The Television Critics Association has officially begun the gearing-up process for its 25th annual awards, which will honor the finest work of the 2008-09 season as selected by the association’s 200-plus member critics and journalists. One of those members is yours truly, and I figured I’d see what the readers of Premium Hollywood had to say about the nominations and who they’d like to see win the various categories. I’ll have to submit my votes by June 10th, but since the winners won’t be announced until August 1st (the ceremony takes place at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa in Pasadena, CA, with Chelsea Handler opening the ceremony), so speak up quickly. There are a couple of things I’m on the fence about, and I’d be interested to hear your thoughts before I make my final selections.

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

* “Battlestar Galactica� (SciFi Channel)
* “Lost� (ABC)
* “Mad Men� (AMC)
* “Saturday Night Live� (NBC)
* “The Shield� (FX)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY

* “30 Rock� (NBC)
* “The Big Bang Theory� (CBS)
* “The Daily Show� (Comedy Central)
* “How I Met Your Mother� (CBS)
* “The Office� (NBC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

* “Breaking Bad� (AMC)
* “Friday Night Lights� (NBC/DirecTV)
* “Lost� (ABC)
* “Mad Men� (AMC)
* “The Shield� (FX)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT MOVIES, MINI-SERIES AND SPECIALS

* Summer Olympic Coverage (NBC)
* “24: Redemption� (Fox)
* “Generation Kill� (HBO)
* “Grey Gardens� (HBO)
* “Taking Chance� (HBO)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM OF THE YEAR

“Fringe� (Fox)
“The Mentalist� (CBS)
“No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency� (HBO)
“True Blood� (HBO)
“United States of Tara� (Showtime)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY

* Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock�)
* Steve Carell (“The Office�)
* Tina Fey (“30 Rock�)
* Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother�)
* Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory�)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA

* Glenn Close (“Damages�)
* Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad�)
* Walton Goggins (“The Shield�)
* Jon Hamm (“Mad Men�)
* Hugh Laurie (“House�)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING

* “Camp Rock� (The Disney Channel)
* “The Electric Company� (PBS)
* “Nick News� (Nickelodeon)
* “Sid the Science Kid� (PBS)
* “Yo Gabba Gabba� (Nickelodeon)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION

* “60 Minutes� (CBS)
* “The Alzheimer’s Project� (HBO)
* “Frontline� (PBS)
* “The Rachel Maddow Show� (MSNBC)
* “We Shall Remain� (PBS)

HERITAGE AWARD

* “ER� (NBC)
* “M*A*S*H� (CBS)
* “Saturday Night Live� (NBC)
* “The Shield� (FX)
* “Star Trek� (NBC)

- I haven’t watched “Lie to Me” because I am generally anti-procedural these days, but the news that “The Shield” and “The Unit” creator/producer Shawn Ryan is joining the series as its showrunner has me intrigued. Unfortunately, this probably means the end for “The Unit.” R.I.P., my friend.

- Even though the finale to the eighth season felt a lot like a series finale, a ninth season of “Scrubs” looks like a lock because Zach Braff has agreed to appear in six episodes. Six episodes? For real? What’s the point?

- “Glee,” the latest from “Nip/Tuck” creator Ryan Murphy, got a great review from EW.com, even though the reviewer is not a musical kind of guy. “Glee” is a musical comedy, with an emphasis on comedy. It debuts next Tuesday on Fox.

- Kiefer Sutherland tells Reuters that the eighth season of “24″ is probably the “most realistic” yet. This is good news because the last seven seasons have gotten increasingly ridiculous.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to put together a list of my favorite television moments before the end of 2008, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time in front of the tube. (Come to think of it, maybe my television addiction was the reason I didn’t have the free time to write about the best of 2008. Hmm.)

Anyway, here is a list of seven terrific shows that seem to be flying under the proverbial radar.

1. “True Blood” (HBO)
Alan Ball, the writer of “American Beauty” and the creator of “Six Feet Under,” brings us a series based on vampires in the Deep South. The series is based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series of books and stars Anna Paquin — whom I argued, under the moniker of Eli Cash a few years back, would have made a better Penny Lane than Kate Hudson — as a mind-reading waitress in a small town in Louisiana. The first season was excellent, though it got off to a bit of a slow start. Paquin is the key, but her best friend Tara (played by Rutina Wesley) often steals the show.

Unfortunately I’m the kind of guy who’s lousy at making lists, because I always feel I’m going to leave off something important. So this year, my list is the shortest so it’s obvious I left many things off. It was a pretty good year for TV, and with so many good shows bidding adieu, I worry that next year’s list will be short simply because there won’t be enough quality stuff to fill it out.

1. “Torchwood,” BBC America

Normally, “Doctor Whoâ€� would take the top spot on my year-end round up of favorite shows, but this year the spin-off series “Torchwoodâ€� was so strong that I’m giving it up to Captain Jack. Its sophomore season navigated an intense and fresh sci-fi vibe that was perfect for the here and now. The thing is that at this point both series (along with the more kiddie-oriented “The Sarah Jane Adventuresâ€�) have all become slices of one another. It’s the “Who”-niverse…and in order to see the bigger picture, one must be aware of every facet. The three series work apart from each other, yet gel into a whole via awareness. In any case, this year “Torchwoodâ€� delivered stronger material than Season Four of “Who,â€� which, while refreshing, is a trend I’d like to see reversed once Steven Moffat begins guiding the Doctor in 2010.

2. “Boston Legal,” ABC
After a somewhat tepid fourth season, the halls of Crane, Poole & Schmidt came roaring back to life for an abbreviated 13-episode final season. Nearly every installment this year has been a keeper, and David E. Kelley has done a fantastic job of balancing his usual political grandstanding with eloquent moments of character-driven drama and comedy. At the time of writing, the 2-hour series finale has yet to be unveiled, but there isn’t any reason to believe it’s going to be anything short of an ideal sendoff for James Spader, William Shatner, and Candice Bergen. The show began life as a spin-off of “The Practice“; now, if only the TV gods would allow Kelley to spin a series off “Boston Legalâ€� that follows the relationship of Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) and Katie Lloyd (Tara Summers), I’d be perfectly content to see this show ride off into the sunset.

3. “The Shield,” FX
For some reason, it almost seems easy to want to dismiss the end of the saga of Vic Mackey…but, really, that would be just plain wrong. Shawn Ryan and his cohorts have steadily delivered under-the-radar goods for 7 seasons, and the missteps have been few and far between along the way. I’m not going to miss “The Shieldâ€� like I would many a show that’s wrapping things up…like “Boston Legal,â€� for instance. No, this show ended at exactly the right time and on exactly the right series of corrupt, violent notes. But speaking of spin-offs, who wouldn’t want to see a half-hour cop comedy series centered around Dutch Wagenbach (Jay Karnes) and Steve Billings (David Marciano)? OK, perhaps that’s a tad over the top, so I’ll settle for a drama focused solely on Dutch, who’s had the good sense to move as far away from Farmington as possible.

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Another one of television’s great dramas has come to a close, and if I were to rank the series finale compared to some of the other big ones from the past year or so, it would probably fall somewhere between the disappointing conclusion to “The Sopranos� and the pitch-perfect ending to “The Wire.� It wasn’t great, but it was certainly satisfying, and it wrapped up just about every loose end other than Aceveda’s bid for mayor. Fans of the series have been following these characters for seven years now, and instead of just running through the episode as usual, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to discuss the fates of each character one at a time.

Vic Mackey:

For as much bad shit that happened throughout the episode, this was probably one of the more shocking of the bunch. A lot of people didn’t think it was possible for Vic to get his comeuppance without death or incarceration, but when you consider the kind of person that he really is, it made sense. Vic only needs a few things in life – family, friends, and a badge – and the fact that he no longer has any of them is kind of like sentencing him to his own personal hell. Olivia said it best after Vic begged her to tell him where his children were: “You said goodbye to them the minute you shot another cop in the face.�

All of Vic’s friends are gone, Corrine has put his kids into witness protection, and his new gig at ICE is a boring desk job typing up weekly analysis reports on gang activity in the city. Some might say he’s got it good compared to what could have happened (after all, he’s only obligated to work at ICE for three years and he’s a free man), but the look on his face when he was being shepherded through the mandatory tour of the facilities said enough. That last moment when he grabs his gun and walks out of the office seemed to indicate that he might actually be okay with the cards he’s been dealt, but if that’s the case, then it doesn’t seem like he’s really paid for his crimes at all.

If there’s one conclusion to “The Shield� I never thought possible, it was Vic Mackey receiving a Get Out of Jail Free card for all the crimes he’s committed in the past. Death? Sure. Jail? Why not? Heck, I’d even expect Vic to run away to Mexico before the feds ever agreed to give him full immunity, and after the events of this week’s episode, I still don’t think that’s how it’ll end. Of course, I have to start at the beginning first, as so much happened tonight that it felt epic compared to most weeks.

After Shane and Mara’s last robbery failed to yield the kind of cash they were hoping for, the fugitive couple has hit a dead end. Mara physically can’t take anymore, and she’s not doing so well mentally either after killing two people in an attempt to save Shane from a robbery gone wrong. With her shoulder busted and her pregnancy in its final stages, she begs Shane to throw in the towel and take her home. Shane isn’t doing so hot (he might have a big of drug problem and he nearly kills Tina when she tries to bring him in), but he isn’t about to give up any time soon. Unfortunately, I don’t think Shane has much of a choice. The presidential motorcade that will allow them to make their escape is less than 24 hours away, but with Mara hurt and no car to get around, it’s only a matter of time before Shane either gets arrested or killed.

Sure, they’ve got Corrine working to find them a new mode of transportation (which Vic agrees to take care of), but when the meet is compromised when Vic smells a trap, it pretty much guarantees that Shane and Mara are screwed. It also means that Corrine has to be arrested and thrown in jail to give Vic the impression that she wasn’t in on the set-up, and now, all Vic can think about is saving his annoying traitor of a wife. Luckily, Olivia has managed to secure Vic a job at ICE, as well as full immunity as long as he is able to successfully take down Beltran and his drug ring. When he discovers that the deal is only for him, however, and not Ronnie as well, he quickly turns it down.

Does Vic Mackey ever read the newspaper? Because if he did, maybe he would know that there are a lot easier ways to find a job than getting in bed with the Mexican drug cartel. Vic’s been really pushing his luck this season, but none of that compares to his latest plan, which involves convincing Beltran to do business with the blacks (who control 40% of the drug trade in Farmington) and then skimming cash from their first deal. Forget for a moment that Vic has severely pissed off his black associates by essentially forcing them into business with the Mexicans, because once Beltran finds out about Vic stealing money from him, all bets are off.

Vic is hoping that the feds will be able to nail Beltran before it ever comes to that, and for the time being, his plan seems to be working. Not only has he gained trust with Beltran (claiming that he’s his own personal action hero), but he also has the cash needed to pay back Shane. Of course, he’s so busy running around town like a chicken with its head cut off that he gets Ronnie to deliver the package to Corrine. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that by doing so, he’s also escaped certain arrest at the hands of Claudette, who’s idly waiting by with Dutch to pounce on him when he arrives. That’s the good news. The bad news is that now Claudette has even more to pin on poor Ronnie when it’s time for his comeuppance.

Vic hopes that he’ll be able to change both his and Ronnie’s futures by securing jobs with ICE and thereby earning immunity from their less righteous pasts, but while helping bring down Beltran should make Olivia’s boss at least consider that option, he knows that it’s going to take a little more than that. This explains why he’s returned Olivia’s blackmail file to her with no strings attached. Of course, though he isn’t holding the file as leverage against her like Aceveda, giving it back to her and then demanding a big favor is pretty much the same thing. It seems to have worked, however, and Vic and Ronnie are one step closer to being clear of this giant shit storm. They’ve even intercepted the letter that Shane sent to Claudette, but when Ronnie opened it, all he found was a note addressed to him teasing how he was Vic’s little bitch.

No matter what happens in the end, one thing is for sure: Shane is a lot smarter than everyone thought. By sending that bogus letter and setting up the meet that he had no intentions of going to, Shane bought himself a lot of time – time that he needed to put together some extra cash before him and Mara leave town. Though his first plan to rob a stash house doesn’t go quite as planned, Mara suggests they break into the safe at her real estate company. Though they got much less for the cashier’s checks than they were expecting, it should be more than enough to get them where they need to go. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to matter in the long run, because unless Vic gets off scot-free, there’s no reason Shane should either. Then again, Vic seems to have won over the approval of Corrine yet again with his handling of Cassidy in his final scene, and though it may not seem like she has any more worth to Claudette and Dutch, she might just end up being the wild card when all is said and done.

It’s been nine months since the writers’ strike shook up the entertainment industry – forcing some shows to shut down production for the rest of the season and leaving others to scramble for survival – and television still isn’t the same. Many of our favorite shows have yet to return to form (here’s looking at you “Heroesâ€�), while some (like Power Rankings newcomer and new #1, “Mad Menâ€�) have risen to the occasion and helped fill the void. If there’s any pattern to this year’s TV Power Rankings, however, it’s that there is none. While NBC’s reign in the top 10 continues, a dozen of the 20 shows below didn’t make the cut last year, and nine of those 12 are making their Power Rankings debut (”The Shield,” “The Daily Show” and “Family Guy” have popped up in previous editions). Still think the writers’ strike didn’t have a lasting effect? Think again.

Below you’ll find some sample entries, but be sure to check out the full list, where you’ll also find links to DVD reviews and interviews, as well as some Honorable Mentions and our list of favorite shows currently on hiatus.

1. Mad Men

In any sane world, Matthew Weiner’s “Mad Men� would not be on any “power ranking,� much less in the #1 spot. This supremely stylish drama about the alcohol-soaked, nicotine-stained, sexual harassment and adultery-friendly lives of early ‘60s advertising execs started out as a low-profile curiosity from a former member of the writing staff of “The Sopranos.� Still, with some help from ecstatic reviews and the Emmys, the show has emerged as first-class appointment TV and a launch pad for at least one potential superstar in Jon Hamm. As the metaphysically secretive Don Draper, Hamm knocks back too many Old Fashioneds while casually invoking the sort of grown-up masculine charisma of classic era film stars Gregory Peck and William Holden. Better yet, Season Two saw the show’s large and very strong cast of supporting characters become even stronger and more layered as the subject matter grew bolder. A semi-surreal late-season left turn with a roving band of wealthy Euro-bohemians was just the tip of the iceberg as rape, nuclear annihilation, religion and the meaning of existence were broached, with vaguely disturbing yet highly entertaining and sexy results. “Mad Men� cannot be pegged, and that’s the best thing about it.

11. How I Met Your Mother

We were close. We were so damned close. Creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas had teased us for three years, but we were sure that Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) had finally found the mother of his kids in Stella Zinman (Sarah Chalke). Of course, as we now know, we were wrong, but it was a hell of a ride getting there. Last season, “How I Met Your Mother� found the largest audience of its history as a result of scoring a pair of guest appearances by the superstar train wreck that is Britney Spears. And, even more impressively, she was really funny. Greeted with these new viewers, the series rose to the challenge of keeping them on, offering us Ted and Stella’s courtship, Robin’s rebound relationships, Marshall looking for work, Lily dealing with her credit crisis, and Barney banging as many babes as possible. We’re still not sure about this new wrinkle that Barney’s pining for Robin, but we trust that Bays and Thomas won’t turn it into a jump-the-shark situation. Or if they do, they’ll do it with a knowing wink and a smile.

17. Sons of Anarchy

If you took all the best parts of “The Sopranos� and “The Shield� and smashed them into one show, you’d have something that looks a lot like “Sons of Anarchy.� Created by “The Shield� co-writer and executive producer Kurt Sutter, the series is more Shakespearean than anything on television. It’s essentially a retelling of “Hamlet,� but instead of Danish royalty, they’re a California biker gang. There’s Jax (Charlie Hunnam), the second-in-command; his mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal), the very definition of a queen bee; and his step dad Clay (Ron Perlman), the club’s hard-nosed president and best friend of Jax’s deceased father. Heck, there’s even an Ophelia in the group – Wendy (“The Sopranos� alum Drea de Matteo), the drug-addicted mother of Jax’s newborn son. The theme of family and brotherhood is something that was explored in great length in both “The Sopranos� and “The Shield,� and it’s the driving force behind “Sons of Anarchy.� Add to that a supporting cast made up of some of the best tough guy character actors in the business (Tommy Flanagan, Mark Boone Junior and Kim Coates) and a multi-episode guest stint by Jay Karnes and you’re looking at a top nominee for Best New Show of the Season.

The last thing Shawn Ryan needed to do was to give his wife (Cathy Cahlin Ryan) a bigger part to play in the final stretch of his grand opus known as “The Shield.� Of course, I should have known that if anyone was going to bring down Vic Mackey it would be Corrine, and, well, that only makes her character that much more annoying. Is Vic Mackey a good guy? Not really, but the reason he went crooked in the first place was so that he could give his family a better life. Now, Corrine is punishing him for doing exactly that by turning to Dutch and Claudette for protection.

Protection? Has it really come down to that, even though Vic has stated time and again that he would never lay a finger on the mother of his children? And while we’re at it, would you like some cheese with that whine? Fer chrissakes, can someone just kill this woman already? She’s done nothing but cause trouble for Vic throughout the course of these last seven years, and he’s done nothing but protect her from the consequences. If anyone needs protecting, it’s Vic. Unfortunately, that’s not how the cards have fallen, and after being guaranteed immunity by Dutch and Claudette (even though the Assistant Chief would rather just arrest her instead), she spills the beans on everything she knows.

Of course, Vic isn’t aware of his ex-wife selling him out, because if he were, he might’ve gone on the run with Ronnie as soon as the idea was brought up. Instead, he convinces his last loyal friend to stick by his side, hoping that if everything goes as planned, he can land both him and Ronnie a gig with the feds. That isn’t going to be possible with Aceveda stealing all his thunder, though. Just when Vic tries to prove his worth to Pezeula and “the cause� in front of his new cartel friend, Lupe Griego, Aceveda hijacks the meeting and beats the shit out of Pezuela as a way of saying, “Who’s dick is in who’s ass now?� It was a rare shining moment for Aceveda, but at what cost? Vic is quick to jump at the chance to talk directly to Griego, and his first order of business as a member of Team Drug Cartel is to assassinate Pezuela. Instead, Vic fakes his death and brings him to the feds so that he can testify against Griego, and in doing so makes himself look all the more important to the case.

To call this week’s episode of “The Shield� a disappointment would be to admit that the cast/crew did something wrong, and, well, that’s just not the case. Nevertheless, I found it to be less eventful than most shows, and that probably has something to do with the fact that with four episodes to go, Shawn Ryan and Co. seem to be holding off on playing their final hand. This is something that I warned against a few weeks back, and though it isn’t so bad that it feels like the characters are just standing around waiting for the end to come, this week’s episode felt like it was stretching out the story a little more than usual.

The spotlight was shifted to Shane this week now that he’s on the run from the cops, and though his initial check-in with Corrine doesn’t go as planned (he knows Vic is there coaching her the minute she asks too much), Shane really seems to have a handle on how to properly evade capture. For starters, he’s not planning on leaving LA anytime soon, since he knows the entire police department is out searching for him, and he’s quick to trade in his flashy Lexus for another car with clean papers. The wrench in his plans, however, is that Mara forgot to bring Jackson’s medicine with her before leaving, and the kid’s whooping cough could escalate into pneumonia at any minute. This forces to Shane to head to a nearby pharmacy to pick up new medicine, and when that causes some bad reaction, Mara begs him to take Jackson to the hospital. It’s there that Vic finally catches up with him, but when he pulls out his gun to take Shane down, a squad car pulls up and the cops arrest Vic instead.

Now, I find it hard to believe that every cop within the city limits wasn’t shown a picture of Shane before heading out on patrol, but even if they didn’t recognize him in the dark, don’t you think one of the officers would have at least pulled Shane and Mara aside to take down a statement? It seems like a pretty sorry excuse for Shane to get away, especially considering the circumstances. Still, he’s free for the time being, and though he suggests that Mara go turn herself in so that she may properly take care of Jackson, she refuses, claiming that family sticks together. And for all the trouble that Mara has caused over the last few years, you’ve got to respect that she’s still standing by Shane’s side.

If there was ever any doubt that “The Shield� was really coming to an end, tonight’s episode stamped it out with the boldest statement they could make: Vic’s decision to call it quits as a cop. I don’t think anyone imagined that he would give up fighting for his badge (even when his official termination had been all but confirmed), but after the events that transpired, it makes sense that Vic wouldn’t want the restrictions of law enforcement to get in the way of what needs to be done.

It didn’t take very long for Shane to go forward with his retaliation on Vic and Ronnie, and after setting up an alibi with Mara, he heads to Vic’s house to exact revenge. What he doesn’t know, however, is that Two-Man’s assassination attempt on Ronnie didn’t go as planned. Ronnie escaped unscathed, while his date just caught a stray to the arm, and when Vic gets a call about the situation outside of his house, Shane is there to watch as his chance slips away right in front of his eyes. What I don’t understand is why Two-Man didn’t take a similar approach. Granted, the last thing I want to see happen is Ronnie getting shot for all the shit that Vic and Shane have dragged him through, but it just doesn’t make sense that the guy would try and kill someone from afar when he could have just as easily done it at point blank range.

Nevertheless, with both Ronnie and Vic still alive, Shane is forced to go on the defensive – especially when Two-Man is captured and brought to the Barn for questioning. Dutch and Billings fail to trick him into confessing the first time around, but with the help of Vic (who suggests they just lie about having witnesses), they eventually get Two-Man to take the bait and give up Shane. Unbeknownst to everyone else in the captain’s office, however, Shane has already gotten the hell out of dodge. Claudette is curious as to why Shane would even want Ronnie dead, but as expected, Vic and Ronnie are both mum on the subject. In fact, Vic is so certain that Claudette will tie him to a desk for his final week on the job, that he just decides to up and quit right there, since it means he can go after Shane himself. Claudette warns him against it, but really, who’s going to stop him?

Of course, Shane has taken certain precautions as well. Though it seems he really did destroy that file he created on the Strike Team several months back, he sends Mara over to Corrine’s house to deliver a message: either Vic and Ronnie help Shane evade capture or he’ll testify against them in court. One thing he hasn’t considered, however, is Vic just killing him. I mean, that would solve all their problems, right? Perhaps Vic is worried about having to deal with Mara, but if he truly wants to move forward and make his current gig with the feds a permanent thing, he’s going to have to make Shane disappear – one way or another.

It might sound silly to admit, but the only thing currently working against “The Shield� is that it’s almost too proficient at progressing the main story. We’re only at the halfway point and it feels like we should be gearing up for the season finale instead. This isn’t the first time this has happened, either (one could even say that the whole season has been nothing but build up to the top secret finale), but it doesn’t make me any less worried that things are going to slow down in the coming weeks.

With Vic’s chance to arrest Pezeula squandered, Aceveda decides it’s time to turn in the blackmail box to the feds. They’re not happy about the way Vic and Aceveda handled the situation, and they make sure to let them know how bad they screwed up. Olivia is just worried that her boss will discover that there’s a file on her in the box, but Aceveda has made sure that won’t happen. No, he didn’t give Olivia the file, but he did remove it from the box for his own safe keeping. Which begs to ask the question: is Aceveda really any better than Pezuela if he’s willing to resort to the same tactics? He’s been playing both sides ever since he left the Barn to become councilman, and one could even argue that it began much earlier than that.

The blowback from the blackmail box probably hits Vic the hardest, however, as someone within the department uses it as a means of bumping up his appeals hearing. Not only is his termination effective in 10 days, but he also loses his entire pension. Claudette offers him a piece of his retirement money if he’ll leave right away, but Vic kindly declines, stating that he still has a few loose ends to tie up. One of those loose ends is Pezuela, and when he warns him about an impending federal raid on his warehouse, Vic is hoping that he’ll be rewarded with a promotion. Instead, Pezuela gives him a severance bonus and shows him the door, claiming that Vic is no longer any help if he’s not a cop.

After last week’s surprisingly boring show, it was nice to get things back on track tonight with what might just be one of the best episodes of the season. Okay, so Corrine is still a major pain in the ass (and apparently on downers now), and Tina, Julian and Danny continue to prove worthless as part of the big picture, but that’s old news. The only thing that really worries me is that Dutch has sort of fallen by the wayside as a character.

His more recent run-in with the teenage serial killer seemed to offer some hope that he might finally be getting a good storyline, but that more or less died off last week when he was, as Billings put it, “burned� by the kid. This week, he caused a suspect to commit suicide when he forced his conspiracy theory on the poor guy during interrogation, and now that he has blood on his hands, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Asking Billings for help was a huge step when you consider their history together, but if he’s just going to keep working unrelated murders through the end of the season, well, the writers are going to have to do a lot better to keep me interested.

Thankfully, that isn’t the case with the Strike Team. Vic, Shane and Ronnie’s storylines this season have been captivating since Day One, and their relationship was taken to new heights (or should that be lows?) this week when Vic – desperate to kill three birds with one stone – designs a plan that will ensure his family’s safety from the Armenians, put Pezeula behind bars, and pay back Shane for killing Lem. He’s only got one day to get it done (since Aceveda has decided to turn in the blackmail box before he suffers any of the consequences), and when Shane begins working an old case with Tavon (welcome back Brian White) on the side, Vic is worried the meet will even go on as planned. Plus, it’s not helping that Shane is making it really hard to hate him these days. The guy clearly knows that he’s done something wrong, and he’s made sure Vic and Ronnie know about it every chance he gets.

It doesn’t happen very often, but tonight’s episode was a complete bore. The whole subplot involving Claudette’s run-in with Kleevon Gardner didn’t accomplish a single thing, other than to reemphasize the fact that her duties as captain are being affected by her systemic lupus. It was a clever twist to have Kleevon not only act as his own lawyer, but to be smart enough to secure an empty pill bottle from Claudette’s trash for evidence, but when all was said and done (including a plea bargain that wiped the proposed death penalty off the table for Kleevon’s impending trial), it seemed like an utter waste of time. Sure, Claudette’s bosses now know about her illness, but with Danny double-checking everything she does anyway, I can’t imagine it being a problem further down the road.

As for the Strike Team, they’re part in the Mexican/Armenian gang war took a back seat this week as they helped Agent Murray sort out a federal matter involving a dirty businessman whose case could be blown if they don’t recover his recently kidnapped daughter. It all happened as part of a routine carjacking by a group of Caribbean thugs, and after making the rounds (including getting into a car chase with a Japanese import tuner that they never would have caught in real life), the Strike Team tracks down the warehouse where the Caribbeans are hiding out.

Because it would alert the businessman to his investigation if a bunch of cops just raided the place, Vic comes up with an ingenious plan that, while Claudette approves, she doesn’t particularly like. It involves recruiting a couple of gang members to go in with Julian and pretend like they’re robbing the place – only to let the kidnapped girl escape amidst all the chaos – and it goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, the whole takedown was about one-fifth as exciting as last week’s preview made it out to be. In fact, the only thing really worth mentioning about the whole encounter is when one of the gang members asked Vic if they could be deputized beforehand. Vic tells them to raise their right hand, and when the thugs all do so in excitement, he has them pat their head and rub their stomach at the same time.

The Armenian/Mexican gang war really heated up this week as the Strike Team (perhaps unsurprisingly) found themselves once again stuck in the middle. Vic had to know that his plan was bound to go sideways at some point, and when Rezian demands a sitdown following a Mexican barbeque of two of his lieutenants, Vic tries to convince him otherwise. Unfortunately, Rezian is insistent on explaining to the Mexicans that he has nothing to do with their missing property, and so Vic (as his second favor to him) heads to Cruz Pezuela to set up the meet. Pezuela, in turn, offers up his right-hand man, Armando Rios, as the voice of the Mexican side, but he doesn’t see any point in talking with the Armenians if they don’t plan on returning the blackmail box.

When Vic relays the message to Rezian, he’s both surprised and confused to discover that the Armenian boss is willing to admit he’s in possession of the box. This is all Pezuela needs to hear, and the meeting is goes on as planned. What Vic doesn’t understand, however, is how Rezian is going to explain the missing box, so when Rezian sandbags him at the meeting by explaining to Rios that he never had anything to do with its disappearance, Vic is understandably pissed off. Rezian simply wants to form a true with the Mexicans, and he’s even willing to ignore the recent murders and help them track down the real owners of the box in trade for leaving him and his guys alone. Vic attempts to convince Pezuela that Rezian is only lying, but when that isn’t enough, he heads to Aceveda for help.

For as much as Aceveda has to lose by refusing to work with Vic, he sure treats him like an unwanted mouth sore. Nevertheless, when he’s brought up to speed on the day’s events, he agrees to let Vic dive into the blackmail box for a little help convincing Pezuela that Rezian was lying. What he gets is a tip about a city planner (the same one that screwed Vic out of his favor last season) who has repeatedly refused to sign off on a memorial in Little Armenia. When Vic and Ronnie threaten to release info about his insider trading if he doesn’t greenlight the latest request, however, the Armenians get their memorial, and Pezuela is led to believe that it was Rezian who set it up. Instead of gunning for the Armenians, however, Pezuela has the city planner assassinated, which upsets Aceveda greatly. Vic tries to calm him down by informing him that Agent Murray is using her federal connections to help bring down Pezuela and the drug cartel, but then Aceveda drops a bombshell. Agent Olivia Murray – the woman we know so little about, but Vic seems to trust immensely – is also in the blackmail box. In the words of Scooby-Doo: “Ruh-Roh.”

Poor Ronnie. I mean, the guy just can’t catch a break, can he? First, his face gets a little oven burner action courtesy of Armadillo, and then, his arm becomes a giant chew toy for a fierce pit bull. If anyone deserves to walk away from this current situation involving the Armenians, it’s definitely him. In the meantime, however, he’s busy leading the Strike Team while Vic and Shane take care of their other problem. Axl, the porn shop owner from last season (you know, the “Dick in Grannies� guy), has come to Ronnie with information on a producer who pays his actresses in drugs. They bust the guy for offering blow to an undercover Julian and Tina, and convince him to give up his dealer, Demetris Harms, but when the Strike Team heads to Harms’ house to arrest him, they find it completely empty – that is, except for his guard dog. Ronnie suspects that it was Axl who warned Harms of their impending takedown, and, well, he’s right. Apparently, Axl is deathly afraid of Harms, and though this little excursion certainly gave Ronnie something to do on tonight’s episode, I’m still not sure how it fits into the big picture.

If I know Shawn Ryan as well as I think I do, we won’t hear anything about it for weeks, only to have him revisit the subplot later down the road. Whether or not we get any sort of conclusion from that case doesn’t really matter, though, because Ryan and Co. are really grooving with their main story. With Rezian out of jail, the Armenian mob boss is beginning to cash in his favors from Shane, and his first request is to recover a shipment of processed guns from the police station. Vic doesn’t like the idea of putting untraceable weapons in the hands of killers, but when he discovers that Aceveda has destroyed any leverage he might have access to by moving the blackmail box, he agrees under one condition – that Rezian only get three favors, and when they’re all cashed in, Vic, Shane and both of their families are left alone for good.

With all that sorted out, Vic and Shane plot a way to sneak into the police compound where the guns are being held. They mentioned that there was only one guard on watch, so I figured they would just sneak in without him noticing, but Vic’s eventual plan is much smarter. He pulls over a former CI named Burnout and takes him back to the Barn, leaving his brand new Escalade to be temporarily seized and taken to the very same police compound holding the guns… only Shane is hiding in the back. With the lone security guard left to fend for himself, Shane loads up the SUV with the guns and hightails it out of there. When he meets up with Rezian and Vic at the drop-off point, he’s unaware that Vic has an ace up his sleeve. In order to prevent the guns from landing in the hands of the Armenians, he’s informed Agent Murray about the takedown, allowing just enough time for him, Shane and Rezian to get away before the feds come in to break up the brouhaha. In doing so, Vic also comes off looking like he just saved Rezian’s ass, and to solidify that feeling, the trio heads back to Rezian’s office where Vic plants a bug to make it look like it was the Armenian’s number two who sold him out.

After last week’s episode set up the arc for the rest of the season, tonight’s show was a little more laid back. That isn’t to say that nothing happened, but it wasn’t quite as jaw-dropping as the events that transpired in the season premiere. No chopped-off feet to speak of, and no crazy shootouts in the middle of Farmington. There were plenty of confrontations (Dutch and Billings, Vic and Corrine, Danny and Tina), however, but nothing we haven’t seen before. Still, I love that the writers make the most of the Dutch and Billings pairing, because even though the latter may get on Dutch’s nerves most of the time, you have to admit that when he tries, Billings is a damn good detective. Unfortunately, Dutch’s character has fallen to the wayside over the last two seasons (to the point that his character is almost as insignificant as Danny, Tina or Julian), and though this season is first and foremost about how Vic is going to save his badge, I’d like to see Dutch become involved in the fate of Vic’s future before the end.

With the Armenian/Mexican gang war in motion, Vic decides that it’s high time to get Aramboles out of the country, so he orders Shane to set up “travel arrangements� to Mexico with the same coyotes that were originally going to get Lem across the border. I’m not exactly sure why Vic is helping Aramboles (he’s already set him up as the fall guy, so why go through all the trouble?), but it probably has something to do with the fact that he just doesn’t want to give Pezuela the pleasure of killing him. Speaking of which, Vic’s carefully plotted gang war is already beginning to spin out of control when the Mexicans greenlight a hit on Rezian. Worried that Rezian’s death will result in the Armenian mob’s second-in-command following through with the assassination of his family, Shane visits the Armenian number one in prison to warn him, thinking that by doing so, he’s insured his loyalty to him. Instead, Rezian simply confirms his fears: if he dies, so do Shane and Vic’s families.

As if things couldn’t get worst, the mayor has just initiated a Most Wanted list that ranks the area’s top ten gangs. Vic is worried that it will only create competition (he likens the list to the sports standings, with every team making a push for the playoffs), and he’s right. Within hours, a white businessman is gunned down for no good reason, and before the afternoon is over, another white couple is shot in the middle of gangland. When an old woman comes forward as a witness to the second shooting and fingers two youngsters wearing Spook Street colors, Vic brings in the gang’s leader, Jamal, for questioning. As it happens, Jamal really doesn’t know anything about the hits, but when he learns that Homeland Security is involved due to an Al Qaeda-related threat tied to the murders, he realizes that an earlier joke involving the terrorist group might have been taken out of context as an order. Whoopsie daisy, indeed.

With “The Shield” entering its final season and “Nip/Tuck” heading to a conclusion in 2010, it’s high time that FX found itself a new signature drama or two…and given that “Dirt” has been cancelled, “The Riches” hasn’t gotten a third-season pick-up, and “Damages” is more popular among TV critics than actual viewers, they really to step up their game and hunt up a new series that can be embraced by a larger audience.

Enter “Sons of Anarchy,” a show which is somewhat Shakespearean in spirit but ultimately comes off more like “The Sopranos” if members of the Mafia were replaced with motorcycle-straddling toughs. Not that that’s a bad thing…especially not when Drea de Matteo’s in the cast of this show, too.

I was able to check out the first episode of the series when I was out in L.A. at the TCA Press Tour, but it was late and I was exhausted, so although I walked away from it feeling that it was too dark for its own good, I also felt like I wasn’t giving it my all as a critic, so I vowed to watch it again when it made its formal debut on FX. Now that I’ve done so, I admit that I found myself enjoying it a little more this time around…but it’s still pretty damned dark.

Not that the darkness is all that surprising. After all, “Sons of Anarchy” is the creation of Kurt Sutter, who’s done just about everything there is to do on “The Shield,” having produced, directed, written, and story-edited on that series, not to mention the fact that he played the role of Margos Dezerian. So, basically, the guy knows dark.

Setting aside the darkness, however, the bigger concern is whether or not the saga of a biker gang can be made into a series that the average viewer can latch onto.

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FX may be heavily promoting this year of “The Shield� as its last, but tonight’s season premiere felt like it could have taken place anywhere in the show’s timeline. Sure, Vic may be hanging on to his career by a thread, and Shane continues to dig himself into an even bigger hole every time he tries to do “the right thing,� but something about the forthcoming season reads like a page out of the show’s golden years. What’s even better is that it actually makes sense. After all, Vic is trying to save his job and protect his family, so what better way to do both then to pit those standing in your way against one another?

Picking up almost immediately where season six left off, Shane arrives home to discover Mara bound and gagged on the couch. Before he can do anything to help her, Vic and Ronnie grab him from the shadows and begin to beat him up as payment for kidnapping Corrine and Cassidy. When Shane explains that he was only trying to protect them (because the Armenians know about the money train), Vic has no other choice but to join forces with Shane in order to stop the Armenians from exacting revenge. This includes tracking down Zadofian (the hitman sent to kill Vic’s family) who, coincidentally, Shane has also been ordered to find. Unfortunately for him, Vic arrives first (though Ronnie is the one who actually kills him, assuring Vic is clear of any suspicion). And so Shane, desperate to cover his ass, makes the murder look like Kazekian’s handiwork by chopping off the feet. When Rezian questions how she could possibly be getting anything done while on the run, Shane suggests she’s in cahoots with the Mexicans.

Meanwhile, as Pezuela continues to fuel the Mexican and Salvadorian turf war in order to make room for future business ventures, Vic and Aceveda are busy deciding how to best use the recently acquired blackmail files to take him down. Vic is hoping to perform a little blackmail of his own so that he may save his job, but when Aceveda informs him that doing so would ruin the chance of building a real case against Pezuela, Vic is forced to change his game plan. Instead, he goes straight to source, giving Pezuela fake intel about an ongoing bidding war for the missing documents, and in return, earning a 30-day reprieve from his forced retirement. Vic makes Pezuela believe that the Armenians desperately want that box of files, and by forcing him (and by default, the Mexicans) into a gang war with the Armenians, Vic hopes to kill two birds with one stone. Then again, it’ll probably only make things worse.

First stop: the FX executive session, where we enjoyed a fireside chat by FX President and General Manager John Landgraf and learned a few things about what we can expect to see on the network in the future.

* “Nip/Tuck” has finished production on the final eight episodes of a 22-episode Season 5. The season will begin airing in January 2009. The network is also ordering an additional 19 episodes of “Nip/Tuck,” and which will be the final episodes of “Nip/Tuck.” The series will end its run on FX in early 2011, going out on the magic 100-episode mark.

* “Rescue Me” is currently in production on a 22-episode season, and will return in Spring 2009. Michael J. Fox will do a four-episode arc on the show, beginning in the Season 5 premiere. He will play Janet’s new boyfriend, who is confined to a wheelchair.

* Marcia Gay Harden will be joining Timothy Olyphant and William Hurt as series regulars for the second season of “Damages,” and - bonus! - Ted Danson will be back as Arthur Frobisher. (More on that when we get to the “Damages” panel.)

* Jay Karnes, a.k.a. Detective Wagenbach on “The Shield,” will be joining FX’s new series, “Sons of Anarchy,” for six episodes (and maybe more, depending on how things pan out), and Drea de Matteo will also pop up for three episodes.

* The network intends to produce 39 more episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” in addition to the 13 that are
currently in production. Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, who created it and star in it, will remain as stars and executive producers for all 52 of those episodes, and Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito will stay on as series regulars.

* They’ll also be ordering 13 episodes of a new original comedy series created by Kenny Hotz, the former “South Park” writer who went on to create the excruciating Comedy Central series, “Kenny vs. Spenny.” Currently titled “Testees,” the series is a scripted comedy which focuses on two friends in their early 30s who earn their living as medical guinea pigs. It will premiere on Thursday, October 9th, at 10:30 p.m. following a new original episode of “Sunny.” I will possibly not be watching when it does.

* “The Riches” may not be back for a third season. Said Landgraf, “We haven’t made a decision yet. We are really struggling with the decision. On the one hand, you know, it’s a show I have spilled blood, sweat, and tears on with (creator) Dmitry Lipkin and with the cast. I love the show. Tremendously proud of it. It was a very challenging tone to take on. I know, because you and I talked about it, that you felt it wobbled and some of you felt it wobbled a little bit in the beginning, but I think we really stuck the landing finally and it grew into something terrific. On the other hand, it fell 44 percent in ratings from Season 1 to Season 2. So that looks to me like the core audience is much smaller, that even though the show continued to grow creatively, there was a significant amount of rejection of the show from Season 1 to Season 2. It’s always a little bit of a question: do you hold onto the past or do you sprint toward the future? And we just haven’t made that decision yet on ‘The Riches.’”

So there you have it. And, now, on to…

Damages: I’ll gladly admit that I missed out on “Damages” during its initial run on FX (I also missed out on the “Damages” panel at the press tour last year, which might have something to do with why I wasn’t caught up in all the buzz), but once the first season of the series came out on DVD, I was addicted right from the first episode and was on the edge of my seat all the way until the closing credits rolled on the season finale. And, wow, what a finale, huh? Talk about a perfect set-up for Season 2! It’s been a long wait, but the show’s coming back - tentatively, anyway - in January 2009, and co-creator Daniel Zelman began the “Damages” panel by setting the stage for what we’ll be seeing.

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