I am getting so excited for the new season of Game of Thrones! Every new crumb that HBO drops makes me follow them blindly, a line of drool running from my mouth as I salivate for more. (Not a pretty picture, I grant you, but nonetheless true.)

Today we have character posters with up close glimpses of  some of the best characters from season one, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Tyrion Lannister (the award-winning Peter Dinklage), Cersei and Jaime Lannister (Lena Headey and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Khal Drogo and his Khaleesi, Daenerys Targaryen (Jason Momoa and Emilia Clarke) (*sniff* Sorry still in mourning.)

Not having read the books, I don’t know exactly what’s on deck for Season 2, other than the portentous “War is Coming”, the tagline that replaces last season’s “Winter is Coming”. I’ve also gleaned some from the featurettes we’ve been given. I know that little Arya is not so little anymore and has a bigger story. I know that all of the houses of the Seven Kingdoms are preparing for war since each has what they consider to be a rightful claim to the Iron Throne, and I know that there are A LOT of new characters being added, for instance Carice van Houten as Melisandre and Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon, Gwendolyn Christie as Brienne, Patrick Malahide as Balon Greyjoy and Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth, just to name a few.

HBO has unveiled a new behind-the-scenes featurette called “An Invitation to the Set” and you can view it below. Game of Thrones returns on Sunday April 1. More to come, I’m sure!

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This is a post for all of our readers who happen to reside in the UK or are lucky enough to get the Beeb on your telly.  (The original not the watered down version they give us. BBC America you know I love you…I have no choice.)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, the real purpose of the post is to tell you that Michael Fassbender, one of your favorites and mine is going to be a guest  on Top Gear! I’m so excited! This Sunday February 19 at its usual time, 8pm, on BBC Two and BBC HD, you will be able to see The Stig give Fassy a driving lesson and then let him loose on the Lotus-designed Top Gear test track in their infamous “Reasonably Priced Car”, which is now the Kia Ceed. (Although I can more easily picture him in the Bentley Conti or the Porsche Panamera.)  Right now, Rowan Atkinson has the time to beat  at 1.42.2.  (Tom Cruise is only two seconds off the lead in fourth place with 1.44.2.)

Well, as excited as I am at this moment, I was even more excited when I thought I was going to be able to see it in the near future. It wasn’t until I realized that this is episode 4 of season 18 and BBC America is currently running season 17 that disappointment set in. Grrrr…. (I’ll rerun this post again in a few months time when BBC America has caught up.) In the meantime, head over to the Top Gear page on the BBC site and reacquaint (or acquaint as the case may be) yourselves with Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Oh and of course, The Stig.  These guys are hilarious.

Here’s a vid of Jeremy introducing the show:

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Awake is NBC’s new fantasy/crime/drama starring Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter series, Peter Pan, The Patriot) that follows police detective Michael Britten (Isaacs) after he regains consciousness following a car accident involving his wife Hannah (Laura Allen) and his son Rex (Dylan Minnette). Michael moves back and forth between two realities: In one, Rex survived while Hannah is dead; in the other, Hannah survived but Rex did not.

Trying to keep both his loved ones alive, Michael starts living a “double life,” moving back and forth between the two realities, dealing with different personal conflicts and police partners. He also starts noticing strange links between the two realities.

Michael returns to police work and solves crimes in both worlds with the help of two different partners — Detective Isaiah “Bird” Freeman (Steve Harris, The Practice) and Detective Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama, That ’70s Show). Also starring are Emmy and Tony Award winner Cherry Jones (24) and BD Wong (Law & Order: SVU) as therapists in each respective world.

The series owes a lot to Inception, both to the film’s concept and to its success. Without the latter, this surely wouldn’t have made it beyond pilot stage. Isaacs was another actor who had his pic of television projects and has tried his hand before with Showtime’s short-lived Blood Brothers. He's also recently appeared in a three-part series for the BBC, Case Histories, in which he played private investigator Jackson Brodie, the tough former soldier and policeman with a heart of gold. (Catch it on PBS-it's terrific). Awake is pretty high-concept for broadcast television. It will need to hook viewers early (a la Lost) if it wants to survive. I don’t see NBC giving it a chance to grow an audience if it bailed on much “simpler” ensemble shows like Prime Suspect and The Firm, which both had Awake’s time slot already this season, after a handful of episodes.

Awake premieres on NBC on Thurs. March 1 at 10/9 C.  Enjoy the trailer!

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HBO has gifted us with these all new stills for Game of Thrones Season 2, which premieres in April.

The pics include our first looks at some of the new cast members like Carice van Houten as Melisandre and Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon, Gwendolyn Christie as Brienne, Patrick Malahide as Balon Greyjoy and Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth. That’s not even all of the new characters that will appear! The cast of season 2 is insanely good. I can’t wait to meet Nonso Anonzie as Xaro Xhoan Daxos. I don’t know the story of his character, but he’s always good.

What’s really interesting from these images, though is how we can see that the characters we came to know and love (or hate or love to hate) from the first season have changed. Little Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) doesn’t look so little anymore and Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony) looks a lot “tougher” shall we say and definitely more regal.Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) looks like he’s ready to step up and reclaim his family’s honor and Robb Stark (Richard Madden)  looks like the Lord of Winterfell, ready to take his father’s place. Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) looks filled with homicidal malice (as opposed to boyish petulance).

I’m so excited for season 2 that I’m practically beside myself. I can’t wait to see Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) become the Hand of the King to his horrible nephew. I want to watch Sansa (Sophie Turner) grow a pair and I especially want to find out what’s in store for Dani (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons. (Even as I mourn the loss of Khal Drogo every step of the way.)  And for the love of Ned, I hope that Petyr Bailish (Aiden Gillen) gets his comeuppance! *shakes fist* 

If all of this is still a mystery to you, you can catch up with Season 1 via HBO On Demand or dvd.

Enjoy the pics. I’m sure there will be much more to come before Game of Thrones premieres on April 1!

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We have a new promo for Kiefer Sutherland's return to series television in Touch coming March 19 to Fox. The show aired its pilot back in January and bowed to impressive ratings. It's also impressed a lot of critics.

The show's premise is that all people are connected in some way — expressing the idea that we have more in common with others than we might think, and uses science and spirituality to explore those connections.

The relationship between Martin Bohm (Sutherland) and son Jake highlights the challenges that come with raising and understanding a special needs child. Martin is an overtaxed single father (the boy's mother died on 9/11)  who loves his son and is committed to doing whatever he needs to do to help him. He works hard to understand what his son is trying to communicate, even under frustrating circumstances and his quest to reach his emotionally challenged 11-year-old son will shape the destiny of the entire planet. I(No pressure there.)

If you missed the sneak peek, thanks to Hulu, you can watch it here:

Touch returns for it's first season run on Monday March 19.

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Casting Tidbit: Deadline is reporting that James Purefoy, soon to be seen in Disney’s John Carter (you’ve heard of that, right?) has just signed on to do another television series.  Kevin Williamson of Dawson’s Creek, the Scream films and Vampire Diaries fame, has created a new show, described as an “edge-of-the-seat thriller”.  Purefoy would play a serial killer named Joe Carroll who uses technology to  create a “cult of serial killers”.  Get this: his nemesis, a retired FBI profiler, would be played by Kevin Bacon.

Purefoy was last seen in a couple of episodes of the Starz series Camelot, but that was a guest shot.  He did star in a very under-seen, and therefore short-lived, series called The Philanthropist in 2009. The show was good (it brought Jesse L. Martin back to my tv as well) and had some serious potential, but, for one, I think the title threw people off and second, it debuted during the summer and wasn’t allowed to grow. Before that, of course, Purefoy starred as Marc Antony in the brilliant HBO series, Rome.

Bacon on the other hand, has made a handful of guest appearances on television but hasn’t been a series regular since he left the soap Guiding Light back in 1981. (Even that was only six episodes.)

Bacon and Purefoy were apparently hot commodities this pilot season, each receiving multiple offers. Once the pilot for the as yet unnamed show is produced, there’s no guarantee it will go to series. If it does, it will consist of fifteen episodes, instead of the standard twenty two for broadcast television (although the norm seems to be between ten and twelve for cable shows like Game of Thrones or Boardwalk Empire.) This was apparently part of Bacon’s deal.

Williamson’s deal is with Fox, so if this turn s out as good as it has the potential to be, I hope it goes to FX.  It does sound like something that would fit in with their lineup of shows like Justified, Sons of Anarchy and Damages, rather than Fox’s ilk, ie: Glee.  Bacon and Purefoy may be too high profile (read too expensive) for basic cable. We’ll keep you posted on this.

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