If you like White Collar, you should watch this immediately.

GETTING SNUGGLY WITH MATT AND TIM.

Morning Coffee (1/18/13)

Fringe is ending tonight. I am not ready. But if you need to kill time until the finale starts, my friend Marisa has been posting lots of great interviews with the cast and J.H. Wyman this year. I've already linked to a few, but not all, so check them all out here.

Also worth a read today: TV Guide's four-part Fringe oral history. Start here.

Pauline Phillips, a.k.a. Dear Abby, passed away on Wednesday. The New York Times obituary is a work of art. Also: 10 Weird And Wonderful Dear Abby Columns

Read this if you've been following the story: Manti Te'o in his own words

Whoa: FX is splitting into comedy and drama channels.

Matt Bomer Designs 'White Collar' Inspired Line

Take A Minute To Watch The New Way We Make Web Headlines Now

Yeahhh.... Author of novel attacking lack of academic integrity runs essay-writing service.

Morning Coffee (10/10/12)

There are three new shows premiering tonight, and hey, I will tell you what to think about all of them before they even air. Don't say I never do anything for you. Here's Arrow, Chicago Fire, and Nashville.

Would you like to hear me speak about TV for a change? Here I am talking about Castle and White Collar and a little bit about various new shows.

Oh, hey, National Book Award finalists. I have read . . . none. Yet.

Don't know much about the new Georgian prime minister? Yeah, no one does, apparently.

Masterpiece continues being Masterpiecey and co-producing things I want to watch.

Hey look, Amazon came up with yet another way to drive authors to drink!

I won't bother trying to claim that this article about Taylor Swift-branded Walgreens store sections didn't make me immediately look up my nearest Walgreens locations.

Alyssa Rosenberg declares for team Mindy-skeptical.

First Look at Graceland

USA Network released an extended look at new show Graceland yesterday, and WOW. I cannot wait. It's from Jeff Eastin, the creator/showrunner of White Collar, though it's supposed to be slightly darker and more adult than that show. It's about undercover agents from a bunch of different federal agencies living together in a house in California. And the stars include Aaron Tveit (Trip van der Bilt!) and Daniel Sunjata (Ranger!). SO EXCITED.

White Collar Summer Finale Tonight!

I've seen it, and it's awesome. Here's why. Really, you don't want to miss this one.

1. I don’t want to get into hyperbole here, but the final twist really will change Neal’s life forever. As Jeff Eastin told reporters last week (more from that conversation soon!), he prefers to end on still, quiet notes that nevertheless pack an emotional wallop, and he definitely achieves that here.

Morning Coffee (7/19/12)

Emmy nominations!

Via June Thomas, RadioTimes is doing this crazy/delightful Usain Bolt knitalong.

All five Star Trek captains, together for the first time.

The Neuroscience That Explains Why You Fall for Con Artists

When Rape Jokes Are Never Funny

Bullying & GoodReads

This is a fascinating and moving piece on depression from Jeff Eastin, creator of White Collar.

USA Network Summer Premiere Dates!

USA Network announced some more premiere dates yesterday, and since a few of you have asked, I figured it was time for a roundup:

May 11: Common Law
June 6: Royal Pains & Necessary Roughness
June 14: Burn Notice & Suits
July 10: White Collar & Covert Affairs

Political Animals will premiere in July as well, but does not have an official date yet.

Morning Coffee (2/29/12)

Happy Leap Day! And snow is coming. Finally.

Hey, fans of The Good Guys and Roswell and good TV - Colin Hanks will be guest starring on Happy Endings tonight on ABC at 9:30/8:30c.

In case you missed it last night, here's my White Collar finale review. Spoilers!

Does your morning need some cute? Check out this kitten and baby deer snuggling.

You should really read Todd VanDerWerff on why fans of quality TV should stop pirating stuff and try to be slightly less entitled, spoiled brats. (Er, that last bit was my phrasing, not his.)

Ooh! New Charlotte Bronte story!

Sarah Rees Brennan says important things about adaptations in general and the casting of Lucy Liu in Elementary in particular.

How The Good Wife became the first great series about technology

It's never too early to start worrying about the TV Death Watch.

"Judgment Day:" White Collar Finale Review (SPOILERS!)

Well. That was quite something, huh? I've had several days to think about it, and I'm still not sure what I thought. SO MANY FEELINGS! And a spoiler cut!

10 Reasons to Watch Tonight's White Collar Finale

Season three of White Collar is coming to an end tonight - all too soon - with "Judgment Day," and it's a heck of an episode. Here are ten reasons why you should watch:

10. El gives OT3 fans the most canonical justification they've ever had.
9. Sara is completely brilliant.
8. June made me tear up.
7. Mozzie has secrets. (Of course he does.)
6. We learn a bit more about Neal's past.
5. Diana makes a choice and saves the day. (At least temporarily.)
4. There are meaningful baked goods.
3. Someone has a secret agenda. And that someone isn't necessarily Neal.
2. Peter and Neal both have to be unusually honest about their feelings and how much they've changed each other. And then Peter, especially, makes choice after choice that reinforces it: He can't go back.
1. The ending is somehow both satisfying and shocking. It's not really a cliffhanger. The cliff's gone. People talk about game-changers all the time, but this really is one. And I cannot wait to talk about it.

White Collar is on USA Network tonight at 10/9 central. And don't worry: season four starts this summer.

At 10 Tonight, You Must Watch White Collar.

Why? I tell you right here. But seriously: It's AMAZING. One of my favorite episodes of TV ever. If you like this show at all, you don't want to miss it.

What your Friday afternoon needs . . .

. . . is a little Neal Caffrey. Trust me.

A Random List of My 10 Favorite Current TV Shows, In Order

I love lists. I'm always making lists in my head, making myself sort and classify things. And no one's been clamoring for my list of favorite shows, but I've felt like I should have one handy, and it finally coalesced in my head last night. I managed to put them in order, even! (For now. May change with my mood. You know.)

1. The Vampire Diaries
2. Burn Notice
3. Castle
4. In Plain Sight
5. White Collar
6. The Good Wife
7. Justified
8. Haven
9. Doctor Who
10. Community

Interesting note: There are three shows from USA Network (my favorite, I love them, they have my heart), but then not more than one from any other channel: ABC, BBCA, CBS, CW, FX, NBC, SyFy.

Morning Coffee (6/29/11)

Wednesday? I think? I am SO confused this week.

Watch the season premiere of Royal Pains and series premiere of Necessary Roughness on USA Network tonight.

Read Attack of the Tweenysomethings.

Enter Diversity in YA's summer reading challenge.

Celebrate Independence Day with wines from the 13 colonies.

Giggle at Tiffani Thiessen's response to Justin Bieber's Kelly Kapowski t-shirt.

Get ready for White Collar with my interview with Marsha Thomason!

In preparation for tonight's Diana-centric episode of White Collar, I talked to actress Marsha Thomason about sexuality, diversity, loyalty, and more. Read my interview at TheTelevixen and make sure you catch White Collar tonight on USA!

Dear White Collar: You're On Notice.

(Since I haven't gotten my general spoiler policy post together, I suppose I should warn that anything that has aired on White Collar already is fair game in this post, so avoid if you wish. Whether these plot details actually count as spoilers is a separate discussion.)

White Collar returned for season three a few weeks ago, and while I'm thrilled to have it back, and happy enough with the case-of-the-week A plots, I've found myself deeply disturbed and even upset by what seems like the ongoing arc of the season: Neal and Mozzie's attempt to escape with the Nazi treasure. Now, I know that Neal's a con man and a criminal. I KNOW. Criminals do these things. But just because Neal is a criminal doesn't mean that it's in character for him to do any criminal thing, just for the heck of it.

And this escape does not seem to be in character. Neal has always made it very clear that it's not about the money for him. He's not greedy. It's about figuring things out, being the best, achieving the impossible. But this Nazi treasure con? Neal didn't even do it. Mozzie did. And Neal's not taking an active role in planning the escape. Mozzie's selling the art; Mozzie's coming up with new identities. We're supposed to think Neal wants to just ride along as a passenger on Mozzie's escape? WHY? Neal trying to escape by any means necessary makes sense if it's for a specific reason, like saving Kate. But escaping, without actually pulling anything off himself, just to . . . what, sit on an island with Mozzie and random girls and nothing at all to do? Rather than staying in New York with Peter and Sara and El and June and work he loves? That really does not seem like the Neal Caffrey we know.

I usually have a great deal of respect for writers' and showrunners' opinions and try to accept what they say as true, because the shows and characters are their creation so they are by definition right. But I have so much trouble believing Jeff Eastin's oft-repeated claim that Neal is just intrinsically bad to the core - because even if Eastin believes that, it's not what he and his writers have written. To put things in dorky but handy D&D terms, Neal's Chaotic, sure, but he's not Evil. Rather than a bad guy who wants to be good, as Eastin says, Neal has so far been portrayed as a good-hearted guy who figured out he was good at things that happened to be illegal and wound up using that as a way to survive. Remember, when Neal thought he could get Kate back, he wanted to settle down and go straight. He wanted to join the PTA. If, with no particular reason for the switch, we are now supposed to believe that he wants to leave everything and everyone he loves (except Mozzie), just for money - then, frankly, that's just shoddy writing.

Is this arc redeemable? Sure. Here are a few ways this could go:

1) In my wildest dreams, Neal is actually just playing along to build a really good case against Mozzie, who he will turn in to Peter and then Mozzie will go to jail forever and we won't have to deal with him anymore, the obnoxious creep.

2) In my slightly more practical daydreams, Neal is going along with Mozzie's plan, but has some other hidden motivation besides the money that will eventually make me hate this plotline less, and eventually help him reconcile with Peter.

3) In my fairly realistic hopes, Neal is honestly tempted, and almost goes through with it, but ends up deciding to sacrifice the treasure, Mozzie, or both in exchange for saving Peter or El or even Sara, in some way.

My deepest fear (I mean, about this, not, like, in the universe) is that the show has in fact been conning the audience all along. And I think that's different than having a con man as the main character. We know that Neal cons the other characters, but we're generally on the inside. When we see him act sympathetically when he's not conning someone other than us, though, that's a different story. We believe that, because the character doesn't - CAN'T - know there's an audience he's supposed to be persuading. If the show is using Neal to con the audience, though, then we're giving up any pretense of fair play and the entire thing is just emotional manipulation, and not the good kind. Veronica Mars pulled this off for one episode, but if White Collar has been doing it for the entire run of the show, I'm not sure they can come back from that. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is interesting and all, but I wouldn't tune in for that every week.

So come on, show! You can do it! Let Neal be tempted and conflicted, but not evil or suddenly greedy. Let Peter and El be a good influence. Let Sara give him a reason to stay. Let us have the show we thought we were watching for the first two incredible seasons.

Neal Caffrey Is Going to Woo

That was my main takeaway from my interview with White Collar's Hilarie Burton, partially because I am still in denial about Neal possibly going back to the dark side la la la I can't hear you. But anyway! Go read it for some interesting stuff about her views of her character Sara and her experiences on the show.

Morning Coffee (6/10/11)

Oh, HELLO, Friday. We've been waiting for you. I'm heading off on a little weekend trip, so things will probably be pretty quiet around here.

Vote in the season MVP poll on Vampire-Diaries.net, and while you're there take a look at their very good explanation for why they no longer have anything to do with EyeCon.

Read Sherman Alexie on "dark" themes in YA fiction.

Watch USA Network this summer. Alyssa Rosenberg explains why. For the record, my top three picks would be Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, and White Collar, which was sadly missing from the article.

Get ready for a Brian Epstein biopic. Wheee.

Marvel at this politician who seems to think that people who work for the government don't have real jobs.

And check back here later for my attempt at formulating a coherent spoiler policy.

Morning Coffee (6/8/11)

Wednesday? Really? Only Wednesday?

Read about the lives of child brides.

Ponder why on earth someone decided that what Ulysses really needed was an extra step in the reading process.

Watch Matt Bomer being adorable on Live with Regis and Kelly.


Matt Bomer guesting on Regis & Kelly on Monday... by pfyrestorm

Look at this paper in Current Biology co-authored by Colin Firth. Yes, that Colin Firth.

And check back here later for a Summer Reading List for TV Lovers and a little survey about what you're looking for in book reviews.

Morning Coffee (6/7/11)

Happy Tuesday!

If you're in the Boston area, head over to Wilson Middle School in Natick tonight for a YA Extravaganza with Maureen Johnson, Sara Shepard, and Sarah Mlynowski. (Let me know if I'll see you there!)

Tune in to USA Network tonight for the season premieres of White Collar and Covert Affairs.

And if you're in the market for USA Network's new DVD releases, go to Target. They're having a sale on both White Collar season two and Burn Notice season four, and if you buy both at once there's an additional discount.

Or enter to win Covert Affairs season one or White Collar season two from The Televixen!

Listen to this Dresden Dolls rarity, "New England." It's pretty delightful.

Watch this impressively put-together Vampire Diaries fanvid.



Read this analysis of Sony passwords.

And check back here later for some ranting about People Saying Dumb Things About Books, and the return of my Song of the Day feature!