More Friday Nights

Good news! The television show Friday Night Lights has been renewed for two more seasons. It is currently finishing up its third season (April 10) and it has maintained the high quality of the first season. Unfortunately, seasons four and five will broadcast on DirectTV before NBC, but this is okay if we get to see more of these actors. For past episodes of FNL, visit Fancast.

In related news, Zack Roerig, one of the new characters on FNL in season three, will be part of a new project on the CW - The Vampire Diaries. The new show, based on the young adult novels, will also star Ian Sommerhalder (from Lost) and Michelle Trachtenberg (from Gossip Girl). Go here for more about the novels.

April Shows

April offers up a few hopeful programs, including these two:

The Tudors returns for its third season. While I would not call this show a faithful retelling of Henry VIII, it does have plenty to keep you interested and may even cause you to pull a history book off the shelf to check on a few facts. Now that's something you don't always do with television. Of course, the Wall Street Journal call The Tudors a "lavish soap" where Henry VII is "...transformed beyond all bounds of historical verisimilitude into a buff and bedroom-eyed mannequin with a libido as loosely buttoned as his doublet." Not everyone would say this is such a bad thing. Season three starts on Sunday, April 5th, at 9 pm EST/8 pm CST on Showtime. In fact, you can see the first episode of the season by visiting Showtime's site right now.

Southland is a new NBC show starting Benjamin McKenzie, who you may remember from The O.C. and the movie Junebug. Here McKenzie plays rookie patrol officer Ben Sherman. The scenes of the show look promising and bring back memories of the naive rookie played by Ryan Phillippe in Crash. The program starts on Thursday, April 9th, at 10 pm EST/9 pm CST. Visit NBC for a look at the pilot episode.