging, you know what to expect. This episode starts in Rome, where Bernstein has decided to find out what the lives of gladiators were really like. “The answers may surprise you,” he says. No, it won’t surprise most of us to know that the movies weren’t historically accurate, but it will still be interesting to find out the reality.

No matter. The high point of the episode comes early. In a modern gladiator school with a mission of testing out all those neat ancient weapons in hopes of finding insight into the gladiator life, Bernstein tries a few himself in a sparring match with the instructor. Naturally, Bernstein wouldn’t have made a gladiator, at least not without a year or two of intense training. From there, it’s off to one of the original training centers, a graffiti wall in Pompeii, and two amphitheaters that stand today. At each stop, he talks to an expert who provides a little more information. By the time he’s done, you’ll have a general idea of what a gladiator’s life was like.

Yeah, Bernstein can be melodramatic in his narration, but if you like a little bit of learning with your entertainment, it’s not a bad way to spend an hour. He gets the information across, mostly seriously but with a touch of self-deprecating humor, and he’s willing to take a tumble with gladiator swords and the like. That’s pretty much what you’re looking for in a show like this, isn’t it?

Still, it’ll be hard to tear away from that all-new Anthony Bourdain episode to check out Josh Bernstein’s “Search for Noah’s Ark,” Monday’s new episode. If you feel the same way, take note: Into the Unknown repeats at 2 a.m. Eastern early Tuesday morning and 1 p.m. Eastern on Saturday.

I’m seeing Mark Spitz’s face on TV and online a lot lately, now that Michael Phelps has taken home enough gold to beat Spitz’s Olympic record. The question keeps running through my mind: Is it possible that Spitz could get more endorsement money now than he got when he had the record for most gold?

Just saw tonight’s Eureka, which has been advertising the death of a major character for the past week, showing the possibilities in the promo spots. They laid out the clues fairly and obviously, so the ending was in the back of my mind. Even so, it was still a surprise because I had the “No, it can’t be. They’re going to do away with some minor character at the edge of the frame” factor in there, too.

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I miss 24 as much as the next guy–make that more than the next guy–but the gratuitous use of split screen on last night’s Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations didn’t impress me. Watching the making of chocolate eggs may have been the high point of Bourdain’s trip to Spain, but it doesn’t get more exciting with split screens.

“Stay hydrated,” folks, and “Tell yourself you only need four hours of sleep–really.” With tongue (hopefully) in cheek, NBC just did a feature on those hardy viewers who stayed up all night to watch the Games and gave tips for staying up all night to watch the Beijing Olympics. Remember, dear reader, staying up all night to watch TV should only be done by veteran insomniacs. Any attempt … um … yawn … I feel … zzzz …