We've looked at ABC's new Fall drama, Life on Mars, and we've had a look through CBS's as well, so now it's time to give Fox's Fall 2008 output a looksie.
On the schedule, we have a new Joss Whedon sci-fi spy show starring Eliza Dushka, Dollhouse; a new animated comedy from Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane, The Cleveland Show; an X-Files for the noughties from Alias/Lost creator JJ Abrams, Fringe; a covert remake of Angela's Eyes in the form of Lie to Me; not so covert remakes of Australian show Sit Down, Shut Up and British shows Secret Millionaire and Outnumbered; Alfred Molina playing Judge House; and something that makes Hotel Babylon seem like art.
It's monthly round-up time for tele at the BFI. Here are the highlights of June's schedule. Members' postal booking starts 28 April; members' online and phone booking opens 5 May; public booking opens 9 May.
Tony Hancock season: The Rebel (1st/4th), The Punch and Judy Man (23rd/30th), The Tony Hancock Show (2nd/28th), three episodes of Hancock's Half Hour (13th), The Government Inspector + Face to Face (14th/26th), three episodes of Hancock, including The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham (18th)
13th: David Simon in conversation. Includes the first episode of TheWire, season five.
17th: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais in conversation. Preceded by episodes of Porridge, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
25th: Michael Palin and Terry Jones introduce three recently recovered episodes of The Complete and Utter History of Britain
Simon Pegg talks about Star Trek and the new Spaced, as well as theSpaced Region 1 DVDs (commentaries with Matt Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Diablo Cody)
In the UK: Sunday 23rd March, BBC1, 9pm. Series starts next year In the US: HBO, but no airdate yet
Some TV programmes are easier to review than others. Some are a lot harder.
Take The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, for instance. I've not read the book or any of its sequels. But that's all right, surely? As the name suggests, it's a crime novel (of sorts) about a detective agency, and it's easy enough to judge a show on its own merits, just as you can judge The Tudors without having a degree in history – although it would help.
But another obstacle is the fact it's set in Botswana, which is where the TV series is shot. What do I know about Botswana? I know where it is, thanks to my recent, slightly pointless project to memorise the map of Africa. But I've never been there. I know some Africans, and quite a lot of my neighbours are from Africa, but none, to my knowledge, are from Botswana. I know nothing about its culture, its people, or its languages. I can rip the piss out of Lost for making London a tad too rainy and not putting a Belisha Beacon in front of Covent Garden underground station. But a TV show could stick a giant inflatable statue of Norman Wisdom in every town in Botswana, say he was their Prime Minister, and I wouldn't know if that was authentic or not without a good deal of Googling and Wikipediaing – although I'd have my suspicions.
All the same, let's give it a go with a little assistance from my viewing panel: my mother-in-law, who has read all the Alexander McCall-Smith books, and my wife, from whom she borrowed them and who is to reading books what I am to watching tele (but who spends the time she would have spent blogging reading more books instead of writing about them).
So this is it. The last episode of TheWire ever. What are we going to do with ourselves now?
Possibly the best TV series in the world ever, TheWire has spent five seasons changing the nature of television itself – all with minimal viewing figures. It's examined the nature of institutions and society. It's created characters that will last in the memory for years to come.
If you watched the latest episode of TheWire on Sunday, you'll know that something rather important happened.
As you probably know, you have to pay attention with TheWire – we've already some characters from season two make a reappearance this season. But here's when Sunday's important event was foreshadowed, way back in season three.
Read more on Fox's Fall 2008 shows