I guess I should retire this series now, since it’s so unbelievably far away from the upfronts, but I’ll keep it up in the spirit of introducing new series for the fall.

Next up: My Own Worst Enemy with a resurgent Christian Slater.

The gist of the show is that it is Chuck.  That’s about it.

Well, there’s a bit of Medium thrown in because of the “soccer dad by day” aspect and perhaps a little bit of “Mr. and Mrs. Jones” because he’s an assassin.  But, basically, it’s another fantasy superhero series with secret identities. I might watch it once, just because I think it’s weird that Christian Slater is still around, but the premise is a bit tired.

This does remind me a bit of Slater’s movie He Was a Quiet Man, where he played a pudgy, bald office drone who nearly becomes a mass murderer. It has a talking goldfish, Elisha Cuthbert paralyzed from the waist down and a fair amount of gunplay. Needless to say, it’s a weird movie to watch on a plane (as I did — I needed something a little arty after sitting through all nine hours of Transformers: The Movie).

• Judge Judy vs an earthquake:
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• Tim Gunn did season 1 of Project Runway for free
• What are the contestants from Project Runway doing now?
• HBO orders a comedy about 20-something hustlers
• IFC’s new comedy is about a rock band that plays children’s parties
• Watch the Pushies Daisies cast at Comic-Con
• NBC entertainment chairman if ratings don’t improve
• DirecTV is trying to save all your low rated favorites
• This day in lists: 10 ways to celebrate Tim Gunn’s birthday

Here’s a Hulu preview of tonight’s episode of Project Runway.

Sorry, international folks. You’ll see the episode soon enough, though.

As I perused the television news today, I found a photo of Rory Cochrane. At first, I thought “who the hell is that and why does he sound so familiar?”

Then I realized it. Rory Cochrane is the dude from Empire Records who stole all the money and was locked in the office the whole (or most of the) time. Apparently he did a stint on CSI: Miami (he died or got transfered or got deported) and now he’s going to be on the next season of 24.

The strange thing is this: dude’s gotten older. Not old.  But older.

And there’s nothing wrong with aging.  I’m doing it as we speak. And, for the record, I think he’s infinitely more handsome now than he was when he was making Empire Records. But, seriously, can you believe that that movie was made in 1995? And even in 1995 he was kind of the Ian Ziering of the bunch age-wise. The I’ll-suspend-my-disbelief-ever-so-slightly guy who seemed a bit of a stretch to fit into an adolescent drama.

Jeez.

Empire Records, man. With Ethan Embry and that soundtrack with The Cranberries and Coyote Shivers.

Needless to say, my birthday’s next week and I’m going down my usual spiral of shame and anxiety. Pay no mind.

Happy Wednesday.

Johnny Foreigner. Not to be confused with Foreigner, Foreigner. Just so you know.

Moving on — welcome to the song that I was introduced to just yesterday and have become utterly obsessed with. Johnny Foreigner is a British trio whose album hasn’t even come out in the U.S. yet. But, if you watch the following clip, you’ll be familiar with them. And that doesn’t that make you feel in the know?

Well, it’s available online, but not in stores.

The Johnnies have played in the U.S. already opening up for TiFaux favorites Los Campesinos!.  This single, unfortunately named “Salt, Pepa and Spinderella,” is exactly the kind of thing I eat up — boy/girl vocals, huge urgent melodies and very pleasing harmonies. For what it’s worth, the video is kind of interesting too. It seems like it’s an animated clip made up of photographs, but with various depth of field experiments throughout.

Here it is:

from on .

• Another day another Extreme Home Makeover house goes into foreclosure
• The Arrested Development movie will be made!
• Museum of the Moving Image examines The Wire’s opening credits
• Kelsey Grammer is back in the hospital
• What we’re watching: Mad Men has
• Dr. Horrible sequel is planned. Check out the first episode on Hulu
• For Knight Rider 3.0, KITT Mustang gets a supercomputer upgrade
• Wrong again Perez: Jessica never quit her job as an assistant to Kathy Griffin
• An interview with the straight guy (Joe) from Project Runway 5
• A tour of the Dollhouse set
• This day in lists: Top 50 sci-fi shows of all time

Like a breath of fresh air, here comes the teaser for the premiere of Dexter. Of course, it’s not exactly fresh air as it is air reeking of stagnant pools of blood and the tension of a tortured non-conscience.

Hooray for moral ambiguity!

The next season of Dexter promises more character development and more “how’s he going to make his way out of this one” misadventures.” However, the thing I like about Dexter is that it never feels monotonous. One would think the conceit of having a serial killer constantly try to hide his habit would grow one note — like a morose episode of Frasier (for some reason I feel like that show always relied on those elevator baby plotlines about trying to cover up unfortunate situations with elaborate lies). Actually, now that I think of it, I think it would be pretty funny if Niles had been a persnickety serial killer the entire time.  He was always talking about Maris — who was actually stuffed and kept propped up on a pile of babydoll heads.

Was that too much?

But I digress. This season stars Jimmy Smits, back on the market after the unfortunate demise of the middling drama of last season, Cane.

Take a look.

It’s still the guy who screams and makes the air shake. This time, though, there’s an appearance by a familiar face.

Not saying you have to watch it or anything, but there is a little bit of familiarity.

Show Title	Season
Avatar: The Last Airbender	Book 3: Fire, Volume 4
Baldwin Hills	The Complete 1st Season
Beverly Hills, 90210	The Complete 5th Season
Bobby G: Adventure Capitalist	Season 1
Centennial (mini-series)	The Complete Series
Dark Shadows	The Beginning, Vol. 5: Episodes 144 – 178
Freakazoid!	Season 1
Girlfriends	The Complete 4th Season
Hills, The	The Complete 3rd Season
Human Body: Pushing the Limits	Human Body: Pushing The Limits
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	The 7th Year
Masters of Horror	Season 2 Limited Edition Skull Set
Parking Wars	Best of Season 1
Phineas and Ferb	The Fast And The Phineas
Princes of Malibu, The	The Complete Series
Robin of Sherwood	The Complete Collection
Space Angel	Collection 1
Stargate SG-1	Continuum
Tiny Toon Adventures	Season 1, Volume 1
Two Fat Ladies	Two Fat Ladies
Witchblade	The Complete Series
Wizards of Waverly Place	Wizard School

• About time: Ryan Seacrest
• Rosie O’Donnell is working on a variety show
• Heroes 3 premiered at Comic-Con and the kids are liking it
• Fun fact: John Krasinski filmed The Office’s intro
• No more flashbacks in Lost?
• Project Runway says next season
• Real World’s Puck is a fugitive
• One of Terminator’s seven main characters will die this season
• The Watcher from Comic-Con
• This day in lists: 5 awful SNL hosts