Yes folks, "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners" is great!

UPDATE: My editor only ended up running one article with the interview with Chris Fedak. He got the interview up on Monday instead of Friday, so he felt he already had a Chuck story for the day. So I'm reworking things for post-mortem instead of a review for Monday.

Hey Chuck fans, I got a copy of "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners" for review and it's just great. I've got two articles going up on Sci Fi Wire tomorrow (Monday a.m.) on Chuck. I'll post the direct links once they go up.

One is an interview with co-creator Chris Fedak on what to look forward to when it comes to the last six episodes of the season and the other is a review of the episode.

However, here's a mini-review for you with minimal spoilers...

Yvonne Strahovski Versus the Nose Ring

Update: Check out my exclusive interview with Chuck executive producer and creator Chris Fedak with his thoughts about the season and how he's going to approach season four.

I teased a while back that I'd give you a couple tidbits about Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski, who plays Sarah on NBC's Chuck.

Coming up tomorrow (Monday, April 26), Chuck comes back after a couple weeks off with "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners," and it's GREAT! Forget the whole "Chuck's a spy" or "Chuck's not a spy" business. Chuck's back and so is Sarah, but in a completely different way.

Here's part of an interview with Yvonne that was conducted BEFORE the enormous "game changing" episode, "Chuck Versus the Other Guy," where Chuck and Sarah finally got together big time. While we didn't talk about all the new developments on Chuck (like Chuck and Sarah hitting the sheets), here's some general goodies about Sarah, her American accent, and why she misses her nose ring:

Riverworld: The Series?

And yet another reason why I'm not a network programmer. Here's some of the press release regarding Riverworld's ratings, which were good enough... well, to put out a press release...

RIVERWORLD POWERS SYFY TO MOST WATCHED SUNDAY PRIME OF 2010 WITH 2.1 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS

New York, NY – April 20, 2010 – The four-hour Syfy Original Movie Riverworld grabbed 2.1 million total viewers during its premiere on April 18, powering Syfy to its most watched Sunday prime of 2010.

The sad case of Riverworld

I've read the Philip Jose Farmer Riverworld book series, seen the 2003 Sci Fi Channel movie (before it was Syfy), and just saw yesterday's new 2010 version with Tahmoh Penikett. Whenever Syfy doesn't do a lot of publicity with a project, especially a miniseries... well, it's often a sign there's a problem.

The problem with Riverworld in this case is that in the end it just didn't make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, they didn't focus on what made the first two books great and instead got caught up in what didn't work when it came to Farmers later books.

Kat's Loved It or Loathed It - for the week of April 12

Here's a new feature. Just think sort of a sci-fi Cheers and Jeers or "TV.com's Swell-o-vision vs. Smell-o-Vision". Yes, I might occasionally pop over into American Idol or Castle, but you'll just have to live with it.

Loved It:

• Doctor Who - Yep, Matt Smith as the new Doctor (not to mention his new companion Amy) is great. In one episode he totally makes the Doctor his own. Go Matt! Can't wait to see more.
  
  
• Lost - Hurley getting the girl, as he and Libby finally got their date. Yes, it was in the Sideways alternate universe (which I call the Sideverse), but they got their moment.
  

Busy girl, but in a very cool (if crazy) way

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I'm in what I affectionately call Hell Week. Hell Week actually lasts two weeks or longer when I'm working on a new issue of Sci Fi Magazine. I'm actually working on the August issue (magazine issue dates are goofy and far in advance).

Let's just say my husband, Chuck, sees a lot of my back as I pound away at the keyboard when I'm in my Hell Weeks and, since he doesn't watch TV, we end up in a weird place where I'm a genius about what's coming up on TV and he's gracious enough to listen to me babble about something he could care less about. He's a good husband. He even does the dishes and drags me outside once and awhile.

The good news is I get to talk to some very cool TV type people... like the new Doctor Who, Matt Smith. Check out my article on Sci Fi Wire, Who's Matt Smith: Why the new Doctor is a 'bit bonkers'.

Jounalism boo boos and negative backlash

My interview with Mark Pellegrino for Lost went up today on Sci Fi Wire, with exclusive splashed all over it and it made the top stories section. All good, except there was a typo in it that was significant enough to basically screw up the story.

Lost was set in 1977 and 2007 last season and while I was editing the article and wanting to make it clearer, I mistakenly typed 1977 as the date something significant happened. Since I've been covering Lost all season I was well aware about the dates, so it was just a typo... or let's call it was it really was... a brain fart.

Tired Kathie chims in about whatzup

Well, it was a busy week with 11 articles on Sci Fi Wire and queries out to publicists for articles for Sci Fi Magazine as well. Believe it or not we're working on the August issue of Sci Fi Magazine, which comes out in the beginning of June.

We're doing a 6 page spread on True Blood, so hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to Alan Ball, the creator and exec producer, again. Ball won an Oscar for his movie American Beauty, and he's a terrific interview. He loves the stuff they're doing on True Blood and he's having a blast with it from what he's told me in the past.

Co-creator Julie Plec promises more sexy action on The Vampire Diaries

If you'd like to see what Vampire Diaries co-creator and executive producer Julie Plec had to say about tonight's episode, "Welcome to the Neighborhood," as well about the series getting picked up for a second season, check out my article in Sci Fi Wire.

And here's another webclip from the episode...



And here's a quote from Julie about spoilers: "For me the thing you know being protective about spoilers isn’t about trying to control the flow of information. It’s literally about wanting each element or story to be a surprise to the audience, because that’s part of the fun. Like, oh God, where is it going to go now and to give up too much sort of feels like you’re taking away part of that experience."

More on Diaries next week...