This Saturday, another "it's new to you!" series debuts on BBC America: Survivors, the latest series from Primeval creator Adrian Hodges.

Survivors remakes a series from the late 1970s created by Doctor Who writer Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks. Nation wondered what would be an even more soulless, implacable nemesis for humanity, and came up with a story of unstoppable pestilence wiping out most of the population of the world. After the catastrophe, a handful of people are left to try to reimagine human life.

The world has only gotten more dependent on technology and international infrastructure since 1975, so the story of the collapse of civilization is at least as compelling now as then--especially as told by Hodges, with a great veteran cast. Definitely worth a look.

BBC America is airing all 12 episodes starting this week.

Been wondering what toys Hasbro's new movie division would exploit alongside its stupendous, and others words starting with "stup," Transformers franchise?

Turns out the next toy out of the box is Stretch Armstrong. And he'll be played by New Moon teen hunk Taylor Lautner, according to Hollywood Reporter.

The casting is actually not at all surprising: Lautner is famous mainly for being shirtless, and for growing his body big enough for people to want him to be shirtless. So the musclebound Armstrong, for whom shirts only get in the way, is a nice fit.

But explain to me how Stretch makes sense as a movie concept. See, I had a Stretch Armstrong. It's appeal wasn't that he was like Mr. Fantastic, who stretched himself around everything in the Fantastic Four comics. With Stretch, what you did was grab onto his hands and pull, as hard as you could, in opposite directions. He'd snap back when you let go. In other words, the stretching was something you did to him.

So what is the movie going to be, 120 minutes of people pulling on Taylor Lautner? We can see that at a Twilight Saga premiere without having to spend $150 million (the amount said to be budgeted for Stretch Armstrong: The Movie).

Thanks to Avatar, the movie is now going to be 3-D, so we won't be seeing the end result for more than two years: the release date is now 2012. I hope they let Lautner out of the gym between now and then.

New episodes this week from:

• Chuck,
• Heroes (season finale),
• Vampire Diaries,
• Supernatural,
• Smallville,
• Legend of the Seeker, and
• Survivors (US debut).

Guest stars this week include Elizabeth Rohm on Heroes; Lex Medlin (Southland), the original star of The Middle, joining Supernatural in the recurring role of Cupid; Jasmine Guy returning to Vampire Diaries; Brandon Routh and Kristin Kreuk continuing their recurring roles on Chuck.

Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical). Read more...

MOVIES--Opening this week:

• Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). The advertising is doing all it can to make this look like a rip-off of Harry Potter, which does both this movie and the books it's based on a considerable disservice. The essential story, of angry Olympian gods mixing with modern society, tracks in a different direction from Potter: even Chris Columbus knows that a wizard's magic is a different thing from an ancient god's power. Anyway, check out the videos and decide for yourself. More details below the jump.
  -- Trailers, clips, and video.

HOME VIDEO--Out on DVD this week:

• Stargate Universe 1.0. The first half of the first season is being released as its own DVD collection, as has been the default for Syfy shows that divide their seasons. The DVD and Blu Ray are loaded with video extras (everything from kino races to Daniel Jackson's tutorial videos), along with cast and crew commentary and an extended version of the pilot.
  -- Compare prices.
  -- Review: Pilot episode.
  -- Image gallery: "Justice."
• The Time Traveler's Wife (2009). The weak adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's bestselling novel proves that being reasonably faithful to the source material does not all by itself make for a compelling onscreen romance. More details below the jump.
  -- Compare prices.
  -- Trailers, clips, and video.
  -- Image Gallery.

Read more...