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Mark your calendars for Feb. 2 at 9 p.m. ET.  Because that’s when the final season of ABC’s Lost returns.  The network has decided to move the show again (Wednesday to Thursday back to Wednesday) one last time with Tuesday being its new day due to the success of this year’s new sitcoms Modern Family (did you see the episode with Ed Norton and Elizabeth Banks? Talk about wtf!) and Cougar Town.

So Tuesday night.  Good.  Because now there will be something on Tuesday worth watching.

I’m sure you were telling yourself this morning you wanted to know more about why James Franco — easily the poet laureate of this generation; a man who not only acts and writes but also racks up secondary degrees like they are baterangs for his yellow utility belt – would take a two-month acting gig with ABC’s General Hospital soap opera.

V has been the one show I was hoping would redeem this lackluster fall television season.  It is, afterall, based on a popular (cultish?) NBC science fiction show from the early 80s about lizard creations pretending to be humans with nefarious plans for our planet and population. 

It seems like an excellent premise to be reimagined with better effects and acting and more weighty themes to explore.  Why then, did I feel ho-hum about the show after last night’s premiere?

You can read plenty of recaps elsewhere, but suffice it to say there’s a lot going on.  The FX look up to snuff, the acting is all pretty darn good (how could it not be with Elizabeth Mitchell, Alan Tudyk, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Scott Wolff, and Monica Baccarin) for a network television show and the themes are not disimilar from the recent Battlestar Galactica remake (religion, terrorism, identity, etc.). 

There were huge problems with the pilot episodes’s story arc: 1) the humans just accept the aliens with open arms, 2) the exposition/backstory is clumsily handled, 3) two of the main characters easily figure out that the lizard aliens are up to no good, 4) it’s too clean and polished.

Still, none of those complaints are what I’m having difficulty wrapping my brain around this morning.  I’ve never watched a show so anti-progressive as I did the one last night. 

And I’m not alone.  Both Time’s excellent James Poniewozik and Chicago Tribune reviewer Glenn Garvin made note of this: a telegenic messiah from a foreign and alien place comes to the United States with the promise of hope and change offers our citizens science, technology and — gasp! – universal health care. 

Make no mistake, the Obama parallel/allegory here is downright unnerving.  It’s so blatent I really thought some combination of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh were show runners. 

Chew on this basic plot:  charismatic, attractive newcomers win the adulation of America’s youth with the promise of hope & change; they manipulate the braindead media and promise universal healthcare, but a group of real Americans are saavy to their evil (fascist?) hidden identity/agenda and will work to prevent the destruction of humanity. 

It would have been refreshing, or still can be, if the lizard aliens turn out to be the saviors of the human race.  But alas, I don’t think that will be the case.  And yet, and yet, I’m still going to tune in because there’s enough decent story threads that the show has my interest.

In anticipation of ABC’s V remake, the SyFy Channel has decided to reair the original miniseries this weekend, which is helpful in determing whether or not the new show compares to the old show.  I was too young to catch the sci-fi miniseries when it first aired in 1983, and I haven’t bothered to add it to Netflix.

The marathon starts on Saturday Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

Not really much to go on here, but Elizabeth Mitchell was great on Lost. This premieres next Tuesday, so you won’t have to wait long to watch the entire episode.  To be honest, not much has grabbed me this television season, so I’m hoping V becomes that show.

Interested to see what the reception for this show will be (premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC).  It certainly looks good, but doesn’t it always seem as if these type of high-minded sci-fi concepts are either hit or miss?  The success of Lost seems like a black swan.  But I do like that ABC is giving this and V a huge push this season.

I won’t give away too much from the clip above, but for regular watchers of the show (I reluctantly admit I am somehow still one of them), it looks like the writers are asking you to believe that Dr. George O’Malley, last seen smashed from walking into a bus or something and writing “007″ into Meredith Grey’s hand, isn’t really the pulpy dead guy in the hospital.

“That’s not George,” says Dr. Grey (there seems to be a weird discrepency with how season five ended and season six begins; or it could be my shoddy memory). “Look at his feet! Look how tall he is!”  So maybe he’s alive!  I don’t know!  It’s all so confusing! 

Based on the clip that Vulture got their hands on, it looks like I might not be watching for much longer.

ABC will premiere its retelling of V Nov. 3 at 8 p.m.

The series, which focuses on the world’s first encounter with a presumed friendly alien race, stars Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell as FBI counter terrorism agent Erica Evans. She is the first to discover that, beneath the skin of the strange Visitors (or Vs), there lies something more sinister than anyone imagined.

Evans’ son, Tyler (Logan Huffman), sees the Vs as an opportunity to make mankind unite with a common goal while news anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) wants to advance his career by getting an exclusive interview with the aliens’ leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin).

For the past few season Elizabeth Mitchell’s Juliet has been the second best thing about Lost (next to Benjamin Linus, natch).  So if you don’t think I’m going to be glued to the television when this premieres, you must not know me too well.

A brand new Lost season 6 promo, unveiled during the Lost panel at SDCC, features Hurley.  In this strange world, he’s “the very lucky CEO” of Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack, starring in an ad for the restaurant’s new “outback chicken.” There’s even a bonus ad touting Oceanic Airline’s safety record.

I don’t think there’s anything spoilery here, but I’m interested in how this ad serves up the dish for Lost’s final season.  Is this the eventual outcome or mere misdirection?

See Also: Season 6 promo featuring Kate the wanted fugitive.  It’s not the best quality because it’s bootlegged from SDCC, but you get the idea.

What stands out for me in these two ads (you have to watch the Kate one, as well), is that the bomb going off seems to have reset the Lost continuum.  Oceanic began in 1979?  Kate didn’t kill her stepdad, but instead a plumber?  Oy-vay.

Remember, you can make a difference.

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I forgot that No Doubt had gotten back together and were touring this summer.  Watching these guys drop “New” on Kimmel last night, well, it’s like 1997 all over again, except Kimmel isn’t hosting a show about dudes that drink beer and oogle female breast.

With that said, No Doubt was the biggest band on the planet 12-years-ago, save for the irrelevant likes of R.E.M. and U2.  Here, it looks like they haven’t aged a bit and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Twelve years have passed and they’re still rocking their SoCal ska duds and the drummer is still painting his face like an evil clown.  And yet, I’m prepared to live in a world where No Doubt is the biggest band on the planet.

It sure beats Coldplay.

Probably about 10 people care about this news, but as far as cop shows, it was one of the better ones to come down the pipe in recent years.  I found myself enjoying The Unusuals more than I probably should have. 

The show’s strengths were largely due to the top notch ensemble – particularly Adam Goldberg, Amber Tamblyn and Harold Perrineau. 

But the ratings weren’t there for the quirky cop procedural. 

“Friends, just heard The Unusuals will not be back for a second season,” series creator Noah Hawley shared Sunday via his Twitter account. “Thanks for all your amazing support. Last [four] episodes start May 27.”

ABC gave The Unusuals a fair shot, even running double episodes one week, on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Still, it’s numbers hovered around the 5 million viewer mark.

The Goode Family is Mike Judge’s animated follow-up to his beloved King of the Hill.  The shows aren’t set in the same universe or anything, but let’s be honest: the more Mike Judge comedy we can have, the better off this world will be. 

The show premieres Wednesday, May 27, on ABC.

There has been some speculation that Disney/ABC would eventually become partners with online video site Hulu, but now it is official.

Financials of the deal were not revealed and it’s still pending approval, but what this means in terms of conent is that ABC shows (Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, etc.) and Disney movies will be side by side with NBC/Universal and Fox content. 

Hulu now has three of the four major networks under its belt, along with three of the major film studios. 

This pretty much means that Hulu is no the de facto leader in online television, as if it weren’t already.  Again, content is king.